Daily Archives: June 20, 2008

72 Hour Film Shootout begins

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The 5th Annual 72 Hour Film Shootout kicks off now. Teams only have 72 hours (June 20-23, 2008) to write, shoot, edit, and complete short films up to five minutes in length. This weekend will be a busy for shootout teams. Judges for the competition include Sung Kang (Finishing the Game, Fast and Furious 3: Tokyo Drift, Ninja Assassin) and Benson Lee (Planet B-boy).

The theme for the 2008 72 Hour Film Shootout is “A first goodbye”. Also the competition has added a separate award category sponsored by The Museum of Chinese in America’s (MOCA) Chinatown Film Project. If you include Chinatown as location or narrative device in your film, you are eligible to be considered for the “Chinatown Award”

Good Luck to everyone!!!

Here’s Tanju Chopra (Punching at the Sun) giving you some motivation

Subway Cinema – New York Asian Film Festival

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If you are in NYC, check out this film festival. It kicks off today. There’s a great line up of films. The opening film is Ryo Iwamatsu’s Then Summer Came. Check it out tonite.

Launched in 2002, Subway Cinema‘s New York Asian Film Festival (NYAFF) is one of America’s leading and most influential showcase for popular Asian cinema. Each year, the Festival selects over 30 feature films, considering only the best, the strangest, and the most entertaining of the recent titles.

The New York Asian Film Festival’s intimate atmosphere allows for a personal and relaxed interaction between the audience and the filmmakers, which is all but lost at larger film events. Festival guests do everything from conducting Q&A’s, to giving away prizes and even putting on puppet shows!

Watch the trailer for the New York Asian Film Festival

Masi Oka in Get Smart

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Masi Oka’s talent knows no limit. Here’s a article from the LA Times about the secret Masi Oka. In Get Smart, Masi Oka plays Bruce, who is teamed up with Nate Torrence as Lloyd. Together they steal the scenes in comedic sub-plot of the film.

Get Smart synopsis

Maxwell Smart is on a mission to thwart the latest plot for world domination by the evil crime syndicate known as KAOS. When the headquarters of U.S. spy agency Control is attacked and the identities of its agents compromised, the Chief has no choice but to promote his ever-eager analyst Maxwell Smart, who has always dreamt of working in the field alongside stalwart superstar Agent 23. Smart is partnered instead with the only other agent whose identity has not been compromised: the lovely-but-lethal veteran Agent 99. As Smart and 99 get closer to unraveling KAOS’ master plan–and each other–they discover that key KAOS operative Siegfried and his sidekick Shtarker are scheming to cash in with their network of terror. Given little field experience and even less time, Smart–armed with nothing but a few spy-tech gadgets and his unbridled enthusiasm–must defeat KAOS if he is to save the day.

Masi Oka talking about Get Smart on the red carpet

Get Smart trailer

The Love Guru sucks

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A month ago, we told you that The Love Guru may be banned in India. Although this film has a lot of stars (Mike Myers, Jessica Alba, Justin Timberlake), overall reviews have not been good for this film. (Neither getting less than 20% on Rottentomatoes nor being considered for a Razzie is good for a film.)

Here’s the synopsis for The Love Guru

In the comedy “The Love Guru,” Pitka (Mike Myers in his first original character since Austin Powers) is an American who was left at the gates of an ashram in India as a child and raised by gurus. He moves back to the U.S. to seek fame and fortune in the world of self-help and spirituality. His unorthodox methods are put to the test when he must settle a rift between Toronto Maple Leafs star hockey player Darren Roanoke (Romany Malco) and his estranged wife. After the split, Roanoke’s wife starts dating L.A. Kings star Jacques Grande (Justin Timberlake) out of revenge, sending her husband into a major professional skid – to the horror of the teams’ owner Jane Bullard (Jessica Alba) and Coach Cherkov (Verne Troyer). Pitka must return the couple to marital nirvana and get Roanoke back on his game so the team can break the 40-year-old “Bullard Curse” and win the Stanley Cup.

The more we look at The Love Guru, the more we think of yellow face like Fu Manchu and Charlie Chan. Mike Myers needs to watch Hollywood Chinese. Asian Americans are making great strides in American entertainment and this film comes a long. Something must be broken in Hollywood for the execs to greenlight this film.

Watch a clip of the The Love Guru and decide for yourself

Brick Lane

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This movie won’t get much attention with both Love Guru and Get Smart opening this weekend. Check your local listings to see if this film is playig in your area. Here’s the synopsis for Brick Lane.

Nazneen’s life is turned upside down at the tender age of seventeen. Forced “into an arranged marriage to an older man, she exchanges her Bangladeshi village home for a block of flats in London’s East End. In this new world, pining for her home and her sister, she struggles to make sense of her existence – and to do her duty to her husband. A man of inflated ideas (and stomach), he sorely tests her compliance.

Told from birth that she must not fight her fate, Nazneen submits, devoting her life to raising her family and slapping down her demons of discontent. Until the day that Karim, a hot-headed local man, bursts into her life. Against a background of escalating racial tension, they embark on an affair that finally forces Nazneen to take control of her life.

Against a background of escalating racial tension, they embark on an affair that finally forces Nazneen to take control of her life. Set in multicultural Britain, Brick Lane is a truly contemporary story of love, cultural difference, and ultimately, the strength of the human spirit.

Watch the trailer for Brick Lane

Interview with lead actress Tannishtha Chatterjee