But when talking recently to Leah Lewis, the star of The Half of It, along with Michelle Krusiec and Lynn Chen from Saving Face, what comes up is both a feeling of greater opportunity and uncertainty with regard to whether it will last. “I was surprised by how many people would mark the film [on their survey] as excellent, said they were conservative, but then when asked if they’d recommended to a friend, they wrote no, ‘because I’m okay with this, but my friends would not be,'” she said. “Do I think everyone has that? Maggie hasn't told her, she's lesbian. 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Instead, it became a screenplay she wrote in just three days while taking a screenwriting class at the University of Washington. Ellie’s life is a series of slights, only some of them actually meant to wound, but the film takes care to emphasize how much time and space its characters have to change. “Even then,” Wu said. Like “Saving Face,” Wu wanted to direct it, but worried that Hollywood still hadn’t gotten hip to the value and appeal of diverse stories and creators. Speaking over Zoom from her home in San Francisco this month, she recalled the aftermath of her debut. “Surely, with my resources, there’s something else that I could be applying myself toward.“. You put it out there, everyone’s gonna have the reaction.”. The Saving Face director left Hollywood after making her lesbian rom-com. She went with Netflix. Directed by Alice Wu. Sign up here to get it nightly. OK, which one of you virgins lit the candle again? The presence of Ma affects the personal life of Wil, who is in love with the daughter of her boss at the hospital, the dancer Vivian Shing. Once her grandfather has promised that her mother would only return to Flushing remarried or proving that it was an immaculate conception, Wil tries to find a Chinese bachelor to marry Ma. The Half of It owes its existence to Donald Trump. Growing up queer, the arc of love can feel tragic. By clicking accept, you accept the use of all cookies and your information for the purposes mentioned above. Handling : Denne dokumentaren følger en britisk-pakistansk plastikkirurg som drar til Pakistan for å hjelpe kvinnelige ofre for syreangrep. She began work on it, but “The Half of It” remained at the forefront of her heart and mind. Her mom got better (she’s doing great), and she saw the end of a long-term relationship. We’re currently experiencing a big moment for Asian-American film, if one whose successes have skewed heavily toward the East Asian and, within that, the Chinese-American — what with Jon M. Chu’s hit, the arthouse dominance of Lulu Wang’s The Farewell, the documentary awards racked up by Bing Liu’s Minding the Gap, and Cathy Yan and Chloé Zhao helming superhero sagas. A drama centered on two women who engage in a dangerous relationship during South Africa's apartheid era. It’s a film about Wil (Michelle Krusiec), a semi-closeted surgical resident whose romantic life becomes increasingly complicated when her mother (Chen) moves in with her, pregnant with a baby whose father she won’t name. “Everything that happens in the last half-hour betrays the canny, hardheaded perspective of what came before,” Stephen Holden wrote in the New York Times. New TV Shows on Netflix. They wanted Wu, and they wanted her film. Saving Face (445) IMDb 7.4 1h 37min 2005 X-Ray R "Wil" Pang (Michelle Krusiec), is constantly balancing her career as a surgeon and her duties as a daughter. Those people are never gonna be like, let’s go to the theater to watch this movie, but privately in all their houses, they might watch it.”. This article was featured in One Great Story, New York’s reading recommendation newsletter. “I didn’t say this to her, but in my head I was like, ‘I’ve left the industry.’” Wu took care of her mom, taught long-form improv, and lived thriftily off the investments and the savings she’d put together from her two careers. ‘Ms Marvel': ‘Bad Boys for Life’ Duo, Oscar Winner Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy Among Directors, Netflix Challenger Doc: How The Filmmakers Found Redemption and Optimism From Tragedy, My streaming gem: why you should watch I Am Jonas, A Celebration of LGBTQ+ Stories On Screen Watchlist, Favorite Mandarin-language films and television. “I don’t fully understand what’s happening with our country. New Movies on Netflix. It was the first Hollywood movie that centered on Chinese-Americans since The Joy Luck Club (1993).. Documentaries - 4.0/5 Watch on Netflix How To Unblock Every Movie & TV Show on Netflix No Matter Where You Are. The film focuses on Wilhelmina, a young Chinese-American surgeon; her unwed, pregnant mother; and her dancer girlfriend. This was before Netflix established its filmmaker-forward bonafides with movies like “Roma,” “Marriage Story,” and “The Irishman.” She didn’t want “The Half of It” to get overlooked as some sort of teen-leaning trifle, twisted into something it wasn’t. Directed by Alice Wu. It was the first Hollywood movie that centered on Chinese-Americans since The Joy Luck Club (1993). People were like, ‘What’s next?’ And I was like, ‘I don’t know. Watch offline. When Alice Wu’s first film, the instant queer classic “Saving Face,” premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2004, no one was more surprised than her. That includes the “vocal minority” of potential viewers who seem to already have a stake in how the film’s complicated relationships play out (mostly, people seem to hope that Ellie and Aster end up together, the rare happily-ever-after for a queer film). “The Half of It” represents Wu’s return to filmmaking more than 15 years after the premiere of “Saving Face.” With Netflix’s wide international reach and a heartwarming and relevant story, it will hopefully introduce the director not only to new audiences, but will open doors in Hollywood. She wanted to write it as novel that would reflect her own journey coming out to her Chinese mother, a major life event that did not go well. Following the success of its frothy YA romance “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before,” Netflix is doubling down on young adult-focused features with girls in the lead, and this time it’s courting queer audiences.