A Big Fat Family Christmas

I loved seeing Tia Carrera and all the little bits of San Francisco history...including how and by who Chinatown was built.

This is the story of a daughter, ashamed of her crazy mixed-Asian family. When she gets assigned as the staff photographer to a new to the chronicle reporter who wants to do a front page story on the Chang's Big Christmas party, she doesn't tell him that she is a Chang.

This is less of a romance and more of a daughter finding her way back to being proud of her family and her community.

I really enjoyed this hallmark Holliday film. I think anyone with family will appreciate and enjoy this film. It is a recommendation from me.

While there are some echoes of some common Christmas stories, there is a lot that is unique in this one. At the start it is about a photo=journalist who gets assigned to cover a famous Christmas party in the Chinese community without her editor knowing the family giving it is hers. As the story goes on, we learn that she has also had an influence on the development of the party.

Liv reacts strongly to anything that ties her to her family in public. At first I thought Shannon Chan-Kent was overacting with this. By the end of the story her emotion becomes more understandable. This woman brings real energy to the part.

There is a romance between Liv and the writer, Henry, assigned with her. They spend a lot of screen time together, but the romance between them is not as obvious as would be expected from all that screen time. There is Chinese-American history and culture and sights to see.

The conflict begins far earlier than usual but is complex and takes time to really develop. In that, there are some threads associated with racial bullying mixed up with and contributing to Liv's insecurities.

Chan-Kent sings twice in the movie including the climax. I believe the language was Cantonese. Her voice and the song are beautiful.

First, it's delightful to see Tia Carrera in this film, and she did a great job as the mother of the female lead.

Next, they did a good job with a nice switch to an Oriental themed family, and a MUCH better job than the montage story about the Chinese restaurant (Golden Dragon) closing.

This story is one of growth and acceptance with few stumbling blocks along the way. The two incidents which did arise didn't cause a major crisis either time. The romance really didn't have the normal "How do they get past this?" moment, which also provided a nice change from that cliche.

I enjoyed the movie, and I can recommend it to Hallmark fans.

I really loved this movie. The two MCs were engaging and the supporting characters brought a lot to the story. All of the actors were good to excellent. The two Shannons (Shannon Kook is the male lead and Shannon Chan-Kent is the female lead) were really great in their roles. Kook's South African accent comes in handy.

The use of the word "fat" in the title is an excellent choice because of its meaning in Cantonese ("happy") as well as how it alludes to a certain Greek wedding.

The production was well-done. I know that filming the whole movie in San Francisco isn't feasible, but the exterior shots in the City were well-done and well-placed. I also loved that Cantonese was used in the dialog. It definitely made it feel real.

I liked this story. Scratch that. I loved it! It had the feel of Fat Greek Wedding movies, as the title gave the impression would be.

The asians are really good at comedy. I don't know the stars at all but Shannon, who, at first seemed long in the tooth to play the daughter, ended up being the biggest surprise for me.

She sold her character. She played it so beautifully that her age didn't matter to me anymore and I even managed to convince myself she was supposed to play a mid 30s single daughter. What a singing voice!! Wow!!

I have watched Tia grow up on TV and in movies, so it was kinda cool to see her play the mom in this one.

Give it a watch. I think you'll enjoy it too.