Scamsgiving

Ten stars because it was surprisingly moving and sweetly poignant for a CNY holiday film. The illegitimate Taiwanese-American grandson turning up with a crappy old bowl claiming to be the heir to the crazy rich Taiwanese family sounds a bit like Cinderella's ugly step sister coming forward with a dusty slipper after midnight (and after a complete makeover, I'm sorry if that sounds sexist).

What I also wasn't expecting is the stunning cinematography and the unapologetic poshness of the Taiwanese culture. If you think Taiwan is all about night market stalls, street vendours and the sickeningly sweet bubble milk tea, watch this film and you'll think again. Admittedly all the bubble milk kerfuffle and the Also Sprach Zarathustra brouhaha (albeit wasting only a few min of screen time) is a bit over the top but with a delightfully sensible English subtitles I could just laugh them off and dismiss them as some harmless holiday frivolity.

All in all, Scamsgiving is not what you'd expect from a typical holiday hit made in Taiwan by Taiwanese (kudos to Nelson Yeh the director of the highly enjoyable Netflix series A Taiwanese Tale of Two Cities). Scamsgiving actually tells a tightly entwined story with chunks of fairy tale (aka Hollywood) magic and stardust thrown in. Some people used to think of Taiwanese as the sycophantic third-world folks desperately sucking up to the West bowing and scraping and forcing their pre-school kids to learn American English. But it's now proudly declaring its sense of Taiwanese agency and Class (with a capital C too). Hopefully the combination of a uniquely Taiwanese tale and a western fairy tale twist will prove to be potent at the Taiwan and east Asia box office.

The storyline of the film is totally a mess. Unconvincing plots and poor arrangement of the events. Characters speak the local Taiwanese language that is not identical to their community (Mostly Hokkien instead of Hakka) Story begins in California but the actors and actresses don't look like ones (from accents to their temperament) Sometimes weird and awkward plots are intentionally inserted and you know the director attempts to make the audience laugh but in vain-you would get annoyed when seeing those plots. The director seems to promote Taiwanese culture by putting tons of elements such as food and traditional buildings in it, looking like eccentric Lonely Planet. The illogical story is broken into bits and parts and you wouldn't even want to make sense of it, for it is just the worst and most meaningless Taiwanese movie I have ever seen. In summary, as a Taiwanese audience, I would never suggest you buy a ticket to see this movie.