Be There or Be Square

1998
7.2| 1h43m| NA| en| More Info
Released: 25 December 1998 Released
Producted By: Beijing Film Studio
Country: China
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Info

The story of two Chinese immigrants' struggles in America. Yuan Liu has lived in LA for years. He has no stable job, no family and lives in a wagon. He seems content with his life until the day he meets Qing Li, a woman with the big "American dream".

Genre

Comedy, Romance

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Director

Feng Xiaogang

Production Companies

Beijing Film Studio

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Be There or Be Square Audience Reviews

VeteranLight I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.
Invaderbank The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.
Hadrina The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful
Curt Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.
michael_suttles I'm definitely not what you might call a flag-waving, patriotic American, but this movie managed to offend me on numerous occasions with its exaggerated portrayals of American cruelty and depravity. Nearly every American--with the exception of the LA police (ha!)--is a criminal, pervert, or jerk, and the Chinese main characters are more or less the only sane ones. First, the innocent Beijing girl (Fan Xu) gets robbed and tied to a chair by thugs. Later, she and her friend enter a restaurant which happens to be in the process of being burgled. The mean American criminals in the restaurant single out our Chinese male protagonist (You Ge) because he doesn't have money in his wallet and they pistol whip him. And America isn't just portrayed as full of thugs, but perverts, too. While in the police station, You Ge is pinched on the ass by--horror of horrors!--a transvestite.I have no problem with the main premise of the movie--namely, that immigration to America is difficult and the picture-perfect society foisted on the world by Hollywood is far from reality. But that doesn't mean that the US is solely made up of criminals and good people are extinct. I have great respect for Chinese culture, but this movie mostly serves to show the "bad side" of America, while holding China up as a symbol of harmony. Don't even get me started on the cheesy love story.Or maybe I'm wrong, and I just need to spend more time in LA.
kevin shi Japanese, Korean romantic movies are well known in Asia. My sassy girl (Korea), love letter (Japan) etc. got universal acceptation. But this romantic Chinese movie never loses to them.Two people falling in love depends on mutual understanding. Appearance is just the secondary thing. LiuYuan finally won LiQing's heart just because of his honesty and kindness though he was not handsome. What LiuYuan dreamed in the airplane was impressive. It just clearly showed how he loved her. To my happy, LiQing finally chose him. In addition to that, the witty words made me laughing from the start to the end.The director XiaoGang Feng is well known in China. From the end of 90s, his every HeSuiPian (happy new year movie) was popular in China. The newest A World Without Thief also succeeded. As to performance, there are no other pairs can be compared with You Ge and Fan Xu. They are really gold partners. Impeccable.The most romantic Chinese movie I ever watched. 9/10
kungfu-lish84 This is a very interesting movie. This movie revealed the hardship of the previous generation of Chinese persons immigrating to America and finding no work. It had both humor and irony woven into the plot. It detailed the relationship of a man and woman both struggling in America to make ends meet, and the disillusionment of the "American dream." It used irony and American and Chinese stereotypes. One memorable part is when the man is teaching American police officers Mao-ist sayings to assist the police in arresting citizens that speak only Mandarin. This is a very funny movie, it is even funnier if perceptions of both the East of China and the West of America are understood. I do agree that this may not appeal to the average Westerner, but it greatly appealed to me...Great movie!!!
fengerzh I've seen this movie at the new year's day of 1999. Actually it is a quite good funny and happy movie, but of course with lots of shortage. I can't see any reason why the two people begin to love each other, seems only for lonely? Everything is just surface, no deep idea in it. But the screenplay is good, so I give it 7.