All American Girl vs. Fresh Off the Boat

All American Girl is a sitcom that came out in the 90's which stars an Asian American cast. Margaret Cho stars as an Asian American character named Margaret Kim. All-American Girl highlights the life of Margaret, a progressive twenty-three year old Korean American woman living with her conservative and traditional family. I watched the first episode and it brought up the the culture of the family right away and the traditions that they have. Margaret wants to date this American boy named Kyle but her mother doesn't approve because he isn't Korean. Margaret is tired of her mother always trying to set her up with Korean boys who are smart and successful. She goes on a date with Kyle and then reveals to her mother that she loves him and will be moving in with him. Even though she knows deep down that she doesn't truly love him, she is saying this to scare her mother. She wants to be able to make her own decisions without her mom going against her all the time. 

The show got mixed reviews at the time. The show could be improved especially when the actors try to speak with a Korean accent; it didn't seem natural. Some of the cultural references in the show are confusing as well. Despite this, it's great that a show like this was even on the air because it revolves around an Asian American family. Much of the criticism surrounding the show seems to be coming from people who feel All American Girl doesn’t match their vision of what a Korean or Asian American show is. This is only one program that cannot have all the things that people want. 

Twenty years later, the ABC network  ordered a pilot for a new sitcom named Fresh Off The Boat. It is based on comedian Eddie Huang’s autobiographical book by the same name. The sitcom focuses on Huang’s childhood moving from a racially diverse neighbourhood in Washington DC to a predominantly white neighbourhood in Orlando, and the culture shock that occurs there. Years after All-American Girl, a show like Fresh Off The Boat as well as other sitcoms of its kind are long overdue. There are only a handful of television shows and sitcoms that star Asian Americans and as Chang wrote, each show must“be all things to all people” which is an impossible task. When Fresh Off The Boat was on the air it broke the trend of having only one or two Asian American sitcoms on TV at a time. This is the first step to creating a genre of Asian American primetime cinema in which each show has the freedom to speak to of the Asian American experience, and not depend on any single show to speak for our community in its entirety. I enjoyed the two Fresh Off the Boat episodes that I watched. The characters are bold and the pacing is snappy. It's a sitcom so it's not without its corny sitcom trappings and maybe half of the jokes really worked for me. But it seems worth making the time for. It has promise and the show has some quality actors.

Falling For Grace

Falling for Grace is a romantic comedy directed by Asian American director Fay Ann Lee in 2007. The film first appeared at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2006 as the original title East Broadway. Fay Ann Lee also plays the role of the lead female in the film Grace Tang. She had this vision as a director to make the first successful mainstream romantic comedy with an Asian woman leading the mix. In doing so, the film doesn't bring up any race issues. If anything, it's a classic story about an educated, hard-working woman from lower middle-class parents who still yearns for social acceptance among the Upper East Side elite.

Grace Tang is a successful investment banker who was raised in Chinatown. She dreams of living among the social elites in New York City. One day she is accidentally mistaken for an heiress from Hong Kong, also named Grace Tang. She is invited to a party where she falls in love with a lawyer named Andrew James Barrington, Jr who is dating committee-member Kay Douglas. Grace hides her true identity from him, but he also has a few secrets he keeps from her. 

Grace and Andrew begin to see more of each other, but her families interests become a conflict. Andrew happens to be the son of a prominent attorney who works in the NY State Attorney General's office in Manhattan. He has been pursuing a case against a network of Chinatown sweatshops, which happens to be the one Grace's mother works. Grace ends up lying saying that her parents are an old couple whom she visits as a volunteer and she eventually finds herself in the middle not knowing what to do. Her brother Ming ends up telling the truth to Andrew and he leaves the romance, which Kay is unaware of. The film concludes when Andrew leaves Kay to move to Hong Kong, where Grace has a new position with her company.

Falling For Grace is a delightful film that is fun to watch. It’s an entertaining alternative to a $100 million movie that stinks and draws so much attention. What I love about it, is that it has two main characters who fall in love, the female is Asian and the male is a white man. In my opinion, this is a cute mother daughter film but can also appeal to a broader audience. 

