05.29.07
Posted in Uncategorized at 1:51 pm by albert_lim
Right: Grace Park (r) with fellow Canuck Kristin Kreuk on “Edgemont”
The Georgia Straight, a Vancouver weekly, reports on Asian Canadian women filmmakers and actresses who are redefining their ethnic identities onscreen. The article’s subjects include director Mina Shum, Sandra Oh, Grace Park and Olivia Cheng, who will play the lead in a biopic about Iris Chang.
Also, performers’ trade publication Back Stage carries actress Miki Yamashita’s story of her long, hard quest to get cast in the film version of an unnamed novel set in Japan. (No extra points for guessing “Memoirs of a Geisha.”)
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Posted in Uncategorized at 1:40 pm by albert_lim
Right: A concept design of the float, featuring the Beijing Olympic mascots
Next year, for the first time in its 119-year history, the Tournament of Roses parade in Pasadena, Calif., will feature a float from China.
The float will represent the nation and its hosting of the 29th Olympic Games in Beijing, and will be co-sponsored by the Roundtable of Southern California Chinese-American Organizations and Avery Dennison Corp.
The parade will take place on New Year’s Day 2008, but before that, Southern California will host a series of events to promote China-U.S. cooperation and showcase the float. Among the festivities: a performance at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium on Aug. 9 by a group of young artists specially flown in from Beijing, and two gala cultural performances at the Staples Center on Dec. 28 and 29.
The theme of the 2008 parade? “Passport to the World’s Celebrations.”
For more on the parade, visit the official site.
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05.25.07
Posted in Uncategorized at 2:03 pm by albert_lim
Right: Chow as Captain Sao Feng in “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End.”
After he hit career highs like “The Killer” and “Hard-Boiled” in Hong Kong, it’s not surprising to hear Chow Yun-Fat lament the racial barriers in Hollywood casting.
“In American society … Asian actors are not accepted as leading men. Maybe we have to wait for a few more years,” he said last week while on a publicity tour for “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” (opening today).
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Posted in Politics at 2:02 pm by albert_lim
Right: California Sen. Leland Yee at a public luncheon in San Diego
Here are some items on politicians making news:
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson has announced his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination. So you know, Richardson’s the one who fired scientist Wen Ho Lee from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1999, a few days after the New York Times suggested that the Taiwanese-born U.S. citizen had leaked nuclear secrets to China. (At the time, Richardson served as U.S. Energy Secretary.)
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Posted in Uncategorized at 2:01 pm by albert_lim
With all the gloom and doom flying around these days about China, here’s a refreshing perspective: Columnist Marcus Gee of The Globe and Mail, Canada’s leading newspaper, writes that although China deserves some blame in its dispute with Washington over trade, it’s no more a threat to America’s economy than Japan was in the ’80s.
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Posted in Uncategorized at 2:00 pm by albert_lim
Calling all aspiring actors in the L.A. area (basically, half the local population): James Hong, the every(Asian)man of film and TV, is giving a free seminar on the craft this Saturday, May 26, in L.A.
He’ll go over how to present yourself in front of an audience and how to get into show business (especially films), with casting director Joyce Tse appearing as a special guest. For RSVP info and other details, go here. (Tip of the hat to Angry Asian Man.)
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Posted in Uncategorized at 2:00 pm by albert_lim
Today and tomorrow, the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds in San Jose, Calif., is hosting Vesak, a celebration of Buddha’s birth in 563 B.C., his enlightenment and his death.
The event will include a parade, live music, re-enactments of scenes from Buddha’s life, dharma lectures, and a fireworks show. Organizers have invited 50 monks from around the U.S. and Asia.
Contact information is here, and San Jose Mercury News columnist L.A. Chung has more on the event here.
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Posted in Chinatown at 1:59 pm by albert_lim
The Associated Press reports that Honolulu’s revamped Chinatown might be the key to Oahu’s future and the city’s bid to transform itself from a tourist hub into a world-class city.
In Germany, news agency dpa reports that investors have presented plans to build a Chinatown in Oranienburg, a town near Berlin, aiming to draw tourists and business.
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Posted in Uncategorized at 1:58 pm by albert_lim
Right: Wong with Monica Bellucci and Zhang Ziyi at the Cannes Film Festival in 2006
The BBC reports that Wong Kar Wai and a dozen other top directors will sit on the board of the newly founded World Cinema Foundation, which will aim to rescue and restore early films from developing nations and the board members’ respective countries. A big part of Wong’s contribution will be hundreds of Chinese films that he found in a San Francisco warehouse, films that entertained Chinese workers who came to the U.S.
Wong said, “I think all these films have performed something very important, to link all the Chinese around the world because they have something to share.”
The Orange County Register catches up with filmmaker Justin Lin, who’s revisiting his indie roots with “Finishing the Game,” a mockumentary about the search for a Bruce Lee double.
At the Cannes Film Festival, Korean American filmmaker Lee Isaac Chung’s “Munyurangabo (Liberation Day)” is in the running for the Camera d’Or award for best debut feature. Chung’s film, about the Rwandan genocide and its effect on the country’s youth, went to Cannes as an Un Certain Regard selection — a film recognized for cultural expression, cinematic innovation and expression of the filmmaker’s personal vision. The winner will be announced May 27.
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