It has been a while since I last posted here. Lots of things to do. Between the coding that I still do late at night, I also am working a bunch of freelance work. But I still think about what I should write. Writing helps me think good thoughts, sort out the things I think I think, and keeps people up to date about my comings and goings.

I had been watching a lot of foreign movies lately, mostly Asian ones. The latest three have been Korean movies, and I will write about them later, but this one post is about a Chinese movie - Finding Mr Right. I saw this during an overseas flight and found it really charming. Later during another overseas trip, I watched the movie’s sequel, which I did not find as charming.

The premise is as follows. A pregnant woman from China - Wen Jiajia - sneaks into America so that she can have a kid. The father is a rich man who is basically absent from her life. Apparently there is a cottage industry sprouted up catering to these women coming to America and waiting for their child to be born. A doctor works for one of these companies. He is kind, quiet, and thoughtful but also fiercely devoted to his young daughter.

At the start of the movie, Jiajia is a spoiled and condescending critter. She clashes with the other ladies living at the house, flashing around her expensive designer products and wads of cash. This is a pretty by-the-rails premise, but I think it says a lot about the quality of the actors and the writing that such behavior comes off more as sympathetic - a cry for help - than as actual douchey behavior.

Over time of course, the doctor - Frank - and Jiajia fall in love. How that happens I shalt leave to the reader to go find out. However, it is done in a way that is simultaneously familiar yet fresh. I enjoyed watching Jiajia’s development as a human being - she starts off already as a smart and resourceful person, but eventually moves on to find her full potential. This is truly a movie centered on its female protagonist. Frank stands off to the side, stepping out of the background to help to contribute to that success.

When I first saw this movie, I really thought they would make more of the anchor baby issue. It is probably a result of my own perspective’s bias. In American immigration policy today, the subject has come up often in a derogatory manner (though usually when it is brought up, the pregnant woman is Mexican rather than Asian). But the movie clearly does not focus on it - and that surprised me. Does it say something about the state of discourse in this country that when I see something so charged that I almost demand it to take greater precedence in the plot? Perhaps it is not as big an issue for the Chinese. Perhaps the writer just does not want to say more on it than he did - it is merely a plot mechanism for the story.

Just because a story is not original does not mean we cannot enjoy it for what it is as long as the story is executed wonderfully. After all, what is an original story anyway? Mulholland Drive? Shudders.

They made a sequel to this movie, with the same actors but an entirely different story. This was pretty disappointing - but understandable. It seems like “Finding Mr Right” is intended to be something of an anthology series. Finding Mr Right 2 turned out not to be as good as the first one. It told the story of a man in California and a woman in Macau exchanging letters and eventually falling in love. Again, something people have seen before (“You Got Mail”??) but this one’s execution fell a bit flat. I found myself poking into plot holes literally as I was watching it. Sigh …

I hope to have a few more movie recollections when I have the time to write them. I am particularly looking forward to writing something about the Korean movies that I saw earlier this month.