FINDING ANSWERS

It was nothing short of extraordinary when, for the first time ever, the most coveted acting award was given to an Asian.
It certainly was history in the making as the amazing and very inspiring Malaysian-born Michelle Yeoh won last week the Academy Award for Best Actress.
“For all the little boys and girls who look like me watching tonight, this is a beacon of hope and possibilities,” Yeoh said as she raised her Oscar statuette.
“And ladies, don’t let anyone ever tell you you’re past your prime.”
Her triumph is especially meaningful because throughout its 95-year history, the US-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has never given the Academy Award (popularly called Oscar) for Best Actor or Best Actress to any Asian.
Even for Blacks, the top acting awards remained elusive. Only Halle Berry has become the person of color to win Best Actress in 2002 for her performance as a struggling widow in Monster’s Ball.
Yeoh’s sterling multifaceted performance as laundromat operator and troubled immigrant in “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” which won the Oscar for Best Picture, indeed made her deserving of Hollywood’s top honor, and she clearly knows its importance and redeeming value.
“It matters a lot and it’s not just mattering to me, it’s shining the light on a part of the world, of people that look like me who has never been included. So it matters,” Yeoh explained in an emotional MSNBC interview days before Oscars Night. “Do I want it? Yes, I want it, not just for me, but just to say we all can sit at the same table, work together, and tell beautiful stories together.”
Yeoh’s triumph is certainly inspiring for the people of Asia. It is particularly inspirational in the ASEAN region not only because the top honor went to a Malaysian, but also because the Oscar Best Supporting Actor went to Vietnamese-born Ke Huy Quan for his performance as the husband of Yeoh’s film character.
“My journey started on a boat, I spent a year in a refugee camp, and somehow, I ended up here, on Hollywood’s biggest stage. They say, stories like this only happen in the movies. I cannot believe it's happening to me. This is the American dream,” Quan said in his acceptance speech. “Dreams are something you have to believe in. I almost gave up on mine. To all of you out there, please keep your dreams alive.”
The remarkable success of both Yeoh and Quan came three years after another big surprise at the Os-cars when “Parasite” won four top awards, including the much-coveted Best Picture.
The triumph of Parasite at the Oscars in 2020 was equally historic. For a non-English-language movie, especially an Asian film, to win Best Picture was incredible. In the past, the closest an Asian filmmaker could get to the pinnacle of success at the Oscars was in the case of Taiwan’s Ang Lee who got nominated for nine Oscars, of which he won three: Best Foreign Language Film for “Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon” in 2000, and Best Director for “Brokeback Mountain” in 2005 and “Life of Pi” in 2012.
With the worldwide film industry dominated by Hollywood movies, it had seemed improbable for South Korean filmmaker Bong Joon-ho’s satirical thriller Parasite to hit it big at the Oscars — especially because it was shot entirely in South Korea and without any American or international cast members.
Thus, Parasite was seen as a gamechanger. The potential for more “non-white” films to shine on the global stage has become more real. Many believe a new era has begun for Asian films, including Filipi-no movies.
Of course, many of our local movies have earned honors in many international film festivals. But our deserving filmmakers have yet to gain the level of prestige an Oscar is perceived to give.
Still, I must say that local films have improved greatly over the years. It’s now a far cry from what happened in 1986 at the Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF). At the 12th MMFF when I was its executive committee chairman, being head of the then Metro Manila Commission right after the EDSA I, the awards night was quite shocking: There were no winners for four of the major awards.
Yes, the MMFF jurors that year decided not to give out the traditional awards for first and second Best Picture, as well as for Best Story and Best Screenplay, supposedly because the film entries “failed to reinforce and inculcate positive Filipino values by portraying negative stereotypes.”
In a statement read by Tingting Cojuangco, one of the jurors, members of the 1986 MMFF Board of Jurors expressed “concern over the current state of the Philippine movie industry as reflected in the entries” which, they said, were “perpetuating commercially-oriented movies.”
“It is in this light that we, therefore, appeal to the Filipino filmmakers to explore other directions of this powerful medium to entertain, enlighten, educate and become a potent force in social change,” the jurors said. But since that time, we’ve certainly gone a long way. Email: [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])