The Princess of Nebraska

Toronto International Film Festival Program Book
September 2007

Wayne Wang is an important pioneer in American independent films that took Asian Americans as their primary subject. I was always saddened that, after his early flurry of effort (and subsequent move to mainstream Hollywood), few efforts or directors emerged in his wake at an international level. When I arrived in San Francisco to run SFFILM, one of my favorite people I met there was Stephen Gong, head of the Center for Asian American Media. He and Wayne have been working for decades to ensure Asian American voices are heard, mostly in social justice documentaries, and this film was a rare experiment for them in narrative filmmaking. Wayne’s return to his roots inspired a friendship with Stephen that has been a great pleasure for many years.

The Princess of Nebraska
Wayne Wang
USA, 2007
English, Mandarin
77 minutes Colour/35mm
Production Company: California Asian American Media
Executive Producer: Yasushi Kotani, Taizo Son, Stephen Gong
Producer: Yukie Kito, Donald Young
Screenplay: Michael Ray, based on the short story by Yiyun Li
Cinematographer: Richard Wong
Editor: Deirdre Slevin
Production Designer: Amy Chan
Sound: David C. Hughes, Kent Sparling
Music: Kent Sparling
Principal Cast: Ling Li, Brian Danforth, Pamelyn Chee, Patrice Binaisa
Production: California Asian American Media

A companion piece to A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, The Princess of Nebraska shares that film’s theme of Chinese citizens visiting the United States and finding it alienating and bewildering. Both works are also based on the stories of impressive young writer Yiyun Li. Beyond that, they could not be less alike. As kinetic and edgy as its twin is restrained and subtle, The Princess of Nebraska sees Wang, the master, enjoying the freedom to experiment with cinematic form after a decade-long stint making big-budget Hollywood films. A restless camera, shrinking and expanding frames, wild colour schemes and a daring use of light give the film an impressive sense of innovation and push digital video to its extremes.

This aesthetic fits well with the story, which unfolds over a wild twenty-four hours. A young woman named Sasha (Ling Li) has been studying in Omaha, Nebraska, after leaving Beijing, pregnant from a fling with Yang. A Beijing Opera star, Yang was kicked out of the troupe for his scandalous tryst with an American man, Boshen (Brian Danforth). Yang is now working as a hustler on the streets of Beijing and has cut off all ties to both lovers, even though they still seek contact with him.

We join Sasha’s story as she arrives in San Francisco with plans to get an abortion, having interrupted her semester for the trip. She is located by Boshen, who wants to lure Yang to America by starting a family with Sasha and her baby. With storied San Francisco and all its vast possibilities in front of her, Sasha begins to rethink her intentions and her future, particularly after meeting and befriending the prostitute X (Pamelyn Chee).

Wang elicits wonderful performances from his group of young actors and aptly identifies the feeling of cultural strangeness that America provokes in foreign visitors.
—Noah Cowan

Wayne Wang was born in Hong Kong and studied film and television at the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland. His films include A Man, a Woman and a Killer (co-director, 75), Chan Is Missing (82), Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart (85), Slam Dance (87), Eat a Bowl of Tea (89), The Joy Luck Club (93), Smoke (95), Blue in the Face (95), Chinese Box (97), Anywhere But Here (99), The Center of the World (01), Maid in Manhattan (02), Because of Winn-Dixie (05), Last Holiday (06), A Thousand Years of Good Prayers (07), which is also screening at the Festival, and The Princess of Nebraska (07).