Never Perfect

Never Perfect explores the complex journey of a young Vietnamese American woman’s struggle with
popular perceptions of beauty and body image as she fights the stigma of racial self-hatred in her
decision to undergo cosmetic surgery. In 1982 her family left behind a tight-knit Vietnamese community
for the suburban sprawl of California , U.S.A. Now 27-years-old, having been reared amidst a backdrop
of American malls, movies and magazines and living in the same suburban house in which she was
raised, Mai-Anh challenges her self-diagnosed “quarter-life crisis” by way of a“ new location, new
lifestyle, new look.”
She begins a literal and symbolic transformation and reinvention of herself: a relocation from quiet
suburbia to the heart of urban Los Angeles, a new lifestyle defined by living on her own for the first
time, and finally, a new physical makeover: double eyelid surgery only days after starting her new life.
But will she find the answers to her crisis on the operating room table?

USA / 2007
65 min / color video
Producers : Regina Park, Edward Robinson, Jr.
Director / Editor : Regina Park
Cinematographer : Edward Robinson Jr.
Music: Asian Crisis, Henry Hung
Main Cast: Mai-Anh Tran