Simply Fobulous (2005)

User Rating:

7.4/10   

Director:

Richard Cranor

Writer:

Richard Cranor (written by)

Genre:

Comedy | Romance

Tagline:

Meet the world's first mail-order husband, and the family whose lives he'll change forever

Plot:

Simply FOBulous is a romantic comedy about a rebellious daughter who succumbs to her mother's dying...

Cast

Steven Liu	...	Dung Nga
Chau Luu	...	Thuy Nguyen
Kathie Pham	...	Van Nguyen
Nancy Calos-Nakano	...	Mai Nguyen
Shigeko Nakano	...	Xuan Nguyen
Toan Le	...	Ban Nguyen
Royce Koh	...	Tuan
Tuan Nguyen	...	Khanh
James Tran	...	Hoang
Pisay Pao	...	Chantavy
Faustine Luu	...	Punthea
Elizabeth Daruthyan	...	Bich Ho
Paula Miyashiro	...	Bac Thinh
Mike Okumura	...	Buddhist Monk
Svetlana Soutirina	...	Blonde Seductress

Runtime:

USA:87 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Filming Locations:

Seattle, Washington, USA

Company:

Wok N Roll Productions

Soundtrack:

I LOVE U

An original indie comedy with lots of great characters

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

This is a unique and special film that deals with stereotypes within Asian culture itself. I won't go into the plot which can be found at simplyfobulous.com as well as the films trailer but instead talk a bit about the movie. The movie is unique in that it presents an Asian American family (with 3 daughters), a divorced mom who really wants her eldest to get married to a Vietnamese boy and an estranged sexist father with a heart of gold.

The comedy comes across fast and furious and somewhat risqué in that the family is so entrenched in American culture that they even mock other Asians for commonly held idiosyncrasies. This is all done in a realistic way and the laughs are well earned. This is also a serious film about tolerance, emotional growth, family dynamics, and ultimately true love for all the right reasons. For a movie (i saw it at Seattle's true independent film festival) with a low budget it hardly shows. The direction, editing, soundtrack, locations, cinematography are all top notch but it is the acting that makes this a really good movie. Each character is richly drawn and performed with excellent timing, emotion, expression and realism.

Steven Liu makes an incredibly sincere lead as the Fresh Of the Boat male order husband Dung Nga who feigns knowing English to get to know the Nguyen family better (to see where their hearts and minds really stand). His surprise love interest Kathie Pham as Van Nguyen has a natural appeal and you really feel the chemistry develop between her and Dung. The father played by Toan Le nearly steals all his screen time but the whole cast gels perfectly and is hilarious yet are fully developed characters. See this movie. I hope it at least plays the independent art house circuit because i laughed out loud and nearly cried at the end. And i'm an old jaded fool.