By Ada Tseng and Brian Hu
2006 was a momentous year for Asian American cinema. Quality met quantity as a batch of first-timers like Georgia Lee, Julia Kwan, and Richard Wong broke onto the scene and made the various Asian American film festivals hotbeds of activity and hope. Here at Asia Pacific Arts, we celebrated the fact that Asian American cinema could finally have its own top 10 list without making any compromises.
Though there was plenty to admire at 2007's SF International Asian American Film Festival, LA's VC Filmfest, and New York's Asian American International Film Festival, that sense of momentum felt halted, if not missing altogether. Films by first-timers felt like exactly that. Very few shook the scene like a Colma: the Musical, a Journey from the Fall, or a Conventioneers.
A feeling of dread overwhelmed us when it came down to compile a top 10 list. We didn't want to include not-so-great films just to flesh out the list. At the same time, we didn't want to revert to our old habit of combining Asian and Asian American films on the same top 10 list -- a truly ridiculous, unfair, and meaningless task. But when we started jotting down titles, we were surprised by how effortless it was to name great Asian American films in 2007. In fact, our shortlist of films easily surpassed last year's, and we've even made a second list of "notable Asian American films" just to include all of the year's momentous screen events.
Our initial dread came because we were looking in all the wrong places. If 2006 was the year in which the Asian American film festival birthed and groomed a new batch of talent, 2007 was the year in which Asian American cinema flourished in many other corners of world cinema (and TV). Our list includes a neo-realist film about Rwanda, a zombie film, a documentary about the atomic bomb, reflections on Vietnamese and Cambodian experiences, and a documentary comparing a kleptomaniac, a gay evangelist, a terrorist, and an obsessed martial arts student. Only four of our ten can be called traditional "Asian American films" -- and one of those, Finishing the Game, takes the "Asian American film" in such unforeseen directions that it makes such categories meaningless.
If 2006 was a year for the freshmen, then 2007 was a year for the veterans. Past Oscar winners and nominees like Jessica Yu, Mira Nair, Arthur Dong, and Steven Okazaki made triumphant returns, as did Gregg Araki (see our notables list) and Ang Lee (whose Lust, Caution we're not counting as "Asian American" but who we should highlight here regardless).
Though our 2007 list doesn't follow in the momentum set by the class of 2006, the fact that this year's films are stronger and more diverse than last year's is a testament to the strides taken by Asian American cinema outside of the usual Asian American circuit.
1. Munyurangabo
dir: Lee Isaac Chung
Perhaps Munyurangabo is not really an "Asian American" film, in the traditional sense of the term (if one still stands), but we're going to claim it anyway. Writer, director, producer, editor, and cinematographer Lee Isaac Chung's moving debut doesn't exactly follow any linear form, which is effective in keeping with the subject matter: the journey of two friends in the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide. The filmmaker strikes a crucial balance between immersion (using the Kinyarwanda language, encouraging actor Jeff Rutagengwa and Eric Ndorunkundiye to improvise and add personal stories) and restraint (allowing the camera to quietly observe as an outsider). As a result, the direct testimonies into the camera, the growing tensions between friends and the unfolding of familial trauma are intimate, powerful and unforced -- like poetry. In fact, in a climactic scene, the rules of filmic narrative are thrown out the window as Edouard B. Uwayo delivers a ten-minute poem, holding the viewer's gaze with his, capturing the complex emotional and physical turmoil of Rwanda in a way we've never seen before onscreen.
2. Owl and the Sparrow
dir: Stephane Gauger
Of all the films on this list, Owl and the Sparrow had an unparalleled year in 2007's film festival circuit. An unexpected gem of a film about an orphan, zookeeper, and flight attendant, Owl and the Sparrow won over audiences with its humanity, its quiet humor, and a scene-stealing performance by Pham Thi Han (who we dare you not to fall in love with), picking up numerous accolades along the way. The Los Angeles Film Festival Audience Award, a Jury prize here, a Breakthrough Director nomination there. It was a film that was hard not to like. Director Stephane Gauger captures the excitement and frenzy of the streets of Saigon and juxtaposes it with a very delicate, simple story of three lonely strangers who reach out to each other at the right moment. To randomly quote another classic portrayal of an achingly sensitive heroine: "Sometimes someone says something really small, and it just fits into this empty place in your heart."
