Early 2000s Sapphics (Pride pt. XIII)

Saving Face

Imagine Me & You

Howdy, my dear, queer readers! No matter how you identify, no matter what your sexual orientation or preference is, all people are welcome on this blog! All people except the bigots and racists and homophobes and transphobes who only visit my website to shit on me—or, they would if they only knew how to read. Welcome to Pride Month! If it weren’t for Pride, this ally would only associate the month of June with an influx of gloom, heat, and extra children on the street. But as much as I dread Summer, I look forward to the vibrant excitement and energy that Pride Month brings. I’ve been a loyal patron of gay bars since I turned 21, and even when the world shut down in 2020, Pride had an encouraging and comforting presence on the internet and other digital spaces—with drag queens doing shows on Instagram live, and various other queer comedians and performers finding creative ways to bring joy and positivity to people, even in the most joyless days. I am forever indebted to the LGBTQ+ community, for getting me through some of my darkest times, for inspiring me to get out on a Friday night and dance, for crafting and curating some of the most exhilarating and unique art to ever exist. I’ve been doing Pride double features on this humble hetero blog since 2020, and have tried each year to track down some of the most essential, but also overlooked, queer cinema that I can. Last year, I managed to find films solely made by queer filmmakers to fill up the entire month of June, and though I would always prefer queer cinema to be made by queer artists, that is unfortunately rarely the case. Only a percentage of the enormous queer film canon came from out, queer filmmakers, and as we’ve seen before, most queer storylines (no matter how obvious) could only exist only in the subtext. It has never been more important to stand up and speak up for our LGBTQ+ friends and family members, as the world continues its fraught yet dependent relationship with queer culture and existence. In the United States alone, there are currently over 500 anti-LGBTQ+ laws in effect or attempting to go into effect, so it’s important to keep paying attention, keep fighting for our rights and the rights of our neighbors, and never become complacent with the patriarchal, heteronormative version of the world that keeps persisting. Ignoramus “news” outlets like Fox News would have you believe that queer identity and culture is a fairly new transgressive phenomena, but this is obviously not the case. Queer and trans people have always been around, and the more accepting and welcoming and humanizing we are, the more wonderful creations we are introduced to. Even in one of the most toxically-tabloid-heavy, patriarchally-punishing, and backwards times to ever occur—the early 2000s—there was no shortage of queer art and cinema. So let’s kick off Pride Month with two queer rom coms that fit effortlessly into the stuffy mold of hetero rom coms, and bring with them a little extra sparkle, and a little more realness. Historically, queer woman especially have suffered such consistent bastardizing when it comes to their characterizations in film. Lesbian and femme-exclusive relationships are typically used as a plot device or an element of salaciousness in film, and they are rarely afforded the care and dignity that heterosexual relationships are given in their depictions. Last year I viewed two very special lesbian romance films that offered nuance and complexity that felt genuine, and I was eager to discover more of this rarity. I never thought I’d find considerate and sweet depictions of lesbian love in the era of the early 2000s, when male-gazey, misogynistic content outweighed any other kind, but good art can sometimes hide in unexpected places. Up first was a very pleasant surprise from 2004, Alice Wu’s romantic and hilarious film Saving Face. As with The Best of Everything and Rosemary’s Baby, I immediately loved this film for its eye-poppingly-pink font that it opened with, but my love only grew from there (as did my confusion, when I saw Will Smith was a producer on this?) Saving Face follows a young, successful surgeon named Wilhelmina or “Wil” Pang (Michelle Krusiec) who lives in New York City and tries her best to keep her very traditional Chinese mother and grandparents happy. After a long day of work, Wil begrudgingly attends an event at the restaurant Planet China with her mom, Hwei-Lan (Joan Chen), who hopes to set her daughter up with a nice Chinese boy. While the older women mingle and gossip about their community, how miserable they are in the marriages, and who’s kids are still single, Wil labors through a dry, stiff dance with a boring, ugly, uptight dude. The older women make disgusting references to what happens to young women who are single for too long, with one of them exclaiming “Forget meat on the grill and it’ll dry out”, and in general, give us a good idea of where their priorities lie. Divorce is a rarity in this culture, and going against tradition in anyway is a big no no, and the women all seem to be talking covert smack about Wil’s mom Hwei-Lan. But across the room, a young, beautiful