Take Out

Take Out is a day-in-the-life of Ming Ding, an illegal Chinese immigrant working as a deliveryman for a Chinese take-out shop in New York City. Ming is behind with his payments on his huge debt to the smugglers who brought him to the U.S. The collectors have given him until the end of the day to deliver the money that is due. After borrowing most from friends and relatives, Ming realizes that the remainder must come from the day’s delivery tips. In order to do so, he must make more than double his average daily income.

In a social-realist style, the camera follows Ming on his deliveries throughout the upper Manhattan neighborhood where social and economic extremes exist side by side. Intercutting between Ming’s deliveries and the daily routine of the restaurant, “Take Out” presents a harsh and realistic look at the daily lives of illegal Chinese immigrants in present day New York City.

A discussion with the filmmakers Sean Baker and Shih-Ching Tsou, moderated by Elizabeth OuYang Esq., Civil Rights Attorney and Instructor at A/P/A Studies Program at NYU, follows the screening.

Co-sponsored by: NYU Center for Media, Culture, and History/Center for Media and Religion and the Museum of Chinese in America