It is with great sadness that I must share with you that last night was the final night of the 2007, San Diego Asian Film Festival, the first time in my life that I have ever attended a film festival of any kind.
Now this is actually pretty odd when you consider that I was an entertainment reporter in Los Angeles for past 10 years and that I was the impetus for the creation of Montreal’s annual Fantasia Film Festival (that is a long story).
For years my Asian American friends in the biz up in LA chided me for not coming down to San Diego for the festival, it’s just that it usually occurred when my wife attended her annual neuroscience meetings at some distant place on the planet, and since we’re very close, I have a tendency to stay home that week and spend tons of money on phone bills.
We recently relocated to San Diego, so this year I had no excuses and as it turns out my wife’s neuroscience meetings this year are in San Diego.
So the proverbial planets aligned, the stars shone with beaming lights of fate, coincidence and destiny, and when a friend put me in contact with Lee Ann Kim, how could I resist her drive, energy and passion for Asian Film and not only attend the festival but also become one of its official bloggers.
With tears of joy (sniff, sniff), I thank you Lee Ann for allowing me access to such a great event, and being a part of it has really opened my eyes to Asian Cinema beyond the martial arts genre.
By the way, I have got to say the SDAFF film trailer created by Sam Chen, with music by David Helpling was awesome, and I’m disappointed I didn’t to see all the films included on the trailer, because the clips really piqued my curiosity and it’s killing me that I don’t know what films they’re from; and that is a positive reflection on their vision.
Last night’s final big movie premiere WEST 32nd, about the Korean underworld in New York City, epitomized several important issues about Asian American cinema and what this festival is about.
The first of which is about one’s identity as an Asian American living in the US.
After the film, several members from the cast including director Michael Kang and lead actor John Cho reflected on what the film meant to them as being Korean.
“I was once asked if I it ever bothered me that I don’t play Korean characters,” Cho recalls, “and at that time I said I’m an actor and will play whoever my character is.”
(Excuse the plug here, but several years ago I was on assignment with Reuters to write an article about Asian Americans in Hollywood, how far have they have come and how are they treated. I asked John that question during our interview)
“However, I must admit that this being my first Korean character,” Cho continues, “I am strangely satisfied doing so. I’m still not sure why that is completely; perhaps it is something about me being Korean American. I’ll get back later on that.
“But I would have to add that since in this film my character doesn’t know Korean, the scenes revealing the communication barriers between me and the characters was fascinating to me.”
Kang agrees with Cho’s sentiment, “It was also a key component of the film that his character couldn’t speak Korean and relied on a translator that didn’t always get it right.” Kang says.
“I was born and raised in Providence, Rhode Island,” Kang adds, “and with this film I wanted to connect with being Korean and so that is why I directed it in Korean.”
The second issue representative of the festival that WEST 32rd touched upon, and may have done so without realizing it, was the notion of Asian American unity.
Before the festival began I interviewed Kim for a series of pre-festival articles and during that interview she explained that in the United States the Asian American communities are segmented into separate communities and that one of the festival’s goals is to act as a way to bring unity at least to the various Asian American communities in San Diego.
Indeed the call for unity amongst Asian American communities was echoed by many of the festival’s guests such as Dustin Nguyen, Roger Fan and Justin Lin.
As I watched the films (about 25) during the festival, the one commonality that I noticed was that all the movies were country or culture specific, each story evolving around the central theme of one nation’s people.
In other words, there was never any mention of any other Asian country in the film, except the Japanese in NANKING and the Chinese in last night’ final big movie EAST 32nd. In both cases the mentioning of the other country was not of brotherhood.
This comes down to the difficulty of creating unity, when history between many of these nations can make it difficult to create a story that represents a unified front between the Asian nations, hence the splitting of the Asian American communities.
I challenge all Asian and Asian American filmmaker talents to create and make films that either can create peaceful dialogue between the Asian nations or can bring together unity of the various Asian American communities within a movie. To do this is more valuable than any multi-million dollar-earning Hollywood production.
If I’m lucky enough to do this for the next SDAFF, I’ll be sure to figure out how to add in pictures with the blogs as did my wonderful and intelligent blogging partner Leslie.
So let me close with a classic:
And now, the end is near;
And so I face the final curtain.
My friend, I’ll say it clear,
I’ll state my case, of which 'Im certain.
I’ve lived a life that's full.
I’ve traveled each and every highway;
And more, much more than this,
I did it my way.
I end as I began, “And to all a good-night.”
Friday, October 19, 2007
Thursday, October 18, 2007
SDAFF DAY 7: THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY
What was so good about SAMOAN WEDDING was that it could have been about any four, drinking buddy losers in any country in the world that was letting life pass them by and they had no clue what in Sam Hills was going on.
For a while, it was a very frustrating film to view, the same kind of feeling I got when watching Rob Schneider in his DEUCE BIGALOW films, but instead of one down on his luck ignoramus, SAMOAN WEDDING had four.
It also bugged me that if I was to ignore the New Zealand tongue and physical appearance of the actors; the characters and the way they acted, the music they listened to and their names imbued a more African-American tone than a Samoan.
Then it struck me. Although the festival is filled with movies from over 12 countries and indeed most of the films from these countries reflect something about the country’s history, culture or pride, the festival is ultimately about featuring Asian talent.
In other words, just because a film is made in Samoa, with Samoan actors, it doesn’t mean that the film has to necessarily be about Samoa. If we assume that it does, then we are stereotyping each of these country’s film industries.
So when that hit me, I enjoyed the movie more. But as I opened my eyes and heart I did see a glimmer of Samoan history subliminally infused within the story.
The road to independence for Samoa from New Zealand started from the Mau Movement (Mau means “opinion” or “testimony”), a 1908 nonviolent movement for Samoan independence from German rule, inspired by Gandhi’s approach against the British.
In SAMOAN WEDDING, there are two confrontations between the four Samoan buds and the white New Zealanders, where in each case the Samoans tried to peacefully avoid the fight. Yet similar to the “Black Saturday” incident (in 1929, New Zealand military police opened fire on a peaceful demonstration; killing 11, wounding 50) it was the New Zealanders that chose to escalate the confrontation to violence.
My apologies to director Chris Graham for my initial, horse-with-blinders viewpoint.
What was so bad about SENTENCED HOME was the way our American government has botched it up again with yet another major flummery in its immigration policies.
It pained me to see these three former Cambodian refugees forcibly deported back to Cambodia because of their criminal records, even though they had served their time in jail and neither of them were repeat offenders and had moved on.
Does this mean that for every immigrant in this country who commits a crime must be deported back to their country or is it just Cambodia?
I lived in LA for 10 years, and based on this deportation law, there are a lot of folks in LA who should be deported back to their country, and none of them are Cambodians.
The INS agent interviewed in the film sadly explained that if these refugee immigrants had been fervently told that if they commit a crime in America, then they would lose their residency privilege and be a candidate for deportation.
