Well the themes of cultural differences....were more secondary to me in the plot compared to the other themes.

I dunno. The movie cultural clashes seemed so pale to real life stuff I've been through. (And it's not over.) Cultural clashes which involve linguistic problems, meaning one party not knowing language of the other, take on a different spin when lived for many years.

For myself, having a mother who doesn't speak much English and unable to convey all a mother wants to her adult children, causes all sorts of real life (dramatic) and heart-tearing situations.

This is a more positive spin where I don't discuss the pain /serious conflicts here: http://cyclewriteblog.wordpress.com/2012/04/01/asia-in-my-dreams-romanticizing-the-east/

Imagine if Judy's character fell in love with an East Indian guy..now THAT might have been a real story spinner.