While watching this self-styled docudrama, one has to take into consideration that it is being directed by a professional filmmaker even if the protagonist-narrator, Jerry Hsu—playing himself, as the title so usefully points out—seems to be making all the decisions. So the home video quality of the production, which is a big part of its appeal, is something of a dodge, even as it sets the scene with a melancholy but believable premise. Jerry, who emigrated from Taiwan to the U.S. as a young man and now resides in a typical exurban town as a retired engineer, lives fairly comfortably on the money he saved. He is divorced from his wife, Kathy, who seems to enjoy a second life taking classes and hanging out with friends, and while in touch with his three grown sons doesn’t appear to be that close to them, even as the youngest is badgering him to loan him money for a down payment on a home. In other words, Jerry, the self-made immigrant, is pretty much an average American septuagenarian, healthy but lonely.

The drama starts when Jerry receives a call from two policemen in Shanghai who tell him that the Chinese authorities have determined criminals are using his bank account in the U.S. to launder money. The director, Law Chen, switches up the framing and the production values to show us the two policemen, played obviously by actors, talking to Jerry in Mandarin and explaining the situation to him, and thus the home movie takes on the cinematic trappings of a crime thriller. As Jerry, who is easily intrigued by the adventure potential of the police request, starts cooperating via cell phone with the officers to trap the criminals by staking out his own bank, which he is told is in on the scam, his sudden change in behavior piques the curiosity of his family, whose members have so far shown little interest in his activities or even well-being. But since Jerry has to keep a low profile, thinking the criminals may be somehow watching him, he can’t tell his sons what he’s doing. At one point, they conclude that maybe he has cancer and is dying, a plot development that gooses the story’s comic possibilities, though not as much as Jerry’s initial suspicion that Kathy might be working with the money launderers. 

Eventually, something’s gotta give, and when it does the movie loses its creakily charming mojo and turns into something more like an elaborate public service announcement. Admittedly, the entire family comes out of the ordeal closer and with a better appreciation of Jerry as a paternal figure, but it’s also obvious that Jerry the producer has contrived matters in such a way so as to convince the audience of all that. It would have been impossible for him to make a straight documentary about what happened to him in hindsight, but the methodology he ended up choosing feels deceptive. Only Jerry’s own natural likability saves the movie from being a total come-on. 

In Mandarin and English. Now playing in Tokyo at Toho Cinemas Hibiya (050-6868-5068), Toho Cinemas Shinjuku (050-6868-5063).

Starring Jerry as Himself home page in Japanese

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