Saving Face Essay

Saving Face was a romantic comedy unveiling the truth about how characters identity can cause personal and cultural conflicts. Will and Ma had been keeping a secret from their family making it hard for them to come to terms with themselves and connect with others. However, between it all, motifs were seen throughout the whole movie expressing thoughts, feelings and presence. For instance, Ma’s constant calls to Will, and tight camera angles in the movie symbolize an intrusion from the outside world. Through those motifs, food was the central motif. It expressed emotion, intimacy, and true feelings for an individual without anyone‘s influence in Saving Face.

Food was the central motif in the romantic comedy Saving Face because it was the only reoccurring pattern that would show an individuals identity. However, Ma’s phone calls to Will and the tight camera angles in the movie made it captive for anyone to embrace their identity. The tight camera angles were able to show pain and scorn one was facing as they started to peal their identity away. As this would happen, one saw how hard it could be in being upfront and honest about themselves to others. When Ma was faced with explaining to her father she was pregnant, with no husband , the movie captured Ma boxed in. In this shot, Ma was in a room, sitting down closed in by the narrow hallway leading to where she was sitting. Her father was in the same room as her not seen, but only heard. This shows how the “outside” influences make it difficult to accept one’s state and affects making connections with others. Ma now felt she had to marry someone, even if she wasn’t interested in him. Will had witnessed her mother getting scolded by her grandfather (superior figure to Ma), thus, making it even more complicated and intimidating for Will to tell her family the secret (being a lesbian and having a partner; Vivian).
Throughout, Saving Face, Ma would call Will, ironically, just as soon as an intimate scene with Vivian