Best Asian American Music Videos

"Ain't No Sunshine" By Tatum Jones

I think what I really liked about this video was that they could have done something completely predictable - but they didn't - and I liked that.



"Say It Again" By Marie Digby

This was just a fun, quirky, well produced pop video, and you really couldn't ask for anything more for a debut video from a YouTube star who made it big.



Blue Scholars "Coffee And Snow"

A late entry for the post it was just a smooth vibe with a slick video to match.



"Elephants" By Rachael Yamagata

Dark. Moody. Shot really well. I just couldn't leave this off the list.



"Bag of Hammers" By Thao with the Get Down Stay Down

While I went back and forth between this and Shanghai Restoration's "Miss Shanghai" and "Pace of Light", in the end, this just won me over.



Honorable Mentions: "Dance Like Michael Jackson" By Far*East Movement, "Miss Shanghai" and "Pace Of Light" By Shanghai Restoration, "Kokoro (I Fall to Pieces)" By The Slants, "Be Easy (Koi Naa)" By Nivla, "My Time With You" By Kina Grannis and David Choi.

Best Autistic Hero Who Channeled Tony Jaa And Sounded Like Bruce Lee

Yanin Vismistananda as Zen in Chocolate



Seriously people, I talked about this film earlier in the year and really - this was one of the best damn action flicks I've seen in all of '08 hands down, and I just had to give it its own award.

Directed by Prachya Pinkaew and choreographed by Panna Rittikrai, the Thai flick stars Yanin "Jeeja" Vismistananda who plays the autistic character Zen (and does it without any stunt double) who basically kicks everyone's ass non-stop throughout the whole movie to keep her family intact. And like I said before - if you get the chance, definitely check it out and then once you've seen, watch it again because it really is just that damn good.

* While once being a big brother to a little guy with autism doesn't make me immune from marginalizing anyone even if I don't think I am - I did think about the title of the post/award in that regard - so try not to beat me down too much if you really have issues with it.

Get Your Act On: "La Petite" Open Casting Call

UPDATE: The address has changed for the first casting call address. It is no longer at the Vietnamese Voluntary Foundation but at 1259 Summer Blossom Ave, San Jose, CA 95122.

For all you that want to get into film, check out the information below on the casting call for what looks to be a promising movie that I'm looking foward to seeing when it's done.



Story

In her short story, "At Ma's Salon", Huong Nguyen summarizes, "This shop's four walls endure, preserve and hold in all the emotions of every woman who has ever walked in." Published in August 2003 in the Silicon Valley De-Bug journal, the text and image of the story inspired the director to develop a short screenplay based loosely on the characters and conversations seen and heard in a hair salon.

Immediately, when the director visited La Petite Salon, she was ignited by the surroundings, the wall palette, the furniture materials, and the exclusive location. The remote space shed light on the multitude of Vietnamese images, characters, and dialogue that are evidence of the invisibility of Vietnamese Americans in American media. La Petite Salon is a reflection of her connection with the Vietnamese community. In turn, the project will convey the complexities and the struggles of Vietnamese Americans who are negotiating between two different cultures, sometimes at odds with each other, sometimes opposite, but always challenging.

La Petite Open Casting Call

Auditions:

Saturday, January 10, 2009
from 12:00 PM to 5:00 PM
1259 Summer Blossom Ave, San Jose, CA 95122

Sunday, January 11, 2009
from 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM
1259 Summer Blossom Ave, San Jose, CA 95122

Callbacks:

Saturday, January 17, 2009
from 12:00 PM to 5:00 PM
1259 Summer Blossom Ave, San Jose, CA 95122

Please submit headshot/photo and résumé via email with subject heading, "La Petite Salon" Audition, to LaPetiteSalon [at] gmail [dot] com.

For more information and descriptions of the roles, check out the film's site here.

