'I Will Make You Mine' Review

 
NRRuntime: 1 Hr and 19 MinutesProduction Companies: Gray Hat ProductionsDistributor: Gravitas VenturesDirector: Lynn ChenWriter: Lynn ChenCast: Lynn Chen, Yea-Ming Chen, Ayako Fujitani, Goh Nakamura, Joy Osmanski, Mike Faiola, Tamlyn Tomita, Ayami Riley TomineRelease Date: May 26, 2020 (VOD)
Rachel (Lynn Chen) lives in idle luxury with a cheating husband, Professor Erika (Ayako Fujitani) juggles career demands while raising her daughter Sachiko (newcomer Ayami Riley Tomine), and struggling musician Yea-Ming (Yea-Ming Chen) is still chasing a fast-fading dream. Three women who could not be more different have one thing in common: their flawed romantic history with singer-songwriter Goh Nakamura (himself). When the amiable but unreliable Goh ambles back into town and into their lives, the past comes roaring back. This semi-sequel to Surrogate Valentine (SXSW 2011) and Daylight Savings (SXSW 2012) revisits the characters in a stand-alone story with a fresh new perspective.
I feel a bit foolish right now. It wasn’t until halfway through the drafting of this review that I found out that this is the third entry in a trilogy of movies made by Dave Boyle featuring this same cast but mostly set on the fictionalized version of singer Goh Nakamura. What director Lynn Chen applies, which is one of the film’s major strengths, is the perspective she frames the story in. Chen tells the story through the women that are all interconnected with Goh. His best friend from youth, his ex-girlfriend whom he has a child with, and a fellow up-and-coming singer-songwriter who he had a fling with. All of the scenes are primarily set through the perspectives of the female Asian-American cast and how they’re navigating through life. 
Despite me not having any past context regarding these characters, the relationships between the leads are relatively easy to follow and enticing. This is a group of good friends reuniting in their 30s, facing new problems, such as marital issues or not being satisfied with where they’re at, and they haven’t quite gotten their shit together. In any other feature, the archetypes of the conflicts would’ve been executed in such an over-the-top, exaggerated manner. This could’ve easily fallen into the trappings of something to be telegraphed, but through Chen’s direction, you really are endeared by these characters. All the interactions between these characters feel natural and authentic, especially given the theme of aging. I genuinely do like these characters and the mature outlook of adulthood without sugar-coating it or dumbing itself down for audiences. All of these characters feel real and are pieces of people we have either come across or have witnessed. I mean, I’m in my 20s and these conflicts are far beyond anything I’ve experienced just yet, but I can still comprehend the mindsets and perspectives of these characters. Chen does a great job expanding on these characters that Dave Boyle created and she spins her own creative lens on them. Damn, I guess I now have to work my way backward on this trilogy? I didn’t know indie movies (aside from the Before Sunrise series) could have trilogies! Now I feel like a scrub reviewing this without knowing a thing about its previous features. I’m going to have to schedule a day where I watch both previous entries to get a sense of a better scope of this story. But until then, 3.5!Rating: 3.5/5 | 78%