For someone who reminds friends and family of an upcoming birthday months in advance, I would be absolutely devastated if anyone forgot it. In the movie Sixteen Candles, starring Molly Ringwald, that is precisely what happens.
Sixteen Candles is a fabulously over-exaggerated portrayal of the 1980s. Big hair? Funny clothes? Bad dance moves? This movie has it all.
Under the '80s stereotypes, there is an actual story going on, even if the plot is very unlikely. The movie begins with Samantha Baker (Ringwald) looking at herself in the mirror and anticipating the day on the phone with her best friend. She decides that she needs "four inches of bod, and a great birthday," two things that she does not receive.
The Baker family is so wrapped up in Sam's sister's wedding, scheduled for the following day, that the sixteenth birthday she's been envisioning for years is completely forgotten. She leaves the house disgruntled and hopes the day will pick up.
However, the day does not get much better at school. Jake Ryan (Michael Schoeffling), a senior who is perfect aside from his funny hair and choice of footwear (old boots that are only halfway laced), learns about Samantha's crush on him. Sam finds out that the geek, Farmer Ted (Anthony Michael Hall), loves her and will do anything to be with her.
Sam arrives home after an unfortunate ride on the school bus to find that all her grandparents have not only taken over her house, but have also forgotten her birthday. A Chinese exchange student named Long Duk Dong (Gedde Watanabe) has accompanied her grandparents. His broken English amuses the audience when he says he pushes the "lawn mowing machine so grandpa's hyena don't get disturbed," meaning to say "hernia" and looking quite sad when everyone laughs.
In hopes to make the day better, Sam goes to a high school dance, but everything still goes wrong. Instead of Jake tracking her down, Ted does. She keeps trying to avoid him, and he keeps finding her. They end up having a heart to heart chat, and she lends him her underwear so he can falsely prove to his friends that he is a stud.
One positive thing Sam is not aware of is that after Jake found out about her love for him, he's been trying to learn as much as he can about her. Nothing is going right for him either. He sees Sam and she runs away from him. After the dance, Jake's girlfriend throws a party at his house, so he takes refuge in his room and tries to call Sam. He ends up waking her grandparents, who yell at him, thinking they are doing Sam a favor.
Jake is unwilling to give up. The next morning, he goes to Sam's house, where a hungover Long Duk Dong screams and slams the door in his face, then says that Sam is at the church getting married to an "oily bohunk." A confused Jake then heads to the church to find Samantha.
It's the funny quirks that make the story so memorable. A newspaper is delivered to the Baker house in the beginning and it crashes and shatters an unseen glass object. There is a kazoo band on the school bus, a gong that sounds whenever Long Duk Dong appears, and the organ player at the wedding squishes when she walks.
The story of a forgotten birthday is lighthearted, and viewers know it has to end happily. The story twists around and the characters intertwine, with Ted ending up with the prom queen and Jake meeting up with Samantha at the church, granting her the best birthday wish she could ask for. Three cheers for Jake Ryan.