So who is to blame? Both sides.
Yes, the government failed to warn these immigrants on the clarity of this law until it was too late.
But then how could one assume that a law going into effect in 1996 could deport an immigrant back to their country if someone committed a crime before that time?
It is also a pity that parents or community leaders were not able to impress upon their brethren that committing a crime, no matter where you live, is always going to come back and bite you. The pitiful thing is, these Cambodian refugees got more than bitten.
If for some insane reason any of the deportees read this article (maybe the filmmakers told you that your stories would be featured at the SDAFF) and based on my experiences of being an outsider in two countries (immigrating to America in the late ‘60s and living in the Republic of China at the wrong time in the ‘70s), I have a few suggestions:
Blend in, it is find to be proud of who you are, but being a sore thumb can quickly bring more pain; use your language abilities, each of you speak English and Cambodian there may be un-chartered opportunities out there if you look; and most important, remember that Cambodia is not America and don’t try to compare them.
That leaves the ugly, A DIRTY CARNIVAL, not because it is a rotten movie, but because gang warfare in any country is ugly and DIRTY CARNIVAL is successful in promoting that image.
However, the strange thing about the Western psyche when it comes to watching Asian gangster films is that during the heyday of Hong Kong gangland movies, Westerners gravitated to these films based on the pure unabashed approach to violence in order to avoid all the deep, meaningful narratives seen in many Western counterpart.
This might be changing.
Although DIRTY CARNIVAL had a couple of decent action sequences (I’ve seen over 3500 Hong Kong martial arts and martial arts stylized action films, so it is rare I see something new) what I liked about this film was the main gangster character’s reconnection with two childhood friends and how those relationships affected the lives of each of the three.
I wouldn’t say that this is a ground breaking gangster film, Wong Kar-wei’s AS TEARS GO BY fills that void, but I would say that since the Hong Kong film industry has plummeted, the Korean film industry seems to be nicely picking up the pieces and adding a new slant to the genres that were predominantly and exclusively Hong Kong. Gam sa hab ni da.
For a while, it was a very frustrating film to view, the same kind of feeling I got when watching Rob Schneider in his DEUCE BIGALOW films, but instead of one down on his luck ignoramus, SAMOAN WEDDING had four.
It also bugged me that if I was to ignore the New Zealand tongue and physical appearance of the actors; the characters and the way they acted, the music they listened to and their names imbued a more African-American tone than a Samoan.
Then it struck me. Although the festival is filled with movies from over 12 countries and indeed most of the films from these countries reflect something about the country’s history, culture or pride, the festival is ultimately about featuring Asian talent.
In other words, just because a film is made in Samoa, with Samoan actors, it doesn’t mean that the film has to necessarily be about Samoa. If we assume that it does, then we are stereotyping each of these country’s film industries.
So when that hit me, I enjoyed the movie more. But as I opened my eyes and heart I did see a glimmer of Samoan history subliminally infused within the story.
The road to independence for Samoa from New Zealand started from the Mau Movement (Mau means “opinion” or “testimony”), a 1908 nonviolent movement for Samoan independence from German rule, inspired by Gandhi’s approach against the British.
In SAMOAN WEDDING, there are two confrontations between the four Samoan buds and the white New Zealanders, where in each case the Samoans tried to peacefully avoid the fight. Yet similar to the “Black Saturday” incident (in 1929, New Zealand military police opened fire on a peaceful demonstration; killing 11, wounding 50) it was the New Zealanders that chose to escalate the confrontation to violence.
My apologies to director Chris Graham for my initial, horse-with-blinders viewpoint.
What was so bad about SENTENCED HOME was the way our American government has botched it up again with yet another major flummery in its immigration policies.
It pained me to see these three former Cambodian refugees forcibly deported back to Cambodia because of their criminal records, even though they had served their time in jail and neither of them were repeat offenders and had moved on.
Does this mean that for every immigrant in this country who commits a crime must be deported back to their country or is it just Cambodia?
I lived in LA for 10 years, and based on this deportation law, there are a lot of folks in LA who should be deported back to their country, and none of them are Cambodians.
The INS agent interviewed in the film sadly explained that if these refugee immigrants had been fervently told that if they commit a crime in America, then they would lose their residency privilege and be a candidate for deportation.
So who is to blame? Both sides.
Yes, the government failed to warn these immigrants on the clarity of this law until it was too late.
But then how could one assume that a law going into effect in 1996 could deport an immigrant back to their country if someone committed a crime before that time?
It is also a pity that parents or community leaders were not able to impress upon their brethren that committing a crime, no matter where you live, is always going to come back and bite you. The pitiful thing is, these Cambodian refugees got more than bitten.
If for some insane reason any of the deportees read this article (maybe the filmmakers told you that your stories would be featured at the SDAFF) and based on my experiences of being an outsider in two countries (immigrating to America in the late ‘60s and living in the Republic of China at the wrong time in the ‘70s), I have a few suggestions:
Blend in, it is find to be proud of who you are, but being a sore thumb can quickly bring more pain; use your language abilities, each of you speak English and Cambodian there may be un-chartered opportunities out there if you look; and most important, remember that Cambodia is not America and don’t try to compare them.
That leaves the ugly, A DIRTY CARNIVAL, not because it is a rotten movie, but because gang warfare in any country is ugly and DIRTY CARNIVAL is successful in promoting that image.
However, the strange thing about the Western psyche when it comes to watching Asian gangster films is that during the heyday of Hong Kong gangland movies, Westerners gravitated to these films based on the pure unabashed approach to violence in order to avoid all the deep, meaningful narratives seen in many Western counterpart.
This might be changing.
Although DIRTY CARNIVAL had a couple of decent action sequences (I’ve seen over 3500 Hong Kong martial arts and martial arts stylized action films, so it is rare I see something new) what I liked about this film was the main gangster character’s reconnection with two childhood friends and how those relationships affected the lives of each of the three.
I wouldn’t say that this is a ground breaking gangster film, Wong Kar-wei’s AS TEARS GO BY fills that void, but I would say that since the Hong Kong film industry has plummeted, the Korean film industry seems to be nicely picking up the pieces and adding a new slant to the genres that were predominantly and exclusively Hong Kong. Gam sa hab ni da.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
SDAFF DAY 6: AAAAAAAAAAAH!
Well last night for me was a creepy, creaky, wikety, blickety, blookety, whipety and wappity evening, essentially a jumble of words mixed in with a jumble of screams, shrieks, freaks and early Halloween surprises.
Starting off with the anime feature 5 CENTIMETERS A SECOND, apparently the speed of which a cherry blossom petal falls to the ground, it can also be the speed at which the heart drops when you get wrapped up in the known and unknown love stories of Takaki through three vignettes tracing the kid-teen-man’s life.
At some level we can all associate with his path of love and relationship, and it makes you think about your own past and if there was anyone out there that loved you but never told you and so you both missed out of the possibility of what could have been.
