OK, so it's not much more than a made-for-TV premise, and the filmmaking is pretty tame in many respects, tracing the obvious melodramatic storyline from the family's delirious happiness through the most bleak darkness imaginable. First-time director Zheng has an excellent technical crew behind him, but the performances are extremely uneven (the Asian cast is superb; most Yanks seem like they're from a local amateur theatre group). And finally, the cheesy musical score combines with overwrought plot points to alienate Western viewers, leaving us quite intrigued by the themes and story possibilities, but disappointed by the film itself.