East Is East

I wish there were more movies about the different cultures in the UK. Not just the Anglo, but the Asian and West Indian perspectives. Even the Southeast Asian view. The Middle Easterners have shown great strides with movies like "Bend It Like Beckham" and a few others. This movie got away from me until recently. I saw in the library video section and decided to check it out. The box is very misleading. They put a young interracial couple, front and center on the cover when actually their subplot is very peripheral to the story. I guess the movie studio figured they'd get a wider audience interested with younger faces on the cover since the main characters look to be in their 50s.

George Khan (Om Puri) has left his native Pakistan to live in the UK with its soveriegnty ties. Though he has a wife back in his homeland (she is only mentioned, not seen), he marries a white Englishwoman, Ella (Lynda Bassett). They have 7 kids: 6 boys and 1 girl. Flash forward to the late 60s (where the movie actually begins) and we see his kids are truly English in behavior though he stresses that they must go to Mosque to study and worship. His oldest is to be wed in an arranged marriage to a woman he hardly knows. He runs out in the middle of the ceremony in fear, embarrassing his family especially his father who disowns him. This sets the tone of the movie. His kids are English-born and want to live like their friends in their working-class neighborhood but George wants to raise them as traditional Muslims, despite opposition from his wife, Ella, who only wants the kids to be happy. She tries to help them avoid run-ins with their father who despite his cheerfulness is quite an ogre when angered. The kids range in attitude and indifference toward George's attempts to introduce them to the traditional ways.

This is a decent introduction to immigrant life in the UK especially since it's set during a time when there was political strife over immigration of non-whites into Britain. Though it's an effective comedy, it also touches on the frustration immigrants of any culture go through to hold onto or reject their identity. The only thing marring this movie is a domestic violence scene that may bother some. Still a very good movie worth seeing.

Three teenagers are sitting in front of a TV, enjoying their large helpings of pork sausage and bacon. Suddenly they hear a door opening and immediately start cleaning up all of the dishes and unsuccessfully try to get rid of the fumes of grilled bacon and sausages that billowed through the whole house. This is, of course, not depicting the normal life of three teenagers, but taken from the film "East Is East" by Damien O'Donnell. It deals with the story of a family in England in the 1970s with a Pakistani father (multi-facetted enacted by Om Puri) who still believes in his Pakistani traditions and his Muslim religion and an English mother (great performance by Linda Bassett) who tries to give her seven children as much freedom as all of their "fully English" friends enjoy. This movie was labeled as a Comedy both in theaters and on DVD or VHS, but anybody looking for light-hearted entertainment fitting for a Saturday night will be hugely disappointed. This movie is out to teach the viewer about how difficult it is to get two very different cultures to not only co-exist peacefully next to each other, but to merge them to create a new one. The script by Ayub Khan-Din, who also wrote the book and the stage version of this movie, does have its funny moments, and the whole cast, including the children, is in for some good laughs. But the more intense moments are those where the viewer has to deal with outbursts of domestic violence or things like arranged marriages that seem so far away and cruel to Westerners. The cast shows its brilliance in those intimate moments. Even though the script might sometimes appear to be too ambitious – there are just too many characters all developing in a very distinct manner and all crucial to the movie – the movie can be recommended to anyone who is not looking for a standard comedy and is willing to have his views on life challenged.

"East is East" tried to cover too many issues and genres in the one film. In the end I don't think the script was strong enough to tie all this together, and the film suffered because of it. Having said that I believe it was a strong performance from a talented cast.

In it's favour there were some hilarious scenes throughout the movie, and an insight into the Pakistani families and communities in England. Not the typical English stereotypes usually portrayed by Hollywood, nor the typical London lifestyle so often seen in movies today, which was a refreshing change.

Oh Yeah, this confirmed how dangerous and damaging religion has the potential to be. Definitely worth a look.

This film depicts ultimate realism for people who have grown up in multi racial environments. The graphic nature of the language only goes to reinforce the raw acceptance of the cultural influence of the times and area in which the film is set (70's Manchester, England). The director has captured the emotional elements the script intended perfectly. It was obviously deeply researched. The character portrayal of the dominant father is by no means stereotypical of the part, but is truly based on the difficulties encountered by the respected head of any multicultural family. His six sons and one daughter are experiencing the natural mix of eastern and western influence and putting their own spin on their existence, much to their father's dismay. The character of the mother portrays the natural ethnic blindness that should be much admired and is yet so common throughout the world. The humor is very real. Every family, if they look back on their own historical events would come to recognise the similarity of the situations encountered. The work surely ranks among the very best in regional exposure along side the likes of "Kes" etc. Well worth watching more than once

A bitter-sweet comedy with some moments of truly stark drama, this is a high-class movie. Yes, there are randy dogs and fat, ugly girls - but the piece is a class act because it mixes those "laugh-out-loud funny" comic set pieces with great drama so cleverly.

Very much a period piece, the movie is set in Salford in 1971 - a telling time for a part-Pakistani family with Enoch Powell's shadow never too far away and the break-away of East Pakistan (Bangladesh-to-be)unravelling as the film goes on. The poverty of 1971 Salford with the outside toilet, bedpans and tin bath is excellently portrayed. And at a more mundane level, the constant sight of a bright orange space-hopper and its comedic demise is truly nostalgic, especially to this reviewer whose own space-hopper suffered a similar fate around 1971.

Superb acting performances all round - Linda Bassett used to be one of the better-kept secrets on the UK stage, but now I suppose the secret is out. Highly recommended movie.