The tragedy of love (as it can also be with friendship) is not speaking, saying or sharing at the right moment in time the right words, because maybe we are afraid of the results or rejection, or putting one’s self in an awkward position.
Just say what you’ve to say and do what you’ve got to do.
Suffice it to say, our world is full of clichés and they exist because they become. So when the sage strikes, “Que sera, sera. Whatever will be, will be” and “love will find you and not the other way around” rest assured the spirit of Takaki is with you.
As I’m next watching the much-anticipated latest film by Korean director Park Chan-wook I’M A CYBORG BUT THAT’S OK, a ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST-ish character study of the various mixed personalities that inhabit a South Korean psychiatric home, I also noticed many blank faces in the audience.
Was it just me that wasn’t getting this film? I must have missed the boat. Don’t get me wrong, it had some pretty far-out things going on and the whole machine gun sequence inside and outside the psychiatric ward was hilariously sickening, but for the life of me, I could not figure out what was the point of the film.
This is the classic example film of why you never ask a Hollywood producer like Jerry Bruckheimer (like I did on the set of ARMEGEDDON back in 1998), “What is the message of this film?” He quickly snapped at me blurting, “You want a message? Get it from Western Union.”
So I relegated myself to the visual sight gags, did not look for any deep seeded meaning in what was tossed in front of me and when I got home, checked my mailbox for a letter and waited up for a telegram, of which neither came.
But really, I had no choice but to wait up for a telegram because there was no way in hell that I was going to bed after watching the Thai horror film THE VICTIM. Even walking to the parking lot late at night after the film was weird.
It also didn’t help that as I strolled to my car in the dark, dungeon-like corner of the underground parking lot that one of the fluorescent lights blinked off. Duuuuude.
THE VICTIM is one of those horror films that just jumps right into the ghosts, the scare and chills, not bothering to drag out the moment when we first see the specter in question, just…BAM… in your face.
Then with all that fear that just keeps growing…growing…elevating throughout the film…freaky, creepy music constantly shrilling in your brain, I am surprised that I stuck it out.
Then just when you think it is over, the credits are running, these filmmakers felt the sneaky urge to get you one more time by picking out certain movie stills from the film and pointing out to you that the film was actually haunted by real ghost as the images of shadowy faces can be seen in the background of the production stills.
Thank you very much for that by the way (yes, I’m being sarcastic).
By the end of the film, lights on, I’m outta there. It was good to be in the lobby, in the light, with real people. But then again, there was that walk to the parking lot.
I think I’ll keep away from horror for a while.
Starting off with the anime feature 5 CENTIMETERS A SECOND, apparently the speed of which a cherry blossom petal falls to the ground, it can also be the speed at which the heart drops when you get wrapped up in the known and unknown love stories of Takaki through three vignettes tracing the kid-teen-man’s life.
At some level we can all associate with his path of love and relationship, and it makes you think about your own past and if there was anyone out there that loved you but never told you and so you both missed out of the possibility of what could have been.
The tragedy of love (as it can also be with friendship) is not speaking, saying or sharing at the right moment in time the right words, because maybe we are afraid of the results or rejection, or putting one’s self in an awkward position.
Just say what you’ve to say and do what you’ve got to do.
Suffice it to say, our world is full of clichés and they exist because they become. So when the sage strikes, “Que sera, sera. Whatever will be, will be” and “love will find you and not the other way around” rest assured the spirit of Takaki is with you.
As I’m next watching the much-anticipated latest film by Korean director Park Chan-wook I’M A CYBORG BUT THAT’S OK, a ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST-ish character study of the various mixed personalities that inhabit a South Korean psychiatric home, I also noticed many blank faces in the audience.
Was it just me that wasn’t getting this film? I must have missed the boat. Don’t get me wrong, it had some pretty far-out things going on and the whole machine gun sequence inside and outside the psychiatric ward was hilariously sickening, but for the life of me, I could not figure out what was the point of the film.
This is the classic example film of why you never ask a Hollywood producer like Jerry Bruckheimer (like I did on the set of ARMEGEDDON back in 1998), “What is the message of this film?” He quickly snapped at me blurting, “You want a message? Get it from Western Union.”
So I relegated myself to the visual sight gags, did not look for any deep seeded meaning in what was tossed in front of me and when I got home, checked my mailbox for a letter and waited up for a telegram, of which neither came.
But really, I had no choice but to wait up for a telegram because there was no way in hell that I was going to bed after watching the Thai horror film THE VICTIM. Even walking to the parking lot late at night after the film was weird.
It also didn’t help that as I strolled to my car in the dark, dungeon-like corner of the underground parking lot that one of the fluorescent lights blinked off. Duuuuude.
THE VICTIM is one of those horror films that just jumps right into the ghosts, the scare and chills, not bothering to drag out the moment when we first see the specter in question, just…BAM… in your face.
Then with all that fear that just keeps growing…growing…elevating throughout the film…freaky, creepy music constantly shrilling in your brain, I am surprised that I stuck it out.
Then just when you think it is over, the credits are running, these filmmakers felt the sneaky urge to get you one more time by picking out certain movie stills from the film and pointing out to you that the film was actually haunted by real ghost as the images of shadowy faces can be seen in the background of the production stills.
Thank you very much for that by the way (yes, I’m being sarcastic).
By the end of the film, lights on, I’m outta there. It was good to be in the lobby, in the light, with real people. But then again, there was that walk to the parking lot.
I think I’ll keep away from horror for a while.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
SDAFF DAY 5: THE CHINESE AND JAPANESE HAVE THE SAME TEARS
Sadly today, in the political arena, the historical pain of differences between China and Japan is attaining new silent heights.
On one hand, although the Japanese government does not want to forget Nagasaki and Hiroshima (as they should not), they want to cover and forget what they did to the Chinese during World War II (as they should not). On the other hand, the Chinese government does not want to forget what happened at Nanking (and they should not) and are seeking an apology from Japan (which they should give)
If the Americans apologized to the Japanese for dropping the atomic bomb (which most historians agree that it brought a most violent yet rapid end to the war) why can’t the Japanese apologize to the Chinese, like the German people did to the Jews?
So in my own little world, I am trying to find some solace with this issue and I thought, and some of you might snicker, that by attending a Japanese and Chinese film, one right after the other during the same night, that somehow I might be able to contribute some esoteric word of peace and send this message up into the karmic universe and see where it goes.
Wouldn’t you know it, it was one of the nights that my wife had to work late and unable to come to the festival and so naturally both films I saw were real tear-jerkers, stories about love, togetherness and overcoming odds. As I am writing this, she’s back at work, and I need another hug.
Which was something missing amid all the tears in the Japanese film HULA GIRLS, a unique combination of BILLY ELLIOT meets THE FULL MONTY.
