January 25, 2008: News Bites

Mongol Makes the Cut for the Oscars

The only remotely Asian film nominated for the Oscar's foreign language award is Mongol, helmed by Russian director Sergei Bodrov. The film is a Kazakhstan-Germany-Russia-Mongolia co-production. The movie chronicles the life of Genghis Khan, played by versatile Japanese actor Tadanobu Asano, who is most famous internationally for his samurai films Gohatto and Zatoichi. Many people feel that some films are being snubbed, such as Spain's The Orphanage and the Cannes Film Festivals Palme d'Or or Best Film Award winner, Romania's 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days. The other nominations for the Academy Award's Best Foreign Film are Beaufort from Israel, The Counterfeiters from Austria, Katyn from Poland, and 12 from Russia. --Richard Park


Bilingual, Bicultural Nick Jr. Show

Nick Jr. announces the premiere of Ni Hao, Kai-lan, a preschool-targeted TV show to launch on February 7, which will teach Mandarin language and Chinese culture through animated characters. The 20 episodes feature thirty minutes of a "play-along think-along series" through the perspective of five-year-old Chinese American girl, Kai-lan, who lives in an intergenerational family. According to a television press release, the show "explores the colorful aspects of her upbringing and background, her relationships with her family and friends and the world around her." The show is scheduled for release on Chinese New Year, and it promotes the idea of bilingualism and bicultural as being American. Kai-lan's friends and family include her grandfather, YeYe, and an assortment of bilingual koala, money and tiger animal friends. For more information about the show, click here. --LiAnn Ishizuka

Tale of Two Sisters remake

Then known for his horror comedy The Quiet Family and the box office success The Foul King, director Kim Ji-woon directed A Tale of Two Sisters, based on a Korean folktale titled "Janghwa Hongryeon-jon." The movie features two sisters, Soo-mi and Soo-yeon ("Rose and Lotus"), who find out after their mother's death that their father will be marrying the family nurse. Coming in 2008 will be the American adaptation starring Emily Browning (Darkness Falls, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events) as Anna and Arielle Kebbel (The Grudge 2, John Tucker Must Die) as Anna's sister, Alex. This film will be a directorial debut for Tom and Charlie Guard, who have worked on projects for Nokia, Euro Disney, and PlayStation 2. Producers from The Ring and The Ring 2 Walter Parkes and Laurie MacDonald have teamed up with Roy Lee to bring what seems to be a growing trend in adaptations from Asian films. The film is currently in post-production. --My Thanh Mac 

Watanabe Casted in Cirque du Freak film

Actor Ken Watanabe (Letters From Iwo Jima, Memoirs of a Geisha) recently joined the cast of the upcoming film, Cirque du Freak, which also stars John C. Reilly and Salma Hayek. Directed by Paul Weitz, Cirque du Freak is based on the novels written by Darren Shan about a young boy's encounter with a freak show vampire who later becomes half-vampire himself.  Watanabe is set to play the role of Mr. Tall, the barker of the Cirque. Production for the film is reported to start in February.  --LiAnn Ishizuka

Anime in LA

Three beloved animated films from Studio Ghibli's renowned director Hayao Miyazaki and three anime features presented by Bandai Entertainment will be playing in the Los Angeles area throughout February. Beginning on February 1st at the Aero Theater in Santa Monica, the American Cinematheque will present Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, My Neighbor Totoro, and Spirited Away in its two day "Hiyao Miyazaki Masterpieces" series. All three films are regarded as Miyazaki's finest works, universally embraced by audiences and critics alike. Spirited Away won the Academy Award for Best Animated Film in 2001.

