iwatch: Saving Face (2004) Directed and written...

Saving Face (2004)

Directed and written by Alice Wu. Starring Michelle Krusiec, Joan Chen and Lynn Chen.

From IMDb:

A Chinese-American lesbian and her traditionalist mother are reluctant to go public with secret loves that clash against cultural expectations.

The film is funny, interesting, intelligent and deals with important issues such as culture and traditions. As in an article I recently read about Pariah, “not all lesbians in movies are white, rich or middle-class”, and this film exemplifies the point with a cute and smart storyline. I highly recommend it.

While reading about the director/writer and the main actresses, I learned two of them (the main couple, actually) are of Taiwanese ancestry, and I felt a little ignorant because the whole “Taiwanese issue” was something kind of unknown to me. That’s something else I love about films: how they leave some people in the audience with curiosity about its background.

And tell me about the women of the film. Starting with Alice Wu, director and writer, she’s Chinese American, graduated from Stanford University with a BA in Computer Science, worked for Microsoft, but left to pursue a filmmaking career. Then Michelle Krusiec, who plays Will, an American actress of Taiwanse ancestry raised by adoptive parents: her Taiwanese aunt and Polish-American uncle (hence her Polish last name). Lynn Chen Taiwanese American actress, too. And last but not least, Joan Chen, she’s a Chinese actress, director, screenwriter and producer, really known in China apparently. If you can read a little bit more about them, do it, they seem like really cool women.

One of my favorite lesbian films.