REVIEW: SHOPPING FOR FANGS

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There's a new, updated version of Shopping for Fangs (SFF) coming out next week, with DVD commentary. That's partially prompts a review that should have appeared about 11 years ago...

I first saw Shopping for Fangs when it was part of the "Class of '97" quartet which debuted at the SFIAAFF in 1997. It was the debut feature for both Quentin Lee (Ethan Mao, The People I've Slept With) and Justin Lin (Fast and Furious, Finishing the Game).

It was also, of the four Class of '97 films, the most deliberately off-beat, with the two main characters dealing with lycanthropy and amnesia (respectively), interspersed with Mexican stand-offs, bible study jokes, touch football, Ranch 99 shopping malls and some good wigs. It also stars a young John Cho in his first major role, playing a lovelorn 20-something who spends a lot of quality time in a Taiwanese cafe. (You'll also spot Lela Lee, aka "Angry Little Girl" playing the sister of Radmar Jao's character, Phil).

If I have one, outstanding impression of SFF, it's how it takes one of the most common of Asian American film themes - identity - and cleverly riffs on it but without ever coming back to hang-wringing about race/ethnicity. Indeed, there's very little "sociological content" in SFF which, especially in 1997, was fairly striking (Sunsets was another example of this). Especially given Justin Lin's later films, in particular Better Luck Tomorrow, you could already see the ways in which he and Quentin really set out to make a very different kind of AA narrative, one that deliberately stepped around the traditions of the past. Parents don't exist. With one key exception, family/immigrant history doesn't exist. Instead, as convoluted as the dual plots were (and I don't mean that in a critical way; the storylines were meant to be deliberately outrageous) SFF was intensely character driven.

By way of summation, there's basically three parallel storylines: Phil, who thinks he might be turning into a werewolf; Katherine, who is having amnesiac blackouts and is married to an emotionally crippled a--hole; Clarance, who is getting over a broken heart and has befriended the enigmatic, Brigette Lin-inspired Trinh. There are bits of interweaving that happens, some small, and the major one is with Trinh, who ends up crossing into Katherine's life when she discovers her purse and phone. (The film is very post-Pulp Fiction though still linear).

All three plots are driven by journeys of discovery but each is fraught with danger. Phil wants to be more assertive (and masculine) but he fears that as a possible lycanthrope, he may be unleashing too much of his inner desire. Katherine is trying to figure out what's happening during her blackouts and why she's being contacted by Trinh.. Clarence wants to quit moping and open his heart again but he's worried about being hurt again.

In trying to think of how to properly this film formally, the two thoughts that keep coming to mind are that, 1) it's laudably ambitious but 2) the sum is less than its parts. The latter is hardly something unique in cinema - one could say that most films that aren't perfect are less than the sum of their parts, but in my mind, SFF just has a lot of parts going on that don't quite gel in the way they aspire to. Having just caught the last half of the film at the ID Film Festival this past weekend, what really resonated was that this was a good, smart script in terms of all it was trying to do but where it ends up more listless is in the execution.

To be sure, some parts are done great (Phil's interest in a co-worker who turns out to be a Bible thumper is deliciously, painfully funny), some of it so-so (much as I'm a fan of John Cho, as Clarence, there just isn't much to invest in), some of it rather flat (Katherine's storyline is woefully underdeveloped, especially her marital relationship). You get where the film wants to take you, especially once you get to the end and its big twist, but the ride's choppy along the way.


I used to screen this film semi-regularly for my students at Cal and they tended to have mixed reactions to it; it was an interesting way to get them to start talking about contemporary AA cinema but I don't think it went over as well as, say, Eat a Bowl of Tea and these days, I'd probably be inclined to show them Better Luck Tomorrow instead. That said, I still think the film is incredibly important for helping mark a particular moment in AA film where you start to see hints of the future already on their way.

BTW, Quentin and Justin both talk about the film for Justin's special "Class of 1997" revisit post on youoffendmeyouoffendmyfamily.com.

--O.W.

RETURN TO THE CLASS OF 97

Damn, I don't know how I slept on this (since it's already three days in) but the ID Film Festival at L.A.'s JANM has been rescreening all the Class of 1997 films.

If you're not familiar with what I'm talking about, start here and then read this great, great post on Justin Lin's Youoffendmeyouoffendmyfamily site which contains testimonials from all the filmmakers involved in that fateful year.

If you're in LA, there's a free roundtable with ALL the filmmakers tonight at 9:30pm, following the closing night screening of Shopping For Fangs.

