By Valerie Milano
Los Angeles, CA (The Hollywood Times) 8/9/23 – The Asian people have endured a variety of cultural trials, dating back to the stereotypes imposed upon them from their original arrival in America and including the current hypersexualization of Asian women.
It is that latter situation that is examined in Objects of Desire, filmmaker Naomi Christie’s compelling examination of the “Karaoke Girls” phenomena in L.A.’s Koreatown. The short film delves into the clandestine underworld of karaoke clubs in Koreatown, shedding light on the pressing issue of hypersexualization of Asian women.
Filmed as her master’s thesis for her studies at the American Film Institute, Christie went undercover in Koreatown to get first-hand information for her film. And the result is both terrifying and sobering look into how young Asian girls have been lured by the promise of big money to the world of soft-core sex work.
In an exclusive interview with The Hollywood Times, Christie said the “commodification” of these girls’ sexuality is less about actual sex and more about the lure of their Asian heritage.
Click below for live interview:
“It’s about ‘leasing’ your company and your personality for the night, and the rule is you’re not supposed to have sex” she said. But it is sex work, as the main character, Vivienne, quickly discovers. Driven to enter this seedy world by a series of financial setbacks, Vivienne’s story is typical of the circumstances that forces these girls into becoming hostesses.
“In a city as difficult as L.A., you’re living in a shoebox apartment, these jobs that you’re freelancing are few and far between, you’re always thinking ‘how can I make some quick cash,” Christie said, noting the advertisements for these jobs are prevalent on places like Craigslist. “I think there are alot of jobs like that in L.A.”
Vivienne is a reluctant participant in the job and she is clearly uncomfortable as she makes her initial foray into the dark work of pseudo sex work. The film starts out with a series of vignettes that typify the dating life of single Asian women. In each scenario, Vivenne is eventually asked,” where are you from,” by her dates, which comes from the perpetuation of the stereotype of the subservient Asian woman who appears a certain way, Christie said.
“This is a direct result of so many stereotypes of Asian people, and you give that to Asian women, it’s going to perpetuate the hypersexualization of Asian women for sure,” Christie said, who is Vietnamese American. “There is this certain “exocticism” that people like to uncover.”
And Christie said her film, while a fictionalization, is about as true to the experience these girls have as it comes.
“This is real life,” she said. “Everything that is said in this film is something I have experienced myself or that a friend has experienced … it didn’t take a lot of imagination to write some of these awful lines for these guys.”
In the end, the outcome of Vivienne’s experience and her future as a “Karaoke Girl” is left for the audience to decide in a climax that presents multiple fantasy possibilities for the viewer to consider.
“The intention is to leave it up to the audience,” said Christie, who is working on a feature film based on this marvelous short. The ending highlights a fantasy mechanism women often use to protect themselves in certain situations. “We like how it is juxtaposed against how the women have these fantasies imposed upon them by men.”
Christie received her VA in Screenwriting from Cal State university Northridge and began a career in photography and music videos before studying narrative filmmaking at AFI in 2021. Objects of Desire has been praised by acclaimed director Destin Cretton (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Short Term 12) as “a very powerful piece.”