Most Hyped Asian American Comedy I Just Didn't Like As Much As I Thought I Would

Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay



It's not that I didn't like the movie - it was fine in its own right and obviously I was glad to see Asian Americans on the big screen in a big budget flick - but for some odd reason I just couldn't get into it as much as I thought I would. Maybe it was because it didn't have lines like "Better Luck Tomorrow" in it, or that the idea of NPH as a sex crazed lunatic just didn't have the same surprise factor as the first, or that Bush 2 looked like he was from a wax museum -- or maybe I just really love White Castle so much that I just couldn't find enough love in my heart for a Harold and Kumar who weren't trying to make it their end game.

Who knows though.

Maybe in time it'll grow on me.

MV: Cannibal Rabbit

Just in case you need something loud to get you going (or through the rest of the week), you might want to give Cannibal Rabbit a try.

Here's their MV for "M".

Pham, 14 Days, Victor Vu, And Untitled Love Story

Here's a good article down at Vietnam News that mentioned The Chanh Phuong Film Studio (who produced The Rebel) and Victor Vu's new film Untitled Love Story.

The Chanh Phuong Film Studio, which produced Vietnam’s well-known action thriller The Rebel in 2007, also has plans for a TV series, according to the studio’s manager, Jimmy Nghiem Pham, an overseas Vietnamese.

"We want to diversify our productions as the Vietnamese film industry is attractive to overseas film makers," Pham said. "Our TV series will be screened over HTV Channel 3 in co-operation with Tri Viet Media Company."

The Chanh Phuong Film Studio recently completed the film 14 Days which will be screened at cinemas around the country during this month’s Tet (Lunar New Year) holidays. The film is about 14 days an overseas Vietnamese spent when he returned to his native land for the first time.

Pham is one among several overseas Vietnamese filmmakers returning home to make films over the last few years. Their productions have won the hearts of audiences in Viet Nam and abroad with their innovative themes and content. Many young actors have been cast in the lead roles of recent TV series and their performances have won audience acclaim.

Tang Thanh Ha, who became famous in serials like Doc Tinh (Slope of Romance) and Huong Phu Sa (Scent of Alluvium), screened on HTV some years ago was invited to play the lead role in Suddenly Want To Cry directed by Vu Ngoc Dang.

"Seeing Ha perform so naturally in Scent of Alluvium, I decided to offer her the lead role in my new series, " Dang said. Young model Ngoc Diep’s charming performances in the series Hoa Da Quy (Wild Sunflowers) impressed viewers.

She was invited to act in the film Chuyen Tinh Xa Xu (Untitled Love Story) with young models Binh Minh and Huy Khanh. Untitled Love Story is produced by 33-year-old Victor Vu, a Vietnamese-American filmmaker in co-operation with Viet Nam’s InFocus Media.

The film, which is scheduled to be screened at cinemas this month, has scenes shot in both Viet Nam and the US.

Read it in full here.

Go Go Mayer Allan Fong

Damn straight people - we really are taking over the world. And sure, even though he's a Republican, he's still the first Asian American Mayor of Rhode Island.

Check it:

As he waited to be sworn in last night, Allan W. Fung sat on the stage of the Cranston High School East auditorium and listened to speeches from two of Rhode Island’s most familiar figures.

Governor Carcieri and state Supreme Court Justice Frank J. Williams have had their differences at times, but they found common ground as they talked about the man who was about to be sworn in as Cranston’s 20th mayor.

Fung, they said, is taking office at a time of unprecedented challenge. But he is someone who has the ability to rise to the occasion.

The comments drew applause from some 400 who attended the city’s 52nd mayoral inauguration, but the loudest cheers of the night were reserved for Fung, first as he took the stage, then after he was sworn in, and finally as he stood on the stage with his parents, who came to the United States from China in 1969.

“You have been here for all the special occasions in my life,” he told his parents, Kwong Wen and Tan Ping Fung, and his two sisters, Anna and Arlene, who were sitting in the front row.

The inauguration was a special night for Fung and his family, and also for Cranston and the state, with Fung — a Republican who will work with an all-Democratic City Council — taking the executive reins of Rhode Island’s third-largest city. He is the first Asian-American mayor in the state’s history.

