Saving Face
Movie Details:
| Country | United States |
| Language | English, Mandarin, Shanghainese |
| Genres | Comedy, Drama, Romance |
| Release date | September 12, 2004 |
| Running time | 1hr 31min |
| Age rating | R |
| Starring | Michelle Krusiec Joan Chen Lynn Chen |
| Directed by | Alice Wu |
| Written by | Alice Wu |
| Produced by | Will Smith James Lassiter Teddy Zee |
| Cinematography by | Harlan Bosmajian |
| Edited by | Susan Graef Sabine Hoffmann |
| Music by | Anton Sanko |
| Production Company | Destination Films Overbrook Entertainment Forensic Films GreeneStreet Films |
| Distributor | Sony Pictures Classics |
Cast & Characters:
- Michelle Krusiec as Wilhelmina Pang
- Lynn Chen as Vivian Shing
- Joan Chen as Hwei-Lan Gao (Mother/Ma)
- Jin Wang as “Wai Gung” (Grandfather)
- Guang Lan Koh as “Wai Po” (Grandmother)
- Jessica Hecht as Randi
- Ato Essandoh as Jay
- Wang Luoyong as Dr. Shing
- David Shih as Norman
- Brian Yang as Yu
- Nathaniel Geng as Stimson Cho
- Mao Zhao as Old Yu
Storyline:
In Manhattan, the brilliant Chinese-American lesbian surgeon Wil is surprised by the arrival of her forty-eight year old widow mother to her apartment. Ma was banished from Flushing, Queens, when her father discovered that she was pregnant. The presence of Ma affects the personal life of Wil, who is in love with the daughter of her boss at the hospital, the dancer Vivian Shing. Once her grandfather has promised that her mother would only return to Flushing remarried or proving that it was an immaculate conception, Wil tries to find a Chinese bachelor to marry Ma.
About Movie:
Saving Face is an American romantic comedy-drama film directed by Alice Wu, in her feature-length debut. It stars Michelle Krusiec, Joan Chen, and Lynn Chen. It was the first Hollywood movie that centered on Chinese Americans since The Joy Luck Club (1993).
The name itself is a reference to the pan-East Asian social concept of face.
Filming began in fall 2003 on the $2.5 million project. Saving Face was filmed on location in New York’s Flushing, Queens, Brooklyn, and Manhattan on 35 mm film. Featuring the New York City Chinese American community, the film features in a mixture of Mandarin Chinese and English.
Saving Face premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on 12 September 2004, and made its way around the independent film circuit, screening at Sundance Film Festival, Seattle International Film Festival. It was chosen as the opening night film in 2005 for the Florida Film Festival. The film was subsequently bought by Sony Pictures Entertainment and initially planned for release through their midbudget division Screen Gems before going into limited release in the US through arthouse division Sony Pictures Classics on May 27, 2005.