8Asians is a collaborative online publication that features original, diverse commentary by Asians from around the world on issues that affect our community. Established 2006.
NYTFA & Professional Organization Speed Networking Event – Join us for an exciting opportunity to make new contacts across many Asian professional groups! Share your values and experiences, and practice how to hone them to advance your careers during these difficult times. $20 in advance, $25 at the door. (8/4, New York: More info here.)
Move over, Twilight. The world needs less sparkly vampires and more bloodthirsty humans from South Korea, like Park Chan-Wook’s Thirst, which opens tomorrow in limited theaters around the United States.
Park Chan-Wook, best known for directing Oldboy and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, ventures into the world of horror with a story about a priest, played by The Host’s Song Kang-ho, who turns into a vampire after a medical experiment goes wrong. There’s also supposed to be lots of lust, gore and even full-frontal nudity–though the fact that Park’s work in Oldboy should be enough motivation for you to see this movie.
I’m not a big fan of vampires, which probably stems from my dislike of seeing blood of any kind, but I can’t wait to see Park’s take on a genre that has been dominated by Western or European story-telling. The trailer looks scary enough, and the film picked up the Jury prize at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. A co-worker (who’s seen the movie twice) professed to me that Thirst exceeded all vampire movie standards, including Twilight–though that’s not saying much. Hopefully Song’s character has less dramatic head turning stares than Edward Cullen. Yes, I hate Twilight. (Bring it on, you crazy fans!)
Forget sex dolls… how about sex pillows? The New York Times Sunday Magazine ran this article about a “…thriving subculture of men and women in Japan who indulge in real relationships with imaginary characters. These 2-D lovers, as they are called, are a subset of otaku culture— the obsessive fandom that has surrounded anime, manga and video games in Japan in the last decade.”
Apparently Otaku can take many forms. One guy in particular, named Nisan, 37, has fallen in love with an anime character… on his pillow.
What if they got into a lovers’ quarrel? That’d be one helluva pillow fight. I would NOT want to see this guy consummate his relationship. (“Hey, is that drool on your pillow?” “…That’s not drool…” “Aaaaaghhh!!”)
“A forum poster at RealityFanForum.com may have done that already having recently snapped photos of contestants as the race began and one of those photos clearly showed Maria Ho. Her partner on the race is rumored to be Tiffany Michelle whose recent decision to preclude herself from the World Series of Poker Main Event however put her at the top of the list of the suspects.”
It looks like this season will be a “celebrity” edition of the reality show – other rumored contestants include Miss America 2004 Erica Dunlap and her husband Brian Kleinschmidt, and Harlem Globetrotters Nate “Big Easy” Lofton and Herbert “Flight Time” Lang.
UPDATE: Our winner has been selected! Congrats to Peter Lo who will be seeing 24 City this weekend. Thanks to everyone for playing and to Landmark Theatres for providing free tickets!
Moye and I recently watched “Paper Heart,” which was a charming blend of documentary and fiction in film making. China’s most noted contemporary filmmaker, Jia Zhang-ke uses a similar technique in “24 City” (二十四城記 / Er shi si cheng ji), by fusing documentary and fiction to tell a tale of the transformation of the China of the past 50 years into the new, hypercapitalist China.
Shot in disorientingly vivid high-def video, “24 City” chronicles the dramatic closing of a State‐owned munitions factory and its conversion into luxury high‐rise apartments. Given the name Factory 420 as an internal military security code, the Chengdu Engine Group was founded in 1958 to produce aviation engines, and saw years of prosperous activity. Now abandoned, the factory was sold for millions to real‐estate developers, it is being transformed into an emblem of market economy: an apartment complex called 24 City.
As the buildings are demolished around them and their past is wiped away, former workers (some played by themselves, others by actors, including Joan Chen as Gu Minhua “Xiao Hua” / 小花) reminisce about the vanished world where they lived and worked. Meanwhile, a materialistic younger generation jettisons their parents’ traditions to pursue wealth and consumer happiness.
This film is made up of interviews with five workers, who share their real-life experiences with us, and of fictional monologues by three women. I decided to integrate documentary and fiction in this parallel flow because this seemed to me the best way of representing the last half-century of Chinese history. As far as I’m concerned, History is always a blend of facts and imagination.
