Catfish in Black Bean Sauce

Paul Winfield and Mary Alice together -- what a pairing! That's worth the ticket already. Good for Chi Muoi Lo, thank goodness to his perseverance and passion, we get to see his fruit of labor and love: CATFISH IN BLACK BEAN SAUCE. The ingredients are strong emotional (and controversial) subjects. What an ensemble cast, including himself in the center of this multi-layered drama. It may feel like he packed it all in, yet we get to taste and soak it all.

Bold strokes for a first time filmmaker, Chi Muoi Lo, who produced (practically with the help of the whole Lo family as indicated in the credit roll), wrote the script, directed the film, and performed in it as the central character, the adopted Vietnamese son Dwayne. Wonderful strong cast with Mary Alice and Paul Winfield as Dolores and Harold, the kind-hearted adoptive couple who took in his sister along with Dwayne. Lauren Tom, as Dwayne's Vietnamese sister Mai, gave a steady restrained performance, especially a critical scene shared with Mary Alice -- the intensity, the dramatic charge built up between the two women -- sensitive anticipatory confrontation yet tear-jerking all together. Story is told in current times, fantasy-dream mode, and childhood flashbacks. At times scenes may seem like cliché, yet we laughed, we're anxious, we smiled with empathy, and we're hooked into the whirl of it all. There's also Sanaa Lathan (of "Love and Basketball" 2000) as Mia, the lovely yet hesitant girl friend whom Dwayne was courting -- yes, romance included.

It's a spicy dish -- a real mix of various types and levels of relationships: mother-son, mother-daughter, brother-sister, Asian-Black, husband-wife, roommates, in-laws, young loves -- diversity filled to the brim and steaming hot! Warmth and conflicts, misforgivings and forgivings, a lot of heart! See it to taste it.

I watched this movie last night on the Black Stars channel, after being attracted to it by the story summary about two Vietnamese people being raised by a black couple.

I really did not expect a lot from the movie and had planned to switch channels after the first few minutes. Let me just say that I ended up not switching the channels at all.

I think that the director/writer has the role of the domineering Vietnamese mother down pat.

I felt that his "serious" storyline, the conflict that the Vietnamese brother and sister felt between the black couple who raised them and their newly found mother who abandoned them was great.

I felt that his "comedic" storyline, the Vietnamese brother trying to act like a "brother" and his roomate dating a transgender male was silly.

Overall, I think that this is a must see, especially for people who are from a different culture. It is important to see that if you are raised by loving and caring people, it does not matter if they look different from you.

ps. If you can understand Vietnamese, the movie is a whole lot funnier than the Vietnamese "brother" or transgender jokes.

I won't waste a lot of time going over the whole plot of this film, as it has already been done numerous times. Basically, just a nice, sometimes funny, sometimes serious little film that I just couldn't bring myself to turn away from. Check it out, don't shy away from a film just because movie citics give it "2 thumbs down"!! That's the ones I have to see. Good movie here.

I was positively charmed by this little flick. I'm not gonna re-hash the plot or anything. I'm just gonna say that this was a nice pic and I really enjoyed it. The lousy reviews it's gotten in the mainstream press are really unwarranted.

I enjoyed this movie because of its positive depiction of Asian and African Americans in close relationships. A romantic story between and Asian man and a Black woman is almost never seen. The movie also addressed the problems that can arise when adopted children seek out their natural parents. I find it interesting that it is almost always daughters that do this. The story was touching, especially the resolution of the rift between Mai and Dee, the black woman who had raised her and loved her. This movie was also very funny. It's a shame that it received such little publicity. I wish there were more like it. Hopefully the director/writer will produce more movies in this vein. I recommend it highly.