For his directorial debut, Alan Yang, an Emmy-winning writer for Master of None (which he also co-created with Aziz Ansari) and Parks and Recreation, looked to his father for inspiration. Tigertail follows a “Taiwanese factory worker leaves his homeland to seek opportunity in America, where he struggles to find connection while balancing family and newfound responsibilities,” according to Netflix’s official plot synopsis.
As Yang explained to Vulture, “The movie is kind of my dream of my father’s dream of his past. It’s emphatically not his story in some ways.” He described it as a “fever dream” of his dad’s story, one that takes place over decades in both America and China:
“My relationship not only with him but with my entire family; and my own understanding of what it meant to be Taiwanese and what it meant to be Asian all changed over the course of the last five years… When you get older, and especially when you’re lucky enough like I have been to be able to start creating your own movies and shows, the stuff that sets you apart is the stuff that’s gold. That makes you unique. Being Asian-American is a part of who I was, whether I wanted to come to terms with that or not.”
Tigertail premieres on Netflix on April 10.
