Face is a 2002
drama film
In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...
directed by
Bertha Bay Sa Pan and co-written by Pan and
Oren Moverman
Oren Moverman (; born July 4, 1966) is an Israeli-American Academy Award-nominated screenwriter, film director, and Emmy Award-winning film producer. He has directed the films '' The Messenger'', ''Rampart'', '' Time Out of Mind'', and '' The Di ...
. It stars
Bai Ling
Bai Ling (, born October 10, 1966) is a Chinese American actress and musician. After acting in numerous Chinese productions, she played small roles in American films such as '' The Crow'' (1994) and '' Nixon'' (1995) before starring as the femal ...
,
Kristy Wu
Kristy Wu (born October 11, 1982) is an American retired actress, best known for her recurring role as Chao-Ahn in the TV series ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' and co-starring as Melissa Wu in '' Flight 29 Down''. Other television credits include ...
,
Kieu Chinh
Kieu Chinh (; born September 3, 1937) is a Vietnamese-American actress, producer, humanitarian, lecturer and philanthropist.
Early life
Dame Kieu Chinh was born on September 3, 1937, in Hanoi as Nguyễn Thị Kiều Chinh.
During World War I ...
,
Treach
Anthony Shawn Criss (born December 2, 1970), better known by his stage name Treach, is an American rapper and actor. He is perhaps best known as the lead rapper of the hip hop group Naughty by Nature.
Early life, family and education
Criss atte ...
,
Ken Leung
Kenneth Leung (born January 21, 1970) is an American actor. Known for his roles on stage and screen, he has gained attention for playing Miles Straume in the ABC drama series '' Lost'' (2008–2010) and Eric Tao in HBO drama series ''Industry' ...
,
Will Yun Lee
William Yun Lee (born March 22, 1971) is an American actor and martial artist. He is best known for his roles as Danny Woo in the supernatural drama ''Witchblade (2001 TV series), Witchblade'' and Jae Kim in the sci-fi series ''Bionic Woman ( ...
, and
Tina Chen
Tina Chen (; born November 2, 1943) is a Chinese-American stage, film, and television actress, director, and producer, who starred in the films ''Alice's Restaurant'', ''Three Days of the Condor'', and ''The Hawaiians''. She has been nominated f ...
. The film follows the multigenerational arc of three
Chinese-American
Chinese Americans are Americans of Chinese ancestry. Chinese Americans constitute a subgroup of East Asian Americans which also constitute a subgroup of Asian Americans. Many Chinese Americans have ancestors from mainland China, Hong Kong ...
women.
''Face'' premiered at the 2002
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023.
The festival has acted ...
where it was a nominee for the
Grand Jury Prize for Dramatic Feature.
Plot
Kim is a timid and conflicted 20-year-old in the 1970s, struggling to sort out her relationship with her traditional
Chinese-American
Chinese Americans are Americans of Chinese ancestry. Chinese Americans constitute a subgroup of East Asian Americans which also constitute a subgroup of Asian Americans. Many Chinese Americans have ancestors from mainland China, Hong Kong ...
mother while forging a future for herself at college. Attempting to tread the fine line between dutiful daughter and independent woman, Kim has an unfortunate one-night stand with Daniel, the spoiled and arrogant son of a wealthy family. When Kim discovers that she is pregnant, she is forced to marry Daniel. Trapped in a nightmare marriage with a newborn infant, Kim leaves her daughter Genie in the care of her mother and departs for
Hong Kong
Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...
.
19 years later, Genie is a bright and independent young woman on the cusp of adulthood in the 1990s, who walks in two separate worlds; that of her grandmother's traditional community in
Queens
Queens is the largest by area of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located near the western end of Long Island, it is bordered by the ...
and the contrasting and vibrant downtown
hip hop
Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hip- ...
scene in New York City. When she falls in love with Michael, an African American DJ at a local club, and her mother Kim resurfaces from Hong Kong with plans to move back to New York, the three women are forced to resolve their betrayals and family history in order to survive.
Cast
Production
''Face'' began as an acclaimed
short film
A short film is a film with a low running time. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of not more than 40 minutes including all credits". Other film o ...
by Bertha Bay-Sa Pan when she was a student at
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
’s Graduate Film School. The short went on to play at dozens of film festivals all over the world and was honored with the Polo Ralph Lauren Award for Best Screenplay at Columbia.
The film also brought Pan the
Director’s Guild Award for Best Asian American Student Filmmaker in 1997.
Release
The film had its world premiere at the
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023.
The festival has acted ...
in January 2002 in the Dramatic Competition.
It received a
limited theatrical release
__FORCETOC__
Limited theatrical release is a film distribution strategy of releasing a new film in a few cinemas across a country, typically art house theaters in major metropolitan markets. Since 1994, a limited theatrical release in the Unite ...
in the United States on March 18, 2005.
Reception
Michael Wilmington, critic for the ''
Chicago Tribune
The ''Chicago Tribune'' is an American daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1847, it was formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper", a slogan from which its once integrated WGN (AM), WGN radio and ...
