SHOPPING FOR FANGS
Reviewed by Harvey Karten, Ph.D. Margin Films Director: Quentin Lee, Justin Lin Writer: Dan Alvarado, Quentin Lee, Justin Lin Cast: Radman Jao, Jeanne Chin, Clint Jung, Lela Lee, John Cho, Peggy Ahn, Scott Eberlein, Daniel Twyman, Jennifer Hengstenberg, Dana Pan
Who am I? That's the sort of question usually associated with the self-absorbed Westerner, the angst-ridden, existential query that North Americans and Europeans often confront in their twenties and then again when go through mid-life crises. While it's not clear that folks in the vast Asian continent are as troubled by this, the thoroughly assimilated Asian-Americans in the world of directors Quentin Lee and Justin Lin certainly are. If you're looking for a firm answer to the question, you may be bemused to find out that you're probably not just one person but several personalities in one body, displaying a bold front in one area, a shy demeanor in another. "Shopping for Fangs," a no- budget, Asian-American picture by the new Asian-American-owned Margin Films, looks like a B-film with its awkward editing, its obviously faked fight scenes and its often scruffy look. Meant to be taken metaphorically, its actions are involving on their own, realistic level, though some in the audience may not appreciate the gender-bending in a story that is part Quentin-Tarantino sendup of violence, part "Polyester," with a segment of Alfred Hitchcock, a wedge of Wes Craven, and a nod to Robert Altman. The actors are primarily Asian-American, a mixture of ethnic groups from across the Asian continent. This is certainly not the first movie featuring characters who are not who you think they are--or who they believe themselves to be--but the creative team responsible for it puts a fresh spin on the story lines to provide absorbing entertainment in Lee and Lin's growing repertory of works for the screen.
Plotted like Altman's "Short Cuts" as a mosaic of unhappy California lives and shot in that state's San Gabriel Valley, "Shopping for Fangs" includes a tapestry of characters who seem unconnected at first but whose lives cross at fateful moments in the drama. Phil (Radman Jao) is a passive accountant/shipping clerk, a lonely and frustrated little guy in his twenties who becomes alarmingly aggressive shortly after discovering abnormal growths of hair on his face, later on his chest, and finally on top of his head. He develops a craving for meat, loading his cart in a humongous supermarket with various cuts of flesh, but in less lycanthropic times he is at the mercy of his sharp-talking sister. Seeking medical help for his hirsute condition, he is advised by his female doctor to find an outlet for his repressed energies--and she does not mean hustling on the treadmill. An even more interesting character is Katherine (Jeanne Chin), a Vietnam refugee who is so contained that she talks like Carol White (Julianne Moore) in the movie "Safe." Despite her withdrawn personality, she is actively pursued by mail and answering machine by flamboyant lesbian waitress, Trinh, who wears a vast blond wig and sunglasses day and night and who has a way of dealing with rapists and muggers. When Trinh is not fighting crime she is befriending a lonely gay man in her coffee shop, Clarance (John Cho), a Singaporean who was just dumped by his Taiwanese boy friend. The movie introduces the incredibly handsome Clint Jung as Jim, Katherine's frustrated husband, who is Phil's boss at work but who cannot get close to his wife at home.
At this point in their careers, Lee and Lin do not have the finesse to smoothly blend their disparate characters together. Their meetings toward the conclusion of the story appear contrived, but considering the obviously infinitesimal budget and brief shooting time that they are allotted, they have put together an arresting yarn with a single twist, a blockbuster that will have you saying, "Why didn't I think of that?" Some of the actor in the uneven cast are sharper than others, such as Daniel Twyman in the role of Dr. Suleri, who is acting as Katherine's psychotherapist and Jeanne Chin as the aloof and beautiful Katherine; others seem at times ready to burst out laughing as though they were performing in a home movie as a lark. "Shopping for Fangs" was performed at festivals in Toronto, Seattle, Vancouver, Singapore, San Francisco and Chicago primarily as segmented Asian jamborees. With a better budget, Lee and Lin can be expected to do more polished works in the near future. Rated R. Running time: 90 minutes. (C) Harvey Karten 1998
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