A Thousand Years of Good Prayers

Wayne Wang's A THOUSAND YEARS OF GOOD PRAYERS was winner of 4 prizes at the San Sebastian Film Festival, including a Golden Shell for Best Film for Wang and a Silver Shell for Best Actor for Henry O. The film, which marks Wang’s return to the more personal, intimate filmmaking (CHAN IS MISSING, DIM SUM: A LITTLE BIT OF HEART, SMOKE) that made him a leader of the American independent film movement of the 80s and 90s after a foray into bigger budgeted Hollywood fare (THE JOY LUCK CLUB, MAID IN MANHATTAN), also played at the Telluride, Toronto, Hong Kong and AFI-LA film festivals, among others.

A small scale, quietly observational work, A THOUSAND YEARS OF GOOD PRAYERS possesses great emotional resonance, as Wang eloquently re-engages with the themes of the freedom of assimilation versus traditional family duty and how language is simultaneously free and entrapping. Based on one of the short stories in Granta winner Yiyun Li’s prize winning-collection with the same title, Yiyun adapted the material for the screen. Mr. Shi (Henry O), a retired widower from Beijing, comes to the United States to visit his only daughter, Yilan (Faye Yu), who is going through a divorce.

He hopes to help her recover from the trauma and reconstruct her life but he soon learns that his goals are in direct conflict with her desire to move on; the more Mr. Shi persists, the more Yilan retreats. Disappointed but not discouraged, Mr. Shi explores the suburban town that Yilan now calls home and meets Madam, an elderly lady who fled the Iranian Revolution decades earlier. Neither Mr. Shi nor Madam speak English well, but by gesturing and talking in their own languages, they develop a rare friendship, in which they find momentary haven from the world of lies they have woven to keep themselves hopeful. The ongoing struggle between father and daughter, mirroring the differences between first and second generation Chinese, leads to revelations that Mr. Shi has never been prepared to face and a confrontation which forces both to accept the other and to understand their choices.

"A gentle, pleasantly unrushed piece of moviemaking." (Nathan Lee, New York Times)

"A spare, controlled study in communication gaps and a piercing sketch of suburban American loneliness." (Liza Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly)

"Both culturally specific and achingly universal, Wayne Wang’s A Thousand Years of Good Prayers contemplates the ravages of time and distance -- physical, emotional and cultural -- on a parent-child relationship." (Joshua Land, Time Out New York)