It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

I watched this film for two reasons. First, I lived in Asia for a while, so I like a little re-taste of the culture. Second, I've always liked Russell Wong, who plays the son here. Unfortunately, I felt disappointed with both aspects of the film.The only thing moderately interesting about the film is the surprise ending...IF you don't see it coming...which I did. That means everything else is a disappointment, as well. And monk spunk...I'm sorry, but I don't think you just masturbate into a styrofoam cup in order to artificially inseminate someone. I thought my family was screwed up. We couldn't hold a candle to the family portrayed here. In fact, that's my main complaint -- far too much animosity among family members.I'm not very impressed with the cast, either. Russell Wong was a disappointment here, although I have liked him in other films and his short-lived television series. The other actors and actresses here were totally unfamiliar to me. They all did their jobs, but nobody stood out.Nope. I may enjoy Asian culture. But I didn't much enjoy this film.

First of all, let me begin by saying that I am appalled by critic reviews of this movie. Describing the film as 'predictable' and involving a 'typical Chinese-American family' is an insult to the cast and crew. There is nothing typical about this Chinese-American family. Seeing as how many film critics are introverted white Americans, it is easy for them to forget that these people have very different values than other Americans. To be able to critique this movie fairly, you must know a good deal about Asian culture on the whole. The 'predictable' twists that occur may be typical of your average American family--but in Asian families, it is more of a rarity.Needless to say, I was quite surprised at some of the revelations the children had about their deceased mother, especially considering the fact she was born and raised in China. These revelations give a more human feel to the rigid culture of the Chinese, and give the movie substance.Asian intolerance of infidelity, interracial marriage, and homosexuality is also explored in depth. This part of the movie personifies the characters before they even speak more than a few lines, and helps humanize the 'Dragon Lady' over the course of the movie. There is much more that I could say about this movie, but I believe I've said enough to offer a conclusion: As Americans, we don't generally put much thought into ideas like homosexuality, interracial marriage, and infidelity. Its all around us--and we become numb to it. But these ideas can become catalysts for mayhem in Asian families, where such ideas are shunned or outright forbidden. Understanding this fact will help you understand--and enjoy--the movie.

I completely agree with the other reviews panning this movie. It's too boring to be a pop movie and too stupid to be a serious one. You may hang in there despite the fact that the characters are so unlikeable (particularly the dead woman) and insipid, you may multi-task through the cringe-worthy dialogue, press pass the predictable sequence of events (though there's no one to root for, no one to motivate any sense of engagement), all the while thinking, there must be one kernel of novel insight or characterization, something that would justify making a whole movie. Particularly as a Chinese - American, you hope for this kind of thing to succeed and to derive something interesting and relevant to your own life and experience. But somehow it manages to get less interesting, to get bafflingly superficial as though the divine muses at Disney had intervened to demand a more pat and sociable plot. At the start, the problems at least have the potential to be interesting though very predictable and thoroughly explored in other better films. I was vaguely intrigued by the thorough unlikeability of the mother, all the other films had provided the parent's perspective (for example, why destroying a daughter's relationship with the love of her life because he's black may actually be understandable or have some redeeming rationale; and showing acts of love by the parent for the child that reveals the parent's humanity, their own resistance to the shackles of culture) - was this a new take? alas, no. The siblings begin to cooperate in the "last wishes" of their mother out of what is clearly guilt, and from no where that guilt is transformed into honest grief, respect and love, like blood into wine. There's very little exploration of the reasons for the hatred by the children. But presumably, like in real life, it was failure to do the things that actually inspire honest grief, respect and love - like being there and helping the eldest daughter through the loss of her son (my mom would simply have come to me and camped out indefinitely), sending a present for her black grandson's birthday or attending her granddaughter's recital. It's not clear to me why death would absolve a mother from her duty in such acts of forgiveness and love, in my experience, death is when a miserable bastard really pays the piper. This felt uncomfortably like the work of someone who couldn't stand their mother but felt really guilty about it.

Dim Sum Funeral is about a family of estranged siblings who find themselves having to get back together in the process of planning their mother's funeral. In doing so, they all stop fighting and learn to accept each other. This is a charming film in some ways, but its depiction of sibling rivalry is not realistic. In a truly dysfunctional family, which this family purports to be, occasions like weddings and funerals are not times to come together, they're times to wage further warfare. And once things like wills and inheritances are thrown in, the fur starts to fly. This would have been a better and more psychologically true movie if the siblings continued to be estranged from each other at the movie's end; it would have shown the difficulty of healing childhood wounds and the essential loneliness that adults who've had an unhappy childhood carry throughout their lives.