In doing a little due diligence before writing this review, we turned up an entry on the Hyphen blog noting that reviewers are not supposed to reveal any of the plot to this movie until it goes into wider release. So we'll abide by that (even though the movie is based on a play, and the adapted movie script is available online....).
So here's the setup of the movie: five freshly post-collegiate Asian-American roommates are living together in LA: Ellen, a driven Chinese-American consultant; Murphy, a frustrated Korean-American screenwriter stuck working in a fortune cookie factory; Trent, a South Asian techie obsessed with porn; Akira, a slutty hapa salesclerk; and Shingo, a former premed, now stoner, Japanese guy who's been crashed on their couch for almost a year. Murphy pines for Akira even though she only dates asshat white guys; Ellen's unattractive white fiance ignores her; and how is Shingo going to help them pay the rent now that they've been served with a notice of eviction?
We don't think we're giving anything away by telling you that Shingo, that crazy biochemist, comes up with a scheme to make ecstasy pills in their apartment, and that shenanigans ensue -- along with musings about Asian-American masculinity (sort of a theme this year at the film fest), and an Asian-American spin on the universal twentysomething questions of finding your way in life and learning to embrace your history. Extra bonus: all the actors actually play their own ethnicity! That alone makes this movie a vanguard for Asian-American film.
