‘A Thousand Years of Good Prayers’: Low-budget drama probes a family’s cultural clash

Before indie films became trendy, director Wayne Wang was making little movies out of practically nothing, such as “Chan is Missing” (1982). He’s gone on to work at some big-budget things, such as “The Joy Luck Club” and “Maid in Manhattan,” but he’s always kept his roots.

Two new movies bring him to the micro-budget level again. “A Thousand Years of Good Prayers” opens for a regular run this week; the other film, “The Princess of Nebraska,” takes a more unusual route to viewers. It will debut on YouTube, free, on Oct. 17.

I haven’t seen “Princess,” but “A Thousand Years” is a characteristic effort for Wang — a small chamber piece about family.

A young woman, Yilan (Faye Yu), is recently divorced. Her father, Mr. Shi (Henry O), comes to visit. (The city is never named, but filming took place in Spokane.) He lives in Beijing, was once a rocket scientist, and continues to cling to certain communist beliefs from his country’s past.

It’s clear from the opening, awkward scenes that daughter and father aren’t particularly close. But Mr. Shi has a couple of traditional habits he can’t help imposing on Yilan: He cooks up giant Chinese meals at night, and he gives her unwanted advice about her love life.

This might be the set-up for a situation comedy, but Wang (working from a short story by Yiyun Li) plays it slow and sad. There are unacknowledged issues beneath every conversation between father and daughter, and these keep the tone somber.

Mr. Shi has particular unease about the mystery man Yilan slips out to see at night. Meanwhile, he seems to enjoy wandering around the park, striking up a friendship with an Iranian woman whose English is about as rudimentary as his.

Part of the point of the movie is that their conversations are more intimate than the talk between father and daughter, who have two languages in common but don’t reveal much.

All of this is absorbing on a quiet level, but the lack of cadence in the pacing and the cheap-looking video cinematography take a toll after a while. This movie means well, but perhaps the novelty of seeing a film free on YouTube will provide more excitement.