Tonight one of my cinema chat groups is going to talk about the Alice Wu film Saving Face (2004). It was her first film and received a lot of critical acclaim for a small independent feature. It was the first Hollywood movie centered on Chinese-Americans since The Joy Luck Club--amazing. Much of the story is drawn from Wu's own experience of coming out to her mother (who rejected her at first but came to a reconciliation after some years of estrangement).It's a sweet rom-com, with dialogue in both Mandarin and English, and a great New York setting in Flushing.
In the film, the main character, a doctor named Wil, finds herself living with her mother, a widow who has gotten pregnant at 48 and who refuses to tell anyone who the father is. (I have to say that the idea of having a baby at 48 made me tired. I was late enough having mine at 37!) Wil is also beginning a relationship with Vivian, a dancer who is part of her extended Chinese community. Wil is not out to her family and we see how Vivian is impatient with her for not being open. But when Wil finally tells her mother she's gay (although her mother already had reason to know) her mother responds by saying "I'm not a bad mother. My daughter is not gay." The denial is devastating. Everyone's experience of coming out is unique, and the stakes are high if you might lose your primary family connection. I was a little impatient with Vivian's lack of empathy although I understood her feelings.
I did like how the trope of rushing to the airport to stop the loved one from leaving is a failure. You can't just stop an airport. But there is a happy ending for both the mother (whose lover turns out to be a much younger very handsome man) and for Wil and Vivian.
Posts
