Thanks for writing this piece! Although, everything I'm seeing about the movie indicates that the boy and his family are Taiwanese-American? The director certainly is.
Sounds great! Sorry to be fussy, but my mother would always get annoyed if I didn't correct anyone who thought we were Chinese, so now it's an ingrained habit. 🙂
the whole 'you're cute for an asian' thing by the love interest is so false and forced. never heard those words from any girl genuinely interested in me, ever. I haven't heard those words myself, but from the others that claim they do, it is usually some rando girl who probably never had a real discussion with an Asian man before, or some girl at a bar, having it come from the mouth of a love interest with alleged 'yellow fever' is such a condescending play into a stereotype, and comes across as a poor attempt at trying to make some commentary on amwf being an other side of the same coin equivalent to wmaf, pretending as though one side has not demonstrated ridiculously more malicious behavior than the other. Oh, spare me, in white/black woman fiction with romanticized asian men you never hear this sentiment being expressed, this, 'oh but he's quite handsome for an asian', no, on the contrary your Rachel Blooms and Issa Raes through their scenarios and dialogues will hold an Asian men in higher regard than he would of his own self. Wang is just another grifter posing as an artist, trying to show his worth as a socially conscience thinker by playing into the sadsack 'oh white women finally like us now! finally! oh but are they so much better than the white male orientalists!' Give me a fucking break. Koganoda is still the only Asian American filmmaker worth discussing seriously.
Saw this film last night and had a similar reaction.
What's particularly good about the narrative is how it consciously avoids tropes and embraces the moral complexity of the protagonist. There's no restorative connection with his love interest (as one would expect in the genre); he doesn't achieve self-actualization through filmmaking (as one would expect); he grapples with intense racialized shame but isn't in a hyper-racist environment (relative to, say, Cold War era America).
When so much of *any* cinema comes down to reiterating tropes, the narrative beats continuously surprised me and I found the film immensely refreshing in that regard.
Chris I haven’t even read the piece yet but this headline is so good
Hopefully the body lives up to it
Thanks for writing this piece! Although, everything I'm seeing about the movie indicates that the boy and his family are Taiwanese-American? The director certainly is.
You’re right! Will fix if Substack lets me edit in mobile (I’m traveling for the next little while).
Sounds great! Sorry to be fussy, but my mother would always get annoyed if I didn't correct anyone who thought we were Chinese, so now it's an ingrained habit. 🙂
the whole 'you're cute for an asian' thing by the love interest is so false and forced. never heard those words from any girl genuinely interested in me, ever. I haven't heard those words myself, but from the others that claim they do, it is usually some rando girl who probably never had a real discussion with an Asian man before, or some girl at a bar, having it come from the mouth of a love interest with alleged 'yellow fever' is such a condescending play into a stereotype, and comes across as a poor attempt at trying to make some commentary on amwf being an other side of the same coin equivalent to wmaf, pretending as though one side has not demonstrated ridiculously more malicious behavior than the other. Oh, spare me, in white/black woman fiction with romanticized asian men you never hear this sentiment being expressed, this, 'oh but he's quite handsome for an asian', no, on the contrary your Rachel Blooms and Issa Raes through their scenarios and dialogues will hold an Asian men in higher regard than he would of his own self. Wang is just another grifter posing as an artist, trying to show his worth as a socially conscience thinker by playing into the sadsack 'oh white women finally like us now! finally! oh but are they so much better than the white male orientalists!' Give me a fucking break. Koganoda is still the only Asian American filmmaker worth discussing seriously.
Saw this film last night and had a similar reaction.
What's particularly good about the narrative is how it consciously avoids tropes and embraces the moral complexity of the protagonist. There's no restorative connection with his love interest (as one would expect in the genre); he doesn't achieve self-actualization through filmmaking (as one would expect); he grapples with intense racialized shame but isn't in a hyper-racist environment (relative to, say, Cold War era America).
When so much of *any* cinema comes down to reiterating tropes, the narrative beats continuously surprised me and I found the film immensely refreshing in that regard.