If you want to make me retch a little, just mention an ensemble movie about the archetypal Asian American family. There seems to be a whole industry devoted to milling out stories about reunions between estranged siblings, clashing with parental expectations, coming to terms with alternative lifestyles, and reconciling with x cultural heritage. In the end, they come together as a family, accept each other for who they are, and learn a little something about themselves. fkllllllllllllllllllllljjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjkkkkk

Sorry, my head hit the keyboard for a second. Maybe I’m being too harsh. This is powerful stuff… or it was like a decade ago, before “Better Luck Tomorrow” had, for whatever its faults, shown us that the time had finally come to tell stories that don’t coyly implode into awkward self-consciousness about the Asian American experience. Movies like these just seem quaint and desperate somehow, for some kind of reassurance that a) a lot of people have had similar experiences, and b) that Asians are just as American (or Asian) as anybody else. Which is fine, but it’s old news, man.

That being said, this is a fun movie to yell, and throw popcorn, at. The Bai Ling subplot left an opening for a sequel; hopefully we’ll learn the fate of the turkey baster.

Last Modified : May 15th, 2009 Filed under : LAAPFF 2009 (25th Anniversary), Movies Navigate : Previous post / Next post