There is definitely something to be said about the way Bertha Bay-Sa Pan’s Almost Perfect normalizes the Asian-American contemporary family, whose relatable dysfunction is as acceptable to the masses as your typical big budget-driven family dramedy centered on – you guessed it – the familiar white pedigree. Let’s face it: movies like Almost Perfect would cease to exist if not for progressive filmmakers like Bay-Sa Pan, and so I thank her for her dedication to mainstreaming minority and bi-racial families in cinema by having them spearhead white-dominated narrative spaces. I have never seen Bay-Sa Pan’s Face, her debut feature, but based on its tremendous critical response and slew of accolades, I’d say that Bay-Sa Pan had sprung herself into the forefront of prominent female directors following its release. With Almost Perfect, released approximately ten years after Face, it’s almost easy to claim this film as Bay-Sa Pan’s sophomore slump, but the highly irregular/problematic directorial and editing choices point to a chilling truth: Bertha Bay-Sa Pan stayed away from her home behind the camera for far too long, and it shows. Read more on Almost Perfect (**)…
Tags: Almost Perfect, Almost Perfect Review, asian-american cinema, Bertha Bay-Sa Pan, Eleven Arts, Entertainment/Culture, indie romantic comedies, Ivan Shaw, Kelly Hu, Kristy Wu, Roger Rees
