Film is a wonderful medium that allows audiences to see into the eyes of all types of characters, including a talking turtle in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or a giant robot in Transformers. It can also help them understand what it’s like to be in a person’s shoes. For example, Better Luck Tomorrow, Didi, and American Born Chinese have captured the Asian diaspora experience. Slanted, the satire, sci-fi, and body horror film, follows a Chinese-American teenager who gets a procedure to fit in high school.

Shirley Chen plays Joan, someone who longs to become the prom queen, but throughout her life, she is treated like an outsider, especially in a town with a majority of white people. She undergoes a procedure and becomes a different person, who is portrayed by Mckenna Grace.

“I grew up in a really small town in Washington State,” Chen tells Nerd Reactor. “I was one of the only Asian kids… Chinese kids. So I think, for me, it was really about going back to that headspace of feeling like you don’t belong and just wanting nothing more than looking like everybody else.”

Portraying Joan’s best friend is Maitreyi Ramakrishnan.

“I used to tell people to pronounce my name Mai-trey-i,” Ramakrishnan explained. “That’s how I used to pronounce it as a kindergarten kid. But when I got to middle school, I would just tell people like, ‘Oh my name is ‘my tray,’ like my tray of cookies. I really just did it because I wanted people to say my name and include me. I just didn’t want to be forgotten.”

The popular girl in school is portrayed by Amelie Zilber, whom Joan looks up to.

“This is a movie about something really, really painful for a lot of people,” Zilber said. “And we need to all treat that with respect right now.”

Amy Wang wrote and directed the film, and it’s inspired by her experiences as an Asian-Australian.

“The core of the film is about me growing up in Australia as a Chinese immigrant,” the director said. “And I also experienced a lot of racism and feeling othered throughout my life.”

About Slanted

Joan Huang idolizes the popular girls and dreams of being prom queen, but fears the only way to win is to look like all the past queens whose portraits line her high school halls. Enter Ethnos: a mysterious cosmetic surgery clinic that turns people of color white. Joan undergoes the procedure and wakes up a beautiful blonde destined for the crown, but at what cost?

The film is directed and written by Amy Wang and stars Shirley Chen, Mckenna Grace, Vivian Wu, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, Amelie Zilber, and Fang Du.