No review available.
Face (2004)
Runtime: 1 hr 35 mins
Synopsis: Bertha Bay-Sa Pan's directorial debut is an ambitious drama that tells an ultimately uplifting story about the importance of family and the role it plays in shaping a child's life. Genie (Kristy Wu) is a Chinese-American teenager who has been raised by her loving grandmother. Through a... Bertha Bay-Sa Pan's directorial debut is an ambitious drama that tells an ultimately uplifting story about the importance of family and the role it plays in shaping a child's life. Genie (Kristy Wu) is a Chinese-American teenager who has been raised by her loving grandmother. Through a series of flashbacks, the story of Genie's mother, Kim (Bai Ling), is gradually revealed. It seems that Kim abandoned her daughter just after giving birth to her, when the circumstances surrounding her pregnancy became too painful to bear. Back in present day New York City, Genie has caught the attention of a charming African-American DJ, Michael (Treach), whose constant wooing manages to crack her seemingly impenetrable shell. It is at this point that Kim returns to New York with the hopes of making a connection with Genie, but Genie wants nothing to do with her mother. When Genie's grandmother learns that Michael is black, her traditional sensibilities threaten to ruin the only familial bond Genie has left, forcing Genie to mature at a time when she should still be dizzy with youth. Bay-Sa Pan's sensitive, heartfelt indie drama features marvelous performances by its wide-ranging cast, including Wu, Ling, Treach, and Ken Leung. [More]
Screenwriter: Bertha Bay-Sa Pan, Oren Moverman
Producer: Alexa L. Fogel, Joseph Infantolino, Bertha Bay-Sa Pan
Reviews
The performances are almost enough to overcome the story’s essential inertness.
By the end of Face, we've been drawn deep into the battle for both communal support and individual freedom that marks the progress of so many ethnic groups in America.
With no access to these women's inner selves, we are left wanting at least a fuller portrait of their outer lives, some way to infer the meaning that the film declines to provide.
Ling, delicate and haunted, and Wu, a real spitfire, make their reconciliation sting as much as it soothes.
A film with visual flair, musical inspiration and dramatic gravity. From the top to the bottom of the cast list, there are performances rich in detail and intelligence.
New Jersey-born, Taiwan-raised director/cowriter Bay-Sa Pan gives the conflict a culturally particular spin and elicits strong performances from her appealing cast.
It's a tale worth telling again -- especially if you feel the material as strongly as recent Columbia film-school grad Bertha Bay-Sa Pan seems to.
A meditation on the conflict between family loyalties and personal ambition, Face ... can feel slight on a first viewing. But ... it is likely to remain in your head long afterward.
the director seems all too cognizant of her pedestrian script’s inability to express more than superficial pathos
Bertha Bay-Sa Pan gets good performances -- notably from Ling, who convincingly evolves from mixed-up coed to successful businesswoman.
There's something especially frustrating about small, personal independent movies that adhere to the stodgy conventions of small, personal, independent movies as if compelled by a cadre of militant MFA candidates.
The story's conflicts between modern and traditional attitudes, family and independence feel like familiar fodder, and the pedestrian approach fails to inject much freshness into the material.
Too slight in realization and trite in characterization to work as it might have.
It is the best performance of [Ling's] eclectic international career, and it raises the level of this otherwise competently made movie to something more special.
Face is a film of considerable charm and warmth, even if the material sometimes feels well worn.


Top Critic