Saving Face
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Saving Face | |
|---|---|
 Saving Face film poster |
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| Directed by | Alice Wu |
| Produced by | Will Smith James Lassiter Teddy Zee |
| Written by | Alice Wu |
| Starring | Michelle Krusiec Joan Chen Lynn Chen |
| Music by | Anton Sanko |
| Cinematography | Harlan Bosmajian |
| Editing by | Susan Graef Sabine Hoffmann |
| Distributed by | Sony Pictures Classics |
| Release date(s) | September 12, 2004 |
| Running time | 91 minutes |
| Country |  United States |
| Language | English, Mandarin, Shanghainese |
| Official website | |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Saving Face is a 2004 American romantic comedy drama film directed by Alice Wu. The film focuses on Wilhemina, a young Chinese-American surgeon; her unwed, pregnant mother; and her dancer girlfriend.
The name itself is a reference to the pan-East Asian social concept of face.
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[edit] Plot
Saving Face follows Wilhemina, a young Chinese-American surgeon as she deals with her unwed mother's pregnancy, and the obligations of her dancer girlfriend Vivian. Wil struggles with allocating time between her mother, who is shunned by the Chinese-American community for being pregnant and unwed and thus has come to live with Wil, and her girlfriend, Vivian, whom she presents to her mother as only a friend. At the same time, Wil's mother must decide whether the demands of her father's reputations, or the demands of her own heart, are more important. Wil's mother soon realizes that she must marry a man named Cho to regain her father's "face" and not be an embarrassment. Wil then finds out that her mother is in love with someone else and rushes to break up her wedding. At the same time Wil loses Vivian because she is afraid of going public so Vivian leaves for Paris. After three months, Vivian's and Wil's mothers reunite the two at a party and they end up kissing in front of everyone in the center of the dance floor.
[edit] Background
Alice Wu, who directed the movie, wrote the script several years earlier, drawing on her own experiences "coming out."[1] In 2001, the script won the CAPE screenwriting award, which led to the production of the film.
Featuring the New York Chinese-American community, the film is in a mixture of Mandarin Chinese and English.
- Tagline: It is never too late to fall in love for the first time.
A romantic comedy about right, wrong and everything in between.
[edit] Cast
- Michelle Krusiec — Wilhelmina Pang
- Lynn Chen — Vivian Shing
- Joan Chen — Ma
- Li Zhiyu — Wai Gung (grandfather)
- Shen Guanglan — Wai Po (grandmother)
- Jessica Hecht — Randi
- Ato Essandoh — Jay
- David Shih — Norman
- Brian Yang — Little Yu
- David Shih — Norman
- Nathaniel Geng — Stimson Cho
- Mao Zhao — Old Yu
[edit] External links
- Official site
- Saving Face at the Internet Movie Database
- Saving Face Blog
- AfterEllen.com Interview with Michelle Krusiec and Lynn Chen
- Saving Face at Rotten Tomatoes
[edit] References
- ^ Johnson, G. Allen. "Alice Wu saved up her own doubts and struggles and turned them into the new comedy 'Saving Face'", San Francisco Chronicle, June 6, 2005. (English)
