Arts
Pride and Secrets
Pride and Secrets
by Peggy Luhrs
Saving
Face |
I
guess each ethnic group will need to tell its own version of the coming
out story, and Saving Face is basically the Chinese version.
Directed with skill and a lovely light touch by Alice Wu, this is the
story of a mother and daughter and how they come to accept each other
and understand that following their own life desires is more important
than being dutiful daughters.
Wil (Michelle Krusiec) is a doctor;
a very good and very busy surgeon. She seems to devote her life to her
work, interrupted only by the various dates her mother arranges for her
with a series of men she has no interest in. She soon meets Vivian Ching
(Lynn Chen) not knowing Viv is the daughter of her boss. They meet by
the hospital vending machines, with Vivian being the flirtatious initiator
of the contact. Vivian is a ballet dancer. They begin an affair just as
Wil's widowed mother Hwei-Lan Gao (Joan Chen) shows up on her doorstep
pregnant.
Hwei-Lan Gao's being middle-aged,
single, and pregnant has not made her traditional Chinese father happy,
and he ousts her from the family home in Flushing. Soon it is Wil fixing
up Mom with a series of men, hoping to find her a husband and appease
her grandfather. With her mother as a roommate Wil feels she cannot stay
out all night with Vivian. Vivian wants Wil around more, wants her to
meet her friends and asks, "Why don't you just tell her?" "She
knows," Wil replies, "She walked in on me and my girlfriend
once, and that is when she started fixing me up." For a while Mom
dates a series of inappropriate men and Wil and Vivian continue a relationship
that increasingly frustrates Vivian.
But things can't go on this way and
the movie needs to build to its dramatic moment when true love sorts it
out, at least for mom.
Lower Manhattan makes a lovely backdrop for this indie film which has
strong production values. We get a glimpse of Chinese American culture
and are introduced to a series of interesting characters. Joan Chen does
an excellent understated turn as the publicly humiliated mother. The romance
between Wil and Vivian is sweet and believable, and there are a lot of
slyly humorous and well-observed moments.
The Sapphic Cinema audience loved this one, and I'd rate it high on the
unfortunately not very long list of lesbian love stories.
Peggy Luhrs runs Sapphic Cinema nights at the R.U.1.2? Queer Community
Center. She lives and writes in Burlington.