Overrated

Great Film overall

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Better read the Wikipedia page. It has all the information in a shorter form. As the whole documentary is about 5 minutes long. The rest is fluff. With relevant testimonies that are probably supposed to enhance the archaeological abilities of a lazy, yet greedy production team. The testimonies are as relevant as "I remember I've just got off the Grayhound and was attracted by the neon sign and surely I was eating chop su..." What? Yea, even the food reference is about something else! And what has the prejudice has anything to do with the food? Was it originally made with urine?Contact me with Questions, Comments or Suggestions ryitfork @ bitmail.ch

First off, this movie is very entertaining. I say that up front, because you might think, "how can a movie about a single Chinese dish be interesting?" Well, it is. And more than that it's a fun watch, and even enlightening.But, it needs to be said that part of the reason it is so, is because it's much more than a documentary about General Tso's chicken; it's a discussion about the Chinese in America. cultural appropriation, the spirit of resilient people, and of course Chinese food in general. No pun intended.The actual story behind the recipe - and I'd love to try the original as it looks much better than the sickly sweet stuff you'd find in a food court - is fascinating, and the originator is a character (that has the best line in the entire movie). But I think the thing that will stick with people more than anything else is how much Chinese food in America is a window into the Chinese experience in America. Highly recommended.

A fun and funny look at General Tso's chicken... how it's spelled, what he looked like, and what the heck is in it. We hear from menu collectors, people on the street, and restaurant owners, both American and Chinese. In hunan, we see a house which theoretically belonged to general tso. We even met a great grandson of "the general" who laments that all his ancestor is known for is the menu item. A Jewish guys talks about the odd link between Jewish families finding something to do on protestant holidays-- going out to eat Chinese food. Gengis Cohen. That's funny. The irony that the low wage workers can help build our railroads, but were treated as second class citizens for so long. Of course, they include Nixon visiting china, which helped bring back the popularity of Chinese food, and that seems to be about the time that the dish started appearing in America.Ian Cheney writes, directs, and narrates this interesting look at one single item from the Chinese food restaurant menu. An interesting mix of man on the street interviews, people taking guesses at that they think is the truth, as well as some actual historians of Chinese historians, from museums and universities. This is the first one of his projects that I have seen.... i'll have to check out his other numerous films. That's also an interesting list. This one is very comfortable. We hear many statements, some of which may be true, but it's too bad it wasn't made more clear what was true and what was opinion, or lore. Certainly entertaining....it made me want to go out for Chinese food!

Since I enjoy General Tso's chicken every chance I get, it was no surprise that I enjoyed this film. I was bothered about the omission of a pretty significant bit of Chinese food history in the U.S. While it is true that great numbers of workers were drawn here by the gold rush, not a few Chinese cooks came for the building of the transcontinental railroad in the 1860s. The eastern part employed a lot of Irish, but the western part was largely built by Chinese. They were sought not simply as cheap labor, but as experts in the use of gunpowder to blast right-of-ways through mountains. Unlike the Irish, who were hired individually, the Chinese were hired in gangs of 20, of which one was a cook. Part of the package deal was that the cook was to receive whatever supplies he requested, with the result that the Chinese enjoyed a much healthier diet than the "superior" Caucasians. After the railroad was built, Chinese cooks found work in logging and mining camps, as well as on ranches if the old television series, _Bonanza_ is to be believed. Chop suey probably got its start in a western logging camp.