The stories of these characters, both real and fictional, center on a state-owned factory which supplies the Air Force and other sectors of the military. The factory was founded 60 years ago, and was moved to Chengdu City 50 years ago. It has weathered all of the successive political movements under communist government. I’m not interested in chronicling this history as such, but rather in seeing how a century of experiments with Socialism has impacted on the fate of Chinese people. To understand the complexity of the social changes, we need to listen to the direct and in-depth testimonies of the people who have lived through them.
Presented by Cinema Guild, “24 City” opens on Friday, July 31, at Landmark’s Lumiere Theatre in San Francisco, and Landmark’s Shattuck Cinema in Berkeley. Also opens August 21at Camera Cinemas in San Jose. (Updated Screening Schedule)
Bay Area folks, lucky you… 8Asians is doing another ticket giveaway!
[Editors note: Connie’s post about her experiences as an attendee and a filmmaker have already been blogged about, but after finding the documentary on YouTube, I felt it appropriate to repost her experiences as a filmmaker, but this time with the documentary embedded. Thanks to Connie for her permission.]
To have my filmBeautiful Sisters be part of The 32nd Annual Asian American Film Festival was an honor.
It was also extremely nerve wracking. I can’t help but have my heart beat uncontrollably fast each time I watch the short in front of people, nevertheless, think of all the things I would have done differently. But to see it amongst numerous talented, beautifully composed and moving films, is more than gratifying.
During my senior year in college, I took a film-making class because it sounded like fun and because I had just received the director position for my university’s production of The Vagina Monologues (I thought it’d enhance my “director” skills). Participating in the V-Day movement was phenomenal, and although I was part of such an empowering women’s community about overcoming violence and loving oneself, I still struggled with insecurities about my small eyes. I knew that eyelid surgery to create the look of bigger eyes was a possibility, yet something that I would never undergo myself. But how could I get over such annoying thoughts? At the same time, I learned that my youngest sister, Brittney, was starting to wear make-up to school every day. What was she thinking? And how could I serve to be a good role model for her?
Wanting to empower young women like myself, I created Beautiful Sisters. In the film, I follow Brittney during her morning routine, interview multiple women — a plastic surgeon, a college student who underwent eyelid surgery, a couple women who oppose the procedure and who feel OK about it. It was a journey for me to learn more about blepharoplasty, as it’s formally known, the varying viewpoints and an avenue to formulate my own opinions and conclusion.
By narrowing on eyelid surgery and personal narratives, I hoped to continue the conversation on how people perceive and construct ideas about beauty, race and gender identity, and ideally, feel beautiful in their own skin.
This was one story I felt compelled to share. There are much, much more.
Just because you live in a diverse, liberal cosmopolitan area like San Francisco, Los Angeles or New York doesn’t mean that Hate Groups don’t exist – this map of active US Hate Groups from the Southern Poverty Law Center shows that there are at least five – five! – groups in the San Francisco Bay Area alone. To combat hate, we must be aware that it exists; and a source may be closer to you than you think. (via insuminme on twitter)
Kalpen Modi — better known as Kal Penn or Kumar from Harold & Kumar — started his first day of work at The White House on July 6th as the associate director of the Office of Public Engagement running public outreach, with a focus on young people, the arts world and Asian-Americans. The New York Times describes Kalpen’s involvement in the Obama campaign and Asian American issues in an article covering Obama and Hollywood:
“In 2007, he signed on with the Obama campaign as a volunteer, going door to door and making phone calls; eventually he joined candidate Obama’s arts policy committee. Friends say that Mr. Modi, 32, who is Indian-American, has a deep interest in policy and in promoting Asian-Americans in the arts. Last year, he taught a course at the University Of Pennsylvania on how Asian-Americans are portrayed in the media. Although he played a terrorist in 2007 on “24,” he told an entertainment reporter at the time: “I have a huge political problem with the role. It was essentially accepting a form of racial profiling.””
So Kal Penn recognized he was reinforcing a racial stereotype, yet accepted the role on 24 anyway?
Also in the article, a new tidbit of information regarding A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas, slated for release in November 2010: it sounds like Kal Penn is trying to get out his commitment to this film. Hopefully, Hollywood doesn’t make a third Harold & Kumar movie if it is just as flat as the mediocre sequel.
