Chinese Take-Away

In Buenos Aires, the bitter and methodic Roberto (Ricardo Darín) is a lonely man and the owner of a hardware store. Roberto collects bizarre worldwide news in an album as a hobby and his acquaintance Mari (Muriel Santa Ana) has an unrequited love for him, but Roberto is always evasive.

One day, Roberto sees a Chinese named Jun (Ignacio Huang) being expelled from a taxi while he is watching the landing of airplanes in the airport and he helps the man to stand up. Jun does not speak Spanish and shows a tattoo with an address on his arm. Roberto heads to the spot with Jun and discover that the place belonged to Jun's uncle that sold it three and half years ago. Roberto goes with Jun to the police station, to the China's embassy and to a Chinese neighborhood to seek out his uncle but it is a fruitless search. Roberto lodges Jun in his house and after a series of incidents, he finds a delivery boy that speaks Cantonese to translate Jun and he learns the dramatic story of the life of his guest.

"Un Cuento Chino" is a funny and dramatic film, with a refreshing story and excellent screenplay, direction and performances. Ricardo Darín is one of the best (if not the best) Argentinean actors these days; Ignacio Huang is great in the role of a Chinese that cannot speak Spanish and Muriel Santa Ana is very sweet with her beautiful smile. This film is another proof that for making a great film, budget is one of the least components. Story, screenplay, direction and performances are the most important.

The apparently absurd and bizarre idea of a cow falling from the sky on a boat is true and has happened in 1997 in the Sea of Japan, when a Russian cargo airplane with problems released a cow from a high altitude that hit a Japanese fishing boat that sank. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Um Conto Chinês" ("A Chinese Tale")

Awesome Argentine movie, freaking hilarious !!

From the beginning to the end, excellent and funny jokes...the much the time passes more funny the jokes get. The Chinese guy makes you LOL all the time...the Argentine guy is really funny, and the story itself is comical amusing and very entertaining.

The story is about rare and freakish events that may happen to anyone anytime.

Watch it and you'll know what i'm talking about.

Be ready to have an awesome time and entertain your self with a really great comedy !!!

I need to say that Argentine cinema is surprising me more and more at each movie I watch. They are decades ahead of us here in Brazil. Not that we don't ever produce good works.

A rich cast and a good script makes Un cuento chino a excellent option to amuse you at any time, being you alone and sad or laughing with friends.

Trust me, the jokes and the faces are priceless. Ricardo Darín is at his best form, doing what he is best of. His character, Roberto, is an slang disturbed man. He owns a ironware store where he always counts hot many bolts are in the box, so he is not cheated. He turn off the lights every day at 23 pm, etc. One day he is sitting there near the airport, watching the planes takin' off, drinking his beer when this china is thrown off a moving cab. Roberto decide to help the poor boy and, since then, their lives will suffer some changes.

I really enjoyed this Argentinian comedy-drama movie about a solitary man that aids an indigent Chinese man that arrives in his country and speaks no word of Spanish! It's quite a beautiful and touching story mostly because of the way it develops and helps both men finding their way to happiness. It's told in the beginning that this story is based on true events. If so, it's even better and interesting.

Roberto (played by Ricardo Darín) is a solitary man that lives in a poor house and owns a small shop. He's very methodic and has some strange habits and hobbies. For instance, he shuts down the light before sleep everyday on 23pm, o'clock, on the precise second (!) and collects bizarre and absurd true stories he cuts from newspapers (I also appreciated the way those stories are told in the film: Roberto imagines the story as he was there and assumes the character of that little story, like Amélie Poulain in AMÉLIE ). But his live is not easy. He's afraid to release his feelings and emotions and he's very closed and linked to the past. At the same time he's very honest, has a strong personality and is a person with great moral values. Precisely what will make him rescue Juan, the lost Chinese man (played by Ignacio Huang) and help him against everything, even other Chinese people, who are unwilling to aid Juan… (by the way it's hilarious the scene when they go to a Chinese neighborhood in Buenos Aires and when Juan starts speaking in Chinese, to his compatriot, the other man says in Spanish – "I don't understand him!! He's talking in Cantonese and I speak Mandarin! It's a different language!" AHAH! Of course he's right but the situation is hilarious and priceless!). So, it's for this man, with such noble character, that Mari (Muriel Santa Ana), a friend and neighbor of Roberto, will fall in love. But he seems to not care, he seems to be afraid of her… or maybe he's just afraid of himself… However, helping Juan Roberto will help himself too as we will see in the end of the film. I don't use to appreciate beautiful and happy endings but here I did! I really enjoyed the way this film ended, especially because what it meant to Roberto and to the way his life turned around!

This film is delicious by its humor, its drama and also because of all those little circumstances portrayed, that can really happen to every one of us and change our lives!

Interesting and somewhat fresh. Darin always knows how to insult properly, and we all Love that in Argentina. Its a movie about Life and its Magic, about rare events and Destiny. You will find the story quite relaxing and and end that boosts the movie just enough to make it a really good one. Not a classic so far of Argentinian Cinema in my opinion, I don't see it becoming One, is what I mean. But as I said, Solid, very watchable, funny here and there, and a message, nicely wrapped with good performances. And if you know about Buenos Aires Culture, its always a plus for this kind of movies. But if you are not familiar with our ways here, you are probably gonna miss some things but at the end, its a nice little journey.