Take Out

MOVIE #1,521 • 🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿 • 04.08.24 𝘚𝘌𝘈𝘕 𝘉𝘈𝘒𝘌𝘙: 𝘋𝘐𝘙𝘌𝘊𝘛𝘖𝘙 𝘍𝘖𝘊𝘜𝘚 The stark difference between “takeout” and “take out” might not be an intentional one, but I think you can find meaning in that space. Also, this should have been called Delivery, no? This film — a collaboration with Taiwanese writer-director Shih-Ching Tsou (who would go onto produce all of Baker’s subsequent projects) — is one of the most documentary-like fiction features I've ever seen. Shot in an actual NYC Chinese food takeout shop during real working hours, the bulk of the movie is simply Ming, our lead character portrayed by Charles Jang, delivering food in the rain on his bike. “More rain, more deliveries,” his friend and coworker tells him, and that is such a true and simple thought.

The movie is anchored by a plot — Ming owes the smugglers who got him to America payment… or else — but over the course of the 90-minute run-time, this really fades into the background as we see him make what must be 30 or so deliveries. It also plays as a sly portrait of post-9/11 New York.

There’s something beautiful, almost meditative in the repetition: each delivery is a brief glimpse into some other life. He’s directly connected with these people on a primal level but he moves through their worlds like a ghost. Before we know it, we’re back in the reality of the narrative and the penultimate event is a real punch in the gut.

Shot on digital with a nothing-budget and minimalist crew, this is a really amazing film. There’s something about this aesthetic that’s very appealing to me: how you can see and feel the immediacy. This feels like the proper starting place when considering Baker and the great works of his to come.

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CHRONOLOGICALLY
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Take Out is a 2004 independent film depicting a day-in-the-life of an undocumented Chinese immigrant working as a deliveryman for a Chinese take-out shop in New York City. Written and directed by Shih-Ching Tsou and Sean Baker, the film was nominated for the John Cassavetes Award in the 2008 Independent Spirit Awards. It was released on January 18, 2004.