ballet dancer named Vivian (Lynn Chen) catches Wil’s eye, and Vivian returns the glance. Vivian is the daughter of Wil’s boss in the OR, which Wil realizes when she bumps into Vivian at a hospital vending machine. The two women have definite tension, but Wil is clearly hesitant to explore this. All of the sudden, Wil’s mom is moving into her apartment and uprooting her life and all of her decor, much to Wil’s confusion. It turns out that at the age of 48, Hwei-Lan is pregnant, out of wedlock, and she will not reveal who the father is. Considering her a disgrace, Wil’s grandpa kick’s Hwei-Lan out of his house and she has nowhere else to go. Wil is desperate to speak to her mom / new roommate, but the strictness and emphasis upon doing your family proud in this culture is so severe, that Hwei-Lan is ashamed, so she just throws herself into different projects around Wil’s apartment like judging her fridge contents and watching Asian soap operas. Amid the claustrophobic chaos of her mother moving into her apartment, Wil attends a dance performance of Vivian’s. Vivian has always been a ballet dancer, but wishes to do more interpretive, modern dance, much to the chagrin of her staunchly traditional father. Wil and Vivian talk and commiserate over the impossible expectations set by their elders, how they can literally be at the top of their respective game(s) and still not be respected enough because they are single. Suddenly, Wil is over at Viv’s, and the two are having tea and the most genuinely-awkward but sweet conversation. Their chemistry is instant and believable, and the simultaneous excitement and anxiety between these women is palpable. Wil and Vivian connect very quickly, but Wil hasn’t come out to her family, and fears what their reaction will be. When they meet in public, Wil sits a little farther away than necessary from Viv, but Vivian seems happy just to be in her company, and is patient with her. Saving Face presents a very complicated yet entirely plausible dynamic between lovers, friends, and family that acknowledges how challenging change of any kind can be for our loved ones, and ourselves. It is a film ultimately about accepting oneself, but it does the validating and important work of including how Wil and Viv’s largely conservative culture affects their relationship with each other, and their comfortability within themselves. It is so rare to find films like Saving Face, where femininity, masculinity, pride, shame, vulnerability, and history all play a valuable, satisfying role in the lives of our protagonists, who’s identities are not tied solely to their sexuality(ies.) In addition to the rich and complex queer relationship represented in Saving Face, there is also a fascinating story at play with Hwei-Lan, as she attempts to navigate the dating world in her forties, as well as reconsider her own very traditional and closed-minded ways of thinking. Saving Face was funny, it was cute, it was romantic as hell, and it wasn’t afraid to address the specifically-Chinese brand of homophobia, all while maintaining its profoundly tangible warmth. It accurately captures the heartbreaking reality that many queer people—regardless of culture or ethnicity—experience with trying to gain acceptance from their families, all without robbing the audience of a happy ending. Queer romcoms have taken many forms, but so many have been birthed from indie, underground spaces that they are not always readily-accessible or even known by mainstream audiences, so it was cool to see a film that somewhat followed the more mainstream, camera-spinning, running-through-the-airport, typically-hetero format of a romcom without sacrificing any of its queerness, or its tenderness. I just about teared up when Wil came out to her mom and said, “我爱你, 我是gay” (Wo ai ni, wo shi gay)—not just because my three years of Mandarin enabled me to translate, but because this film made Wil’s fear and anxiety and concern for her mother’s happiness so tangible. I positively loved Saving Face, for all of its messy charm and meaningful representation(s) of a specific but also universal kind of queer experience, and I can’t believe a movie this progressive and queer came out in 2004. The same could be said for tonight’s second film, though it did not come from a queer filmmaker, and I tried my best to forget that this same director made Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again!—which I’ve talked shit about on multiple occasions. Tonight’s next early 2000s lesbian romcom comes from Thandiwe Newton’s ex-husband Ol Parker, his 2005 British film Imagine Me & You. Fun fact, the film was originally planned to be called “Click”, but it conflicted with Adam Sandler’s film with the same title that came out the next year, so instead this film was named after the song “Happy Together” by The Turtles. Imagine Me & You is yet another story of a woman struggling to accept her own sexuality but is forced to, due to falling in love with another woman. The film opens on the wedding day of Hector “Heck” (Matthew Goode) and Rachel (Piper Perabo) in London, where the two are surrounded by friends and family, and their new florist, Luce (Lena Headey.) As her parents (Celia