usually when i go watch asian american stuff (i am asian american), i cringe at the following: preachiness, bad acting, east meets west simplified, the eternal culture struggle played out in a cheeseball way, overbearing asian parents and their kids who want to be poor artists, and references to food. yes, and this film had tiny pinches of all of these, but didn't leave me upset or cringing. I really think the director/actor tom huang, did a really great job of balancing the expectations of your stereotypical culture/ coming of age type movie and digging into the multi-layered facets of all the characters. There was San (Huang) the accultured son who wants to be an English major and has this guilt complex about not speaking Chinese and is made more aware of his "Differentness". Judi, the white girl from Kansas who you think is going to be this overprivledged ditz. Rick, this white guy who has never seen people of color before and manages to put his foot in his mouth through the whole first half of the movie, and Tonisha, the overworked African American student who commutes from Compton. Huang does a great job of showing all 4 characters arc, and has a great eye for detailing college life. there are some low budget glitches in this movie, such as some sound problems, scratchy film, awkward cinematography, and scenes were you can tell they were low on extras and had to spread them out through the lecture hall-- but for the most part, all forgivable. A great film for high school students to see.
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