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  • From China to Nebraska

    2008-10-21 7:05AM / 標準BLOG / 會員可以看
    7個評論

    Last night, I started watching Wayne Wang's new feature The Princess of Nebraska on Youtube. It was "the first full-length feature" released on Youtube:

    Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKgbIz6CM_E


    I was having mixed feelings after watching it. While I thought the way he made and shot it as a no-budget film was inspiring, I was also troubled by some story/character and ideological points. Based on a short story by Yiyun Li, The Princess of Nebraska centers on (as I recall) 20 intense hours of a young Chinese girl, who was originally from Beijing, now goes to school in Nebraska, and has come to San Francisco for an abortion.

    I wonder why she has come such a long way for an abortion? Sasha comes to San Francisco and meets up with the gay lover of a young man in Beijing who has impregnated her. She definitely loves the Beijing guy, who may or may not be gay. No surprise, the gay lover is a middle-aged balding Caucasian businessman, Boshen. Basically, he is the stereotype of a gay rice queen. The portrayal of homosexuality is not particularly flattering. Boshen first wanted Sasha to abort the baby, then suddenly at the end he wanted to keep the baby and be one happy family with Sasha and his Beijing boy. I was like... WHAT? WHY?

    In the middle of the movie, Sasha meets a prostitute (played by the talented Pamelyn Chee) in the middle of the night in San Francisco's Chinatown. How often does that happen? Chee's character leads Sasha into a roomful of businessmen and Sasha toys with the idea of getting together with this scary looking African American older gentleman as if he has stepped right out of Candyman. This older gentleman is the only black character in the movie... and I thought Wang would know better than to exploit the racial spectacle between a young Asian woman and a older black man. Well, he kind of did because the black man let her go after kissing her stomach and felt she might be pregnant. But the scene definitely made me cringe from the start because it reminded me of the racial politics from The Birth of a Nation.

    Then after watching Sasha having a lesbian affair with the female prostitute, I thought it was kind of hot but really right out of a straight guy's soft porn fantasy.

    As I was struggling with these thoughts, I decided to rent Wang's all-time Asian American hit The Joy Luck Club and rewatch it as a comparison. The complaint I remember about that movie was that it portrayed Asian American males badly because they were all ugly, mean or evil in the movie. It was more of an Orietalist fantasy as people in Asia didn't quite like it... etc. But it was successful domestically and how can you argue with success? It was the highest grossing Asian American film (32.9 Million) ever made.

    Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjpgeCKL2hg&feature=relate


    So I watched The Joy Luck Club again and kind of enjoyed it. It's a slice of guilty pleasure for Americans. It is the ultimate Hollywood movie that is emotionally manipulative, melodramatic and well-made. The characters are black-and-white. All the Chinese (American) female protagonists are nice, beautiul and strong within while the antagonists who are mostly Chinese men are mean and evil. What can I say?

    The interesting thing about looking at The Princess of Nebraska and The Joy Luck Club together is that you see how a filmmaker fares in two radically different situations. In The Joy Luck Club, Wang had studio support (I heard it was around USD$16,700,000) to make an Asian American epic. I'm sure that that whatever capital given he'd also have to sacrifice a level of control to the studios and execs. On the contrary, The Princess of Nebraska was made on a shoestring budget situation where Wang had probably all the creative freedom he wanted albeit with a much smaller budget (I'd guess around USD$200,000).

    I'll let you be the judge, and I feel that both films certainly have a meaningful place in the way we talk about Asian American cinema.

BLOG評論 (7)

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  • bluesonic82
    bluesonic82
    留言於2009-02-08 10:18PM [举报]
    Have you checked out a movie from Taiwan called "Eternal Summer"? Check it out...
  • angelinaaahh
    angelinaaahh
    留言於2008-10-26 11:02AM [举报]
    I def have to check out Princess of Nebraska!
  • janechu
    janechu
    留言於2008-10-22 2:23AM [举报]
    I've bookmarked Princess of Nebraska and will watch it soon... after I watch it, I'll have to come back to your blog... hehee... =)
  • PPPIRJ
    PPPIRJ
    留言於2008-10-22 1:06AM [举报]
    You are totally to the point, I think director Wang probably will fit the bill of the character in JOY LUCK CLUB himself. :P
  • stephen
     stephen
    留言於2008-10-21 4:31PM [举报]
    Hey, good breakdown of the movie, Quentin. I really do want to watch Princess (and a "Thousand Years") but unfortunately the Youtube video is geographically restricted so I can't seem to view it here in HK. A pity...

    In regards to the racial politics, I recall the climax scene in "Requiem for a Dream" where Jennifer Conelly's character's downfall is during a lesbian sex party scene surrounded by black men and I had alot of similar feelings that you had -- really exploitative IMHO... it was also a similar feeling I had about "Traffic" where Erika Christensen's character does much the same thing...

    WRT Joy Luck Club: Yeah, I think my initial impression before was that it really stereotypical against Asian-Am males, but now I've changed my opinion: Looking back on it, in fact MANY of the female oriented movies are the same about men and JLC was kind of groundbreaking in being the first of a whole series of women-oriented tearjerkers. Wayne and esp. the screenwriter Ron Bass were just the first to popularize the genre (followed by Forrest Whittaker). Unfortunately, Hollywood decided to cling to the "celebrate women, bash men" part of the formula innovated by JLC and not the Asian-Am portion.
  • rottendoubt
     rottendoubt
    留言於2008-10-21 9:50AM [举报]
    i still have to watch both of those...
  • wendycheng
    藝術家空間 Wendy Cheng
    留言於2008-10-21 8:22AM [举报]
    Two things I really enjoyed about Princess... were the actresses' performances and the weight of the ending...

    despite some of the criticism the JLC received (incl. the book) - that film will always be the film that changed my consciousness about media. I even wrote essays about it applying for undergrad... it really is well-crafted,  and it had a huge impact on twinkie-me at the time b/c it was As-Am, about moms and daughters, and of course, hit the mainstream... a real tearjerker.

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  • 李孟熙是洛杉磯、溫哥華和香港的制片人、編劇和導演。他在香港長大，十幾歲移民到蒙特利爾，在UC伯克萊大學拿到英文碩士學位...

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