I mean, families are being torn apart, life long friends having to say heart wrenching goodbyes splitting up due to the economy, parents dying in the wallowing mines and people taking blame to protect others so they wont get in trouble.
Yet in this constant mire of dim dark times, there were no hugs. Even at the crescendo of joy and unity, no hugs. No one even bothered to say I love you.
Yet within this cultural divide between emotion and love, Korean-Japanese director Lee Sang-il subliminally plants several seeds that perhaps might grow into something unexpected.
Although no one said I love you, it was said when teen hula dancer Kimiko beckons her teacher to return by performing a hula dance that tells a story of love. Also of note, is when a drunken father beats the living daylights out of his daughter that is learning hula, the female teacher storms into the public baths and proceeds to beat the father.
In some Asian cultures, although it is recognized as wrong, it is “acceptable” for men to beat women, so it was an emotional release when the teacher entered the baths, showing that women do not have to take it anymore.
From what I understand, it is an Asian thing, people don’t hug, parents don’t tell their children that they love them and vice-versa, it is just improper to do that. That is also the way it used to be in England, but I am glad that we immigrated to America and although it took many years, we were able to find the internal strength and discipline to break that habit.
So when I married into a traditional Chinese family in 1981, in the beginning I could see the shock (maybe fear) in my in-law’s eyes as I would hug them at the airport. The irony now is that if I don’t hug them, it is misconstrued that I don’t care or love them anymore. How cool is that?
Which is one reason why I totally loved the Chinese film YEAR OF THE FISH, a story set in the underbelly of New York City’s Chinatown that taps into the emotional content of Cinderella and is curiously shot with rotoscope sheen.
It is also a film that tries to break down the traditional, straight-faced way that many Chinese families approach marriage and relationships. And the most impressive thing about this movie is that it got all Shakespearean at the end, and to an Englishman (of which I proudly share that I do have American citizenship), it won over my heart.
When 9/11 occurred, the front page of the Hong Kong newspapers did not report on the tragedy as it pertains to world peace, the possibilities of war, the suffering of the dead or the pain of the family loses, but on how this event will effect the economy and the Hang Seng stock market index. The story merely reflects, as it always has, that money is the most important thing in many Chinese people’s lives. Love takes a back seat.
So I was knocked over backwards when at the end of the day, the main point of YEAR OF THE FISH gloriously sparkled for all to see, at least for those who watched with eyes as open as their hearts.
Fie, no, money was not the important thing in life, but love was and to coin that most famous of Shakespeare’s quotes on love, “It is better to have loved and lost than never to have lost at all.”
Throughout both of these films, one Japanese, one Chinese, I listened to the audiences crying as the cinematic scenarios unfolded, silent weeps, people sniffling, and others trying to bravely hold back their emotions.
The reactions from both films and both audiences were the same, one could not tell the differences between the tears. Maybe if we could all just close our eyes a little bit more often and listen, then we might find that we are all united under the same emotional umbrella, which hopefully one day can protect us all from that rainstorm of hate, distrust, face and ego.
On one hand, although the Japanese government does not want to forget Nagasaki and Hiroshima (as they should not), they want to cover and forget what they did to the Chinese during World War II (as they should not). On the other hand, the Chinese government does not want to forget what happened at Nanking (and they should not) and are seeking an apology from Japan (which they should give)
If the Americans apologized to the Japanese for dropping the atomic bomb (which most historians agree that it brought a most violent yet rapid end to the war) why can’t the Japanese apologize to the Chinese, like the German people did to the Jews?
So in my own little world, I am trying to find some solace with this issue and I thought, and some of you might snicker, that by attending a Japanese and Chinese film, one right after the other during the same night, that somehow I might be able to contribute some esoteric word of peace and send this message up into the karmic universe and see where it goes.
Wouldn’t you know it, it was one of the nights that my wife had to work late and unable to come to the festival and so naturally both films I saw were real tear-jerkers, stories about love, togetherness and overcoming odds. As I am writing this, she’s back at work, and I need another hug.
Which was something missing amid all the tears in the Japanese film HULA GIRLS, a unique combination of BILLY ELLIOT meets THE FULL MONTY.
I mean, families are being torn apart, life long friends having to say heart wrenching goodbyes splitting up due to the economy, parents dying in the wallowing mines and people taking blame to protect others so they wont get in trouble.
Yet in this constant mire of dim dark times, there were no hugs. Even at the crescendo of joy and unity, no hugs. No one even bothered to say I love you.
Yet within this cultural divide between emotion and love, Korean-Japanese director Lee Sang-il subliminally plants several seeds that perhaps might grow into something unexpected.
Although no one said I love you, it was said when teen hula dancer Kimiko beckons her teacher to return by performing a hula dance that tells a story of love. Also of note, is when a drunken father beats the living daylights out of his daughter that is learning hula, the female teacher storms into the public baths and proceeds to beat the father.
In some Asian cultures, although it is recognized as wrong, it is “acceptable” for men to beat women, so it was an emotional release when the teacher entered the baths, showing that women do not have to take it anymore.
From what I understand, it is an Asian thing, people don’t hug, parents don’t tell their children that they love them and vice-versa, it is just improper to do that. That is also the way it used to be in England, but I am glad that we immigrated to America and although it took many years, we were able to find the internal strength and discipline to break that habit.
So when I married into a traditional Chinese family in 1981, in the beginning I could see the shock (maybe fear) in my in-law’s eyes as I would hug them at the airport. The irony now is that if I don’t hug them, it is misconstrued that I don’t care or love them anymore. How cool is that?
Which is one reason why I totally loved the Chinese film YEAR OF THE FISH, a story set in the underbelly of New York City’s Chinatown that taps into the emotional content of Cinderella and is curiously shot with rotoscope sheen.
It is also a film that tries to break down the traditional, straight-faced way that many Chinese families approach marriage and relationships. And the most impressive thing about this movie is that it got all Shakespearean at the end, and to an Englishman (of which I proudly share that I do have American citizenship), it won over my heart.
When 9/11 occurred, the front page of the Hong Kong newspapers did not report on the tragedy as it pertains to world peace, the possibilities of war, the suffering of the dead or the pain of the family loses, but on how this event will effect the economy and the Hang Seng stock market index. The story merely reflects, as it always has, that money is the most important thing in many Chinese people’s lives. Love takes a back seat.
So I was knocked over backwards when at the end of the day, the main point of YEAR OF THE FISH gloriously sparkled for all to see, at least for those who watched with eyes as open as their hearts.
Fie, no, money was not the important thing in life, but love was and to coin that most famous of Shakespeare’s quotes on love, “It is better to have loved and lost than never to have lost at all.”
Throughout both of these films, one Japanese, one Chinese, I listened to the audiences crying as the cinematic scenarios unfolded, silent weeps, people sniffling, and others trying to bravely hold back their emotions.