From February 15th to the 21st, the recently opened ImaginAsian Center in Los Angeles will host its "Anime Movie Classics" week by screening three classic Bandai Entertainment features. The films, to be projected on 35mm, are The Vision of Escaflowne, Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack, and Jin-Roh. scored by legendary composer Yoko Kanno, The Vision of Escaflowne is a theatrical retelling of the fantasy anime of the same title. Gundam: Char's Counterattack is the explosive finale to the first Gundam series, a long running and beloved robot anime franchise. The dystopian epic Jin Roh was penned by Ghost in the Shell director Mamoru Oshii. --William Hong

Kusama Helms Cody’s Quirky Body

Director Karyn Kusama has been chosen to direct the comedic horror film, Jennifer's Body. Girlfight, a film she was inspired to write after she began boxing at Gleason's Gym in Brooklyn, marked Kusama's directorial debut into the film business. Jennifer's Body, written by Diablo Cody (the bona-fide screenwriter behind the Oscar-nominated sleeper hit, Juno), tells the story of a cheerleader who becomes possessed and murders every boy that fantasizes about her. It will star Transformers siren, Megan Fox, in the title role. Before the success of Juno, Cody was a blogger and author who published anecdotes about her experience as a stripper in a Minneapolis bar. Jennifer's Body will reunite Cody with Juno director, Jason Reitman, who has signed on to produce the film for Fox Atomic. Shooting begins in Vancouver this March. --Michelle Tang

Jaman to Have Online Premiere for Punching at the Sun

Jaman.com has recently added Tanuj Chopra's award winning film Punching at the Sun to its archives. The film won the Best Narrative Film at the 2006 San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival, and it portrays the struggles of a South Asian teenager living in Queens dealing with the aftermath of 9/11 and his brother's death. An online site for downloading movies, Jaman's aim is to make films with limited distribution available to the world via the internet. Recently showing Mira Nair's AIDS Jargo short film series, it also includes other Asian films such as Danny and Oxide Pang's Bangkok Dangerous and Bollywood movie Paheli.  The web site also works with other libraries such as Dreamachine and Trust Film to release movies online. --Richard Park

One family's struggle in the Bangladesh War of Independence 

Tahmima Anam's first novel, A Golden Age, is against the backdrop of the Bangladesh War of Independence. A Golden Age follows a small family, Rehana Haque and her two children, in East Pakistan in 1971.  In the chaos of this era, Rehana tries to keep her family safe as her son and daughter join the student protesters and liberation movement.  Born in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Anam currently lives in London and has written pieces for the New York Times and Granta Magazine.  A Golden Age has already received rave reviews and coverage on NPR and BBC News. Anam hopes it will be the first of a trilogy she plans to write about her homeland. --JoJo Yang

A Festival to Celebrate the Land of Rising Culture

"Japan! Culture + Hyperculture" is a festival with a title that says everything you need to know about it. It is an extravaganza of Japanese culture made up of live music, anime, literature recitals, film, dance, sculpture, theatre, fashion, robots and free events! The festival takes place at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. from February 5-17. With dozens of performances and hundreds of artists displaying every cultural outlet imaginable AND a mascot named "Momo," how can one resist? So if the commute doesn't cause pain and you feel like culture-tasting (or sake-tasting), head over to the festival website and start dreaming of all the shining-cultural-super-creations of Japan. --Ian Shaikh 

Undoing playing at ImaginAsian theater in LA

From January 25th through the 31st, the movie Undoing, directed by Chris Chan Lee, will be playing at the ImaginAsian theater in LA. The film centers around Sam Kim who has returned to LA one year after the death of his friend. Facing revenge while trying to come to terms with reality, Kim must now face the same fears in LA that he had tried to leave behind. Kim is played by Sung Kang and Kim’s ex-girlfriend is played by Kelly Hu. People eager to meet the cast and crew will want to show up on the opening weekend as they will be there for a Q & A session. --My Thanh Mac
 

Hopefully, this isn't a bust

This is a Bust, the second novel by Ed Lin, came out at the end of 2007. The noir homage promises to tell a complexc NYC murder mystery in a truthful and unexotic way. It's about Robert Chow, a cop during 1976, who is the only Chinese American (and Cantonese-speaker) on the Chinatown beat. Lin has readings on the East Coast throughout January and early February and on the West Coast in late February.  For more information, check out his website here.  His first book, Waylaid, was the inspiration for Michael Kang's recent film The Motel.  --JoJo Yang