Pretty To Think So

In Person: Directors Francis Hsueh and Steven Hahn, actors Pia Shah and Louis Ozawa Changchien

Pretty to Think So is the feature debut by directors, writers and producers Francis Hsueh and Steven Hahn. In it, the duo unfurls a dramatic love story set in Manhattan during the make-or-break dot-com era.

March, 2000: the dot-com boom has just bust, and Stanford grad Hannah Shah has just been laid off of her job at a major investment firm. One cold night, she meets Jiwon Kim, a successful corporate lawyer who soon woos her into romance and security. But her suddenly calm new existence begins to crumble when Alex Yuen re-enters Hannah’s life. A former boy hustler with a dangerous gambling habit, and now a youth pastor in the Bronx, Alex was Hannah’s childhood friend from New York’s Chinatown. His presence begins to stir up painful memories of their past. Gradually, Hannah becomes caught between the guy who has it all and the guy who doesn’t have a thing.

Taking a cue from Lou Ye’s Suzhou River, the film’s narrative alternates between the malaise of Hannah’s present world and the fear and desperation of a ghostly past. Hsueh and Hahn also make important strides by featuring a love triangle involving a South Asian female and two East Asian male suitors. Combining a dramatic soundtrack with a palate of moody colors, Pretty to Think So is an exciting film that pairs the agony and ecstasy of dot-com hysteria with the uncertainty of past and present love.