THE GOLDEN SCREEN

A wide-ranging celebration of Asian Americans in film.

Once opened, this book is hard to close. Lushly produced with a mix of screenshots and illustrations, it unwraps the history of Asian cinema in the U.S., punctuated by interviews with important figures. Yang, co-author of Rise: A Pop History of Asian America From the Nineties to Now, has worked in this area for long enough to speak with understated authority, and he looks at 136 films, providing reviews and background information. He groups them into categories such as immigration, family, action, and romance, which demonstrates the breadth of Asian cinema. His criteria for inclusion seem rather loose, with some movies made by Asian directors, some made in Asia that were imported by U.S. distributors, some with Asian headline stars, and others where only a minor character is Asian. In Hollywood movies in the postwar era, Asian characters were often portrayed by Westerners with heavy makeup and appalling accents, and most were pushed into stereotypical roles. But there was a slow process of change, helped along by directors like John Woo and Ang Lee. On the anime side, the visually stunning Akira (1988) broke through to the American teenage audience. Slumdog Millionaire won a slew of awards, and the huge success of Crazy Rich Asians cemented the commercial viability of Asian-themed movies. By the time Michelle Yeoh (who provides a foreword to the book) stepped up in the wildly enjoyable Everything Everywhere All at Once, Asian faces on the screen were no longer remarkable. Fortunately, most of the movies Yang discusses can be accessed in some way, and many readers will find themselves making a list. Perhaps the author might have delved deeper into the future of Asian American cinema, but this is not a fatal shortcoming, and the book is a fun, informative piece of work.

Whether you dip into it or read it from cover to cover, this book brings a hidden history to life.