The film centers around illegal alien waiter Robert (Jeff Lau) and his attempts to get a green card. At first, a friend sets him up with potential Asian-American women who will agree to a sham marriage, but this leads to a dead end of incompatibility and insufficient finances. Robert begins casually dating an American woman, Claire (Coleen O'Brien), but feels guilt over pushing their lack of chemistry purely in the hopes that she'll agree to a quickie marriage to help him out. In his letters home to his parents, he cannot even own up to dating an American.

The film spends as much time with various other restaurant workers and customers as it does Robert. This includes the owner who is facing some hard times and dwindling customers. The kitchen is a typical warzone with a language barrier between the Cantonese and Mandarin speaking staff. On the other side is the American born Chinese hostess who struggles with the fact that she doesn't know any Cantonese or Mandarin, therefore shes an outsider with her own race. There is also a waiter with a gambling problem who has taken to stealing tips.

Combination Platter is a charming look at immigrant culture. The good and the bad come from its indie roots. The good is that it feels very personal. You feel the little observations were just that, actually observed rather than imagined. On the other side of the coin, the scenes tend to be just that, scenes. There is no real story to speak of because while Robert gets the focus, his story, like most of the side stories, just kind of teeters out. That kind of thing, anti-three act structure, would be fine if the film wasn't so conventional. Ideas are introduced but never capitalized, resulting in an ending that fizzles.

I feel kinda' bad that I don't have a whole lot of good to say. I mean, like a lot of (real) indies it is so damn pure hearted and well intentioned, and I'm sure it was a blessing they managed to get it made. But, I was left not loathing the film but finding it pretty ineffectual. Okay but not winning enough. Light but not funny. It has a lot of awkward performances. Jeff Lau and Coleen O'Brien are fine but the rest of the cast, particularly the various customers, are all painfully inexperienced- admittedly this is a typical indie hurdle. And, while I'm talking about those customers, they all seemed to be from a restauranteurs point of view. The patrons are all rude, obnoxious, and demanding. So, when it comes to the Chinese struggling to adjust in America, Tony Chan does a great job. But when it comes to the patrons, he sees them like a kid who grew up in a restaurant and witnessed the worst hungry diners had to offer.

The DVD: Koch

Picture: Full Screen. Well, I imagine that Chan may have directed the film open matte. The composition does appear very centered. However, this transfer is awful and might as well be vhs sourced (Hell, it could be?). It is hard for me to know where to begin. Ugly. Grainy. Muted. Cruddy. Ick. It is obviously low budget and using the best with limited resources, but the films bad lighting isn't helped at all by this print. I had to watch this on a little hotel tv and it looked horrid. I hate to think what it will look like on a decent system. Technically there is some ghosting.

Sound: 5.1 Surround or 2.0 Stereo, with BURNED IN English subtitles. The 5.1 track didn't do much for my ears. I mean, it is a pretty simple film with a simple audio mix, and the 5.1 track made the limitations more apparent. The loss of separation actually aides the film, so I stuck with stereo track for most of my viewing. When was the last time I watched a DVD with burned in subs? Thankfully it is practice that is very rare these days; unfortunately this disc breaks that trend. Needless to say they weren't that great. Well translated, but ugly.

Extras: Nothin' but a bunch of Koch release trailers.

Conclusion: I would say Combination Platter was predictable, but it actually leaves you hanging, introducing threads for characters and leaving them loose, frayed, and never tied. Part of me really wants to forgive its indie limitations, but they are, after all, limitations and kept me from being won over. The DVD is not a pretty picture. The film is probably a good rental for indie fans, but overall I was less than impressed, so I gotta' say "skip it."