THE DEBUT, from left: Joy Bisco, Dante Basco, 2000. ©Celestial Pictures

There’s something to be said for the campiness in a movie making it more enjoyable. With The Debut, featuring none other than Dante Basco or Avatar: The Last Airbender fame, I think the rather stilted performances and regularly cheesy script actually help it in the end, as it’s essentially little more than a simple story of family love, generational differences and embracing your talents and culture.

• Similarly to “Better Luck Tomorrow”, The Debut plays out like most romantic teen movies of the age with the exception of featuring an almost entirely Asian cast. The Debut was actually the first Fililpino-American full-length film to come out in theaters, which is pretty darn impressive, and I believe it did a good job of blending Filipino culture and history with a contemporary setting and characters.
• Despite featuring female characters as little more than romantic leads and side characters, seeing the details of a traditional “Debut” was pretty exciting and interesting. I’d never known what they were like before!
• Ben’s desire to be a comic book artist seems like a pretty substantial metaphor for his desire to become ‘white’ – a theme we saw in Better Luck Tomorrow and Donald Duk as well. However, I feel that the ending featuring his illustration of him with his father and grandfather helped cement Ben’s resolution to embrace his heritage.
• Ben’s white friends are definitely problematic, but overall serve as pretty entertaining figures in the story. One significant point is that at every opportunity, they seem interested in learning about Filipino culture rather than being confused or repelled by it. A small detail, to be sure, but one that I appreciated!