Educational Media Reviews Online

Curator Melissa Hung, journalist and founding editor of Hyphen (a magazine which explores Asian American culture), assembled this lively collection of eight short films from the annual Slant: Bold Asian American Images festival, which began in 2000. The presentations are varied; as Ms. Hung states in her introduction to the disc, “Just as Asian Americans don’t come from any one monolithic culture, Asian American film isn’t any one thing.” The result is a selection of vibrant films created to help reclaim the Asian American image on film from its stereotypical roots.

For some works, this goal is overt. In Lilo and Me, Kip Fulbeck, who is of both Asian and Caucasian descent, examines the depiction of minority characters in Disney films through a personal lens. Karen Lum’s Slip of the Tongue features a sharp-witted take on Western commercialized standards of beauty, rhythmically edited to a spoken work performance. For others, the filmmakers’ Asian heritage is incidental to their irony-laden comedic aspirations. Wes Kim’s spoof Profiles in Science tells the story of an Asian father obsessed with time-lapse photography and a newfound phenomenon called ‘Chungian motion’ which, the viewer learns, can explain the covert disappearance of socks plaguing laundry baskets across the globe. In I Pie (A Love Story), Nobu Adilman assembles a playful homage to the passions of a dessert-obsessed friend and lover of berry pies (“I bake a pie and I release it to the universe”). For several of the films, humor and pop culture are the arbiters of racial politics. In Maritess Vs. the Superfriends, Dino Ignacio sets a stand-up routine to animation to tell the story of an illegal Filipino janitor employed by the Justice League (“Did you ever wonder why… the Hall of Justice was kept so nice and clean?”). Lynn Okimura slyly pokes fun at mainstream interpretations of racial difference in the Sesame Street-inspired A Little Bit Different. Perhaps most affecting is Samuel Kiehoon Lee’s self-effacing portrait of his Korean aunt in How to Make Kimchi According to My Kun-Uma. Under the guise of documenting her talent in making this traditional dish, Lee captures many facets of her mischievous personality and her views regarding the expectations she has for her much-loved nephew.

Although they range in tone and theme, a number of interesting similarities emerge. Several shorts are constructed with a retro aesthetic, emulating the look and feel of educational filmstrips once shown in classrooms. Others make use of various animation techniques. Both stylistic choices contribute to the ironic, do-it-yourself spirit of the collection as a whole. The compilation exhibits edgy humor with occasional references to sexuality and strong language. As such, this DVD may best be suited to collections supporting high school-aged students and above. An entertaining, thought-provoking addition to public and academic library collections alike.