Father Geek here with our latest regular Thursday edition of The Asia-AICN Report... buuuuut first there is this bit I received here at my Geek Headquarters computer station here in Central Texas...
We would like to inform you of a film screening of Satyajit Ray's "Devi" with introduction by Oscar Nominee filmmaker, Gregory Nava (Selena, Mi Familia, El Norte & Frida).
See why Academy Award winner, Satyajit Ray, is hailed as one of the best filmmakers of all time by several world-class filmmakers such as Akira Kurosawa, Martin Scorsese, James Ivory and George Lucas.
Screening is part of "South Asian Film Day". Programming will also include screenings of several award-winning short films and full-length documentary, "Damage", that focuses on Arundhati Roy's controversial campaign agains the dams in Narmada Valley in India.
Saturday, November 16 at 4pm - 6363 Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood.
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Father Geek back just long enough to turn you over to our main far east editor, Darius25...
Asia-AICN
Hey all, welcome to another edition of Asia-AICN. This week we have news on “Kutumbh (Family)”, “Line of Control”, “Main Hoon Na (I’m Here)”, and a yet another Ram Gopal Verma film. We also have the latest report from the Hawaii International Film Festival, thanks to Ms. Moon-Yun Choi.
INDIA
- Amitabh Bachchan, who walked out of producer Firoz Nadiadwala’s “Police Force” recently, has left another of the producer’s upcoming projects – “Kutumb (Family). As a result of this unexpected event, the film has now been shelved indefinately. The project was a much hyped remake of “The Godfather”, with a star cast of Bachchan, along with Akshay Kumar and Abhishek Bachchan. The producer has now scrapped all plans to go through with the film, and will concentrate mainly on “Police Force” for the time being. The latter film stars Akshay Kumar, Sunil Shetty, Jackie Shroff, and Shatrughan Sinha (as Bachchan’s replacement).
- You’ve heard about the all-star male cast for director J.P. Dutta’s mega-epic “Line of Control”, now hear about the long line up of Bollywood’s hottest beauties. The female star cast is led by Kareena Kapoor (who was already confirmed), along with Raveena Tandon, Mahima Choudhary, Isha Kopikkar, Esha Deol, and Rani Mukherjee! And that list is not even complete yet!! And just in case you’ve forgotten about the main leads, they are: Sanjay Dutt, Ajay Devgan, Sunil Shetty, Nagarjuna, Manoj Bajpai, Saif Ali Khan, Abhishek Bachchan, Akshaye Khanna, and more. Since this is a male-dominated cast, you can expect most of the ladies to appear in minor roles for a brief flashback sequences and the occasional music number. All of the war scenes have been canned, and now only a few domestic scenes to need to be completed before the project heads into post-production. Dutta has set a tentative release date of June 13, 2002.
- The upcoming Shahrukh Khan-produced film marking the directorial debut of choreographer Farah Khan now has a name – “Main Hoon Na (I’m Here)”. The film will be jointly-produced by Dreamz Unlimited and Venus Music, and will star SRK, Kareena Kapoor, and Zayed Khan. Principal photography is set to begin in December.
- Current Ram Gopal Verma favourite Ajay Devgan has been joined the cast of the director’s upcoming film starring Akshay Kumar. Devgan was recently in Verma’s “Company” and is starring in the upcoming “Bhoot (Spirit)”, also directed by Verma. The director will go ahead with the Akshay Kumar action film early next year. Expect the female lead to be another Verma favourite – Urmila Matondkar.
HAWAII INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
Korean-American Experiences in the Entertainment Industry
Review of the seminar by Ms. Moon-Yun Choi
In recognition of the 100th Anniversary of Korean immigration to the United States, the Hawaii International Film Festival 2002 (HIFF) assembled "Spotlight on Korea" events.
One was a seminar on the "Korean-American Experiences in the Entertainment Industry" held the second day of the festival on Nov. 2. The purpose of the seminar was to discuss how being Korean-American influenced careers in the entertainment industry and to raise the question of whether there's a market for Korean stories.
The seminar began with a short clip that showed how Asians have been portrayed in Western cinema throughout the years. Some were cool like a clip from Bruce Lee's "Enter the Dragon." Others made you cringe.
