Combination Platter Reviews

Largely set in a bustling Chinese restaurant, COMBINATION PLATTER savors its culinary metaphors to such an extent that its credits appear as items on a menu. This is a modest independent feature that proves a nourishing alternative to the largely junk food diet served up by Hollywood. Robert (Jeff Lau) is a young illegal alien from Hong Kong who lives in Flushing, a neighborhood in Queens, New York with a large East Asian community. Working as a waiter, he hopes to improve his lot by securing a green card; all the illegal workers live in constant fear of raids by the Department of Immigration. Robert and his friend Andy (Kenneth Lu) try to negotiate a "fake" marriage to Michelle (Juliet Leong), a young "ABC" (American-born Chinese) woman, but she wants too much money for the deal. Meanwhile, Robert dutifully sends a portion of his modest earnings back to his folks in Hong Kong, along with letters that paint a deceptively sunny picture of his life in America. The busy restaurant where Robert is employed is owned by an Asian-American and staffed by people of various Asian origins. One waiter, Sam (Lester "Chit Man" Chan), has incurred major gambling debts which drive him to begin pocketing communal tips. Robert's limited contact with non-Asians is through working with Benny (Colin Mitchell), a friendly white busboy, and by serving a succession of cranky customers. He is fascinated by a bickering pair of regulars, a young white man and his Asian-American girlfriend. At Andy's urging, Robert begins dating Claire (Colleen O'Brien), a shy, lonely woman with whom he has nothing in common other than an interest in Chinese food. Plagued by conscience, he eventually reveals that he is using her; hurt and furious, she breaks off the relationship. Things also deteriorate at work. Robert confronts Sam about his theft and gets him fired. Not much later, the Department of Immigration raids the restaurant, with Robert narrowly escaping by hiding in the walk-in freezer. He returns to work with his situation still unresolved, and watches as the young white man proposes to his Asian girlfriend. Budgeted at a thrifty $200,000 (payment was deferred to cast, crew and co-producer), COMBINATION PLATTER was shot in 24 days, after hours at a restaurant owned by the parents of filmmaker Tony Chan. The young Hong Kong-born, New York-based producer, director, co-writer, and co-editor then spent a year editing the footage in the kitchen of his family's Long Island home, while spending several days each week doing restaurant work. The final product garnered the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award from the Sundance Film Festival, critical kudos and some prestigious festival screenings. Chan's film confronts racial stereotyping by telling the stories of those too often excluded from the table of mass culture. The restaurant reflects the conflicts of the community: white vs. Asian; "ABC"s vs. immigrants; Hong Kong vs. Taiwan; and Mandarin-speaking vs. Cantonese-speaking. Flushing (and by extension New York and the rest of the US) is a combination platter of competing tastes. Even if characters are underwritten, they are easily understandable. As Robert, New York stockbroker-turned-actor Lau invites our sympathy, though one wishes he were a bit less of a sad sack; "Chit Man" Chan's foul-tempered Sam is much more fun. The white customers, on the other hand, are broadly portrayed as unpleasant caricatures; one woman wears a tee-shirt proclaiming "WELCOME TO AMERICA--NOW SPEAK ENGLISH!" COMBINATION PLATTER presents some New York neighborhoods rarely shown in films or on TV and Chan utilizes his limited locations with aplomb. Rather than merely being claustrophobic, the film visually conveys a sense of limited options. The climactic Department of Immigration raid on the restaurant is truly arresting. (Profanity, adult situations.)