Review: ‘Sight’ (2024), starring Terry Chen, Greg Kinnear, Danni Wang, Raymond Ma, Ben Wang, Jayden Zhang, Wai Ching Ho and Fionnula Flanagan

July 5, 2024

by Carla Hay

Terry Chen and Greg Kinnear in “Sight” (Photo courtesy of Angel Studios)

“Sight” (2024)

Directed by Andrew Hyatt

Some language in Mandarin with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in 2007, with flashbacks from the late 1960s to early 1980s, in the United States and in China, the dramatic biopic “Sight” (based on Ming Wang’s memoir “From Darkness to Sight”) features a predominantly Asian cast of characters (with some white people and African Americans) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: Dr. Ming Wang, a Chinese immigrant who has set up his own eye specialty institute in Nashville, looks back on his youth, as he struggles with financial debts and his quest to restore the vision of a blind Indian girl.  

Culture Audience: “Sight” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in watching inspiring true medical stories that have elements of faith-based teachings.

Ben Wang and Sara Ye in “Sight” (Photo courtesy of Angel Studios)

Instead of being a collection of medical success stories from eye surgeon Dr. Ming Wang, “Sight” is a sprawling, faith-based biopic of Wang. There are good performances, but about half of the movie consists of too many flashbacks to his youth. These flashbacks sometime throw the pacing off from a suspenseful part of the story that is introduced in the beginning of the film. The very beginning of the movie shows Dr. Wang taking on the challenging eyesight restoration case of a girl who was brought to him from India, after she was blinded by her stepmother.

Directed by Andrew Hyatt, “Sight” was co-written by Hyatt, John Duigan and Buzz McLaughlin. The movie is adapted from Wang’s 2016 memoir “From Darkness to Sight.” The movie’s “present day” scenes take place in 2007, while the flashback scenes range from the late 1960s to the early 1980s. It can certainly be argued that the movie’s story could have been told in chronological order as a more straightforward way of presenting this movie as a biopic. However, the storytelling structure is presented in a way to drag out the suspense of whether or not a particular surgery that Ming performed will be successful or not.

The movie begins in 2007, when Ming is introduced to a patient who will change his life. Ming, who is sensitive and compassionate, is the founder of the financially struggling Wang Vision Institute, which is based in Nashville. The Wang Vision Institute was founded in 2003. In 2007, the institute is $600,000 in debt. Ming (a Chinese immigrant) is also considered an “outsider” in this American community. (“Sight” was actually filmed in Canada.)

After founding the institute, Ming took on an American business partner/mentor named Dr. Misha Bartnovsky (played by Greg Kinnear), who’s not in the movie as much as some of the marketing materials suggest because so much of the movie consists of flashbacks to Ming as a young person. Misha also has a kind personality, but he tends to be more of a realist (or pessimist) than Ming. Sometimes, Ming and Misha clash with each other because they are both very opinionated and stubborn.

Ming and Misha have an assistant named Ruth Tarik (played Natasha Mumba), who doesn’t say much in the movie and is a generic supporting character. Also seen briefly in the movie is June Bartnovsky (played by Natalie Skye), who has been married to Misha for 20 years at the point in time. Misha and June treat Ming as if he’s part of their family.

The patient who will change Ming’s life is a 5-year-old blind girl named Kajal (played by Mia SwamiNathan), an orphan from Calcutta, India. Kajal was brought to Nashville by a Catholic nun named Sister Marie (played by Fionnula Flanagan), in the hope that the Wang Vision Institute can restore Kajal’s eyesight. Sister Marie is Kajal’s guardian and approves of any surgery that Ming thinks Kajal might need.

Sister Marie tells Kajal’s tragic story: Kajal was born with eyesight, but when she was younger, Kajal was blinded by a stepmother who poured sulfuric acid in each of Kajal’s eyes. What was the motive for this heinous crime? Kajal came from a family of poor beggars who believed they could get more money from begging if they had a blind child.

Dr. Wang is immediately drawn to Kajal, who is a sweet-natured and trusting child. He wants to do everything he can to help her and begins researching unconventional ways to restore her eyesight. Dr. Bartnovsky is more cautious and advises ambitious Dr. Wang not to get his hopes up too much.

