PERFECTION: A Chat With Director Karen Lin
By Amy Ikeda
What were some inspirations for the concept of your short? How did you come up with using the board game Perfection to illustrate the emotions of the main character?
My best friend had a Perfection game growing up and we use to play it all the time as kids. I was in graduate school studying Public Policy at the time and I was thinking about all the things I needed to get done…finish my Masters in something I wasn't necessarily passionate about, exercise to lose weight, figure out a way to get a real job, find my future husband, have children, how not to lose face for my parents, etc. I was bombarded by these thoughts all the time, I was feeling frustrated that I hadn't put the pieces of my life in place and I felt like I was running out of time. It was a frustration that was echoed by so many of my friends.
I started to think about growing up and how each step of my life was like finding the right pieces in this game and suddenly the metaphor hit me. It was perfect! And I knew then that I would make a movie someday that would use Perfection as a metaphor for my life and that of so many of my friends.
Director Karen Lin sets up a shot for actress Ming-na
Do you relate to the character in PERFECTION, either personally or through experience (friends or family)?
Yes, I definitely relate to the character. It came out of my experiences and that of almost all of my Asian American friends. I have had friends that have cracked under the pressure in the past and I wanted people to realize that although we may look "perfect" on the outside, there is so much going on on the the inside and sometimes the pressure cooker is too much. I wrote this film for Asian American women and men to see and say, "hey that's how I feel' and to understand that they are not alone in feeling this way.
Is the character in your short portraying the realistic pressures put on an Asian American
individual or she it criticizing the idea of the model minority?
The pressures portrayed are definitely realistic. I think there are even more pressures and scenarios that many people feel. The film is a starting point for people and the hope is that people connect with an image and it reminds them of a part of their life. I love my parents and without them I would not be who I am today. Rather than criticizing the way I was brought up, the film is about learning that there is this internal game within us, why it might be there, and understanding that we have the power to turn the game off. It's really about acknowledging who you are and coming to peace with it.
Compared to other similar characters such as Waverly (played by Tamlyn Tomita) from THE JOY LUCK CLUB which came out a decade ago, how does the character in PERFECTION advance to the next level?
I think that awareness and acceptance of who you are is so important, and only then will you find inner peace and balance. That's where I want to be.
How does the short further dispel the model minority myth or advance the dialogue around it? How does it challenge the idea of the model minority?
We are definitely not just born smart and successful. However, I think more importantly I was trying to show that Asian Americans are more complex than the stereotypes people put on us. I wanted to give insight to non-Asian audiences of who we are, hints of how we were brought up and some of the internal struggles we face.
