“Candy Cane Candidate” is an entertaining holiday film showcasing Christmas vibes, holiday romance (or bickering) and more!
Click here to watch “Candy Candidate” on Amazon
TITLE: Candy Cane Candidate
FILM YEAR: 2021
DURATION: 88 Minutes
COMPANY: Lifetime Television
Directed by Pat Kiely
Written by Melissa Bustamante
Produced by Shane Boucher, Caitlin Delaney
Executive Producer: Megan Ellstrom, Larry Grimaldi, Hannah Pillemer, Fernando Szew, Arnie Zipursky
Supervising Producer: Ryan Greig
Music by Craig McConnell
Edited by Ryan Kovack
Casting by Ilona Smyth
Production Design by Joey Gunn
Costume Design by Jennifer Stroud
Starring:
Jacky Lai as Julia
Jake Epstein as Parker
Edwina Renout as Sylvie
Henry Kwok as George
Danny Vo as Noah
Mickeey Nguyen as Jax
Stephanie Herrera as Mayor Rodriguez
Kara Duncan as Lucy
Natural-born leader, Julia (Jacky Lai), returns to her hometown of North Falls for Christmas to drown her sorrows in eggnog, cookies, and Yuletide after her recent political campaign for city council ended in a landslide loss. It’s the perfect place for Julia’s holiday escape—until she realizes coming home means running into her old high school rival, Parker (Jake Epstein), the arrogant know-it-all who beat her in a race for senior class president. When the North Falls mayor resigns, the town holds an emergency election, and Julia and Parker find themselves once again facing off. But as Julia and Parker campaign their way through the Christmas season and plan a toy drive together, Julia begins to see a different side of Parker, and the ice between them slowly begins to thaw. As their political race comes to a head, Julia and Parker discover winning isn’t everything.
I have been noticing actress Jacky Lai, since I last watched her in “A Sugar & Spice Holiday”, a holiday telefilm on Lifetime that featured an Asian American family.
And watching her earlier this year on the action film “Eraser: Reborn”, I decided to check out her 2021 Lifetime holiday telefilm “Candy Cane Candidate”.
First, being Asian American myself, I think it was very cool to see Lifetime continue to showcase an Asian American family on a holiday telefilm and also big props to Jacky Lai for now appearing in two holiday telefilms.
The film is directed by Pat Kiely and written by Melissa Bustamante, the film stars Jacky Lai (“Shadowhunters”, “V-Wars”), Jake Epstein (“Degrassi: The Next Generation”, “Designated Survivor”), Edwina Renout, Henry Kwok, Danny Vo and Mickeey Nguyen.
The film revolves around Julia, a leader who just lost a city council campaign. Needing time off from work during the holidays, she heads home to North Falls.
And it should have been a calm and peaceful vacation until she finds out that her debate team nemesis, Parker (portrayed by Jake Epstein), who beat her for senior class president, will be running for mayor (as the current mayor is resigning).
The competitive side to Julia and her angry feelings towards Parker, leads her to pursue to run for mayor against him. And the two must work on a toy drive together.
Needless to say, what will happen to Julia when she has to work with her high school nemesis?
As mentioned, I’m very supportive of seeing Asian American talent and in this case, we don’t have enough Asian American presence on television, that it’s a great to see Jacky Lai in a second consecutive holiday telefilm.
While I don’t know if it will continue again this year, I can say that I am glad that Lifetime has done this, as they have been supportive of showcasing African American and Latino families as well.
But one thing I have noticed is that typically when we do see Asian American leads, they are often showcased in interracial relationships. Granted, I have no problem with this as I’m married to a Caucasian woman. But I do hope that one day, we will see an Asian American woman and man in a romantic film just like any other. We have seen it with African America and Latino leads, why not Asian?
But again, we take what we can get and just glad that Lifetime Television featured an Asian American family. They also integrated a storyline between Noah and Jax, showcasing two homosexual Asian American men attracted to each other. So, you do get a storyline that showcases diversity.
But overall, “Candy Cane Candidate” is an entertaining holiday film showcasing Christmas vibes, holiday romance (or bickering) and more!
Click here to watch “Candy Candidate” on Amazon