Forever, Chinatown

James Q. Chan's short documentary presents a succinct portrait of San Francisco's Chinatown by looking at one man’s connection to the historic district. Frank Wong, an 81-year-old Chinese-American artist, constructs painstakingly realistic miniature dioramas of various locations, including apartments, shoe shine stands, and fabric stores. Wong says he does this because the area is changing so rapidly and he wants to preserve the way it looked in the past, particularly in the 1940s and ‘50s when he was growing up. "It really was a city within a city," he recalls. As he puts together tiny takeout food containers and metal woks filled with vegetables and spices, the camera moves in close to capture all of the exquisite detail. Wong learned his craft while serving as a prop master in Hollywood before going on to work on productions in Hawaii, where he remained for several decades. In Hollywood, people sometimes assumed that Wong was a houseboy or some other kind of domestic help—ignorant assumptions that stung, but Wong doesn't dwell on it. Although Wong expresses some regret about leaving Hawaii, the director provides no details about his subject’s private life (though Wong appears to be single). Forever, Chinatown successfully underscores the value of Chinatown through this profile of one individual who emerged from the district, took inspiration from it, and pays it tribute in his own unique way. Recommended. Aud; C, P. (K. Fennessy)