Fridae

New York filmmaker Andrew (played by the director himself) offers
to fund a doorman's procurement of a mail-order bride, if the latter
would allow him to make a documentary out of the whole experience.

Terms are settled and contracts sealed, and so ing�nue Lichi (Eugenia
Yuan) arrives at New York, fresh off the slow boat from Burma. Things
start off well enough for the newlyweds until the hubby begins to
display signs of a mind not entirely hinged.

Adrian Martinez does a good job in playing the everyday-man harbouring
sick sexual fantasies while the inimitable Eugenia Yuan, of Three
and The Eye 2 fame, mesmerises once again with a committed
performance. Her portrayal of the seemingly submissive Burmese bride
seethes with hidden depths and intelligence.

However, their performances seem to be the only things worth watching
in this film. Like the marriage at hand, the film crumbles under
the weight of its self-importance into gags and screaming jags while
wasting celluloid intelligence in dispensing half-baked comments
about race, gender and class.

The film's premise is engaging but the its spirit of irrelevance
and the inanity of humour cheapen its take on issues of cross-cultural
conflicts which have been handled with more care and sensitivity
(and definitely more intelligence) in films such as Japanese
Story and Xiao Yu.