SHOPLIFTERS in Movies?

I wanted to see SHOPLIFTERS twice before I wrote this review… Why? It’s that damn good. But I also wanted to get this out there while this film is still in theaters. Catch it while you can! I’m sure that you can relate in wanting to do the best job ever since it’s just one of those films. And what exactly are those kinds of films?

They are the kind where the filmmakers capture moments of true humanity. My favorite example in this film is when the family featured realizes the authorities are looking for one of them because of their shoplifting ways. The family’s solution is to cut the little girl’s hair to “give her a disguise.” She is still recognizable except she is even cuter because you can see her face better. The family is the same way in that the haircut represents the peeling back of their layers to see how lovable they all are in their eclectic ways. You want to hang out with them as well as help the little girl hide in plain sight. Another interesting layer to the scene is that the family learns her real name.

DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILY

But what is this family anyway? The description that I initially saw said that they are dysfunctional. It’s just that all families are that way if we’re all honest. This term is often thrown around as a way to dismiss all the stuff that happens behind closed doors. It’s the stuff that people don’t truly want to talk about for fear of retribution and possible loss of friends. This is why movies like this are so important for they explore ideas that would be delicate to bring up at any kind of social function or social media for some of the characters’ actions are risky. Okay. Most of the characters do questionable things except love and survive in the big city.

These moments then ask us what we would do if faced with similar situations? How short sighted would some of our decisions be? Is even considering the future a luxury? I don’t know…

THE WALKING DEAD

However, there is one thing that I do know: I’ve revealed all that I will about the inner workings of this family for I’d much rather have you enjoy watching their different layers fall away. I don’t want to ruin this beautiful film for you in the same way others did for me with "The Walking Dead" Everyone told me of significant characters dying before I got to the episodes. It bummed me out to the point that I can’t bring myself to watch those scenes since I love the characters so much. This may not mean much to you except Richard and I used to faithfully wait every Sunday for a new episode and went on the “Talking Dead” twice.

INFO FOR FILMMAKERS

A thing that I won’t leave a mystery about SHOPLIFTERS movie is that it doesn’t take place in bazillions of locations. It was also clear that a lot of thought was put into the different details that make up the images on the screen. They also give a great slice of life in the slums of a Japanese city on the seedier side. A great book that talks about this aspect of the story is Bruce Block’s “The Visual Story: Creating the Visual Structure of Film, TV and Digital Media.”

The lighting in the way the girl is introduced in the movie is a prime example of this… (A tiny spoiler. Big spoiler here) She is in the light except she is alone on a porch whereas the family is in the dark looking at her. But the family in the light while the porch is dark the second time we see that same location. The darkness and the light speak to the idea of the good guy vs the bad guy...it's just that this movie plays with that well since these characters are multi-layered. No one is completely good and no one is completely bad.

Another aspect of SHOPLIFTERS is that the images also reflect the emotional story that play out on the screen. They work well together in order to tell this story. An example is how the house is crammed full of mismatched stuff in the same way this family come together for their greater good. Tom Provost also has a wonderful class that explains all about how to tell your story visually in his Cinema Language Class.

Tom has classes in conjunction with Mark Stolaroff’s “No Budget Film School.” Richard and I took both of these classes prior to shooting MY APOCALYPTIC THANKSGIVING (MAT). Charlie also was the one who suggested that we attend them since he liked them so much.

AND MAT

A visual style we used in MAT is to try to have bars or shapes that look like bars around the character of Kim throughout the movie. They represent Kim’s emotional state and reveal his past.

We thought that this movie is a good fit for MAT since MAT is also about family. It also talks about the Asian family experience in a way not often seen in movies. And it helps us to understand that our hearts grow from love rather than restrict…

Have a great night!

Saving Face

Asian Female cast shines in SAVING FACE

Alice Wu’s, SAVING FACE is a wonderful romantic comedy with Asian characters in New York City. It’s a surprisingly fresh take of a romantic comedy genre as it’s about Chinese American lesbian girls. The story is set in the spiderweb of traditional Chinese immigrants and second generation Chinese Americans who begrudgingly kowtow to the social norms. Wil’s world, played by Michelle Krusiec,  is rocked when her widowed mother becomes pregnant and hides herself in Wil’s apartment disrupting her life. To complicate matters, Wil, who still hasn’t ‘come out’ yet, falls in love with a fellow Chinese second generation, who happens to also be an openly gay woman, gracefully poised by Lynn Chen, from their social circle.

The acting is nothing short of brilliant. Lynn Chen makes simple effective choices in her acting. Michelle plays thoughtful, and Joan Chen, from the unforgettable film the Last Emperor, does a marvelous job of  playing against the stereotypical mother. She plays a multi-dimensional mother who’s scared to be on her own for the first time. She can’t even pick out her own dress to go out on a date because she’s followed always followed tradition. She’s never had to make her own decision her whole life. When she finally does break tradition, the first thing she announces is how she’s moving in with her daughter and wants to repaint and decorate the apartment. It’s like Oprah awakening in the end of the movie, THE COLOR PURPLE. Oh watch out. She’s back now.

We know we’re in the hands of a seasoned director, when there’s a  throw back shot to THE GRADUATE. It’s where the couple escapes the wedding after declaring his love and end up on a bus. The camera rolls and the realization and the consequences of what they’ve done finally set it. It’s a throw back where the mother escapes the marriage and she and the daughter are on the bus and don’t realize what they’ve done. There’s also the biting shot of the measly pickings of videos addressing Asian characters and their issues at the video store. Yes, there used to be movie rental stores. So much has changed in the last 20 years or has it? The strong visuals of and getting the best performances like when Michelle tells her love interest Wil that she’s going to Paris and we see the monkey bars separate the two. Or the color shirt Red after coming out to her mother and her mother breaking tradition. It turns out, that this is her directorial debut.

