8 Asians

Bamboo Blade is basically a sports anime. Sports anime are ones that focus on a sport or activity through which a main protagonist, with a cohort of friends providing plenty of back stories to explore, works on improving in that sport over time with lots of drama and conflict to make things interesting. Generally, I tend to like these types of anime because they get pretty technical about the sport or activity the story revolves [...] Continue »

Opening June 14th at the Four Star Theatre in San Francisco and already available on iTunes & VOD, The Guillotines tells the story of a brotherhood of secret assassins who find themselves in the middle of a rebellion conflicted between both sides. Trained to only have one function in the Emperor’s court, they are armed with their trademark weapon which launches like a boomerang decapitating their intended target. An entertaining watch, but by no means [...] Continue »

Psycho-Pass is an anime that is very reminiscent of the movie Minority Report. The story revolves around a new Inspector Akane who has to learn to work with Enforcers in a society where people are sorted by their Crime Coefficient, a number that determines how likely a person is to commit a crime. Inspectors are law enforcement officials who have low Crime Coefficients whereas Enforcers are law enforcement with high Crime Coefficients. Basically, Enforcers are [...] Continue »

If you can’t wait to see the highly-anticipated Man of Steel, then pay attention! “Man of Steel,”™ starring Henry Cavill in the role of Clark Kent/Kal-El under the direction of Zack Snyder will open in 3D and 2D in select theaters and IMAX Friday, June 14. The film also stars four-time Oscar® nominee Amy Adams, Oscar® nominee Michael Shannon, Academy Award® winner Kevin Costner, Oscar® nominee Diane Lane, Oscar® nominee Laurence Fishburne, and Academy Award® [...] Continue »

I admit, there was a time when I was tempted to walk into a kendo dojo and ask if they taught Hiten Mitsurugi-ryu (Flying Heavenly Govern Sword-Style). Sounds impressive right? Except that it’s a fictional sword art. That’s right. Fake. But I loved watching the anime Rurouni Kenshin so much that, much like the universe of Star Trek, it was real enough to me. Exciting news for all the fans out there like me is [...] Continue »

As most of you know, the bloggers here at 8Asians have day jobs, and blogging is really a side activity for most of us. My day job is working as a marketing executive at a high technology company in the heart of Silicon Valley. With that type of responsibility comes the need to be in touch with co-workers and the home office during my busy travel schedule. It’s no surprise I was an early adopter [...] Continue »

Masquerade (2012). Lee Byung-hun, Ryoo Seung-ryong, Han Hyo-joo, Jang Gwang, Shim Eun-kyung. Directed by Choo Chang-min. Korean with English subtitles. The Korean historical drama Masquerade has plot elements similar to that of Mark Twain’s The Prince and the Pauper and will therefore remind people of many adaptations of the Twain story, but it reminds me most of “Boss for a Day,” that episode of The Flintstones where the Great Gazoo uses his magic to make [...] Continue »

Extra Sensory Perception (ESP) stories are pretty common, but of course, not all of them are done well. A Certain Scientific Railgun is done pretty well. Masaka Mikoto is a young girl who goes to school in Academy City where 80% of the population are students trying to gain or develop different types of ESPER powers. Some can control fire, others can teleport, and there are mind readers and telekinetics to boot. Mikoto is an [...] Continue »

To reunite with his family members in North Korea, Korean Canadian filmmaker Jason Lee and his father went to Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea. His documentary Letter From Pyongyang featured his family’s efforts to enter the most isolated and heavily controlled country on earth. Lee tried to explore the issue of family torn apart by the separation of North and South Korea in the film. The 38th parallel stands like a modern Berlin Wall, [...] Continue »

I grew up LOVING taiko drums. I remember trips with my family to festivals in LA’s Little Tokyo in the summers to watch taiko groups performing. My dad had taiko albums playing on our stereos at home all the time, and when he wasn’t playing them, I would borrow them so that I could listen to them on my own. So when my friends the band Random Ninjas started up as a rock band integrating [...] Continue »

As a filmmaker, I am a big believer in the importance of API film festivals. I believe they are the incubator of API talent and help get our stories on the big screen. One of the first people to believe in me and my writing were the good folks at Visual Communications, who put on the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival every year. Through their Armed with a Camera (AWC) fellowship, they helped me [...] Continue »

So if you name your movie “CHINK“, someone’s bound to get upset right? And more likely than not, it’s going to be someone from the Asian American community. It wasn’t surprising, then for me to find out that Stanley Young, Quentin Lee, and our very own 8Asians Koji Steven Sakai, producers of the film, received a letter from the Asian Pacific American Media Coalition (APAMC) protesting the title of their movie CHINK. As seen on [...] Continue »