If you’re anything like me you consider “Saving Face” among the best lesbian rom-coms of all time. Sweet, well-acted and nicely-paced, the film was a refreshing look at being queer as a young, modern Asian-American woman growing up in a tight-knit immigrant community. You know, the kind of stuff Hollywood doesn’t even do that much of even when it’s straight stories.
So now, 15 years later, we finally get a follow-up film from “Saving Face” filmmaker Alice Wu. (Yes, I too raised an eyebrow at the fact that it took Wu 15 years to get a chance at a follow-up film when rando white male directors get one film into a festival and are promptly signed to helm a three-film, billion-dollar franchise.)
Netflix has picked up the project, called “The Half of It,” which is being billed as a teenage retelling of Cyrano de Bergerac with a queer twist.
It’s about “a shy, introverted, Chinese-American, straight-A student finds herself helping the school jock woo the girl they both secretly love. In the process, each teaches the other about the nature of love as they find connection in the most unlikely of places.”
As delightful as “Saving Face” was, I have no doubt “The Half of It” will be a wonderful, and very very welcome, addition to the LGBTQ pantheon of movies. Now, if we can get Alice to make her next movie in fewer than 15 years, we’ll really be getting somewhere.
Bound, Saving Face, Imagine Me and You. My top 3, in that order.
ReplyDeleteBesides not taking 15 years between films I would also like Wu to stick to adults. Coming out stories are great but lesbians do more than come out and die, there’s a lot of stories that can be told about what happens in between these two events that seem to comprise the bulk of lesbian tv/film... I would love more adult stories
ReplyDeleteHave you seen the "Drunk lesbians watch" where they enjoy Saving Face with the two actresses? Worth it!
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