<\/p>\n
When I was little, my mom told me that if I spoke more English than Chinese, I would eventually lose my Asian features and turn white. At the time, I was just heading into preschool, a place where I wouldn\u2019t be at home conversing with just my family anymore. As a naive child, I didn\u2019t know she meant this only metaphorically \u2014 I thought I would get blond hair and blue eyes if I stopped speaking my mother tongue. I don\u2019t know why my mom used this as a threat, because to me it seemed more like an enticing possibility than an undesirable punishment. For the first six years of my life, I grew up as one of the few Asian Americans in my town, and I wanted more than anything to blend in.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
With \u201cSlanted,\u201d I guess I (and many others) don\u2019t have to keep pondering what life would be like if race change was a possibility (and no, I\u2019m not talking about race-fishing makeup<\/a>). Amy Wang\u2019s directorial debut film is a funny and heartfelt comedy-drama mixed with body horror that lays out what life would be like if race transition was possible.<\/p>\n Set in hyper-patriotic and predominantly white America, \u201cSlanted\u201d takes us along Joan Huang\u2019s (Shirley Chen, \u201cD\u00ecdi\u201d) coming-of-age journey as she grapples with the challenge of peer acceptance, all while struggling to hold onto her racial and cultural identity. From a young age, she was taught that her lunch was smelly, that her eyes slanted at an odd angle and that her nose was unnaturally flat. Essentially, Huang was taught that she was a far cry from the \u201cideal American\u201d plastered on posters and billboards throughout her suburban town.\u00a0<\/p>\n As such, Joan grows insecure about looking \u201codd,\u201d eating \u201crepulsive\u201d foods and having parents who work blue-collar cleaning jobs. When the mysterious organization Ethnos Inc. reaches out to Joan, promising to transform her into a popular white girl, Joan ecstatically seizes this opportunity to better her life. After the transition, she renames herself to Jo Hunt, played by Mckenna Grace (\u201cGifted\u201d), and lives out her dreams: receiving invitations to parties, male attention and the opportunity to actually have a chance at winning prom queen. However, the so-called benefits of the treatment start wearing off as Joan (or Jo, after the transition) gradually realizes how much she stands to lose in the pursuit of popularity.\u00a0<\/p>\n