As viewers of “Sight” wait to find out the outcome of Kajal’s case, the movie takes several detours into Dr. Wang’s personal life. In his present-day life, he is shown to be an overchieving workaholic who has never been married and has no children. His immediate family members, who are also Chinese immigrants, also live in the Nashville area.

Ming’s father Zhensheng (played by Raymond Ma) and mother Alian (played by Wai Ching Ho) are proud of his accomplishments. They don’t quite feel the same about Ming’s younger brother Yu (played by Garland Chang), who still lives with his parents and is frequently unemployed. The parents’ attitude toward Yu is one of disappointment, but they don’t openly berate or insult him. They just seem to tolerate him with parental love.

Yu is one of those people who likes to come up with “get rich quck schemes” that are terrible ideas that go nowhere. In one scene, Yu says he has an idea to create a computer desktop icon that is labeled as a recycle bin instead of a trash can. Apparently, Yu is unaware that companies that make computers have already been labeling their trash can desktop icon with “recycle bin” label for decades.

Even though Ming is a bachelor who puts his work before his love life, he gets an obvious love interest in the story. One evening, he is having dinner at a restaurant bar by himself when he gives some medical assistance to a male customer who unknowingly eats too much wasabi and starts choking. The bartender on duty is a witty woman named Anle (played by Danni Wang), who notices how Ming came to the rescue and strikes up a flirty conversation with him. Ming isn’t really interested in dating anyone, but you know where this is all going, of course.

Meanwhile, after Ming meets Kajal, he tells his father that Kajal reminds him of Lili, who was Ming’s closest childhood friend when they lived in China. In the movie, Kiana Luo has the role of Lili at 8 years old, and Sara Ye portrays Lili at 14 years old. Ming then starts to have nightmares where a teenage Lili appears to him and asks Ming, “What happens when we die?”

Flashbacks show that Lili (who was the same age as Ming) and her widower father Gao (played by Peter Chan) were neighbors of Ming and his family in Hangzhou, China. In 1968, Ming was 8 years old, and his family was experiencing financial problems and could barely afford to buy food. Ming’s father Zhensheng (played by Donald Heng) was unemployed and desperate to find work. Adding to the financial stress, Ming’s mother Alian (played by Leanne Wang) found out that she was pregnant. The child born from this pregnancy would be Ming’s younger brother Yu.

In 1969, Gao experienced a medical emergency when his eyes were damaged from chemicals. As a result, Gao became blind. This incident became young Ming’s earliest motivation to become an eye doctor. It also led Ming to feel even more protective of Lili, who now had to care for her blind father.

The flashbacks in “Sight” also show that Ming ddn’t just have financial hardships in his youth. He also experienced the trauma of violence during China’s Cultural Revolution, which lasted from 1966 to 1976. This sociopolitical movement demanded that citizens be alleigient to Chinese communism at all costs.

As seen in the movie, children were often forced out of school to become oppressors in the movement. People were also kidnapped and killed. Ben Wang has the role of Ming at ages 14, 16 and 21.

The movie shows how Ming was a student at the University of Science and Technology in China, where he became a top student with an interest in laser physics. It’s a foreshadowing of the breakthrough medical procedure that Ming would later be credited with pioneering. The last flashbacks scenes in “Sight” take place in the early 1980s, when Ming continued his education in the United States, where he graduated from the Massachusetts Institution of Technology. The movie doesn’t cover his time at Harvard Medical School.

Because “Sight” shows early on that Ming is a medical doctor, the university scenes are bit too extensive, when the movie leaves it hanging for too long about what’s going to happen to eye patient Kajal. Chen and Ben Wang give very good performances as Ming in a movie that shows why the adult Ming is so stoic and afraid to express vulnerable emotions. The other performances in the movie are competent but not outstanding.

