TAKE OUT Blu-ray Review

THE FILM

The American dream has rarely seemed so far away as in Sean Baker and Shih-Ching Tsou’s raw, vérité TAKE OUT, an immersion in the life of an undocumented Chinese immigrant struggling to get by on the margins of post-9/11 New York City. Facing violent retaliation from a loan shark, restaurant deliveryman Ming Ding has until nightfall to pay back the money he owes, and he encounters both crushing setbacks and moments of unexpected humanity as he races against time to earn enough in tips over the course of a frantic day. From this simple setup, Baker and Tsou fashion a kind of neorealist survival thriller of the everyday, shedding compassionate light on the too often overlooked lives and labor that keep New York running.

Following Films Rating ★★★★★☆☆☆☆☆

THE TRANSFER

Following Films Rating★★★★★☆☆☆☆☆

SPECIAL FEATURES

• New 4K digital restoration, supervised and approved by directors Sean Baker and Shih-Ching Tsou, with uncompressed stereo soundtrack

• Audio commentary featuring Baker, Tsou, and actor Charles Jang

• New interviews with Baker, Tsou, Jang, and actors Wang-Thye Lee and Jeng-Hua Yu

• Program about the making of the film

• Deleted scenes

• Screen test

• Trailer

• New English subtitle translation and English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing

• PLUS: An essay by filmmaker and author J. J. Murphy

Following Films Rating★★★★★☆☆☆☆☆

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