3. Hollywood Chinese
dir: Arthur Dong
Hollywood Chinese's greatest accomplishment is this: it investigates a familiar problem without succumbing to the temptation to whine. How easy it is to level the usual complaints. Hollywood is racist. It depicts Chinese men as effeminate and Chinese women as hyper-sexual. The ghosts of Charlie Chan and Mickey Rooney are summoned for the ritual reading of grievances. But Arthur Dong is smart enough to realize that there are countless contradictions within the history of the Chinese in Hollywood, because: 1) there are complex issues of labor and agency, 2) the Chinese American audience is itself heterogeneous, and 3) the history of the Chinese in Hollywood does not begin and end with the obvious stereotypes, but with such pioneers as Marion Wong and Justin Lin who have far more on their minds than combating buck teeth, math nerds, and dragon ladies. An incredible segment juxtaposes Wayne Wang, Amy Tan, and Ang Lee on the issue of Chinese American progress. No clear answer emerges on what constitutes "progress," though if we're talking about how best to elevate the discourse, then Hollywood Chinese certainly counts.
4. New Year Baby
dir: Socheata Poeuv
New Year Baby is a first-person cinematic journey through filmmaker Socheata Poeuv's family history, her parents being survivors of the Khmer Rouge genocide. After learning some difficult truths that change Poeuv's perception of her family, she seeks to document the full story -- looking for answers to questions she didn't even know she had. The film follows her trip back to Cambodia, fulfilling personal goals -- meeting relatives for the first time, travelling around her parent's hometown, visiting the Thai refugee camp where she was born and the labor camp where her parents met -- as well as attempting to understand the painful history. Poeuv's story may only hit the tip of the iceberg of the trauma of the nation's individuals, but it creates a moving starting point to get the story out there and begin to heal.
5. White Light/Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
dir: Steven Okazaki
It's hard to go wrong with WWII documentaries about atomic bomb victims. As a result, it's also hard to do something fresh. Steven Okazaki's White Light/Black Rain does just that, not only because it's well-researched and well-constructed, but because Okazaki has a great feel for the interview. A seasoned documentarian, Okazaki collects testimony from Hiroshima and Nagasaki veterans who detail their lives before, during, and after nuclear weapons demolished their homes and families. However, the most harrowing moments aren't the vivid descriptions of the survivors, but the scenes when we hear testimony from the actual pilots who dropped the bombs, and when we see archival footage of an American television show called This is Your Life. The implications of these moments are truly disturbing, and they resonate today, as the U.S. continues to massacre in the name of liberation.
6. The Namesake
dir: Mira Nair
The Namesake not only showed mainstream American that Kal Penn has more range than Van Wilder: The Rise of Taj, but it successfully brought a celebrated novel by Jhumpa Lahiri to life -- a challenging task considering the high expectations coming from devotees of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book. If anyone could do it, it was accomplished director Mira Nair, who pays tribute to the sounds, architecture, and hustle-and-bustle energy of New York City and Calcutta. The story captures two generations of a contemporary Indian American family. With pitch-perfect performances by Tabu and Irrfan Khan as Ashima and Ashoke, The Namesake leaves viewers reveling in a poignant portrayal of family that feels both authentic and transformative.
7. Protagonist
dir: Jessica Yu
As a character study, Jessica Yu's Protagonist is mediocre. At 90 minutes, it can only go so far into the minds of four men. What makes it a riveting experience is that in juxtaposing the stories of four seemingly disparate personalities -- a German terrorist, a bank robber, a gay evangelist, a dorky martial artist -- the film surprisingly captures the rhythms and patterns of fate. Not the fate of "human nature" or "masculinity under distress" or some other trite universalizing abstraction, but "fate" in storytelling. Protagonist famously began as a commissioned work on the Greek playwright Euripides. Yu's bold response is a study in classical Western story structure. Obsession, fanaticism, self-destruction. As Protagonist unfolds, we see how these age-old themes emerge, how reality twists itself into narrative clichés, and how enjoyable it is to see them played out. Narrative studies has never felt so alive -- or quirky.
