Ren zai Niu Yue

This is an immigrant movie about three ladies, one from Hong Kong, one from mainland China and one from Taiwan, who all settle in New York. Stchingawa marries a Chinese man, but misses home. Sylvia Chang (Taiwan) goes through relationships that are not very fulfilling and Maggie Cheung plays a successful businesswoman. Its basically a story of immigrant life in the big city, always fertile ground for a film. However, the characters, to me, seem underwritten. Maybe that the film was lensed a while ago and I'm seeing it now is the reason, but it just didn't ring true. I like thyat the three ladies became friends, but feel more should have been explored on that. Their individual lives are not as interesting. I cant fault the acting, especially with the always flawless Maggie Cheung in her role, but I felt the film had potential it never realized. It should be remade now, with the same people, and it would probably make a more interesting film. So, better than okay on the strength of the performances, but not as good as it could have been.

Stanley Kwan's "Full Moon In New York" is a tale of three very different Chinese women (a passive one from the mainland, an aspiring actress from Taiwan, and a pushy business woman from Hong Kong) living in New York City and their unlikely friendship. Kwan's direction of the terrific screenplay by Yan and Zhong is first-rate. The three leading ladies are all excellent, as is, I believe, Richard Hsiung (the credits are not clear), as Stchingowa's rich, uncomprehending husband. Search it out - a wonderful little film.

Sylvia Chang, Maggie Cheung, and Siqin Gaowa were originally from China. Now they live in New York City. They speak Chinese to each other, and sometimes sing Chinese songs. Their lovers and husbands are Chinese. But they feel themselves losing their identities in Manhattan.

The melting pot that is part of the mythology of the United States is a great promise and a great threat. I grew up with relatives who fled Europe to get here. I feel I understand what makes this nation so good in a way that some one who grew up never knowing anything different, or caring about someone who could tell them about it can. It's a commonplace for many, and so not valued. For people like me, the promise of America is its indifference. When it works well, no one cares if I go to a synagogue instead of a church, or don't go at all, whether I speak English or Yiddish or Gullah at home.

But that indifference is also corrosive. If no one cares, then why should you? And that is the strain that these three women come to recognize and seek each other out for. It's how communities are formed. But for how long?

How can Maggie Cheung look so beautiful and effortlessly elegant? Should be outlawed.

I didn't think I had seen Sylvia Chang this young, but it turns out I had seen her in several 80s movies, only I hadn't noticed her I guess.

This movie has a lot of unrealized potential. Or rather it didn't live up to its potential. There are a lot of interesting plotlines and scenes scattered here and there but they don't come together at all. There's a lot that just doesn't work. It feels artificial, superficial and theatrical. It feels fake. Off. I'm sure there's a fair amount of dubbing in this with the English speaking that doesn't sound quite right. Even native English speaking characters sound and look off. Maybe the cheap production took a toll on the quality. I cannot fault the three main leads for their acting but the rest... There are maybe three solid scenes between the three ladies and like I said there are quite a few good and deserving plotlines that are just thrown in there and abandoned. Like what did Wang's father do to that poor woman? What's the deal with Lee's sexuality and that woman following her around? I almost wish they stuck to that cause it would make her character more conflicted and more interesting. And poor Zhao Hong's marital troubles and that tone-deaf husband of hers. Her mother's suffering. I feel the writers wanted to throw a lot in the script, but thought they also need to make it a little lighthearted and modern. It's difficult to have it both ways and pull it off. Not the case here sadly. New York actually looks decent, unlike in Farewell China and An Autumn's Tale, so I really appreciated that. And can we please have some decent looking men for these beauties please? It's ridiculous for them to be paired with these guys.

Bumped it up a little for the few good ideas that it throws in there and the three leading ladies.

Stanley Kwan's film, "Full Moon in New York," is a great film about Chinese immigration to America. It looks at three women, from Taiwan (Sylvia Chang), mainland China (Gaowa Siqin), and Hong Kong (Maggie Cheung), respectively, and how they overcome socio-cultural differences to forge a friendship based on mutual suffering and understanding in surviving life in "the Big Apple." While issues involving Chinese labor, Chinatowns, stereotypes of Asian American actors, and politics are touched on, they are not explored in depth. Still, Kwan provides an interesting character study of three women's struggle to make a name for themselves and find happiness and love in a society where racial prejudice and stereotypes, as well as cultural differences isolate them. Yet they find solace in each other's experiences and become friends despite old territorial grievances and lack of a common language.