Trying to get back into the blogging groove and saw that there’s been a steady stream of heated messages squatting the inbox from people concerning Wayne Wang’s comments about me and other Asian American filmmakers during his press junket for Snow Flower and the Secret Fan.
I usually don’t comment on this sort of stuff but these folks seemed particularly worked up by it. They called him names and wanted him to apologize. Here’s a sample of what he said:
On the state of Asian American cinema…
“If you think about how many Asian American films are made in a truthful way, there are none. If I go to a studio and say “I want to make Lisa See’s book” they would laugh at me because there is no audience. They’ll say, they’ll make a Latino film or a Tyler Perry film before they get to an Asian American film. That’s why it’s pretty rare that Florence Sloan and Wendi Murdoch would back a film like this (Snow Flower) and get it done in China. Ang Lee started with films like these but gave up on it. Justin Lin has given up since Better Luck Tomorrow.”
On the projects we “younger guys” choose…
“We can’t sell Asian because there isn’t a box office for it. Nobody’s interested in telling a good story because they’ll just lose money on it. All these younger guys who are coming up and doing movies like Fast and Furious”
On Chinese imports like John Woo’s Red Cliff…
“They keep making the same kind of thing — these big, epic sword-fighting period dramas. I don’t think a lot of these filmmakers are great storytellers.”
After reading the comments, I’m here to say, chill. It’s all good. No need for apologies. He’s not a “hypocrite” or a “hater.” Sure I was a bit confused at first. After all, Wayne and I have had conversations over meals about the struggles of making Asian American films in the past (and I’m pretty sure he doesn’t have Alzheimer’s). But then I realized… Maybe he is saying this out of pure love.
Maybe he is the Tiger Mom I never had.
And just like a good Tiger Mom, he just wants what is best for me. For us. So throw logic, common sense and hell…facts out the window!
See, I never knew I had given up on making Asian American films since BLT. I guess all the Asian American projects I’m developing, producing, and have made since BLT are just not enough. Hell, this site is not enough, fellow Offenders! We can always do better. No more screwing around, running up our credit cards and going into debt (btw, does this make Wendi Murdoch a Sugar Tiger Daddy now?). We just have to focus on working tirelessly to make Tiger Mom proud.
John Woo, even though you’re a global cinematic icon, you can still do better. I believe you can tell a story. Wayne just wants you to challenge yourself. So no more sleepovers with Chow Yun Fat.
Ang Lee, even with two Oscars, you should never give up on anything. Wayne cares. So no more playdates with James Schamus. After all, John Ford won four Oscars for directing so you have some catching up to do.
Don’t worry Wayne, I get your message loud and clear. I’m ready to put my own dream aside to please you. My agent is already calling Amy Tan’s people. Bottom line, I’m going to work even harder to make you proud (either that or develop a coke habit). Win-Win, right?
Thank you, Wayne. You complete me as an Asian American. I love you, my Tiger Mom!
(thanks to Offender David for the pix)
I gotta admit I agree with Wayne though. However, you just keep doing your thing. You got strengths of your own. Wayne’s arty, Woo’s edgy, Ang’s classy, and you’re hip. Not a bad list of Asian filmmaker’s styles.
I have to respectfuly disagree with you Eastfist. Wang is an opportunist. Look at his filmography. He hasn’t made anything arty since Smoke.
Damn…I guess I gotta follow my big bro Justin’s footsteps before I even had a chance to “sell out”, do a huge Chinese epic, or win a few Oscars. But we gots to do what we’s gots to do. I’m falling in line, too!!!
(can I get a piece of that Sugar Tiger Mama cash, though? I promise not to use it on the high-end coke. just the garden-variety diet kind.)
(or pot.)
(please?)
Some of what he says is true – in terms of getting an Asian American movie made – and we have all heard it. The whole point is, while that may be his journey, it’s not helpful to bash other directors.
But then again, I had a Tiger Mom, and I’m used to that kind of…um…’love’.
However, the point of what Justin does, is not that he holds himself available only to Asian American audiences, focusing only on API stories – the point is, that he is a ‘MAINSTREAM” Hollywood Director whose films MAKE MONEY and who can put API faces in his films, (in front & behind) in such a way, that it works.
The point is – you cannot keep yourself in the API “Ghetto” so that a group that is NOT (sorry guys, we’re not) as vocal, who is not brand loyal (studies have been done), and a group that really just wants to be seen as American, can – once a year in your particular city – go to an API film festival and see a few films. There’s no money in that. What matters in Hollywood is $$$ – one color, green.