8. Never Forever
dir: Gina Kim
Director Gina Kim's followup to Invisible Light contains a provocative and honest performance by actress Vera Farmiga, who plays Sophie, the film's entrancing lead. In attempts to conceive a baby, a process halted by her otherwise-virale Korean American husband's low sperm count, Sophie entangles herself in a complicated alternative to traditional fertility treatments: a plan involving a Korean immigrant who bares a striking resemblance to her handsome high-powered spouse. Motherly self-sacrifice and sensual pleasure comingle, and the film explores Sophie's dilemma with depth and intensity -- while creating strong, unapologetically-eroticized Korean male characters that shatter the idea of "desexualized Asian men" we're used to seeing in popular media.
9. American Zombie
dir: Grace Lee
Asian American cinema is lucky to have somebody like Grace Lee who is unafraid to lampoon the tradition of self-pity so pervasive in documentaries about minorities. Here, Lee challenges us with an intriguing proposition: let's make an ethnographic documentary, but let's substitute "Asian Americans," "Muslims," "gays," or any other marginalized group with something so foreign as to be politically neutral. Say, zombies. The result is a refreshing look at both documentaries and zombie films, as well as evidence that Grace Lee isn't the one-joke wonder of her previous feature, The Grace Lee Project. And though zombies don't really tell us anything about the Asian American experience (only one of those groups threaten to eat our children, for example), they provide a healthy lesson for activists and minorities: if you want to be taken seriously, don't look like a fool. Although preying on live flesh helps.
10. Finishing the Game
dir: Justin Lin
We loved Tarrick Tyler, the Caucasian who thought he was Asian, and we loved Raja Moore, a doctor with a dream -- and an unkept promise. Then there's Breeze Loo, who always looks great, be it fighting Nazis or tanning up. And Cole Kim, an aspiring actor who lovably stumbles on the set of a Ron Jeremy porno, and then perhaps even more fatally, onto the set of a Bruceploitation film. Most of all, we loved Mac Chang and Mrs. Tyler, bit parts that finally allowed two uncommonly talented actors -- Brian Tee and Amy Hill -- to demonstrate dramatic skills beyond the ol' Asian accent. This odd-ball cast of racially, professionally, and morally diverse characters is allowed to shine because Justin Lin and his rag-tag team had the vision to take a great idea and run with it. No pretensions of importance or pressures of quality, just the insight to know when to have fun.
Ten Other Notable Asian American Films of the Year (in no particular order)
American Pastime (dir: Desmond Nakano)
American Pastime is essentially about a Japanese American family in the Topaz prison camp during World War II, but director Desmond Nakano integrates the political war narrative with an all-American story about baseball and first loves. Surprisingly not as cheesy as it could have been, the film was an easy crowd pleaser, picking up the Audience Award at the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival as well as the Comcast Audience Award (Narrative). In light of the Letters from Iwo Jima hype, Warner Brothers took it upon themselves to pair up the two World War II stories, giving American Pastime a brief theatrical run followed by a DVD release. With excellent performances by Masatoshi Nakama, Leonardo Nam, and Sarah Drew, American Pastime will likely be notable for showcasing the talents of newcomer Aaron Yoo, who had a busy year acting alongside Shia LeBeouf in Disturbia and has completed shooting the upcoming film 21, based on Ben Mezrich's best-selling novel Bringing Down the House: Six MIT students Who Took Vegas for Millions.
The Rebel (dir: Charlie Nguyen)
This Vietnamese wusha action film, written and directed by Charlie Nguyen, debuted at the Vietnamese International Film Festival in Irvine. Choreographed by leading man Johnny Tri Nguyen, The Rebel also stars Dustin Nguyen and Ngo Thanh Van, and they all impressively did their own high-flying stunts. The film was notably made in Vietnam in Vietnamese by Vietnamese Americans, and while the $1 million budget was high for Vietnamese film standards, it's considered shoestring for a martial arts film of that caliber. The Rebel was released in Vietnam in April where it was a big box office hit. In July, it was announced that The Weinstein Company had acquired the rights to the film and is planning to give it a US DVD release.
