East Broadway

Visit the official website "fallingforgrace.com" and check out the trailer to see for yourself - you will want to go see this movie.

'Falling for Grace' is very much as New York City as Woody Allen's cinematic world. The sound of the metro and the CANAL Street Pictures - the very first image on screen already gives one the New York and Chinatown feeling. If you've been to New York and its Chinatown, there are plenty of NYC locale hints you may recognize - but not a prerequisite. The film's original title is "East Broadway" for the Tribeca Film Festival 2006 entry, hence it's definitely New York, New York. The opening credit roll simply fascinates me: the thoughts behind it having each actor's name with Chinese character translations briskly displaying (equal opportunity whether Asian or not) and the Chinese film title playfully appearing like 'falling' for grace: "Sub Mein Ling Lone" - meaning "in every way refined." Refined being cultivated, polished, elegant, well-conceived. This film with its story, dialog, production details and effort behind it all, is very much 'every way refined.'

You might say the script is ambitious - written by director-producer Fay Ann Lee, who's also in the lead role of Grace Tang - so it is, yet it all comes together unobtrusively as you watch and follow the story unfolds, bringing smiles, chuckles, laughter and tears along the way. The dialog, including the Cantonese portions with easy-read subtitles, are well thought out and timely. Yes, coming out from Margaret Cho (the elegant side we get to see), the word "Jesus" can very well be the most endearingly delivered sound you'd ever heard. So a romantic comedy it is, with hints of political viewpoint on 'sweat shop' vs. big business intertwined, and family values, Chinese traditions rolled into one entertaining movie. A tall order and Fay Ann Lee and team delivered: with Gale Harold as Andrew, and wonderful supporting roles by Clem Cheung as Ba and Elizabeth Sung as Ma - the parents, Ken Leung as Ming the brother, even brief ones like Christine Baranski's 'emotional' line to son Andrew, and Ato Essandoh's Jamal quote so casually uttered at Central Park, "It's better to be disliked for what you are, than to be loved for something that you are not" - it's delightful.

Had waited a year for the film to debut in San Francisco. It was exciting when I first saw the theatrical trailer on screen at Sundance Kabuki two weeks before July 20 - I love it. The trailer is available for repeated 'play again' on Myspacetv.com ("www.myspace.com/fallingforgracemovie"). The catchy song "wonderful crazy" from Katelyn Tarver sure captures the spirit of this film, and it can be heard on both the official site of "East Broadway" ("www.eastbroadwaythemovie.com") and "Falling for Grace" ("www.fallingforgrace.com"): "it's so wonderful crazy, it's so beautiful out of control, kinda scary amazing …cos my life's so wonderful, crazy, crazy, crazy." The official site includes info on the team's trip to China, visit to Tsinghua University in Beijing and the original "Shanghai Tang" in Hong Kong.

It's been worth the wait. "Falling For Grace" is essentially a heartwarming and satisfying romantic comedy, cliché to some or not, it is a bold debut feature effort which can pass for a polished 'Hollywood' movie, and that's not bad at all. But being an independent film without big budget promotions, it definitely needs steady support and word of mouth to keep it circulating for wide distribution and successful following. May this be so. Kudos to the filmmakers of "Falling for Grace."

I just come out of a screening of the movie shown during the Tribeca Film Fest and I've had the chance to tell the director directly how I felt about her movie: I want to thank you for making such a wonderful movie. I am a fan of romantic comedies, so I am watching many of it and I haven't seen a movie in years that I enjoyed that much. Such a big pleasure, every single minute of it! I think the screenplay is great, the actors - the director plays the female lead herself - are terrific and the dialog is very believable. The view we get from New York is way more real than in many other New York movies. This is a New Yorker's view and not Hollywood and yet, the film never feels "indie" or "small". It's also never insignificant but important in the topics like immigration, sweat shops, unionized labor, etc. that it touches.

I laughed at many times during the movie and I also cried a bit - it's quite touching without being sentimental. I'd like to recommend East Broadway to everybody who's in for a special treat. I am wishing the director and her crew all the best - hopefully they'll find a distributor soon! 10 out 10 points!

I went to Washington DC to see Falling for Grace, and I just want to say how much I enjoyed this movie. It was sweet and funny and I really loved it.

