POST OFFICE: FILM REVIEW
Courtney Loo and David Karp’s short, Post Office, interrogates what it means to be a first-generation Chinese-American — pulling at tension between being Asian, but wanting to assimilate into American culture. Post Office forces the audience to reflect on blind spots in their own identity — and the unforeseen consequences that might come with them.
The film opens with a scene depicting a happy-go-lucky Chinese-American mom (Julie Zhan) steaming a Chinese flag in the bathroom, which she plans on bringing to “Multicultural Day” at her daughter and son’s elementary school. Their little family of three is difficult not to love; they belt out songs together on their way to the son’s soccer game, and the two kids get along like two peas in a pod. As they are driving, they see a young Chinese girl playing on the side of the road. The mom turns the car around to check on her but quickly realizes that she can’t understand what the young girl is saying. As the mom tries to ask the young girl details about her own mother and her whereabouts, she is only met with the response, “邮局.” The film’s protagonist doesn’t know Chinese. Feeling helpless, she calls the authorities.
Post Office is powerful because Loo and Karp intentionally craft a protagonist that the audience wants to root for. The film’s mom cares deeply for her two adorable kids, and her effort to be a good mother is shown from actions as small as buying her kids Meiji Hello Panda biscuits to as large as being the “only mom to volunteer” to help with “Multicultural Day.” However, the turning point of the film comes when the protagonist makes a naïve and ultimately grave mistake — one that comes at the cost of a stranger and her child, but not herself. She has no idea who the young girl’s mother is or what their circumstances are. Her privilege of being a first-generation Chinese-American goes unchecked.
With only 15-minutes of screen time, Loo and Karp ensure that each scene of Post Office hints at the identity conflicts of the film’s protagonist. Before encountering the young girl on the side of the road, the mom stops at a mini-mart and leaves her kids unattended in the car with the windows open. A young boy smoking weed pulls into the parking space next to them and asks the children if they want a hit of his blunt. The casualty of the mom’s carelessness paints the character’s self-awareness in a new light.
Through its careful execution of a simple yet telling story Post Office bears witness to an internal struggle that many first-generation Chinese-Americans and immigrants face. By placing a mother at the center of the film, Loo and Karp emphasize the ways that parts of our identity seep into different generations — from our own mothers all the way down to our kids.