Baltimore Sun

Park: Film ‘about the margins of the margins’

Having ‘aged out’ of ‘Shortcomin­gs’ lead, he directs adaptation

- By Lindsey Bahr

Randall Park was a struggling actor when he first encountere­d Adrian Tomine’s graphic novel “Shortcomin­gs” in 2007.

The story focused on a 20-something Japanese American man named

Ben, who is trying to find himself in the Bay Area along with his girlfriend, Miko, and his best friend, Alice, who is a lesbian.

They are all flawed, complex and figuring things out, sometimes inelegantl­y. Park was obsessed.

“I remember thinking, gosh this would make an amazing movie,” Park said in an interview. “And in my dreams, it was like, ‘Oh I’d love to play Ben.’ ”

It would take about 15 years for “Shortcomin­gs” to become a feature. By then, Park had, in his words, aged out of the role. But the now 48-year-old got a cooler gig out of it: Feature film director. “Shortcomin­gs” — starring Sherry Cola as Alice, Ally Maki as Miko and Justin H. Min as Ben — recently premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.

“I love the overlap between me and Alice, the queerness, the Asianness and just like the loudness, the kind of recklessne­ss almost, you know? The obnoxiousn­ess and also the unapologet­icness,” Cola said recently at the festival in Park City, Utah. “Of course she’s flawed, she’s imperfect. But she kind of owns it, and she wants to do better for herself.”

Park had known Cola and Maki prior to casting the movie. Casting Ben was a bigger challenge, he said, because he is a difficult, sometimes unlikeable character.

“There’s are all the shiny things about him, the

opinions and the tirades and the snarky comments. But there has to be a deep vulnerabil­ity about him and a sadness and a humanity that people could identify with,” Park said. “We saw a lot of great actors, and a lot of those actors were my friends and people who I really wanted to work with. But Justin just gave the most interestin­g performanc­e. There’s a very human quality about him that made him really watchable.”

For Min, it felt like a revelation to play a three-dimensiona­l character with nuances and contradict­ions.

“It’s not a type of role that I’ve often seen for myself or got to play,” Min said. “It feels like for most

of my career, they wanted us to play one thing.”

Park, who has directed episodes of “Fresh Off the Boat,” was influenced by some of Noah Baumbach’s films, such as “Frances

Ha,” and Alexander Payne’s “Sideways” for “Shortcomin­gs.”

“I always wanted to see a movie like that where Asian American characters are just kind of hanging out in diners, walking in the city and talking about complex things and going through, you know, life stuff,” Park said. “One of the reasons why (“Shortcomin­gs”) resonated with me so much was because I saw a little bit of myself in all of the characters. It felt just so real to me.”

Park also has a brief

cameo in the film, as a waiter. But that was less a product of him wanting to be in the movie than the nature of an independen­t film made during the COVID-19 era. For Min, getting to act against Park, and seeing him get Cola to break character and laugh, was one of the most fun days on set.

The film begins with Ben and Miko watching a film on the big screen that is a not-so-subtle reference to “Crazy Rich Asians.” Afterward, they get into a debate about its merits. Miko loves it. Ben, who considers himself a cinephile, doesn’t. And they discuss the idea of representa­tion for representa­tion’s sake.

“We were so excited to have that scene because

we’ve all had those conversati­ons,” Min said. “There are Asian Americans who loved ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ and a lot of Asian Americans who hated it. But at the time when it came out, because it was such an important, significan­t moment for us, a lot of people who might not have vibed to it weren’t really able to talk about it openly.”

It also perfectly sets the stage for what’s to come in “Shortcomin­gs,” as the characters grapple with their identities.

“It’s more of a symbolic thing versus a pointed reference,” Cola said. “It’s not just about that film.

It’s about all the big films that have succeeded in the mainstream that have allowed us to tell this kind of story. Starting the movie with that kind of like big-picture thing and then going microscopi­cally into this slice of life, opinionate­d dynamic I think is really fun.”

Park, who loves “Crazy Rich Asians,” empathizes with the burden to represent everybody.

“A movie like ours, it’s about the margins of the margins in some ways,” Park said. “It’s a complex community. Nothing is monolithic. We all have different opinions, different tastes and different ways of seeing the world. And I think that’s what excites me so much about this story is that there’s an authentici­ty to it and a specificit­y to it that makes it different.”

 ?? TAYLOR JEWELL/INVISION ?? “Shortcomin­gs” director Randall Park, from left, and cast members Sherry Cola, Ally Maki and Justin H. Min are seen Jan. 22 in Utah.
TAYLOR JEWELL/INVISION “Shortcomin­gs” director Randall Park, from left, and cast members Sherry Cola, Ally Maki and Justin H. Min are seen Jan. 22 in Utah.

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