Read the full article down at The Providence Journal.

And Say Goodbye To Richardson

Just saw this down at the San Jose Mercury News:

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson abandoned his nomination to become commerce secretary under pressure of a grand jury investigation into a state contract awarded to his political donors — an investigation that threatened to embarrass President-elect Barack Obama.

Richardson insisted he would be cleared in the investigation, and Obama stood by the governor as an "outstanding public servant." But both men said it has become clear that a grand jury probe would not be finished in time for Richardson's confirmation hearings and could keep him from filling the post in a timely matter.

Richardson's withdrawal was the first disruption of Obama's Cabinet process and the second "pay-to-play" investigation that has touched Obama's transition to the presidency. The president-elect has remained above the fray in both the case of arrested Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and the New Mexico case.

A federal grand jury is investigating how CDR Financial Products, a Beverly Hills company that contributed to Richardson's political activities, won a New Mexico transportation contract worth nearly $1.5 million.

I think the saying is "The ball don't lie".

Worst South Korean And Jeon Ji-Hyun (or Gianna Jun) Film Of 2008

A Man Once A Superman



A Man Once A Superman was supposed to be Jeon Ji-Hyun's comeback film of 2008 after the Andrew Lau helmed flick Daisy (which I actually thought was good). At the same time, Jeon Ji-Hyun - with her name change to Gianna Jun for U.S. audiences - is also making her American film debut in Blood: The Last Vampire this year.

For all intents and purposes this '08 and '09 was supposed to be the year that Jeon got back into the saddle and wow'd audiences both in her native South Korea and abroad in the U.S.

If anyone was going to pull off a simultaneous "comeback" as well as successful American debut it was going to be her.

But you gotta wonder what's going to happen now if Blood: The Last Vampire makes her a star over here and people decide to catch up on her South Korean movies.

Think they might be shocked if they see this one?

Yeah - I think they might.

Now I'm not going to pin this solely on Ji-Hyun. That wouldn't be fair. But I also can't absolve her or anyone else on the set either because everyone should get this - and I highly doubt no one new about it until someone said "action" and the dude just sprouted out from nowhere, or that no one knew how bad this really was.

But let's also be careful

While I obviously have issues with the film because of the blackface, let's be clear about one thing though - one movie doesn't make a whole race of people - so let's not start stereotyping whole groups of people abroad (or here for that matter) because of one film.

Let's just call the blackface in the film for what it is - fucked up.

And where were you?

At the same time I can't help but wonder how come not one review of this film ever brought it up - not even a mention.

Did they think it was just a South Korean actor with a really badass makeup like tan?

Project Wall-to-Wall

To be honest, I'm not exactly sure how everything's supposed to work and eventually what it's actually going to look like - but if you're interested in getting involved in a project, checkout Project Wall-to-Wall, started by Karynn Ikeda, a student majoring in Modern Culture and Media down at Brown University because it sounds like it could be interesting if enough people can get behind it.

Here's some info from her site down at karinko.net:

I began Wall-to-Wall focused on this idea of Asian/Asian American community. When I began sharing the project with others in early December, I saw the project’s potential to reach out universally and speak to an audience beyond Asian America. At its core, Wall-to-Wall is an inquiry into how we as human beings conceptualize identity and community. It seeks to create a collective understanding of ourselves while still recognizing individual voices. It is premised on the questions of “Who are we?” and “Where do we belong?” Although I would like to honor the context from which this project arose, I am also present to the fact that I will only disserve the project by trying to limit it to a particular community.

The Project: I want an easy way for people to reflect on these questions and for these reflections to be available in a public form.

Part 1: online collaborative document. Create a Facebook group and ask people to respond to topics and questions on the wall. After a certain cut-off date, publish people’s responses in a physical form.

Part 2: offline bathroom installment. Cover the doors of bathroom stalls and other public places with paper, and invite people to write on them.

Part 3: public exhibition. Hold an event to showcase the Facebook wall and bathroom graffiti. Cover the walls of the event space with people’s responses.

