7 Must Watch AAPI Films

Yuh-Jung Youn with Brad Pitt after she won an Oscar for her role in Minari. [AFP / Chris Pizzello]

By Samantha Grasso

There’s a world of Asian American cinema outside of flashy Hollywood fare like Crazy Rich Asians. For Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, we’ve put together a list of films exploring diaspora and the journeys our families have made to bring us to where we are today.

Documented (2014)

Directed by journalist Jose Antonio Vargas, Documented chronicles his life as a child from the Philippines, living undocumented in the U.S., his transition from journalist to immigration activist, and his effort to reconnect with his distant mother, whom he left behind 20 years before. Documented is available to rent on YouTube.

The Farewell (2019)

Directed by Lulu Wang, The Farewell is a fictional retelling of real events from Wang’s life, centered on her Chinese grandmother and Chinese American family, and a great big lie. While the film enjoys critical acclaim today, Wang was repeatedly told by financiers that her film needed a white protagonist. So, she took the story to This American Life, where it found the support it needed. The result is beautiful and heartbreaking, and its subsequent drama (spoiler alert!) is just as enthralling. The Farewell is available to rent on YouTube.

The Insular Empire: America in the Mariana Islands (2009)

“What is it like to be a colonial subject of the greatest democracy on Earth?” This is the question at the center of The Insular Empire, a 60-minute documentary directed by Vanessa Warheit. The film interrogates the U.S. military occupation of the Mariana Islands, where Native CHamoru and Carolinian people are U.S. citizens, but are deprived of many rights. Told from the perspective of four Indigenous leaders, the film revisits the history of the American colonization of Pacific islands and captures the strained relationship between the U.S. and the Marianas. The Insular Empire is available to order for personal use by request.

Kapaemahu (2020)

Kapaemahu is short, but mighty. Directed by Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu, this animated film tells the history of four large boulders that once sat on the shore of Waikiki Beach, but had been lost to commercial development, then dug up and turned into a landmark. Written and narrated in the indigenous language of Olelo Niihau, Kapaemahu brings to life the legend of the four stones, and the four mahu spirits who once healed the people of Hawaii and imbued these boulders with their power. In under nine minutes, it’s a beautiful rendering of Hawaiian tradition and history. Kapaemahu is available on its website.

Like a Mighty Wave: A Maunakea Film (2019)

Where Kapaemahu excavates Hawaii’s past, Like a Mighty Wave reveals its present. Directed by Mikey Inouye, the film explores the arrest of 36 Native Hawaiian elders on July 17, 2019. As younger protesters resisted the further development and desecration of sacred land at the Maunakea mountain, their elders, called kūpuna, laid themselves on the ground one by one to be arrested, allowing the younger people to continue their protest. Despite its length of 16 minutes, the film is emotional and visually stunning, switching between footage of kūpuna being zip-tied and lifted into vans by heavily-armed police, and tearful interviews with younger protesters, grieving for the sacrifice of their kūpuna. Like a Mighty Wave is available for free on YouTube.

Minari (2020)

One of the most lauded films of 2020, Minari tells the semi-autobiographical story of director Lee Isaac Chung and his upbringing as the child of a South Korean immigrant family that has moved from the West Coast to rural Arkansas. As 7-year-old David adjusts to the new location, and to his grandmother moving into their mobile home, his father Jacob enlists the family in his quest to start a farm on untouched soil. Minari is available to rent on YouTube.

Tigertail (2020)

Directed by Master of None co-creator Alan Yang, Tigertail is an emotional intergenerational story about love and regret. It follows Pin-Jui, a Taiwanese man who looks back on his life and mourns the loss of his family as he attempts to mend his fractured relationship with his adult daughter. Stretching across decades, the film brings depth to played out narratives about the “American dream.” Yang called the film a “fever dream” of his own father’s immigration story, illustrating how the children of immigrants use their family stories to create their own. Tigertail is available by subscription on Netflix.

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