Better Luck Tomorrow

Better Luck Tomorrow is a film directed by Justin Lin in 2002. A boy named Ben is an overachiever but is part of a group of other boys who get into mischief. Ben is the stereotypical "model minority" Asian American — an intelligent, hard-working high school freshman, confident that he will get into an Ivy League college. Daric is the savvy senior valedictorian who gets Ben and his friends Virgil and Han to start selling cheat sheets. This "business" spirals into scams at stores, stealing a new shipment of computers from the school, and eventually into selling drugs. Between working at a fast-food restaurant and volunteering at the local hospital, Ben discovers that kids who are smart enough can get away with anything. Throughout the film, their lives consist of a mix of drugs, sex, violence, and Academic Decathlon tournaments. Ben and his suburban gang challenge the stereotypes of youth, Asian Americans, and suburban life. 

Ben falls for this girl named Stephanie in his class, and he wants to win her over but she is dating this jerk named Steve whom could care less about her. Even though Ben excels over everything else, the film makes it seem like Ben has never been in a true relationship before. For half of the film, Ben is in fact a virgin. When he loses his virginity to a prostitute, he becomes more confident in himself because he finally did it and he enjoyed it. Stephanie and Ben are good friends but he never takes advantage of her and he respects that she has a boyfriend even though he knows Steve is no good for her. Ben even accepts Steve’s request to bring Stephanie to the formal. Ben ends up getting into trouble the more he hangs out with his group. At the end of the film they end up murdering Steve and burying him in the backyard. He never tells Stephanie what happens and she seemed to care less that Steve has not returned her calls, so at the end of the film she drives away with Ben not knowing where Steve is. She seems more content with Ben. 

According to director Lin, ”The theme of Better Luck Tomorrow is identity. You have to develop your identity, whatever you're trying to grow into. If you adopt an identity and don't have the patience to grow into it, the identity can overtake you.” I watched this film twice because I was really impressed and loved it so much. The story was different than anything else I’ve seen especially amongst the Asian culture. Yes there were some stereotypes in the film of Ben being an overachiever and being really smart, but there were other aspects of the film that were more important. The fact that this group seemed to be like the “asian mafia” surprised me. I hated Steve’s character and I didn’t think they would do anything about it but they did and I loved that choice from the director and writers to kill off that character. 

The Joy Luck Club (1993)

The Joy Luck Club is based on the book by Amy Tan with the same name. The story is about four Chinese immigrant mothers and the relationships that they have with their daughters June, Waverly, Lena, and Rose. The mothers, Su Yuan, Lindo, Ying Ying, and An-Mei were all born and raised in China. Once a week they get together and play mahjong and drink tea in hopes to be lucky in their lives. The movie starts off where one of the mothers, Su Yuan, passed away. Her story is told by her daughter June. Various flashbacks occur in the film to give us an idea of the other women. When Su Yuan was in China when the Japanese invaded China, she got married and had twin baby girls with another man. She was forced to evacuate but she gets distracted and worries that if she dies, it will bring bad luck on her babies and they won't be rescued. She ends up leaving them on the side of the road with a note that asks the person that finds them to contact their father. Eventually, she winds up in America and remarries, and has her daughter June. Su Yuan has June play the piano in hopes that she has a gift and will be a child star. However, June doesn't want to do that. June doesn't really understand her mother at all. 

