Editor’s Note: This is the first of a two-part series. When we talk about eras in entertainment media, we often define them by decades. Eighties movies, sixties rock or ‘90s video games. This is ultimately pretty arbitrary, of course — when the calendar flips from December 1999 to January 2000, what’s happening in film, books […]
Entertainment Re-Oriented
ENTERTAINMENT RE-ORIENTED: For Asian American entertainment, 2020 marks a new beginning — but the beginning of what exactly?
January 1, 2021 by Leave a Comment
Entertainment Re-Oriented: From scarcity to abundance: APIs on screen through the decade
January 1, 2020 by Leave a Comment
I have a memory from approximately three decades ago — when I was in elementary school — that’s surprisingly vivid still today. I was sitting in front of the TV and something came on the screen that prompted me to call to my brother, who was in the kitchen, to hurry back and look. “Chris,” […]
ENTERTAINMENT RE-ORIENTED: ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ to pave the way for future Asian American films
January 1, 2019 by Leave a Comment
It’s hard to deny that 2018 is a landmark year for Asian American representation in media. “Crazy Rich Asians,” the Asian American-directed, all-Asian cast-having feature film is the highest-grossing rom-com in a decade, proving the profitability of Asian faces on the big screen and essentially guaranteeing there will be more of them. Many Asian Americans […]
Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders shine on screen amid political turmoil
January 1, 2018 by Leave a Comment
In a year characterized by countless horrors unfolding across the globe, the realm of Asian American entertainment media offers a surprising — and as such, somewhat disorienting — bright spot. From mainstream film and television to digitally distributed indie films and prestige TV, there’s plenty to celebrate in 2017. In terms of personal enjoyment, I […]
ENTERTAINMENT RE-ORIENTED: #Thiswas2016
January 1, 2017 by Leave a Comment
“When the house is going up in flames, does what’s on the TV matter?” That’s the question I kept asking myself as I sat down to write this year-end column. In October, Michael Luo, then an editor for The New York Times, was accosted on the street by a woman yelling, “Go back to China!” […]
ENTERTAINMENT RE-ORIENTED: Identity and authenticity in ‘Man from Reno’
April 30, 2015 by 2 Comments
Since making his foray into the filmmaking scene in 2006 with “Big Dreams Little Tokyo,” director Dave Boyle has featured and collaborated with a host of Asian American actors. Boyle’s new film “A Man From Reno,” a Japanese crime novelist (Ayako Fujitani) and a small town sheriff are “lured into the same strange murder mystery […]
ENTERTAINMENT RE-ORIENTED: A ‘Fresh’ take on the Asian American sitcom
February 19, 2015 by Leave a Comment
“Fresh off the Boat,” the first sitcom with an all-Asian American cast since 1994’s “All American Girl,” is kind of like rocking a perm or making a martini, in that there’s a right way and wrong way to do it. The right way, is to just watch it as you would any other network sitcom […]
ENTERTAINMENT RE-ORIENTED: REVISITING AND DEBUNKING STEREOTYPES: APIs on TV in 2014
January 1, 2015 by Leave a Comment
The other day, I went to the theater to see “Top Five,” the new film written, directed by and starring Chris Rock. While it’s a very good film with many memorable moments, one scene really stuck with me. In it, Rock’s character is talking with Rosario Dawson’s character and she says she’s dated men from […]
ENTERTAINMENT RE-ORIENTED: Portrait of the superhero as a young man: Kato in the new ‘Green Hornet’
January 27, 2011 by Leave a Comment
Since it was relegated to a garbage dump January release, expectations for “The Green Hornet” were low, despite it being a collaboration by critical darlings Seth Rogen, the screenwriter and lead actor, and Michel Gondry, the director. After seeing the film, most audiences felt they got the mess they expected. After seeing it myself, I […]
ENTERTAINMENT RE-ORIENTED: Spotlight on a breakthrough year for APIs
January 6, 2011 by Leave a Comment
So 2010 has come to a close and, as I look back over the year, I have to agree with Angry Asian Man’s Phil Yu and the San Francisco Chronicle’s Jeff Yang — it was a breakthrough year. Far East Movement and Bruno Mars topped the music charts and Asian Pacific Islander athletes like Manny […]
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