“Sight” might have a slightly jumbled story structure but the movie isn’t completely predictable. The outcome of Kajal’s medical case is very rushed toward the end of the film. Because “Sight” spends so much time on flashbacks, the movie could have benefited from showing Ming interact more with his present-day patients. Even with the movie’s flaws, “Sight” is a solid option for people who want to see a biopic about a medical hero who is not a household name but who has changed countless numbers of people’s lives for the better.

Angel Studios released “Sight” in U.S. cinemas on May 24, 2024. The movie is available for streaming to Angel Guild members.

Review: ‘The Paper Tigers,’ starring Alain Uy, Ron Yuan and Mykel Shannon Jenkins

May 16, 2021

by Carla Hay

Ron Yuan, Alain Uy and Mykel Shannon Jenkins in “The Paper Tigers” (Photo courtesy of Well Go USA)

“The Paper Tigers”

Directed by Tran Quoc Bao

Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed U.S. city, the male-centric action dramedy “The Paper Tigers” features a predominantly Asian cast (with some African Americans and white people) representing the middle-class, working class and criminal underground.

Culture Clash: Three middle-aged men, who used to be friends and aspiring kung fu masters in their youth, reunite after their former mentor dies, and they investigate their suspicions that their ex-instructor did not die of natural causes.

Culture Audience: “The Paper Tigers” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in watching an unconventional kung fu movie that includes a murder mystery and touches of goofy comedy.

Matthew Page and Mykel Shannon Jenkins in “The Paper Tigers” (Photo courtesy of Well Go USA)

“The Paper Tigers” plays with kung fu tropes and upends a lot of these stereotypes with a story that skillfully blends gripping action, emotional authenticity and the right amount of comic relief. Written and directed by Tran Quoc Bao, “Paper Tigers” (which was funded largely through a Kickstarter campaign) is the type of film that perhaps could only have been made independently, because it tells a story that major movie studios don’t seem interested in telling: What it’s like for middle-aged men to get back into the kung fu fighting that they loved in their youth. Some of the movie’s pacing drags at times, and the dialogue can be occasionally over-simplistic, but these minor flaws are outweighed by a story that is very entertaining overall.

“The Paper Tigers,” which takes place in an unnamed U.S. city, begins with a nighttime scene that serves as the catalyst for the rest of the story: A restaurant cook named Sifu Cheung (played by Roger Yuan) is in a physical fight with an unseen assailant in the back alley of the restaurant. The attacker makes some kung fu moves on him, including a deadly move that’s later described in the film as “poison fingers.” Sifu Cheung succumbs to this fatal blow and dies alone in the alley.

Who was Sifu Cheung? As shown in flashbacks presented as old home video footage throughout the movie, he used to mentor three special kung fu disciples: Danny, Hing and Jim, who were all classmates in the same school. Sifu Cheung began giving them private after-school lessons in 1986, when the boys were about 10 years old. Danny is considered to be the most talented, Hing is the jokester of the group, and Jim is the most dedicated student of kung fu. The actors portraying the boys during this time period are Kieran Tamondong as Danny, Bryan Kinder as Hing and Malakai James as Jim.

Sifu Cheung, whose background is kept vague and mysterious in the movie, was working as a restaurant cook for years as his day job. The restaurant where he died in the back alley is the same restaurant where he worked at in the 1980s when he began teaching kung fu to Danny, Hing and Jim. It’s never explained why Sifu Cheung is working as a restaurant cook instead of having a professional job in kung fu, but the way it’s described in the movie, he’s too humble to seek glory for himself.

However, he’s a local kung fu legend among people in the community. And being mentored by Sifu Cheung is considered to be a very high honor. Sifu Cheung likes to teach kung fu lessons to boys (there’s no mention of him having any female students), and only a chosen few are considered to be his special protégés. Danny, Hing and Jim were Sifu Cheung’s last-known protégés. And the three boys were given the nickname the Three Tigers.

The Three Tigers have a nemesis named Carter, who is a relentless bully and a wannabe kung fu master. One of the reasons why the boys want to take kung fu lessons is so they can defend themselves against Carter. By 1993, when the boys were teenagers, they’re good enough at kung fu to defeat Carter in kung fu battles. The actors portraying the teenagers during this time period are Yoshi Sudarso as Danny, Peter Adrian Sudarso as Hing, Gui DaSilva-Greene as Jim and Mark Poletti as Carter.

