Take Out, a 2004 movie by Sean Baker and Shih-Ching Tsou, follows one day in the life of a delivery worker at a Chinese takeout restaurant in upper Manhattan. In only 90 minutes the film takes us into the world of immigrant workers and the harsh work and constrained environments that they struggle through day in and day out.
The film shows the cycles of debt and threats of violence that maintain the system and keep the workers working. It shows the fear and uncertainty they face because of their undocumented status. It shows the threats they face daily, from the enforcers who demand payments, to cars whizzing past as they ride New York streets on their bicycles on rainy nights, to threats of street violence. It even shows the more petty annoyances like obnoxious customers and non-tippers. All the while the workers turning out and delivering the food wonder when they’ll see their families again, whether they’ll someday be able to buy their own Chinese food joint, or whether they’ll even make it through the next days and weeks.
Shot on location with lots of close-ups and attention to every detail, Take Out is an intimate portrait of some of the human beings who occupy the lowest rungs of American capitalist order. They do the work, they suffer most, and their stories are rarely told. This film tells their story. Check it out.
