Жүз бен абырой: Ана мен қызының таңдауы

2005 film by Alice Wu

The name itself is a reference to the pan East Asian social concept of face.

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.

Alice Wu, who directed the movie, wrote the script several years earlier while working as a program manager at Cinemania and Music Central, Microsoft's CD ROM entertainment department. She originally started writing a novel inspired by her experience coming out as a lesbian to her middle aged mother. Later, Wu and her mother grew very close, resulting in Wu dedicating Saving Face to her mother because “[she] wanted her [mother] to know it’s not too late to fall in love for the first time. [Wu] want[ed] her to leave the theater feeling that sense of hope.” She has also explained that although she has a lot in common with Wil, the situation of the film is not based on her life. Zee described the process as "an awakening for me about the Asian American experience in Hollywood, because I was always such a part of the studio system. Every day there are actors coming in who are Chinese American, who don't get an opportunity except to play prostitutes or waiters." and Michelle Krusiec's first lead role. At her first audition, Lynn Chen played Vivian simply as a friend of Wil's in the vending machine scene because she did not have access to the script and was therefore unaware that it was a lesbian romantic comedy. She returned to audition four more times, once with Michelle Krusiec before securing the role of Vivian Shing. Because she was not a native Mandarin speaker and the film required natural comedic timing, Wu allowed Krusiec's character to respond to her mother's Mandarin in English, which the director writer said “is a very first generation American thing to do”. Saving Face was filmed on location in New York’s Flushing, Queens, Brooklyn, and Manhattan on 35 mm film.

Saving Face initially opened at only 6 theaters, making $75,104 (averaging $12,517/theater) in its opening weekend, and went on to gross $1,187,266 from 56 theaters in its theatrical run. It grossed an additional $49,252 in the UK, for a worldwide gross of $1,236,518. Wesley Morris of the Boston Globe, Ed Park of Village Voice, among others, gave positive reviews, with Holden in particular calling it an 'amiable' romance spanning three generations of Chinese Americans. David Rooney of Variety Media said that the film excelled at “spanning the fragile bridge between traditional values and independent spirit” and providing “gentle humor and [a] universal emotional experience”. However, despite the “satisfying payoff” he also criticized the film for its predictability, pacing, and momentum. Jonathan Rosenbaum of the Chicago Reader was notably critical of the film, especially the latter half, describing it as collapsing into "nonsense". On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an 86% approval rating based on reviews from 88 critics, with an average rating of 6.70/10. The site's consensus describes it as "A charming tale of a love affair that overcomes cultural taboos". On Metacritic it has a score of 65 out of 100 based on 28 reviews.

Saving Face was nominated for the Breakthrough Director Award at the 2005 Gotham Awards, the Viewer's Choice Award and the Best Actress Award for Michelle Krusiec at the 2005 Golden Horse Film Festival, Out of these, it won the Viewer's Choice Award at the 2005 Golden Horse Film Festival. Alice Wu also won the Visionary Award at the San Diego Asian Film Festival and the Audience Award for Best Narrative at the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival in 2005. 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.

This film has also been interpreted as an example of the blurring between mainstream and marginal representations of Chinese Americans in film. Wu uses stereotypes to establish a “Chinese authenticity” for the characters while also subverting others in important ways. As an intelligent surgeon, Wil is an example of the model minority while her mother is “germ obsessed and [a] meddling matchmaker”. Elders are generally shown to be maintainers of tradition who pressure their children to integrate. For instance, Wil's grandfather practices tai chi while Old Yu tells fortunes. and at the 30th annual San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival in 2012. At the Saving Face reunion panel at Clexacon in 2017, Krusiec commented on the power of the movie, being one of the few lesbian movies with a happy ending. She explained that this film remains important because many viewers have told her that it has made them feel represented to the point where they were able to come out. In an episode of Drunk Lesbians Watch posted in 2018 to YouTube, Michelle Krusiec and Lynn Chen appeared with the hosts and commented on specific scenes from the film, explaining the motivations and emotions of their characters in the scenes.