Food - Vancouver Film School Canadasian Short
March 19, 2010
Speaking of why Asians can’t get more Oscars, these folks are working to change that. Vancouver Film School mostly put out cute computer animated shorts, and many if not most feature budding Asian filmmakers / animators, but this one hit me in the gut.
Don’t watch this unless you can handle a 10 minute tear jerker.
Dad finally promises his girl she can have sushi at the fancy sushi restaurant but…..
Created by Vancouver Film School students through the VFS Film Production program:
Director: Johann Lee
Producer: Shayla Perry
Director of Photography: Megan Matsen
Writer: Johann Lee and Andrew Chung
Art Director: Younghoo Kwon
Editor: Ronash Bajracharya
Assistant Director: Oliver Milne
Camera Operator: Megan Matsen
1st Assistant Camera: Linda Besseling
Sound Mixer: Ronash Bajracharya
Grip: Kris Khosrowkhani
Production Assistants:
Max Marois
Chris Dow
Jessy Dupont
Dialogue Editor/ADR Recordist: Anton Verenitch
Foley Editor/Foley Artist: Tinjun Niu
SFX/SPFX/BG Editor/Foley Artist: Chris Matlosz
Music Composer: Kaze Patricio Chan
Cast:
Kiana Bahrey
Jim K. Y. Chan
Fane Tse
Melanie Oh
Rachael Li
Kelly Bartucci
Amanda Konkin
C Douglas Quon
Jacqueline Quon
‘Beginnings and Endings’ for Lodestone Theatre Ensemble
November 12, 2009
by Philip W. Chung
Writing is always hard. Even under the best of circumstances, it’s hard. If anyone tells you differently, they are either lying, soulless or just a bad writer. So it was with some trepidation that I approached writing my latest play Grace Kim & The Spiders From Mars.
After ten years of producing “edgy” Asian American theater, Lodestone Theatre Ensemble, the Los Angeles-based theater company I co-founded, is closing down. It’s not because of financial difficulties or because we’re burned out. We made the decision to close a few years ago and it was purely an artistic one. We felt that we had accomplished all we could in our current incarnation and we should get out while we’re still on top instead of wearing out our welcome.
So we wanted to make our tenth and final “Beginnings and Endings” season as special as it could be. And the very last slot of the season-what would be our very last show ever-fell upon me to write. Deciding what I wanted to do was fairly easy. I had always had an idea for an Asian American romantic comedy and the themes I wanted to explore seemed perfect for this occasion. I even had a title already-Grace Kim & The Spiders From Mars.
It would be a play about love and family and taking chances and beginnings and endings. I would pay tribute to Lodestone’s history by including references to every thing we’ve ever done in the script. Hell, the whole play would embody the spirit of what Lodestone meant to me. It would be the perfect swan song. It had to be. We owed it to all our loyal supporters.
That was the plan.
But as I said-writing is hard. And this brilliant plan of mine made it almost impossible to write this script. Why? If you ask most writers what the hardest part of their job is, one of the top answers you will hear is simply getting started. Looking at a blank computer screen or sheet of paper and knowing that you must fill it with words that will be creative and moving and worth reading is an intimidating thing. You have to do everything and anything you can to build up your confidence so you can tackle such a daunting task.
However, by psyching myself to write a play that had to be the “perfect” ending to ten years of Lodestone, I had put so much pressure on myself that there was no way I was ever going to gain the confidence to write this thing. Having the deadline didn’t help either. If I didn’t finish an acceptable draft of the play in time, there would be no last show and we would be going out with a disappointing whimper instead of a triumphant roar.
But as things have a way of working out in the world of theater, the play did get finished and as I write this, we’re just a few days away from opening night. I think what helped was making the decision to just embrace the challenge of writing something that would encompass ten years of our history.
One of the things I decided to do was include references to each of our past shows in the text of the play itself. So the production is filled with hidden “easter eggs” directly acknowledging our history. But I think the main thing that helped was deciding to simply focus on what I felt made Lodestone unique and special and trying to capture that in this play. By taking a more personal approach to this daunting task, it provided a way to tackle what seemed insurmountable.
Whether audiences respond favorably or not to the work remains to be seen but if I, and my talented cast and crew, have done our jobs right, I hope people will not only walk out of the theater having been entertained, but that they also take away a little bit of what this company meant to the many people who’ve contributed their blood, sweat and tears over the course of a decade. That’s Lodestone’s real legacy.
Philip W. Chung is a writer and Co-Artistic Director of Lodestone Theatre Ensemble. He blogs at http://youoffendmeyouoffendmyfamily.com/
Grace Kim & The Spiders From Mars runs November 14-December 20 at GTC Burbank in Burbank, CA. For more details go to: www.lodestonetheatre.org.
