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Plot

Dr. Wilhelmina "Wil" Pang is a successful young American surgeon living in New York City. Wil is a lesbian but is closeted to her mother Hwei-Lan and her mother's friends. Wil is forced by her mother to come to a gathering at the restaurant Planet China with family friends where her mother has plans to set her up with a son of a friend, but Wil is drawn to Vivian, the daughter of one of the Chinese mothers who recently got a divorce. They run into each other at the hospital where Wil works, only to discover that Vivian's father is Wil's boss, Dr. Shing. Vivian and her father have a tense relationship since Vivian is currently pursuing her love of modern dance instead of the more respectable ballet.

Wil comes home to discover her mother has been kicked out by her grandfather for being pregnant out of wedlock, bringing shame to the family. Wil asks for the identity of the father, but Hwei-Lan refuses to answer. From then on, Hwei-Lan lives with Wil.

Vivian invites Wil to one of her dance shows and after the show, the two hang out. Vivian reveals the fact that they had met once before when they were children; Vivian kissed Wil on the nose after Wil rescued her from bullies; Wil ran away afterward. Vivian and Wil go to Vivian's apartment and the two kiss. The couple goes on several dates, but Wil is afraid of kissing Vivian in public. At Vivian's request, Wil presents Vivian to her mother as a friend so that they can meet and the three share an awkward dinner. It is revealed later that her mother knows of her homosexuality, but is in denial.

Set up by Wil, Hwei-Lan goes on several dates to find a man to be a father to her unborn child, but remains unattached. She debates on whether to accept the affections of Cho, a man who has loved her for 15 years and is willing to parent her child.

Vivian reveals to Wil that she was accepted into a prestigious ballet program in Paris and is considering the offer. Wil congratulates Vivian and gives her encouragement to accept the offer. While Vivian still debates on the offer, Vivian's father speaks to Wil and presses her to convince Vivian to accept the offer. Wil withdraws from Vivian, and Vivian accepts the job in Paris.

After Wil’s grandmother passes away unexpectedly, Hwei-Lan accepts Cho's marriage proposal. At the wedding, Wil interrupts with a love note from the father of the child saying how much he loves her and wants to marry her despite their age gap. Wil points out the elderly pharmacist, Old Yu, as the man she loves. Old Yu protests, and Little Yu, his son, stands up and announces that he is the one. Wil and her mother run out of the wedding and onto a bus, laughing. After an emotional talk with her mother, Wil rushes to the airport to catch Vivian. Wil apologizes, but Vivian challenges Wil to kiss her to prove her sincerity. Unable to publicly display her love out of fear, Wil is left at the terminal as Vivian leaves for Paris.

Three months later, Wil goes to another party at Planet China, where Hwei-Lan and Little Yu are now a couple. Wil sees Vivian, who has come to see her mother. Wil approaches Vivian and asks her to dance. They dance and kiss. Hwei-Lan and Vivian's mother smile at each other while giving a thumbs up. Some people leave in disgust, but Wil and Vivian ignore them, while everyone else joins in to dance.

In between credits, Hwei-Lan has Wil and Vivian (now engaged), family and friends over at her apartment for a function. Hwei-Lan asks Wil about having babies, to which she reacts with a spit take.

Character development

Saving Face centralizes the relationships between women and their perspectives, mainly that of Vivian and Wil and Wil’s Ma. At the start of the movie, Wil is guarded, focused on work and juggling her life as a lesbian in the city and a dutiful daughter in the Chinese community in Flushing, Queens. Vivian acts as a link between Wil's two worlds (the city and Flushing). By falling in love with Wil and wanting her to be open about their relationship, Vivian gave her the confidence to come out to her mother and her community. Eventually, Wil is able to come out which allows for her to start living her life as her true life which also inspires her to stop her mother's unwanted wedding, giving her the same gift of freedom.

Ma's character starts as being dependent, not open about her feelings and willing to marry a man only to restore her father's honour. After being banished from Flushing for her scandalous pregnancy, she is able to deepen her relationship with Wil while simultaneously becoming more independent and in tune with her own feelings. Furthermore, the film briefly addresses the issue of anti-Black racism in Asian communities when Ma insisted that Jay, Wil's African American neighbour use paper plates because it is "safer." However, as the movie progresses, Ma becomes close friends with Jay, demonstrating her ability to change her traditional views.

The evolution of the importance of saving face is also intertwined with the character development of Wil and Ma since as they become more empowered and sexually liberated, they begin to care less about saving face, implying the possibility of change in traditional Chinese family ethics. The ending scene of the movie included Ma, Wil, and Vivian as a way to indicate Wil's development where all aspects of her life have now become interconnected. The end is also a result of the relationships between these three women, further demonstrating the importance of their relationships in achieving "personhood and…empowerment…The progressive liberating process of coming out of the closet embraced by Ma and Wil in the end also invokes cultural change in the Chinese American community."

The fluidity of identity and tradition

Saving Face explores the experiences of being marginalized within an ethnic community and addressing “the multiple layers of minority status by examining intersections of gender, ethnicity, and sexual orientation”. The complexities and contradictions of these experiences are displayed using the changing identities of Wil and her mother as well as their defiance of norms. Throughout most of the film, Wil's mother is both constrained by traditional Chinese values and the enforcer of these values. She decides to marry a man that she does not love in order to please her father and regain her family's honour while also setting Wil up with men even though she already knew that she was interested in women. Moreover, Ma's character defies norms despite this emphasis on filial piety: she is autonomous as she is pregnant, explores the city alone, and rents a porn DVD. These contradictions demonstrate Ma's flexibility, negotiation, and social construction of her values.

This film's dealing with the topic of the incompatibility of homosexuality with Chinese traditions and its evolution throughout demonstrate the fluidity of these traditions in accommodating new realities. Homosexuality is seen as a threat in traditional Chinese families because they threaten “filial piety, family continuity and family reputation” and is seen as linked to failed education and Americanization. The heteronormativity of the Chinese Flushing community is first displayed during the first dance hall scene when the shots alternate between those of men and women. These shots represent accepted heteronormative binary that places men and women on opposite sides.

Wil's mother's refusal to accept Wil's lesbianism despite having walked in on her with a woman demonstrates this incompatibility as she continues to set Wil up with men. The incompatibility of gay and Asian identities was also exemplified in Wil's coming out scene when Ma says “I am not a bad mother. My daughter is not gay”, relating homosexuality to a “bad ideology” that could not have come from Ma's traditional Chinese teachings and must therefore originate in Wil's Americanization. When Vivian and Wil break up near the end of the film, it seems as though these two identities are truly irreconcilable.

Yet at the end of the movie, this dichotomy between men and women at the dancehall is no longer present, and Wil and Vivian's kiss symbolize the breaking of this binary. While some of the partygoers leave, rejecting the inclusion of homosexual people in their community, others stay, including Wil's mother and grandfather. The happy ending shows that even though Chinese families are seen as traditional and static, they can transform to accept homosexuality.

Saving Face

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Saving Face

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