Joan Chen shows us her sense of humour in US Director Alice Wu's love letter to her mother in the guise of her debut feature SAVING FACE.
World Premiere: Toronto International Film Festival 2004
Year of DVD release: 2005
Country of Production: USA
Distribution: Sony Pictures Classics
Number of discs: 1
Language: English, Mandarin
Subtitles: English, French
The sweetheart of the Sundance Film Festival 2005, SAVING FACE is the second Asian-American film backed by a major studio during its production. The first was Wayne Wangs THE JOY LUCK CLUB back in 1992.
Wilemina Pang (Michelle Krusiec), doesn't talk about her love life with her mother (Joan Chen). But when she falls for sexy ballerina Vivian (Lynn Chen), her mother unexpectedly moves in after being ousted from the house by her grandfather when they find out she's pregnant.
Things tend to go awry from this point on ...
Refusing to release the identity of the baby's father, Ma (J. Chen) decides to find a suitable father for the unborn child. Wil, on the other hand, has trouble being outwardly expressive of her affection to Vivian. The leers from the tight knit community are too much for her to handle and she certainly can't talk about this to Ma who doesn't even want to acknowledge her daughter is a lesbian.
It's a charming and very sweet film that enjoys a rather full DVD release with Commentaries, Deleted scenes with optional commentaries, Behind the Scenes featurette and the Sundance Diary of their US premiere.
Watching the special features you get a sense that Director Alice Wu is genuinely bemused by the fact that her work speaks to so many people.
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