Taking place in the early 2000’s, “Cavities” exhibits the life of young Winston “Wince” Chang who has been left to take care of himself after his parents have abandoned him. Wince’s cracked tooth, a gift from his physically abusive father, is both the title of the film and a metaphor for the boy’s decaying life. Wince’s mother chases after the father, leaving Wince to make his own way living in an apartment with other young men. He is resourceful enough to find a way to earn money but this is through illegal software piracy. Wince becomes focused on superficial material and substance proxies for the meaningful parental relationships that he has lost. Throughout the action of the film, his tooth worsens and his mother travels in and out of his life. The constant for Wince is his much more grounded friend Franklin who both yanks out the rotten tooth and points Winston’s compass towards college and establishing his own future.
The core of the story is the feelings of distrust that Winston has a result of his family situation. The anxiety and separation at such a young age are depicted in the conflict of his personal relationships. It’s much easier for him to have a connection with gadgets than with people or friends, though he tries. Winston is very energetic yet his movements and body language give insight to his inner feelings. Sun focused on displaying shots that exhibited this paying more attention to Wince’s rejection of getting close to people, especially the scenes with his best friend Frankie. Diving even deeper in search of authenticity, Wanqiu went to great extents to communicate the feel of the time period. Recognizing the fact that the story takes place almost two decades in the past, Sun studied music and films of this period in an effort to infuse the energy of the late 90’s/early 2000’s. The interaction between young men in the film reflects the rhythm of the dialogue of those times, which leads to a certain humor and a vibe of that type of tribe.
It’s a confident and intelligent director that hires an editor who can make suggestions to the betterment of a film. Michael Chen (director of “Cavities”) comments, “Wanqiu has a great sense of story. She understood my creative vision and was always there to help me achieve it, adding her own suggestions and creativity when she felt she could add to the common goal. She’s passionate and that makes her driven…which makes her great at what she does.” Proof of this light-handed work is relevant as Sun describes, “There is a scene in which we see Wince hiding his money inside a hole in the wall. It’s a story point where Wince becomes connected to his mother again and feels a sense of family. He changes the poster covering this hole to one with the Chinese characters for ‘family’ on it. As Wince leaves, the shot pushes in and stays on the poster. During editing, I felt that it would be a nice shot to end the scene but the movement of the shot is not ideal. It pushes in to a close up at a very high speed, which in my opinion doesn’t really work well for the emotional beat. I revised it with some technical skill, cheating an ending frame by changing the speed of the shot. I received confirmation from Mike that it was more effective in delivering what he wanted for the scene. During such trouble shooting, I gradually set up two rules for myself: 1) always respect and trust your team, try to know more about their thoughts, & 2) nowadays, lots of visual effects in editing programs can achieve a lot but make sure no matter what effect I am using that it serves the story.”
“Cavities” speaks to a much wider demographic than young Asian American men, as evidenced by the film’s awards an inclusion as an official selection at a variety of film festivals such as the: Honolulu Film Awards, Ellensburg Film Festival, Hip Hop Film Festival, and many others. Wanqiu’s work on feature films prohibited her from attending, the golden handcuffs of a successful career, but she considers herself as having the ultimate VIP pass. Her role as editor not only means that she helps to shape a film but that she also is the first person to view this completed production. Literally an audience of one, Sun finds herself often emotionally affected by the films she works on. When she is afforded the chance to witness an audience watching her work, she finds herself taking notes of when they laugh, cry, and react. Always focused on improving her work, Wanqiu Sun is a vital member of the film family.