While audiences impatiently await the release of Quentin Lee’s latest feature \u201cWhite Frog\u201d (starring Harry Shum Jr, Bobo Cheng, Joan Chen and scheduled for a 2013 release), this month Cinema Asian American offers the long-unavailable, pioneering first feature film co-directed by Lee and Justin Lin (\u201cFast and Furious,\u201d \u201cBetter Luck Tomorrow\u201c), \u201cShopping For Fangs\u201d. Originally released in 1997, the genre-bending \u201cFangs\u201d has become a cult hit, ushered in a new generation of independent Asian American filmmaking and launched the career of John Cho (\u201cHarold and Kumar\u201c, \u201cStar Trek\u201c). A low-budget excursion into the underworlds of Southern California, \u201cFangs\u201d follows the interlocking lives of several young Asian Americans discovering their \u201cdark sides\u201d; an unhappy housewife, a blonde-wig\/dark-glasses wearing lesbian, a bodybuilder business man and another fellow who might just be a werewolf\u2026\u201dShopping For Fangs\u201d is available this month on Cinema Asian American on XFINITY ON DEMAND.<\/p>\n
\u201cShopping For Fangs\u201d made a big impact when it came out in 1997, and its status as a trailblazing film has continued to grow over time. When you and Justin sat down to make the film almost fifteen years ago, where you intending to change the game and discourse around Asian American film?<\/p>\n
QL: It’s hard to quantify cultural impact, but certainly years after, scholars and critics are still talking about \u201cShopping for Fangs.\u201d Justin and I set off to make something different that would shake up the genre of Asian American films from \u201cJoy Luck Club\u201d and ching-chong Asian Americana. We didn’t know much then and really wanted to make our first feature. We were rebelling with a cause.<\/p>\n
Since collaborating, you and Justin have taken quite different paths; while he has moved toward making big budget commercial films, you’ve quite deliberately focused on smaller films that tell Asian American and LGBT stories. In many ways your films have become talent incubators and discovery vehicles. Why has it been important to you to maintain this focus and approach<\/p>\n
QL: It’s not like I’ve been deliberately trying to make small indie films. I certainly won’t turn down any major directing gigs. But when no major offers came along, I just kept making the movies I wanted to make with the budget that I could get. And yes, I’ve worked with many young actors who later did well for themselves or are on the rise like John Cho, Reggie Lee, Lynn Chen, Randall Park, Chris Zylka, Booboo Stewart, Tyler Posey, Gregg Sulkin and Harry Shum Jr.<\/p>\n
In looking back at \u201cShopping For Fangs\u201d, are there ideas, themes and aesthetic directions you were exploring then, that you continue to today?<\/p>\n
QL: \u201cShopping for Fangs\u201d is about finding connections, which is a theme that threads through all my movies. I think it will be a theme that I’ll be working on for the rest of my life through different stories, characters and genres.<\/p>\n