Common Sense Media Review
Chinese American mom and daughter reconnect in LGBTQ+ drama.
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Saving Face
What's the Story?
In SAVING FACE, Ma (Joan Chen) lives with her mother (Guang Lan Koh) and father Wai Gung (Jin Wang) in Flushing, Queens. She's also mother to 28-year-old Wilhelmina (Michelle Krusiec). A dedicated surgeon, Wil is also a dutiful daughter: She runs daily and takes extra shifts at the hospital without complaint. Wil begins a relationship with Vivian (Lynn Chen), a ballet dancer who'd rather be doing modern dance. While Wil is afraid to tell Ma she's a lesbian, Viv worries about disappointing her father, who thinks modern dance isn't "serious." When Ma becomes pregnant and won't name her child's father, much less marry him, her father kicks her out, so she moves in with Wil. Conflicts arise as mother and daughter learn to share space and support each other.
Is It Any Good?
Alice Wu's sharp first feature brings together many relationship concerns. Though Saving Face includes a few typical romantic comedic elements -- the supportive next-door neighbor, gossipy community ladies, a grumpy grandfather, and mistaken identities -- it also stands out as a rare Asian American film that centers around lesbian leads. It also provides a nuanced look at immigrant transitions and at last, a layered, detailed role for the wonderful Joan Chen.
The movie is especially smart about various concepts of "face," as reputation and legacy, but also as the means by which everyone of every culture gets through the days, performing in order to please others, to get ahead, to survive. Saving Face is at once an acknowledgment of ritual and collective identity, a self-reinvention, a reclaiming of roots and resistance simultaneously. Against this backdrop, Wil and Vivian's romance shines together with Wil and Ma's relationship.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the love and tensions within the Chinese American family depicted in Saving Face. How does Wil's fear of revealing her relationship with Vivian keep her from feeling comfortable or honest with her mother? How do their confessions help them understand one another?
What do characters do in the film to "save face?" Do you have experiences in real life where someone asks you to save face? What do you think of this concept?
How do the characters demonstrate courage? Why is it an important character strength? How might courage look within the cultural context of Chinese American immigrants?
Movie Details
- In theaters : May 27, 2005
- On DVD or streaming : October 18, 2005
- Cast : Joan Chen , Lynn Chen , Michelle Krusiec
- Director : Alice Wu
- Inclusion Information : Female Movie Director(s) , Lesbian Movie Director(s) , Asian Movie Director(s) , Female Movie Actor(s) , Asian Movie Actor(s)
- Studio : Sony Pictures Classics
- Genre : Drama
- Character Strengths : Courage
- Run time : 91 minutes
- MPAA rating :
- MPAA explanation : some sexuality and language
- Last updated : August 5, 2024
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