Eat A Bowl of Tea

1989 • NR • Series • Catalog pick

Ben's wife wants some attention. Ben's boss wants some dedication. Ben's father wants some grandchildren. And Ben just wants a minute to sort it all out in Wayne Wang's gentle comedy, Eat a bowl of tea. In New York's Chinatown of the late 1940s, young Ben Loy (Russell Wong), fresh out of the service, has his whole life spread out before him - including a job, an apartment and a marriage arranged by his father (Victor Wong) to the beautiful Mei Oi (Cora Miao). But as eager as the couple is to see what America has to offer them, that's how eager the whole of Chinatown seems to see some first-generation U.S. offspring. And when Ben's celebrated young marriage threatens to crumble in the face of this pressure, it's up to him to separate his dreams from his father's, and to find a future for himself and his wife in their new adopted homeland. Directed by Wayne Wang (Maid in Manhattan, The Joy Luck Club), Eat a bowl of tea is a charming, warm-hearted film based on the classic underground novel by Louis Chu.