Double Happiness

This was a cute, sweet small movie about a Chinese-Canadian woman caught between her dreams and her father's expectations. Complaints about the film center on what some see as the director's one-sided depiction of the anti-assimilation viewpoint. Jade's father is so concerned that his children live within the constricts of traditional Chinese culture that he cuts off contact with them entirely if they stray. But Mina Shum (the director) never claims that his rigidity is the rule; the story is about how Jade deals with the specific situation, and it makes no claim that her situation is pervasive. Other Asian characters have different levels of acceptance of Western openness: Jade's mother, while not openly defying her husband, maintains contact with her son whom his father has cut off completely. So "Double Happiness" isn't an anti-Asian traditionalism screed, as some have claimed, neither is it an Everywoman story of freedom as some seem to want it to be. It's simply Jade's story about choosing between her dreams and the man she's falling in love with against her father's uncompromising worldview.

Mechanically, the movie is good if not a masterpiece. The performances are excellent. Sandra Oh is charged with almost singlehandedly winning over the viewer, and she's completely up to the challenge. All performances are (as far as I can tell anyway) wonderfully authentic. This was Callum Keith Rennie's first major role, and he's as awkward, sweet, and appealing as ever. The interstitial scenes of characters speaking to the camera are an interesting experiment--a good tool for revealing character, they nevertheless are sometimes jarring. Overall, the film is like a compact colorful flower: it won't dominate the landscape but it richly awards the lucky soul whose attention it captures.

While the title is something of a misnomer, this well-written, superbly acted coming-of-age tale is undoubtedly one of the best films of its genre. It is unique, original, funny, intelligent, beautiful, and inspiring. In short, it is Canadian. Sandra Oh, one of the most emotionally devastating actresses of our time, plays liberated dreamer Jade Li who hopes to escape the suffocating environment of her over-bearing parents' expectations and become an actress.

Double Happiness delves into all of its components with equal sensitivity and skill. Jade is the very essence of youth's wanderlust and creative vitality, her parents the quintessential picture of over-protective cultural transplants. Jade's young sister Pearl is the go-between, lovingly supportive of her sister's blossoming talent while resentful of the rift it creates within the family. Already rent from their disowned brother (who committed similar indiscretions), Jade must walk the thin line between traditional Chinese values and enlightened Canadian independence. While quietly entertaining her dramatic ambitions, she begins to kindle a forbidden love affair with a young Caucasian man which ultimately forces her to choose between loyalty to her father and loyalty to her own dreams.

If you are like me and expect a literal interpretation of the title, the ending will leave you wondering exactly who came up with it and where you might write to his or her employers to ask to have him or her severely reprimanded, but this in no way diminishes the fine accomplishments by the cast and crew in making Double Happiness a work of cinematic art. Callum Keith Rennie as Jade's lover is heart-breakingly perfect in his first major feature role and Sandra Oh is nothing short of Oscar-worthy--but I guess Genies will have to do for now.

An under-appreciated film (as many Canadian films are), Double Happiness expresses brilliantly the tightrope one often has to walk between pleasing others and pleasing oneself. Jade Li, portrayed masterfully by neophyte Sandra Oh, must choose between her desires for love and stardom and her desire to please her demanding, suffocating, ultra-traditional Chinese father. Her life complicates when she meets a sweet English major named Mark, played by Callum Keith Rennie, a hidden treasure of an actor; the scenes between Jade and Mark dynamically reflect the most uncertain nature in love, an uncertainty which often makes love all the more worth fighting for. Yet, there is a subtlety in the way writer/director Mina Shum presents Jade's nervous breakdown of a life, a subtlety which craftily creates the effect of slowly drawing the viewer into the spiralling life of Jade. With its powerful, yet simplistic (in the Hal Hartley vein) direction and tremendous performances, Double Happiness stands as a remarkable film which deserves more attention. Pity!

This movie was a nice little picture about a group of Asans living in Canada and they all seemed like nice people, despite the differences in how they adapt to living in a new land. The parents are very traditional and want their daughter to marry a traditional Chinese man. I like their portrayal because they want what's best for her and are not ogres. The daughter, who is NOT tradition-bound wants to make her own way in life and resists her parents by "doing her own thing" when they aren't looking.

The acting and writing is excellent, as the story rings true to life. If you like this movie, I strongly recommend EAT, DRINK, MAN WOMAN--a Taiwanese film that covers some of the same ground but seems to do an even better job (if that's even possible!).

NOTE: since first reviewing this movie, I saw BOLLYWOOD/Hollywood. It's another Canadian film but this time instead of focusing on Chinese culture, it concerns Indian culture. It, too, involves the older generations pushing their kids NOT to marry Caucasians but find a nice boy or girl from back home. Very similar and just as wonderful as DOUBLE HAPPINESS. Watch them both!

Mina Shum's Double Happiness bravely explores a group that mainstream film (read: Hollywood) continues to ignore: Asians in North America. That the film features strong acting, good writing and confident direction makes its accomplishments all the more greater.

You don't need to be Asian to enjoy this film, anymore than you have to be Italian to watch The Godfathers. Young women of whatever ethnic backgrounds are bound to identify with the lead character, finely played by Sandra Oh. The daughter-father conflict crosses all national boundaries, and is explored in this film through the eyes of Chinese-Canadians.

I'm a Canadian of Chinese descent, and found the characterizations of the family to be accurate overall. At times, the domineering Father is one-dimensional (tyrannical and cold) and needed to be fleshed out more. The role of the siblings--especially towards their parents--was underplayed and could have offered a contrast to the main relationship between the elder daughter and Dad.

Still, the strict traditionalism of the parents was on the nose, and the struggles of the daughter, Jade, ring true. In fact, I venture to say that Jade was played *too* obediently, and should have broken from her family sooner.

Following this line of thought, the film could have been expanded to explore Jade moving into her own home and finding her own career as an actress, then reconciling (perhaps) with her stern Father at the end.

As it stands, the movie ends abruptly and too soon. Shum and Oh do a fine job of getting Jade on the audience's side, only pull the carpet on her just as she leaves home. The movie begs for closure in the relationship between daughter and father.

Perhaps in the sequel.