Signal of a new era for Asian actors

THE ASIANS portrayed in new movie Searching are neither rich nor crazy, but the contemporary thriller is in some ways as groundbreaking as the big romantic comedy currently making waves in Hollywood.

Searching, which opened in US cinemas on Aug 24 (a week after the debut of Crazy Rich Asians), is the tale of a father’s attempts to track down his wellbehaved teen daughter after she goes missing.

Not only does the independent movie star Korean-American actor John Cho ( right) and an AsianAmerican family, but the entire film is told through websites, social media, smartphones and computer screens, as Cho delves into his daughter’s private life for clues to her disappearance.

“This is a very classic thriller told in an extremely unconventional way,” said first-time director Aneesh Chaganty, 27, an IndianAmerican former maker of commercials for Google.

“Every shot is told from the perspective of a tech device that we use every day to communicate.

“Historically, no movie has done this in the way that we’re trying to do. We’re trying to make a very cinematic canvas out of the screens that we use in our pockets every day.

“I think the film is as much about the negative aspects of technology as it is about the positives.”

While Crazy Rich Asians, about the lives of wealthy families in Singapore, was heralded as the first movie from a Hollywood studio in 25 years with an all-Asian cast, Searching is notable for featuring an Asian-American family for no particular reason.

“It’s not Asian-American specifically. It literally could be anybody of any persuasion,” said Debra Messing, who plays a police detective – the only major white character in the film.

Acting into a blank screen proved a major challenge, and Chaganty said while it took 13 days to shoot, the film took 18 months to edit.

“There was a weirdness of just acting in an extreme closeup for the length of a movie,” said Cho. “There were no people in the room. There were none of the graphics there. No opportunity to walk, express yourself with your body. So it was amazing to me how well it worked.”

Cho himself was the focus of a 2016 social media movement named #StarringJohnCho, which featured photoshopped movie posters featuring the actor as the lead character in various blockbuster films, that showed audiences what it would be like with an AsianAmerican in the starring role.

This month has also seen the release of Netflix’s To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, starring actress Lana Condor (adopted from Vietnam by American parents).

The film is based on the popular YA series by Jenny Han featuring a half-Korean, half-white heroine, which has generated just as much buzz among the teen set as any movie in recent history.

So in the span of a couple of weeks, moviegoers have been given the opportunity to see different types of stories in different genres – the romantic comedy, the teen movie, the thriller – from the points of view of the Asian-American community.

Judging by the overwhelmingly positive reaction by audiences around the world, this is a step in the right direction to showcasing more diverse, non-white characters onscreen. – Agencies