What’s fresh about the movie is how the first generation would speak Chinese and their children would speak back in English. This is common in my household as well. I know Hollywood tends to shy away from subtitled films, especially American made ones. But with the cornucopia of movie selections online from all over the world and watching the best foreign movies from every country, the subtitles are an afterthought. There have been some great Asian movies and TV shows that are invading America like the zombies on a train movie, TRAIN TO BUSAN, as well as Korean drama.

The invisible shackles of shame and ‘SAVING FACE’ were woven in every plot. The characters were enmeshed within gossiping women and men at the restaurants and hair salon Wil remained in her closet. Vivian wasn’t allowed to perform modern dance. Joan Chen’s character couldn’t publicly embrace her nontraditional man or proudly live as a single mother without being ostracized from the Chinese community. Her pregnancy belly bump would be her scarlet letter. When the bonds were finally broken in the third act, you could see the ripple effect of the glass ceiling being shattered as several couples came clean with their true feelings leaving their fellow neighbors gasping in horror.

Only an Asian American could have written this line.

A throw away line that really spoke to me is the scene where the black friend where he says, I don’t understand.Why doesn’t she just do what she wants to do? It’s a clash of two different cultures. One that believes in collectivism vs one that believes in individualism. Social status means everything to the Asian immigration. I busted out laughing when the father proudly exclaimed, “Well at least my daughter’s dating a doctor.” Comedy has so much truth in it.  I would have liked to have seen more comedy than romance. I did enjoy the bits of comedy where Vivian teaches the Will to fall down and when Vivian leans in for a kiss, Will conveniently falls down. I also enjoyed the subtleties of being Asian. Did you ever tell your mother? She knows already. Did you tell her? She walked in on me and another girl and never spoke of it again. In Asian culture, subtlety speaks volumes that we hold in silence for lifetimes.

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Lynn Chen is currently writing and acting in her directorial debut of the independent film, I WILL MAKE YOU MINE

Michelle Kreuk is featured in Hawaii five O.

Looking forward to more work from the talented filmmaker Alice Wu who also holds a Master degree in computer science. She can help lead the way that there can be no limits to what we want to do in life.

My confession for producing MY APOCALYPTIC THANKSGIVING the Movie

This Me!

I confess that I’ve been struggling with writing this blog about my inspiration for MY APOCALYPTIC THANKSGIVING (MAT.) And I know some may ask why this would be the case since I’m Holly Soriano AKA “just the producer.”

Why the heck? Right?

It’s that this movie means so much to me on so many levels that all lead back to family and forgiveness.

So I decided to approach this like Enimem’s character at the end of 8 MILE:

I’m coming clean...

As you may recall from Richard’s inspiration post, he mentioned one of the guys asking after his mom was an inspiration for MAT. I’ve also faced this same question from our buddy. He may have special needs except he is cognizant enough to understand that his family doesn’t want to be a part of his life.

Other guys in our care also face this too. It’s truly heartbreaking for we can’t force their family members to be involved in their lives if that’s not what they want.

Sometimes these different guys act out in some pretty harsh ways to deal with their feelings. They do things like throw temper tantrums or others hurt people. It’s not unlike the teenage boy sex offenders, who I took care of prior to moving to Los Angeles. Some of those guys had special needs while others had mental illness and/or both. The thing that they share with many of our guys is that they had difficult family situations. They all also lack the skills to truly communicate their needs.

Why Visit There When You Can Move There?

And I can so relate to a tumultuous family situation and poor coping skills. My parents divorced when I was seven. As a result, I ended up moving between my parents and finally lived with my older sister my senior year of high school. We also had many rocky times throughout for a whole host of reasons. I also went to nine schools in different schools in a variety of states and cities within those states. In addition, I also faced a number of traumas. The result is I spent many years battling my emotional fallout for I didn’t believe people loved me based on these experiences.

Thoughts versus reality...

It was like there was this massive hole in my heart that couldn’t be filled no matter what people said or did. I’ll be honest that this tormented me for years and caused me act out in ways that make me now cringe. But the beautiful thing that came out of that all was that it helped me finally cut through my own bullshit to truly understand that I am loved so much by so many. Plus, I also came to understand that family means so much more than those with the same blood.

The thing is that these guys may never get those moments of reconciliation with their family. I hope for their sake they do for it would forever change them and allow them to soothe their heart ache. In the meantime, we will continue to take care of them and help them when their behaviors get the best out of them.

My Apocalyptic Thanksgiving the Movie...

So… How does this relate to “just yet another movie about special needs?” Our lead character Marcus screws up a lot in it while he looks for his long lost mom. Some of the ways that he behaves aren’t pretty. Many of the movies about special needs only focus on the positive aspects of people with special needs or ignoring their complexity. The media would also have you believe that we are to condemn him or medicate him to the gills in order to stop those undesirable behaviors. But that is setting a different standard for someone else than ourselves. It’s just that no one is perfect. I can only imagine how different our world would be if we choose to forgive and offer love instead. The world would be a radically different place.

I know that this seems rather ambitious for our movie. It’s okay with me for we don’t have to change the world for if we could reach even one person… That would be a delightful start.

What movies have done this for you?