Monday, September 22, 1997 UCLA graduate students collaborate to
create GenerAsian X thriller STUDENTS: Distinctive styles of two
filmmakers unite in ‘Shopping for Fangs’ blends
By William Li
Daily Bruin Contributor
Let’s sit down and watch a nice Asian American film about … a
werewolf? This is the bizarre premise for a film by UCLA graduate
students Quentin Lee and Justin Lin, who met in UCLA’s film school.
Their first collaborative feature film, "Shopping for Fangs,"
screened this summer at Electric Shadows, UCLA’s Pan-Asian film
festival, before heading to the Toronto International Film
Festival, which was held Sept. 9-10.
Two different filmmakers with two distinct styles, Lee and Lin
share a common interest in GenerAsian X. Loosely defined as the
present twentysomething generation of Asian Americans, GenerAsian
Xers resemble mainstream America more than any previous
generation.
"I think GenerAsian X has the broadest point of connection," Lee
says. "We still have our differences, we still have a little bit of
what you call cultural roots, but we can connect to the general
mainstream society and that’s what we should be doing."
And they are. After the Electric Shadows screening, all kinds of
people – not just Asian Americans – approached Lee and Lin to
commend them on their film. This universality is groundbreaking
because previous mainstream Asian American films have mainly dealt
with traditional issues like family and immigration.
"Shopping for Fangs" is a psychological thriller about Phil, a
lonely accounting clerk, and Katherine, a mild-mannered and
disillusioned housewife. Phil starts having a strange hair problem
and thinks he’s turning into a werewolf. Katherine loses her
wallet, pager and cell phone during one of her intermittent
blackouts. Obsessed with Katherine, Trinh, a quirky waitress, sends
her photos and love notes. The stories of Phil and Katherine
intersect as they attempt to break out from the banality of their
ordinary lives.
The film is a fusion of the filmmakers’ different artistic
styles. Lee directed Katherine’s cerebral story while Lin directed
Phil’s more visceral tale. Lee and Lin also decided to be
filmmakers for different reasons. For Lee, it was the horror movies
that he watched as a child.
"(My mom and I) always watched horror movies on TV together so I
started making my own horror movies with an 8-mm camera and that’s
pretty much how I got into it," Lee reminisces. "I got my friends
over (and) put blood all over them."
Growing up in Orange County, Lin found the movies he saw too
meager to satisfy him. Lin says, "The movies I was exposed to were
mainstream, and some of them were good but most of the time they’re
structured all pretty much the same narratively."
Lin decided he could do better. So he went to UCLA to earn a
bachelor’s degree in film production and is currently working on
his master of fine arts degree in film directing and
production.
Lee also came to UCLA to pursue a master of fine arts degree in
film. Lee’s early videos have received awards from the New England
Film Festival, the Hong Kong Independent Video Competition, UCLA
and the American Film Institute.
Despite such global appeal, he could not get one of his videos
to screen in Japan. The country banned "To Ride a Cow" en route to
the Tokyo Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. With scenes of full
frontal nudity, the video earned Lee the nickname "queer video bad
boy."
"I want to be a controversial filmmaker because in a way, it’s
good for publicity’s sake," Lee says. "Controversy always brings
out very strong reactions and that’s what I want in my films."
Lee is now planning a comedy-drama about two 17-year-old Asian
Canadian boys, one of them straight, the other gay. Lin has a
script that will hopefully be turned into a film next year.
"It’s about this Asian American family on their annual Christmas
trip to Vegas," Lin explains. "They stop by a small town to get a
bite to eat. The son gets in a little scuffle with one of the local
boys and accidentally kills him. The family freaks out, throws the
dead body in the trunk and they make a run for it."
"The best part about filmmaking is putting the whole scheme
together," says Lee. "But I don’t really like going out to get
food."
That’s not surprising since shopping for food is definitely not
as fun and stimulating as "Shopping for Fangs."