Face

If this film were a soup, it would be missing a spice or two. As a film, it felt like a well-funded student outing aiming for an afterschool special. While it might have tasted fresher back in 2002, I'm not so sure about that....and it has not aged well in my opinion.

That said it's heart is in the right place, basking in the warmth of our great American melting pot.

The grandmother here not only takes care of two wayward generations, she carries the film. Much respect to Kieu Chinh. Her actual personal story sounds pretty amazing coming from Vietnam before the War there. Meanwhile there is also Bai Ling, who is gorgeous but struggles to wash away some of the soap opera dramatics inherent in her character. Again Bai Ling's real life story is pretty astounding from her days in China as a teenage actress onward. Lastly Kelly Yu completes the female line, and of course you're rooting for her, but she felt the most detached from her role.

Treach from Naughty by Nature fares the best of the male roles by a city mile, the other two are pretty cartoony. The dialog in general but especially for those men just hits some rough klunkers at times. I think that's where the Afterschool vibe kicks in.

Maybe had the film makers found a way to have Treach and Kieu Chinh on screen, they could have saved "Face."

One credit to the film, it does not try to tie up loose ends or put to pretty a bow on the parallel mother-daughter stories. That said, you can likely save time skipping "Face" at this point. Honestly I'm not sure how it bubbled up in my film queue, trying to figure out was there something about the music (which worked hard to kick up the volume of the story) or one of the actors?!?!

This is a film that can be seen several times because it is so multifaceted, a classic that could be any immigrant's story, but equally a story of clashing generations. Told brilliantly, with outstanding actors and direction and a score that tells it's own story--"Face" is a must-see.

I picked up the wife from work last night and sat back to check out Face. Tsotsi was making it's premiere at 10 pm, so I could change if it proved boring. The description was the 2004 Korean horror film, but the movie that came on was the 2002 Chinese Face, starring Ling Bai. Needless to say, I never switched as the story of three generations of Chinese women in Queens was well worth the lost sleep. I'll just have to see Tsotsi later. Definitely recommend this one. I noticed that it was beaten at Sundance by Personal Velocity: Three Portraits, starring the incomparable Kyra Sedgwick. I cannot get enough of her in The Closer, and she was brilliant in The Woodsman.

A small plane passes through a blue sky at the beginning of Face; the jet a symbol of freedom, travel, and escape. The story unfolds between three generations of women in the Chinese community of New York City. Genie, a strong-willed and beautiful young woman is being raised by her grandmother. She tries to honor her grandmother's wishes, but the contemporary culture of the city has the lure of a siren. In this way, Genie echoes her own mother, whose arrival from Hong Kong is announced as an event. The expectations of Chinese culture become sharply delineated for Genie when she finds love outside of the Chinese community. Winsome and intrepid, Genie must choose her loyalties. Unflinchingly, Face portrays the vibrancy of New York as the three women make sense of their relationships to one another. A truthful portrayal of family tensions and race relations, the story line of Face is both taut and charming.

This story is not at all melodramatic even though it may seem so. Writer-director Bertha Pan presented with a very keen and sensitive eye on the possible woes and relationships between mother and daughter, grandmother and (teen) granddaughter, and a 'forgotten' mother and her 'forsaken' daughter. "Face" - corresponding to the traditional Chinese family value of 'saving face' - is a poignant film and very much a women's story.

The setting of the film is in New York's Queens. The film is basically presented in English with sparing subtitles where necessary. The mood of the story is suggested from the beginning shot trained on Bai Ling in a 'limo' to/from airport, as flashback memories unfold. Scenes may be reminiscent of "Wedding Banquet" 1993 (director Ang Lee), and a very Audrey Hepburn looking (hair-do especially hugging) Bai Ling's lean face; also "Eat a Bowl of Tea" 1989 (director Wayne Wang), and even "Dinner Rush" 2000 (director Bob Giraldi, also set in Queens), but Pan's story/film holds its own.

Thanks, very much so, to the three talented actresses: mother/grandmother portrayed by Kieu Chinh (remember her from "Catfish in Black Bean Sauce" 1999 - Vietnamese film in an American family setting by w-d Chi Moui Lo), an energetic young Kristy Wu as the granddaughter, and Bai Ling as the middle generation character that 'begot' the start and end of the story, tying the flashback vignettes together. The performances of all three women made the film "Face," along with the production effort that brought this 'indie' to fruition. Supporting characters are just as fine: there's the very much 'face saving' valued rich mother-in-law played by Tina Chen, and the bold stroke of introducing (representative of the diverse culture of teens) a black young man (DJ, hip & rap music) as granddaughter's boyfriend (a caring & endearing soul mate at it) - an equally affecting portrayal by Treach. At times the storyline may seem cliché, but Pan opened a window and let us glimpse/feel the various aspects of Asian culture and family traditions, intermingled with the modern day values (teens/elders) cultivated in/succumbed to (an American) city and of urban society (Hong Kong/business world lingo and behavior). Pan did not spare any sentiments. She gave them to us straight, and she covered quite a range with well-paced plots. The mix of traditional and modern (teen & hip) music used complemented the mood and situations on screen. "Face" is a very good effort all round and well worth seeing.

Another worthwhile women's film is "Chaos" 2001, a film by French w-d Coline Serreau ("3 Men and a Cradle" 1987), who wove an intricate layered tale involving four women - the incidents/vignettes happening to the two main characters are suspenseful and entertaining (yes, with action) besides conveying sensitive viewpoints from women's perspective. (I have posted my user comments on IMDb.)

Also reminds me of w-d Mina Shum's debut feature "Double Happiness" 1994 with Sandra Oh as an obedient daughter as much as she could - the story revolves around the family expectations of Asian traditional parents of a young woman living in Canada - comedy and romance with struggles in modern day adjustments.