In keeping with a long-standing tradition of Asian elders passing down their stories to their children and grandchildren, Visual Communications, a Los Angeles-based Asian American media arts center, created Digital Histories, a project that provides Asian Pacific American older adults the unique opportunity to tell their stories — as directors of their own short films. […]
For Asian American entertainment, 2020 marks a new beginning — but the beginning of what exactly?, part 2
January 7, 2021 by Leave a Comment
Editor’s Note: This is the second of a two-part series. Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in franchise entertainment — and AAPI franchises While movies and television have been steadily reorienting around multimedia franchises for a long time, this past decade marked a sort of point of no return, in which almost every major Hollywood release […]
Netflix’s ‘Always Be My Maybe’ a groundbreaking film for Asian Americans and Hollywood
June 20, 2019 by Leave a Comment
Sometimes the media revolution hits not with a bang, but in a sweet and subversive romantic comedy. Make no mistake. “Always Be My Maybe,†a recently released Netflix original starring Randall Park and Ali Wong, is one of the most culturally authentic mainstream films yet on Asian Americans. At the same time, “Always Be My […]
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 […]
THE GREAT UNKNOWN AND THE UNKNOWN GREAT: Cinematic 20th century Nikkei
January 1, 2018 by Leave a Comment
In recent times, diverse Japanese American directors have made their mark on the silver screen, including Cary Joji Fukunaga, Karyn Kusama, Gregg Araki, Lane Nishikawa, and Destin Daniel Cretton. While their productions have drawn from all sorts of material, some filmmakers have piloted Nikkei community stories. For example, Emiko Omori’s “Hot Summer Winds,†Desmond Nakano’s […]
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!†[…]
Nikkei filmmakers showcase work at CAAMFest
March 3, 2016 by Leave a Comment
The Center for Asian American Media’s CAAMFest, formerly the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival, returns to the San Francisco Bay Area Thursday, March 10 through Sunday, March 20. According to a statement, the festival celebrates “film, music, food and digital media from the world’s most innovative Asian and Asian American artists.†The festival […]
CAAMFest 2015 lineup unveiled
February 19, 2015 by Leave a Comment
The Center for Asian American Media will host its 33rd annual CAAMFest in three San Francisco Bay Area cities from Thursday, March 12 to Sunday, March 22. Masashi Niwano, festival and exhibition director, said at a Feb. 12 press conference that this year’s festival features more than 120 films and media projects from more than […]
Film Review: The Day He Arrives
May 19, 2012 by Leave a Comment
The trailer is in color, for some reason, while the film itself is in black-and-white. I sorta disagree with the written character descriptions contained within it, but the trailer does a pretty good job of conveying what the film is all about. A lot of people have remarked on how Hong Sangsoo’s stories are all about […]
San Francisco International Film Festival: API Film Mini-Reviews
May 14, 2012 by Leave a Comment
While the San Francisco International Film Festival has come and gone, here’s my take on a few films that caught my eye, and ones I hope will continue to make their rounds at upcoming festivals. The Sheik and I While a little slow to take off, Bay Area auteur Caveh Zahedi’s new documentary is a […]
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