The People I've Slept With

Independent filmmaker Quentin Lee currently attending LACC discussed his provocatively titled film, “The People I’ve Slept With,” a sexually charged comedy about a young promiscuous woman determined to find the father of her child after receiving news that she is expecting a baby. The 89-minute comedy just premiered at the Honolulu International Film Festival.

Quentin explains how he and screenplay writer friend Koji Sakai came up with the title of their current project.

“When we were developing the script, we threw a bunch of potential movie titles onto the table and the one that everyone fell in love with was, ‘The People I’ve Slept With,’ because it was catchy and to the point,” Lee said.

Lee met Sakai at a professional networking meeting. After reading some of his previous works Lee decided to collaborate with Sakai with new script ideas. In this film the creative duo bring to life the carefree playgirl, Angela, played by Karin Anna Cheung from the movie “Better Luck Tomorrow.” In this new age role, Cheung fearlessly bares it all for the cameras without remorse. To keep track of all her lovers, Angela takes a Polaroid of the people she has slept with and uses these photos to create baseball-like cards that showcase the prominent sexual features of her former partners, like the pepperoni-nipple guy, the five-second guy, the nice but boring guy, or the well-endowed guy.

Audiences in the theater laughed and cringed at the same time when they witnessed Angela's unorthodox ways in collecting DNA samples to help her piece together who the father of her baby.

“To prepare for this role, I decided to change my diet because I knew the character was going to get pregnant,” Cheung said in a recent phone interview. “I turned to organic foods, minimized dairy portions and took out junk food completely for six months in order to get that pregnancy glow.”

Gabriel, Angela’s flamboyant gay best friend is played by veteran-actor Wilson Cruz, who has appeared on film and television, “He’s Just Not That Into You,” and “My So Called Life.”

“Half-way through the first shoot, I felt like I knew [Cruz] for a while. He is naturally amazing,” said Cheung.

This is the sixth feature-length film directed by Quentin Lee which premiered Sunday, October 18 at the Dole Cannery Theater in Honolulu.

In 2004, the Hong Kong native wrote and directed “Ethan Mao,” a dramatic film about an Asian teenager excommunicated by his family after his mother discovers a homo-erotic magazine in his room. The 88-minute film takes audiences through young Mao’s shoes as he faces the consequences of homophobia in the family and documents his descent into the life of a hustler.

The central theme throughout my work usually relates to someone’s quest for a connection,” Lee said. “It’s basically the running theme of my life, which I believe is a theme of humanity. This quest is often painful and arduous, filled with drama, fear, comedy and passion.”

All of Quentin’s films have been produced outside of major film studios and describes the film industry as one of the hardest businesses to pursue. The writer/director/producer further comments on the financial perplexities that a film encounters before production. In his case, as a director and writer, he faces an uphill battle in finding producers to invest and jump-start an “indie” project.

“Making an independent film is hard all the way from production to distribution,” he said. “It takes so much talent; work and faith to make an indie film that may or may not do well. Luck also plays a big factor.”


The director mentions his recent plunge into the world of documentaries.
“0506HK” is the title of his personal documentary that helps him understand Hong Kong, years after his migration to the United States. The eight-part documentary reviews real life accounts of people that have made the cross-continental transition from U.S. to Hong Kong, post England’s 1997 decision to hand over the region to China.
Readers can watch snippets of Quentin’s work by visiting his website at www.marginfilms.com or on YouTube to catch his trailers for his work.