For Immediate Release
January 2012
Touch to Open in San Jose on March 9th and Orange County on March 16th
LOS ANGELES — Touch, an independent film written and directed by Minh Duc Nguyen, is
slated for release in selected cities, starting with San Jose on March 9th and Orange County on
March 16th, showing exclusively at AMC Eastridge 15 and AMC Block 30.
Touch is a romantic drama. A mechanic looking to save his faltering marriage strikes up an
unlikely friendship with a shy Vietnamese-American manicurist, who not only cleans his greasy
hands but also gives him advice about his love life. This sensual film explores the sense of touch
and its emotional impact — how with just a simple touch, we can reveal our deepest longings
and even heal a wounded soul.
Making her cinematic debut in Touch, actress Porter Lynn will pleasantly surprise audiences
with her mature poise and unassuming strength in portraying Tam. Her moving performance won
her Best Actress award at Boston International Film Festival. She is costarring with John Ruby,
Melinda Bennett, Long Nguyen (Journey from the Fall), and Hiep Thi Le (Heaven & Earth).
During its film festival tour, Touch has captured numerous awards: Audience Choice Award for
Best Feature Film at Vietnamese International Film Festival; Best Actress, Best Story Line, and
Best Cinematography at Boston International Film Festival; Best First Feature at Santa Rosa
International Film Festival; Jury Award at Atlanta Asian Film Festival.
In America, 75% of the nail salons are owned and operated by Vietnamese. The nail salon
industry provides countless job opportunities for Vietnamese immigrants, but their stories have
never been told on-screen. For the first time, we have a film that poignantly depicts the lives of
women working in a typical nail salon. This is the inspiration for the story, written by Minh Duc
Nguyen (also making his directorial debut), who sees the nail salon as the perfect setting to tell
a multicultural story. But the movie also touches on universal themes such as love, loss, and the
importance of human contact.
For more info, contact us, or visit
touchthemovie.com.
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March 2011
Touch to World Premiere at Boston International Film Festival
LOS ANGELES — Touch, an independent feature film written and directed by Minh Duc Nguyen, and produced by Mellissa Tong, is having its world premiere at the Boston International Film Festival on April 23rd, 2011, 8:15 PM, at AMC Theatres, 175 Tremont Street, Boston Common.
Touch is a comedic drama that begins at V.I.P. Nails, where a Vietnamese manicurist named Tam has a new customer: Brendan, a shy mechanic, who literally has a problem on his hands. He can never get rid of the oil stains on his hands and nails, and when he tries to be intimate with his wife, she always rejects him with the same excuse: “Your hands are filthy!” Desperate to save his marriage, Brendan goes to the nail salon every day, where Tam does more than scrub his hands clean. She also offers him advice on how to get his wife to love him again. But soon, Tam and Brendan find themselves drawn to each other, an attraction which becomes harder and harder to resist.
This film explores the sense of touch and its emotional impact — how with just a simple touch, we can reveal our deepest longings, give the utmost pleasure to others and even heal a wounded soul. Like Ang Lee's critically acclaimed sensual film, Lust, Caution, Touch features an Asian female lead. Making her cinematic debut in Touch, actress Porter Lynn will pleasantly surprise audiences with her mature poise and unassuming strength in portraying Tam. She is costarring with John Ruby, Melinda Bennett, Long Nguyen and Hiep Thi Le.
In America, 75% of the nail salons are owned and operated by Vietnamese. The nail salon industry provides countless job opportunities for Vietnamese immigrants, but their stories have never been told on-screen. For the first time, we have a film about the hidden life of women working in a typical nail salon, told from their point-of-views. This is the inspiration for the story, written by Minh Duc Nguyen, who was born in Vietnam and immigrated to America with his family in the 1980s as part of the "boat people" exodus. Mr. Nguyen sees the nail salon as the perfect setting to tell a multicultural story, a place where the Vietnamese workers interact daily with their American customers that come from all walks of life. But the movie also touches on universal themes such as love, loss and the importance of human contact.
Touch marks the feature directorial debut for Mr. Nguyen, who studied film at the University of Southern California, where he received the Jeffrey Jones Scholarship for excellence in screenwriting. On Touch, Mr. Nguyen collaborated with Mellissa Tong, a prolific producer with work ranging from independent feature films, TV and radio commercials, to documentaries, online and viral campaigns and TV programming. Ms. Tong is a MFA graduate from the California Institute of the Arts. Her other credits include Talk To Taka, My American Vacation, The Water Ghost and Click Three Times. All have won awards at major film festivals around the country.
For more info, please contact Mellissa Tong at 424-270-0281, or visit our website at touchthemovie.com. |
