Sightlines · reception
How Saving Face was received
2004 · Alice Wu · Saving Face on Sightlines
The arc
A quiet Sundance-and-Sony-Pictures-Classics-sized release in 2004-05 that barely made a ripple at the box office, it's since been reclaimed as a landmark queer Asian-American rom-com — a rediscovery that accelerated when Alice Wu finally returned with The Half of It in 2020.
What’s debated
The recurring argument isn't about the film — it's about the industry: how did a rom-com this beloved not get Alice Wu another movie for sixteen years?
Its footprint
It's become a fixture of 'lesbian films with actual happy endings' lists and a touchstone for Chinese-American representation on screen, routinely mentioned in the same breath as The Wedding Banquet.
Where it stands
A Letterboxd word-of-mouth favorite — the definition of beloved-but-underseen, passed between friends with a 'why did nobody make me watch this sooner.'
Did you know? Alice Wu was a software engineer at Microsoft before quitting to make this, her debut — and she resisted suggestions that the film would be easier to finance if the leads were made straight or white.