From Omeleto.

An influencer’s secret is discovered.

I, CHINESE is used with permission from Keith Leung. Learn more at https://keithleung.org.

Ken is an online influencer who has garnered a following for using Chinese stereotypes in his comedy stunts. But while he’s gotten popular via social media, he’s managed to keep his online persona a secret from his family, who would disapprove of getting laughs and clicks at the expense of his culture.

One day at a store, Ken is filming in his costume, witnessed by an older Chinese man and his daughter. Later, at a family dinner for the Lunar New Year, he runs into the same man, who turns out to be his distant uncle — and who may reveal to the family just what Ken does online.

Directed and written by Keith Leung, this thought-provoking drama short intertwines the family narrative of a son alienated from his father with an examination of online culture and social media’s perpetuation of racist stereotypes. The result is a modern and thoughtful portrait of a young man stranded at a moral and cultural crossroads, unsure of where he belongs and caught between social media currency and doing what’s right.

We first meet Ken as he’s engaged in his online character, who dresses as a stereotypical "Chinaman" and goes into a business, playing pranks with a broad accent. People love it on social media, where it’s fed to his audience in palatable bites, but when it’s witnessed in real life by an older Chinese man and his young daughter, it feels cringy, and Ken himself seems embarrassed by it.

Through the thoughtful, deliberate storytelling, Ken’s character gets more layers, however, as we go deeper into his story and see glimpses of his more complex home life. Ken lives at home, and the domestic scenes with his father have a pathos to them, as Ken feels a sense of disconnection and even shame of his father, who seems like a rudderless lost soul. Ken’s influencer gig is the only source of growth and the only way he expresses himself and feels heard. In his real life, he feels recessed and even invisible. Even the film’s visuals reflect this schism: Ken’s influencer work is brighter, loud and fast-moving, whereas his "real life" is shot with muted light and colors and more sedate camerawork.

Yet the isolated spheres of home and online life blur when Ken discovers that the disapproving man at the store is a distant uncle at a family dinner. Instantly the tension grows as the film’s dramatic question comes to the fore: will Ken’s influencer persona be discovered, and how will that affect his relationship with his father? Actor Chin Ho Fung as Ken deftly plays both his energetic online persona and the quieter, more melancholic real-life Ken, but we feel his growing sense of panic when he realizes he’s just about to be unmasked.

But just as we expect a blow-up, I, CHINESE takes a subtler, less predictable turn, where the careful attention to Ken’s home life and relationships pays off. In a gracefully executed scene between father and son, Ken understands something fundamental about his dad’s love and self, helping to unravel the knot that entangled Ken’s internalized self-loathing, his complicated feelings for his parent, and his need for approval and regard on social media. In many ways, he unifies the disparate parts of himself, as the veil between those parts falls and he sees his actions clearly. When he acts accordingly, it’s a true character choice, showing his growth and a shift in his values.