When it comes to Hollywood movies, Asian-American men get no loving. They're nunchuck throwing assassins or emasculated nerds. Working your pimply teenage sex-appeal is hard enough for any adolescent but try doing it when Sixteen Candles was released. That movie ruined the lives of many Asian-American men, we hear. If you don't believe us, just say "whassa happenin hoss stuff" to any Asian man who endured Long Duk Dong imitations during high school and see what kind of reaction you get. Be prepared to be karate chopped between the eyeballs.

Apparently Hollywood has been so effective in their emasculation of the Asian-American man that now Asian-American men have eliminated themselves from the industry.

Eric Byler, director of Americanese, which launched the 24th Annual Asian American Film Festival Friday night at the Castro Theatre, had a heck of a time finding a 40-something Asian male romantic lead for his feature film. After weeks of casting calls, he got only 30 responses. He even resorted to Craigslist! (Our ad on Craigslist to get rid of a cruddy $60 inkjet printer nearly crashed our mailbox for cornsake—you can buy a new one for fifty bucks, people!)

Meanwhile, Byler's solicitation for a foxy Asian-female--a much smaller role (eventually won by CSI cast member and Maxim cover girl Kelly Hu), received over 200 responses in one day. What up with that Hollywood?

By contributing SFist MiHi Ahn

Image from Americanese

Americanese is Byler's adaptation of Shawn Wong's book American Knees, a contemporary story about Asian-Americans. The torrential rain storm didn't keep the Castro Theatre from being packed that night. We were crammed in cheek to jowl despite the bad weather and even though we were all a little damp and chilly from standing in the rain, the largely Asian audience was transfixed once the movie started. Watching a movie about plain old Americans who just happen to be Asian was an unfamiliar experience. This wasn't a story of "grandma coming to America" (which author Shawn Wong said in a Q & A after the movie, he expressly wanted to avoid), or stories of hardship in the old country with close-ups of dewy Asian women stroking lotus blossoms.

Americanese is a modern story about a professor, Raymond Ding, played by the studly Chris Tashima (surely not a Craigslist find) and his romantic crisis. Where most relationship movies start with "boy meets girl", this movie starts with "boy loses girl." Yup, break-ups suck, no matter who you are. These relationships are complicated by racial identity politics. His ex is a Hapa (biracial, Asian-American), who goes on to date a white guy and the professor's rebound relationship is played with scary-stalker intensity by San Francisco resident, Joan Chen.

Byler's first feature film, Charlotte Sometimes was also a relationship movie and a cult hit after being championed by Roger Ebert, who called it "a relationship movie that plays like an emotional thriller." Americanese employs the same, romance-as-suspense-drama vibe, perhaps not as effectively as in Charlotte Sometimes, but it is a compelling story none-the-less and the sheer novelty of watching Asian characters who aren't engaging in sword play or smoking bowls of opium to get screen time is worth the price of admission.

Americanese is making the festival rounds (it won an audience award when it premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival). At the end of March it moves to Chicago and then to Los Angeles in May. Unfortunately Friday's showing is the only time Americanese will play the Asian American Film Festival in San Francisco but there are tons of other good movies lined up and we will definitely be expanding our popcorn budget to accommodate them.