Imirie and Anthony Head) scramble to make the day perfect, Rachel is oddly calm, that is until she locks eyes with Luce as she’s walking down the aisle. The two share a very brief but significant moment of eye contact, where some kind of a spark is formed, and lingers on. At the reception, Rachel and Heck dance the night away, while Luce smiles through forced-flirtations with groomsmen like Coop (Darren Boyd), who learns Luce is a lesbian but still tries to pursue her. Despite being born and raised in Dallas, Texas, Piper Perabo had an excellent, practically-Bridget Jones level faux British accent, but her chemistry with Luce was far from faux. The two women share another fleeting moment at the punch bowl, where Rachel accidentally drops her wedding ring in the bowl, and Luce covertly fishes it out and sneaks it back into Rachel’s hands. It is a quick but romantically-charged moment between these women, even though one of them just got married to a man. Just a couple days later, because I guess this couple didn’t take a honeymoon, Rachel visits Luce at her flower shop to thank her. It is a very cute, albeit highly unnecessary interaction, which Luce takes note of, and it ends with Rachel inviting Luce to dinner with her and her husband. Luce agrees, and Rachel tells her husband Heck all about their instant, cosmic, “friend” connection, and how she plans to set Luce up with one of his friends—a very “Sure, Jan” moment if I’ve ever seen one. As Luce is introduced into this cozy friend group, she is familiarized with the very friendly dynamic that Rachel and Heck share, not for lack of desire on Heck’s end, but clearly on Rachel’s. I mean, these two are newlyweds, but they’re barely touching, and there’s zero tension between them. Their friend chemistry can be felt through the screen, even as Rachel tries desperately to find the spark in the relationship again, resulting in her and Heck almost hooking up in the woods and bumping into a gay couple who’d only just met but were doing the same thing. Imagine Me & You does feature some of the more obnoxious tenets of the early 2000s sense of humor, as when Coop refers to Luce as a “vag-itarian” and Rachel’s mom uses the term “lesbi-friends”, but it didn’t feel too overdone or unnecessary here. At this point in time, homosexuality was still taboo for many, and lesbian relationships especially seemed very taboo and under-discussed at this time. Women-loving women was a punchline, a pandering to the male gaze, but rarely did these relationships form organically and pleasantly for the women involved. Imagine Me & You represents this period in between tokenism and true, fair depictions, where the romance at the center feels genuine, but all of the elements surrounding it are scandalized and less plausible for entertainment sake. Still, Imagine Me & You seemed to expertly-capture the conundrum of desiring to experiment with the same sex, while being burdened by the ingrained-inclination to be with the opposite sex. Just as in Saving Face, Luce is frustrated by being somewhat used and experimented with, even though very little happens physically between Luce and Rachel, and she just wants better for the both of them. Rachel has very innocent, tender dreams about Luce, like imagining that they hold hands or move hair out of each other’s faces, which felt believably mild for a budding queer woman. What was also believable about both Saving Face and Imagine Me & You, was the curiosity surrounding queerness by way of renting videos at the video store, but the only options available were porn. Rachel is understandably torn between the platonic love of her husband and the rapidly-growing romantic desire of Luce, but is terrified to make a strong move with either party. In conversations with her girlfriends and coworkers, they discuss their own complicated feelings toward men, and Rachel inquires if any of them have ever quote “crossed the street” to which her friend Beth (Sharan Horgan) says, “Nah, I like men. I mean, I hate men, but you know what I mean”, and boy, do I. I did enjoy Imagine Me & You, I enjoyed Lena Headey’s hair and Piper Perabo’s fake British accent, and I especially enjoyed Anthony Head’s manic acting and cocaine teeth, but I really appreciated this film for the same reasons I appreciated Saving Face. It normalized queer love and relationships by wrapping their stories in a fairly typical, hetero, marriage plot format, without sacrificing too many of the complexities of their respective stories. The relationships at the center of both stories are so seismically-different from what their family members expected, that they force everyone within their orbit to look inward and potentially make seismic changes themselves. I love a romcom, especially one with a strong, ensemble cast of funny and charming people, and tonight I got not one, but two of these films. These sapphic stories of love and self-acceptance are hidden gems of the early oughts and they really went perfectly together, if I do say so myself. Thank you for reading along, dear reader, and happy Pride—this month, next month, next year, and every year that follows forever and ever and ever! Until next week, toodles and ta ta!