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Take Out Girl

Written by: Hisonni Johnson / Hedy Wong  |   Directed by: Hisonni Johnson |  Genre: Drama

 A fresh out of school young woman is tired of being poor and worried about her aging mother and family. They own a Chinese food place but are always behind on the bills and things don’t seem to be getting any better. The problem is that they live and run their business in a slummy, gang and drug ridden area. The type of place you don’t want to visit at night. Growing up, Tera Wong ( Hedy Wong )learned how to be safe while she studied hard; but now it’s time to get herself and her family out. After meeting strangely civil drug lord Lalo ( Sky Carr ) she decides to work for him, handing off drugs to his clients. She’s never been bothered by the police and using her Chinese food delivery as a front, she sets off to make enough money to set up her mother and family in a better area, in a nicer building for their business. But Lalo seems overly nice to her, and for the life of her Tera can’t figure out why.

 Eventually, she makes enough money for the new restaurant and using the ploy of being selected for a grant, she and her family are finally ready to move up in the world and get out of the slums. Things are looking up and Tera couldn’t be more happy with herself.

 Until the day that Lalo decides to visit the restaurant in person much to Tera’s dismay. He wants answers to some burning questions, and they will come from the most unlikely place. Tera’s mother Wavy ( Lynna Yee ) has some secrets of her own, and is no stranger to Lalo. Things wrap up when Tera’s brother Saren ( Lorin Alond Ly ) finds out what she’s been doing, and he’s angry. Things seem to have totally reversed for Tera, and you should see how it all ends. If ever asked about this movie I would say it was just excellent. Take Out Girl may be a budgetless passion project, but it doesn’t look like one. The cinematography, acting, editing and even the awesome soundtrack are all anything but what a no budget film is supposed to look like. It should be very alarming to the studios just what can be accomplished with talent and motivation.

 Without talking about the looks and acting, it’s just a really good script. The movie is about an hour and a half and it just flies by. A lot of no budget movies tend to drag a little in the middle, but not Take Out Girl. This just zoom-zooms right by so fast. I can’t think of anything other compliments to give so my rating is going to have to say it all. This was one of the top 5 independent movies I’ve seen in the last year and since it didn’t even really have any money to make it, that’s even more awesome. Further proof that you don’t need millions and millions to make a great movie.

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