Posted: 01/06/2010

Half Life

(2009)

by Sawyer J. Lahr

Finally released on DVD in 2009, Half Life directed by Jennifer Phang was her break-out feature film at Sundance, Gen Art, San Francisco International Asian Film Festival. In the film, an Asian-American family resolves its grief after the loss of their pilot father and husband.

The roughly gorgeous daughter Pamela Wu (Sanoe Lake) sets the story into motion when she jumps off her roof. Following the incident, she nearly destroys her relationship with her bereaved mother Saura Wu (Julia Nickson) and her gay best-friend Wendell (Ben Redgrave). News reports set the scene for Pamela’s distress - placed throughout to remind us of what to be depressed about: Global warming and the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Half Life’s scattered point of view belongs mostly to Pamela’s introverted younger brother, Timonthy Wu (Alexander Agate), whose pent up frustration turns into telekinetic powers that save his mother from danger.

A haunting background buzzing makes moments eerily immediate - a sure sign of a lower-budget independent film. The dialogue and animated Waking Life-style rotoscoping makes for a heightened reality and sometimes story-book narrative.

The emotional death of the characters evokes the film’s title in a disquieting almost depressive way. Though a glint of hope rises up in the end.

Sawyer J. Lahr is Chief Editor of the forthcoming online publication, Go Over the Rainbow. He also writes a monthly film column for Mindful Metropolis, a conscious living magazine in Chicago, IL.

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