Of the many bridges to cross, perhaps the shakiest is that separating parent from adult child.
A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, Wayne Wang's resonant character study of a retired Chinese scientist who visits his Americanized daughter in Spokane, Wash., reinforces this tenuous span with rivets of love.
Adapted for the screen by Yiyun Li from her own short story, Years is a keenly observed portrait of a parent and child estranged by geography, language, ideology and generation. In other words, a universal story of family in the age of globalization.
For the better part of Wang's calming film, so low-key that it gentles the nervous system like a deep-breathing exercise, cheery Dad (Henry O) takes tentative steps toward dour Daughter (Faye Yu), who backs away. Both are newly single: He a widower, she a divorcee.
