(Wayne Wang, US 1985, 84 min., 35mm)
Director Wayne Wang followed his breakout indie hit Chan Is Missing with this family drama based in San Francisco. Real-life mother and daughter Kim Chew and Laureen Chew play widowed matriarch Mrs. Tam and her daughter Geraldine. Mrs. Tam faces what she believes to be the last year of her life, as a fortune teller has told her she will die at sixty-two. She wants to travel back to China to pay her final respects to her ancestors, but at home she still has one unmarried daughter that she’d like to find security. Laureen, for her part is unsure she wants to marry, caught between her mother’s desires for her and taking care of her in old age. Geraldine’s bar-owner uncle (Victor Wong) suggests that he wed her mother to allow them both companionship in their old age, while freeing Geraldine to pursue her own life. This gentle, observational comedic drama paved the way for more Asian-American voices in independent films, such as Steven Okazaki, Peter Wang, and Gregg Araki.