I'll agree with Bombardon3 here. When I originally rented this movie from a video store at a friend's recommendation, I naturally read the back of the DVD case like I do with other movie rentals. And I have to admit when I read the back, I asked myself "Why the hell would my friend recommend this?" A 12-year age gap seems preposterous.
At first glance, the premise of the story seems both impossible and improbable. I don't think any would believe that a romantic relationship between a 28 year old man and a 16 year old girl is feasible or appropriate. That's what I thought when I read the back cover.
Then, as I watched the movie, I began to realize that it wasn't really a romantic relationship. Liam regarded Addy as a younger sister rather than a girlfriend. Though, I did find it a bit weird that Addy strongly pushed for a romantic relationship with a guy that much older than her. At the end of the movie, Addy is 18 and "legal." But Liam is 30. And a 30 year old hooking up with an 18 year old is still really weird.
Oh well, I thought the movie was enjoyable and addressed several thought-provoking issues. In particular, I thought that the movie did a good job highlighting the identity crisis faced by 1.5 generation and 2nd generation minority immigrants. For these individuals, like myself, our parents were born in a foreign country but we were born in America. Some of us don't know how to speak the native language of our ancestors, but our parents don't necessarily speak perfect English. Who do we identify with? Personally, even though I speak Mandarin Chinese with relative fluency, I don't think that I can ever identify myself with "authentic" Chinese people because I was raised in North America. At the same time, I don't think I can completely identify with "authentic" Americans (Americans that have been in America for several generations), because even though I was raised in America, my parents and their culture was an important part of my upbringing. So, I can't identify with FOB's and authentic Asians. And I also can't really identify with White Americans (like Liam struggled to do). So, who do I identify myself with? That's a question that I still haven't figured out for myself yet. In the movie, Liam failed to identify with White America, and this spurred him to move to China. However, in China, he found that genuine Chinese people would never see him as a real Chinese person.
Another important issue, which this movie addressed was the debate between leading a stable, secure life versus leading a fulfilling life. As an Asian, and I'm sure countless of other Asian-Americans feel this way, our parents give us an unimaginable amount of pressure to become "professionals." Namely, our parents want their children to become doctors, lawyers, professors, businessmen, etc. in America. To our parents, music, art, and literature are simply extra-curricular activities meant to pad our curriculum vitae for ultimately getting into medical school, law school, graduate school, etc. But they would frown if we declared that we wanted to become artists, actors, or musicians for a living. In the movie, Liam dropped out of Columbia, which is one of a few dream schools that all Asian parents want their kids to go to, in order to pursue acting. He was met with hardships and failure in Hollywood, which re-affirms what our parents tell us about getting a proper education and becoming that doctor. Liam, at first, even discourages Addy from pursuing artistic studies in Paris and instead wants her to apply to Stanford for a "proper" education. How many of us Asians have parents who really want us to "do whatever makes us happy?" On the flipside, how many of us Asians have parents who really want us to do something that makes us wealthy (doctor, lawyer, investment banker)?
reply
share