An accomplished filmmaker who tackles a variety of topics and keeps on creating!
Shihyun Wang is quite the prolific filmmaker, with over five hundred directing credits, and nearly as many producing, writing, and editing credits as well.
A career as an accountant and realtor didn’t stop her from pursuing her dreams of making movies. Her films bravely take on the issues of the human condition, and don’t shy away from characters embroiled in struggle and strife. Several of her films have done well on the festival circuit winning awards in both the SoCal Film Awards as well as the recent Spirit of Cinema Awards.
Three recent stand-outs include Ex-Con, Forever Four, and Family, Friends, Love and Aftershock.
Ex-Con is at the top of my list of Shihyun’s recent work, as it very soberly examines the predicaments of ex-cons as they enter into the workforce. The real world doesn’t pull any punches, and the characters in Ex-Con truly show what they’re made of as they draw strength from their hard-boiled pasts.
You catch yourself rooting for them, oddly enough, and then wonder if that’s really what you should be doing. Strong supporting actor performances are sprinkled in to make Ex-Con a riveting film.
Forever Four is a delightful sort of re-enactment or, should I say, a re-telling of the iconic story of the Beatles. It’s great fun to see not only the four ‘mop tops’ from Liverpool start out on their own, but all of the controversial personalities that ultimately made that band such an obsession for so many.
We have Yoko Ono and Linda McCartney gracing the scenes, along with business managers and so many others that make the story of this band so endearing. The four lads from Liverpool, a few of whom won awards for their performances, are electrifying as they deal with everything from relationship turmoil to all of the pressures of stardom as they became a worldwide phenomenon.
And lastly, we have a very ambitious collection of shorts under the title, Family, Friends, Love and Aftershock. This forty-five minute compilation takes us from a woman struggling with relationships, to people coping with the Corona Virus, to those brave souls who find the strength through it all to pursue their dreams.
Shihyun Wang’s ability to confront these kind of predicaments and challenges people are faced with demonstrates her unique ability as a filmmaker to valiantly take on what it means to be a human being in the modern world.
Review by J.R.
