You are currently browsing all entries tagged with 'better luck tomorrow'

‘Sunset Stories’ Stories: Interviewing the Sung Kang

  • May 10, 2012 9:37 am

I can’t believe I’ve known Sung Kang for over a decade. And neither can I believe that we have worked together multiple times and have not inflicted grievous bodily harm unto each other. I jest, I mean I think we’re both pretty laid back and calm and we must have a lot of common ground after all these years.

I met Sung while working on Better Luck Tomorrow, I remember that after his audition, there was no question in any of our minds, he was Han – little did he know that he would be HAN for over a decade. What I sparked onto with Sung was how his personality is really different from the brooding, silent types that he portrays on screen. In person, he’s really lighthearted, goofy and love to laugh. Our conversations usually centered around how we both loved and hated what we did (acting and filmmaking) and just wanted to somehow capture those moments of what we love the most and make a career out of it – all on our own terms (kind of a pipe dream, I know). Our paths continued to cross over the years and we always discussed working on a project together, but things never really got off the ground. I (co-)wrote Sunset Stories with Sung Kang in mind. I remember him telling me that he wanted to do something different. The character of JP in Sunset Stories is an East LA musician who is on the verge of big life changes. Should he cash in his dreams and start a family and be resigned to be a wedding singer? I knew that both Sung and I had talked about trading in the dream for reality, so I knew even if this character was far from him, he could identify with that central question.  Read more...

DADDY FAN – X Rated Family (car) Fun

  • May 2, 2012 2:03 pm

Well, I finally did it.  I got myself a sports car.  After several decades of pining, lusting, and suffering, I finally mustered up the mojo to satisfy my man itch.

Sort of.

OK, I actually didn’t get a sports car.  I put a deposit on one.

I want this. The CAR, not the photoshopped waif.

And come to think of it, the thing’s not even really a sports car either.  It’s more of an SUV meets minivan meets something fast (and furious 6).

What the heck is wrong with me?  After spending my entire post-puberty life torturing my soul with the mantra, “one day I will get myself a sports car…one day…”, when I finally decide to pull the trigger, I don’t even opt for a sports car.  It’s like going to a strip club for your first time and getting a lap dance from the janitor.  Read more...

Around the Horn: Coming Out to the Parents Edition

  • April 23, 2012 7:08 pm

When I meet with students and aspiring artists, particularly if they’re Asian/Pacific American, I usually get asked, “How did your parents react when you told them you wanted to be a writer?”

Well, I first decided to try my hand at playwriting back in college. And the thing about Asian parents is, generally, so long as you’re getting good grades, they don’t really care what you do in your spare time (one of my favorite movies, Offender Justin’s BETTER LUCK TOMORROW, suggests you can even kill people). So I told my parents that my English major could be used as a pre-law, kept up my grades, and wrote plays in my spare time.

As senior year approached, however, I had to come out to my folks and let them know I was planing for a different kind of future post-college. Fortunately, I wasn’t raised in a “Tiger Mom” family; my mother is a pianist, and my grandmother used to say stuff like, “Why’s everyone so worried about getting ‘A’’s? What’s wrong with a ‘B?’” Still, my Father was a businessman, and it’d be quite a stretch for two immigrant Chinese parents to accept their son going for a career in the theatre.

I’d written my first play, called FOB, to be staged in my college dorm. My Father took a look at the script; he’d never read a play before, saw some swear words, and said, “I send you to that fancy school, and you write this junk?”

Then he told my Mom, “We’re going to go see this play of Dave’s. If it’s good, we’ll encourage him, and if it’s bad, we’ll tell him to stop.”  Read more...

Escolar: the Pablo Escobar of fish

  • April 2, 2012 7:18 am

Ever have Butterfish?

Well, if you’re a sushi connoisseur, you most likely have.  It’s a firm whitefish that is succulent and incredibly rich in flavor.  To eat one, properly sushi-prepared, is a guaranteed, oral orgasm.  Well, at least it was for me the first time I had it – lightly seared with a dollop of apricot puree on top.  You never forget your first time.  I had three servings in less than 30 minutes.  And I joyfully swallowed each and every creamy bite.  Yum…

eat me

Never heard of Butterfish?  Perhaps you may know it by it’s other aliases like “white tuna” or “super-white tuna” or “walu” or…“Escolar.“

Shooting out Escolar is far more ferocious than being shot by Escobar

Escolar?  Yes, Escolar.  That’s the fish’s real name before it went to culinary finishing school.  Sounds kind of like Pablo Escobar, no?  And just like the Columbian drug lord, we too should fear and respect this snake mackerel fish.  For if you underestimate Escolar or Escobar, the final result is always predictably the same – bad shit happens.  Read more...

