Maybe Never restages both a multitude of narratives about the loss of innocence and the changing nature of sexual fantasy and activity in the age of AIDS. While the question of Asian American identity is never specifically addressed, Nguyen's casting of Asian Americans as the objects of desire, the creators of fantasy and the participants in erotic exchanges with one another produces a distinctive aesthetic which firmly incorporates Asian American bodies, perspectives and imaginations within a contemporary sexual landscape of risk, desire, regret and creativity.

Maybe Never (But I'm Counting the Days)

A riotous, erotic kaleidoscope in which a Vietnamese refugee’s recollections of fleeing his country by boat become enmeshed with nostalgia and big-screen fantasies of shirtless pirates and sailors—including images of Brad Davis in Fassbinder’s Querelle. (UCLA Film & Television Archive)