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Red Doors
I really hoped I would like this movie so I could say, "How could something so Wong, be so right." However, I didn't, so the quip makes no sense. Red Shoes may have been doomed from the beginning. Perhaps I was too focused on the lesbian aspect of it, which was boring even in such a small dose, or maybe I was expecting it to be as charming as the vastly superior Saving Face. Either way, this movie was, well, it was disappointing. And to be completely shallow, there was practically no eye-candy in this feature. Sure, Kathy Shao-Lin Lee (the youngest sister, Katie, and sister of writer/director Georgia Lee) was cute and someone I probably would have dug in high school, but no one brought the hotness as I enjoy it now. Saving Face had, not one, but three ravishing women to stare at, in lead roles no less. The fault probably is all mine. For some reason, I thought this movie actually revolved around the lesbian daughter with the family dynamics coming into place around that. In actuality, the family dysfunction was the story with the lesbianism being a minor subplot. I am uncertain as to why I was sure it was a "gay" film. I feel almost cheated, although Red Doors was not pushed as a film about lesbians. That fact also makes it unfair to compare it to Saving Face, which I will still end up doing, to the detriment of my enjoyment of this movie.
It's not that I need all my movies to be about lesbians, it's just that I need my movies to be interesting. In any way. Georgia Lee said a lot of the family's interaction was based on her own family. The thing is, most people think their families are more intriguing than they are and apparently, Lee is caught up in that idea. I mean, I think my family is pretty entertaining, but I also know no one wants to watch my mother play Final Fantasy for 180 hours or see my father take a nap. It's fascinating, trust me, but nothing that should win me multiple awards. There is nothing in Red Doors that should be winning awards, unless it's an award for hiring a casting director that made sure no one in the Wong family looked similar. Sure, not everyone has a family that looks horribly, wretchedly alike, as I do, but come on, they couldn't find any Asians that looked anything at all alike? Isn't there even a stereotype revolving around that? Sometimes those stereotypes can be worked in your favour, but the writers/directors (Jane Chen, Georgia Lee, and Mia Riverton) aren't having any of it. However, to put a positive spin on it; they did a wonderful job of creating a mostly-unattractive, mis-matched cast.
So I wasn't happy with the lesbian storyline, was anything interesting in the movie? Not really. The movie features a father unhappy with his life, who after unsuccessfully trying to kill himself multiple times, decides to abandon his family. There is the stereotypical obsessively doting mother who is more concerned with giving her eldest daughter a "dream" wedding and less concerned that her youngest is blowing up lockers to impress a boy she has a crush on. Not a single couple in this movie had any sort of functional relationship. In fact, half of the relationships seemed to involve people who actually didn't like each other all that much. Maybe I enter a relationship with a skewed view, but if I don't enjoy the other person's company, I just assume we probably shouldn't be dating. I certainly wouldn't go about the dreary task of wedding planning, while pining for the boy I loved years ago and secretly despising my fiance. I'm honestly having trouble collecting my thoughts on the storyline, as there wasn't much of one. There was nothing really memorable in the entirety of this movie. Any emotional advancement was so minute that I have practically forgotten where we left the characters. Every story thread ended positively in a general sense and was extremely disappointing. The father has left to meditate at a monastery, one singling has left her husband, another has brought her lesbian girlfriend home, and another has brought along the boy who put a dead rodent in her belongings. Yet after a little fainting from the mother's lesbian realization, the entire family sits down to watch home movies, as if nothing was out of sorts. Yeah, it was boring for me, but that's a lot for a family to digest. And they did, with only a blink. An extremely dysfunctional family has bonded in the face of despair. How.. common. And boring. Really boring.
I felt absolutely nothing for these characters (and not just because I thought they were ugly). Leave your simpering fiance for the emo musician. Don't care. Was the girl realizing her lesbianism or just her crush on the actress? Hrm, don't care. When did exploding someone's locker become a come-on? Really don't care. I left high school behind many years ago and even then, I don't recall anyone being quite that stupid. I just left goofy notes in my girlfriend's locker, although it was really my locker so I guess the option of destroying it was slightly out of the question. The only person I felt anything for was the mother because she was saddled with a bunch of ungrateful, insufferable people. She might be overbearing, but at least she seems like she cares about other people instead of being so self-involved which is more than you can say about every other selfish person in this movie. Ms. Lee, if this is based on your family, you come from a line of jerks. Your reunions must be sleep-inducing. I don't think I'll be watching any more of your dreck, unless of course you hire extremely attractive people. I mean, they made mute for a reason, right?
Don't watch this movie. It's boring, goes absolutely nowhere story-wise, and is filled with unsympathetic characters. I still think of Saving Face when I think of this movie (but only because of the similar closested lesbian character), so just watch that instead. I promise, you'll get far more enjoyment out of watching five minutes of Saving Face compared to the entirety of this movie.
1.0 / 4.0
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