Thursday, May 19, 2011

Sixteen Candles!

Samantha Baker (Molly Ringwald) is an angsty teenager who cannot wait for her sixteenth birthday.  However, in the midst of her egotistical big sister’s wedding preparations, her entire family completely forgets her birthday.  This is the premise behind John Hughes’s first major teen movie Sixteen Candles in 1984.  Molly Ringwald perfectly portrays Samatha as a typical teenager with an embarrassing family and a disdain for high school.  Samatha is by no means the popular girl Ringwald plays in The Breakfast Club (Claire Sandish).  On the other hand, she is quite the opposite, and therefore attracts the attention of the school geek (Anthony Michael Hall), who takes it upon himself to follow Samantha around and make blatant romantic advances.  Samantha wants nothing to do with him, but has her sights set on Jake Ryan, the school heartthrob. 

One of my favorite characters in the movie is the exchange student from China, Long Duck Dong, who accompanies Samantha’s grandparents.  This scene is absolutely hilarious and has been iconic to Hughes’s comedy.  Long Duck Dong offers comic relief throughout the movie to Samantha’s situation.  He comes in as an awkward, culturally unaware student and by the end of the movie is very popular and has landed a girl.  The scene below is how we are introduced to his character:
 
Sixteen Candles offers a fairy-tale surprise ending that is sure to satisfy the audience.  It is a wonderful 80s movie and Molly Ringwald’s big motion picture debut!  Here's the trailer:

1 comment:

Vladigogo said...

Long Duck Dong is definitely one of those unforgettable characters. There is a larger social story behind his character that we will look at with Die Hard.