"This year's lineup [of the New York International Asian American Film Festival] was fairly typical. Much of the programming was mediocre, while a few gems (usually shorts) stood out. My favorite short was SURPLUS by Joy Dietrich."

- John Ko of Asian American Journal, Fall/Winter 2000.


"In what's become a festival [San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival] tradition, the shorts compilation boast stellar work. SURPLUS and Dog Days in the "Sins and Daughters" program are astonishingly passionate dramatizations of the extremes people will go to stave off hunger."

- Frako Loden, SF Weekly, March 7-13, 2001.


In SURPLUS, Joy Dietrich directs a deceptively simple, horrifying tale.

- Sura Wood, Marin Independent Journal, February 25, 2001.


"Juxtaposed with the imagery, SURPLUS served to connect the concepts of happiness, despair and loss perfectly without being trite. SURPLUS is a very poetic piece of work."

Krysia Derecki, Screen Finance, London, for www.now.com.


"The first handful of minutes had me thinking this was going to be an innocuous, boring, puerile, stupid, silly little film with the edge of a dull blade. Boy was I wrong. By the end, my mouth was wide open and I was sincerely affected...Joy Dietrich has a bright future."

- Evan Richards, reviewer for www.now.com.


"Set in rural Korea in the past, Surplus never lapses into melodrama. It tells the tragic tale of child abandonment with economy and grace."

- Allan Tong, Take One, May, 2003.