DOUBLE HAPPINESS

“I grew up wondering why we could never be like the Brady Bunch,” muses Jade Li. Well, if Mike and Carol Brady had been tradition-bound Hong Kong immigrants who drilled their children in Cantonese language and customs even after 20 years of living in Vancouver, if Greg had been completely disowned for daring to defy his parents, if Marcia, Jan and Cindy were forbidden to move out of the house until they had married nice Chinese boys, the the Lis and the Bradys would be very similar bunches indeed. Now Jade, the eldest daughter, wants to be an actree, a career considered scandalous by Mr. Li, and secretly dates an Anglo boy, Mark-a relationship considered unthinkable. How far can the heroine push the brittle limits in her restrictive household? Mina Shum's warm and sincere feature stir-fries the poignancy of “The Joy Luck Club” with the comic angst of Woody Allen, serving up a cross-cultural comedy-drama flavored with personalities you won't want to leave behind. And when was the last time the Brady's had to consult a fen shwei occulist over how to position a new TV so evil spirits don't infest the couch?