IMMANUEL PORTUS WRITES — Following the slew of “Asian movies” that have been gaining traction this year, such as “The Farewell” and “Yellow Rose,” comes a defining one from none other than the Marvel Cinematic franchise. “Shang-Chi” is widely touted as Hollywood’s first Asian Superhero movie (with emphasis on the…
Full Article ASIAN MOVIES: A MARVEL-OUS BREAKTHROUGH? OR YET ANOTHER SON OF FU MANCHU?
IMMANUEL PORTUS WRITES — On May 2 the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival opened its first night with a film that took home the Grand Jury Prize soon after: “Yellow Rose,” helmed by director Diane Paragas and starring Tony winner Lea Salonga and Tony nominee Eva Noblezada— all prominent…
Full Article MOVIE REVIEW: ‘YELLOW ROSE’ BLOSSOMS BEYOND THE PHILIPPINES
ASIA MEDIA WRITES – The Farewell, a knockout of controlled emotion, is in effect a cinema Chekhov with Chinese characteristics. From young to old, the superb ensemble cast of the powerful Lulu Wang directed movie absolutely nails so many deep states of human emotion. With awe and modesty,Asia Media’s International…
Full Article THE FAREWELL: ‘A CINEMA CHEKHOV WITH CHINESE CHARACTERISTICS’
Directed by Leon Le, the movie Song Lang, set in 90s Saigon, begins with Dung “Thunderbolt”, a debt collector, meeting Linh Phung, a cải lương (Vietnamese opera) actor. When Dung sees Linh Phung on stage, Dung was instantly pulled back to the past he has long been trying to ignore…
Full Article VIETNAM: Film ‘Song Lang’ has a refreshing take on ‘queer love’
IMMANUEL PORTUS WRITES- The 35th Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival ushered in a myriad of untold stories within the backdrop of the Asian-American canvas. Waves of audiences lavished applause as every film took its place and breathed color into every every nook, cranny, and fold of the cinematic canvas. And in…
Full Article Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival: Happy Cleaners – a Happy Review
YI NING WONG WRITES — The month of May marks Asian Pacific Heritage Month. Last week, I had the opportunity to chat with team members from a recent animation about street foods, culture, and family in Hong Kong: Front of the House. Director Sum Yi “Ashley” Ma and Sound Director…
Full Article Film: An Ode to Hong Kong Street Food and Family
Chantal Nong talks about her experiences with Crazy Rich Asians and the movie’s impact on film awards. Nong is an executive producer at Warner Brothers. She recently oversaw the production of Crazy Rich Asians. She has now moved over to DC to be the VP of Production. She attended USC…
Full Article Los Angeles: Why Didn’t Crazy Rich Asians Get Nominated?
YUXIN ZHOU WRITES — On April 2, the Chinese TV drama series “All is Well” ended. The show was about a typical Chinese family, in which, yes, (as the title suggests) all is well. Is it? While the show features an ordinary Chinese family, in one episode Mingyu (played by…
Full Article China: Modern Chinese Women Struggle in Problematic Family relationship Caused by Parents’ Gender Preference
AASHNA MALPANI WRITES– Kollaboration, a non-profit, hosted the EMPOWER conference last week. The organization held its fifth annual event on March 23 and 24 at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles. The two-day symposium aims at bringing people across all communities together to learn more about filmmaking, music…
Full Article LOS ANGELES: EMPOWER 2019, A CUTTING-EDGE ASIAN-AMERICAN ‘KOLLABORATION’
PAULA MARKOW WRITES– Outfest Fusion, a film festival that showcases the LGBTQ community, ran from March 1 to 5 at the Chinese Theatre, offering an array of short films. One segment that caught my attention was a series of shorts about the LGBT community in India. The first short, Yaman,…
Full Article LGBTQ: The Indian Films From Outfest You Need to See
“You can’t keep living for other people, you know. No one is going to win like that.” Hana defies every norm: as a full-time student studying math, and the daughter of an immigrant, she is also a daughter caring for her ill mother, a part-time worker at her family’s Korean…
Full Article KOREA: Fish Bones Review — Family Expectations and Individual Aspirations
CONOR FAIRTLOUGH WRITES — You’ve probably never seen the Japanese animation “Kimi no Nawa” (Your Name), but if you are a film critic, chances are you haven’t stopped hearing about it. The 2016 feature, directed by Makoto Shinkai, is not only currently the highest grossing anime and Japanese film, but…
Full Article JAPAN: Is the ‘Western Viewpoint’ of Japanese Film, Kimi no Nawa, white-washing?
ASIA MEDIA INTERNATIONAL WRITES – If you can’t stand scenes depicting violence against women, stay away from “Wajma: An Afghan Love Story.” Filmed in 2013 on a budget as small as they get, and now released on DVD, this was Afghanistan’s submission to the 86th Oscars for Best Foreign Language…
Full Article MOVIE REVIEW: FROM AFGHANISTAN … NO WESTERN-STYLE LOVE STORY, FOR SURE – BUT ‘WAJMA’ HAS THE FEEL OF A MINOR CLASSIC
IMMANUEL PORTUS WRITES- Purple and scarlet lights illuminated Stage 4’s facade at Sunset Las Palmas Studios during the event of New Filmmakers Los Angeles on October 6th, a film festival that aims to celebrate LA’s heritage and identity. Emerging creative voices such as LA filmmakers Rona Par and Mengfang Yang drew…
Full Article Film: Celebrating Diversity and Resilience through Cinematic Arts
ANDREA PLATE WRITES: The fine-art fingerprints of Debra Granik, director of 2010’s “Winter’s Bone,” are all over her stunning new movie “Leave no Trace,” recently released on DVD. Both set the stage for breakout young actresses—“Trace’s” star, Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie is just eighteen — Jennifer Lawrence was around twenty when…
Full Article NEW ZEALAND: ANOTHER CHAMP FROM CAMPION-LAND
ALEXIS CRUZ WRITES — Over the past year there has been an influx of films featuring minority actors and themes. Black Panther continues to rake in money, and Pixar’s Coco (2017) won Best Animated Feature at the 2018 Oscars. This month, we have Crazy Rich Asians, based on Kevin Kwan’s…
Full Article FILM: Crazy Rich Asians Review