An advance screening of the movie “Love in Taipei” wouldn’t have happened in San Francisco Wednesday without the support of the Asian-American Pacific Islander community. Robert Handa reports.
An advance screening of the movie “Love in Taipei” wouldn’t have happened in San Francisco Wednesday without the support of the Asian-American Pacific Islander community.
Based on a book by best-selling Bay Area author Abigail Hing Wen, the special screening was originally supposed to include Hollywood stars. But then, Hollywood actors and writers went on strike.
Per guidelines from the Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, members are barred from doing promotional work during the strike. As a result, the premiere of “Love in Taipei” was thrown into jeopardy.
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That was when the Bay Area AAPI community came to the rescue. Around 400 people, many of them big names in the local AAPI community, ended up coming out for the advance screening Wednesday at the Great Star Theater in Chinatown.
“It turned into this huge, amazing affair,” said Wen “There’s so many people coming out to support this film. As you know, it’s a time when the actors are on strike and the writers guild is on strike, all for very important reasons. But the film is still coming out.”
Organizers say the story, which will be on Paramount Plus starting Aug.10, is important for young people. It focuses on a young AAPI high school graduate who is sent to a cultural immersion program in Taiwan. Instead of strict academics, she finds self-discovery through the sudden freedom of what the students call "Loveboat Taipei.”
“It’s sort of a new story that many of us haven’t seen on the screen,” said Miriam Kim, an organizer for the event. “And we want young people to experience seeing their own experience being told on screen.”
Kim says the advance screening would never have happened if community leaders hadn’t stepped up.
A few people in attendance shared their thoughts with NBC Bay Area.
“I know the actors and actresses who worked so hard want to be here with us,” said Andrew Yang, a former presidential candidate. “It’s just they can’t because there’s a strike on, but we should be celebrating just as much without them so people can see ‘them’ in action.”
“As a Taiwanese-American myself who went on ‘Loveboat,’ it was important for me to make sure we rallied folks around this film and this story,” said Dave Lu, managing partner at Hyphen Capital.
With the premiere done, all that’s left is for the general AAPI community and the rest of the movie-going public to see the film for themselves.