Danny does so well in kung fu that he’s accepted to participate in a major kung fu tournament in Japan. Jim also goes on the trip as Danny’s backup, in case Danny gets an injury and can’t compete in the tournament. When the teens find out that they’ve been accepted to be in this tournament, they’re naturally elated. However, it’s revealed later in the story that Sifu Cheung disapproves of his disciples participating in these types of competitions because he thinks prize money corrupts the honor of kung fu fighters.

The camaraderie between the the Three Tigers fell apart because of something happened during this tournament that caused a major falling out between Danny and Jim. It’s eventually revealed in the movie what happened to cause this rift. Hing, who was caught in the middle of this feud, didn’t want to take sides. And all three friends drifted apart soon afterward. It’s mentioned later in the story that Danny, Jim and Hing also became alienated from Sifu Cheung because he was angry about Danny and Jim’s participation in the tournament, and he became disillusioned over teaching kung fu.

In the present day, “Paper Tigers” is told from Danny’s perspective. He is now a divorced dad in his 40s who works in insurance. And he left kung fu behind a long time ago, ever since that tournament in Japan that caused the end of his friendship with Jim. Danny and his ex-wife Caryn (played by Jae Suh Park) have a tense relationship because she thinks Danny is too flaky when it comes to spending time with their sensitive and adorable son Ed (played by Joziah Lagonoy), who’s about 9 or 10 years old.

It’s mentioned several times in the movie that Danny and Caryn have agreed to joint custody of Ed. However, for whatever reason, the movie only depicts Danny having weekend visitations. Maybe the arrangement is that Ed lives full-time with Danny for part of the year and lives full-time with Caryn for the other part of the year.

Whatever the arrangement is, it’s not working out the way that Caryn wants because Danny frequently lets his job take precedence over taking care of Ed. In one of the movie’s scenes, Danny is late to pick up Ed, and he knows that Caryn will be upset. In order to placate her and a disappointed Ed, Danny spontaneously tells Ed that they’re going to a nearby amusement park named Magicland. Caryn is skeptical that Danny can afford the cost (which is a hint that he has money problems), but Danny assures her that he can pay for everything.

And wouldn’t you know, just as Danny and an elated Ed are driving to Magicland, Danny gets a call from his job. And he ends up having to go into the office to do some weekend work. Danny is so embarrassed about this parental letdown that he asks Ed to lie to Caryn and tell her that they went to Magicland. It’s one of a few examples in the movie that show how unexpected things happen to Danny that test his parental skills and integrity.

It’s shown throughout the movie that Danny has become so disenchanted with kung fu, he doesn’t even really like to talk about it anymore. Before Danny was about to drive Ed to Magicland, they encountered an angry man named Tommy (played by Ray Hopper), who was about to pick a fight with Danny because Danny’s car was blocking Tommy’s car that wanted to exit the parking lot. The furious man began to show signs of physical aggression and made racist comments to Danny, who drove away without escalating the argument.

Danny uses this incident as a teachable moment to Ed. He tells his son: “A lot of boneheads think they can solve things with their fists, like that guy back there. You know what to do? You do what Dad did: Be the bigger man and walk away.” Danny brings up this incident after Ed asks him about some old kung fu photos of Danny that Ed had found. Danny avoids going into details with Ed about his kung fu past.

Danny finds out about Sifu Cheung’s death when Hing shows up unexpectedly at Danny’s house and tells him that Siefu Cheun died of a heart attack. They make plans to go to the funeral. The two former friends haven’t seen or spoken to each other in years, but they pick up right where they left off when they reunite. Danny only agrees to go to the funeral when he finds out from Hing that Jim won’t be there.

At the funeral, Danny and Hing see their old enemy Carter (played by Matthew Page), who brags that he was very close to Sifu Cheung. Danny and Hing know that the Three Tigers had a special relationship with Sifu Cheung that Carter never had. Carter is still very annoying and very insulting. He tells Hing: “You look like a fat Asian Mr. Rogers.” In his middle-age, Carter tries to come across as a kung fu master, with a lot of appropriation of Chinese culture.