BTW: I just realized Eric Nakamura has a cool set of posts related to his and Michael Aki's (formerly Idemoto) film, Sunsets.

--O.W.

INTERVIEW: JUSTIN LIN (CINEVUE)

Preface: Seems like I end up interviewing Justin every five years: I did it in 1997, on my then-radio show in Berkeley, I had another set of interviews in 2002, around Better Luck Tomorrow and ACV asked me to interview him for their program for the 2007 N.Y. Int'l Asian American Film Festival.

A lot had changed since our last conversation, to say the least...namely $175,000,000 in global gross for the two studio films Justin had worked on since BLT. Yet, I found him to still be refreshingly down to earth, candid and self-aware (to the point of being a little self-conscious). It's always a pleasure to talk with him about his work as well as the general state of Asian American cinema.

THE INTERVIEW (originally appeared in Asian Cinevision's Cinevue).

My first interview with Justin Lin was in 1997, when he and Quentin Lee were promoting their debut feature film, SHOPPING FOR FANGS. Along with Rea Tajiri (STRAWBERRY FIELDS, HISTORY AND MEMORY), the three chatted about the state of Asian American filmmaking in a cramped studio at KALXFM in Berkeley, CA. At one point I asked if they, as independent filmmakers, would ever consider doing a studio film. Justin replied, half-joking, half-serious: “If I had the chance to make MIGHTY DUCKS 6, I would make the best MIGHTY DUCKS 6 I can.”

FEATURE: THE CLASS OF 1997

Preface: I wrote this essay for the 2007 SFIAFF Program. I was very thankful and honored that CAAM allowed me to write it...I was a little late in sending them the idea but as it turned out, they had planned to write something about the 10 year anniversary of the famed Class of '97.

The essay itself lays out what made that year so significant but to add a personal note that doesn't appear there: 1997 wasn't my first SFIAAFF but it came during the same semester I took the Asian American Film/Video course at UC Berkeley (taught by Spencer Nakasako) and it was one of the first years that I practically lived at the Kabuki during that week (or so it felt).

It was, to be sure, an amazing time to be witness to what was happening within Asian American cinema and as cliche as it sounds, that sense of change was in the air everywhere you went during that week. In hindsight, it doesn't seem any less momentous - '97 was a crucial watershed. The fact that it came 15 years after Chan Is Missing is a coincidence but a significant one at that especially since the next important year would be five years later, in 2002, when Better Luck Tomorrow and Charlotte Sometimes screened (amongst others).

THE FEATURE (originally appeared in the 2007 SFIAFF Catalog).


Class of 1997: 10 Years Later

Six filmmakers, four narrative features, one year. The Class of 1997 comprised Quentin Lee and Justin Lin’s SHOPPING FOR FANGS, Rea Tajiri’s STRAWBERRY FIELDS, Michael Idemoto and Eric Nakamura’s SUNSETS and Chris Chan Lee’s YELLOW. The arrival of this quartet in time for the ’97 SFIAAFF may have just been coincidence, but looking at the long-term evolution of Asian American independent filmmaking, it’s as if a critical mass had been waiting to coalesce.

The mid-’90s were a transitional time for Asian American narrative cinema. The most influential director of the ‘80s, Wayne Wang, had moved away from Asian American themes following 1993’s JOY LUCK CLUB. There were several new filmmakers filling in the gap, notably Canada’s Mina Shum (DOUBLE HAPPINESS, 1994) and the late Kayo Hatta (PICTURE BRIDE, 1995) but much of the Class of 1997 was comprised of an even younger, emergent generation. Lee, Lin and Lee all came almost directly out of major film schools. Cousins Idemoto and Nakamura were amateur, first-time filmmakers. Even the cohort’s “senior” member, acclaimed experimental/documentary director Tajiri, was still in her thirties.

More importantly, their films suggested that Asian American cinema was at a key thematic crossroads. Though STRAWBERRY FIELDS and YELLOW ostensibly dealt with familiar topics around the traumas of the past and family tensions of the present, they were a leap forward in artistic style and storytelling. Likewise, though SHOPPING FOR FANGS was a film about identity starring an all-Asian American cast, race and ethnicity were barely present in favor of more humorous and existential explorations of self. Following a trio of youth whiling away their summer, SUNSETS had virtually no Asian American themes whatsoever, but its depictions of suburban/rural ennui had a more universal appeal. Collectively, the four films marked a moment where the older traditions of Asian American filmmaking were being shed to make room for new, exciting and imaginative ideas, styles and stories.

