Dissidents (AAIFF), in The Epoch Times

DISSIDENTS documents the CCP's systematic harrassment of Chinese democracy activists on American soil. It is a timely and revealing expose/wake-up call, as well as three extraordinary profiles-in-courage. EPOCH TIMES AAIFF review up here.

AAIFF ’24: Plan B (short)

The horror is ideological and sociological. It is made possible by the Iranian regime and the mindset of its [increasingly few] supporters. There will also be some blood, which is why director-screenwriter Nima Rahimpour’s short film Plan B screens as part of the Tales that Go Bump in the Night shorts program, which is still available online as part of the 2024 American International Film Festival.

Reza and his father intend to murder his sister Soheyla and her lover Mohsen, because that is what “honor” demands. In contrast, Mohsen has considerably more money than honor. Although he claims he never knew Soheyla was pregnant, he assures her father, the baby must have been conceived while they had a “temporary marriage,” an ironic phenomenon of contemporary Iranian society (that was explored with compassion and insight in Ida Panahandeh’s Nahid). Technically, the baby will be legitimate and Soheyla can secretly deliver in Mohsen’s luxury villa, so nobody will know she was pregnant. Plus, he promises to pay her father handsomely custody of the child.

Suddenly, the script flips, but Soheyla still has no say in the matter. Instead, the men cut a deal to decide her fate and the fate of her unborn child, for their benefit. Resenting the condescension and misogynistic treatment, Soheyla takes matters into their own hands—literally.

Rahimpour and the producers could very well understand colloquial Western meanings of the term “Plan B,” because, as a title, it adds extra bite to the film. The film viscerally criticizes the sexism and class iniquities of Iranian society. Despite some shocking gore, it would be a stretch to call it horror, but it is understandable why the festival shoehorned it into the program.

AAIFF ’24: We’re All Gonna Die

In this world, most insurance claims are probably filed under “acts of God,” because there isn’t a category for huge cosmic alien “spikes.” Whenever they appear, they cause a lot of death and destruction, before teleporting, or “jumping” somewhere else on Earth. After 1,500 jumps, give or take, people have gotten used to living with the constant threat of potential annihilation, but Kai and Thalia have yet to move beyond their personal grief. However, the spike literally gets them physically moving when it displaces their treasured belongings from Arizona to Washington State in Matthew Arnold & Freddie Wong’s We’re All Gonna Die, which screens tonight during the 2024 Asian American International Film Festival.

Frankly, nobody really seems to be curious about what the spike is and what it does. Even though its impact is bafflingly random, people just accept it as a plot device, including Thalia and Kai. She was delivering her prize honey bees, who had a hot date pollinizing a farm. He was figuring out where he should go in the mullet-worthy sportscar he inherited from his best friend. They nearly collided. Instead, a freak spike came down, swapping the area with her bee-trailer and his car, with some mountainside land they deduce must be up in Washington.

Since Thalia still has her truck, they eventually hit the road (after some pointless debate) to reclaim what is theirs. Of course, we know it will turn into a therapy session. Ironically, both his pal and her husband and daughter died of tragic but conventional ways unrelated to the spike, which in a way, makes their losses worse.

As you might have figured, Arnold & Wong’s screenplay is really an on-the-road story, spruced-up with science fiction window dressing. The comedy is inconsistent, at best. However, the way it depicts the vibe of life amid a slow apocalypse is surprisingly resonant. In a way, it is reminiscent of Israeli society, which chooses to embrace life, despite the constant threat of death and terrorism.

AAIFF ’24: Future Date

In the future, everyday is a Covid lockdown day, at least in Los Angeles. Most of the human interaction there was fake anyway, so what are they really missing? Nevertheless, Ry (short for Rushmore Yosemite) would really like a relationship and Ria (short for Victoria, Australia) really yearns for a house, so they enter a contest that might give them both what they think they want in Stanley Wong’s dystopian rom-com Future Date, which is available for online screening as part of the 2024 Asian American International Film Festival.

Ry is a serious lovelorn romantic, who spends all his time trying to make connections on dating services. He cannot do anything in-person, because the population is confined to their personal spaces—in his case a tiny pod. The wealthy have actual houses, like Ria’s parents did, before their split. She is determined to regain that lost status, so she works like a mule for the giant tech company that underpays and overworks her.

Even though she has no interest in a relationship, but the CNKTR “Connecter” service or app or whatever is running a special contest, introducing two people in-person, in a house they can jointly win, if they build their connection score to 100 within three days. Obviously, they have very different goals, but their will be some chemistry sparking between them. The question is whether Ry will ruin it by coming on too strong again, or will Ria inevitably push him away? Probably both.

Nevertheless, Future Date works pretty well exactly because it never comes on too strong. Co-leads Wong and Shuang Hu never over-sell the jokes, while developing a real rapport. The truth is Wong and company largely sidestep all the pitfalls that made Michael Lukk Litwak’s Molli and Max in the Future nearly unwatchable. If you suffered through that movie, do not associate it with Future Date, even though they are obvious thematic similarities.

AAIFF ’24: Decoupling

When she reaches her teen years, Yinan Wang’s daughter will hate him because of this documentary (and her toddler nude scenes). For now, he is more worried she hates him, because she hardly seems to know him, thanks to their Covid separation, complicated and prolonged by geopolitics. Wang’s documents his struggles parenting in Decoupling, which is available for online screening as part of the 2024 Asian American International Film Festival.

Wang lives in America on a student visa. His Yujing has a resident work visa, but as your MAGA uncle can easily explain to you, their American-born daughter Wangwang is a U.S. citizen. Nevertheless, Wang’s parents agreed to take her back to Mainland China for several months, once his wife’s maternity leave ended. They were feeling overwhelmed and his parents were eager to help. It takes a village, right? Then the pandemic hit, canceling all flights between the United States and China.

Even when international travel revived, few flights to China were resumed. Many factors contributed to the decline of bilateral relations, most of which Wang avoids mentioning, like the draconian “National Security” Law in Hong Kong used to crush dissent and the ongoing genocide in Xinjiang. Consequently, when Wang hears Trump discuss the term “decoupling,” he decides to use it as the metaphor for his film.

Eventually, Wang finally arranges visas to bring his daughter home, but she is standoffish towards him. Presumably, most parents will feel Wang’s pain at finding himself a stranger in his daughter’s eyes. From what they see in Decoupling, viewers do not need to be child psychologists to understand how ineffective FaceTime parenting is, especially at that age. However, most parents will also wonder how in the world Wang and his wife could let things get to that point. In some ways, they sort of asked for this.

Perhaps not so ironically, some of the most poignant moments in the film focus on his mother’s relationship with her uncle (his great uncle), who clearly suffered enormously during the Cultural Revolution. (Much to his misfortune, the regime classified him as “landed Gentry,” with predictably dire results.) In fact, a previous Anti-Rightist Campaign also hit his family hard. Frankly, the affection and protectiveness Wang’s mother shows for his great-uncle suggests he might have missed the bigger story. Maybe Wang should not necessarily made himself the star of his own documentary.