'', praised the direction and performances writing ''Face'' "is realistic and highly entertaining...perceptively written
ndimaginatively directed".
He added, "Pan's three actresses give astonishingly varied, spontaneous, powerfully human, award-worthy portrayals. As a filmmaker, Pan succeeds on almost every level: generating atmosphere, weaving an engrossing tale and eliciting marvelous performances."
Anita Gates selected the film as a ''
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' Critics Choice Pick.
Dana Stevens, critic for ''The New York Times'', wrote the film "is likely to remain in your head long afterward...the director's attention to details of character and locale makes for a precise evocation of a New York seldom seen in feature films."
David Edelstein
David Edelstein (born 1959) is a freelance American film critic who has been the principal film critic for ''Slate'' and ''New York'' magazine, among others, and has appeared regularly on NPR's ''Fresh Air'' and ''CBS Sunday Morning'' programs. O ...
, also for ''The Times'', said the film "takes a conventional culture-clash theme and gives it the kick (and hop) of a good music mix tape."
Owen Gleiberman
Owen Gleiberman (born February 24, 1959) is an American film critic who has been chief film critic for '' Variety'' magazine since May 2016, a title he shares with . Previously, Gleiberman wrote for ''Entertainment Weekly'' from 1990 until 2014. ...
of ''
Entertainment Weekly
''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American online magazine, digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, ...
'' wrote, "If these mild tales of domestic scandal, which make up the movie ''Face'', sound familiar and even a bit cliché, they are just that, yet it’s a testament to the bare-bones decency displayed by director Bertha Bay-Sa Pan that we’re compelled by them anyway."
G. Allen Johnson of ''
San Francisco Chronicle
The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. ...
'' wrote, "Co-writer and first-time director Bertha Bay Sa-Pan smartly alternates between the 1970s and present day, allowing us to observe the pressures each young woman had to endure, and why each one makes the decisions they do. The cast is very good, filled with bright young talent, and John Inwood's cinematography, which helps differentiate the eras depicted, is top-notch". ''
TimeOut'' wrote, "The culture clash between immigrant parents and their American-born children is familiar territory, but New Jersey–born, Taiwan-raised director and co-writer Bay-Sa Pan gives the material her own spin and elicits strong performances from her appealing cast."
On review aggregate website
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...
, ''Face'' has an approval rating of 63% based on 24 reviews, with an average rating of 6.40/10. The site's critics consensus reads, "''Face'' takes a well-meaning look at the immigrant experience whose affecting performances are often enough to outweigh its frustrating pacing and storytelling issues."
Accolades
Awards and nominations
Music
Score
The film was scored by
Leonard Nelson Hubbard (aka Hub) of the
Grammy Award
The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious ...
winning hip-hop band
the Roots
The Roots are an American Hip-hop, hip hop band formed in 1987 by singer Black Thought, Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter and drummer Questlove, Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Roots serve as the house band on NBC's ''T ...
; featuring live recordings by the internationally renowned Peking Opera Orchestra, and
CHOPS
CHOPS is the stage name of Scott Robert Jung, also known as Scott Chops Jung, an American hip hop producer, rapper and former member of the Asian American Hip-Hop group, the Mountain Brothers. Jung grew up in Philadelphia and has Chinese ances ...
of
Mountain Brothers
Mountain Brothers was an American hip hop group originally from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Named after the legend of 108 mountain bandits depicted in the Chinese novel ''Water Margin'', Mountain Brothers are considered cultural pioneers, being ...
.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack includes theme song "Face" written and performed by
Naughty by Nature, original song "Just Can’t Hold On" by Tre Hardson (
SlimKid3
Trevant Hardson (born October 5, 1970), best known by his stage name Slimkid3 (Slim Kid Tre; sometimes stylized as SlimKid3), is an American rapper from Los Angeles. He is a founding member of The Pharcyde.
Career
Tre Hardson began his career i ...
of the hip hop pioneering group
Pharcyde
The Pharcyde is an American hip hop group, formed in South Central Los Angeles in 1989. The original four members of the group are Imani (Emandu Wilcox), Slimkid3 (Trevant Hardson), Bootie Brown (Romye Robinson), and Fatlip (Derrick Stewart).C ...
).
Kim Hill's (formerly of the
Black Eyed Peas
The Black Eyed Peas are an American musical group formed in Los Angeles in 1995, composed of rappers will.i.am, apl.de.ap and Taboo (rapper), Taboo. Fergie (singer), Fergie was a member during the height of their popularity in the 2000s, and ...
) song "Open Wide" also features on the soundtrack.
Track listing
References
External links
Official website*
*{{Rotten Tomatoes, face_2005
2002 films
2002 independent films
Films about Chinese Americans
Films about Taiwanese Americans
Films about immigration to the United States
Films about mother–daughter relationships
Films about interracial romance
Films set in the 1970s
Films set in the 1990s
Films set in New York City
Asian-American drama films
American independent films
Features based on short films
Films with screenplays by Oren Moverman
2000s English-language films
2000s American films
English-language independent films