Is the future for Asian American filmmakers in the East?
I wrote in this column a little over a year ago that Korean film companies were beginning to invest in Asian American (specifically Korean American) projects and looking to the American market to expand. This year’s San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival, taking place later this month, is a good place to gage the impact of this trend.
This year’s festival boasts more than 18 works by Korean or Korean American filmmakers, as well as two of the key works that have come out of this Korean American collaboration: Michael Kang’s West 32nd. and Gina Kim’s Never Forever.
A young lawyer (John Cho) enters the underworld of Korean gangsters in Michael Kang’s West 32nd.
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West 32nd stars John Cho (Harold & Kumar) as a young lawyer who must enter the world of Korean gangsters to solve a murder, while Never Forever stars Vera Farmiga (The Departed ) as the wife of an infertile Korean American man who hires an illegal Korean immigrant to impregnate her.
But both films were made by young Korean American filmmakers and were financed by major Korean film entities. In the case of West 32nd, Kang was backed by CJ Entertainment, a top Korean studio the equivalent of a Warner Bros. or Universal.
“Working on West 32nd with CJ was overall a great experience,” said Kang, whose 2005 debut feature The Motel was well-received. “I felt like I could tell a very personal story without having to compromise the intentions or have to explain it to them. At the same time, it allowed me to stretch my filmmaking muscles and play in a genre form that required backing from a real studio.”
The Korean film industry should be applauded for its efforts in supporting brethren outside of the country; no other Asian country is reaching out in the same way. Granted, it’s not all altruistic. The Korean film industry sees Korean and Asian American filmmakers as a possible way into the American market and the vast resources that lie within. Still, these very talented young artists may not have been able to get their projects off the ground without this support.
But the problem is none of these films have yet made an impact box office-wise, either in the U.S. or Korea. So far, there hasn’t been a Better Luck Tomorrow or Chan is Missing in the bunch — a film that truly breaks through. If that doesn’t happen in the near future, it’s very possible that these opportunities may quickly dry up.
There is, however, another related trend that I couldn’t have anticipated a year ago — Korean actors crossing over into American films. Here’s just some of what you’ll see in the next year: My Sassy Girl’s Ji Hyun Jun (as Gianna Jun) starring as an anime vampire slayer brought to life in Blood: The Last Vampire; pop star Rain in two Wachowski brothers projects — Speed Racer and the just announced Ninja Assassin; Byung-Hun Lee (A Bittersweet Life ) in G.I. Joe alongside Dennis Quaid; Dong-Kun Jang (Tae Guk Gi) in Laundry Warrior with Kate Bosworth; and Korean American turned Korean heartthrob Daniel Henney as a mutant in X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
Most of this casting news has only been announced in the past two months, which means it’s still too early to tell what, if any, effect the melding of Korean stars and Hollywood movies will have. But along with the Korean companies’ support of Korean American filmmakers, I think this Korean American trend is about to reach critical mass. Whether it blossoms into a genuine movement that opens real doors for Asian American filmmakers or bursts under the weight of its failures will largely be determined in the next couple of years as audiences make their decision the only way that counts — with their wallets.
The 26th San Francisco International Asian American Film
Festival runs from March 13-23: www.asianamericanmedia.org.
Philip W. Chung is a writer and co-artistic director of Lodestone Theatre Ensemble.