Following an exceptional 25th Birthday Celebration, the San Diego Asian Film Festival returned in 2025 for yet another round of quality filmmaking from Asian voices.
The 26th Annual San Diego Film Festival opened in a different location from last year, the La Paloma Theater in Encinitas. It’s a historic venue and something of a change of scenery from the glitz and glam of the Nat in Balboa Park. Given that SDAFF’s brain has fully developed over the past twenty 26 years, the traditionalism of the new location makes sense and is fitting.
The film to kick off the 150+ on display this year was a debut film from Malaysian filmmaker Jing Ai Ng. An American comedy-drama film titled “Forge.”
Forge is about two siblings, Raymond and Coco Zhang (Brandon Zoo Hoo and Angie Ju), who make a living by forging artwork and selling it to curators and collectors. Eventually or perhaps inevitably, the pair find themselves entangled in a multi-million-dollar forgery scheme after meeting disgraced millionaire Holden Beaumont (Edmund Donovan). Meanwhile, an FBI agent, Emily Lee, portrayed by San Diego’s own Kelly Marie Tran, attempts to get to the bottom of the siblings’ scheme.
For a debut film, “Forge,” at least on paper, has a lot of potential. Crime dramas are nothing new in cinema and practically begging to be reinterpreted through a fresh lens. The film capitalizes on this fact by placing heavy emphasis on its concept and the strength of the main characters. What we’re left with is something that, by all accounts, is different. However, none of the film’s apparent strengths are ever fully harnessed.
For a film that has a lot of uniquely shaped puzzle pieces, the picture it creates is small and not very robust. It’s got everything you need to build something interesting, but doesn’t spread them as far as they could go. It’s not quite a cat-and-mouse thriller about a cop trying to bust a multi-level crime ring, nor is it a complex family drama about two kids lost in the underworld of coastal Florida. Instead, it would rather be all of these things, but only just a little bit. Enough to cross a few boxes without checking the work afterward.
In this instance, it’s not so much that the film is bad, just not as good as it could be. In some regards, this could be a worse fate than the former. That said, perhaps it’s more fruitful to accept “Forge” for what it really is rather than what it could be.
Director Jing Ai Ng’s Q&A following the screening of the film was eye-opening as she appeared to have a pretty cut-and-dry vision for what the film was supposed to be. This includes her interpretation of what happens after the films light-cliffhanger ending. Whether it achieved that or not may be immaterial to some, but what’s reassuring is that she does have the chops to create it.
In the least shallow way imaginable, “Forge” plays out like a television pilot more than a feature-length film. This is, of course, in spite of its nearly two-hour runtime. Which isn’t used to its fullest extent.
Despite being about a sibling duo entangled in a multi-million-dollar scheme, it doesn’t involve too many characters. The film is set in the sunny nethers of Florida, but there’s a noticeable lack of variety in locations and set pieces. For as much “plot” as the film has, not a whole lot does happen.
In addition, not unlike a television show, there are many transitional scenes featuring the two main characters meandering or clubbing, haphazardly placed in lieu of a hard cut.
Now, the obvious answer as to why these limitations exist could be all chalked down to budgetary and time restraints, but that excuse feels rather cheap for a film like this. It certainly doesn’t want to appear indie even if it is. In a way, its commitment to traditional storytelling and restrained creativity actually makes it stand out in that department. However, there isn’t much of a balance between the two extremes.
Perhaps the strongest moments of the film are when it’s not itself; there’s a handful of moderate scenes portraying the family lives of the Zhangs, and those never failed to garner a laugh or two from the audience. There’s a level of genuineness behind them that shines through that contrasts with the obviously produced scenes surrounding the art forgery scheme. It’s a nice break from the monotony.
In the future, it would be interesting to see Jing Ai Ng capture this type of energy in the future and perhaps harness it into another story. While tales of family have become something of a stereotype in Asian American cinema as of late, Ng’s small attempt here does seem to warrant a closer examination. The environment she creates is likable and charming. It’s almost like you never want to leave.
For what it’s worth, “Forge” manages to play to the beat it desires with a few distracting sounds clouding its way. Behind the curtain, there is a delicate beauty hidden that could be reimagined elsewhere. It’s a reassuring notion that makes whatever Ng goes on to create next an exciting endeavor.
Turn off the Bright Lights 