Yu Ming Is Ainm Dom

2003
13m

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

Daniel Wu, Richard Morton, and Paddy C. Courtney in Yu Ming Is Ainm Dom (2003)

Is there a place in the world for Yu Ming? He's a clerk at a convenience store in China, bored with his life. At a library, he spins a globe and stops it with his finger, which turns out to ... Read allIs there a place in the world for Yu Ming? He's a clerk at a convenience store in China, bored with his life. At a library, he spins a globe and stops it with his finger, which turns out to be touching Ireland. He reads about the country and teaches himself Irish, flies to Dublin... Read allIs there a place in the world for Yu Ming? He's a clerk at a convenience store in China, bored with his life. At a library, he spins a globe and stops it with his finger, which turns out to be touching Ireland. He reads about the country and teaches himself Irish, flies to Dublin, and finds to his chagrin that no one understands him. He assumes that his Irish is at fa... Read all

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.9/10

531

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 6 wins & 1 nomination total

Photos1

User reviews14

7.9531

Featured reviews

8planktonrules

Cute and worth a watch

This is an odd and enjoyable little short, though I think it probably would be enjoyed more by someone from Ireland, China or perhaps Scotland and Wales (where they speak their own particular version of the Gaelic in a few isolated regions). The "joke" was pretty cute, but for Americans like me and other nationalities, I doubt if it would have the same impact.

Yu Ming is an odd man living in China. He wants a change and randomly chooses a new place to live. His finger falls upon Ireland on the globe and so he spends the next six months learning the language--only to arrive there and find that practically no one speaks Gaelic any more. However, this isn't the end of the film and where it goes next you'll have to see.

Overall, it was well made, watchable and a quality production.

georgiafyke

great short

I'm not really from Ireland; I'm from Jackson, Mississippi, USA, but I'm studying here for a year at the University of Limerick. I'm taking beginners Irish and we watched this short at the end of last semester. I almost cried to be honest. I don't have Irish by any means, and, realistically, I probably never will. I do, for whatever reason, really love the language and feel a real sense of loss because of its state in Ireland right. I think Yu Ming is Ainm Dom really highlights how tragic (I don't mean to be melodramatic, I really feel it is tragic) the loss of Irish is to Ireland and her people. Hats off to Daniel O'Hara for not being afraid to be bitterly honest.

10lynchboy2001

Cutting Satire

It's a sad fact that in modern Ireland, our own language is a virtual non-entity, kept alive by the government, with it's status as the nation's official language, and in pockets of the west of Ireland. This situation is satirized brilliantly with this film, about a young Chinese boy who, wishing to escape his humdrum life in China, decides to go to Ireland, so studies the Irish language in the mistaken belief that we speak it! When he gets over no-one understands him, thinking he's speaking Chinese. Unfortunately this would be a realistic conclusion. This is certainly a fantastic short & is so simple in it's storytelling that you could be forgiven for not noticing the subplot, that as a nation we must get a little of our culture back before our language dies completely. A must for short film fans.

9karenhenry-1

Brilliant!

Ended up seeing "Yu Ming" when went to see "In America" and it made the trip to the cinema that night worthwhile. It was so much better than the main film and all I could talk about the next day. It makes you realise how defunct the Irish language really is, even though it's supposed to be our national language, but does so in a humorous and original way. The sequence where Yu Ming imitated Robert DeNiro in Irish had the whole cinema in stitches, and when he arrives here you really feel for him as nobody understands him after all his efforts at learning the language, especially when the barmen assume he's speaking in Chinese. On the whole I think this is one of the best shorts I have ever seen and know that next it's on TV I'll make an effort not to miss it.

9john-k-1

Delightful

I had heard about this short film but only saw it for the first time on Sunday last. It is, I think, unrealistic in this respect: although most Irish people may not be able to speak Irish fluently I believe most would recognize the language, especially when enunciated as clearly as by the character in the film. I doubt many would mistake it for Chinese.

But that is a minor reservation. It is a delightful film. The main character beautifully expressed the bewilderment at discovering that the language he had learned was not spoken much in Ireland's capital. and I loved the ending. A little gem of a film!