Asian American ’80s
11 Episodes
The 1980s marked the first decade of Asian American feature filmmaking—a period defined by restless thematic and stylistic exploration as trailblazing directors sought to express their complex cultural identity on-screen. In this decade, filmmakers like Wayne Wang (whose CHAN IS MISSING emerged as an indie landmark), Steven Okazaki, Peter Wang, and Kayo Hatta sought to define “Asian American” anew, whether through comedic contrast with Asians on the other side of the Pacific (THE GREAT WALL, LIVING ON TOKYO TIME), or via tender melodramas of the second generation (DIM SUM: A LITTLE BIT OF HEART, OTEMBA). Supported not only by the burgeoning American independent market of the 1980s, but also by new Asian American film festivals and media centers in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, the films in this program—curated by Brian Hu—imagined for the first time what a community in the shadows might do with the spotlight.
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00:52Episode 1Asian American ’80s Teaser
Episode 1
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1:15:47Episode 2Chan Is Missing
Episode 2
Directed by Wayne Wang • 1982 • United States
Starring Wood Moy, Marc Hayashi, Laureen ChewA mystery man, a murder, and a wad of missing cash—in his wryly offbeat breakthrough, Wayne Wang updates the ingredients of classic film noir for the streets of contemporary San Francisco’s Chinatown. Whe...
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1:26:54Episode 3They Call Me Bruce
Episode 3
Directed by Elliott Hong • 1982 • United States
Starring Johnny Yune, John Louie, Bill CapizziThis unabashedly goofball martial-arts spoof gave an Asian American comedian a rare chance in the spotlight. Stand-up comic Johnny Yune stars as a Korean immigrant living in California whom everyone ca...
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1:26:40Episode 4Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart
Episode 4
Directed by Wayne Wang • 1985 • United States
Starring Laureen Chew, Kim Chew, Victor WongWayne Wang’s follow-up to his watershed indie CHAN IS MISSING is a family portrait that gracefully combines the director’s signature gentle humanism and eye for poignant detail. Offering another fresh pers...
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1:42:03Episode 5A Great Wall
Episode 5
Directed by Peter Wang • 1986 • United States, China
Starring Peter Wang, Kelvin Han Yee, Sharon IwaiThis delightful comedy was the first American feature shot in the People’s Republic of China. When San Francisco computer programmer Leo Fang (cowriter and director Peter Wang) is passed over fo...
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1:20:38Episode 6West Is West
Episode 6
Directed by David Rathod • 1987 • United States
Starring Ashutosh Gowariker, Heidi Carpenter, Pearl PadamseeHandsome and broke, Vikram (played by Ashutosh Gowariker, future director of the Oscar-nominated LAGAAN: ONCE UPON A TIME IN INDIA) arrives from Bombay to find his college plans have fall...
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The Wash
Episode 7
Directed by Michael Toshiyuki Uno • 1988 • United States
Starring Mako, Nobu McCarthy, Sab ShimonoAdapted from a play by Philip Kan Gotanda, this keenly perceptive drama focuses on the upheavals that rock a Japanese American family when the sixty-something Masi (Nobu McCarthy) announces she is ...
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18:32Episode 8Community Plot
Episode 8
Directed by J. T. Takagi • 1984 • United States
Four neighbors form an uneasy alliance after a case worker from family court is accidentally killed in their building. With a gutsy sense of humor, this satiric comedy captures the chaos and cultural diversity of New York’s Lower East Side.
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25:12Episode 9Pak Bueng on Fire
Episode 9
Directed by Supachai Surongsain • 1987 • United States
Two young Thai men struggle to survive in Los Angeles.
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Two Lies
Episode 11
Directed by Pamela Tom • 1990 • United States
Starring Sala IwamatsuDoris Chu (Dian Kobayashi), a recently divorced Chinese American woman, has plastic surgery to make her eyes rounder. For her teenage daughter, Mei (Sala Iwamatsu), her mother’s two eyes equal two lies. When the family journeys...
