The title is a play on a Ben Gazzara films called "The Killing of a Chinese BOOKIE"--not COOKIE! This documentary is about fortune cookies! The first portion is about who invented this confection. While it's relatively common knowledge that this was invented in America, I was VERY surprised to see that it was apparently invented by a Japanese-American--and has roots in Japanese treats with messages. And so, why is it so closely associated with the Chinese? Well, because soon after its invention, Chinese restaurants began to serve them with their meals. However, until only very recently, you could not get them in China--and the cookies were introduced to China by an American entrepreneur.
After discussing how the cookie was apparently created, the rest of the film was all about the cookie and modern culture. You visit a fortune cookie company and meet the owner and his daughter (who writes the fortunes), a deaf school, a guy who wrote some off-color fortunes , a sex shop and several other places. Some of the visits are quite good--others not particularly interesting--such as the guy who claims to have written but never done anything with off-color fortunes (who cares?!). This unevenness caused the film to quickly lose momentum--and it sure had a lot in the first portion of the film. I am inclined to think that once they finished discussing the cookie's origins, the rest was all padding. Not terrible but it wasn't especially memorable viewing for me.
By the way, while you might not expect it in such a quirky film, but it has quite a few references to sex (including anal), so I would NOT recommend this for younger viewers. Why exactly these were included really confused me. I'm no prude, but for this TYPE of film, it seemed inappropriate.
After discussing how the cookie was apparently created, the rest of the film was all about the cookie and modern culture. You visit a fortune cookie company and meet the owner and his daughter (who writes the fortunes), a deaf school, a guy who wrote some off-color fortunes , a sex shop and several other places. Some of the visits are quite good--others not particularly interesting--such as the guy who claims to have written but never done anything with off-color fortunes (who cares?!). This unevenness caused the film to quickly lose momentum--and it sure had a lot in the first portion of the film. I am inclined to think that once they finished discussing the cookie's origins, the rest was all padding. Not terrible but it wasn't especially memorable viewing for me.
By the way, while you might not expect it in such a quirky film, but it has quite a few references to sex (including anal), so I would NOT recommend this for younger viewers. Why exactly these were included really confused me. I'm no prude, but for this TYPE of film, it seemed inappropriate.
