Emerson College Library: AANHPI Heritage Month: AANHPI Directors

Films Directed by AANHPI Directors

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Saving Face
Alice Wu’s 2004 rom-com/drama about Wil, a young Chinese American surgeon, and her complex relationships with her mother and girlfriend.
One Hundred Eggs a Minute
Anita Chang’s experimental film about a Chinese American woman who gives up educational and personal opportunities to work in her family’s business.
Shanti = Peace
Abandoned by her family and neglected by her husband, Chandra, a Fijian Indian American, transforms herself from a servile girl into a woman who turns inward to an intimate relationship with God to find the strength to face the hardships she suffers. Using interviews, vérité footage and photographs, this documentary is a profile in courage as it reveals how one woman discovers the inner resources to come to terms with her life.
An Untold Triumph: The Story of the 1st and 2nd Filipino Infantry Regiments, U.S. Army
During World War II, 7,000 Filipino Americans volunteered their services to the U.S. Army and helped liberate their homeland from Japanese occupation. Director Noel M. Izon captures their stories through the voices of the veterans themselves - only half of whom are still alive today - and delivers touching personal accounts of the men's contributions and sacrifices during the war. Despite the fact that they endured a bleak, racist prewar climate and were not even considered U.S. citizens, these individuals rallied to join the war effort and cement their rightful place in American history.

The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)
The epic story of a family forced to emigrate from war-torn Laos after the chaos of the secret air war waged by the U.S. during the Vietnam War, to the mean streets of New York City. Kuras has spent the last 23 years chronicling the family's extraordinary journey in this deeply personal, poetic, and emotional film.
Chan is Missing
Arguably the first Asian American feature film to gain distribution outside the Asian American community, Wayne Wang’s 1982 comedy-drama upends the Charlie Chan trope by making “Chan” the missing person. With Wood Moy and Marc Hayashi.
Better Luck Tomorrow
A group of seemingly "perfect" high-school buddies lead double lives. They fly high in a world of petty crime and material excess - a free-wheeling lifestyle that soon takes a downward spiral, leading to an unexpected, violent end.
The Motel
Chinese-American adolescent Ernest works after school cleaning rooms at a dingy motel owned by his bossy mother. A Korean-American playboy drifter helps Ernest come out of his shell.
Half-life
Wendell, a Korean adoptee, struggles to come out to his fundamentalist parents. In his effort to communicate with them, he accidentally jeopardizes his boyfriend's job, and their entire relationship. Wendell's best friend, Pam, and her precocious brother Timothy must deal with their mother's younger, charming, and manipulative boyfriend. Using their imaginative powers, they escape their confining home life and reinvent their world in a mind-bending conclusion
9-MAN
For many Chinese American athletes, Labor Day is dedicated to one thing and one thing only: nine-man. 9-MAN follows the history of the game, from the discrimination that many Chinese American immigrants faced in the 1930s to the physical and emotional battles that take place on the courts. Pivoting between the action on the parking lots and the late-night parties, the film captures the spirit of nine-man, as the players not only battle for a championship, but fight to preserve the sport they love