As the year comes to a close and students take a break from
UCLA, Hollywood continues to evolve. For the first time in film
history, Asian Americans are directing, producing, and staring in
their own nationally distributed motion pictures telling the
stories of young Asian Americans.
Many students and faculty members on campus have long been
waiting for films that have developed Asian American characters.
However, Hollywood films traditionally have relegated Asian
American actors into token supporting roles or portrayed them as
stereotypical kung-fu characters.
Movies like “Better Luck Tomorrow” and the soon to
be released “Charlotte Sometimes” are now realistically
depicting the lives of young Asian Americans.
“I made the first Asian American film that deals
exclusively with sex and relationships in our community,”
said Eric Byler writer and director of “Charlotte
Sometimes.” “This film demands that you allow the same
level of complexity for its characters as you would for somebody
that looks just like you, regardless of your race.”
Byler hopes his film will be as well received as Justin
Lin’s “Better Luck Tomorrow,” which according to
MTV films has made $4 million in theaters and stands to make much
more after its DVD and video release. Lin’s movie, made on a
skeleton budget of $250,000, was almost never released in theaters
due to the risk of distribution costs for the film.
“Asian American filmmakers have always been waiting for
that one breakthrough film that would prove Asian Americans can
make viable movies that can stand up in a mainstream market,”
said Professor Robert Nakamura, Director of the UCLA
EthnoCommunications Center. “Even more importantly,
we’ve been waiting for a film that proves there is an Asian
American audience, and so far it seems “˜Better Luck
Tomorrow’ has been able to do both.”
The modest success of “Better Luck Tomorrow” has
come largely from its appeal to young Asian Americans, who have
been waiting for a film to tell their story of growing up and
living life in America today.
“Every time I see an Asian face in a movie, my heart
jumps. I am always looking for the Asian extra, and when I went to
watch (“˜Better Luck Tomorrow’), I was enamored by the
Asian faces that filled the screen,” said fourth-year
psychology student Jenni Trang-Lee. “It was a story of kids
figuring out what tomorrow brings, and I felt a deep connection to
the characters even though they were different from me in many
ways.”
The kind of longing that many Asian Americans feel for seeing
someone that looks like them on the big screen is simple enough to
understand. More complex though, is the fact that some Asian
American movie-goers are disappointed when they can not relate to a
character in these films beyond their appearance.
“Some Asian Americans have actually gotten angry because
they can’t personally identify with my character in
“˜Charlotte Sometimes,'” said Kimberly-Rose
Walter, an actress in the film. “Yet, when these same people
go to see mainstream films they don’t feel that absolute need
to identify with every character.”
That double standard exemplifies the the necessity for such a
genre of film. In a country where so much of the idea of what it is
to be American is taken from characters and stories in movies, many
Asian Americans feel they should be better represented in
Hollywood.
“If you don’t see Asians the same way you see
yourself or other Americans, then you just aren’t going to
appreciate “˜Charlotte Sometimes,'” Byler said.
“And I think that it has been encouraging because most
non-Asians really relate to and enjoy the film, and in the end
it’s so much more a story about humanity then it is about
ethnicity.”