You know how you have restaurants where, to entice college students or “hip, fun” young adults, they have challenges where you have to eat ridiculous quantities of food in a certain amount of time to get a Polaroid of yourself on a wall? (Cluck-U’s 911 Challenge and Fuddrucker’s “Eat a Ginormous Hamburger in 10 minutes” promotion come to mind.) Well, add pho to the mix, because SF-based Pho Garden has a challenge where if you eat a serving of noodle and tripe soup the size of an industrial kitchen sink in an hour, you get it for free, and maybe – just maybe – a photo on their wall to immortalize your gluttony. Losers who don’t finish their soup will have to pay $22, punishment for not thinking about all the starving kids in… uhm, nevermind.
This weekend I was reminded of why I want to continue making films.
Watching Witness to Hiroshima in the Museum of Chinese in America, I sat in silence and in awe. Through watercolor paintings, former Japanese soldier Keiji Tsuchiya recounts his experience of providing relief after the 1945 U.S. bombing. He illustrates the colors of radiation and tells of the monotony, frustration and anger of burying thousands of bodies. In what seems out of place, Tsuchiya describes his life later as a scientist, learning about the horseshoe crab, a species endangered because of the loss of water in their natural habitat. He remembers that the last words of many Hiroshima victims were begging for water, and suddenly, it is clear why he is committed to saving the lives of horseshoe crabs and preserving the stories of Hiroshima victims, and in that short and subtle connection of one injustice to another, I was moved.
Witness to Hiroshima was part of the “Here…Look at Me” selection at this year’s 32nd Annual Asian American International Film Festival in New York City. A wide selection of short films captivating stories of individuals, each with complex, humorous and passionate lives including the dreamy cinematography of Waiting for a Train, which follows the heroic journey of bluegrass musician Toshio Hirano; You Can Call Me Nikkie, which portrays the simplicity of a transgender sex worker whose main goal is to please her family; andIncongruent Body, an experimental animation depicting manipulations of self-image and imperfections, just to name a few.
Former Sunnyvale mayor and city council member Otto Lee was called up as a Navy reserve officer back in January to serve in Iraq for the Army, and looks like he’s had quite an adventure from his blog. After serving six months in Baghdad, Otto is back in the United States for a short fifteen days for rest and relaxation to see his wife and two young daughters. He was interviewed this past week by the Bay Area’s local ABC7 News about his time in Iraq and his time with his family during his leave.
Last Sunday, Otto was honored by Congressman Mike Honda (pictured) as well as the American Legion Cathay Post #384, the oldest Chinese American veterans group in the nation. “Commander Lee” is the first Chinese American public official who has been recalled to serve in a combat zone.
I got a chance to briefly chat with Otto after the ceremony while everyone was having lunch; Otto described how the “sand fog” with the sandstorms — how you could barely see three feet in front of you — as well as the 126 degree Fahrenheit Iraq summers. Otto’s primary job is to help figure out the logistics of getting all the stuff the United States sent over to Iraq. Otto says there are over 120,000 troops in Iraq and over 130,000 contractors — and by the end of next summer, that figure needs to be down to 50,000 troops.
Sometimes we all really need to appreciate the hard work in harms way that our fellow Americans are making on our behalf — whenever I think I have things tough, I often think of Otto and the sacrifices he and his family are making, with Otto working those long hours and being away from his family. He has said several times that he’s just impressed with the sacrifices all of the armed forces in Iraq and Afghanistan are making. Otto is back to Iraq soon to serve out his next six months.
Yes yes, we know, everyone in China loves Kobe Bryant and everyone in China loves the NBA. All is not perfect for the sport in China, however — foreign players playing in the Chinese Basketball Association have to deal with accusations of nationalist favoritism, match-fixing and bribery. And that’s if they even get paid in the first place.
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Forget sex dolls… how about sex pillows? The New York Times Sunday Magazine ran 
Last season, we saw the 
Kalpen Modi — better known as Kal Penn or Kumar from Harold & Kumar — started his first day of work at The White House on July 6th as the associate director of the 
Former Sunnyvale mayor and city council member 
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