The movie Charlotte Sometimes (2003 by Eric Byler) that I had happened to catch turned out to be an unusual triumph and I am pleased by the unexpected dicovery of a new talent. This movie that explores the identity politics of Asian Americans in US is deep enough to make you think more than merely the youths' alienation, adjustment and diappointment in the mating season you quite often sumble into and walk out of in a theater. This work's unique subtlety that is yet logically well founded absolutely gives the characters life in that we audience are convinced to the point we all feel the raw pang each and every caracter suffers from although that is stated very little.

Eugenia something that I remembered to have begun seeing here and there recently such as in Mail Order Wife or Memoirs of Geisha seems to be establishing herself here with her signiture posture of the highly sexualized, desperate and cunning eager Asian beaver to the point that I get concerned if she would be unretreivably typecast due to her choice of roles that always seem to fall into the category of 'thorough and complete Asian stereotyped female. Ironically, this woman's portrayal of 'that kind of Asian babe' never fails to hit our collective pshyche for how convincinv she appears to be, which incorporate what&nbs p;An Asian woman is and what it means to be and see/have one in the US context. Therefore have to give her credit for embodying it and made it visible and so real insteaed of belittling her for succumbing to the premature typecast and/or not challenging itreduced roles. And of course this seems to be another subject the director wants to raise in a comparison with the opposite type of Darcy, who makes the whole peaceful community---two couples of Asian Americans---doomed. This almost plain woman sets fire in the  whole set once the camera captures her presence, heat and breath. This actor, Jacquline Kim, leaves one electric image of a woman in the movie, and in your mind, for a while I bet.

What really impressed me was the director's well thought out logical development of the psychodrama, though quite understated, in a good way, and his observation of hatred each one carries around here in the story is so profound that we after all end up looking deep down inside of our own psyche. The director shows his deep observation on one's mind and experiments with all the hate, possibly rooted self hate and how it was internalized and nurtured/nurturing one's own life. The chemical composure ultimately sparks as the movie's brilliance. This is the point where the movie transcendents from mere a minimalistic movie and one of those youths' whose lives are marginalized or another 'behind the scene of your token and model minority' life. It is interesting so how their hate manifests itself and how they get sucked up by the mirroring self hate and wrong each other. This non sentimental observation is probably something that I found most astonishing in this director's view. One like Michael hates oneself without knowing so, another like Lori shows the utmost aversion to her sisterly competitor/intruder and tries desperately to defend her vain relationship with someone she does not really love or rather hates. She hates her boyfriend for he never gives what she wants; herself, and still fends the relationship for the prospect of getting to get married for security. Another like Darcy compulsively makes sure what her competitor/Lori/sister wants so that she can violate and rob her of it; that is the only way she can feel reasured and validated. And the last one like Justin feels like belonging to nethier of those worlds; the bonding of the isolated or the reaching the mainstream when he almost reaches only if he streches a bit more. He was not aware how he hates all including his dependent girlfriend until Darcy showed up in thier life.

Some reviewers insist that this is not about race as if they know what it is about, then, as if they believe it could be a compliment to assert that they did not see and hear that there was the undercurrent of hate and scared bodies that were all caused by the marginalization and the unsettled feelings, that all were struggling to be recognized as individuals and knew that they would never get to. This is about people's lives with the accents on how the they are living the race, how inseperable the big word can be. If a damn veiwer believes that he is complimenting that this is not about race at all, that means that he missed one major theme the director carefully crafted to argue in the film along with other points that way transcendent the racial issue. But the triunmp of the movie is that it manages to capture the moment the race issue transcendents and how; people transcendents when they see what is mirroring in others. They are the marginalized people who are trying to make some adjustment and peace in their lives and want to be individual but cannot in the context where they are perceived nothing more than Asians. They chosed and happend to get together looking for undo the burden of the race, and just see self hate and scars in the other they face. They see it where they the least want to see it. The big word/race/politics sneaks into their bedroom even if they do not want to deal with, but it does keep coming back to surface when supressed.

This director Byler released another work of his "Americanese" last year, which also deals with the issue of race, being biracial and what it means in US context. I would absolutely like to check it out.

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