Directed by Wayne Wang

Born and raised in Hong Kong until a formative move to the Bay Area at the age of 18 for college, filmmaker Wayne Wang (b. 1949) has one of the most, in his words, “zigzagging” careers in Hollywood, starting with the landmark independent feature Chan is Missing in 1982 and gaining international acclaim with The Joy Luck Club (1993) just one decade later, with both films having since been added to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress. Given Joy Luck’s massive success with audiences worldwide, Wang was given carte blanche with a handful of other studio movies—Smoke and Blue in the Face, both for Miramax in 1995—and has been bouncing between independent international co-productions (Chinese Box) and big-budget dramedies (Maid in Manhattan, Last Holiday) ever since. As Brandon Yu points out in a recent New York Times profile of Wang, “one would be hard-pressed to find any filmmaker who not only daringly chronicled Chinese life in a time when it was unthinkable in American cinema, but also parlayed all that into one of the more eclectic careers in Hollywood.” Over six nights, the UCLA Film & Television Archive and the American Cinematheque are proud to present 12 feature films directed by this groundbreaking Hong Kong American filmmaker. Wayne Wang will appear in person at each screening for conversations with film scholars, writers and critics.

Special thanks to Wayne Wang and Marcus Hu for their work to make this series possible.

Special thanks to our community partners: UCLA Asian American Studies Center, UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television