Kristina Wong reviews YELLOW ROSE by Diane Paragas, the closing night film at the 23rd Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival.
This review is published as part of the Youth Critics Initiative, a collaborative program between Reel Asian and TACLA.
Recently acquired by Sony Pictures Classics, YELLOW ROSE (2019) directed by Diane Paragas and written by Annie J. Howell tells the story of Rose Garcia, an undocumented teenager living in Texas who finds liberty in country music. This might sound like a run-of-the-mill American dream story but the millennial perspective and catchy tunes make it a standout feature film. It’s difficult to name a more enduring film with two drastically different subjects: an undocumented immigrant and country music.
The notable cast includes Tony Award nominee Eva Noblezada, Lea Salonga (MULAN, ALADDIN) and Princess Punzalan (MULA SA PUSO) who was in attendance at the Reel Asian closing night gala screening.
It’s clear the film is from a Filipino-American lens, but production also went beyond to ensure the cast was authentic and that characters had value beyond their skin colour. Notably, Noblezada was recently the lead in the remake of MISS SAIGON, a prominent Broadway musical, and the same play where Salonga once portrayed the same role. Seeing them together in this film is just the start to a hopeful new wave of Asian-American led cinema with a much-needed star system in development.
The first act of the film revolves around Rose Garcia (Eva Noblezada) a young aspiring musician and her overprotective mother (Princess Punzalan) living and working in a rundown motel on the outskirts of Austin. On the verge of adulthood, Rose goes for a trip into the city with her love interest, Elliot (Liam Booth) where she experiences live country music for the first time and immediately feels a part of a community. She returns home to find immigration authorities taking her undocumented mother away and is forced to run, despite having lived in America for all of her life. This is when the story begins.
Frightened but strong-headed, Rose embarks on a journey to find her estranged Aunt Gail (Lea Salonga) who is her only chance at staying in the country, that is, if she isn’t caught first. However, her upper class White American uncle refuses to allow her to stay, leaving her alone once again. Eventually Rose finds refuge by working odd end jobs and is taken in by a local country bar owner who sympathizes with her struggles, that is until immigration authorities (big surprise) raid the bar and take away other undocumented staff except for her. Despite the close call, she is able to achieve her singer-songwriter ambitions with the help of country legend Dale Watson.
It’s really Noblezada’s voice that makes this film a gem. Rose’s deep passion for music comes up throughout the film as a performance motif where her sincere lyrics provide a universal message of hope. Noblezada’s unique ability to convey such emotion in her soft tones accompanied by an acoustic guitar is unmatched, and will linger in viewers’ minds long after the film has ended.
While the cinematography is respectable and the editing is well-paced, the film, however, follows a standard Hollywood formula. It’s easy to be captivated by the cast, as great acting and authenticity help to sell the story but the characters’ arcs are predictable and wrap up too quickly without proper resolutions. Rose’s journey is clean-cut and relies heavily on effortless plant and payoff plot devices to move the story forward. It is unrealistic to believe that a young woman is able to consistently rely on the abundant kindness of strangers for work and shelter seemingly without any hardships. A chance encounter with a country superstar Dale Watson at the beginning of the film sets her up later on to get not only a new guitar, home and studio time but a chance to perform with him on stage as the finale. There is a recurring racial dynamic in the film where all the factors moving Rose’s journey towards self-actualization are determined by white folks. From her love interest, employer, mentor — Rose is reliant on these White decision-makers to help her succeed throughout the film, seemingly unable to rely on her own people. In a scene where Rose asks her Aunt Gail for help, she is denied because her White uncle does not approve, again displaying a disappointing power dynamic.
Additionally, as much as the film tries to highlight the struggles of undocumented immigration, the consequences are too easily fixed, discrediting the weight of the actual real-life issue. There are standout scenes of Rose visiting her mother in a detention centre, and a nerve-wracking ICE raid but the film does not dive deep enough into these realms to reveal the true adversity of deportation. High stakes are set up in the scene where Rose’s workplace is being raided by ICE, but while every other immigrant is taken away by authorities she is spared by the police officer for no apparent reason. This impractical end to the raid devalues the impact of the scene. These situations become moments to shed light on, but are quickly brushed under the rug again. This lack of narrative authenticity pulls you out of the film and keeps you in a politically safe zone to stay entertained by country music.
Yet the film taps into our humanity with such earnestness that despite its use of simple resolutions, it has you rooting for Rose to overcome her barriers and achieve her country superstar dreams. You’ll find yourself voluntarily suspending your disbelief and wanting Rose to succeed because our community deserves a win after years of being portrayed as one-dimensional characters.
We all want something to believe in again and so realistic or not, we believe for Rose as she quietly gives us permission to believe in ourselves.
While watching the film at the Reel Asian Film Festival, I couldn’t help but notice the theatre was packed with jubilant diasporic Filipinx audience members. There was electricity in the air as everyone celebrated the fruition of underrepresented filmmakers being able to tell their own stories and create work that allowed Othered viewers to feel a little less lonely. Perhaps the most important manifestation of this film is the sense of hope it brings not just to cinema but to our world.
YELLOW ROSE is an emotional portrait that gives hope to people dealing with deportation disputes in North America. Director Diane Paragas extends a familiar hand to audiences for them to truly understand and humanize the immigrant experience, with a country twist. This feel-good film champions inclusivity with its casting, something not only the filmmakers can take pride in but the community can too. I hope that the future of Asian diaspora cinema continues to grow and prioritize not only maintaining proper casting but reflecting more authentic narratives where we are free to showcase our individual cultures, languages and heroes without compromise.
Kristina Wong (She/Her) is a Toronto-based director and producer. Often drawing from her Chinese-Canadian experiences, she strives to tell stories that are against the grain and have a female point-of-view. Her award-winning short films have screened at the Victoria Film Festival, Seattle Asian American Film Festival and have been acquisitioned by Bell Media. She is an alumni of Hot Doc’s Accelerator Lab, Reelworld’s E20 Program and the winner of Reel Asian’s 2018 Pitch competition.
Instagram: @kris.a.w