The reactions from both films and both audiences were the same, one could not tell the differences between the tears. Maybe if we could all just close our eyes a little bit more often and listen, then we might find that we are all united under the same emotional umbrella, which hopefully one day can protect us all from that rainstorm of hate, distrust, face and ego.
Monday, October 15, 2007
SDAFF DAY 4: OH MY!
Star Date, October 14th, 2007.
Our fearless leader and matriarch of the SDAFF, Lee Ann Kim, in front of millions of Takei fans worldwide…ah ha…that was the buzz from Sunday, all those plugged in electrified fans whirring all over the world watching Kim getting Takei to provide the power via his newly named cosmic namesake, making Takei blurt, “Oh my, I am now a heavenly body.”
I am of course referring to the asteroid formerly known as “1994 GT9” that has been renamed “7307 Takei” in honor of the actor.
All of us that were squeezed into Theater 6, sat around like little children with wide-eyed wonder hanging on every word that Takei was willing to share…and share he did.
He spoke at great lengths of his experience from beginning to end of the whole STAR TREK phenomena, something that he spoke about with such great appreciation and fondness, not trying to shirk that for a lifetime and more, he will be remembered to most of the baby boomers as Hikaru Sulu.
There was even a clip of Takei at a William Shatner roast emphasizing to Bill that his name was pronounced “Tak-kay” and not “Tak-eye” like Shatner had been saying it for 40 years. Pointing at Shatner’s hair Takei grins, “Remember, ‘Tak-kay, like in “toupee’.”
Shatner’s mouth was so wide open; he put every Venus flytrap to shame.
Takei enthusiastically explained how he got the job on his latest acting gig HEROES. One slight of hand comment about the show that truly reflects his animal grace was that although he is very well known and everyone in Hollywood knows his acting range, the producers of the show felt it was necessary to have Takei audition for the part.
Even by Hollywood standards, this was a very insulting thing to do to an actor of such star power and caliber. Yet Takei has moved beyond the ego of “Don’t you know who I am?” The producers even had the audacity to test Takei’s Japanese language abilities.
After asking him if he spoke Japanese, and Takei said that he did, they sent him a script in English asking him to translate his parts into Japanese. At the audition, there was a white woman that spoke some Japanese. It was all a test to see if Takei could speak the language. The irony is that the white woman’s Japanese really sucked.
I know Takei is cool with it, but for these producers to ask him to audition and then deviously test his language ability was really low and disrespectful. It just goes to part of the whole problem of how Asian American actors are treated in Hollywood.
Takei next told us of his contempt for the Japanese internment camps and the pain he suffered as a child being dragged away at bayonet-point at age six to a childhood life of hell.
He also pointed out that for many years, people in the industry knew that he was gay and his manager Brad was his partner, yet it wasn’t until Arnold Schwarzenegger reneged on his support of gay marriages, first saying he supported gay marriages, then vetoed the bill against them, that Takei felt it was necessary to tell the press of his lifestyle choice putting him in a stronger position to discuss the issues publicly.
But Takei was not finished with politics yet, he lambasted Bush as being a, “Bad President.”…period.
The intimate discussion ended with Takei laughingly berating his experience on the Howard Stern show, something he hated at the beginning, but somehow got sucked into becoming a regular via jokes, tricks, persistence and his manager’s constant egging.
When someone from the audience asked Takei that being so outspoken about Government issues and politics why he never ran for office, he lamented on his experience when he ran for Los Angeles City Council and how in an indirect way Sulu beat him.
As it turns out, a local TV station ran a 17-minute special show of STAR TREK episodes that only featured scenes of Sulu. Suddenly, the other 14 candidates running for office took this as an opportunity to demand equal political time on television.
The poor TV station was required to give these candidates all free air-time and was then forced to stop running STAR TREK reruns.
Talk about piddley-diddley pettiness. It is everywhere yeah?
When Kim asked if there were any more questions, I raised my hand faster than a Bruce Lee back fist, waving it in the air like a school kid trying to get teacher’s attention.
Bingo. How could Kim ignore my pathetic face, wafting hand and my body posture writhing with, “Please, me, me, please, oh please.”
What did I ask? Duuuh. “Hey George, did you ever meet Bruce Lee.” Hey, I really was interested.
George looked at me with a smile and reminisced about a time in the late ‘60s when he was filming an episode of STAR TREK. He was taking a break between shots and out the corner of his eye he saw a man in a t-shirt dressed in riding pants, kicking and punching a mile-a-minute. The man stopped then went back into the studio.
It is the only time that America’s most famous Japanese-American actor saw America’s most famous Chinese-American actor. It is a pity that history could not have made them American friends.
Our fearless leader and matriarch of the SDAFF, Lee Ann Kim, in front of millions of Takei fans worldwide…ah ha…that was the buzz from Sunday, all those plugged in electrified fans whirring all over the world watching Kim getting Takei to provide the power via his newly named cosmic namesake, making Takei blurt, “Oh my, I am now a heavenly body.”
I am of course referring to the asteroid formerly known as “1994 GT9” that has been renamed “7307 Takei” in honor of the actor.
All of us that were squeezed into Theater 6, sat around like little children with wide-eyed wonder hanging on every word that Takei was willing to share…and share he did.
He spoke at great lengths of his experience from beginning to end of the whole STAR TREK phenomena, something that he spoke about with such great appreciation and fondness, not trying to shirk that for a lifetime and more, he will be remembered to most of the baby boomers as Hikaru Sulu.
There was even a clip of Takei at a William Shatner roast emphasizing to Bill that his name was pronounced “Tak-kay” and not “Tak-eye” like Shatner had been saying it for 40 years. Pointing at Shatner’s hair Takei grins, “Remember, ‘Tak-kay, like in “toupee’.”
Shatner’s mouth was so wide open; he put every Venus flytrap to shame.
Takei enthusiastically explained how he got the job on his latest acting gig HEROES. One slight of hand comment about the show that truly reflects his animal grace was that although he is very well known and everyone in Hollywood knows his acting range, the producers of the show felt it was necessary to have Takei audition for the part.
Even by Hollywood standards, this was a very insulting thing to do to an actor of such star power and caliber. Yet Takei has moved beyond the ego of “Don’t you know who I am?” The producers even had the audacity to test Takei’s Japanese language abilities.
After asking him if he spoke Japanese, and Takei said that he did, they sent him a script in English asking him to translate his parts into Japanese. At the audition, there was a white woman that spoke some Japanese. It was all a test to see if Takei could speak the language. The irony is that the white woman’s Japanese really sucked.
I know Takei is cool with it, but for these producers to ask him to audition and then deviously test his language ability was really low and disrespectful. It just goes to part of the whole problem of how Asian American actors are treated in Hollywood.
Takei next told us of his contempt for the Japanese internment camps and the pain he suffered as a child being dragged away at bayonet-point at age six to a childhood life of hell.