Symbolic import aside, the 1997 SFIAAFF also helped plant the seeds for future groundbreaking projects. It was at this Festival where Justin Lin first met YELLOW star Jason Tobin, whom he later cast in a scene-stealing role for BETTER LUCK TOMORROW (2002). Likewise, aspiring filmmaker Eric Byler and writer Jeff Liu met actress Jacqueline Kim at the Festival and the three drove back to Los Angeles, brainstorming what would eventually become Byler’s debut, CHARLOTTE SOMETIMES (2002), a film that also starred SUNSETS’ Michael Idemoto. The Festival also saw John Cho star in both YELLOW and SHOPPING FOR FANGS; he’s since become one of the most prolific Asian American actors in Hollywood.

Perhaps the most telling evidence of how the Class of ’97 signaled a momentous change is how unextraordinary it’s become for the SFIAAFF to host any number of Asian American narrative features (this year boasts 12 in competition). Over the last decade, there’s been a blossoming of dozens of up-and-coming directors including Alice Wu (SAVING FACE), Tanuj Chopra (PUNCHING AT THE SUN), Ian Gamazon and Neill Dela Llana (CAVITE), and So Yong Kim (IN BETWEEN DAYS). Never before has the Asian American cinescape been so broad or diverse.

Yet despite that expanding scope, the most powerful moments are often the smallest. My favorite memory from the 1997 SFIAAFF came at the back of the theater during the sold-out world premiere of SUNSETS. As the credits began to roll, Idemoto and Nakamura, standing behind the seat rows, hugged one another, yelling “we did it, we did it!” It was a personal moment that went unnoticed by most of the audience still staring forward but in a sense, the two were celebrating for all of us. The labor and challenges of making the if lm were, of course, theirs, but in contributing to such an important, watershed moment, the pride and exhilaration for their accomplishment
was ours as well.

—Oliver Wang

Oliver Wang served on the SFIAAFF Screening Committee from 2000 through 2005. He is
currently a professor of sociology at CSU-Long Beach and cultural critic living in Los Angeles.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

• Michel Idemoto both directed and starred in the ensemble feature O.B.I.T.S. (1998) and was the lead in Eric Byler’s CHARLOTTE SOMETIMES (2002).

• Chris Chan Lee has directed television in Asia, and produced several films in the U.S. His second feature, UNDOING (2006), screens in this year’s Festival.

• Quentin Lee runs the production company Margin Films, and directed both DRIFT (2000) and ETHAN MAO (2004).

• Justin Lin has directed BETTER LUCK TOMORROW (2002), ANNAPOLIS (2006), and THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS: TOKYO DRIFT (2006). His latest fi lm, FINISHING THE GAME
(2007), screens on Opening Night at this year’s Festival.

• Eric Nakamura continues to run Giant Robot Magazine as well as its related publishing and retail ventures.

• Rea Tajiri continues to practice and teach filmmaking at schools such as UCLA, NYU, Columbia and CalArts.

PHOTO BY PAMELA GENTILE: FRONT (L–R) JUSTIN LIN, REA TAJIRI, QUENTIN LEE
BACK (L–R) CHRIS CHAN LEE, ERIC NAKAMURA, MICHAEL IDEMOTO

--O.W.

INTERVIEW: JUSTIN LIN (MOTHER JONES)

Preface: This was the last of my three Better Luck Tomorrow-related interviews with Justin Lin in 2002.

THE INTERVIEW (originally appeared in Mother Jones).

--O.W.

INTERVIEW: JUSTIN LIN (ASIANAVENUE.COM)

Preface: This two-part interview originally was conducted for AsianAvenue.com but has since been "lost" on the site. I'm reprinting it, in full, after the jump. Both were done following the big Sundance debacle but Part 2 was conducted right after MTV Films announced that they were picking up the film for distribution.

THE INTERVIEW.








Buzzworthy: An Interview with Director Justin Lin

Justin Lin went into the famed Sundance Film Festival a relative unknown and came out as one of the most talked about filmmakers there. No less than Roger Ebert – the most recognized film critic in the country, if not the world – has written about him and his new film, Better Luck Tomorrow and Lin has gone from being known mostly just in Asian American circles to potentially becoming the next indie film chosen one.

Lin’s previous film, 1997’s Shopping For Fangs (directed by Quentin Lee) was a critical hit among Asian American film festival patrons, but distribution woes hampered its wider release. For his new Better Luck Tomorrow- a story about a group of well-to-do Asian American students who descend into crime and murder – Lee took a major risk in cleaning out his life savings and maxing out his credit cards – not to mention enlisting the funding aid of (MC) Hammer - to pay for this independent feature.

