In this golden age of home viewing, the Criterion Collection still provides some of the best editions of the best movies ever released, usually with a rich selection of extras and often including audio commentaries (a feature they pioneered, and perhaps the greatest gift ever to film students and cinephiles alike). This column features one Criterion release per week, based on where my interests lead me and what’s available from the public library.
Before Sean Baker had films playing at Sundance (Tangerine) and Cannes (The Florida Project), and before being nominated for multiple Academy Awards and BAFTAs (Anora), he co-wrote and co-directed with Shih-Ching Tsou a little film called Take Out. It’s a documentary-like look at a day in the life of an undocumented Chinese immigrant in New York City who’s scraping out a living as a deliveryman while trying to both send money home to his family and pay his debts to the people who smuggled him into this country.
Take Out begins with two debt collectors paying a call to the grotty apartment Ming Ding (Charles Jang) shares with an uncertain number of people. The problem? Ming is late on his payments and, after some threats and a bit of violence, the tough guys leave him with an ultimatum: come up with $800 by the end of the day or else. If he doesn’t, his debt will be doubled, and the prospect of ever paying it off will become even more unlikely.
The action of Take Out occurs over the course of a single day during which the mind of deliveryman Ming is wonderfully focused (a hammer to the back will do that for you). He borrows some money from relatives but has to try to earn the rest with tips, which means he has to more than triple his usual take. And that’s while pedaling a rickety bicycle (widespread use of e-bikes and mopeds lies well in the future), getting soaked by the rain, and dodging impatient automobile drivers.
Baker and Tsou (the latter produced several of Baker’s films, including Tangerine and The Florida Project) offer a wonderful look at life among a class of people that are ever present but also oddly invisible* in the fabric of the city’s life. Hard work and bad treatment is their daily lot, and the possibility of catching their share of the American dream seems pretty remote as they struggle just to survive. At the same time, they stick together when it counts, recognizing what each of them is up against, and coming forth with what they can spare when one of their number is in need. Ming’s experiences delivering food also offers a glimpse of the variety of nationalities and ethnicities and social classes that exist side-by-side in NYC, because if there’s one thing that brings people together, it’s Chinese take out.
Young (Jeng-Hua Yu), also a delivery man, is Ming’s best friend and the only person at the restaurant he confides in. But even Young berates Ming for agreeing to the terms of the loan (“Thirty percent? Are you crazy? Why didn’t you do the math?) before offering to let Ming do all the deliveries that day. Wei (Justin Wan), a cook, clashes with the other workers due to his air of superiority, since he’s been in the country longer than them. Big Sister, (Wang-Thye Lee) the cashier and manager, is a calm presence that keeps the place running.
You can see the seed of films like Tangerine in Take Out’s simple and direct film-making style and sympathy for members of the underclass that keep the city running. Baker shot it on Mini DV on a budget of about $3000, but it’s a fully complete film whose charm is accentuated by the unfussy nature of the camera work and use of many non-professional actors. Baker’s camera usually stays close to his subjects, so you only see a tiny piece of the world in which they exist; when he occasionally pulls back for a master shot, it’s as attention-getting as the first closeup in a conventional Hollywood film.
Take Out debuted at Slamdance in 2004 and played a number of other festivals but was not released until 2008 (and then in a quite limited fashion) due to a legal dispute. It’s a critical darling, however, and a worthy addition to the Criterion Collection. | Sarah Boslaugh
*To quote a character in Stephen Frears’ Dirty Pretty Things, a film about undocumented immigrants in London, Ming and his coworkers are “the people you do not see.”
Spine #: 1149
Technical details: 88 min.; color; screen ratio 1.85:1; Mandarin and English.
Edition reviewed: Blu-ray special edition.
Extras: audio commentary by Sean Baker, Shih-Ching Tsou, and Charles Jang; making-of featurette; reflective featurette with Sean Baker, Shi-Ching Tsou, Charles Jang, Wang-Thye Lee, and Jen-Hua Yu; Charles Jang screen test; deleted scenes; booklet with essay by filmmaker J.J. Murphy; trailer.
Fun Fact: Charles Jang, who plays the Chinese immigrant character Ming Ding, is actually a Korean American.
Parting Thought: Will the delivery people of NYC ever get paid a living wage for their work? Apps like DoorDash could easily add a distance-based delivery fee, but Fortune 500 companies have more political clout than immigrant workers.
