Billed as the Korean-American “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” the family comedy “Wedding Palace” centers on an international online romance fueled by imagination and 24/7 video chats. Shot on location in Los Angeles, CA and Seoul, Korea, this first US-Korea independent co-production is in English and features elements of animation.
Starring are BRIAN TEE (Fast & Furious 3: Tokyo Drift) and S. Korean award winning actress KANG HYE-JUNG (Old Boy) makes her American debut here. BOBBY LEE, STEPHEN PARK, JOY OSMANSKI, and MARGARET CHO enliven the comedic supporting cast. Here’s more about the film:
Pressured to get married by family and friends, 29 year-old advertising executive Jason Kim finds the woman of his dreams in cyberspace, 9000 miles away in Seoul, Korea. But when Na Young arrives in Los Angeles, Jason soon discovers that a relationship can sometimes be deeper online than in real life. Can Jason find the courage to defy his parents and bridge the gap between family expectations of beauty and true love? With all of her “shortcomings,” is Na Young the special girl with the power to break his family’s ancient curse forever?.
In 1994 Korean-American teenager, Chong Kim, went to a bar in New Mexico where a handsome young man posing as a firefighter offered her a ride home. Then she was abducted, thrown into the trunk of a car, and smuggled into Las Vegas where she was imprisoned as a sex slave for two years. She quickly learns what the rest of her life will entail: sex with strangers, making porn films and fighting for survival. During her captivity, Chong Kim (dubbed Eden by her captors) ensured her own survival by steadily carving out power and influence within the very organization that imprisoned her. Inspired by the complex and harrowing true story of human trafficking survivor Chong Kim, Eden peers into the darkest corners of America and attempts to discover the humanity within. Actress Jamie Chung (Hangover 2, Sucker Punch) plays the lead character Chong Kim in this spotlight on the chilling problem of human sex trafficking.
Director Ron Morales’ latest film “Graceland” is hitting the film festival circuit. In “Graceland”, family man Marlon Villar is the long-time driver of Manuel Chango, a corrupt Filipino congressman. One afternoon, while driving his and Chango’s preteen daughters home from school, the three are violently ambushed in a kidnapping attempt. When the attempt goes horribly awry, the wrong girl is taken, and the driver’s life takes a sudden, terrifying turn. Left as the only witness to the crime, Marlon’s loyalty is called into question. As events unravel further, he, Chango, and their families become ensnared in a downward spiral of betrayal and deceit that will ultimately leave no one innocent.
Step into the extraordinary life of a Chinese immigrant who overcame challenges as early as childhood, eventually making a life for himselg… one that would touch the lives of many others around the world. It all started with a simple dream… and today, the dream lives on. This family-authorized biography follows the path of a young boy who learns the value of hard work and perseverance through kung fu, escapes the harshness of political oppression, bravely ventures out on his own, and embraces opportunity in a new land. Watch the beginning of an eager martial arts instructor in 1960s Boston, Massachusetts, open his own Kung Fu school, and start to spread the tradition, always maintaining the original fundamentals and values he learned as a boy.
Pui would finally realize his dream of building the first authentic Chinese martial arts temple in America as a tribute to his kung fu master. The now highly recognized Grandmaster Pui Chan, 6th generation successor of the Wah Lum Kung Fu System, is one of the pioneers responsible for bringing traditional Kung Fu to America, and leads an internationally renowned martial arts school and system across the world.
Fifty years later, Pui’s eldest daughter and successor Mimi confronts a new set of challenges, trying to keep the traditional values alive in an increasingly modernized era. The film is narrated by Mimi Chan.
The 2012 Boston Asian American Film Festival (BAAFF) announces a provocative and entertaining program of independent cinema highlighting recent, significant works by and/or about Asian Americans and the Asian diaspora. The festival takes place October 25 to 28, 2012 in Boston at Emerson College’s Bright Family Screening Room in the Paramount Center; in Cambridge at the Brattle Theatre; and in Somerville at the Somerville Theatre. This fourth edition of the festival features more than five Boston/New England premieres, exclusive Q&As with filmmakers and various co-sponsored events around Boston.
