I'm always on the look out for American films that actually acknowledge that there are more than two races in America. Unfortunately, while YELLOW does in fact feature Korean Americans, it fails in too many ways. The title itself is an in-your-face attempt to say "Hey!! THIS is Asian-Americanism!!!" The characters seem to have been created to fulfill the film maker's desire to represent Korean Americans. That's a trap that a lot of films about ethnic minorities fall into, but sometimes with skilled writing that purpose can be fulfilled while still creating characters that seem real. Not so in this case, and in fact, they characters and story don't give you any genuine feel for the issues facing Korean Americans anyway. No point in taking the actors to task for their performances... the finest thespians couldn't make these character's motivations tangible. The story suffers from the "dummy-plot" syndrome.... there would be no story if the characters weren't stupid. The story drifts aimlessly from one contrived event to another. It eventually reaches such levels of ridiculousness that you're wondering if the film maker just added scenes in because it would be fun to shoot. That all being said... Chris Chan Lee might have a good film in him. At times he displays a good visual sense. Maybe if he was working with a writer who could craft a convincing story with genuine emotion. But unfortunately, YELLOW is a film worth watching only if you're writing a term paper on Asian American film.
Review of Yellow
