A Critical Review of Dim Sum Funeral

Back in May 2010, I decided to watch a film called Dim Sum Funeral. I had been interested in Asian culture since the end of my sophomore year in high school. Maybe even a little before then. In the spring of 2010, I was just starting to learn a little bit of Mandarin Chinese. So, this film around a supposed-deceased matriarch of a Chinese American family caught my interest. My family still had digital cable and also had a free one year subscription to HBO that ran out by the end of the month. It was also Asian Heritage Month, which I wasn't completely aware of until May 2010. Dim Sum Funeral revolves around a dysfunctional ABC (American Born Chinese) family called the Xiaos. In the film, these group of five siblings who can't stand each other spend a week together planning their mother's funeral and trying to "resolve their differences" with each other. Their children also spend time together as well.

Against my better judgment, I watched this film to the very end. Needless to say, this film has horrible reviews on IMDB and some even refer to this film as "monk spunk" or the Joy Luck Club's "ugly twin sister." In my opinion, anyone who gave this film a negative review is right. Not surprisingly, the person who directed it wasn't even Chinese! It was an American or western guy named Donald Martin. Even the character Viola, played by Talia Shire, was annoying! In the film, she was the only friend Mrs. Xiao had. She was also the housekeeper. Mrs. Xiao was mean, critical and controlling in at least one of her children's lives. Making this Chinese American family dysfunctional didn't help much either. For instance, Victoria Xiao had an illegitimate mixed-race child with a black man. They were supposedly engaged, but the mother nixed their relationship. Julia Nickson who played Liz was married and divorced from a white man after their son died in an accident. Yet, she gets a better happy ending than her sister. Did the director intentionally write that their characters get back together because her ex-husband is white? And because she conceived when they met up in Hong Kong? Although I'm mixed race and half black myself, it's very rare that I bring up race a lot. However, the person who wrote this film obviously thought by writing stereotypes, conflicts and making the siblings Chinese American would make this an interesting flick.

Another issue with the film is how the Xiao family is portrayed as Buddhist. While many people in China and rural South Korea are Buddhist or follow Confucianism, a lot of people from these same countries are also Christian or convert to Christianity when they come to the US. I should know. I attended a Chinese Christian church for nearly four years. Some Chinese immigrants may also be agnostic or atheist and decide there is no God. Then, there is the issue of the lesbian sister and her girlfriend trying to get a Buddhist monk who's apart of the funeral to ejaculate into a cup so one of them can get insinuated and conceive a child. When I read the plot line for this movie again, I just shake my head. It just can't get any more ridiculous than this. It's pretty obvious Donald Martin doesn't know much about Asian culture. Or he's married to an Asian woman himself and only went by stereotypes and false assumptions about Asians when he wrote this film's plot.

If anyone who knows nothing about Asian culture decides to watch this film, they'll have several false assumptions about Chinese and Asians in general. One would be the assumption that most Chinese and Asians are "white worshipers." The other would be that they're mostly Buddhist even if they immigrated to America. The last would be that Chinese immigrants are all "traditional" and don't even care to want to learn English or the "American way." Like I said, this film was a mixture of horrible stereotypes and false assumptions about Asians in general. I would not recommend anyone who is starting to become interested in Asian culture to sit down and watch this train wreck.