While at Sundance though, a storm of controversy brewed as some viewers – unhappy at the movie’s dark edge and subject matter, attacked Lin for both misrepresenting Asian Americans as well as encouraging youth violence. To his defense came no less than two of the most visible film critics in the country: the NY Times’ Elvis Mitchell and Roger Ebert – the latter of whom used his January 18th column in the Chicago Sun-Times to write about Lin’s film and the need to support it over politically correct paranoia. AsianAvenue.Com spoke with Justin right after he got back from his whirlwind Sundance adventure.

Oliver Wang: I just have to open this by asking – MC Hammer helped fund the film? How did that come about?

Justin Lin: I ran into him in Vegas and we started talking and got to know each other. It was amazing – it’s almost like he was an angel. I called him, he asked “how much do you need” and boom boom, he wired the money within minutes. He never even signed any paperwork and I’m still trying to get his money back but I can’t get a hold of him. He saved the movie.

O: Getting to Sundance - it sounds like things got out of control. I heard that at two different screenings, people literally got into shouting matches in either attacking or defending Better Luck Tomorrow.

J: It’s amazing, if you were in that room, people were so pumped up. It was amazing having two of the top critics in the country [defend the film]. Usually critics just watch movies but they felt so passionate that they had to stand up and voice their opinions. After the Ebert thing, within five minutes, it was going down Main Street, it was buzzing all over the place. It was definitely a Sundance moment.

O: Did you anticipate this kind of passionate response to your film?

J: The whole point of [the film] was to stir things up a little bit, stay true to the characters and to deal with this issue [of youth violence]. This film should open up questions, should be something that you don’t walk out, five minutes and forget about it. You should think about, hopefully, a day or two and you talk to people about it. It’s all about discourse.

O: As one of the few Asian American directors let in the door – so to say – at Sundance, how did you feel about this swirl of publicity?

J; The great thing we found out is that, you go to Sundance, the Asian American contingent is quite small. But this was pretty much one of the biggest buzz films there and it was incredible. As an Asian American filmmaker, I feel like we kind of crossed a threshold. The first thing out of their mouths wasn’t, “oh this was a great Asian American [film]”. People really related to it, our actors walking down the street, just getting stopped signing autographs, taking pictures. People just went across the color lines. They see it for a couple of minutes and they forget [it’s an Asian Ameican film] and people can relate to it, it has universal appeal.

O: That’s funny you should say “universal appeal” since the movie touches on a taboo subject these days, which is youth violence, made all the more risky in the movie world post-Columbine. What made you want to make a movie about Asian American kids going bad?

J: When we read the paper, all of us, every other week, we see something about youth violence and it’s appalling and disturbing and that’s how I feel when I read it. But at the same time, when you read it, you also get a sense you can relate to their anger and that’s what kind of intrigued me. You read about it but people don’t really talk about it and when they do talk about it, it’s never in inclusive terms - it’s very close to us yet everyone distances themselves from it.

O: From what I understand, part of the problem that some had with the film was that they felt like the images of the Asian American youth were very negative…

J: [interrupts] I don’t think it’s negative at all. As a filmmaker, you try to make the best film, you try to stay true to what you’re trying to do. The problem is that every time you see Asian faces on screen, they’re usually there for an “Asian” reason. It’s usually there because they’re a kung fu master, a doctor, a tourist but they’re always on screen for the reason of being Asian or Asian American. And as a filmmaker I don’t think we should have standards different from other filmmakers. It’s not about being negative or positive, it’s about being true to what you’re trying to do.

O: How did it feel to be criticized for making a film – and I’m quoting from one of your Sundance detractor –that’s “amoral for Asian Americans”?

J: I’m Asian American – f--- man, I’ve done more Asian American projects than anybody. Go back to my short films and documentaries. I’m probably more sensitive to these issues than definitely him – he wasn’t even Asian American!

O: He wasn’t even Asian American?

J: No, he was Caucasian. I can’t speak for all Asian Americans, but the ones who were there…there is a certain level of pride when see characters on screen. These characters, they live in this environment, they don’t have to explain why their teenagers in suburbia – they exist. That’s what the struggle is that we go through as Asian Americans. You exist and you live here but at the same time, but you don’t want to have to explain every little reason why you’re doing this and doing that.

