Director: Henrik Ruben GenzFrom a delectable dish to matrimonial bliss? When the wife of kind but dull Keld (Bjarne Henriksen) leaves him, the Danish middle-aged plumber ventures to the Chinese grill across the street every evening for dinner and begins working his way through the numerical menu. Once he runs out of options, Keld is propositioned by Feng (Lin Kun Wu) with an offer off the menu after Keld heroically jumps to the rescue following burst kitchen pipes. The offer consists not of savory Chinese cuisine but of an arranged marriage when Feng asks the overweight, quiet man if he will marry his beautiful younger sister Ling (The Pillow Book’s Vivian Wu) so that she can stay in the country. The arrangement, according to Feng will be completely “pro forma” with absolutely no “hanky panky,” and while audiences accurately predict that romantic attachment will end up in the mix after the perfunctory ceremony is completed and the two must cohabitate to fool immigration authorities, there’s a bittersweet undertone to their relationship that develops and I was genuinely moved by the surprising ending. Winner of two awards at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, Henrik Ruben Genz’s lovely international sleeper has been made available to American audiences thanks to Netflix that both carries the film in its DVD service and also offers it for instant watching online.