The point IS – is that ultimately, whoever the cast is, whatever the subject matter is, you want to make the best movie you can make – be it Kung Fu, or Cars, or period romances where the Emperor finds out his wife is cheating with a Eunuch or WHATEVER IT IS… kid not being able to afford violin so his father becomes a virtual slave and kid grows up to be Concert Master of Chinese symphony, or EVEN if it is to take four relatively unknown (at the time) beautiful actresses and adapt a book that touched people into a beautiful film….so that several years later you can adapt ANOTHER best seller into a film…
We all just do the best we can do.
I’ve heard him speak a few times, he’s not crazy or anything, but you know…our “parents’ all get annoyed with us at one time or another, my Husband always says, “Success is the greatest revenge and envy is the greatest compliment”
Game, set, match – Justin Lin – for doing what he does in a classy way, using all media avail to make his point, which is that everyone can belong everywhere.
I rarely make comments either…but what Wayne is saying is just facts about the film industry and about what Asian-American actors/actresses filmmakers have done to survive and make a living in the industry, i.e., comedy and action/adventure films. That in turn continues to reinforce Asian film stereotypes and it becomes a vicious circle. Underlying Wayne’s “complaints” are very simple…you want to change the industry you have got to prove to Hollywood you can make a film that is about “real life” with Asian themes and actors and make money with it because Hollywood really only cares about money (hence we get big, poorly written special effects films and endless sequels)…you have to be the change you want to see and that is what Wayne has done with films like Joy Luck Club and continues to do with Snowflower. Don’t hate him or what he has to say, he is a crusader for change that will benefit every Asian-American in the film industry. After tasting big success, perhaps it’s just to hard for filmmakers like Justin Lin to use his clout to make a “real” story again like “Better Luck Tomorrow” when the powers that be are hanging big bucks in your face. That is his choice which is neither good nor bad, it just is…but there are “real” Asian films being made and the more support the Asian community gives those films via their dollars at the box office and film festivals the sooner we reshape the industry and breakdown the barriers.
I have nothing to add except that your Photoshop skills could use some work
And I thought what Wang was saying wasn’t already common knowledge… LOL
I dare say that the youtube kids are bigger than either Wayne Wang or Justin Lin.
any of you actually follow other blogs instead of the famously coined “Asian bubble” of yomyomf?
even the Joo York Times have commented that Asians on youtube are huge.
the only explanation for the lack of Asians in haolewood is plain simple racism.
stop being apologists like Scott’s asiansonfilm website is. is Eriksson even Asian, hapa?
If Wayne Wang would “quit making Asian-American films” it would benefit us all. Justin, keep doing your thing.
Justin Lin > Wayne Wang any day.
@David: what else can Wayne Wang make besides chop-suey white people appeasing movies? that’s probably the only thing he’s got going and he’s going to milk it for all it’s worth.
at least Justin Lin can keep making more fast and furious movies. he and John M Chu should team up like Tarantino and Rodriguez
The fact that he is making “Snow Flower and the Secret Fan” undermines any legitimacy he could possibly have. It’s about a woman who can only bond with another woman, through a woman’s secret language, who gets beaten by her Chinese husband, and of course, there’s foot-binding. This is not making an Asian American film in a “truthful” way: this is just Joy Luck Club 2: Hating the Asian man with Fans!
It’s unbelievable how so many self-styled “legitimate” AA writers and film-makers can’t accept how politically and factually problematic their work is. Better Luck Tomorrow and Harold and Kumar did more for Asian America than anything Wang or See have ever, or will ever, do.
I totally applaud Justin Lin’s graciousness in taking Wang’s criticism as a call to heighten the visibility of Asian American cinema.
I have mad love for all the directors listed above, and don’t see any reason to knock one down one to prop up another.
Producing a relevant and entertaining piece of work that puts cultural diversity on the big screen has it’s challenges, and frankly, I enjoyed any of the FF films in that vein more than I enjoyed the first 20 minutes of Vanishing Son (before turning it off in disgust).
I’d like to continue seeing more AA films as gritty and pertinent as BLT, and I think that the forum of discourse that YOMYOMF offers on a daily basis provides great fodder for future projects. I think Justin Lin’s head is in the right place.
Dude, TIGER WANG’s gotta eat a sandwich!
