When her brother suddenly dies, an anxiety prone sister is forced to hatch an elaborate scheme to conceal the tragedy from her suspicious mother who stops at nothing to unravel the truth.

Thank you for sharing the story about the Korean film maker. If I decide to write about a Vietnamese immigrant family, I'll definitely say so in the logline.

Originally my family immigrated to Australia and I immigrated to California but I live in Australia now. The Vietnamese community is strong in the US, especially in California, but is quite small in Australia. I am concerned about the lack of audience. Another concern is that Australian films are not popular on the world stage.

Anyhow, I agree with you that there is an openness to ethnicity diverse films lately (Crazy Rich Asians, Farewell, the Big Sick (Pakistani-Australian, Ali's Wedding (Iraqi-Australian)). I just need to find my own voice.

Thank you for your encouragement.

Vivien:

After posting last night I recalled the experience of a friend whose parents immigrated from Korea. She wrote a comedy centered around a thoroughly modern Korean girl dealing with parents set in their "old country" ways.

She pitched the story broadly, but only got responses to read the script from a couple of producers who were interested in producing films about the Korean experience in the United States.

The reason I mention this is that "Asian" is a broad term. It refers to over 2 billion people from a very diverse range of ethnic groups. Producers want to know and need to know exactly what Asian group the script is about. So I suggest that if you stick with a story about Vietnam-Americans, then say so in the logline.

And I hope you stay true to your original vision. There is now more recognition of ethnic diversity in the US, more openness to stories that are different from the bland, white bread stereotypical family portrayed in US films in decades past. Stories that nonetheless reflect universal values. (I say this as a hopelessly bland, stale white bread kind of American.)

Best wishes with your writing.

Hi Philippe,
Thank you for your comments. Your dissection of the logline is very helpful. Reading your comments I realise that my logline is not clear and thus has caused confusion. The sister did not kill the brother. He died from an accident and, along with her family, she decides not to break the tragic news to her fragile mother, for fear she would collapse.

The story is about a close family who is very protective of the mother. All characters in the story are adults and the mother is elderly and emotionally fragile. Her son is her pride and her life, sort to speak.

When the son dies from a car accident while the mother is overseas, the family decides not to tell her - hence the elaborate scheme to keep her in the dark - because they fear she'd not survive the horrific news. But the mother begins to question the bogus evidence the daughter shows her to make believe the son is still alive. She suspects that something might have happened to him and starts her own investigation.

This story is reminiscent of the French/Georgian film 'Since Otar left' or the American film 'The Farewell' where the family hides painful truth from their elders. This practice is prevalent in the Asian culture but rarely in the Western culture.