Filmikaze!

By: Alice Wu (director, writer)

Starring: Michelle Krusiec, Joan Chen, Lynn Chen

A Chinese-American lesbian and her traditionalist mother are reluctant to go public with secret loves that clash against cultural expectations.

It’s another really busy night for me, so this is going to be shorter than normal. Fortunately, while cute, there isn’t a lot to say about Saving Face. The typical melodramatic plotline is switched up by atypical circumstances, yet still manages to be lackluster. It’s not a bad movie, but it’s definitely nothing special, either. It’s the sort of movie I’d put on in the background while I was doing something else, because other than needing to read the subtitles on the Chinese parts, it really requires very little attention and isn’t terribly inspiring. For a movie about such subversive topics as homosexuality and conception out of wedlock as they relate to traditional Chinese culture, it takes surprisingly few risks, and is ultimately more of the same tropes.