Bụi Đời (Dust of Life): A Moving Portrait of Multifaceted Asian American Experience
November 12, 2009
By Lee Ngo
Bụi Đời (Dust of Life) - R - Le Van Kiet, dir.
Le Van Kiet’s first feature-length film is a tour-de-force that thousands within the diasporic ethnic Vietnamese communities around the globe have been waiting to see. Based on true events in Westminster, Garden Grove and other parts of Orange County, California that occurred in the mid-1990s, Le doesn’t shy away from creating a brutal yet honest portrait of adolescent life in the community that still persists today. The film tries to answer a very difficult and complex question: why do so many young Vietnamese Americans resort to a life of violence and crime? By offering some clarity in a world wrought with chaos, Le and his cast and crew explore a confluence of factors, the most important of which lies in the particular historical trajectory of the Vietnamese refugee.
As a filmmaker, Le’s writing and directorial method demonstrates both his rigorous training at UCLA Film school as well as his desire to maintain the utmost authenticity toward his subject matter. Instead of casting familiar faces from the established local media and performance industry, Le recruited mostly non-professional actors to play most of roles in the film. Devon Duy Nguyen, Thu-Mai Tran, and England Du Van, who play the protagonist Johnny, his love interest Mai, and his fellow gang associate Rascal, respectively, never acted in anything prior to Dust of Life, and yet they vividly emanate the repressed anger and confused sense of morality of their generation. I cannot begin to conceptualize how difficult it must have been for these teenagers to draw from their own experiences and expose themselves to the world in such a raw and vulnerable manner. Well done.
Although Dust of Life is unarguably a tragic story, the film contains several moments of comic relief that highlight some of the peculiarities of the Vietnamese immigrant experience. Even during some of the most intense scenes in the field, events unfold in such a way that reminds the audience that although a life of violence is no life for a teenager of any background, occasionally it does yield hilarious results. My deepest sympathies were directed towards the broken-English speaking, purple pants-wearing Hung, played by Nguyen Vu, whose character is too “f.o.b.” (fresh-off-the-boat) to even understand that his peers constantly make fun of him. Perhaps an even greater tragedy is the tendency for the unassimilated to get pushed to the periphery, forced to endure the ridicule of the majority and even their so-called ethnic kin.
One of the biggest challenges this film faces is that much it will be lost in translation, as the majority of the dialogue is in “Vietlish,” a creolization of Vietnamese, English, and, I argue with particular reference to this film, the occasional Ebonics. However, present the dialogue as such contributes to the bigger statement that Le wants to make, aside from its empirical validity: the plight of these kids is largely misunderstood by the general public, including their own Vietnamese-speaking parents. Therefore, the uncanny language they speak serves as an allegory to their cultural struggle.
This film, however, does not focus exclusively on the experiences of teenagers. Gang violence in the community affects everyone at all registers, especially parents bewildered by their behavior and the prominent church communities that hope to provide a path for their salvation. In a very subtle yet specific way, Le appeals to the perspectives of each generation. During the powerful scenes by veteran actress Mai Khanh, Le lets the camera rest statically to accommodate Khanh’s theatrical talents as well as the visual tastes of the older generation. Conversely, while shooting the other scenes, Le and his cinematographer Jason Inouye employ a gritty, stylistic, MTV-style of filmmaking that appeals to the sensibilities of a younger crowd. This technique and many others amplify the plurality of the Vietnamese refugee experience and, in doing so, is capable of speaking to a broad audience.
Some may critique the film for the gratuitous use of violence or strong language, not to mention the occasional use of racial or homophobic slurs. I argue that omitting these words or censoring certain uneasy aspects of the film would do a great disservice to the film’s larger statement as well as the community it wants to represent as honestly as possible. Life for this and many other ethnic communities throughout America is not a fairy tale existence, and for some it is a violent, unending nightmare. This film debunks the Vietnamese as one of the “model minorities” of America, surviving the traumas of war and exile in order to establish themselves as hard-working, contributing citizens. Historically, that title must be earned, not inherited, as all ethnic groups seem to undergo an intense xenophobia and internal strife, but the title alone is already undermined by its racist connotations. When you remove “model” from “minority,” what, then, does the latter term really mean? Are minorities, by default, below the socioeconomic standards presumed by others, and when those standards are once met, then are declarations for their exclusion no longer applicable or necessary?
This question strikes at the very heart of the current debate on immigration, but I will leave that question open for now. However, films like Dust of Life will certainly elevate the debate, but hopefully to a plane where we can begin to talk about it honestly and empirically in order to discover more productive ways to ease these tensions and heal these deep wounds across generations and ethnic groups.
