There Are Great Stories Worth Telling Within the Mundane
Asian Movie Pulse | Grace Han | February 20, 2023
Asian Movie Pulse interviews Randall Park, director of Shortcomings
“Fresh Off the Boat” star Randall Park turned heads at Sundance this year with his directorial debut, “Shortcomings.” The feature film follows a trio of Asian Americans from Berkeley, California: Ben (Justin H. Min), an ornery cinephile who runs a local arthouse theater; his partner, Miko (Ally Maki), who earnestly believes in the future of Asian American cinema; and Alice (Sherry Cola), Ben’s comedic confidante and serial lesbian monogamist. As the three struggle to maintain their polished veneers to the public, they witness each other’s personas shatter amid the rough-and-tumble of millennial romance. As the peace in their Bay Area bubble crumbles, the three of them uproot to New York City, where they grapple with their imperfections head-on.
After catching the film premiere in Park City, we caught up with Randall Park over Zoom. Park is soft-spoken, but sharp through the screen; he maintains a thoughtful air as we bounce from one topic to the next. Over the next half-hour, we discuss the appeal of (dis)likeability, the authenticity rhetoric of Asian American film, an unexpected cameo, and working from the director’s chair.
This interview has been edited and redacted for clarity.
You’ve mentioned before that “Shortcomings” is based off of Adrian Tomine’s graphic novel of the same name. Did you always know you wanted to adapt the comic strip into a film?
[At first,] I didn’t know if I wanted to direct, necessarily. But I definitely wanted to play some role in getting that story out in movie form, whether it be producing or acting in it. The graphic novel felt like a movie to me. I held on to that feeling throughout the next 15 years. At the time, in 2007, I understood why no one was doing anything with it. The industry just wasn’t telling those kinds of stories about Asian American characters in everyday settings, hanging out and talking and walking and going to diners. And it still doesn’t, to be honest. But because of the success of several movies and TV shows, there has been a change in the industry where there is at least the acknowledgement of the importance to tell these stories.
What changed?
It’s kind of hard to point to a single project that changed things. A lot of people do talk about “Crazy Rich Asians” as being this very important moment. I think it definitely signaled a lot of shifts in industry. But that change was in the works for a long time. There were a lot of films, TV shows, and comedians — a whole bunch of people slowly creating a change so that we could tell more and different kinds of stories.
What about yourself? What ended up being the catalyst to start production?
I was done with the sixth season of “Fresh Off the Boat” and “Always Be My Maybe,” and I started this production company with two of my old friends, Hieu Ho and Michael Golamco. The three of us just started making stuff. Then we got a TV deal at Universal. So we thought, “Well, are there any [feature] film projects?” And I said, “You know, no one’s done anything with ‘Shortcomings.'” So we looked into it. We found out that there was a script that Adrian wrote and that it had been optioned, and that Adrian was meeting with directors. So I was like, “Oh, my God, I gotta throw my hat in the ring. This project means so much to me.” I had directed some TV at that point, so I thought, “Well, it’s a long shot, but I might as well try.” I came up with a pitch and explaining my vision and it all worked out.
In the premiere Q&A, Justin H. Min mentioned that Ben was akin to him “before therapy.” This makes me curious – how do you deal with directing a conventionally unlikeable protagonist? How much of the adaptation came from you, versus Adrian and Justin?
The challenge with Ben was, “Okay, you have an hour and a half of this really prickly, opinionated, angry character. How do we get the audience to want to accompany him on his journey for that period of time?”
He’s funny, so we definitely leaned into that. He’s also very charming on paper. We also wanted to show the humanity under every opinion, every tirade, so that you can get a sense of underlying, deep sadness. He’s lived a life that has shaped him into this person. I think we can all identify with that to some degree. So [I thought], let’s make Ben as human as possible, even though he has the potential to be very off-putting. We felt that Justin really brought this complexity to the character.
Read the rest of the interview here!
After catching the film premiere in Park City, we caught up with Randall Park over Zoom. Park is soft-spoken, but sharp through the screen; he maintains a thoughtful air as we bounce from one topic to the next. Over the next half-hour, we discuss the appeal of (dis)likeability, the authenticity rhetoric of Asian American film, an unexpected cameo, and working from the director’s chair.
This interview has been edited and redacted for clarity.
You’ve mentioned before that “Shortcomings” is based off of Adrian Tomine’s graphic novel of the same name. Did you always know you wanted to adapt the comic strip into a film?
[At first,] I didn’t know if I wanted to direct, necessarily. But I definitely wanted to play some role in getting that story out in movie form, whether it be producing or acting in it. The graphic novel felt like a movie to me. I held on to that feeling throughout the next 15 years. At the time, in 2007, I understood why no one was doing anything with it. The industry just wasn’t telling those kinds of stories about Asian American characters in everyday settings, hanging out and talking and walking and going to diners. And it still doesn’t, to be honest. But because of the success of several movies and TV shows, there has been a change in the industry where there is at least the acknowledgement of the importance to tell these stories.
What changed?
It’s kind of hard to point to a single project that changed things. A lot of people do talk about “Crazy Rich Asians” as being this very important moment. I think it definitely signaled a lot of shifts in industry. But that change was in the works for a long time. There were a lot of films, TV shows, and comedians — a whole bunch of people slowly creating a change so that we could tell more and different kinds of stories.
What about yourself? What ended up being the catalyst to start production?
I was done with the sixth season of “Fresh Off the Boat” and “Always Be My Maybe,” and I started this production company with two of my old friends, Hieu Ho and Michael Golamco. The three of us just started making stuff. Then we got a TV deal at Universal. So we thought, “Well, are there any [feature] film projects?” And I said, “You know, no one’s done anything with ‘Shortcomings.'” So we looked into it. We found out that there was a script that Adrian wrote and that it had been optioned, and that Adrian was meeting with directors. So I was like, “Oh, my God, I gotta throw my hat in the ring. This project means so much to me.” I had directed some TV at that point, so I thought, “Well, it’s a long shot, but I might as well try.” I came up with a pitch and explaining my vision and it all worked out.
In the premiere Q&A, Justin H. Min mentioned that Ben was akin to him “before therapy.” This makes me curious – how do you deal with directing a conventionally unlikeable protagonist? How much of the adaptation came from you, versus Adrian and Justin?
The challenge with Ben was, “Okay, you have an hour and a half of this really prickly, opinionated, angry character. How do we get the audience to want to accompany him on his journey for that period of time?”
He’s funny, so we definitely leaned into that. He’s also very charming on paper. We also wanted to show the humanity under every opinion, every tirade, so that you can get a sense of underlying, deep sadness. He’s lived a life that has shaped him into this person. I think we can all identify with that to some degree. So [I thought], let’s make Ben as human as possible, even though he has the potential to be very off-putting. We felt that Justin really brought this complexity to the character.
Read the rest of the interview here!