Saving Face

The film "Saving Face" follows the story of Wilhelmina (Wil), a surgeon, and her mother, Gao, who is pregnant, and Wil's girlfriend, Vivian. Two scene that strongly connected to one of Takaki's themes in his book, "Strangers from a Different Shore", was the scenes involving Gao trying to pair up Wil with suitable men and Wil's grandfather arranging Gao's marriage to Mr. Cho. It is a very common tradition in China for parents to arrange marriages for their children, which was also seen in the film "Eat a Bowl of Tea".

Another reoccurring event in the film that related to Takaki's work was the idea that children making mistakes or misbehaving reflects back on to the parents and how they brought up their child. Gao's father felt ashamed that his daughter got pregnant out of wedlock and disowned her so she could not ruin his name, thus "saving his face". He stated that he and Gao's mother "did so much to come from the old country" and that he refused to have his hard work be destroyed by his troublesome daughter. Also, when Wil came out to her mother, she refused to accept the news and stated that no child of hers is gay, again showing that parents care about their image; not many people accept homosexuality, especially in cultures based heavily on arranged marriages and family. Many parents believe that if their child is gay, it reflects poorly upon them and makes it seem like they did something wrong while raising the child (which is not true).

In Takaki's story he describes that many Asian parents came to America to better the lives of their children, which is what Wil's grandparents did–they came to the United States to better Gao's life, and eventually Wil's life. As seen in the film, Wil is a very successful surgeon, something that may not have happened in China. By immigrating to the US, Wil's grandparents gave her a greater opportunity to pursue a higher education and career. The difference between the two classes (colonized working class vs. entrepreneurial-professional middle class) of Asians was also seen in the film: at the very beginning of the movie there is a scene showing a salon filled with Asian employees, which is a middle paying career compared to Wil, who is a top surgeon and is in a higher up job.