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Making A Difference In Film Tze-Ngo Chun a filmmaker on a mission to break stereotypes Major films today featuring Asian Americans are almost non-existent. There was "The Joy Luck Club," which had a predominantly Asian American cast that made its debut in movie theaters across the United States in 1993, but that was eight years ago. Since then, there has yet to be another Asian American feature film of the same caliber. What you'll most likely see when you go to the theaters today are films such as "Rush Hour 2" (which opened in August), "Kiss of the Dragon," and "Romeo Must Die." What all of these films have in common is that they're kung fu flicks, and the star actors hale from Asia. These films are fun and action-packed, but the danger with them lies in their portrayal of Asians. It further perpetuates the existing stereotypes of Asians and Asian Americans as kung-fu fighting foreigners. Responding to the influx of kung fu flicks, Tze-Ngo Chun, a 21-year-old filmmaker and college student at Columbia University wrote in one of several e-mails that made up our interview, "This is really a difficult issue. What we are watching when we see Jackie Chan and Jet Li movies are really a strange form of exploitation. In these kung fu movies, these Chinese actors are really playing into a two-fold stereotype of Chinese males -- that they can only express themselves through kung fu and that they are completely asexual. For example, look at the end of "Romeo Must Die." The supposedly romantic relationship between the two [lead actors] ends with Aaliyah hugging Jet Li and giving him a kiss on the cheek. It's ridiculous. If Jet Li were any other race, but Asian, there would have been a full on kiss." Chun wants to change that. He hopes to make a difference with his feature-length film project "My Father Is Bruce Lee," which deals with the experiences of a Chinese-American man. "I hope that when the film finally gets made it will be the first film that I've seen to deal with the experience of the Chinese-American male - the feelings of inferiority, their relationship with women, and their ability to express themselves," Chun said. He started writing the screenplay for the film 16 months ago. The premise of the story involves a man named Andrew Chen who must overcome his insecurities, which range from his physical appearance to his abilities at being a good husband and father. To do this, Andrew flees to his birthplace of Hong Kong where learns more about himself and his past. The screenplay was influenced by some personal experiences Chun had. He'd just gone through a very bad breakup. "I was feeling very depressed and horrible about my mind and body. So I started working out and reading a lot of Bruce Lee's philosophy, as well as about Yukio Mishima's life," Chun confessed. He had read other Asian American books, but the philosophies of Lee, an influential martial artist, and Mishima, a Japanese novelist, made an impact on him. Chun calls Lee and Mishima his heroes, but he made a conscious decision to distance himself from their philosophies while he was writing the screenplay "so that a more personal story could shine through," he said. "I wanted to write a very personal story framed against certain cultural occurrences specific to Chinese-Americans," Chun explained. To illustrate that, he opens and ends his film with a Chinese style wedding that takes place in an American church. "I wanted to emphasize Chinese traditions and Chinese-American culture without making it exotic." Chun was born in Chicago and grew up in Boston. He spent his summers traveling to Hong Kong and Singapore when he was a child, staying with his grandparents. While there, he'd sit and watch Chinese movies. "Sometimes when people ask me where I'm from, I slip and say I'm from Hong Kong, which isn't really true," he said. At the age of 16, Chun became involved with filmmaking. Since then he's made about 4 to 5 digital features, lots of shorts, and music videos. After watching films directed by Wong Kar-Wai, a Hong Kong director who has directed films such as "In the Mood For Love," Chun was inspired to go into filmmaking. "He [Wong Kar-Wai] showed me that one could re-create mood and get inside a character's head through certain cinematic language. Right now, I'm more interested in the work of John Cassavetes, the king of independent directors. He deals with his characters in a non-judgmental manner that does not reduce the character to a single facet of his or her personality," he said. Chun finds it very important to show a character's full range of personality. "This is an important choice when one is a director and screenwriter. I try very hard not to judge my characters and hope that the audience will give every character a chance. Also, by not reducing the characters to a single facet of their personality, Cassavetes made sure that while race was an issue in one of his movies ("Shadows"), it was not the main issue. The audience saw the characters for who they were, not what they were. This is the same issue I was dealing with when writing "My Father Is Bruce Lee," Chun went on to explain. Chun hopes to have the film shot during the summer of 2001 in Hong Kong and New York so that it will be ready for consideration in various 2002 festival circuits. He's received support for the film from New York, but is trying to get Boston and Hong Kong more involved with the project. For more information and/or if you'd like to help, you can contact Chun at (646) - 258 - 3444 or send him email at bestcafeproductions@hotmail.com. printed in the Sampan, New England's Only Chinese-English Newspaper, on September 7, 2001 |