Where The Fault Lies
July 11, 2008
Hang around Asian American film types, and you’re bound to hear some version of the following: “If I were white, I’d be a star by now,” “Hollywood won’t make my film because it’s a non-stereotypical look at Asian Americans,” “Hollywood is racist. … ”
What I sometimes find troubling about this is that almost always the blame is placed on external factors. There is certainly truth to this — Hollywood has not historically embraced our community with open arms — but it ignores another factor that’s just as important. Read more
‘Half-Life’ Keeps Jennifer Phang Full
July 7, 2008
Every year in late November, wherever independent filmmakers can be found, nervous anticipation looms as thick as the L.A. smog. This is the time when the calls go out, and filmmakers learn whether they are a step closer to becoming the next Quentin Tarantino or whether they are the owner of a very expensive home movie. This is when the Sundance Institute decides which films have been accepted into the prestigious Sundance Film Festival, still the apex of festivals.
‘The Love Guru’
June 27, 2008
Seeking comedic enlightenment? Look elsewhere
By now you know that Mike Myers’ new comedy The Love Guru is one of the worst-reviewed films of the year, that it performed poorly at the box office, and that some Hindu groups are protesting the way Hindus and their beliefs are lampooned in the movie.
Despite knowing this, I wanted to like The Love Guru. I’ve always been a big Mike Myers fan. I grew up loving his sketches on Saturday Night Live, “Wayne’s World” could have been my autobiography and I still think the Read more
Japanese films embrace spirit of S.F. Indie Fest: Another Hole In the Head
June 18, 2008
Just what are the Japanese filmmakers smoking? If the Japanese films on display at the “Another Hole in the Head” film festival are any indication, it’s something very interesting.
In the festival’s own words, its mission is to embrace “horror, sci-fi, mayhem and merriment.” The four films from Japan at this year’s festival — Read more
‘Kung Fu Panda’
June 4, 2008
Kung Fu Panda was not something I had a great desire to see. An animated film about a panda doing martial arts? An American film set in a mythical, exotic China made by a mostly non-Asian creative team? There are so many ways that can go wrong. But Kung Fu Panda deftly avoids any potential mine fields, and turns out to be one of the most entertaining and smart family films in a long time. Read more
Musical Inspirations: The cast and crew of EWP’s ‘Pippin’ on the musicals that influenced them
May 21, 2008
Los Angeles’ East West Players (EWP) is not only the oldest Asian Pacific American theater in the country, but now the oldest ethnic theater as well. Well-known for its musical productions, EWP closes out its 42nd anniversary season with a production of the classic musical Pippin — done in a hip-hop, anime-inspired style. Read more
A Different Kind of Martial Arts Film: D. Lee Inosanto’s ‘The Sensei’ battles prejudice and homophobia in 1980s small town in Colorado
May 2, 2008
If there’s one thing D. Lee Inosanto is no stranger to, it’s martial arts. Her father is martial arts legend Dan Inosanto, her godfather was the late Bruce Lee (whom she refers to simply as “Uncle Bruce”), and Inosanto herself is a highly trained martial artist who has worked as a stunt person on projects from Buffy the Vampire Slayer to Face/Off. Read more
Jackie Chan, Jet Li Enter ‘The Forbidden Kingdom’
April 18, 2008
Two masters share the screen for the first time
To martial arts film fans, the pairing of Jackie Chan and Jet Li is a dream come true — a highly anticipated and rare chance to see two masters share the screen. Think Al Pacino and Robert De Niro going head-to-head in Heat (and the upcoming Righteous Kill), or Marlon Brando and Montgomery Clift in The Young Lions. Read more
‘21’ Not the First Film To ‘Whitewash’ Our History
April 7, 2008
You’ve probably heard the new film 21 is based on Ben Mezrich’s best-selling book Bringing Down the House, which recounts the true story of a group of MIT students who devised a method of counting cards and took Las Vegas casinos for millions.
In the real-life version, most of the students were of Asian descent — the idea being that casinos are less suspicious of Asians with lots of money to gamble away. But in the reel world of Hollywood, we have pretty Caucasians Jim Sturgess (Across the Universe) and Kate Bosworth (Superman Returns) leading the cast. The filmmakers threw in Asians Aaron Yoo and Liza Lapira to placate angry activists, but that hasn’t stopped some in the community from expressing outrage and threatening a boycott.
This isn’t the first time that Hollywood has taken a page from Asian American history and literally “whitewashed” it. Here are two more films from the not-too-distant past that took liberties with the facts.
‘My Blueberry Nights’
April 4, 2008
Since his 1989 directorial debut As Tears Go By, Hong Kong-based filmmaker Wong Kar Wai has built an international reputation as an acclaimed director of moody relationship pieces. Modern classics like Happy Together and In the Mood for Love are improvisational landscapes of love lost, unrequited or generally gone bad — films best enjoyed late at night Read more
We Are the World: Asians dominate ‘Planet B-Boy’
March 27, 2008
For those who think break dancing peaked in 1984 with the release of Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo, Benson Lee’s new documentary Planet B-Boy will be a revelation. Not only is break dancing alive and well, it’s gone international. And the center of it all is an unlikely place: Braunschweig, Germany, Read more
A Look Back at a Legend: Elaine Mae Woo’s ‘Anna May Wong: Frosted Yellow Willows’
March 13, 2008
In the past few years, pioneering Chinese American actress Anna May Wong has been the subject of no less than three books, one play, various retrospectives and a successful restoration of one of her silent classics (Piccadilly). Read more