This collective art project is meant to inspire people to think about the above questions, rather than to provide any definitive answers.

Timeline: Spring 2009.

Participatation: There are lots of easy ways to participate! Here’s a few:

- contribute your ideas and suggestions to improve the project
- tell your friends about the project
- brainstorm topics and questions for parts 1 and 2 of the project
- document the project with your camera
- design materials for print and web
- hang posters and advertise for project
- coordinate logistics
- recruit others to help with the project
- anything else you can think of!

If you would like to help, send an email to walltowall.project@gmail.com.

You can also:

1. Join the facebook group.
2. Browse through past updates.
3. Subscribe to the blog.

Participants:
AASA
VISIONS

Here she is talking about the project on YouTube.

Trailer: Up In Da Club

Here's the trailer from Wong Fu Productions' new short series (coming soon) Up In Da Club. Not quite sure how it's going to turn out - and the trailer doesn't give us a lot to go off of, but it looks like it could be worth the watch.

Best Asian American Comedy With Ping Pongs -- And Really Cute Kids Who Drop The F-Bomb

Ping Pong Playa



While you definitely have to give a lot of credit to director Jessica Yu and stars Smith Cho and Jimmy Tsai for giving us a laugh out loud Asian American comedy - without Felix (Andrew Vo) and his clan of prepubescent friends looking for an escape from their parents after-school grip, it just wouldn't have been - well - as good - and really, the story would have fell apart too. So let that be a lesson to everyone out there looking to make an Asian American comedy. If all else fails, just get a character like Felix to drop the F-bomb.

*The DVD comes out January 6th

Interview: Nami Mun And Miles From Nowhere

Check out the interview with author Nami Num down at SF Metblogs:

In Nami Mun’s debut novel Miles from Nowhere, the protagonist Joon is a Korean-American Justine, forever suffering pain and injuries at the hands of family, friends, lovers and strangers. Everything she touches turns to dust: when she feeds a starving mutt, she inadvertently kills it by feeding it fried chicken, the bones of which pierce its intestines. She survives — barely — a teen shelter, drug addiction, an abusive family, and faithless boyfriends, before finally cleaning up and moving on.

The book is set in New York and Mun now lives in Chicago. But she graduated from UC Berkeley and was a member of an East Bay writers group for some time, so that makes her a home girl here. She’s on a book tour and will appear Wednesday at 6:00 pm at Book Passage in the San Francisco Ferry Building. After the jump, she answers some questions I put to her through her publicist.

Cool.

Here's another link to a USA Today bio.

Another Casting Call

Do with it what you will:

Urgent casting call for independent short film!

Characters are: Mother, Asian American, age appearance 35-45.
Daughter, Asian American, age appearance 10-12.
Son, Asian American, age appearance 9-11.

Go here to check out more (although I think you have to sign-up to see more details).

Street Fighter, The Legend Of Chun-Li, And The Japanese Trailer

Just in case you were curious.

Biggest Diss Of An Asian American Writer

Maxine Hong Kingston And Obama on O'ahu



When you've been awarded the National Humanities Medal (selected by a sitting President of the United States), won multiple awards for your writing, and carry the title of "Living Treasure of Hawaii" - you'd think you could at least get something published in a newspaper.

Apparently though that wasn't the case this year because every single newspaper that Maxine Hong Kingston sent Obama on O'ahu too - after it was known that she would be winning The National Book Foundation's Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters award - rejected her.

Rejected a National Humanities Medal Award winner who just won a National Book Foundation Award.

Just think about that for a second and then ask yourself if you think that would have happened to someone like John Updike.

Probably not.

And sure, even though she published it herself and got some great buzz and recognition (in her own words rejuvenating her) I still can't help but wonder why she even needed to do that in the first place.

--

Check out the links here, here, and here for the original piece, comments, reprints, and editorials, as well as this link to her acceptance speech for her National Book Foundation Award.