He also pointed out that for many years, people in the industry knew that he was gay and his manager Brad was his partner, yet it wasn’t until Arnold Schwarzenegger reneged on his support of gay marriages, first saying he supported gay marriages, then vetoed the bill against them, that Takei felt it was necessary to tell the press of his lifestyle choice putting him in a stronger position to discuss the issues publicly.
But Takei was not finished with politics yet, he lambasted Bush as being a, “Bad President.”…period.
The intimate discussion ended with Takei laughingly berating his experience on the Howard Stern show, something he hated at the beginning, but somehow got sucked into becoming a regular via jokes, tricks, persistence and his manager’s constant egging.
When someone from the audience asked Takei that being so outspoken about Government issues and politics why he never ran for office, he lamented on his experience when he ran for Los Angeles City Council and how in an indirect way Sulu beat him.
As it turns out, a local TV station ran a 17-minute special show of STAR TREK episodes that only featured scenes of Sulu. Suddenly, the other 14 candidates running for office took this as an opportunity to demand equal political time on television.
The poor TV station was required to give these candidates all free air-time and was then forced to stop running STAR TREK reruns.
Talk about piddley-diddley pettiness. It is everywhere yeah?
When Kim asked if there were any more questions, I raised my hand faster than a Bruce Lee back fist, waving it in the air like a school kid trying to get teacher’s attention.
Bingo. How could Kim ignore my pathetic face, wafting hand and my body posture writhing with, “Please, me, me, please, oh please.”
What did I ask? Duuuh. “Hey George, did you ever meet Bruce Lee.” Hey, I really was interested.
George looked at me with a smile and reminisced about a time in the late ‘60s when he was filming an episode of STAR TREK. He was taking a break between shots and out the corner of his eye he saw a man in a t-shirt dressed in riding pants, kicking and punching a mile-a-minute. The man stopped then went back into the studio.
It is the only time that America’s most famous Japanese-American actor saw America’s most famous Chinese-American actor. It is a pity that history could not have made them American friends.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
SDAFF DAY 3: REBEL WITH A CAUSE; DOES IT MATTER?
If there were one film that you have to see and must see at this year’s SDAFF, that movie would be THE REBEL. I mean it folks, this Vietnamese achievement, starring Johnny Nguyen and Dustin Nguyen, and directed by Charlie Nguyen (Johnny’s brother) is the most spellbinding and mind-numbing martial arts stylized genre buster done in years. Not since ONG BAK have I had that tingly sensation inside that makes me want to stand up in the middle of the theater and yell, “This film rocks man.” We’re talking wild thing, you really move me.
There will be those critics that will want to label this film as the Vietnamese ONG BAK, but that would do THE REBEL a great injustice. On many levels, THE REBEL is superior, the story, the plot and the acting. Dustin’s Nguyen performance as the villain trying to suppress the insurgent’s goal of ultimately booting the French out of Vietnam is so engaging, that it is no wonder he was cast alongside A-list actress Cate Blanchard in last year’s award winning Indie LITTLE FISH.
Dustin has to be one of the best villains in any martial arts film in ages. This man is an actor, and his performance elevates the film into a must see instant classic and the sad thing about it all, is that no one has ever seen it fit to cast Dustin in any martial arts stylized film. He’s a legitimate martial artist, a true thespian and one of the humblest dudes you’ll ever meet.
Johnny Nguyen’s debut as the lead portraying an agent out to destroy the rebels, his psyche filled with the turmoil of all the ugliness that the French inflicted upon Vietnam, is outstanding. Furthermore, his martial arts abilities are wicked and he should truly be considered as one of today’s top martial arts stars. He’s got the look, the acting, the action skills and the pizzazz to really go far. Under the right circumstance, Johnny could surpass the awe-inspiring heights of Jet Li and do so with more cool than James Coburn.
If you missed THE REBEL yesterday, the film will be shown again October 16th at 6:00 pm.
The one film I really wanted to see yesterday was NANKING, which the Japanese are calling what happened at Nanking an incident, as compared to what it really was, a massacre. The world knows six million Jews were slaughtered during World War II, but the world seems to turn a blind eye to the fact that the Japanese needlessly and horrifically slaughtered 12 million Chinese during the same war. I tried to get tickets last Wednesday, but it was already sold out, the only film at the festival to instantly sell out.
An interesting back-story of the screening is that Nancy Lo, founder and head of the Association for Preserving Historical Accuracy of Foreign Invasion in China (APHAFIC), purchased 230 tickets.
Lo shares, “We asked school teachers if they wanted to have their students come see the movie, an opportunity to educate the young people about the real history. Some high school teachers don’t teach this in history, so we give the tickets to about 130 school students.
“Civilians get killed in war, we all know that, but the human rights issues are how they die, babies, women, the elderly; what I do and with this film NANKING, we can speak for them.”
I also caught HEAVEN IS TOO FAR AWAY, a collection of shorts that was as freaky as it was intriguing. One short that caught my attention was MU, a fable based on an age-old Japanese story about a traditional Japanese tattoo artist, grittily portrayed by Yutaka Takeuchi.
The beauty of shorts is that you can take “nothing” and make it something (if you watch MU, you’ll know what I am hinting at). The opening is pretty freaky because it looks like we are watching the life or death of Seiji (Takeuchi) through a tear in either a paper wall or perhaps a fleshy hole in a body left by a removed tattoo. As Seiji drifts through his nebulous existence, like Seiji, we are precariously attempting to demystify where he is and what the heck is wrong with him.
Another film that really struck me on a personal level was DARK MATTER, which stars Academy Award Winner Meryl Streep and Ye Liu, based on a story about how a Chinese Communist student, Gang Lu, could not handle American culture and how to deal with his American Professors at the University of Iowa, leading to dire consequences.
I attended graduate school at National Taiwan University in 1979, studying entomology. Keep in mind that back then, America had just broken relations with the Republic of China (Taiwan), so it was a bad time to me an American. The professors at the school tried to railroad me and prevent me from graduating claiming that my research was all wrong (even though as I was doing my research, the whole department was impressed).
The sad thing about DARK MATTER and what Gang Lu went through is that it is not an uncommon problem for graduate students in most universities in the United States. After the screening, producer Janet Yang recognized the difficulty of distributing the film due to the recent shootings at Virginia Tech.
“We are trying to show the film on campuses,” she tells, “use the film as an educational tool to make people aware of how these things can happen.”
A member of the audience was a friend of Lu’s at the University of Iowa and saw the real tragedy unfold. He praised Yang for an accurate depiction of the key events and lauded her for the way they were trying to handle distribution and use the film was positive purposes.
There will be those critics that will want to label this film as the Vietnamese ONG BAK, but that would do THE REBEL a great injustice. On many levels, THE REBEL is superior, the story, the plot and the acting. Dustin’s Nguyen performance as the villain trying to suppress the insurgent’s goal of ultimately booting the French out of Vietnam is so engaging, that it is no wonder he was cast alongside A-list actress Cate Blanchard in last year’s award winning Indie LITTLE FISH.
