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After the success of his low-budget CHAN IS MISSING, the story of a couple of Chinese cabdrivers and some missing money in Chinatown, Wayne Wang returned to the exploration of the melding of Chinese and American culture. In DIM SUM: A LITTLE BIT OF HEART, he moves away from the streets of San Francisco's Chinatown and concentrates on a simple story about the interactions of a Chinese family. Laureen Chew, who appeared in CHAN IS MISSING, cowrote the story with Wang and Terrel Seltzer. She portrays Geraldine, a 30-year-old woman who still lives with her widowed mother. Geraldine has a boyfriend, Richard (John Nishio), who wants to marry her, but she doesn't want to leave her mother (Kim Chew) alone. She is, as her uncle Tam (Victor Wong) says, "a good Chinese daughter." Tam, a lifelong friend of Geraldine's father and not really her uncle, wants to marry her mother, but she also is "too Chinese," and doesn't want to remarry. As the most Americanized of the characters from his generation, Uncle Tam tries to find some common ground so the mother and daughter can each find happiness in life. Wong, in a wonderfully written and acted part, projects a warmth and earthy wisdom about both Chinese and American culture in this funny, perceptive look at family life.
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