This movie is such a time capsule of the early 2000s. No smartphones. No social media. Just post-9/11 New York and a guy named Ming trying to survive one brutal day delivering Chinese food. Two loan sharks rough him up for money he doesn’t have, and from that point on it’s pure hustle: sprinting across the city, soaked delivery bag in hand, trying to stay afloat.
Sean Baker and Shih-Ching Tsou keep everything so raw you can practically smell the fried rice and the sweat. It’s not really about the plot; it’s about the grind, the momentum, the tiny daily humiliations, and all the invisible people who keep the city running.
And right when Ming finally gets close to scraping his money together, he gets robbed in an elevator. Total gut punch. But there’s a little spark of humanity at the end when his coworker helps him out. Not because Ming earned it, but because sometimes survival means sharing what little you have.
At under 90 minutes, it moves fast and never drags. You can see Baker’s early fingerprints all over it. Gritty, empathetic, unpolished, and deeply human. You can draw a straight line from this to Tangerine, The Florida Project, and Anora.
Small, sweaty, and unexpectedly heartbreaking. A working-class odyssey through the city that never tips.
This movie is such a time capsule of the early 2000s. No smartphones. No social media. Just post-9/11 New York and a guy named Ming trying to survive one brutal day delivering Chinese food. Two loan sharks rough him up for money he doesn’t have, and from that point on it’s pure hustle: sprinting across the city, soaked delivery bag in hand, trying to stay afloat.
Sean Baker and Shih-Ching Tsou keep everything so raw you can practically smell the fried rice and the sweat. It’s not really about the plot; it’s about the grind, the momentum, the tiny daily humiliations, and all the invisible people who keep the city running.
And right when Ming finally gets close to scraping his money together, he gets robbed in an elevator. Total gut punch. But there’s a little spark of humanity at the end when his coworker helps him out. Not because Ming earned it, but because sometimes survival means sharing what little you have.
At under 90 minutes, it moves fast and never drags. You can see Baker’s early fingerprints all over it. Gritty, empathetic, unpolished, and deeply human. You can draw a straight line from this to Tangerine, The Florida Project, and Anora.
Small, sweaty, and unexpectedly heartbreaking. A working-class odyssey through the city that never tips.
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