I sat down, with food in my lap, waiting to watch a movie. It sounds like a typical Friday night at home, but this time it was not. I was sitting down in a theatre of over 300 Filipinos speaking their native tongues. We were watching a film named Ulam: Main Dish. It’s directed by a Filipino-American director, and it’s about Filipino / Filipino-American food.

Right before the film began, I was caught in this realization: this is a film created   by my people, for my people and about my people, and shared with an audience much larger than just us. This was the first time I had ever experienced a film of this nature. I could understand its stories and culture. The theatre went dark and before the film rolled, my eyes were already overflowed (洋溢)with pride.

I was watching this film at the Reel Asian Film Festival. At this year’s festival, I joined the Reel Asian team as their Social Media Assistant. This meant that during the festival I could actually get to speak to the filmmakers, actors, producers, etc. Particularly, I had the chance to speak to filmmakers about why a festival like this is important to them.

Through talking with them, I learned that there is something really unique about the Reel Asian Film Festival. It brings good Asian cinema a home in what is known as an incredibly diverse city, allowing these stories to be told to a diverse audience of diverse views.

For anyone looking to find themselves in a film, learn more about other cultures, and enjoy a good movie, I truly believe that Reel Asian is the place to be. As an annual event, it's so well planned and organized, and so much expectation is being built.

Walt Disney is credited for creating such wonderful things as Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse. However, he cannot take the credit for creating other well-loved characters, such as Cinderella and Snow White. They are almost automatically associated with Disney because Disney turned old fables(寓言)into cartoon movies.

The original Cinderella varies very much from the Disney version we know today. It started off with the girl mourning her mother’s death and going to her tomb three times a day. In addition, there were only birds that helped Cinderella; there was no such thing as a fairy godmother or helpful mice, nor was there mention of a horse and carriage.

The stepsisters were cruel: they always threw Cinderella’s food into the ashes of the fire, and made her sleep on the ashes on the floor, hence(因此)her name.

In the original story, the king’s ball actually lasted for three days. With the help of the birds, the girl, beautifully dressed, danced with the prince on all three nights and the prince fell in love with her. However, she broke away from him to rush back home each night. On the last night, the prince placed something sticky on the stairs; as Cinderella made her escape ,a shoe got stuck on it.

Here now is where the story becomes unpleasant: when the prince went to the house looking for the girl whose foot fit the shoe, the wicked(邪恶的)stepmother told one of her two daughters to cut off her big toe to fit into the shoe. The daughter did as told. So, the prince took her away to be his bride. But, when they passed the tomb of Cinderella’s mother, the birds called out to the prince, “Turn and peep, there’s blood within the shoe; The shoe is too small, the true bride waits for you.”

Realizing he had been tricked, the prince returned the daughter to her mother; the other then had to cut off part of her heel in order to fit into the shoe, with the same result. Only Cinderella’s foot fit perfectly and so the prince chose to marry her. The story ends with the wedding day: as Cinderella’s two stepsisters followed her, pretending to be devoted to her so that they could enjoy the king’s riches, two birds flew by and plucked(啄)out their eyes. Because of their wickedness and falsehood, they had to spend the rest of their days blind.

The original Cinderella is so different from the Disney version. Thank goodness Disney made such changes; it indeed was a wise move.

Few of us haven’t read Cinderella, the story of a young woman living in poverty who meets the prince of her dreams. Some might not want to admit it, but there is a hidden Cinderella in everyone’s heart—we all wish we could achieve recognition or success after a period of obscurity(默默无闻).

Mary Santiago has that secret dream, too. Her story is featured in Another Cinderella Story, a film set in a US high school.

Mary is shy but loves to dance. Compared with other girls, she is invisible. However, her world changes completely when a famous teenager pop singer, Joey Parker, appears.

Joey is everything the rest of the boys in her class are not—kind, handsome and desirable. Mary and Joey’s paths cross at a ball. They meet and fall in love with each other. But when Mary has to rush back home, she leaves behind her MP3 player, which becomes the only clue Joey has to find the girl of his dreams. Of course, there is a wicked stepmother, who turns out to be Dominique Blatt and she takes in Mary after her dancer mother dies. Dominique treats Mary like a maid and does everything she can to make sure Mary doesn’t get into the top dance school. Her two daughters are equally determined to stop Joey falling for Mary, even if that means embarrassing her.

The story, though it mostly follows Cinderella, does add a few modern day twists to the classic fairy tale. Refreshingly, the film, unlike many high school films, does not focus on looks, although the actors are all beautiful. There is also a lot less materialism in Another Cinderella Story than in many similar movies.

“The movie takes the Cinderella fairytale as its jumping off point,” writes movie critic Amber Wilkinson. “Yet the focus is firmly on following your dream.”