‘Prayers’ Answered for Magnolia

A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, winner of 4 awards at the San Sebastian Film Fest, has
been picked up by Magnolia Pictures. Directed by Wayne Wang, the film is a
return to his indie roots following a succession of sappy commercial fair including
the Queen Latifa starrer Last Holiday and J-Lo’s Maid in Manhattan.

The film stars noted character actor Henry Q (The Last Emperor)
as a Chinese father who travels to Spokane,
Washington to visit his estranged
daughter (Faye Yu) and help her following a messy divorce. In the process, he meets
an Iranian woman with whom he connects with despite their language barrier… even moreso than he can with his own child. Author
Yiyun Li adapted her own Hemingway Award-winning collection of short stories of
the same name.

Prayers picks right back up with Wang’s interest in
exploring strained interpersonal relationships, primarily that between parents
and children, as well as cultural divides between east and west. Of course this
was never more apparent than in his adaptation of Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club,
still a landmark for many an Asian-American family. With Prayers the director
has gone with a less sweepingly cinematic approach to the narrative, favoring subtlety
over scope – or as Variety’s Todd McCarthy describes it “a quiet work with
Ozu-like structure and concerns, but remains more an intellectual exercise than
one from the heart.”

Plans for release have yet to be solidified, so there’s no
telling if a standard theatrical-to-home release is in the cards or whether the picture will
follow the Redacted route and premiere on HDNet (it was shot in HD) before
hitting the big screen.