Saving Face

Name: Saving Face
Released: 2005-5-20
Cast: Joan Chen, Lynn Chen, Michelle Krusiec

Saving Face

R
1h 37m
2005

86%

age 16+

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When 48-year-old widow Hwei-Lan Gao (Joan Chen) informs her less-than understanding father she's pregnant, he banishes her from Flushing until she remarries or proves Immaculate Conception. With nowhere else to go, Hwei-Lan moves in with her grown daughter, Wil (Michelle Krusiec), a Manhattan doctor who doesn't want a roommate, especially since she's met Viv (Lynn Chen), her sexy young lover. So Wil does what any dutiful child with an expectant, unmarried mother on her hands would do: she proceeds to set Hwei-Lan up with every eligible bachelor in town.

Director:

Alice Wu

Producer:

Writer:

Alice Wu

Cast:

Joan Chen, Lynn Chen, Michelle Krusiec

Rotten Tomatoes® Score

TOMATOMETER®

86%

Critics Consensus: A charming tale of a love affair that overcomes cultural taboos.

Reviews

The Dispatch (Lexington, NC)

Matthew Lucas

The result is a good, if occasionally uneven, film that should have and could have been great.

Saving Face is one of the few films focused on queer people of color and their families. Having th...

March 9, 2019

FULL REVIEW

The Tyee (British Columbia)

Dorothy Woodend

Although everyone seems to be trying very hard, it has a deadly earnestness that squashes any fun...

Chinese-American mom and daughter reconnect.

Wu has abundant affection for her characters and a sharp eye for how they interact.

June 21, 2017

FULL REVIEW

Common Sense Media

age 16+

Common Sense Says

Chinese-American mom and daughter reconnect.

What Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that the movie focuses on intergenerational tensions in a Chinese-American family, stemming from two primary difficulties: an immigrant father rejects his 48-year-old daughter when she becomes pregnant and won't name the baby's father; the granddaughter, a NYC surgeon, hides her lesbian relationship with a dancer, out of fear that her mother and grandparents won't "understand." The film features emotional discussions of relationships, artful images of lesbian sex, and a charming black bisexual neighbor who gives Wil advice and watches soap operas with Ma.