DADDY FAN – Baby Barfing Blues

  • March 15, 2012 2:02 pm

I dropped the F-Bomb at least 50 times in fifteen seconds.  At full volume.  Right in the middle of Beverly Hills and right in the middle of the Beverly Hills sign.

Actually, I was slightly behind the Beverly Hills sign, parked, with all the doors of my minivan wide open and whacking my ride to the rhythm of my global, F-Bomb assault with, of all things, a baby towel – a baby towel covered in puke.

I was less than a quarter mile from an important TV audition when my 15 month old unloaded the entire contents of her stomach onto herself and the car seat that she was strapped into.  This was not a cute, little baby spit-up, by the way.  This vomit was on the order of The Exorcist.  The only thing that didn’t come out were her internal organs.  Read more...

Around The Horn – Unfulfilled OBSESSIONS

  • February 27, 2012 10:33 am

Do you have an unfulfilled obsession?

I’m curious because usually if you have an obsession (ie. passion, strong interest, mania, addiction, infatuation, fetish, etc.), you’re usually doing it, living it, and/or being it 110%, 24/7.

I’m not sure if it’s rare or common, but I’m curious how many of you have an unfulfilled obsession – something that you just love terribly and think about all the time but have not allowed yourself to fully experience or express.

So what’s your unfulfilled obsession (if you even have one)?  I’m not talking fantasy, btw.  I’m talking about something real and of this earth.  Something that you absolutely love, but for some reason, have intentionally or unintentionally postponed.

I’ll tell you mine – sports cars.

me likes long time  Read more...

DADDY FAN – how to Love a Love Hypocrite

  • February 15, 2012 7:50 am

I don’t have a babysitter right now.  Her mother unexpectedly past so she left for Asia on Friday for a month or two (or three).  I don’t have a geographically-convenient, sexy, Korean wife right now either.  She just departed on a business trip for a week.

So without a sexy, Korean wife/mom and babysitter to help share in the daily, care schedule of my 2 baby girls, I find myself a bit short-handed at this very moment.  Where is Jeremy Lin when you need him?  C’mon #17, I needs yo help!

it's peaceful and serene. until the baby wakes...

Being home, alone with 2 baby girls is not easy (at least not for me).  It’s not a child to parent ratio that I prefer.  It’s exhausting at best and a very lonely space to be in.  This happens to me from time to time – my parental support system going down unexpectedly.  The work/social/daddy world that I so delicately constructed instantly explodes and I have to become 110% Daddy Fan 24/7 until reinforcements arrive.  My personal and professional life must be lived, at best, in between naps.  Read more...

Around the Horn: special fantasy basketball JLin17 vs. Kobe edition

  • February 10, 2012 9:37 pm

I’ve been getting a lot of requests since the Bill Simmons article to share more about what we do in our fantasy league.  Besides intense daily player movements and watching Sal “the machine” chase after us like the Terminator, we usually do a lot of trashing talking on our message board. Today, however, we stopped hatin’ on each other to unify and stand against the one self proclaimed Black Mamba– Kobe Bryant. Sure he’s an easy target, but anyone who gives themselves a nickname should never go unscathed. Plus, is this how a superstar should act?  You judge for yourself. It all started with a little note from Lou in the morning.

LOU: Hello fantasy basketball family,
Thought I’d start off your mornings with this one. Haha

This clip confirms my love/hate relationship with Kobe. Haha  Read more...

DADDY FAN – homeless & (pro)Creative

  • February 9, 2012 11:01 am

To buy a home or not to buy a home?  That is the question.

Actually, it’s no longer a question – I need to buy a home.  Now.  Yesterday.  Last year.

I bought my first place in 2003.  A simple 1,144 sf, 2bed/2bath condo in West LA/Santa Monica.  It was a great value in a safe, urban, walk-to-everything location.  I was single back then, so 1,144 square feet was more than enough room to accommodate my bachelor life.  But today, I am no longer Fan Solo, but Fan Daddy-O, equipped with a wife and 2 fun baby girls.  What was once a spacious and relaxing urban retreat is now a converted playground that just happens to have a kitchen, bathroom, and sleeping facilities.  It’s time to move.  Now.  Yesterday.  Into something bigger (than my current Chinese-Korean, estrogen-heavy, Toy’s-R-Us sardine can that I call home).