AsianWeek: Hoping For The Best

If you haven't heard by now - AsianWeek is ceasing it's regular print publication but still remaining a voice online as well as with special editions and doing outreach in the community, and for me at least, I'm glad to see that they'll be continuing on in some form, because regardless of hiccups here and there - you can't really judge one publication or media outlet by one person or one story or even a few of them. If you've ever worked at a newspaper, magazine - any media outlet which has more than two people you know that not everything goes as planned and that sometimes, things slip through the cracks.

The bottom line though is that they've had a lot of great Asian American voices who are out there trying to help ensure that as a community - as Asian Americans - we're not just at the mercy of large print and media outlets who more often than not don't care to cover us - and like I said - at least for me - I'm glad they've been out there trying to give a face to Asian Americans - even if everything didn't always go as planned.

So AsianWeek, hopefully 2009 treats you a little better and good luck to everyone who's continuing on in some form or another and to those that have given their time and effort to a worthwhile endeavor.

Best (Or Worst) "Burma: It Can't Wait" Video That Reminded Me Of Porn But Still Didn't Make Me Soil My Pants

Tila Tequila - Hot for Teacher



While the campaign itself didn't do so great as far as votes were concerned (I think they're still stuck around 52,000) you still have to give it up for what they were doing and the energy put in trying to get the word out, and while we all might have our own opinions about Tila Tequila - at least now there's over a million people who know where Burma is on a map.

Tadashi Nakamura, Chris Iijima, And A Song For Ourselves

If you get a chance to check it out, it definitely looks like a worthwhile view on the life and the music of the late Asian American activist Chis Iijima with live performances by Blue Scholars, Bambu, Kiwi and special guest artist Nobuko Miyamoto & Charlie Chin.

Tickets go on sale this month for the premiere which is going to be February 28th at 7:30 PM.

$10 General Admission
$8 Students, Seniors, Groups 10+
$7 JACCC Members
Limited $50 VIP Tickets

Here's Tadashi Nakamura's Director's Statement on the film:

The Asian American Movement not only worked for social justice, it created the community into which I was born and raised. When I asked what the early movement was like, my mom simply played an old record for me. This was my first introduction to Chris Iijima. When I got to know Chris myself, rather than seeing him as an OG from the past, I looked up to him as a role model for the present. When Chris got sick, the community that was created over thirty years ago came together from all parts of the country to care for him and his family in a way that made me realize the lasting power of the Movement. A Song For Ourselves is my attempt to capture the essence of this community I am grateful and proud to be a part of.

For more on the film check out the page down at the JACCC and A Song For Ourselves blog.

Here's a link to an article remembering Chris Iijima.

This Is Who We Are? Having The Highest Suicide Rate In The 25-34 Category?

When I read stories about how our community has the highest percentage of suicide rates in the 25-34 category due to high expectations I just have a few things to say:

1. Getting your Ph.D is great, but look at some of the best our society has bred - all college dropouts.

2. Making partner at your firm is something that might be in your sights - and it's a good goal - but if you don't make it to become the first Asian American partner in your firm by the time your 30, don't think too much about it. Those other people are going to die off sooner or later, and when they do - you'll be ready to take their still warm seat.

3. So you didn't make it into that Ivy League school your parents had their heart set on. In this economy, you're just doing them a favor - but really - this is their fault anyway. I know that'll be a tough sell (and you might want to have a backup place to stay if you go that route with them) - but in time, they'll realize that it was their own parenting habits that created the mess that they thought you were - and in the meantime - you'll do amazing things at that state school they thought was beneath them, make friends with a political wunderkind, and the next thing you know you'll be taking office with your parents by your side during the press conference, and afterwards (when they're boasting to their friends about you) you'll secretly be smiling when you hear about those other folks who have a mountain of student loans and are losing their hair because of all the malpractice suits they're involved in.

4. If you don't have the biggest T.V., the most expensive car, a huge house/condo/apartment, you haven't been saving for retirement like you know you should, your kids are killing you and you're significant other isn't helping out either - and it's kind of making you depressed keeping you up at night -- at least your name isn't Madoff - and really - there's a lot to be said for that.