Reinventing Asian American Cinema
Tag Archives: Karin Anna Cheung
Reinventing Asian American Cinema
(Not so much The Joy Luck Club from left to right: Amy Hill, Kimberly Rose-Wolter, Michelle Krusiec, Tamlyn Tomita, Julia Nickson, Akemi Look, Elizabeth Sung and Karin Anna Cheung)
If there is a cinematic genre called Asian American film, then every Asian American feature should be an invention until we find a formula that can do well and sustain the genre. If we don’t have a formula, every movie must be a new invention or a re-invention. That’s the real excitement about Asian American cinema; precisely because there is no formula for success every movie can essentially be experimental and innovative.
I keep thinking that the last feature I made would be my last Asian American feature, but then there are so many wonderful Asian American actors I want to work with and so many new ideas I want to try out.
Making the First Asian American Psycho Thriller
Writer/Producer NaRhee Ahn and I have been fans of the horror thriller genre since childhood and we have been talking about working on a genre project for years. As Asian Americans, we wonder why there hasn’t been a project like this earlier. Justin and I made Shopping for Fangs, which was initially branded as a thriller but it’s essentially a genre-hybrid dramedy. I also remember Offender Philip had an Asian American horror in the works several years ago.
But this genre has been virtually unexplored in Asian American cinema.
Remembering Lewis
I first met Lewis Tice in 2005 when he was TLA Releasing’s national publicity liaison. Although we were just communicating online about my third feature Ethan Mao, I could tell Lewis was a tireless advocate for independent films and a mother hen for filmmakers. He made a filmmaker feel comfortable to approach him with any questions or problems about marketing and publicity.
A few years later, I finally met Lewis in person at the Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival when my feature The People I’ve Slept With was making the rounds on the festival circuit. He was at the press office and welcomed me with open arms. For a moment, being as ditzy as I am, I didn’t connect that this Lewis was the Lewis Tice I had been communicating with.
Here’s What You Missed at the LAAPFF Opening Night of ‘Fast Five’, Justin Lin
We know many of our readers weren’t able to attend the sold-out opening night screening of Fast Five (directed by my fellow Offender Justin Lin) at this year’s Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival produced by our friends at Visual Communications. Also unable to attend was Justin himself because he was in the middle of promoting his movie in Europe.
Though Justin wasn’t there, he was definitely not forgotten as the many jokes at his expense told by hosts Danny Pudi, Parvesh Cheena, Sung Kang and myself during the program made clear. But we also shot a little video during the evening featuring some of the actors who’ve worked with him in past projects like Better Luck Tomorrow and TV’s Community sending a lot of love his way so Justin could know what he was missing. Check it out and if you take anything away from this video, it should be that Justin Lin really, really misses Chevy Chase:
LAAPFF Update: ‘Fast Five’ Opening Night Photos
We had a blast at the opening of the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival last week. The closing night film (Love in Disguise from our friends at Cherry Sky) and gala is tonight so thought it’d be the perfect time to share some photos from the opening as we say good-bye to another fest.
I’ve broken up the photos into two parts below.
PART 1 is a sampling of the images from the festival’s official and unofficial photographers: Grace Chang, Kristian Dowling, Allan Figuracion Jr., Elaine Hu, Steven Lam and Ivan Perez (oh, and the shot above is from our own Danny Pudi of himself with his evening’s co-host Parvesh Cheena and some new friends).
PART 2 are pictures taken by the students from the Asian Youth Center, KW Lee Center for Leadership and La Puente High School. Our generous friends at Intertrend subsidized their tickets so they could attend and I’ve been told they had a great time. Before the screening, the students got to meet with my fellow Offender and Fast Five star Sung Kang along with hosts Parvesh (Outsourced) and Danny (Community) as well as Danny’s Community co-stars Gillian Jacobs and Yvette Nicole Brown and other celebs who took the time to not only pose for photos with the teens (many of them aspiring filmmakers), but talk with them too.
If anyone else was at opening night and want to share their own photos, feel free to leave a link to them in the comments section. But without further ado…
A Film Festival Odyssey (Part I)
When I heard that bootleg DVD copies of The People I’ve Slept With had appeared in Shanghai, I realized that that my journey with this film is coming to an end this month with its long anticipated DVD & VOD release. We shot People in the summer of 2008, and it literally has been over 5 years since actor Karin Anna Cheung and I first started talking about doing a project together.
(Photo Courtesy of CAAM/John C. Liau)
Making a movie is like giving birth to a child. Getting her into the film festivals is just like getting your child into college—would it be Harvard, UCLA or community college? Selling your film is like trying to set your child up with the right career or job. A director/producer is always an overbearing tiger mom fighting for her every need and privilege. Would you like to see her homeless or shooting up heroin on the street? No!