Lindo was given away by her mother when she was sixteen because of an arranged marriage to a boy who was sixteen as well. After problems with her husband and her marriage she escapes to America, remarries, has a daughter, Waverly, and becomes Su Yuan's best friend. The two women raise their children together, and Waverly and June grow up as rivals. Lindo makes Waverly into a chess champion, and has very high expectations for her. Waverly thinks her mom is using her for being a champion and draws attention to herself, so she quits chess and never plays again. Ying-ying grew up as the quiet one and suffered through an abusive relationship. In the film to get revenge, Ying-ying, drowns her own son. Her husband dies, and she goes to America with her new husband. They have a daughter, Lena, who grows up like her mother, quiet and unable to express herself. Lena has a husband who is financially stable but ends up divorcing him and meeting someone new. An-Mei's mother was raped and leaves An-Mei to be raised by her grandparents. An-Mei's mother commits suicide by eating opium before New Year's. When An-Mei moves to America, she marries and has a daughter, Rose. Rose marries a white man in spite of his racist mother. She is dependent on him and he makes all of the decisions in their relationship. However, he ends up losing interest in her and having an affair. Rose and he decide to split their property and custody of their daughter, until Rose learns to stand up for herself. All of these flashbacks occur during a farewell party for June, who will go to China to meet the lost twins, who are now grown women and want to meet their mother. However, they are unaware that their mother has died, so June must be the one to tell them. She goes to China and tells them that their mother has died, but that she came to take her mother's place. There are various themes in the film including: transformation, friendship, language and communication, family, women and femininity, and identity. 

What I liked about the film was that the entire cast was Asian American. There were very few white people in the film, despite the two husbands of Waverly and Rose. The Joy Luck Club has a talented cast whom are relatively unknown Asian-American women and it never loses sight of its plot and solid all the way through. It has a compelling story about love and family and moms and daughters. It came as a surprise as a viewer how emotional it is. Some terrible things happen in the film and you feel bad for the characters. What really got me was the scene when Ying-Ying drowns her son. You know deep down inside that she didn't want to do that. It was also hard to watch Su Yuan leave her twins on the side of the road.

Red Doors

Red Doors is about a family that have lost their emotional connections to each other. It deals with a  Chinese-American family where the parents and children cut off from each other and are struggling to reconnect. The title of the film symbolizes the doors of the family's home. In the Chinese culture, red doors are supposed to be lucky which makes this ironic because in the film the family is distant and unhappy. The story starts off with Ed Wong who has just retired and is planning to leave his wife and three grown daughters to get a sense of meaning in his life. His daughters are grown and no longer need him and he has grown old so his job doesn't need him either. Ed goes through depression and has attempted suicide numerous times but he always gets interrupted. 

The oldest daughter Samantha lives the American dream. She has a successful corporate job and is engaged to a prominent businessman, and they live in a beautiful house. When she reaches her 30th birthday she realizes how dissatisfied she is with her life. She seems to be on the wrong path. In the film she reconnects with her ex boyfriend from high school who is now a music teacher at the high school they went to. He reminds her of the dream she had to become a ballet dancer. At this point she is confused on whether she should continue to be successful but live an empty life, or take the fork in the road down the path not traveled. The middle daughter Julie has always been the shy and quiet one. She is in her 4th year of medical school, and takes ballroom dance lessons as her creative outlet. She is really focused on her work at the hospital and is too shy to make connections. She ends up meeting Mia Scarlett, who happens to be a famous actress. Julie is the only person who doesn't go crazy all over Mia, and when she helps Mia after the actress loses it watching a surgery they two become friends and then lovers. Mia tries to protect Julie from the media because she has to maintain her wild girl reputation who has a lot of lovers. She and Julie clash over the way Mia presents herself and Mia hides her relationship with Julie which she doesn't like. Kathy is the youngest daughter who is a senior in high school who is a hip hop dancer. She is rebellious and participates in a game of prank warfare with her crush Simon, her next door neighbor and sworn enemy. They are attracted to each other and instead of communicating their feelings, they engage in these pranks towards one another that get dangerous. Kathy, believes that her family doesn't care what she is doing because she is a hip hop dancer. 

The film moves us gracefully along through the story as each daughter faces their fears and issues. Sam tracks her father down at the upstate New York Buddhist monastery where he has been. Each of the Wongs will find their way, but how they get there, and the paths they take, are what makes Red Doors funny, warm and engaging. You don't have to be Asian-American to appreciate this film because it could be your family, or the family of anyone you know and that's what makes the film appealing to watch .The Wongs may be Chinese-American, but their problems are not, and that gives the Red Doors a universal appeal. 

