A De/Center Communications production, with the support of Canada Council. (International sales: De/Center, Los Angeles.) Produced by Quentin Lee.
Directed by Quentin Lee, Justin Lin. Screenplay, Dan Alvarado, Lee, Lin.
Phil ..... Radmar Jao
Katherine Nguyen ..... Jeanne Chin
Jim Lee ..... Clint Jung
Naomi ..... Lela Lee
Clarance ..... John Cho
Grace ..... Peggy Ahn
Matt .....Scott Eberlein
Dr. Suleri ..... Daniel Twyman
Sammi ..... .Jennifer Hengstenberg
May ..... Dana Pan
Dr. Hali ..... Roxanne Coyne
Phil tries to have a relationship with a girl at work but gets increasingly obsessed by his abnormal hair growth, thinking he's turning into a werewolf. Meanwhile, Katherine mislays her wallet and starts getting love letters from Trinh, and Clarance confesses his emotional highs and lows to Trinh, now his soulmate. Main action starts when bodies start turning up in L.A., Phil thinks he's to blame, and Katherine's husband sets out to track down Trinh, who's apparently stolen his wife's heart.
Not much of this really makes much sense in the cool light of day, and none of the characters have any identifiably Asian characteristics. Still, Lee and Lin come up with such a good-looking product on an obviously minimal budget ---
and enough moments of quirky, uneasy comedy --- to pardon the script's klutzier sections (mostly Phil's werewolf obsession) and some of the weaker perfs.
Jeanne Chin is sappy as the tremulous Katherine, but the pic is enormously buoyed by splendid playing from the unbilled actress as Trinh, who looks as if she's stepped straight out of "Chung King Express." Radmar Jao is OK as Phil, and John Cho likable as the gently philosophical Clarance. The soundtrack could do with some cleaning to rid it of distracting background noise.
Camera (color), Lisa Wiegand; editors, Lee, Lin, Sean Yeo; music, Steven Pranoto; art direction, Deeya Loram; sound, Jeffrey Liu; casting, Josh Diamond. Reviewed at Berlin Film Festival (market), Feb. 19, 1997. (Also in S.F. Asian American Film Festival.) Running time: 89 MIN.
Contact Derek Elley at
derek.elley@variety.com