A Thousand Years of Good Prayers

1000 years is a small film built on a simple premise: a Chinese father visits his daughter. He is nearing the end of life and the film is at all times reflective and quiet. His daughter is recovering from a bad divorce and they have never felt close. He arrives in America feeling alienated and the film centers around themes of reaching out and alienation. He makes friends in the park with an Farsi woman - they don't share language, but they share communication.

Of course, the journey they all take is in their conversations and silences is the film.

If that doesn't sound like your cup of tea then you won't enjoy this: however if you can let this wash over you it is surprisingly involving and beautifully rendered.

It is film for the mature, the small gestures and meanings of the words in different languages hold meanings within meaning but there is something implicitly human on display here.

Shot in natural tones with a washed out feel to it the cinematography lends much.

One to be savored and strongly reminiscent of Swedish cinema this is real film in one sense, but it fails in being too staged in places.

All in all a small film that will appeal to those who enjoy reality in film.

This movie appears to have been made on a shoestring budget. The script is poor, the dialog seemingly improvised, and the acting , profoundly amateurish. While the original story might have had some merit, the movie destroys that completely. It has none! There are so many dead ends in the movie that one struggles to make sense of exactly what the message is supposed to be. It's just a totally pointless movie, and a huge waste of time to watch! If streaming sites were not so desperate for content, this movie would take its rightful and well deserved place in oblivion.

There is some warning in this story and it is well worth watching. Henry O performs admirably in his role as the watchful father that harbors his own secrets. His best intentions fall short of the mark and despite his efforts, life seems to follow a path that is not of his making.

The writer and author is revealed in the title. Just search on it. If you don't like stories like this or Samuel Beckets "Waiting for Godot" (all on a park bench) then don't watch it. I found the story humorous and uplifting but it saddened and worried me that the relationship between a father and his child will not get better.

This is a good film and deserves its awards.

So many things are revealed in quiet moments, in small interactions, in talking in a language the other does not understand even, in very broken English. Pa and Yilan's moments are sweet and tense and awkward. Pa is a sweet man, diligent, curious, hard-working, and his daughter does her best to accommodate his old man ways, more by avoiding any cause for confrontation and keeping the conversation minimal, polite and irrelevant. In that respect I fully understand and I do those same things myself. What else can you do with a parent who has no idea who you are, was never affectionate, loving, there even, would never understand you or try or care to, but they're sure they know best. And you know you cannot change their mind, you cannot make them see you or understand you and you certainly cannot make them see their mistakes with you or feel sorry. They could never see their whole existence as a parent as one big mistake. So you see, this is not only the Chinese experience, this is also the Eastern European experience.

So yeah, I felt triggered by this movie big time. I too am annoyed by the fact that my mom thinks she needs to feed me and monitor me when I have magically managed well enough for many, many years now to not starve and keep a house running and be a decent human being. Yes, I felt really triggered by Pa having so many demands of Yilin, insisting she come to dinner to eat his food and that she be home early when he was away from her for years. Calling her a slut doesn't help things.

Of course we can choose to believe his confession at the end. And we never hear why Yilin left Keming, but anyway I am glad she is no longer in China and at least here she can escape prying eyes and make her own life choices, good or bad.

I loved Madam, very posed, beautiful, elegant woman, I wish I knew what she was saying in Farsi, but maybe we're meant to experience it as him. I was also surprised not to be shown any trace of racism here, these Americans are incredibly nice generally. And I too find it so much easier to express my feeling in English. I am more outgoing in English and I use "love you" often enough. Never do that in Romanian. It's a generational thing here, nothing wrong with the language, it is rich enough to express pretty much everything, as I suspect Chinese is too, it's a matter of how you use it.

It is so refreshing to see a director (Wayne Wang) so courageously has his audience go through watching and listening to conversations in mixed dialogues exploring the "human relationships and communications" that goes beyond common language! There is an understanding that masterfully is being established during the movie with the audience, interestingly enough, the old man (Henry O) fails to establish this with his daughter, but it is being established with the audience, "with subtitles at times." Then the climax, the scenes/conversations in the park between an Iranian old woman (Vida Ghahremani) and the Chinese old man (Henry O) in mixed languages, Mandarin, Farsi, and English, "with No sub titles!" which the audience has no problem understanding it and it is fluent, enticing and absolutely delightful. This is an amazingly smart and fascinating movie with masterful acting, specially the old couple, the Iranian old woman (Vida Ghahremani) and the Chinese old man (Henry O). Warning: if you are looking for an Action or Kong Fu movie, this may not be your top choice.