Justin Chon's Great Adventure

Sunday, January 24, 2010



Definitely an interesting article I was reading out in the Korea Times about Justin Chon including the following quotes:

Chon is regarded as being part of a new generation of Asian-American actors, who portray non-typecast characters ― being neither the agile Bruce Lee nor the nerdy Long Duk Dong (``Sixteen Candles'').
Nice to see that at least other people around the world are getting it. Now if we could only get some studio execs to see it too than we might be on the road less traveled by Tom Cruise Imitations (which coincidentally also has the acronym TMI, but I guess in this case could also be TMC as in Too Much Cruise, but then I wonder if people would get that confused with the television channel...).

While adequate roles for Asians are lacking, Chon suggested that Asian-American artists themselves ― filmmakers, actors, producers ― are also responsible.

``I went to an Asian film festival and the movies playing there were like `Joy Luck Club 20,''' he said, explaining that many Asian-American works have not evolved much since the 1989 book-turned-movie, ``Joy Luck Club,'' which portrays cultural and identity conflicts.
While I don't quite agree with what Chon says - because there's some great API film out there - we do always seem to come back to some JLC (which you know makes me weep).

Read out the full article here.