Dustin has to be one of the best villains in any martial arts film in ages. This man is an actor, and his performance elevates the film into a must see instant classic and the sad thing about it all, is that no one has ever seen it fit to cast Dustin in any martial arts stylized film. He’s a legitimate martial artist, a true thespian and one of the humblest dudes you’ll ever meet.
Johnny Nguyen’s debut as the lead portraying an agent out to destroy the rebels, his psyche filled with the turmoil of all the ugliness that the French inflicted upon Vietnam, is outstanding. Furthermore, his martial arts abilities are wicked and he should truly be considered as one of today’s top martial arts stars. He’s got the look, the acting, the action skills and the pizzazz to really go far. Under the right circumstance, Johnny could surpass the awe-inspiring heights of Jet Li and do so with more cool than James Coburn.
If you missed THE REBEL yesterday, the film will be shown again October 16th at 6:00 pm.
The one film I really wanted to see yesterday was NANKING, which the Japanese are calling what happened at Nanking an incident, as compared to what it really was, a massacre. The world knows six million Jews were slaughtered during World War II, but the world seems to turn a blind eye to the fact that the Japanese needlessly and horrifically slaughtered 12 million Chinese during the same war. I tried to get tickets last Wednesday, but it was already sold out, the only film at the festival to instantly sell out.
An interesting back-story of the screening is that Nancy Lo, founder and head of the Association for Preserving Historical Accuracy of Foreign Invasion in China (APHAFIC), purchased 230 tickets.
Lo shares, “We asked school teachers if they wanted to have their students come see the movie, an opportunity to educate the young people about the real history. Some high school teachers don’t teach this in history, so we give the tickets to about 130 school students.
“Civilians get killed in war, we all know that, but the human rights issues are how they die, babies, women, the elderly; what I do and with this film NANKING, we can speak for them.”
I also caught HEAVEN IS TOO FAR AWAY, a collection of shorts that was as freaky as it was intriguing. One short that caught my attention was MU, a fable based on an age-old Japanese story about a traditional Japanese tattoo artist, grittily portrayed by Yutaka Takeuchi.
The beauty of shorts is that you can take “nothing” and make it something (if you watch MU, you’ll know what I am hinting at). The opening is pretty freaky because it looks like we are watching the life or death of Seiji (Takeuchi) through a tear in either a paper wall or perhaps a fleshy hole in a body left by a removed tattoo. As Seiji drifts through his nebulous existence, like Seiji, we are precariously attempting to demystify where he is and what the heck is wrong with him.
Another film that really struck me on a personal level was DARK MATTER, which stars Academy Award Winner Meryl Streep and Ye Liu, based on a story about how a Chinese Communist student, Gang Lu, could not handle American culture and how to deal with his American Professors at the University of Iowa, leading to dire consequences.
I attended graduate school at National Taiwan University in 1979, studying entomology. Keep in mind that back then, America had just broken relations with the Republic of China (Taiwan), so it was a bad time to me an American. The professors at the school tried to railroad me and prevent me from graduating claiming that my research was all wrong (even though as I was doing my research, the whole department was impressed).
The sad thing about DARK MATTER and what Gang Lu went through is that it is not an uncommon problem for graduate students in most universities in the United States. After the screening, producer Janet Yang recognized the difficulty of distributing the film due to the recent shootings at Virginia Tech.
“We are trying to show the film on campuses,” she tells, “use the film as an educational tool to make people aware of how these things can happen.”
A member of the audience was a friend of Lu’s at the University of Iowa and saw the real tragedy unfold. He praised Yang for an accurate depiction of the key events and lauded her for the way they were trying to handle distribution and use the film was positive purposes.
Saturday, October 13, 2007
SDAFF DAY 2: NO STRINGS ATTACHED?
Film has a unique way of bringing life’s perspectives into an edible manner with the added beauty that within ourselves we can be inspired to think, feel and in some cases do something about it. The films I saw last night (Oct. 12th) came with a yin-yang of emotion, a glorious balance of strings and no strings attached.
The difficulty of blogging for a such a cool film festival is that there are so many great movies being showed at the same time, that I would need to be a physically and mentally endowed octopus with the ability to tear myself apart and be in eight places at the same time. I was assuming that I could easily float between films, 20 minutes here, 20 minutes there, detach and make myself come across like an expert.
WRONG.
After spending three hours at SDSU, where the cast and crew of FINISHING THE GAME were doing a Q&A to a packed house at Montezuma Hall, I sat down with Dustin Nguyen, Roger Tam and Justin Lin for some truly heart-to-hearts about their film. I wont ramble on about that but something happened that was really touching.
I interviewed Justin 11 years ago at a coffee shop in LA, with his life-long pal Quentin Lee, after they had just completed a “lower budget than BETTER LUCK TOMORROW” film, SHOPPING FOR FANGS. We spoke for about three hours and I was the only media man that wrote a 5000-word article on the film and gave them the time of day. I was of course delighted that Justin remembered the interview, recognized me and to this day appreciated the article.
This says a lot about Justin Lin, the man, the director. It is no wonder that actors of stature want to work with him for peanuts, so to speak.
Anyway, after these interviews went way beyond their call of duty, and time was tight, I cautiously zipped back to the festival (I am still new to San Diego, hate to miss an exit and have an old car that takes 20 seconds to go from 0-60 mph) and flew into the theater that I thought AND THEREAFTER II was playing.
WRONG.
In this instance, I realized that sometimes two wrongs do make a right.
NEW YEAR BABY, something that I was not planning to see, hit me like a ton of bricks. As a kid growing up in England, my parents tried to shelter me from the ills of World War II. My parents never spoke about the war, the constant German bombings razing the cities they lived in, all their friends mutilated by the damage, all my uncles and cousins that I would never know or meet because they died while defending the realm.
Even when I asked, nothing was said. There is still so much I do not know. I heard rumors that my dad fought in Burma during the war then got back to England, the only proof hinted to me was a strange Burmese knife that my dad wrestled away from a Japanese soldier; the knife ended up hanging on our living room wall.
We immigrated to America and the only emotion I saw from my dad was in his waning years when he would watch documentaries about WWII and sit there silently weeping. He would never speak about it.
As I was watching NEW YEAR BABY, a documentary about the horrors of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, and director Socheata Pouev’s journey to uncover her family’s long-hidden past in Cambodia, I wished I could have somehow confronted my parents on their past before they died.
So much mystery, so much left unsaid. I can imagine how good for the soul it must have been for Socheata to unlock from her mum and dad, the deep seeded emotions that her parents suffered while living under Pol Pot’s regime, working in labor camps and somehow surviving the Killing Fields.
Although this is an Asian film, about an Asian subject, we are all one under the pain of war, attached together by the same piece of string, and I thank the powers that be, to allow me to cover this festival and see it as plane as day.