The panelist included: ·
Moderator Deann Borshay Liem, who was the producer of "First Person Plural" and former Executive Director of the National Asian American Telecommunications Association. ·
Director Chris Chan Lee who directed "Yellow," which won the 1999 Golden Ring Award for Best Asian American Independent Film and the 1997 Gold Carp 1st Place Audience Award. ·
Director of Production and Development at Dimension Films Ken Park. ·
Former Miss Universe Brook Lee. ·
Writer/Director Greg Pak whose credits include "Robot Stories," "Fighting Grandpa," and "Po Mo Knock Knock." ·
Actor Rick Yuen of "Snow Falling on Cedars," "The Fast and the Furious," and "Die Another Day."
I have to start with Rick Yuen because of the impression he made upon me when he was here a few HIFF years ago promoting "Snow Falling On Cedars," in which he made his feature acting debut.
His Korean-American experience that led him to where he is now starts off like this: "I graduated from (Ivy League) Wharton School of Business, was discovered by a modeling scout on the school campus, became the first Asian Versace and Ralph Lauren model, worked as a stock broker on Wall Street, got tired of making money, felt like getting into movies, and got his first acting job in a critical role - "Cedars."
That totally cracked me up, not that I mean it in a disrespectful way, but how did this guy get to do all this stuff? Furthermore, he spoke so casually about it that he could have been talking about road mechanics.
Then I read in a magazine after I had listened to him speak that he was also an Olympic fencer. Puh-lease!! Can we call the zookeepers to put this guy out for a while so the rest of us can catch up?
The panel's perspective on where Koreans are in the entertainment industry today ranges on the level of success each panelist has reached in Hollywood. I liked Yuen's model of the entertainment industry being first and foremost a business. He sees himself as a "product," manages his image as carefully as a corporation would their "brand" and said the way for Koreans or anyone to make it is (the obvious) - have a commercial or critically lauded vehicle.
(It goes without saying that we also want artistic expression but when filmmakers make the movie only for themselves, not a lot of other people would connect to it, a Hollywood representative told me later that day.)
For Yuen, he says that once he broke through in Hollywood, he's had non-Asian scripts come his way. His experience as an Asian in the movie industry hasn't been negative.
Hawaii's Brook Lee is what we call in Hawaii "hapa haole," or mixed ethnicity. In Hawaii, "hapa haole" women are considered among the most beautiful. At least that's been my experience growing up here. Lee says Hollywood lumps all Asians into one lump. Because of her exotic features, she's not given Asian roles but ones something a Penelope Cruz would turn down.
Lee made an offhand comment about having a career like Lucy Liu, who she had worked with on the actress' latest film "Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever."
Lee wasn't badmouthing the actress, but shared her observation that even though Liu is now a big star in which she can have roles accommodate her ethnicity, Liu will still have to do martial arts and carry a whip.
EVEN THOUGH Liu will have to do kung fu and sashay with a S & M whip? Growing up watching "Karate Girl I, II, III" and other Asian-made martial arts movie, women warriors come across to me as so noble. And the whip gag in "Charlie's Angels" is hilarious.
I don't think those two provisions are something Liu has to "live with" in order to get good roles, unless she's sick of them.
It's interesting to see a lot more mainstream movies being made with American and European actors doing martial arts, sometimes whether it makes sense or not to have it in the movie.
Take for instance "Brotherhood of the Wolves," a French movie that was a crossover success. The filmmaker put in martial arts fight scenes even though it was a period piece set in 18th-entury France. For those who haven't seen it, think "Three Musketeers" with tae kwon do.
Lee thinks Asian films will be the next wave. First we had stories about the black American experience, and then the Latinos as Hollywood tried to cover all demographics. The Asia demographic isn't as huge as the Latino, therefore there's less incentive for the studio execs to pump out movies about the Korean experience but Lee sees that as changing.
Ken Park would like to feel he's one of the instigators for change. As a Director of Production and Development, he'd like to pave the way for the next generation of Asian filmmakers and actors. Like almost all Korean family, his parents wanted him to be a doctor or a lawyer, not this "movie thing." Park managed to make it in the business. He says the parents need to relax and let their kids follow their dreams. It's best to start early because in order to get your foot in the door and prove yourself to the higher brass, you have to do a lot of grunt work in the beginning couple of years of your career.
