WORLD PREMIERE @ 2017 TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL, NEW YORK, USA

2017 AFI FEST, LOS ANGELES, USA

2017 PALM SPRINGS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL, USA.

2017 SEATTLE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL, USA.

2017 NEWPORT INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL, USA.

Sarah manages Joy Joy Nails with a cheerful iron fist, but she gets her manicured claws out when Chinese manicurist trainee Mia looks to be stealing the boss's son's affections and soon discovers that under the varnish, everyone's a victim.

Culture Desk | THE NEW YORKER

A Short Film About the Color and Darkness of the Immigrant Experience

By Joshua Rothman

Joy Joy Nails” began in 2015, when its director, Joey Ally, read “Unvarnished,” a Timesexposé about working conditions in nail salons. The article describes the struggles of Asian manicurists, many of whom speak little or no English. Often, they are paid less than minimum wage; they live in packed flophouses and put up with abuse, some of it racially charged, from their employers and supervisors. When she was in college, Ally, who is now thirty-two, majored in political science; before she became a filmmaker, she thought she might work in human-rights law. “We’re always reading and talking about human-rights abuses that happen halfway around the world,” she told me recently. By contrast, in a nail salon, “the striking thing is that there’s effectively a sweatshop situation, but the woman is holding your hand and looking you in the eye.” She began to imagine a film.

The result is an eighteen-minute day-in-the-life, by turns eye-opening, enraging, funny, and moving. “Joy Joy Nails” follows a group of manicurists who live in Flushing, Queens, and work in a suburban nail salon. We see the cramped apartment where the girls sleep. At the salon, we’re appalled by the abusive behavior they endure. But we’re also delighted by their hilarity and vitality, which, during work hours, must stay hidden behind a mask of bland good cheer. Among themselves, the girls are snarky and foul-mouthed. They have great clothes and sing along to K-pop; they are distinct individuals, each with her own good and bad qualities. The film is not a sob story. Its immigrant protagonists are the perpetrators as well as the victims of abuse. When they stand up for themselves, they do so imperfectly, with the limited tools available to them. They are improvisers.

Ally had some concerns about making “Joy Joy Nails,” since, in her own words, she’s “a white lady from New York and Connecticut.” “For good reason, we’re having a big conversation about representation and who’s allowed to represent what,” she said. When she decided to proceed with the movie, she did so under the theory that she and her characters shared common ground: “I’m American and they’re also American.” During production, the film’s Asian actors told her about the difficulty that they’ve had finding good English-speaking roles; when we spoke, she asked me, “Could you please print all the names of my fabulous cast?” (In speaking roles, the film stars Kahyun Kim, Yi Liu, Sarah Chang, Catherine Haena Kim, Jongman Kim, Shirley Kwon, Esther Moon, Amber Sealey, Tae Song, Caryn West, and Chris Yejin.) Ally sees the final result as a joint project between herself and the actors, who sometimes improvised lines in languages she doesn’t understand. (She worked with translators and producers who speak Korean and Mandarin.)

To me, the film’s best quality is its breadth. The protagonists are strong—many immigrants, Ally said, are “insanely badass”—but, frequently, they are also powerless. The front of the spa is a cheerful, Day-Glo wonderland; the back, where the girls spend their breaks, is ugly and cramped. Visually, the film alternates between color and darkness; tonally, it braids hope with desperation. At times, it feels like a documentary, but elsewhere, Ally said, she worked to give it the energy of “a dark comedy.” A lesser film would have been simpler. “Joy Joy Nails” reflects the complexity of immigrant life.

Joy Joy Nails

By Matthew Roe | FILM THREAT

https://filmthreat.com/reviews/joy-joy-nails/

It is rare that a film is so well-executed, that even multiple language barriers with no subtitles don’t stand in the way of the clear conveyance of the narrative. With a cast ranging from Korean, Chinese, and American players, a simple nail salon becomes a brewing pot of contrasting cultures and micro-dramas worthy of a soap opera, (though wonderfully without the associated cheese). In Joy Joy Nails, Joey Ally manages a taut story, bubbling with raw emotionality, and possessing utterly engrossing visuals, and a fine-tuned editorial sense.

Sarah (Kahyun Kim) is a (just recently) promoted manager at the salon Joy Joy Nails. While she manages the majority of the staff with a firm but friendly disposition, tensions rise and as she clashes with the manicurist trainee Mia (Yi Liu) over their boss’s son Matthew’s (Tae Song) affections. Though she soon discovers not everything is as clear-cut as she believes it to be, with serious implications as to the salon’s hyper-toxic work environment fermenting just beneath the surface.

The initial overall tone of the film strikes deep in the vein of Sofia Coppola meeting Wong Kar-wai. This resonance is due to the heavy focus placed on minute details subtextually constructing each character’s personality, all the while life swirls on around them, oblivious to their lives. No interaction or reaction is forced or kitschy; yet the visual world that this film is set has copious emphasis placed on style, denoting a daydream-like quality (and so much pink) to the story.

While T.J. Williams Jr’s cinematography has crafted a visual treat, including one seriously impressive establishing tracking shot after entering the salon; blending camera involvement, blocking, and the ins and outs of the location so well, that it honestly could not have been done any other way. This impression is further intensified by Adam Thomson’s concise editing, whose continuity and established rhythm keep constant the rising tension within the plot, and the emotional and social connectivity between the characters. This all is highly responsive of Ally’s finely attuned directing; everything just seems to fit, and makes all other associated elements that much stronger as a result.

While the plot has been played out through similar channels before, the filmmakers keep the subject fresh through their unique perspective, craft, and powerful leading cast. Each filmic aspect elevates the other, and the experience as a whole is thoroughly fulfilling. Joy Joy Nails is a short film that bodes ebulliently well for its filmmakers’ futures in the medium and is a solid enthralling piece of stylized emotional reality.