THE AMERICA OF OUR DREAMS
Immigrant story’s strength is in its universality and detail, writes Tymon Smith
Alan Yang is known as the writer and producer of offbeat sitcoms like Parks and Recreation and Aziz Ansari’s comedy drama Master of None. Fans of the latter will remember an episode in which Yang and Ansari examined the poignant stories of their parents — first-generation Asian immigrants who left their lives in Taiwan and India for a better life in the US. For his feature film debut, Yang has extended that exploration with a story inspired by his father’s journey from Taiwan to the US that treads some well-trodden territory with a fresh perspective.
It’s the story of a young man named Pin-Jui, raised in the oppressive environment of the post-World War 2 Taiwan countryside, where his lonely life with his grandmother makes him a child with a somewhat overactive imagination. He has few friends except for Yuan, a girl he meets in the fields.
As Pin-Jui grows up and enters the mundane world of factory work, he and Yuan begin to fall in love, bonding over their appreciation of American music and a shared impish aversion to rules and authority that sees them enjoy themselves as best they can by dine-anddashing at expensive restaurants and dreaming of American-style freedoms.
It looks as if the poor but happy youngsters will marry and realise their dreams, but when
Pin-Jui’s boss offers him a life in the US in exchange for making an honest woman out of his daughter, the lonely young man with the overactive imagination has to make a difficult choice.
We know what he decided early on as the story is told through flashback as we watch the much older Pin-Jui, recently widowed and living in the US, nostalgically looking back on what could have been, now faced with difficult questions from his American daughter.
It’s an immigrant story like others but perhaps that’s part of the point. Every story of the sacrifices made in pursuit of the proffered riches of the American Dream is similar but has unique contours and highlights. Yang’s strength is in paying attention to the details that make his father’s story different while also managing to zero in on its universal elements.
Is the America in which Yang and his generation were raised worth the trouble and sacrifice his father paid to get there? It’s a thorny question. There aren’t any definite answers but this slight, moving and touching film leaves enough space for contemplation of these themes without letting them override the bittersweet human drama of anxiety and regret at its heart.
‘Tigertail’ is available on Netflix