OKAY…FLIP FLOP
Now talk about no strings attached, during the SDAFF staff pre-festival meeting, one of the big things I kept hearing about was this dude named C. Diddy (aka David Jung) and his exploits as an air guitarist in AIR GUITAR NATION. I obviously had to check this film out.
I could not stop laughing. Again, it was that old English background in me shining through, because the whole concept and even the movie just came across to me like it was one big MONTY PYTHON sketch.
Although, these air guitarists do take what they do seriously, it just seemed as if each time they spoke about their art, for example, how one guy won a contest because he faked throwing his air guitar into the air, then caught it and continued to play, memories of Monty Python sketches that began with the slogan, “And now for something completely different,” rang in my hand.
I have to admit though, C. Diddy was freaking awesome and was hilariously amazing to watch perform.
After the film, the moppy haired throwback ran down the aisles to the cheering admirers and announced that after his scheduled performance later on at the nightclub, he would be retiring. The sad part is that most of the audience is not old enough to get into the nightclub where he was giving his farewell performance.
Although he air-strummed and air-picked along this wild and wooly ride to the Air Guitar International Championships in Finland, in 2003 and gained a cult following, it was apparent to all of us during Jung’s interview after the film that he has not forgotten his roots. Jung comes across more American that most Americans but has not lost sight of his Korean heritage.
Apparently the film was supposed to be about another air guitarist but Jung stole the show.
Jung shares, “The poster of the film featured Bjorn (the air guitarist Jung soundly beat three times throughout the film), because the studio felt that having an Asian on the poster was not the right demographic they were shooting for; they were being racist.
“It wasn’t supposed to be an Asian America film, but it became one,” he sheepishly adds, “So after they pulled the poster stunt and told me their reasons, I pulled out of the marketing and didn’t push the film for them.
“Hey man, it was not about the money, it was for the passion.”
Most filmmakers and actors will totally agree with Jung. Getting into the entertainment industry for the money is the wrong reason. One must first have passion and from the looks of the SDAFF, there is a lot of that going around.
The difficulty of blogging for a such a cool film festival is that there are so many great movies being showed at the same time, that I would need to be a physically and mentally endowed octopus with the ability to tear myself apart and be in eight places at the same time. I was assuming that I could easily float between films, 20 minutes here, 20 minutes there, detach and make myself come across like an expert.
WRONG.
After spending three hours at SDSU, where the cast and crew of FINISHING THE GAME were doing a Q&A to a packed house at Montezuma Hall, I sat down with Dustin Nguyen, Roger Tam and Justin Lin for some truly heart-to-hearts about their film. I wont ramble on about that but something happened that was really touching.
I interviewed Justin 11 years ago at a coffee shop in LA, with his life-long pal Quentin Lee, after they had just completed a “lower budget than BETTER LUCK TOMORROW” film, SHOPPING FOR FANGS. We spoke for about three hours and I was the only media man that wrote a 5000-word article on the film and gave them the time of day. I was of course delighted that Justin remembered the interview, recognized me and to this day appreciated the article.
This says a lot about Justin Lin, the man, the director. It is no wonder that actors of stature want to work with him for peanuts, so to speak.
Anyway, after these interviews went way beyond their call of duty, and time was tight, I cautiously zipped back to the festival (I am still new to San Diego, hate to miss an exit and have an old car that takes 20 seconds to go from 0-60 mph) and flew into the theater that I thought AND THEREAFTER II was playing.
WRONG.
In this instance, I realized that sometimes two wrongs do make a right.
NEW YEAR BABY, something that I was not planning to see, hit me like a ton of bricks. As a kid growing up in England, my parents tried to shelter me from the ills of World War II. My parents never spoke about the war, the constant German bombings razing the cities they lived in, all their friends mutilated by the damage, all my uncles and cousins that I would never know or meet because they died while defending the realm.
Even when I asked, nothing was said. There is still so much I do not know. I heard rumors that my dad fought in Burma during the war then got back to England, the only proof hinted to me was a strange Burmese knife that my dad wrestled away from a Japanese soldier; the knife ended up hanging on our living room wall.
We immigrated to America and the only emotion I saw from my dad was in his waning years when he would watch documentaries about WWII and sit there silently weeping. He would never speak about it.
As I was watching NEW YEAR BABY, a documentary about the horrors of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, and director Socheata Pouev’s journey to uncover her family’s long-hidden past in Cambodia, I wished I could have somehow confronted my parents on their past before they died.
So much mystery, so much left unsaid. I can imagine how good for the soul it must have been for Socheata to unlock from her mum and dad, the deep seeded emotions that her parents suffered while living under Pol Pot’s regime, working in labor camps and somehow surviving the Killing Fields.
Although this is an Asian film, about an Asian subject, we are all one under the pain of war, attached together by the same piece of string, and I thank the powers that be, to allow me to cover this festival and see it as plane as day.
OKAY…FLIP FLOP
Now talk about no strings attached, during the SDAFF staff pre-festival meeting, one of the big things I kept hearing about was this dude named C. Diddy (aka David Jung) and his exploits as an air guitarist in AIR GUITAR NATION. I obviously had to check this film out.
I could not stop laughing. Again, it was that old English background in me shining through, because the whole concept and even the movie just came across to me like it was one big MONTY PYTHON sketch.
Although, these air guitarists do take what they do seriously, it just seemed as if each time they spoke about their art, for example, how one guy won a contest because he faked throwing his air guitar into the air, then caught it and continued to play, memories of Monty Python sketches that began with the slogan, “And now for something completely different,” rang in my hand.
I have to admit though, C. Diddy was freaking awesome and was hilariously amazing to watch perform.
After the film, the moppy haired throwback ran down the aisles to the cheering admirers and announced that after his scheduled performance later on at the nightclub, he would be retiring. The sad part is that most of the audience is not old enough to get into the nightclub where he was giving his farewell performance.
Although he air-strummed and air-picked along this wild and wooly ride to the Air Guitar International Championships in Finland, in 2003 and gained a cult following, it was apparent to all of us during Jung’s interview after the film that he has not forgotten his roots. Jung comes across more American that most Americans but has not lost sight of his Korean heritage.
Apparently the film was supposed to be about another air guitarist but Jung stole the show.
Jung shares, “The poster of the film featured Bjorn (the air guitarist Jung soundly beat three times throughout the film), because the studio felt that having an Asian on the poster was not the right demographic they were shooting for; they were being racist.
“It wasn’t supposed to be an Asian America film, but it became one,” he sheepishly adds, “So after they pulled the poster stunt and told me their reasons, I pulled out of the marketing and didn’t push the film for them.
“Hey man, it was not about the money, it was for the passion.”
Most filmmakers and actors will totally agree with Jung. Getting into the entertainment industry for the money is the wrong reason. One must first have passion and from the looks of the SDAFF, there is a lot of that going around.
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