100 Days by Canadian Chinese filmmaker, Derek Kwan, is about a family at a 100 day baby celebration that’s held at a Chinese banquet–style dinner where an unexpected guest forces them to deal with long simmering family dynamics.
The following is my interview with writer and director Derek Kwan. It was edited for length and clarity.
Merlyn M. Bilas: Why did you want to write and direct “100 Days” as your first narrative film?
Derek Kwan: [100 Days] was very loosely based on a 100 day party that all my friends had attended. It was one of those classic friend–lore stories of all the antics of that night, of friends, of family, and everything that went on that night. It spawned the idea of a family dramedy around a 100 day celebration. I’d never seen that highlighted.
MMB: Can you talk about the way you shot people eating food, which seem borderline groteque at times?
DK: It’s said quite often how food plays such a prominent role in Asian cultures. It’s really a way that in Asian cultures – and from my experience [in] Chinese culture – how generations connect with each other. We don’t communicate directly, but when it comes to food, that’s our way of showing affection. Of course, food plays such a prominent role in any type of celebration or family event that it was very fitting to highlight and have that have a prominent role in the film.
When it came to that little bit of grotesque, it was an artistic choice where I wanted to showcase [eating] as something real. Not all eating is pretty, especially when you are in a restaurant and it’s a setting where everyone is kind of hungry and going for it. I wanted to give a different perspective so that instead of those beauty shots that you might see cinematically, I thought it might be cool to showcase what eating a whole chicken with the bones [looks like].
MMB: Can you talk about the role of the mother in the family dynamics, especially between the two daughters, one of whom is the “good” daughter while the other presents as “problematic” to the mother?
DK: I wanted to showcase something different, a different kind of matriarch character that you wouldn’t normally see traditionally portrayed in terms of an Asian family. Soo (Doris Lum), the mom character is free-flowing. She’s bringing her new man to this family celebration. She’s doing her best to try and navigate and live her own life.
I always love polarizing characters. We’re all flawed as human beings. She thinks she is doing something for herself, and she is trying to do her best. The character just came about in trying to showcase a modern family as a whole, and bringing characters on the screen that are not stereotypical of what an Asian tiger mom might have been portrayed on screen.
MMB: What do you want audiences to take away from the film?
DK: I’d like to show case a modern day Chinese family [in a] scenario that hasn’t been widely showcased on screen yet, and to share a little slice of what it’s like being at a 100 Day baby celebration at this Chinese banquet style dinner.
‘100 Days’ will play at the 27th Annual Local Sightings Film Festival, presented by the Northwest Film Forum, which showcases of creative communities from throughout the Pacific Northwest. The 2024 program runs from September 20 to 29.
