Daily Archives: May 23, 2008

APA Month Day 23 – director Justin Lin

Chinese American director Justin Lin learned his trade form the UCLA Film School. The film that put him on the map was “Better Luck Tomorrow”. This film made waves at The Sundance Film Festival when a member of the audience asked how Justin & co. could “make a film as so empty and amoral for Asian Americans and for Americans”. Movie critic Roger Ebert stepped up and defended the film. In 2002, Justin made it on Variety Magazine’s “Ten Directors to Watch”. From independent films, he jumped into Hollywood films. His first studio picture was Annapolis, which was greeted with mixed reviews, but found an audience in DVDs. His next film was “The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift,” which took in almost $160 million worldwide. This was an amazing feat considering this was a whole new cast from the original “The Fast and the Furious”. Drifting became the “in” thing. Justin Lin went back to indie flix by directing the hilarious “Finishing the Game: The Search for a New Bruce Lee”. Currently, Justin Lin is filming “The Fast and the Furious 4”

Watch this short documentary “BUILDING A JOURNEY: FROM BETTER LUCK TOMORROW TO FINISHING THE GAME” – Part 1 of 3:

Part 2 of 3:

Part 3 of 3:

Se7en in California for Memorial Day weekend

Se7en will be partying it up in California this weekend. The plan for Se7en this weekend is party, autograph, party, autograph. He’ll start in San Francisco then move down to the Los Angeles area. Verizon is backing Se7en based on the the party support and locations he’s signing at.

San Francisco Party

1015

1015 Folsom Street

San Francisco, CA

Saturday, May 24 @ 2pm:

Verizon Wireless Autograph Signing

457 Westlake Center, Daly City, CA 94015

1 (650) 991-9901

Los Angeles Party

Ritual

1743 N Cuenga Blvd

Hollywood, CA

Monday, May 26 @ 2pm:

Verizon Wireless Autograph Signing

12603 Towne Center Dr, Cerritos, CA 90703

1 (562) 809-5650

Here’s Fancam footage from the Album Preview party Se7en had a few weeks back.

Esther Ku on Last Comic Standing

Korean American comedian Esther Ku spotted on Last Comic Standing. She auditioned and got into the next round of the show. She is no stranger to comedy, Esther Ku was selected as one of the ten best diverse comedians for the 2006 NBC Stand-up for Diversity Showcase. She has been a featured regular in the Boston International Comedy Festival and the New York Underground Comedy Festival. If you are in the New York area Memorial Day weekend, you can see her at:

Stand~Up NY

236 West 78th Street

New York, NY 10024

Watch part of her routine on Last Comic Standing

Watch the 2-minute recap of Last Comic Standing

Esther Ku Full Audition on Last Comic Standing

Vice President Bobby Jindal?

The Memorial Day guest list at Sen. John McCain’s Arizona home includes potential running mates – Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Could a McCain-Jindal ticket potentially combat a Obama-Clinton ticket? Race, gender, religion, age are all playing a role this election year. In the recent, APIA Vote Townhall, McCain was a no-show, Clinton had a pre-recorded video message, and Obama was live over the phone. Based on what we see in Asian American media, the APA vote is going with Obama. High profile APAs backing Obama include Eric Blyer, Kelly Hu, Lisa Ling, and Kal Penn. If Jindal was put in the mix, would the APA Vote shift? Let’s see what comes out of this VP BBQ weekend. This is a very interesting election year. Be sure to vote.

A few months ago Jindal was on The Tonight Show. Will there be a McCain-Jindal ticket?

Kelly Hu backing Obama in a Eric Blyer video

Kristin Kreuk in Street Fighter: Legend of Chun-Li

Street Fighter: Legend of Chun-Li has been filming in Thailand for the past few weeks. Not too much has been released about the film’s plot yet, but we do know that it revolves around Chun-Li’s quest for justice. While Capcom is keeping quiet on the script, the cast has been set:

Kristin Kreuk is Chun-Li

Moon Bloodgood is Det. Maya Sunee

Robin Shou is Gen

Josie Ho is Catana

Edmund Chen is Huang

Pei-Pei Cheng is Zhilan

The film is set to be released in 2009. Here’s some pix have surfaced over the past few weeks:

Krisitn Kreuk as Chun-Li. She doesn’t look like Chun-Li yet, but we’re sure future pix will have her in Chun-Li attire.

Moon Bloodgood as Det. Maya Sunee. This character is new to the Street Fighter universe. She’s Bangkok Gangland Homicide. A no-nonsense, fast-talking, half-Thai cop who rocks a Ducati and a set of gold cuffs. BTW – in real life, she is half Korean.

Robin Shou as Gen. He plays Chun-Li’s mentor in the movie. Previously, he was Liu Kang in the Mortal Kombat movie.

Watch some footage on the set of Street Fighter: Legend of Chun-Li:

Kristin Kreuk chilling on the beaches of Thailand.

You may recall Ming-Na Wen played Chun-Li before as well:

UPDATE: New images from the set

Kollaboration 5 in Chicago

Kollaboration 5 going down in Chicago. Music, dance, comedy, and more. Expected attendees include Far East Movement, Movie Director Michael Kang, Comedians Danny Cho & Sheng Wang, dance crews redefinition and nonstop, and more.

Kollaboration 5 is happening at:

Saturday, May 24, 2008

6:30pm – 9:30pm

Northshore Center for Performing Arts Theatre

9501 Skokie Blvd.

Skokie, IL

PERFORMERS

HOST: PK

BAND: Pas | Parts per Million.

DANCE: Redefinition | Nonstop.

VOCAL: Stacey | Jenna.

SINGER/SONGWRITER: Enoke | 4fret.

RAP: Cypha MC | Million Dollar Babies.

BATTLE

Freestyle Dance Battle (Open to anyone in the audience)

Freestyle Rap Battle (Open to anyone in the audience)

Acapella Singing Battle (Open to anyone in the audience)

Dance crew Redefinition at last year’s Kollaboration

Jenna Lee at Kollaboration IV