During the funeral services, three obnoxious men in their late teens/early 20s go up to a large photo on display of Sifu Cheung. The three guys pose together in front of the photo and disrespectfully start taking selfies with their phones. Carter tells Danny and Hing to do something about this rudeness toward their former mentor, but Danny and Hing refuse, because they don’t want to cause any further trouble.

After this tacky selfie photo session, the three guys immediately leave the funeral service. Who are these jerks? They will be seen again later on in the movie because they will be part of one of the big kung fu showdowns in the story. This trio of thugs is led by arrogant Chief (played by Phillip Dang), whose sidekicks are Boi (played by Brian Le) and Fu (played by Andy Le). These goons might or might not have clues about Sifu Cheung’s real cause of death.

Hing is the first to express skepticism that Sifu Cheung did not die of natural causes. The official cause of death was cardiac arrhythmia. Hing doubts that Sifu Cheung, who was reportedly in great health, could have died this way. Danny, who works in insurance claims, says that it’s possible, since Sifu Cheung smoked a pack of cigarettes a day. Hing wants to investigate and Danny reluctantly goes along at first.

In order to gather information, Hing and Danny end up seeing Jim again. He works in a gym as a trainer to mixed-martial arts fighters. And unlike Danny and Hing, muscular Jim is in top athletic shape. The trio’s reunion starts out as awkward but eventually, they all agree that Sifu Cheung’s death is worth investigating. It’s also their way of honoring their former mentor because they feel guilty of never resolving their differences with Sifu Cheung before he died.

Some of the people whom Danny, Hing and Jim encounter during their amateur sleuthing are Sifu Wong (played by Raymond Ma), who was a longtime close friend of Sifu Cheung; Ray (played by La’Tevin Alexander), one of Jim’s MMA fighter trainees; and Zhen Fan (played by Ken Quitugua), who kung fu fighter in his 30s who is said to have been one of the last people mentored by Sifu Cheung. Carter tries to insert himself into the investigation, and he might or might not be helpful

“The Paper Tigers” gets a lot of mileage out of poking fun at how out-of-shape Danny and Hing are when they do their inevitable kung fu fights. Hing also has a bad right knee. Jim is in great shape, but his hindrance is that he hasn’t done kung fu in years, so there are moments when he forgets what to do in kung fu and resorts to MMA techniques. And all three man aren’t as nimble and fast as they used to be.

The fight scenes are well-done and often comical. Quitugua was also the action director/fight choreographer in “Paper Tigers.” And his fight scenes in the movie (not surprisingly) stand out the most. Even though some of the fights veer into slapstick comedy territory, the injuries are not glossed over too much. There’s a point in the movie when one of the Three Tigers can’t do any more fighting because he’s too injured.

All of the actors do a fine job with their roles. But because Danny has the most character development and backstory of his adult life, Uy’s portrayal of Danny is the most memorable. Ron Yuan and Jenkins also do quite well in their roles, especially in their comical banter. Bao provides solid direction, and he has a keen sense of knowing how to bring humor to intense fight scenes.

Where the movie’s screenplay falls short is in its lack of well-rounded female characters. Caryn is really the only woman who has a significant speaking role in the movie. And frankly, her character is portrayed as disapproving and bitter. “The Paper Tigers” isn’t a misogynistic film, but it could have done a lot better in presenting a variety of female characters instead of this unrealistic bubble where more than 90% of the people who exist and get to speak are male.

Of course, the Three Tigers’ return to kung fu fighting is about more than reliving their youth. It’s about confronting their past and coming to terms with who they’ve become as adults. Solving the mystery of Sifu Cheung’s death is a part of that journey. But, in its own way, “The Paper Tigers” is a coming-of-age in middle-age story. It’s about facing fear—not fear of what other people can do to you but the fear of not living up to your potential.

Well Go USA released “The Paper Tigers” in select U.S. cinemas and on digital and VOD on May 7, 2021.

Copyright 2017-2025 Culture Mix
CULTURE MIX