Fish and chips

"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.

East is East is a good example of British comedy drama. Set in the north of England in the 1970's it is the story of an mixed race Asian family living in a mainly white community. However the film doesn't really tackle the conflict between the races but rather the conflict within the family itself - both the clash of the cultures between the white mother and Asian father, and the children resisting the traditional culture of their father.

The film rises easily above TV sitcom/drama to be of film standard in every sense. The director captures the size of the house and the community well. The acting is good - especially Om Puri as the father. The film builds the picture of an eastern family mixing with the western culture well - with comedy scenes used as well as more dramatic scenes used to show this.

If you enjoy this style of domestic humour, you'll love this (especially the scenes where the family are all together - check out the youngest who is a very British indeed and reminds me of Kenny from South Park!). But don't be fooled into thinking that this is a crude toilet-humour style comedy (like the marketing suggests) it is much more than that. Also if you have a father who wanted his children to be raised a specific way (not necessarily Asian) then you'll get much of the drama between father and children.

My only problem with this is that the characters sometimes seem to be caricatures, and the plotting is sometimes a bit ropey with so many things to fit in.

Is it realistic of the experience of british Muslims at the time? Probably not but it's funny, moving and thought-provoking in equal measure.

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.

„East is East" is a refreshing inventive family story. Directly the first scene where two different religions and also two opposing views of life (namely the children's and the view of their conservative father) clash together. With the funny way of telling which is typical for the whole film, nevertheless the problems are shown in their graveness. The cast represents every member of this Pakistani family as an individual but the good relations between the siblings and their mother is shown as realistic as the problematic relation between them and their incorrigible father. The viewer gets the impression of a different culture but he will recognize a lot of aspects of his own family life, too, what was aimed by the makers who brought in the personal experiences. All in all, this movie is an evening-filling enrichment for the viewer.