Saving Face, the recent film by Alice Wu, trades on cultural stereotypes and their funnier original characters; it shows an established American subculture that speaks little English; and it shows two women falling in love. (And onto the floor, part of a dance lesson in falling gracefully. Perhaps my favorite scene.)
While watching it recently my head recognized the movie’s non-epic qualities, but my heart didn’t care, and still doesn’t. Even when Saving Face gave in to a too-storybook storybook ending I was glad, because I got to watch two Asian-American women sight each other unexpectedly after a break-up across a crowded dance floor in an iconic movie moment that until then, to my experience, had been reserved for, say, the heterosexual leads in Dirty Dancing, and those of 1,000 black-and-white films. The music swelled, one character made for the other, her target stood frozen in suspense and – joy? Yes, and they danced and made out while their traditional Chinese community did not fall apart around them. Pure schmaltz, thrilling and embarrassing to watch
Sure, the lead characters find happiness by insisting on human connection and following their hearts in non-traditional directions; blah, blah, fine. Saving Face stays with me days later not because it demonstrated the triumph of the human spirit but because it unapologetically showed two likeable, attractive women engaged in the modern mating ritual, without leering or flannel and without sinking under the weight of its message.
I’m pulling for "Saving Face II," perhaps a Massachusetts wedding and these two characters juggling careers, children, their love life. Lots of their love life.