While working at Microsoft, Wu attempted writing a novel about her relationship with her mother, which then inspired the script for her first feature film. She signed up for a 12-week screenwriting class at the
University of Washington in which she penned the first draft for
Saving Face, which she wrote in only three days. She then left the corporate world and eventually moved to
New York City to pursue a filmmaking career full-time.
Saving Face, released in 2004, is a romantic comedy that follows a Chinese-American family and explores themes of multigenerational conflict, upholding traditional values and gender roles, and the complexity of modern love. The plot is described as "a Chinese-American daughter comes out as a lesbian at the same time as her mother is shunned by the Chinese community for having an affair". In an interview with
Jan Lisa Huttner, Wu noted that not all of her audience was female, Asian, or lesbian. She found it "highly unusual" that "you can take a group that seems so specific, and make them universally human". In her own life, Wu struggled with her sexual identity and when she came out as a lesbian she had a difference of opinions with her mother which led to a fall out between the two. Wu’s mother reacted harshly, cutting Wu off, but reached out to reconcile two years later. The experience of coming out caused significant familial tension on the basis of traditional cultural values, which Wu deeply examines as a key theme in the film. The film has been influential within both lesbian and Chinese communities. It focuses heavily on challenges associated with societal gender roles and lesbian identity, specifically in relation to traditional Asian values. The film is especially impactful because it highlights the intersection of race and sexuality against the backdrop of the “pervasive whiteness of ‘queer cinema’”. Wu also explores relationships between mothers and daughters in the Chinese-American community through her portrayal of the relationship between the film's main character and her mother, highlighting the complexity of familial love paired with disagreement of values. Although she claims that the film's main character is not an autobiographical portrayal of her real life, it was partially a way to provide positive representation for her own mother. Additionally, Wu describes the film as a “love letter to New York” that shows parts of the city that are often left out in mainstream cinema. She credits this to not being a native New Yorker, viewing the city through a heavily romantic lens.
Interim After
Saving Face, Wu subsequently worked on a film based on
Rachel DeWoskin's memoir,
Foreign Babes in Beijing: Behind the Scenes of a New China. The movie, however, did not make it past pre-production. In 2006, Wu appeared in the documentary,
Fabulous! The Story of Queer Cinema, directed by Lisa Ades and Lesli Klainberg. The film is described as “[a] chronological look at films by, for, [and] about [...] gays and lesbians in the United States, from 1947 to 2005” and includes clips of two dozen Queer films intertwined with a chronological timeline. Wu is credited as herself as she discusses elements of her film,
Saving Face, where it is highlighted as a significant film within Asian-American and Queer cinema. In 2008, she sold a pitch to ABC called "Foobar" based on her experiences working as a woman in the tech world, set at a fictional software company and described as “
Grey’s Anatomy for geeks”. It was originally intended as a one-hour television ensemble, and received a script commitment from
Sony Pictures Television, but did not make it past the development stage. After the pitch, Wu left the industry for a period to take care of her mother who was ill. She lived off of her savings and income from Microsoft and
Saving Face and kept a low profile. However, most of her friends were completely unaware to what she was doing, career-wise. When asked if they knew what she had been doing all these years between "Foobar" and
The Half of It, her
Saving Face friends had hardly any idea. The film is a romantic comedy which follows a Chinese-American teenager, Ellie Chu, as she helps a boy, Paul Munsky, win over his crush, Aster Flores, who she also has a romantic interest in. It is loosely based on her own teenage bond with an unexpected friend. The film stars
Charmed actress
Leah Lewis,
Daniel Diemer, and
Alexxis Lemire in the leading roles. The film was announced in April 2020 as the winner of the Founders Award for Best Narrative Feature at the 2020
Tribeca Film Festival. It was released on
Netflix on May 1, 2020 and received highly positive reviews.
Other Work In 2022, Wu wrote and directed the commercial "The Note," for
Oreo, in collaboration with
PFLAG. "The Note" showcases one step in a young Chinese American man’s coming out journey and emphasizes the role family members can play as lifelong allies for their LGBTQ+ loved ones.
Adweek recognized the commercial as “one of the top 10 commercials of 2022”. Wu has also taken part in episodic television. She directed the second episode of the 2022 comedy-drama Hulu original miniseries,
Fleishman is in Trouble, titled “Welcome to Paniquil”. Also for Hulu, Wu directed an episode titled “Chinatown Expert” for the TV series
Interior Chinatown, an action comedy-drama based on
Charles Yu’s 2020 novel of the same name. The episode was released on November 19, 2024. == Reception ==