LAAPFF 2012: YES, WE'RE OPEN

A scene from Yes, We're Open.

Closed for good

By Miranda Inganni

Monogamy is overrated. At least according to self-proclaimed “modern” couple Sylvia (Lynn Chen) and her boyfriend, Luke (Parry Shen), in director Richard Wong’s new film Yes, We’re Open.

Mistaking pseudo rebellion for radical social awareness, when not professing their love for each other, Sylvia and Luke contemplate the potential realities of what polygamy would actually mean to them in terms of being modern. (For the record, only hipsters of the silliest sort would be this obsessed with portraying the modern lifestyle.)

Their presumed coolness is put to the test when they meet Elena (Sheetal Sheth) and her partner, Ronald (Kerry McCrohan), at a mutual friends’ dinner party.

This encounter leads to another meeting between the two couples, setting of a sexual experiment preoccupation for Luke and Sylvia as both individuals and as a couple. Do they fuck the couple (maybe a threesome)? Each is granting the other permission to do so, but do they mean it, and what happens if they go through with it?

Considering the film's subject matter, Wong has an opportunity to push some contemporary buttons, but holds way back. For starters, for all the sex that Yes, We’re Open seems to champion, there is barely any flesh. It is not that there has to be nudity, but the film is shot (by Seng Chen) in an extremely modest, practically prudish way. Moreover, Wong and screenwriter HP Mendoza’s narrative is strictly linear and downright bourgeois. There is nothing radical about the film’s storytelling.

Shot in San Francisco, a place sexually permissive by U.S. standards, Yes, We’re Open wants to be a flirty, fun film. And Chen and Shen do admirable jobs personifying a couple contemplating temptation, but the film doesn’t go far enough. In fact, it takes a rather conservative turn by film’s end. The institution of marriage they so bravely mock in the beginning of the film is embraced happily ever after before the final credits roll.

Sylvia and Luke (and the filmmakers) like to talk a good line or two, but they certainly don’t like crossing it.


The Los Angeles Pacific Asian Film Festival screens Yes, We're Open, tonight, 9 p.m., DGA 1; and May 19, 9:30 p.m., Art Theater of Long Beach. For more information: LAAPFF.

LAAPFF 2012: THE CRUMBLES

Elisa (Teresa Michelle Lee) in The Crumbles.

A piece of rock

By Miranda Inganni

In Akira Boch’s feature film debut, The Crumbles, the preternaturally mature and serious Darla (Katie Hipol) desperately wants her dream to succeed -- having a band that can achieve world dominance. Darla’s dreams seem like they will forever be just dreams until her friend, Elisa (Teresa Michelle Lee) suddenly appears, needing a place to stay. When none of their other friends will help out, Elisa becomes Darla’s indefinite couch-crasher yet an ideal bandmate. While Elisa has the (questionable) talent and drive to “make it big,” she also has an ego to match. The gals hatch their plan, and their fledgling band, and try to make it out of Echo Park, CA.

While Darla is perhaps overly responsible, Elisa is the exact opposite: flighty, a bit manic and fairly selfish. While she is caring and compassionate in rescuing a stray dog, it is up to Darla to pay and care for her (both the pooch and the pal). Elisa wants to party, drink, make music and have sexy times (we assume in order to forget her recent heartache). Darla is all business: work and music.

Darla is real and Hipol seems quite natural and credible in her role. Lee’s Elisa is totally without any redeeming qualities. She’s the kind of woman you think would be fun to hang out with for an hour, only to realize she won’t shut the fuck up and, oh yes, you’re paying the bill. While both young actresses have their qualities, Lee goes for an over-the-top performance where Hipol’s subtlety is more credible.

An all-too-familiar story of trying to make it, without ever really going anywhere, The Crumblesis sweet, local and refreshing -- especially due to the fact that there is no sex or violence.


The Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival screening of The Crumbles is tonight, 9:45 p.m., DGA 1. For more information: LAAPFF.