Last night, the romantic comedy Falling For Grace made its New York City debut at the Asia Society and I was lucky enough to be there as the stars made their appearance on the red carpet and to watch the special screening as well.  The film premiere guests included writer/director and star of the film Fay Ann Lee, Gale Harold, Kathleen Turner, NYC Mayor David Dinkins, plus many more.  The premiere also featured an introduction from comedian Whoopi Goldberg, who made the crowd laugh non-stop throughout her speech.

As a young woman from Hong Kong growing up in the city, Fay Ann Lee was inspired to make this film about the personal identity struggles many people face everyday.  Being an Asian American woman in the Big Apple, I could relate to the film, which tells a story of a young Wall Street banker, who grew up in Chinatown and always dreamed of being accepted amongst and living the life of high society socials.

The filmmaker and Broadway actress wrote the script as a way to introduce the Asian American community and raise the awareness of the need for more Asian actors in American movies. 

"Asian Americans are nowhere in the business," she said.

After many years of raising money and getting support to produce the film, the movie was made, picked up in numerous theatres and recognized by many people across the nation.

"Do you what you can to encourage people to see this and to recognize that filmmakers, actors and all kinds of folks come in different complexions and the complexion of the filmmaker does not denote whether the film is good or not-- the film denotes whether it's good or not," Ms. Goldberg said in her introduction.

Falling For Grace is a feel good movie that addresses the prejudices and stereotypes involving the Asian American community in the U.S.  I must say it was nice to finally see a romantic comedy starring a Asian woman.  The movie is opening in select theatres March 19 in New York City, but expect to see this on more movie screens everywhere soon.