All of the different stories in this movie were good and interesting. I loved Grace and her family, all the scenes with them were really funny and touching. I really liked Margaret Cho and DB Wong's characters in this, they were some really cute scenes with the 2 of them. And what can I say about Gale Harold, he is great as always. It was so nice to see him in such a lighthearted comedy, so unlike all of his other movies and TV shows. He is not only tall and handsome, but he plays a really regular guy who just happens to be rich and successful. I loved his character.

I would really recommend this movie, I saw it twice and hope it is released nationally so that I can see it again. Go and see it this summer, you will not be disappointed.

"East Broadway" is an entrant in the Cinderella sweepstakes, and makes absolutely no bones about it. It is very handsomely photographed (it's shot like a mainstream movie, on 35mm film) and uses its New York setting -- Chinatown, Central Park, Chelsea Piers, the Upper East Side, etc. -- effectively. It's a romantic comedy with a central mistaken identity plot, a few subplots, and an original contribution to make in its interracial theme.

The comparison will inevitably be made by W.A.S.P.s like myself to "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," with Grace's Chinese identity being simply a variable in the minority/ majority equation, but that comparison will be very much beside the point, I've learned, to anybody Asian. Nia Vardalos being Greek does absolutely nothing to gratify Chinese-Americans (unless they identify with it) but Grace being Chinese does plenty. When I saw the film on Friday, I was sitting next to 5 Chinese-American girls who were grooving on the picture, and there were many other Chinese-Americans in the audience reacting strongly.

Apparently it's not been uncommon for Chinese people to speak to one another in American films using not only wildly different accents but different dialects -- a question in Mandarin would receive a reply in Cantonese. I'd be none the wiser, but a Chinese-American would be offended, and Lee was very careful that this film would be nothing of the kind. To the scenes in Grace's family's apartment, which were delightful to me subtitled, the reaction from the Chinese in the audience was simply uproarious – not just amusement but veritable Christmas morning delight. Before any Caucasian dismisses the film as unoriginal, such proprietary reactions should give him pause.

A film that stakes a claim to the romantic comedy genre, and to the Cinderella story, on behalf of Chinese-Americans, using all the familiar conventions of the genre, is staking an equal claim to those conventions, and consciously. Why eschew anything that can be made common cultural property in such an enterprise? The conventions, the expectations, the accustomed devices, are part of the loot. Using them is making a statement that they're yours as much as anybody's now that you've arrived. "East Broadway" – even in its conventionality – should be viewed as a triumphant statement of arrival.

Gale Harold looks great and turns on the romance (the kissing scene is pretty hot) but I see more than a standard-issue Prince Charming, and I think others will too. There's such mystery about him. We are left wanting more. Fay Ann Lee is attractive (if no Gong Li) and exudes intelligence. The supporting cast is good. Roger Rees chews the scenery a tad, but is more convincing as Gale's father than one might expect. Margaret Cho and B.D. Wong are particularly delightful. Ken Leung as the brother, and Clem Cheung and Elizabeth Sung as the parents, are extremely effective.

This film will stand or fall on audience reaction, and the audience I saw it with reacted strongly. The audience at the other four Tribeca screenings apparently did so as well. It's a crowd pleaser, not a critical darling, but it does exactly what it sets out to do, and what it sets out to be is partly an artifact of social progress. How many films achieve even their modest aims, and how many have even this much originality?

This film had its Arizona premiere near my hometown, in Lakeside, AZ. By a strange turn of events, I now find myself doing a kind of bootlegging marketing campaign for a film that desperately needs some more attention. So here goes:

Falling for Grace is the story of Grace Tang — a street-smart business gal — who meets Andrew Barrington Jr., son of a high-profile businessman at a high-society event. While stepping lightly around other socialites, Grace is mistaken for Grace Tang, a wealthy woman who owns "Shanghai Tang," a boutique on Madison Ave. Here Chinatown and the Cinderella story collide.

The content stews together into a rather atypical romantic comedy. The Chinese overtones of the film are multi-faceted, from an anti-sweatshop subplot to the hilarious and highly believable conversations between Grace, her brother Ming and her parents. Nearly a quarter of the dialogue — and some of the funniest scenes in the film — was delivered in Cantonese and subtitled in English.

This was just a fabulous little movie, one had the feel of a big-bucks feature with the unpredictability of an indie film. The cast was great and the character development had the right mix of believable dialogue, family interaction and jokes in Cantonese.

In short, this film was well-written, witty, and slyly sweet.