Option 3

San Francisco filmmaker Richard Wong, whose Colma: The Musical won a prestigious Independent Spirit Award nomination (and a Special Jury Award from SFIAAFF ’06), returns with Option 3, a dream-logic thriller that gives the director’s vivid imagination new fields in which to roam and new genres to re-invent. (Don’t worry, though, Colma fans; there’s still a musical number!)

When Ken (Preston Conner) is asked a simple question by his girlfriend Jessica (Theresa Navarro), he flees to the restaurant bathroom. After regaining his composure, he returns to find Jessica’s cellular phone—but no Jessica. Suddenly, the phone rings. It is not Jessica, or anyone who Ken knows. On the other line is a voice, and this disembodied voice sends Ken out on a desperate hunt for Jessica through the dark streets of San Francisco.

Option 3 presents its “guy searches for girl” story with a darkly ironic eye and a bird’s nest of a narrative. The film takes us on a wild ride that is simultaneously dark, baffling, funny, clever and whimsical, all while uniquely exploring the frightening nature of love and loss. A wild trip inside the mind of a remarkably idiosyncratic new talent, the film, like Wong’s collaboration with Wayne Wang The Princess of Nebraska, was produced by CAAM. If Princess connects to the original spirit of Asian American filmmaking through its Wayne Wang roots, then Option 3 points to the anything-goes, new-generation future.