My Name is Yu Ming: Are You Talking to Me?Short Foreign Film Review

What language, do you suppose would be spoken in Ireland? Would it be their Mother tongue? Gaelic? Or the Queen's English? This phenomenon is explored in this short foreign film from Ireland. "My name is Yu Ming." is about a bored Chinese shopkeeper Yu Ming, longing for a better life. He visits the library after work, one day in order to do something different than just go home and do nothing. Once at the library, Yu Ming steps up to the library call desk and as he waits for the librarian he notices a large globe sitting on the desk. He stares at the globe for a second before spinning it and closes his eyes. His finger lands on tall black letters that later we find spells out Ireland. Yu Ming takes a large blue and yellow book and opens a page to the green Isle of Ireland. He traces his finger down the page to find that the language spoken in Ireland is Gaelic.

That is when, Yu Ming decides to leave China and go live in Dublin Ireland. But first he must learn this foreign language. He checks out the large book on Ireland despite the librarian's confused sour look and goes to learn Gaelic. It is an ironic scene, in the film when we see Yu Ming at a fast food noodle restaurant with headphones perched on his head as he struggles to say, "My name is Yu Ming," In Gaelic aloud while he dines on his noodles.

The next scene changes to Yu Ming, in front of the mirror shaving, acting out Robert Di Nero's classic scene in "Taxi Driver." He begins to ask the mirror "Are you talking to me?" Are you talking to me?" this time in Chinese. It is a really hilarious scene, which shows how pop culture transcends every culture as well as being prophetic to what's to come later in the film. This funny scene changes to a plane landing in Dublin. In the airport, Yu Ming follows the signs, which are in English and Gaelic to the airport bus. Yu Ming follows the signs that have Gaelic lettering underneath while ignoring the English above.
The airport bus takes him into the city where he enters the hotel lobby and asks the punk hotel clerk in Gaelic if he can have a bed? The hotel clerk behind the desk smiles at Yu Ming and speaks to him in with a strong Australian accent. Yu Ming looks at him with confusion and tries again to speak Gaelic to him, which the clerk clearly does not understand. The young hotel clerk than asks his friend playing pinball in the lobby. He turns from the pinball machine for the audience to see he is Asian. The clerk asks his friend if he can translate for him. The Asian answers that he is Mongolian. Yu Ming's and the hotel clerk shoulders drop in frustration when the hotel clerk face lights up and asks, while pantomiming, "Do you want a bed?" Yu Ming, nods understanding the pantomime, and the scene changes.

The next scene is Yu Ming in a restaurant, attempting to eat an authentic Irish meal with a knife and fork. He exchanges the utensils from left to right hand and then right to left hand until he finally flips them over to the utensils handles using them like a pair of chopsticks. The camera follows Yu Ming, in the next scene as he walks down the crowded streets in Dublin, where in a touching poignant scene, Yu Ming discovers a statue sitting on a bench. Yu Ming sits next to the statue, puts his head on its shoulder and asks it "Are you talking to me?" This scene comments on how there is nothing more sad and lonely than not being able to communicate with anyone. The long walk then takes Yu Ming, to an Irish bar where he asks, in Gaelic "I'm looking for work." The bartender with a heavy Irish accent does not understand him. Yu Ming shyly tells the bartender that he is sorry that his Irish is not good because he had just arrived to Ireland yesterday. This leads the audience to realize that Yu Ming thinks that the reason he why wasn't understood is because he is not correctly speaking the language he studied.

Yu Ming is about to leave the bar when he hears someone speak Gaelic to him. Yu Ming turns to find it is an older man at the end of the bar. His face lights up and he smiles as he makes his way to meet the older man who we learn later, is named Paddy O' Courtney. The two begin to converse (in Gaelic). Paddy asks him what his name is and Yu Ming happy to have someone finally ask this question he has studied for so long tells Paddy his name. Paddy asks him how he got to be in Ireland and speaking Gaelic. Yu Ming, answers he arrived at Ireland to live and learned Gaelic so he can communicate and feel at home. He tells Paddy that his Gaelic isn't very good because no one can understand him. Paddy smiles and tells Yu Ming that Gaelic is not spoken in Ireland anymore that people here mostly speak the Queen's English. Yu Ming is surprised and disappointed he asks about the signs all over Ireland that have Gaelic written on them. Paddy explains that signs have Gaelic as well as English written above. Yu Ming listens disappointed with this knowledge and tells Paddy that maybe he has made a mistake and should go back to China. Paddy then tells him he shouldn't because his Gaelic is better than most people who speak it still in some regions in Ireland. This makes Yu Ming smile.

The next scene catapults the viewer to a white van driving along a long and winding road in what seems as the country as a happy Irish jig plays. The camera follows the van to an authentic Irish pub, where a young woman enters and is greeted by Yu Ming, who says, "Welcome to Connemara" "How are you?" in Gaelic. The End.

The 2003 film "My name is Yu Ming" is a great short film to look out for online. It is a movie that anyone can relate to who has felt that sad, loneliness where you didn't know how to speak the language and you weren't understood. It is also a testament of how wonderful that one person who is able to understand you can make such a difference. It is also a commentary on how small the world is today, we are all of mixed cultures, with only one language; English. That is great, but it is also at the expense of a country's Mother Tongue as well as the great respect of the immigrant coming to live in that country. The older generation knows and understands the loss of the culture, while the younger generation is not aware and seems not to care.

I love this film. I had never heard of this film or even Atomfilms.com until a fellow film buff friend of mine recommended this film after seeing it on WWW.Atomfilms.Com. I quickly could relate to Yu Ming and the younger Irish generation, being a fish out of water as well as not understanding my own language. When I came to Florida and met the other half of my large family only to realize that everyone speaks Spanish. They speak English too; it is just that they prefer to speak Spanish. I understand some Spanish and my family speaks Spanish very fast. I am always asking them to slow down. The young man, who stars as Yu Ming, is very cute and endearing as he bravely yet naively walks through his new foreign homeland. The beginning scenes change from a green, to yellow; to finally a blue tint when he is in Ireland is not understood, signifying the lead character's different ever-changing emotions throughout the film. The film's beginning credits are first in Chinese, English and in Gaelic inside a blood red block with small yellow lettering. The end credits are only in Gaelic and English. This may refer to the director and writer Daniel O'Hara trying to sustain the countries Mother tongue. The film was voted best film of 2003. Dough productions 2003.

This film should not be missed.