Mothership -A Short Treatment

A few days ago, I said it was worth seeing “Better Luck Tomorrow” because it wasn’t a film filled with Asian-American Sap. Although I loved “The Joy Luck Club” and all those movies, for a while now I realized if AA films are going to break into the mass market they need to “Get Over” the whole Asian American thing and move into story telling.

I was extremely bored about six months ago, and I wrote this satire on what the next Asian-American Film will be like. It’s inspired by my Asian American History Professor, and some of the girls she keeps in touch with, including me.

It managed to offend another film director I was talking to at the time, I thought she would find it funny, but I think she found it a little close to bone with what she was writing. My professor loved it and said I should make a film like this, and stop joking about it. Stuff like this is not for me to make. Although I will go to watch it and bring a box of tissues. But for now. You know what I mean?

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Mothership -A short treatment.

I somehow think there is a chick flick in this. Asian American Mothership professor with revolutionary ideas spawn four beautiful, intelligent students of high caliber. In the years between graduation they go out to the world and seek new adventures! In the end they become:

An Academic like herself
A lawyer devoted to civil liberties,
A medical doctor who tries to alleviate human suffering
and of course the documentary maker who comes home to record it all.

The film will start from the documentary maker’s return “home” (opening shot: Women with a suitcase looking at a white picket fence house located in the inner empire)

She has returned home after years of working as a journalist in a war zone. She was recently captured and freed but had to endure witnessing the death of her photographer and occasional lover by dark masked men.

Her lover is played by a sexy guy with a funny non specific European accent who tells her things like “Luv darrrrling is a state of mind. We are leeving and breeathhhing.. is it not good enough? No?”

We find this out slowly of course because the experience has left her with nightmares (which allows for the flashback scene where she wakes up sweating in her sexy silky camisole)

So she is home and trying to make sense of it all! What she encounters is her close college friends whom mothership connects her to. And what she finds is that like her they have run the gamut of relational
disasters but career success!

Scenarios in the relationship:

1) Character A: has postponed child birth and is desperately seeking in fertility treatments! And going to lots of groups but feels out of place with the more white counterparts, who thinks her baby will be cute because it’s bi-racial!

2) Character B is married to horrible white guy who had no cultural sensitivity and expected her to make meat loaf like his racist mother did out in the mid-west! Her kids prefer hamburgers rather than lemon
chicken! Every time her husband smells sushi he throws up!

3) Character C has three kids, the perfect Chinese husband whom she married right out of college, and whom the other three characters were all secretly in love with! But she is getting restless and bored and
starting to find a young Asian American intern at the place of her work rather attractive!

Of course protagonist finds out all this along with the audience through long protracted interviews which happens in each of their homes. Although more warm moments of bonding are shown while “the girls” swap Asian cooking tips (No! There are TWO kinds of soy sauce! Dark and light! Dark is more salty ah!) at the kitchen table.

Through this film our protagonist rekindles her long lost feelings of “home” bond with her sistas while recovering from her stupid jaunts around the world. At the same time

Character A gets pregnant finally! Not through in vitro! Not through fertility treatments! It was her an her husband doing it the right way after protagonist teaches her some stuff from her foreign lover who
died!

Character B divorces her husband and starts to rekindle her Asian American roots! Meets nice man who show her kids what a wonderful creation lemon chicken is and takes her out to expensive Japanese Restaurants and eat sushi!

Character C makes out with young intern in car but he can’t get it up coz he is so nervous and it only doing it to make sure he gets the job after the summer! She realizes what she has and is happy home! And thinks of taking a sabbatical to spend more time with her kids and her loving hubby!

All through this mothership dispenses advice and nods approvingly in her college office (which has a lovely portrait of her among our four heroines a their graduation) pinned on the wall!

Of course this ends up in a huge party for the birth of Character A’s daughter and the nice long pan of mothership in the middle of a round table. The children and he obligatory smiling husband sitting around, whispering and laughing.

I think this is IT! My next film!

Call Amy Tang and Wayne Wang RIGHT NOW.

Ha Ha…