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Face

2003, Movie, PG-13, 87 mins

Face: Review

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Bertha Bay-Sa Pan's first feature, expanded from a short she made as a film student at Columbia University's Graduate School of the Arts, follows two generations of New York-based Chinese-American women caught between the promise of freedom and the oppressive traditions to which their immigrant families cling. In the early '70s, shy, quietly rebellious Kim Liu (Bai Ling) struggles with her widowed mother's old-fashioned expectations. Though Kim is studious, polite and hardworking, Mrs. Liu (Kieu Chinh) disapproves of her boyfriend, aspiring lawyer Willie (Ken Leung) because his family is poor and he's too assimilated for her taste — he doesn't even speak Chinese. Though Kim is quietly determined to live her life her own way, her plans are derailed by the devastating consequences of a silly lover's squabble at a local bar. Wealthy reprobate Daniel Chang (Will Yun Lee) — whose ambitious, overachieving family hired Kim to tutor him so his academic laziness wouldn't shame them — gives Kim an expensive gift and the insecure Willie refuses to believe it's just an ostentatious display of gratitude. Willie storms out, leaving Kim alone; Daniel gets her drunk on champagne and takes advantage of her. When Kim realizes she's pregnant, her mother and Mrs. Chang (Tina Chen) force Daniel and Kim to get married, again in the name of saving face. Trapped in her solicitously overbearing mother-in-law's home with a husband who despises her and a baby she doesn't want, the miserably unhappy Kim eventually makes a break for freedom. She flees to Hong Kong, leaving her baby, Genie, with her mother. Twenty years later, Genie (Kristy Wu) is a hip-hop teenager in love with African-American DJ Mike (Treach), a relationship she keeps under wraps because she knows the trouble it would cause. A visit from Kim, now a successful Hong Kong banker and a complete stranger to her defiant daughter, stirs up old resentments and forces the Lius to air their dirty laundry. Though the clash between old-world parents and their American-born children is familiar territory, New Jersey-born, Taiwan-raised director/cowriter Bay-Sa Pan gives the conflict a culturally particular spin and elicits strong performances from her appealing cast. leave a comment --Maitland McDonagh
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