Having just moved from Beijing, elderly tai chi master Mr. Chu (Sihung Lung) struggles to adjust to life in New York, living with his Americanized son Alex (Ye-tong Wang). Chu immediately butts heads with his put-upon white daughter-in-law, Martha (Deb Snyder), a writer who seems to blame him for her own paralyzing inability to focus. But when Chu begins teaching tai chi at a local school, his desire to make a meaningful connection comes to fruition in the most unexpected of ways.

For thoughts on Pushing Hands, please check out our discussion on The Video Attic:

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Video Quality

Pushing Hands comes to Blu-Ray with a new digital AVC encoded 1080p transfer in its original 1.85:1 derived from a 2K restoration. While many elements of the presentation appear pristine, the restoration does feature some slight deficiencies that keep it from being a revelation. There are occasional minor specks of print damage, but overall clarity and detail is extremely impressive. The shots inside the house and restaurant are packed with little details in the production design that are easily noticeable thanks to this transfer. The picture tends to run a bit soft in long shots, likely to be attributed to the source material, but colors are mostly well saturated. Skin tones are slightly pale with subtle facial features easily noticeable in closeup. The biggest issue with the release is the general milky white haze that acts as a blanket over the film throughout. Black levels present more as a variation of gray rather than true black. Digital noise does not present as a major issue here, but grain can become a bit gritty in certain shots. Film Movement Classics has done a mostly pleasing job with this release.

Audio Quality

The Blu-Ray disc comes with a very capable LPCM 2.0 track in the original mixture of Mandarin and English with optional English subtitles for the Mandarin scenes. Environmental sounds such as city noises or the blaring of a television are rendered well alongside everything else. There does not seem to be any majorly noticeable instances of age-related wear and tear. The subdued, effective score sounds great throughout the duration of the film, as it settles you into the emotions of the characters. There is never a moment where it threatens to overwhelm the dialogue, and the track maintains a good balance so that dialogue comes through clearly. Film Movement Classics has given this film the perfectly preserved, faithful audio presentation it deserves.

Special Features

This Blu-Ray set includes a 16-page booklet featuring the essay “Balancing Acts” by Zhen Zhang, Director of the Asian Film and Media Initiative at the Department of Cinema Studies at New York University. The essay provides a great amount of context to the world in which this film was released, the career of Ang Lee, and an analysis of the themes of the story. The on-disc special features are as follows:

Filmmakers Round Table: A terrific 63-minute discussion with filmmakers James Schamus, Ted Hope and Tim Squyres, moderated by film critic Simon Abrams. In this piece, the creatives discuss first meeting Ang Lee, witnessing his confidence in vision from the first meeting, the fears that Lee had when partnering on a production, attempting to work with teamsters during a strike, the flow of production and morel. This is a very enlightening piece that is well worth checking out.

Trailers: The new two-minute trailer for Pushing Hands is presented here which does a nice job of selling the film. There are also trailers provided for Center Stage, Shanghai Triad and The Wild Goose Lake.

Final Thoughts

Pushing Hands is an impeccably crafted debut feature which shows Ang Lee’s attention to detail was present from the earliest days. The careful handling of the East-meets-West storyline taps into something incredibly poignant which is sure to resonate with even those who have never left the country. While we appreciate Lee’s current drive to push the limits of technology, we admittedly miss his more character-focused output that he delivered so well. Film Movement Classics has released a Blu-Ray for this classic tale that features a strong A/V presentation and a tremendously informative interview. If you are a fan of Lee’s, or simply open to poignant human dramas, this one should be on your radar. Recommended

Pushing Hands is currently available to purchase on Blu-Ray, DVD and Digital.

Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the Blu-Ray.

Disclaimer: Film Movement Classics has supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.