20, 30, and 40 Butterflies

This past weekend, Rae and I attended two screenings at the annual Asian American Film Festival. On Saturday, we watched (along with Kai, Bryan, and Flora) 20, 30, 40, a film about three women in their — you guessed it — 20’s, 30’s, and 40’s and the hardships they face in these different stages in life. Apparently, this film was much better than Invisible Light, a plodding abomination of a film according to Rae and Kai. Good thing I chose not to see that film last year!

The day before, we went to see Vienna Teng perform at Eric’s place in Oakland. She sang a song entitled Love At 40. Vienna ponders society’s preoccupation with youth and young love with a song about love that remains or is lost after children and after the extra pounds haved been packed in. I’ve always wondered how love, your feeling for someone, changes over the years. What I thought four years ago is certainly very different from what I feel today; I no doubt expect those feelings to change five years from now.

It’s gradual, much like how one’s appearance changes over the years. I’ve been taking a photo of myself everyday since 1999, nearly 6 years, and I have noticed that the person I was in 1999 looks similar yet different from the person I see in the mirror today. It’s strange to think that you haven’t changed but know that you have changed. It certainly messes with your mind!

It wasn’t 20, 30, 40 alone which has me thinking all philosophically lately. I ran into some Stanford classmates of mine at the festival, including Jason Liu, Jane Liaw, Yul Kwon, and Grace Hwang. Aside from Grace, I haven’t seen the others in a long, long time — since graduation for Yul and Jane! I kept remarking to myself that they all looked similar, yet different. Everyone seems to be coming back to the Bay Area, which means there will be plenty of opportunities to catch up and see where and what everyone has been doing over the past decade.

Following the movies, Rae and I shopped around for the wedding around 16th and Mission. At 7:00 pm, we met up with Levi and Vanessa to have dinner at Millennium near Union Square. The vegetarian-only fare was surprisingly filling. I was expecting three sprigs of asparagus on a bed of rice pilaf!

On Sunday, we saw Butterfly. I think this year’s NAATA is all about the lesbian lovefest! Though the movie could have used a little editing (it was a rather long 2 hour and 10 minute film), it was pretty enjoyable. I thought that the characters and their conflicts were well represented in the movie. For the most part, nobody was a caricature, and you could understand why they acted the way they did in the film.

Of course, the film that I have been waiting for the past three years is coming up on May 19. Yes, Revenge of the Sith is now two months away! Early reports say it’s going to be much better than The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones, although it won’t take much to outdo those two films. While I did enjoy many of the ideas and themes behind the first two prequels, I felt that the execution (or editing) left much to be desired. I won’t be dressing up as a Dark Jedi on opening night this time around. I’ll just enjoy the film for what it is. No expectations, no regrets!