The festival opens on October 25th, 7:30pm at the Brattle Theatre in Cambridge with Quentin Lee’s WHITE FROG, a twist on the coming-of-age genre film. Starring some of film and television’s most acclaimed and recognizable actors – including Booboo Stewart, Joan Chen, B.D. Wong, and Harry Shum, Jr. – WHITE FROG is an incisive look at the modern American family centered on a young autistic boy coping with the death of his older brother, and ultimately a universal story of the power of family and friendship in the face of difference and tragedy.
The film festival weekend continues with gems from the festival circuit, including Ernesto Foronda (producer, BETTER LUCK TOMORROW) and Sila Howard’s SUNSET STORIES, a quirky tribute to Los Angeles; WEDDING PALACE, a comedy and debut feature by Christine Yoo; Lily Mariye’s devastating teen drama MODEL MINORITY; YES, WE’RE OPEN, a flirtatious take on love and relationships by Richard Wong and H.P. Mendoza (COLMA: THE MUSICAL, FRUIT FLY); and SHANGHAI CALLING, Daniel Hsia’s expat romantic comedy.
This year, the festival will present two powerful documentaries which each have a unique relevance to the Boston community. BAAFF’s timely Centerpiece Presentation during this primary election season is MR. CAO GOES TO WASHINGTON, a film by acclaimed documentary filmmaker S. Leo Chiang (A VILLAGE CALLED VERSAILLES). The film is a compelling portrait of rookie congressman Joseph Cao who traverses party lines in the pursuit of his ideals and beliefs, and is a refreshing and thoughtful look at how personal choices can affect the community at large. PUI CHAN: KUNG FU PIONEER, the debut documentary film by actress and martial arts master Mimi Chan (best known as the model for Disney’s MULAN), is the ultimate tribute to one of the men who brought Chinese martial arts to the United States. Grandmaster Pui Chan’s Wah Lum Kung Fu Academy and Athletic Association has since become the most important and well-established martial arts system in the United States, and this film hopes to draw in enthusiasts, students and filmgoers alike to a celebration of shared cultural heritage.
The 2012 Boston Asian American Film Festival will feature two specially curated short film programs. FEAR BUFFET is a set of six short films that offer different takes on all things frightful, and REEL FOOD offers eight family-friendly shorts about the lighter sides of life. On Friday October 26, 7pm at the Somerville Theatre, BAAFF will be co-sponsoring a special screening of I AM A GHOST with Boston’s Shudder Fest Horror Film Festival. H.P. Mendoza’s piercing thriller deftly demonstrates the versatility of the Asian-American horror feature film and is the winner of Best New Horror Director by SF Weekly.
Tickets to the 2012 Boston Asian American Film Festival can be purchased at the door or online here. Individual tickets for each film (excluding the Opening Night film) are $10 for General Admission, and additional member and student rates may be available and vary depending on venue. Tickets to the Opening Night film at the Brattle Theatre are $25 for General Admission or $20 for Early-Birds purchased by October 18.
2012 Boston Asian American Film Festival trailer reel
Over the past year, the documentary “A Lot Like You” has been picking up awards at both Asian American and African American film festivals. In search of her roots, a mixed race, first-generation American filmmaker Eliaichi Kimaro traces her father’s footsteps back to Mt. Kilimanjaro where she discovers the beauty and brutality of the life he left behind.
Eliaichi Kimaro is a mixed-race, first-generation American with a Tanzanian father and Korean mother. When her retired father moves back to Tanzania, Eliaichi begins a project that evocatively examines the intricate fabric of multiracial identity, and grapples with the complex ties that children have to the cultures of their parents.
Kimaro decides to document her father’s path back to his family and Chagga culture. In the process, she struggles with her own relationship to Tanzania, and learns more deeply about the heritage that she took for granted as a child. Yet as she talks to more family members, especially her aunts, she uncovers a cycle of violence that resonates with her work and life in the United States. When Kimaro speaks with her parents about the oppression that her aunts face, she faces a jarring disconnect between immigrant generations on questions of patriarchy and violence.
A Lot Like You raises questions about the cultures we inherit and the cultures we choose to pass down, and reveals how simply bearing witness to another’s truth telling can break silences that have lasted lifetimes.