For the first part of “A Film Festival Odyssey,” I want to share with you my festival journey with People from the world premiere in Hawaii to the Hong Kong premiere so you’ll get a perspective of a filmmaker on the international festival circuit. For the second part, which I will post next week, I’ll be sharing with you a different perspective at the film festivals, particularly as a juror at the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival where I just got back from.
Slaying the Dragon Lady!
From the title of my blog, you’d think I’m hating on Asian American women which is not the case. I’m really playing—or signifying to be specific—on the title of Professor Elaine Kim’s new documentary, Slaying the Dragon Reloaded, which will be world premiering this week at the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival where I will also be serving on the Narrative Features jury.
I’m signifying on the title to illustrate a point about editing and misappropriation in filmmaking.
One night, when I was on Facebook, I received a message from Professor Kim asking me for permission to use an image from my film The People I’ve Slept With on the poster of her film Reloaded. I was puzzled wondering why she would want to use a picture from my film on her poster when my film didn’t have anything to do with her film. I immediately searched on-line and found the trailer for her documentary. I was surprised to find footage of Better Luck Tomorrow, which was directed by my fellow Offender Justin, in it:
INTERPRETATIONS: The Necklace
We’re spotlighting another INTERPRETATIONS entry that made an impression on the jurors, but didn’t make the final five: Michael Aki’s THE NECKLACE. We asked the filmmakers to share their experiences working on the project.
KARIN, ROBERT, PRYOR, BILL, ERIC
Karin Anna Cheung (actor) is an actor, singer/musician and artist who loves every form of art. She made her acting debut in Justin Lin’s BETTER LUCK TOMORROW and currently has a new film with director Quentin Lee called THE PEOPLE I’VE SLEPT WITH (due March 22 on DVD). Robert Burke (actor) has worked at the craft of screenwriting for a number of years since transplanting to Los Angeles. He worked as a co-screenwriter on Cine Hous’ feature film STRANGERS, and is working on directing a low budget thriller titled CLEAN. Pryor Praczukowski (DP) is a graphic designer, photographer, hobbyist filmmaker and Cine Hous founder. Bill Poon (Executive Producer) feels film has the ability to change, shape and create the ideology of a person’s perception of their surrounding. He considers himself a fan of the process and its end result. Eric Nakamura (Executive Producer) is the founder of GIANT ROBOT.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTmKi_Qrpt0
How we got involved in the film:
KAC: I was hoping to write/direct my own Interpretations short, but between a painful accident in July and promoting TPISW in festivals and its theatrical release, I couldn’t get my head in the right space to create. So when I was approached by the team to be a part of THE NECKLACE, I said yes. I love the idea of having a female lead who’s a hitman. And I’m always game to be a part of anything related to Giant Robot. I feel blessed to have the chance to work with a great team.
RB: Through knowing Michael Aki. I previously worked with him on a film called STRANGERS.
PP: The director Michael Aki and I have been working together on projects for what seems like 10 years now, and when this opportunity came along it seemed like an interesting challenge.
BP: Michael and I have known each other since our days of turning would be routine singles into outs. He called me one night and said, “Do you know of this contest through YOMYOMF? Write something.” After pitching five or six different ideas, two days later, Michael chose his story.
INTERPRETATIONS Update 10-26: SDAFF Recap
So as our readers know, some of the YOMYOMF crew headed down south this past weekend for the San Diego Asian Film Fest where we announced the five winning finalists of our INTERPRETATIONS Film Initiative: Aldous Davidson, Kha Do, Keith Eng, Andrew Oh and Joey Yee.
The finalists were announced at the fest’s big gala dinner on Saturday night. Guest Offender David Henry Hwang (Tony Award-winning writer of M. Butterfly) and INTERPRETATIONS commissioned filmmaker Danny Pudi (Abed on NBC’s Community) presented awards to the three finalists in attendance: Aldous, Andrew and Joey (Keith and Kha will receive their awards by mail).
If I had all the money in the world, I’d remake BETTER LUCK TOMORROW with WHITE PEOPLE
If Better Luck Tomorrow had never been made, this blog would probably never have existed and you’d be sitting in front of your computer right now thinking, “Man, I feel this emptiness in my life like something’s missing, but I just don’t know what it is.” But luckily for you, the film was made, directed by fellow Offender Justin and starring fellow Offenders Roger and Sung, and we do exist to help push that empty feeling back into the void with your other buried neuroses.
But Better Luck Tomorrow could have also easily been a different movie altogether. Justin was originally offered the money to make his film by investors if he could do just one little thing…change the characters from Asian American to Caucasian. He obviously refused, but perhaps in an alternate universe, that world’s Justin Lin was so sick and tired of eating ramen three meals a day and carrying a six-figure credit card debt that he decided to accept the offer. In which case, Better Luck Tomorrow might have looked like this:
