Yellow Rose

"Yellow Rose" is such a touching and beautiful piece that narrates the story of identity, family, and following your dreams against all odds. Helmed by Diane Paragas, the film goes through the journey of Eva Noblezada as Rose, a talented, young Filipina immigrant living for the purpose of being able to shortly become a country music star. It's a movie that is both a testament to resilience and belonging's cumbersomeness; it's set against all of the vibrant music scenes in Texas. Noblezada is soulful, supported by powerful work from Lea Salonga as her protective aunt and by country musician Dale Watson. Threaded with sincere storytelling, "Yellow Rose" makes the musical score evocative, alive after the credits roll, casting a new light on the American dream and on the power of music to bridge cultures.

I just screened this movie at the 2019 San Diego Asian Film Festival to a packed house! The audience, although made up of many with a Filipino background - was still quite diverse with other ethnic backgrounds.

This movie depicted what many undocumented families are facing in America today. We don't quite often hear of the Filipino experience, so this was very eye opening and emotional, as our fellow neighbors/friends may be going through this personally and we may not be aware.

Once this movie is widely released, I encourage you to bring your family and friends to watch! This is such a relevant story! Kudos to the director for bringing Filipino perspectives to the big screen. Filipinos are not only great singers or produce beauty queens, but they have Important stories to tell, especially in this film with a fantastic cinematic debut by Eva Noblezada and backed by the supporting actors and a great soundtrack!

Before I watched this movie I had no idea who Eva Noblezada was. I was so impressed with her performance, both her acting and her truly marvelous singing voice, I had to look her up. Even though she plays a 17-yr-old high school student living with her mom, she in fact was about 22 during filming. Earlier in her career she starred in the Broadway musical "Miss Saigon" and was nominated for the 2017 Tony Award for best actress in a musical. Her performance at the 2017 Tonys is easy to find on U-tube, it is worth looking up.

So here she is Rose Garcia, her mom works at the Bastrop Inn and they live there, both undocumented. Rose plays guitar and writes songs for herself but she has a lot of budding talent. When her mom gets taken away she has to seek places to stay and one big help is a local Austin country music star. He puts her up for a while and helps her find her voice and be brave enough to sing in front of people.

This is a good movie and Eva Noblezada is very good. There has to be a singing arc and because she is such an accomplished singer she must sing initially with much restraint. Only as the movie is ending do we witness her full vocal abilities.

I like Eva Noblezada, I hope we see her in future movies. To me there is a parallel with Jessie Buckley, the Irish actress who is so good in "Wild Rose", also an aspiring country singer in that movie.

My wife and I watched it on DVD from our public library.

I was really surprised by this movie and very entertained by the characters and music. Eva Noblezada is one hell of a singer and she did a very good acting in this movie which made her character very relatable. I look forward to see her in other films. Dale Watson is excellent as a mentor to the young girl and helping her with her budding music career and not being a prev. It was refreshing to see a younger person taking the advice from an older person about a career path and not be a smart ass know it all teenager. Which currently that is the only way Hollywood writers know how to portray a teenager these days.

The movie also highlights its not just Hispanic people that are illegals in the states but people from other countries too. It also humanize ICE agents and doesn't portray them as mindless robots.

Its a really good feel good movie and you should check it out.

This is an important film about immigration, music, and the variety of ways we all try to become the people we want to be. While the acting can come off as a bit stiff with writing that is a little too superficial and full of tropes, the music of Eva Noblezada and Dale Watson, along with a critical story about the struggles of being undocumented and chasing your own dreams, make this very much worth a view!