The heart of the film Saving Face is the relationship between its main characters, Wil and her mother, Gao, both struggling under the weight of each other's and society's expectations, which is shown with humor and insight. It acknowledges the beauty of the bond especially when it transcends blood and moves into the realm of friendship and understanding. All's well until the mother creates her own social-suicide moment, ending up pregnant and unmarried at the age of 48. Wil's grandfather kicks his daughter out for failing to identify the baby's father, and she lands on Wil's doorstep. Ever the dutiful daughter, Wil takes her mother in, sharing a bed with her. But she isn't officially out to mom, which forces the already-closeted Wil to pull the door even tighter.
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While hiding her own romantic life, Wil is trying to fashion one for her mother, helping line up date after date as her mother once did for her. It is a clever and telling transfer of roles.
Wil is forced to choose between her love and her family. It helps that her mother is making the same difficult choices at the same time, another of life's odd coincidences. "Saving Face" isn't afraid to savor its Chinese roots either, allowing its major characters to spend half the film speaking Mandarin and introducing viewers to the interplay of transplanted Chinese society. It's a refreshing, non-Hollywood take on another cultural rooted in the American tradition. Wil, who has been resisting Ma’s fix-ups for years, now finds herself searching for a husband for Ma in order
While hiding her own romantic life, Wil is trying to fashion one for her mother, helping line up date after date as her mother once did for her. It is a clever and telling transfer of roles.
Wil is forced to choose between her love and her family. It helps that her mother is making the same difficult choices at the same time, another of life's odd coincidences. "Saving Face" isn't afraid to savor its Chinese roots either, allowing its major characters to spend half the film speaking Mandarin and introducing viewers to the interplay of transplanted Chinese society. It's a refreshing, non-Hollywood take on another cultural rooted in the American tradition. Wil, who has been resisting Ma’s fix-ups for years, now finds herself searching for a husband for Ma in order