Click here to visit its current home at USC.
Subscribe to the APA Newsletter
July 13, 2007: News Bites
Yun-jin Kim tells all, Owl and the Sparrow continues to soar, and Patrick Tam meets New York. All this and more in the latest edition of News Bites.
Owl and the Sparrow Captures the Vote
Majority ruled at the Los Angeles Film Festival, where first-time director Stephane Gauger's film, Owl and the Sparrow received the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature. The film tells a genuine story about a young Vietnamese girl who has recently escaped from her factory life to start anew in the heart of Saigon. On her journey, she develops two new friendships with a flight attendant and a zoo-keeper, who soon become her make-shift family. A heartfelt and character-driven story of a hopeful young girl trying to find her place in the world, Owl and the Sparrow created buzz and won the hearts of the audience. The film is slated to play at many more festivals from now until the end of the year. Next up for Gauger is a project with fellow Vietnamese American filmmaker Timothy Bui: Powder Blue, starring the likes of Forest Whitaker and Jessica Biel. --Kim Vu
Yun-jin Kim publishes book
Between filming episodes of ABC's hit series Lost, working on upcoming TV and movie projects with Margaret Cho, and taking on the occasional film role in Korea, actress Yun-jin Kim scrounged up some time to produce, Kim Yun Jin's Hollywood Story, a diary-styled book describing the trials and tribulations she faced as an Asian actress in Hollywood. After starring in Shiri, Korea's first blockbuster film, Kim was at the height of her career when she decided to risk everything to become a Hollywood actress. After taking her management agent's advice to "treat Hollywood like you would treat your boyfriend," Kim endured the lows of going from a famous movie star in Korea to just another Asian American actress in Hollywood. Hollywood Story is packed with colorful behind-the-scenes photos captured from special moments of the actress' life. The book is now available and has already sold out of its first run of 7000 copies in a week. --Janice Jann
Asian CineVision Fest turns 30
New York's Asian American International Film Festival is the oldest festival of its sort, celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. Perhaps it's fitting then that the strengths of this year's program are in its retrospectives rather than its premieres. In fact, this year's AAIFF has a whopping zero world premieres of feature films, with most films having already made their world or Asian American fest debuts elsewhere, including Finishing the Game (which opens the fest), American Pastime, Dark Matter, Tie a Yellow Ribbon, Undoing, and others. The one exception is the Asian American fest debut of Gina Kim's sumptuous Never Forever, which premiered at Sundance earlier this year. However, two important retrospectives showcase the AAIFF at its finest. One is a retrospective of Hong Kong legend Patrick Tam's unique career. In addition to Tam's recent triumph After This Our Exile are two bona fide classics of Chinese cinema: The Sword and Nomad. A one-on-one conversation with Tam will also be accompanied by a rare screening of Miu Kam-Fung, a TV program Tam directed in 1976. The other historical series is the Women Make Movies program, which is less a thorough tribute to the influential distribution company, than an excuse to rewatch Rea Tajiri's legendary short documentary History and Memory, one of the highest artistic achievements in any medium ever made by an Asian American. --Brian Hu
Cowboys fighting samurai?
Pretty Asian girl. Smart Asian guy, not-so-smart Caucasian guy, and adopted-into-Caucasian-family Asian guy all like pretty Asian girl. But pretty Asian girl only dates Caucasian guys. What's an Asian guy to do? Thus unfolds the play Cowboy versus Samurai, written by UCLA alumnus Michael Golamco, in a modern-day retelling of Edmund Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac. But now it's set in the dusty town of Breakneck, Wyoming, when an attractive Korean American teacher, Veronica Lee (Melissa Navarro), moves to town, pulling at the heartstrings of the only other Korean American in town, Travis Park (Chuck Lacson), who must choose allegiance in writing love scripts for his cowboy friend, the dim, handsome PE teacher Del (Wylie Herman), or his Asian friend who was adopted and doesn't know "what kind" of Asian he is and therefore is a militant samurai wannnabe (Jose Saenz). The play promises lighthearted laughs and deep ponderings on more than good looks and tragically large noses, but also race, ethnicity, and dating across the lines. Previously premiering in NYC in 2005 and also shown in Minneapolis, Seattle, and concurrently in Vancouver, Cowboy versus Samurai has a script that will be featured in Smith and Kraus's New Playwrights: The Best Plays of 2006. Now playing through July at the Thick House in San Francisco and produced by the Asian American Theatre Company, it will be closer to the writer's alma mater come Fall 2007, with a scheduled production in San Diego by the Mo'olelo Theatre Company. --JoJo Yang
She thinks she can do more than dance
When the producers of the Fox reality show So You Think You Can Dance asked the remaining 14 dancers to tell viewers something we didn't already know about them, one said she was once a hair model, and another professed his love for designer sunglasses. Lauren Gottlieb grabbed the moment to inform America that she has an Asian alter-ego she has dubbed "Misha Chan." Sporting self-described "choppy" locks dyed jet black, the 18 year-old said "a million people" have asked her if she is Asian. Laughing, she then admitted to having changed the name at the top of her résumé to "Misha Chan" for some auditions. The brief video interview, played before she and dance partner Neil performed on stage, was even set to stereotypical "oriental" music. On the "So You Think You Can Dance" forum on Televisionwithoutpity.com, some fans said her remarks were insensitive. One fan wrote, "Although [Lauren] is young, she is old enough to know better than to promote stereotypes in a seemingly mocking manner... the stereotypical music in the background did not help." However, in the end, Lauren's remarks did not hurt her and Neil's popularity, as viewers voted them through another round. --Juliana Kiyan
Red threat, yellow fever, film noir
Revisiting Beijing 1947, Singaporean playwright Damon Chua presents Film Chinois, a noir-esque old Hollywood crime drama featuring the quintessential femme fatale Chinadoll (Elizabeth Pan) crossing paths, supposedly on accident, with an American CIA operative (Sean Dougherty). Joined by a Belgian ambassador (Frank Simmons) and Simone, a bar girl seeking transit papers (Joyce F. Liu), the cast wades its way through a dimly lit, cigarette smoke and gunshot filled scheme involving Maoist insurgents and a mystery film against the backdrop of a city in the midst of World War II and on the eve of communist takeover. Directed by Kevin Cochran, the play is showing at the Grove Theater Center in Burbank, California Thursday through Saturdays until July 21. --JoJo Yang
An Exhibit Dedicated to Akio Morita
From July 13 to September 9, 2007, the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles will have an Akio Morita exhibition -- with photographs, videos and other personal artifacts -- developed by his family members in celebration of his life and achievements. Morita, who passed away in 1999, was the co-founder and chairman of the board of Sony Corporation. Through Sony's global expansion, he aimed to develop closer ties between Japan and the rest of the world. In addition to his many accomplishments in the world of music, film, television, and electronics, he published a best-selling memoir titled Made in Japan in 1986. On July 15th, at the Japanese American National Museum in downtown LA, there will be a tribute concert by the Asia America Youth Orchestra to kickstart the exhibition. --Ada Tseng
Date Posted: 7/13/2007