An Asian American actor stands before a panel during an audition, plunging into a scene eagerly, before being cut off by the director: “So … listen, Suk Kim is a foreign exchange student. So can we please see an Asian accent? I don”˜t have much time here.”
So begins “Why Am I Doing This?,” a film written, directed and produced by UCLA alumnus Tom Huang, who also stars in the film. It is an entertaining, though lengthy, chronicle of the difficulty of overcoming modern stereotypes to succeed in Hollywood.
Tony Chang (played by Huang), aspires to become a bona fide actor, a formidable challenge because of the lack of substantial roles for Asian Americans, and is instead perpetually pinned to Asian stereotype roles.
When a fellow struggling actor tells him about how his casting director asked about Asian guys for a new CSI spin-off, Tony scoffs, “What, do they want Chinese nerd No. 3 or something?”
In the comedy circuit, Tony’s African American roommate, Lester Niles (Anthony Montgomery), regularly hits open mic nights and earns applause from the audience, only to have industry types from Fox and HBO continually tell him that he needs to be “more black” and “edgier,” a la Chris Rock or Martin Lawrence.
Apart from the main plot, which interchanges between Tony’s and Lester’s highs and lows as each new opportunity arrives, the film attempts to move in too many directions with its subplots about family and cultural dynamics, which sometimes detract from the film’s main message.
Tony’s complications include his aggressive thug-wannabe younger brother Danny (Dion Basco) and manipulation by the attractive but perma-drunk Amber (Emma Caulfield of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” fame).
Lester struggles with his responsibility to his insecure, demanding mother (Valerie Pettiford) and his obstacles in pursuing a relationship with his good friend Nira (Sheetal Sheth), which come in the form of her outlandishly racist Indian father (Gerry Bednob, from “The 40 Year Old Virgin”).
The film is attention-grabbing from the start with its inventive, engaging effects, such as the creative computer pop-up window of different folders labeled with varying Asian accents. It materializes to represent how Tony reluctantly pulls out his repertoire of accents in order to please the casting director, eventually “clicking” on “Traditional Asian Accent.”
Huang has the good sense to let the gimmicky effects taper off eventually. However, other problems start to creep in as the film develops.
While the film attempts to transcend antiquated notions of race in Hollywood, it ironically lingers for too long on Tony’s father, who has a heavy Asian accent (a real one, Tony tells us) and Nira’s racist father.
Although initially entertaining, the fathers’ extended screen time becomes uncomfortable and undermines Tony’s mission for a non-stereotypical role.
After all, the Asian father’s role was obviously written for an Asian male who cannot speak much English, and Bednob, in the racist father role, can be seen doing the exact same “angry Indian man” act in countless movies.
However, the film deserves praise for its realistic portrayal of karaoke, off-key and imperfect, and of conversation, with the natural, witty banter between Tony and his date Katie (Lynn Chen) and the jibes between Tony and Lester.
The issues the film addresses are also to be lauded ““ there seriously are too few Asian American roles in television and film, and what few there are seem to be given to the same people every time, as is seen in the film with Tony’s hyper-successful nemesis, Tim Chung (Teddy Chen Culver).
A similar phenomenon is obvious in current films, with the few roles written for young, male Asians either taken by John Cho (“Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle”) or divvied up between Aaron Yoo (“Disturbia”) and Leonardo Nam (“The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants”), who even resemble each other.
Despite its flaws, “Why Am I Doing This?” serves as a strong reminder of the lack of diversity in the Hollywood industry, entertaining along the way with solid laughs and a refusal to cop out to a traditional Hollywood fairy tale ending.
““ Denise Mai
E-mail Mai at dmai@media.ucla.edu.