Underplayed Gems

Pushing Hands (1991)

Pushing Hands poster
Original title
推手
Directed by
Ang Lee
Genre
comedy drama
Country
Taiwan, United States
Runtime
1h 45m
Rated
12
Rating
7.3 of 10 from 91 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
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How it feels

A retired tai chi master moves from China to live with his son and daughter-in-law in New York. He feels out of place and struggles to adjust to the different values and lifestyle. The film follows his quiet efforts to find his own footing while not alienating the family.

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What happens

Pushing Hands (Chinese: 推手; pinyin: Tuī Shǒu) is a 1991 comedy-drama film directed by Taiwanese filmmaker Ang Lee, his feature directorial debut. It stars Sihung Lung as a Chinese tai chi master living in New York, who struggles to find his place in the world. The film shows the contrast between traditional Chinese ideas of Confucian relationships within a family and the much more informal Western emphasis on the individual. Together with Ang Lee's two following films, The Wedding Banquet (1993) and Eat Drink Man Woman (1994), it forms his "Father Knows Best" trilogy, each of which deals with conflicts between an older and more traditional generation and their children as they confront a world of change. The Taiwanese-American co-production was produced independently by Lee and Ted Hope, and features several of Lee's frequent collaborators, including screenwriter James Schamus and editor Tim Squyres. It was released theatrically in Taiwan, but did not see a wide release in the United States for several years, after the success of The Wedding Banquet and Eat Drink Man Woman. It was critically well-received, and earned several accolades, including three Golden Horse Awards. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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