After most of the reviews I've read, I didn't want to see this film anymore, but I was at Hollywood Video and I saw it there for rent. I watched it and I was pretty entertained. It was funny and I could relate to some of the characters in the film. I also liked the idea of an Asian dominated cast in an American film. I think it's worth checking this out. I think it deserves more credit than it's getting.
August 5, 2004 |  | Energy and Creativity Outweigh Unevenness |  |
With the three earlier Amazon reviewers, I first celebrate this film for its obscure but crackling subject matter: teenage Korean-American life in L.A.! Second, I celebrate the film's ambition and complexity: it tries to reveal a community of characters, not merely one or two; and the plot's many twists, combined with its many ironic/jarring scene transitions, compresses a lot of ideas and commentary into a short space.
Do the parts combine into a congruent whole? No. The shocking plot twist of the film's final quarter sends the whole thing rollicking into melodrama/surrealism; and the same twist makes the ending psychologically, emotionally, and analytically unsatisfying.
However, there is soooo much to like here: The fumbling "Fur Elise"; the adolescent-to-baby-sister commentary on the shrink-wrapped doll; the aunt's colloquial comment on the cost of her nephew's birthday present; the cupped-rice soliloquy; the ATM PIN number sequence; the beach; the "pappa san" scene in the restaurant; etc. This young writer/director has perhaps bitten off more than he can chew; but his intelligence and promise are truly exciting.
I judge art by what it reveals to me about myself and about the world: good art provides unusual/unique flashes of reality and insight into the human condition. YELLOW reverberates throughout with these flashes. It is the work of a creative, intelligent, artistic young director whose potential is overwhelming.
I can only hope that the Biz gives him many chances for future explorations of life, love, and culture-clash.
By the way, the film is extremely funny/ironic throughout, and the musical soundtrack is marvellous. September 5, 2002
 | | Has exactly one thing going for it.... | |
...that is that it's about Korean Americans. It's always nice to see an ethnic minority other than blacks represented in an American film... it's so very rare. But that fact also makes YELLOW so much more of a wasted oppurtunity. This movie should dispell the myth that independant films are automatically better written than Hollywood films. These characters are so stupid they belong in a bad horror film. They don't belong in a good one. Like a bad horror film, the story depends on the stupidity of the characters to advance. I can't blame the actors for not being able to do much with the roles. The film is stuck in a rut where it attempts to "represent" Korean American youth. That isn't a bad thing when the characters are written like real human beings and not just as representatives of Korean American issues. But that is the case here, and the sad thing is, the characters also fail as representations. I'm not Korean, but I am a child of immigrants so I am familiar with the issues the film is trying to tackle... familiar enough to know that the protagonist Sin is acting just as much with mind numbing stupidity as with second generation Asian angst. I also know that Koreans sleep. I can understand the teens roaming through the night without sleep... but exactly why is Sin's father awake and available for a chat at what must be 2 or 3 in the morning? He's not the only one... nearly all of the characters, young and old, seem to be staying up all night for the convenience of the plot. I bring this up as an example of how messy the script is. It meanders from one event to another with no focus or logic glueing it together. Eventually the film gets silly, the characters doing things that make no sense whatsoever. Then there is a plot twist, while explaining away one example of character stupidity, just winds up making the character seem that much more the fool and renders the film's entire sequence of events utterly ridiculous. This film basically deserves one star but it gets a bonus star because it's about Korean-Americans. Maybe I'm being too harsh... there actually were a couple of amusing scenes. All I know is, someday, something much better will come along.
June 5, 2001| | | A Great Movie about Asians seen through Asian Eyes | |
I saw this movie about a year on the Independant Film Channel. It was such a great movie about the life of Asian Americans. Many Asian Americans in real life are in a current struggle between their family's traditional culture and the American way of life. In this movie we see the lives of a group of asian friends and how different each of their families influence their lives as they go through two transitions -- 1) from high school to college, 2) tradition vs. mainstream culture. Many Americans and mainstream media portrays Asians as really successful people with no problems or they are portrayed as some Ninjas beating people. They are never seen as common humans. This is probably one of the first attempts to see Asians from an Asian America perspective.
January 9, 2001More reviews at Amazon.com ...
Daily Birthdays
(4 reviews)