Park says, for now, there isn't a large market for Korean story movie. The main problem is how to convince studio executives, for example, that a Korean film he's proposing is going to make $30 million.
That's where we have independent Korean-American filmmakers to fill the gap. Greg Pak showed clips of his first feature, "Robot Stories," which is appearing at HIFF. And he also showed his short, "Asian Pride Porn," whose message is to not take the whole Asian pride thing too seriously.
Another way to fill in the gap is to work overseas. I'm not saying that's the reason why award-winning film writer/director Chris Chan Lee was working in Singapore. After reading that he recently directed three English-language primetime shows in Singapore that gave me the idea.
Brook Lee also recently worked in Singapore, where she directed, produced, and hosted a show called "The Men's Room."
And then there's Yuen. He told his representative he wanted to be in a Bond movie, his rep made some calls, and there he is, appearing in the 20th installment of the Bond franchise. Oh yes, his rep added, Yuen does martial arts, too. Grrrrr.
Screenwriters and Producers Panel”
During the Screenwriters and Producers Panel on how to break into the film industry held during the Hawaii International Film Festival (HIFF) 2002, an attractive blond woman stands up and takes her turn at the microphone to ask one of the panelists her question.
Her question is directed at John Stockwell, co-writer and director of “BLUE CRUSH” and director of “CRAZY/BEAUTIFUL.” The woman starts off by saying that she recently moved to Hawaii, has only been in the islands for a few months and has been working as a production assistant on an infomercial. “John,” she asks out of what may have sounded like desperation but came from really wanting it, “can I have a job?” Her voice wavered at the end.
“Come talk to me after the conference,” Stockwell said in a “sure I’ll help you out because that’s why I’m here” manner.
Without having to be told in a step by step instruction on “how to break into the industry,” we just witnessed a good case study. She came to an event where she’d be able to make contact with high-powered filmmakers and just came out and asked for what she wanted.
Another woman came up with a question regarding her screenplay. She said she has written her screenplay but who is going to read it? Chris Lee, former president for TRI STAR PICTURES and COLUMBIA PICTURES stepped up to the plate and said he’d read it. He got a round of applause from the audience. It shows that these “just ask (gently and with good timing) method” does work. But please make sure your script is good and looks professionally done.
Margaret South, co-founder with “Hawaii girl” Bette Midler and Bonnie Bruckheimer of All Girl Productions, advises to take it one step further if you can. Make movies with the digital cameras that are out in the market these days. They produce almost professional like images. With a lot of imagination, you stretch your production scenes even though you may not have the budget for a lot different settings.
Richard Holland, who has been a screenwriter and producer for over twenty years, and Frank South, writer, story editor and producer, concur to make your own movie or write that screenplay, even though you live in Hawaii. Just get it done and show it to someone like Chris Lee if you can get it into his hands.
Lee kept referring to a local filmmaker who gave him his material several years ago. Back then, it was just O.K. but now he’s grown into substantive filmmaker that made him stand up and take notice. Lee seems satisfied to find a talent from Hawaii. He even admitted that during his days at TRI STAR PICTURES and COLUMBIA PICTURES he’d have a soft spot for Hawaii submissions.
Lee is what we call in Hawaii “a local boy” who makes good and comes back home to Hawaii. He is founding Co-Director of the Cinematic and Digital Arts Program at the University of Hawaii. He said he was impressed by the “enthusiasm” people in Hawaii showed about having a film school in Hawaii. He’d like his program to be a driving force behind more films made about the indigenous people of Hawaii and the Pacific Rim. His vision for the school’s program is to have a strong anime creation and interactive video games.
At the end of the panel, I saw the gutsy blond approach Stockwell and he graciously received her among the attendees who are mobbing him. Hopefully, it will lead into something for her. And if not, the other lesson from the panel was “let it go and move on to the next.” Stockwell’s next project in Hawaii is a T.V. program called “THE BREAK.” It’s a T.V. show for FOX with Brian Grazer as its producer.
For pics from the panel, please click here: See Them Here
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