20 August 2005

Saving Face

It really is watching shows like this that allows me to really really appreciate NO censorship. "Saving Face" is a movie by Alice Wu (written and directed). The movie is not bad. The beginning part really played up the Chinese community, the cultural aspects of things. It's portray of the Chinese community and its cultural was very accurate but the ending was a let down, Alice allowed her wants and fantasies to overshadow the reality of the situations. Thus it became a typical Hollywood happy ending (girl gets girl, mother gets her man), even though it is really culturally not possible. Not for majority of the Chinese community anyway.

There was this part where Wil came out to her ma but her ma's reaction was typical, "我是个好妈,你不可能是 gay". Like the 2 are linked!

I would recommend people to watch this movie, as it really shows the "face" of the Chinese and how much one generation has changed in its thinking.

Synopsis of Saving Face:
For 28-year old New Yorker Wilhelmina "Wil" Pang (Michelle Krusiee), life is a juggling act between a promising career as a surgeon and her responsibilities as a dutiful daughter. Like the #7 train she takes to visit her Chinese family on a weekly basis, Wil is perpetually in transit between two worlds. The expectations of the Flushing, Queens society she is from and the desires that alienate her from it have made Wil content to live below the surface -- even if it means playing an inadvertent game of charades with her widowed mother (Joan Chen) and the old world Ma represents. The masquerade is comic even in its pain as Wil tolerates Ma's weekly set ups with eligible Chinese-American boys at the Friday Chinese socials; but it quickly becomes a farce when Ma's mask cracks first.

One night, Wil comes home to find Ma on her doorstep -pregnant. Disgraced by the Chinese community, and with no where else to go, Ma moves in with her daughter, making it difficult for Wil to nurture a budding relationship with gorgeous dance Vivian (Lynn Chen). As her carefully compartmentalised worlds collide, Wil is forced to find her mother a husband, placate her girlfriend, and choose between breaking a cycle of keeping up appearances, or risk losing the girl she loves.

SAVING FACE is a romantic comedy about a daughter struggling to understand her mother's heart, which ultimately allows her to understand her own. It is the story of unspoken loves, contemporary and cultural taboos, and the journey of two women towards living their lives honestly.

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