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First published on Lee’s Ecolumn, http://myecolumn.blogspot.com/2009/10/bui-oi-dust-of-life-r-le-van-kiet-dir.html
Daytime Drinking: Entertaining and Unpredictable
August 21, 2009
(photo courtesy of DaytimeDrinking.com)
There may not be another country where drinking is as much a part of the culture as it is in South Korea. Three billion bottles of soju, a vodka-like distilled alcohol known as Korea’s unofficial drink, are consumed every year which breaks down to an average of 90 bottles for every Korean over the age of 20. The most popular brand of soju, Jinro, is the top-selling liquor on the planet.
So it’s not a surprise that Daytime Drinking, a new film from South Korea by Young-seok Noh is set squarely in this world—where to refuse an offer of a drink is socially unacceptable, but to accept the drink may lead to unfortunate consequences.
Hyuk-jin (Sam-dong Song) has just broken up with his girlfriend. His buddies take him out for a night of drinking and decide that the best way to lift his spirits, is for all of them to meet the following afternoon in the small seaside town of Jeongseon where a festival is taking place.
So the next day, Hyuk-jin arrives in Jeongseon; only to learn that his friends have forgotten all about the trip, the festival took place weeks ago and the town is nearly empty since the vacation crowds have already thinned out. He is alone but decides to stay at a hostel until his friends arrive (of course, they never do). A series of misadventures follow involving a mysterious woman, a lost wallet, lost clothing, assorted eccentric characters and lots of drinking.
Daytime Drinking, which was made for an ultra-low $20,000 by director/writer/editor/cameraman/composer/art director Young-seok Noh, is a distant cousin to films like Martin Scorsese’s After Hours or even the Chris Columbus comedy Adventures in Babysitting but with a distinctly Korean identity. It’s a comedy, both black and farcical, about an everyman trapped in a bizarre nightmare that he can’t seem to wake up from—Hyuk-jin is Alice down a rabbit hole he desperately wants to climb out of, but is thwarted at every turn by fate and alcohol.
Wearing so many hats impressively, Noh is a true auteur and ably juggles the different demands of the film. If the pacing lags at times (and it does), there’s always something right around the corner to re-grab our attention—a quirky character that seems to pop out of nowhere, a new situation that we couldn’t predict. That’s the film’s greatest strength—it’s constant ability to surprise us. With such a low budget and the lack of the usual Hollywood-type bells and whistles to distract us, this quality is vital to the film’s success. There’s no deep message here—it’s as light as a feather, but Noh recognizes that and works with what he has to the film’s advantage.
Daytime Drinking is an inventive, funny work announcing a filmmaker of promise and ingenuity. It’s like a night of drinking with your good friends—entertaining, warm and unpredictable. There might be a hangover waiting for you the next morning, but for the moment, it’s all good.
Daytime Drinking is currently playing until August 27 in San Francisco at the 4 Star Theatre, 2200 Clement St.
Philip W. Chung is a writer and Co-Artistic Director of Lodestone Theatre Ensemble. Lodestone’s latest production of the classic musical Closer Than Ever runs until August 30 in Los Angeles. For more info, go to: www.lodestonetheatre.org. Philip is also a blogger at the new site founded by director Justin Lin (Better Luck Tomorrow): www.youoffendmeyouoffendmyfamily.com
A “Thirst” That Satisfies
July 30, 2009
I’ve said it before in the pages of Asian Week and I’ll say it again-Korean director Park Chan-Wook may be the most interesting filmmaker working in the world today. If Thirst, his latest effort, doesn’t quite rank with his best films like Old Boy and Sympathy For Lady Vengeance, it’s still more deliriously inventive than the vast majority of junk out there that gets mistaken for cinematic brilliance. Read more
All Blood and No Bite
July 7, 2009
Blood: The Last Vampire
Is it just me or has the recent trend for all things vampire left you feeling like the genre has - and pardon the bad pun - lost its bite? Whether on TV in True Blood or on the big screen in the Twilight and Underworld series, we’ve been so saturated by our blood-sucking brethren that it’s going to take something really special to see them as, well, special again. Unfortunately, Blood: The Last Vampire is not that thing.
It’s not just that the film is bad or uninspired, it’s that it has such a contempt for the audience that it’s almost impossible to even enjoy it as a pure guilty pleasure which is the least I expect from a movie like this.
Blood: The Last Vampire was originally a 48-minute anime film hit that launched a series of books, mangas and a TV series in its native Japan. It was a simple story about Saya, a young girl who is half-human/half-vampire, fighting and killing vampire demons on a U.S. army base in Japan during the Vietnam War era. The film basically delivered what that plot promised—no more and no less—and was an enjoyable diversion.
