Saving Face

Locations
Call Number: DVD Comedy Saving
On Shelf At: Downtown Library, Westgate Branch

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 1st Floor 1-week checkout	DVD Comedy Saving	1-week checkout	On Shelf
Downtown 1st Floor 1-week checkout	DVD Comedy Saving	1-week checkout	On Shelf
Westgate Adult A/V 1-week checkout	DVD Comedy Saving	1-week checkout	On Shelf

Originally released as a motion picture in 2004.
Special features: Commentary with director Alice Wu; deleted scenes; Sundance diary; making-of featurette.
Joan Chen, Michelle Krusiec , Lynn Chen, Jin Wang, Guang Lan Koh, Jessica Hecht, Ato Essandoh.
Wilhelmina is a Chinese-American lesbian and a young surgeon who has kept her sexual orientation secret from her conservative Chinese community in New York. But when her widowed mother becomes pregnant and is kicked out by her own parents, Wil suddenly has to juggle her mother's secrets with her own. Wil has a new romance with Vivian who is a ballet dancer and the daughter of Wil's boss.
DVD, region 1, widescreen presentation; Dolby Digital.

REVIEWS & SUMMARIES

Summary / Annotation

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

An Asian-American Lesbian Romance submitted by Jen Chapin-Smith on July 22, 2013, 9:35pm This entertaining, although sometimes sad, movie explores the pressures on Chinese American women to conform to their culture's standards about dating and marriage.
Wilhelmina's family is always trying to set her up with Chinese American men during the weekly community dance. She attends anyway, just to make her mother happy. One night at the dance, she meets Vivian. The two fall in love. Vivian wants to be out, but Wil can't.
Meanwhile, Wil's mother has broken all the rules by becoming pregnant even though she's not married. Her parents kick her out of their home, so she moves in with her daughter, and becomes friends with her daughter's gay male friend, although neither speaks the other's language. Wil's grandparents try to force their pregnant daughter to reveal her lover's name or at least to marry some man--any man--before the birth.
SPOILER ALERT: The movie ends happily for everyone, so feel free to watch it and have fun.

Good submitted by zmclaugh on August 15, 2018, 7:31am A good romance movie that really gets into what it means to be Chinese American. I really enjoyed this one and definitely recommend it.

Finally, a Sapphic Rom-Com We Deserve! submitted by Meginator on August 11, 2021, 4:34pm I don’t know how this hidden gem escaped my radar for so long, but I’m ecstatic that I have finally discovered it! This film takes several familiar rom-com tropes and tweaks them slightly to fit a different cultural context, creating something that is at once comforting and completely unique. The primary couple has incredible chemistry and the main characters’ struggles feel genuine, due both to excellent performances and to a smart script that injects new dramatic depth and personal growth into a genre that often relies on somewhat hollow thematic content. I love that the film is bilingual and explores Chinese-American experiences, which are sorely underrepresented in mainstream American filmmaking. This film is cute, it is deep, and it is outstanding all around. Do not miss this one.

Saving Face submitted by yufamily on July 27, 2023, 11:36am Alice Wu did a wonderful job! It's hard to accept a out of wedlock pregnancy as well as being gay in the Chinese community. It's great the family is able to stay together and fight for their version of happiness.