you are viewing a single comment's thread.

view the rest of the comments →

[–]begonia_skies 7 insightful - 2 fun7 insightful - 1 fun8 insightful - 2 fun -  (5 children)

Cute and sweet film. I loved it back in the day when it was released, I was in college and recently came to terms with being a lesbian, so movies like this one were really my "gay friends" since I didn't actually have any real ones, lol. I think the side plot with her mother really added depth to the storyline outside of the meet cute, get together, tension rising miscommunication/climax, and then the resolve. I loved that this was directed by an Asian-American woman and focused on the Asian-American community in NYC because lord knows their stories so rarely get told in film. I remember being really excited about this director and wanted to see more from her. Turns out it would be nearly 15 years before I would see another release from her, The Half of It, which I didn't love, but won't digress into that here, ha!

[–]BonesReds 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

Agreed about everything. I was really excited about seeing her new film too but I just couldn't enjoy it that much. It might be because I'm not a teenager anymore so it's harder to relate to those kinds of stories? Or it could be because they involve a man in it for little reason imo. Either way, Saving Face was excellent, especially for her first screenplay.

[–]begonia_skies 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

Yeah, that definitely may be why I also did not really get that into The Half of It. I think, for me, there were some storyline choices that I just couldn't get behind and I felt the script overall was pretty weak. Also did not understand the choice to spend so much time "teaching" the male character how to be a person and have a conversation, WHY do women always have to fill this role, even in a "lesbian" movie we are resigned to spending copious amounts of time helping men grow, bleh. Okay, I'll stop derailing this forum on Alice Wu's Netflix film, lol.

[–]Innisfree 4 insightful - 3 fun4 insightful - 2 fun5 insightful - 3 fun -  (2 children)

Nah nah nah, let's keep on derailing it :D I can hear the sirens, but only from a distance.

You make great points!

"teaching" the male character how to be a person and have a conversation, WHY do women always have to fill this role

I recently had an epiphany related to this. My favorite fairy tale as a kid was Beauty and the Beast and only now I got some of its message (better late than never, lol).

I think it's an allegory of the woman's prescribed role in the marriage. She is supposed to civilize her husband, make his life more beautiful and less beastly, if you will. The same idea was expressed by the Greek philosophers, and way before them I'm sure. So we are right to be miffed.

[–]begonia_skies 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Yes! Beauty and the Beast was originally written during a time when arranged marriage was common in France and their suitors may have appeared "beastly" to young women. The author wrote Beauty and the Beast to convey the message that with some love and kindness, even the most beastly of men can turn into a beautiful prince, which of course is not how that works at all. Hollywood has really run the nonsensical idea that "good women" can change "bad boys" into the ground, and if you really pull back the onion it's a really dangerous message to send because a lot of the "bad boys" express a lot of controlling and abusive behavioral patterns.

[–]Innisfree 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Ha! Love it when we can trace these connections between different time periods and how ideas change through them or not :)

Well put - Hollywood's model seems good for running things into the ground, including the bad boy myth.

I'll pop out and read about that author of Beauty and the Beast, she sounds like an interesting character. Cheers! :)

Edit: just a second thank you - found an article expounding on what you said, for those interested. The sheer amount of messages to girls on what will happen if they disobey arranged marriages and the like, is shocking. There's also an insightful parallel that can be drawn between the myths of Cupid and Psyche (one of the older iterations of Beauty and the Beast) and Orpheus and Eurydice.