When an insecure, half Japanese woman's invited on a date to a traditional tea ceremony, her best friend's advice on how to avoid white-guys-with-Asian-fetishes threatens to ruin her love life and sanity.

Director Biography - Josephine Green Zhang

Josephine Green Zhang is a comedy writer/director/sometimes performer from Pasadena, California. Her debut short film IN CASE OF AN EMERGENCY – a post-apocalyptic love story – was named best undergraduate film in UCLA’s film and television program. Her short film, THE DICK PICKFORD DETECTIVE AGENCY – a film noir homage starring a group of 1950s female private eyes – was named best micro film at the Broad Humor Film Festival.

A daughter of a Taiwanese immigrant mother and a midwestern army veteran turned hippie father, Josephine aspires to create stories about the triumph of the human spirit while also taking the piss out of them. She loves good, complex characters who are misfits, underdogs, and outsiders, no matter their social status. Josephine is an alumni of UCLA's Film Program, Film Independent's Project:Involve Fellowship; UCB's sketch and improv program; and the Universal Writers Lab. She has worked as a tv writer on Season 2 and 3 of FIRST WIVES CLUB on BET+ and on Season 2 of DOLLFACE on Hulu. She has developed projects for Netflix, Disney+, and Bound Entertainment.

Director Statement

Wabi-Sabi is a Japanese philosophy which embraces the beauty of simplicity, flaws, and the effects of time and imperfections. The wabi-sabi approach to life is to accept what is, stay in the present, and appreciate the transient nature of life.

In this film, our characters are not there yet.

The modern world is too often sadly focused on materialism, status comparison, and perfectionism. The perpetual lie we are told is that we are not good enough. It’s no wonder that finding authentic connection and romantic love is so difficult when everyone seeks perfection in others and in themselves - even though perfection does not exist.

This is a story about people who want to connect and the thousand little cuts that get in the way. A white guy, Peter, invites Reiko, a biracial white and Japanese American woman, to a teahouse for a first date. Her best friend, Nina, warns her that this is a red flag for a white guy with a Japanese fetish. Since Reiko is already insecure that she is not Japanese enough, Peter’s erudite knowledge of Japanese culture and his connection with Keiko -- the tea ceremony artist from Japan -- magnifies Reiko’s insecurity. What is supposed to be a simple first date gets painfully complicated, all leading to a shattered, broken mess.

The form of this short film will reflect the story. What could be a simple romantic comedy will play with genre – it will celebrate the artful Japanese tea ceremony with clean, tatami shots in the serene form of an Ozu film and later play with the fast-paced, kinetic, sharp action of a Japanese samurai film. In an East meets West blend, and reflecting my own point of view as a third culture kid and homegrown American film nerd, this will also include Western homages to Japanese samurai film and Eastern culture.

First dates are already awkward enough. Everyone tries so hard to hide their flaws and be the perfect version of themselves, all in a desperate search for love. But there is beauty in the embarrassment. There is beauty in mending broken objects. Kintsugi, an ancient art form that stems from wabi-sabi, wherein you fix broken objects with gold fillings and give them “golden scars” reminds us that there is elegance in our imperfections because they tell a story.