The director left Hollywood after makingSaving Face.
10 years later, Hollywood came looking for her.
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Speaking over Zoom from her home in San Francisco this month, she recalled the aftermath of her debut.
I was like a deer in headlights.
People were like, Whats next?
And I was like, I dont know.
I just was thinking I was going to get this thing made.
I was reacting to the market, she said.
I was picking things that I was interested in, but it was work for hire.
None of these things are me.
It turns out Im just very stubborn, she said.
Im just not going to be like, Yeah, Ill make these changes for a financier.
To herself, she admitted more than that.
I didnt say this to her, but in my head I was like, Ive left the industry.
Then one day, for reasons I dont understand, someone went off the path.
I come out of my hole, and there are all these random people around.
Theyre like, Hey, so exciting.
Literally, someone was like, You know, what we need is an Asian lesbian.
The Half of Itowes its existence to Donald Trump.
The threat of actually becoming a donor to the organization turned out to be an incredibly effective motivator.
I grew up in a very conservative Chinese family, Wu said.
Its a love triangle set-up that also brings to mind something Wu mentioned about the periods immediately followingSaving Face.
Obviously, I can write those characters, she recalls thinking.
I literally live among those charactersall the time.
These years-long gaps between breakthroughs can make it seem like history has to be continually remade.
Its part of the reasonSaving Facehas become a kind of nexus point of Chinese-American women filmmakers.
Joan Chen, who can be seen in Alan Yangs recent Netflix movieTigertail, has directed two features since.
For Lynn Chen,Saving Facewas a wonderful but unrepresentative introduction to acting in feature films.
I went into it naively thinking that lots of feature film directors are Asian women.
It was a rude awakening, right after that, the real world of independent film.
Its something Wu is aware of, especially in the ramp-up toThe Half of It.
But it also got Wu challenged at festivals about acceptance as something implausible.
The best that will happen is you somehow survive.
Honestly, I believe those characters could get there, Wu said.
Do I think everyone has that?
Its changed just in time for her to make a movie thats ultimately hopeful, but considerably more melancholy.
Shes just someone who finds herself at the center of the screen, and holds it perfectly well.
