Word: shum
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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directed by Mina Shum...
Director Mina Shum will be present at both screenings...
Animated wonton soup and flying chopsticks dance around the screen in the cartoon-like opening credits of "Double Happiness," writer/director Mina Shum's debut feature. Strangely, the tone of cutely-stylized disorder established in this stir-fry beginning sets the mood for the remainder of the film...
Another distraction is Shum's bizarre use of lighting and slow motion. The slow motion effect pops up at the most curious times, such as when Jade stands in front of the mirror with a "Connie Chung" hairstyle, having been primped by her mother for her arranged date with Andrew. The scene in which Jade and Mark meet is awash in a deep blue light. This seems a strange mesh of lighting effects and emotion...
...their own goals. "Double Happiness" remains most successful when it stay within this genre (familiar from films like "The Joy Luck Club" and "The Wedding Banquet"). When it attempts to step outside of this boundary, the intrigue of Jade's romance loses its force to the distracting strangeness of Shum's style...