Criterion Blu-ray Film Review

Take Out (2004) • Blu-ray [Criterion Collection]

An illegal Chinese immigrant falls behind on payments on an enormous smuggling debt, so is given until the end of the day to come up with the money.

Acclaimed independent filmmaker Sean Baker has spent his career chronicling individuals living on the margins of American society. The kind of characters that are rarely given the attention and respect they deserve. He’s made it an objective to empathise with the people who are often dismissed, ignored, and ridiculed. Before breaking into the mainstream with the effervescent The Florida Project (2017), Baker and Shih-Ching Tsou created a compelling portrait of life for undocumented Chinese migrants in the US. Take Out is an honest and unsentimental look at what it means to survive in a new country.

Ming (Charles Jang) works as a deliveryman for a Chinese take-out restaurant in New York City. Having come to the US illegally, he’s hoping to make enough money so his family can follow along. Ming’s struggled for months and now owes a lot of money to the…