When I came across A Thousand Years of Good Prayers from Director Wayne Wang (who directed Joy Luck Club), I was intrigued enough to give it a shot. This drama is a decade old, but the topic intrigued me. I often enjoy good character studies. This one was good, but could have been much better in my opinion.
Yilan (Feihong Yu) is a professor in Spokane, Washington. When her marriage falls apart, her estranged father, Mr. Shi (Henry O), comes to visit her. Mr. Shi perceives that his daughter is suffering after her husband abandoned her. His perception is wrong. Yilan perceives that her father had an affair when she was a child. Her perception was wrong. The two work through emotional baggage while they struggle to come to terms with their relationships. In the meantime, Mr. Shi develops an interesting friendship with an Iranian woman (Vida Ghahremanni). The two discuss life through an obvious language barrier. The resolutions maintain an Indie flavor, with loose ends not necessarily tied neatly together.
Yiyun Li wrote the original short stories from which she created this screenplay. It felt like a short story stretched to feature length. The film was sluggishly paced, brooding and overwrought. While the basic concept was a winner, the implementation was lacking. The dialogue was fresh, but often difficult to understand because of the Persian and Chinese language elements that were not fully translated. While that was meant to convey the feeling of not fully understanding, it left me wondering if I missed something important. The characters were developed adequately, but the interpersonal relationships did not feel natural. The story had a solid foundation, but tried to do too much. This film felt a lot longer than the one hour, 23 minute run time.
The weak script was salvaged a bit by the exceptional performances from a relatively unknown cast. Henry O has been in several film and television programs that I have not seen. While I watched The Sopranos, I do not remember O from any episodes. The film centered primarily on O's character, so his performance was central to the story. I found his performance to be flawless, especially in dealing with the language barriers. Yu has been in a few films, most notably Joy Luck Club. While I enjoyed her performance, I wasn't completely sold by it. I think that had more to do with the writing, which didn't feel entirely credible to me. Gharhemani had a smaller role, but was excellent in her limited screen time. The cast took a weak script and made it moderately enjoyable.
A Thousand Years of Good Prayers was unrated. The film has no objectionable material (unless you count the writing itself). The film tactfully handles the issues of infidelity and family turmoil without delving deeply into the subject. While the themes have adult sinew, the delivery is generic. The absence of nudity, strong language and violence would likely earn this film a PG rating at the worst. Although I have been surprised by the MPAA in the past. This film should be fine for the entire family. Younger viewers will quickly lose interest anyway. It is painfully slow at times.
I was hoping A Thousand Years of Good Prayers would be a stellar recommendation. I am disappointed to say it was mediocre at best. An average film that doesn't really cover any new ground. The characters were interesting, as were the examinations of language barriers. But some of the interactions felt forced and the entire story seemed drawn out just to eke out a feature length product. The film would have been better as a vignette of thirty or forty minute films tied together along a common theme. If whittled down to forty minutes, this film would have been better. I would still modestly recommend this film. 6/10.
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