---

A few days after our initial conversation with Justin Lin, it was leaked to the press that "Better Luck Tomorrow" was picked up by MTV. As reported by the Hollywood trade magazine Variety, "In the first-ever acquisition of an Asian-American film from Sundance, Paramount-based MTV Films has ponied up just under $1 million for North
American distribution rights." AsianAvenue.Com caught up with Justin who was amused that the story leaked but was quick to note that the figures quoted by Variety are inaccurate (because the deal isn’t officially public yet, he couldn’t tell AsianAvenue.Com the exact figures involved). This led into a larger discussion about the challenges of marketing and distributing an Asian American film to a wide, non-ethnic specific audience. Here now, Part 2 of our conversation with Better Luck Tomorrow’s Justin Lin.

Oliver Wang: I know you can’t cite exact figures, but this MTV deal must still be fairly big, no?

Justin Lin: They’re putting a lot of muscle behind this, it’s pretty amazing. It was incredible man, they really loved the film and the buzz was getting so big at Sundance that there were three different companies vying for it and within one hour they decided to [acquire the film]. Plus they already signed me up for my next film. It’s amazing, I [was] worrying about my rent when I left Sundance because I put everything I had into this film.

O: Let me be candid – MTV doesn’t exactly have the best reputation when it comes to cutting edge film, though Election was fairly well received. Are you confident that they’ll have what it takes to get this film out in the way it should be?

J: I have faith in MTV. They were definitely one of the studios that was vying for the film that did not demand a re-cut or even discuss possibly changing the ending. If they’re taking up this film, they’re guaranteeing some investment in this film, I think the worst case scenario is still going to be very positive.

O: Were they at all concerned with how to market a film with an all-Asian American cast?

J: The first meeting we went into, they didn’t even talk about the Asian American demographics and that’s a compliment in itself. I was the one who brought it up – "look, there is a community that is starving for Asian American films" and they were ready to bid for this film without even considering.

O: Were all your potential backers as open?

J: You know, I met with Asian American investors and they’re telling me to change these characters to Caucasians. That definitely surprised me. That’s the struggle of being an Asian American. I can’t totally fault them – they were trying to be good business people and they have their own opinions but at the same, I wish they would have some more faith. That was one of most unpleasant experiences on this whole journey.

O: This film will probably hit the theatres towards the end of the year. Between now and then though, Better Luck Tomorrow will be screening for at least three different Asian American film festivals. You’re now in a position where you wouldn’t necessarily have to do that for publicity’s sake but I suspect the festival circuit is still very important to you.

J: We’re educating Hollywood – they don’t really know the existence of Asian American film festivals and I feel like it’s important that it play at festivals. If you neglect [them] it’s not right. Visual Communications was a big part in being able to help [the film] so I felt like it has to play in the community. The great thing is that we can do that and it can still cross over.

O: Speaking on that, it’s clearly been very difficult for most Asian American films to cross over with the exception of something like Joy Luck Club which Better Luck Tomorrow is clearly nothing alike. When you distributed Shopping For Fangs, it didn’t do as well as anyone would have wanted. Do you think things have changed enough now?

J: I did learn a lot from Shopping for Fangs about distribution. I don’t think things have gotten easier, but at the same time I think there’s been this growth in Asian American cinema. It’s also about the right match and helping the distributors learn that there might be a crossover. But the thing is, it’s up to us to do it. You don’t sit there and wait for the studios to figure it out – you got out there and do it. This is an issue that goes beyond the Asian American community, but I think it’s especially pertinent to the Asian American community.

O: What’s interesting about your film is that your characters are all Asian American, but they don’t spend the film being self-conscious about it in the way that most Asian American films seem forced to be. Shopping for Fangs was much the same way. Why haven’t there been more Asian American films like these where ethnic identity is NOT the sole focus?

J: It is so hard to actually get a film, to raise the money to make a film that a lot of times only certain films of Asian American content get the funding. I also think it’s a maturity with Asian Ameican cinema. I was talking to a filmmaker – he made one of the early Asian American films – and he literally thought they were going to go bankrupt, and if they were going to go do that, they were going to put as many messages as they could into that film. I can’t speak for [all Asian American filmmakers] but when you have the opportunity to speak, you’re eager to get that message across. We’re at a point now where we don’t need to do it because it’s already been very well done. It exists, people know about it. For us, I think it’s time to move on.

--O.W.

PROFILE: BETTER LUCK TOMORROW

Preface: I produced this piece for KQED's Pacific Time program back before Better Luck Tomorrow screened at the SFIAFF in 2002 but after the whole Sundance debacle. The piece includes interviews with director Justin Lin and actor Roger Fan.

THE PROFILE (originally aired on KQED's Pacific Time).

--O.W.