At least you try to incorporate and promote Asian American visibility in all of your films — even outside of your comfort zone and via other means. Even voicing it carries much weight. The last few Wayne Wang films weren’t exactly “hits” in quality nor quantity, to say the very least. That’s putting it pretty mildly. Outside of the TJLC movie adaptation, he hasn’t made a worth-your-while film since “Chan Is Missing” — and that was well over a quarter century ago. It’s even classic in its own right. But, “Maid In Manhattan”?!?
He’s washed up and you’re still fresh. No one’s gone as far as you have in pushing the dialogue. I sense a little jealousy in your success, if I may say so. Just a hunch.
At least you have a sense of humor about it.
ang lee playing violin is awesome!
I’m sorry. Wayne Wang is a filmmaker. He is no crusader.
I think Justin buried the lede. He didn’t have a Tiger Mom? **Then how is he so successful, huh?**
Wayne Wang is an artist who happens to be Asian American. I don’t remember him ever saying that he was going to represent and speak for all Asian Americans in his films.
except when his career crashed and burned then he anoints himself the poster boy.
I thought I heard Wayne’s next production is about Donaldina Cameron, the savior of Chinese women from yellow slavery, the progenitor of SF Chinatown’s Cameron House?
I used to like John Ford movies until I found out he was Irish! Yup, his parents were fresh off the boat, and Ford’s not even his real last name. It’s Feeney. Can you believe that shit?
And far as I know, he only set one of his movies – Quiet Man – in Ireland, and even then, he had an American (John Wayne) in the lead.
So to you, John Ford, I say: you are an effing Uncle Tom race traitor!!
Me, I happen to have six fingers on my left hand – do you think I write screenplays that have anything to do with people who are not six fingered? Hell no! And why? ’cause I’m keepin’ it real… for my peeps. Peace out.
if an Asian director can make a movie about savage Indians kidnapping a white woman and have a Asian cowboy going around shooting all the Injuns then we’ll see about the movie “six fingered race neutral man”
to answer the topic question. very chinky of wang. ooooh…i like it. i think i just found the name to my chinese restaurent.
Wayne Wang’s next project may be about Charlie Chan:
http://www.smmirror.com/?ajax#mode=single&view=32545
” A new book has come out recently and it’s about the real Charlie Chan named Chang Apana who was a Honolulu detective in the 30’s and I’m interested in adapting that book into a movie.”
justin, i heart you! thanks for showing that you can respectfully disagree.
Hi, It`s my first time, when I`m writing on blog. I couldn`t find better contact with You Justin Lin, so… I`m here
I want to talk about your next movie.. Terminator… I am the biggest fan of this saga, I have watched those movies many many times so I know something about them. I was very happy when I saw on internet a notification that it`s gonna be a new part of terminator. But I wanted it, to be the best movie after the second part Judgement Day. So please… make a call to the James Cameron… talk about the screenplay. It`s very important for many fans, that this film will be not only simple movie with many explosions… We are waiting for a movie just like T2 with good screenplay, we`re waiting for many T-800 “naked”, and actions… 
You have to see the problem with the 3 and 4 part of terminator… Their screenplay was too simple… There was no deeper meaning. T3 was the worst, T4 was better becouse the special effects were great, and the screenplay was better, but in confrontation with T1 and T2 it was nothing.. It`s a chance for You to make a good, historical movie… Please make that happend 
I`m sorry for my english…
Best Regards,
yros
” A new book has come out recently and it’s about the real Charlie Chan named Chang Apana who was a Honolulu detective in the 30’s and I’m interested in adapting that book into a movie.”
This would be a brilliant movie. Chang Apana was pure badass…bullwhip carrying (no gun) and nothing like Charlie Chan, although CC was based on him. However, WW is not the director I’d pray for (although I do appreciate his work and what he has accomplished over the years). In order to sell what the industry will say is the “non-commercial” (read that as “too Asian”) side of such a project, it needs a hip action edge to it and a very “now” vibe even though it would be a period piece.
[...] laughed at Roger’s illuminating comment as I remember Offender Justin talked about how Wayne was the Tiger Mom for Asian American [...]
[...] Two major bits of news happened behind-the-scenes in August. First, on the heels of the success of Fast Five, Justin signed a first-look film deal with Universal Pictures. And keeping it all in the family, he hired our own Elaine (who had previously worked as an exec for HBO and Fox) as the President of Production for his Barnstorm Pictures shingle. Some of the initial projects being developed include a sci-fi flick to be directed by Justin’s former assistant Robert Glickert and a film about the Japanese American 442nd unit in World War II. Justin also took the time to offer a tongue-in-cheek response to Snow Flower and the Secret Fan director Wayne Wang’s statement that Justin had given up on “Asian America.” [...]