The film is a 90 minute mess that feels like it was made by people who are either just collecting a paycheck or have never seen a vampire movie before and think what they are putting on screen is original and interesting.
In this version, the 16-year-old Saya is played by the popular Korean actress Jun Ji-Hyun, going by the new moniker of Gianna, who is definitely not sixteen though she still looks nice in the schoolgirl outfit she wears for most of the film for reasons that make no sense. Korean film fans will recognize Gianna from works like My Sassy Girl and Il Mare where her particular brand of tough but vulnerable charisma was put to much better use. Those films made me, like much of Asia, fall in love with her. But Blood… may leave audiences wondering what the big deal is.
Gianna has been reportedly studying English in the U.S. in an effort to break into the American film industry and this role may have sounded good on paper—a kick-ass heroine who rarely talks therefore alleviating the English barrier issue—but the essence of this character is the opposite of what makes her such a charming performer. What makes Gianna perfect in films like My Sassy Girl is her ability to engage the other characters around her directly and force them to react to her. But with Saya, she’s playing someone who is isolated and unable to fully connect with the outside world. It’s like asking the prom queen to play the solitary outcast.
Not that the other actors come off better. Allison Miller, who plays the human teen Saya comes to protect, has a genuine likeability but is not given much to do but whine and Koyuki, who brought a quietly commanding presence to her role opposite Tom Cruise in The Last Samurai, plays Saya’s nemesis with such a heavy hand that all she’s missing is a mustache to twirl.
But when you have so many talented actors who come off this badly, the blame must be laid at the feet of the script and the director. When I said earlier that the film has a contempt for the audience, what I mean is that director Chris Nahon and writer Chris Chow have created a work that’s so tired and full of clichés that it’s hard to find any sense of joy that could at least elevate the work to the level of great trash. Even the usually solid action choreography of the film’s action director, Cory Yuen (Red Cliff), has a “been there/done that” quality.
Despite the film’s many flaws, I do hope that Gianna gets another shot to show what she can do in an American production. She’s got genuine star quality and just needs the type of break that her fellow Asian thesps like Ken Watanabe or Rinko Kikuchi were lucky to get. Hopefully, she can wash the bad taste of this Blood away so Western audiences can discover what their Asian counterparts already know.
Philip W. Chung is a writer and Co-Artistic Director of Lodestone Theater Ensemble, which is currently celebrating its tenth and final season. The company’s next performance of the musical revue Closer Than Ever runs August 8-30 in Los Angeles. For more info go to: www.lodestonetheatre.org or www.facebook.com/lodestonetheatre
Blood: The Last Vampire opens in select cities including San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Seattle and Honolulu on July 10.
The White Man Saves the Day Again?
December 31, 2008
Clint Eastwood in ‘Gran Torino’
Hollywood has a tradition of producing films where the heroic Caucasian protagonist saves the helpless people of color. Think Kevin Costner in Dances with Wolves or Tom Cruise in The Last Samurai — not only do the white characters act as the saviors, but the minorities are also usually just supporting characters who exist solely to help the main character achieve his goal. Read more
A Look Back at 2008
December 26, 2008
As another year draws to a close, it’s time to look back and see if any progress has been made by Asian Americans in Hollywood or if it’s the same Auld Lang Syne. Because I did a fairly comprehensive piece on Asian American representation in prime-time television a few months back, I will be focusing solely on narrative feature films here. Read more
Do Asian Remakes Have to Suck?
December 13, 2008
When the Korean film My Sassy Girl became one of the biggest comedy hits in all of Asia, Hollywood took notice and soon 20th Century Fox Pictures proudly announced it would be making the big budget American version. Starring up-and-coming hottie Elisha Cuthbert (24, The Girl Next Door), the American remake was released in August. Read more
The ‘Lost’ Sessue Hayakawa Found
November 30, 2008
The name of Sessue Hayakawa may be unfamiliar to most movie-goers today, but at the height of his fame from the mid-1910s to the late 1920s, the Japanese issei actor was as well known to audiences as Charlie Chaplin or Douglas Fairbanks. Read more
S.F. South Asian Film Festival This Weekend
November 13, 2008
Here are some highlights from this weekend’s 3rd I: San Francisco International South Asian Film Festival — every one of these is worth watching.
Kissing Cousins (2008, USA)
Romantic comedies are one of the most difficult genres to pull off. Not only do you have to be funny, but you also have to create a chemistry between your leads that feels effortless. Only Cary Grant and Katherine Read more
Jon Lawrence Rivera Joins ‘The Joy Luck Club’
October 31, 2008
Amy Tan’s 1989 novel The Joy Luck Club might be the most iconic work of fiction in the Asian American literary canon. The story of four Chinese American women and their mothers, it quickly became a bestseller and led to the hit 1993 film. Read more
