Tigertail

2/4

Starring: Tzi Ma, Christine Ko, Hong-Chi Lee, Yo-Hsing Fang, Kunjue Li, Kuei-Mei Yang, Joan Chen

Rated PG for Some Thematic Elements, Language, Smoking and Brief Sensuality

"Tigertail" is the bleakest, most depressing, movie I've seen all year.  I don't mean that in a positive way.  It does provoke an emotional reaction and there is a payoff, to be sure.  But the reward just isn't worth the investment or 90 odd minutes of despair.

Two stories are told in tandem.  One is a young man (Lee) living in Taiwan.  After the death of his father, he was sent to live with his grandmother while his mother looked for work.  There, he met a girl named Yuan, with whom he befriended.  As a young man, he and Yuan reconnect and fall in love, but marriage is out of the question because she is wealthy and he is not.  When his boss offers him an opportunity to marry his daughter Shenzhen (Li) and go to America, he reluctantly accepts so he can provide a comfortable life for his mother (Yang).  The other is the man as a retiree trying to come to terms with the past and connect with his daughter Angela (Ko).  But she rebuffs his efforts because she (correctly) believes him to be cold, demanding and uncommunicative.

There isn't anything inherently wrong with this material except for the fact that it's more than an hour of watching a man being beaten down by life.  Nothing goes right for the protagonist, or if it does, he blows it.  This isn't a one time thing.  The protagonist is a miserable person whose life gets more miserable with each passing day.  Some of it is bad luck, or that he made choices with outcomes he didn't anticipate.  Others are the result of his decisions.  Had the guy been a more active character, as in trying to do the best he can, I might have been moved.  But instead he shuts down, which, while understandable, isn't inherently cinematic.  Nor is it particularly endearing.

I have a feeling that had it not been for the strong performance by Tzi Ma, this film would have been unwatchable.  The Chinese American character actor (who is probably best known for playing Consul Han in "Rush Hour" and the unfortunate third installment in the franchise) gives depth and humanity to a person who on paper is so closed off that he's impossible to sympathize with.  Ma uses his eyes to communicate the inner turmoil of the person he is playing.  Taken in tandem with the jovial performance of Hong-Chi Lee as his younger self and we see a man that deserves some manner of empathy.  The supporting cast (which includes the likes of Joan Chen in a small but important role) is strong.

The film was written, directed and produced by Alan Yang, who has been working his way up the Hollywood food chain, including a stint as a writer and producer of "Parks and Recreation."  In case I haven't made this clear, "Tigertail" is not a comedy and is not intended to be one.  Yang's passion for this story is undeniable and he shows potential as a filmmaker.  He makes some rookie mistakes, such as ineffective parallelism and dialogue that is at times not very subtle.  But he doesn't give the audience much of a rooting interest in his central character.  He's been dealt a bad hand by life, but he doesn't make it any easier on himself.  Or anyone else.  There are a few scenes that explain why he went from a happy-go-lucky kid to a man of deep reserve and no discernible emotions, but they feel facile and don't generate the sympathy that Yang desires.  The best scenes for that simply show Ma going about his day.

Ultimately what it comes down to is how the film made me feel (depressed), and whether I thought it was worth it.  I can give the performances all the praise that they deserve, but the answer is that I didn't think being subjected to such a depressing story was worth my time.