West 32nd (dir: Michael Kang)
West 32nd, the much anticipated sophomoric effort by Michael Kang (The Motel) was a production that linked Korea and Korean America. Co-writen by former Village Voice reporter Edmund Lee, the story follows John Kim (John Cho), an ambitious lawyer who unwittingly gets involved in the Korean underworld of Manhattan while working on the murder case. On trial is a teenager charged with gunning down the manager of a Korean "saloon room" club. Korean actor Jun Kim plays a Flushing gangster that Kim befriends, and Battlestar Galactica actress Grace Park plays the suspect's older sister. West 32nd is the first American production by CJ Entertainment, the biggest media conglomerate in Korea. The film world premiered at New York's Tribeca Film Festival in April and opened in Korea on twenty screens in November.
D-War (dir: Shim Hyung-rae)
For the first time, Korean American producers were behind biggest blockbuster pic in Korea. In 2007, D-War raked in over $55 million in South Korea, outgrossing even Hollywood heavyweights such as Transformers and Spiderman 3. When the film was released in America, it was renamed Dragon Wars, and it had a fairly remarkable US opening for an independent release, coming in at 4th place in its first weekend. The CGI production of dragons fighting was impressive, even if everything else -- including the storyline about Ethan (Jason Behr) being the reincarnated spirit of Haram, a Korean warrior-apprentice from 500 years ago -- was universally considered to be mediocre.
Dark Matter (dir: Chen Shi-Zheng)
Dark Matter first gained attention at Sundance where it won the Alfred P. Sloan Prize, given to films that deal with science or technology. Liu Ye plays a young Chinese physicist, Liu Xing, who comes to the US to study cosmology. Obsessed with the concept of dark matter, Xing comes to the US with high hopes but finds himself unsupported by his mentor, a famous cosmologist (played by Aidan Quinn) who finds Xing's ideas threatening to his own research. Disillusiond and defeated, he loses his passion, resulting in disastrous consequences. Loosely based on the story of Gang Lu, the film also stars the legendary Meryl Streep. With such a prominent cast, the film seemed a likely choice to be given a theatrical release but was perhaps placed on the backburner, too sensitive to be shown during the aftermath of the Virginia Tech shooting. But in July, it was screened at New York's Asian American International Film Festival where it picked up the Best Narrative Feature Award. Filmed by opera director Chen Shi-zheng, Dark Matter was produced by Janet Yang, the newly appointed President and COO of American Sterling Productions.
The Blood of Yingzhou District (dir: Ruby Yang)
This documentary follows orphans with AIDS in China, and won the Oscar for Documentary Short Subject in 2007.
Smiley Face (dir: Gregg Araki)
The soon-to-be-cult stoner flick from the director who brought us Mysterious Skin not only takes us on a mind-blowing joyride but also creates a memorable female protagonist for the stoner comedy genre, with the help of the one-of-a-kind Anna Faris.
Shanghai Kiss (dir: Kern Konwiser and David Ren)
Playing at a few film festivals this year, Shanghai Kiss received a DVD release in October, perhaps riding on the coattails of Hayden Panettiere's massive success on Heroes -- which would explain why she's displayed so prominently on the cover. The story actually centers around Liam Liu (played by Ken Leung), a Chinese American actor living in Los Angeles who is called to China when he inherits his grandmother's house in Shanghai. The film is an exploration of the cultural constructs of Chineseness, and through the character of Liu, a young man estranged from his father and generally unconcerned about his heritage, it dares to ask how any of it is really relevant.
A Thousand Years of Good Prayers (dir: Wayne Wang)
At the San Sebastian festival in September, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, based on a YiYun Li short story of the same name, won the Golden Shell prize for Best Picture as well as winning Best Actor for Henry O. Vetaran actor Henry O plays a widower from Beijing named Mr. Shi who travels to the US to visit his daughter he hasn't seen in 12 years. Director Wayne Wang (Joy Luck Club) had recently been making Hollywood pictures such as Maid in Manhattan and Last Holiday, so A Thousand Years of Good Prayers was his anticipated return to Asian/Asian American cinema. This film, along with another indie film he directed, Princess of Nebraska (based on a second YiYun Li story), played together at the AFI Film Festival this year as a Wayne Wang double feature.
Undoing (dir: Chris Chan Lee)
Also on our 2006 lists, this Koreatown crime drama starring Sung Kang, Russell Wong and Kelly Hu got a limited release in New York City's Pioneer Theatre in December of 2007.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Best of 2007:
Asian Film
Asian American Film
Performers
Cringe-worthy Moments
Behind the Scenes
Music
Wordsmiths
Film Venues in CA
YouTube clips
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~