The World of Suzie Wong

The World of Suzie Wong was directed by Richard Quine in 1960. It starts off with character Robert Lomax whom is tired of working in an office and wants to be an artist. He decides to move to Hong Kong to try his hand at painting. Robert Lomax played by William Holden is a struggling American artist, who moves to Hong Kong to learn if he can really paint. He meets Mee Ling played by the beautiful Nancy Kwan, a tycoon's daughter on Hong Kong's Star Ferry. After departing and never expecting to find each other again, Robert checks into a cheap and local Wan Chai hotel. He learns that the hotel is actually a brothel, and Mee Ling is actually Suzie Wong, the most popular prostitute in the place. This classes "East-meets-West" romance made Nancy Kwan an international star. Refusing to accept Suzie because of her way of life, and surrounded by the prejudice of the local British colonials, he hires her to model for him and they end up falling in love. Because he is on a limited budget and wants her just for himself he doesn’t want to share her. He then meets Kay O’Neil, a respectable banker's daughter who begins to have feelings for him. Ben, a besotted British businessman separated from his wife, takes an interest in Suzie. In the film, Robert’s relationship with Suzie starts off as an artistic one, then becomes a friendship, then anger and hidden jealousy and internal conflict are involved, then passionate love, and finally he accepts her for who she is. In the process, Suzie transforms him and is transformed by him. When the monsoon rains come to Hong Kong, they are finally united. 

The film captures the colorful busy streets of Hong Kong, before it became the gleaming commercial capital that it is today. The film also made the cheongsam popular which is a high-collared form-fitting Chinese silk dress which afterwards became known as the Suzie Wong dress in America. William Holden’s charisma as the leading man shows real chemistry with Nancy Kwan. The supporting cast were also great with their performances. However, Nancy Kwan's wonderful portrayal of Suzie Wong which is her  first screen role really makes this film. The film combines genuine sex appeal with girlish innocence and courage in the face of adversity. Nancy Kwan’s performance was a success and she was awarded a Golden Globe. Watching the film, I really appreciated Nancy’s performance and her beautiful presence drove the film. Also, her and William Holden had great chemistry and that’s important when it comes to a love story on the big screen.

Sayonara (1957)

“Sayonara” was based on a novel by James Michener. It is about an Air Force pilot, Lloyd 'Ace' Gruvin played by Marlon Brando, and one of his friends, Airman Kelly played by Red Buttons, who get transferred to Japan after the Korean War. Kelly is excited about the move because he's getting married to a Japanese girl .The military don’t like that their men are getting involved with Japanese women but Kelly doesn't care. Ace agrees to be his best man. Ace is engaged to a General's daughter who meets him in Japan, but after a fight the engagement and the relationship is over. 

After seeing a show Ace falls in love with a Japanese actress, Hanah, who resists him at first, but eventually grows to love him too. Because it’s not allowed by the military or the Japanese officials to be with one another, they're forced to sneak around.  Ace informs his fiancé and her family that he plans to ask Hanah to marry him. Trying to intervene, the military transfers Ace. Kelly is also transferred to end his marriage. Unwilling to be separated, Kelly and his wife commit suicide. On a layover in Tokyo, Ace meets up with Hanah, who's show is traveling through. Forgetting about the the military's feelings, Ace asks Hanah to marry him and she says yes.

Sayonara has everything you could hope for in a love story which includes excellent performances, passionate love scenes, drama, desperation, conflict, and heartbreaking tragedy. I also loved the beautiful scenery in the film and it has a good soundtrack. It is captivating to watch as an audience member as well because of the beautiful men and women cast in the film. The film is directed by Joshua Logan in 1957 and it won 4 oscars including best actor in a supporting role:Red Buttons, best actress in a supporting role: Miyoshi Umeki, best art direction and best sound. Miyoshi Umeki’s Academy Award win made her the first asian actor to win an Oscar. Marlon Brando is one of my favorite actors and I love that they chose him for the role. If it was me I would have given him the Oscar for best actor. "Sayonara" is a worthwhile film to see. It offers a glimpse into the American forces that occupied Japan in the years following WW2. It also offers a compelling story about people connecting across cultures and it gives a taste of what life may be like on the other side of the world.