Review by gbill-74877

This film had me in an emotional puddle for most of its runtime; it's simply devastating, and a work of art besides. The cinematography from Octavio Arauz is gorgeous, including still images of people looking into the camera which would rival those of the finest photographers. The creative little bits of animation sprinkled in fit the mood perfectly, that of childhood dreams threatened by the very hard conditions of trying to make it as immigrants in America, with a single mom working two jobs forced to leave her small boys alone in a rundown apartment all day. Danger lurks everywhere, but director Samuel Kishi wisely exercises restraint, giving the film a haunting realism. He got fantastic performances out of the child actors, and Martha Reyes Arias is pitch perfect as the mother. It's certainly not all grim either; the elderly Chinese-American couple add a lovely bit of humanism, and the soundtrack is wonderful too. It fires on all cylinders, and is one to seek out.