Our new home will not be this big. Perhaps 3/50th of 50's 50,000 sf...

So what do we need?  Well…a house with more space, a backyard, in a safer neighborhood, and within a good public school district (kindergarten through high school).  That’s what what we need.

But what do we want?  Well, that’s a different story.  We want a 3,800+ sf, green home of tomorrow, a large, low-maintenance backyard with a small pool, in an exceptionally safe neighborhood, within close walking distance of grocery stores, banks, parks, etc., a close/convenient commute to work, and all within a GREAT public school district.  That’s what we want.  A tall order, I know…  Read more...

‘Sunset Stories’ Stories: The Beginning

  • February 1, 2012 1:02 pm

Please welcome Ernesto to our YOMYOMF family. Actually as writer/producer on BETTER LUCK TOMORROW, Ernesto’s been a part of the fam for a long time, but he joins us in an official capacity to blog about his new film SUNSET STORIES, which will have its just-announced World Premiere at SXSW in March and is executive produced by our own Justin Lin (with Sung Kang starring) and the first feature to go out under our YOMYOMF Films banner. Ernesto will be sharing his journey with the film on a regular basis.

It took a lot of convincing for me to write this journal about the making of SUNSET STORIES (formerly COOLER), a micro-budget film shot nearly one and a half years ago. People who know me, know first hand how quiet, insular and private I am, and writing something like this amounts to pulling teeth – with a very, very rusty pair of pliers. Slowly. One at a time. With the molars breaking to pieces and you have to dig them out of blood soaked gumflesh…okay, you get the picture, it’s painful. Well, I finally gave in, so here goes.

With this journal, I’m going to trace the making of SUNSET STORIES and follow our journey to our World Premiere screening at SXSW in March. It’s been a long hard road, with a lot of twists, turns and dead-ends – seriously, as I write this, we’re still scrambling to finish and STILL begging for favors because of our limited budget – but fighting ‘til the end. If you’re reading this, odds are you too are thinking about making a film. I write this for you. Maybe you can avoid the many pitfalls we suffered through or maybe I’ll convince you to go back to grad school for industrial design, trade school for nursing and x-ray tech, or, of course, culinary school. Trust me, I’ve got a drawer full of half finished applications at home. But like many of you, I’m a glutton for punishment and no matter how hard I try to convince myself otherwise, film and writing is where my heart is.  Read more...

DADDY FAN – when a cute girl steals your bed

  • January 31, 2012 12:09 pm

My body aches.  All the time.  My neck, my back, my rump – all sore and creeky 24/7, even after many, vigorous massage sessions via the bony hands of a cute Korean girl (my wife).

For over 3 years it’s been like this (which, ironically, is in parallel to my current tour of duty as a dad) .  I rarely feel fresh, virile, or verdant anymore.  For the span of over 1,000 days my bones have felt like glass and my muscles of frozen meat.  In a nutshell, I hurt.

Why?

Am I unknowingly a zombie with limited decay and good teeth?  Probably not.  I still want to kiss my wife, not eat her.

or

Am I just working out too hard at the gym in order to maintain a perfect, Hollywood physique?  Absolutely not.  I have not worked out a day in the gym in over 3 years.  And as such, I am well on my way of disproving the myth that Asian guys don’t have butts.  This baby’s got some back.  Come touch my creation if you wish.  All of it.  Read more...

YOMYOMF at Sundance: The First Time

  • January 24, 2012 7:44 pm

In a few hours, I’ll be boarding a very early flight to Salt Lake City to join some of my fellow Offenders including Justin, Elaine and Anderson for the second half of the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. Unlike the others, this is my first time at the fest. I try to avoid anything that reeks of Hollywood glitziness (which is why I also wasn’t there for the first half of the fest when most of the Paris Hilton types are in attendance), but with a YOMYOMF cabin this year and Anderson’s promise of coke and whores, I couldn’t resist.

And yes, everyone looks exactly the same 10 years later. Vampires or Asians?

And speaking of Sundance and first times, I should point out that Justin’s Better Luck Tomorrow premiered at Sundance exactly ten years ago this year. That was also the first trip to the fest for most of the Offenders—like Sung and Roger–who worked on the film (though not the last, many of the same crew would be back for Finishing the Game).  Read more...