By APA Staff
Cho's a Trekkie, Murakami's at MoCA, and Jaden's the new Karate Kid. All this and more in the latest edition of News Bites.
Live Long and Prosper, John Cho
John Cho is getting beamed up: the Korean American actor will play Sulu, the role immortalized by George Takei, in the upcoming Star Trek movie. The cast is as star-studded as the view from the USS Enterprise with Eric Bana as the villain, Zoe Saldana as Uhura, and Heroes star Zachary Quinto as Spock. The eleventh Star Trek movie goes back to young Kirk and crew's training days at the Starfleet Academy. J.J. Abrams, the mastermind behind Lost and Alias will direct; a big name director plus new faces for familiar characters may be the recipe to revitalizing the sci-fi franchise. Takei passes the torch to Cho, stating "Sulu's in good hands." Working at warp speed, Cho's other projects include West 32nd, Harold and Kumar 2, and a recurring guest role on Ugly Betty beginning Oct 18. --Lisa Leong
The Karate Kid: The Next Generation
Jaden Smith, who broke hearts opposite his father Will Smith in last year's The Pursuit of Happyness, is set to star in a remake of The Karate Kid. The nine-year-old actor will play Daniel LaRusso, and Jackie Chan will appear as his martial arts mentor, Mr. Miyagi. Will Smith will make his directorial debut in the remake; Smith's production company, Overbrook Entertainment, will produce along with Jerry Weintraub, the producer of the original film. The 1984 film, which starred Ralph Macchio as Daniel and the late Pat Morita as Mr. Miyagi, became a cult classic and spawned three sequels. In 1985, Morita was nominated for an Academy Award for best supporting actor. The Karate Kid follows Daniel, who has just moved from New Jersey to southern California, as he tries to fit into his new school. His encounters with a group of bullies don't make the transition any easier. Fortunately, he meets Mr. Miyagi, a handyman trained in martial arts, who teaches Daniel karate to help him find his inner strength and cope with the bullies. --Juliana Kiyan
The Killer with Korean Americans
Director John H. Lee will take the place of John Woo in Lee's remake of Woo's violent Hong Kong action film The Killer. Chow Yun Fat, who played a hitman in the film, will also be played by a Korean actor, and the setting will be in Los Angeles, centered around Koreatown, Chinatown, and South Central. This remake will come after a previous failed attempt at remaking The Killer, with Walter Hill looking to direct big name actors Denzel Washington and Richard Gere in the roles. Instead of the incessant bloodshed of Woo's original, director Lee is quoted as saying that he will make a film dealing with "human emotions, austerity and elegance." However, it was the constant gun battles that made this movie such a pleasurable experience. Hopefully it will be up to par with Woo's classic. --Richard Park
MoCA Exhibits Internationally Acclaimed Japanese Artist Takashi Murakami Retrospective with Added Louis Vuitton Pop-Up Store
It's not everyday that a mini pop-up Louis Vuitton store operates smack dab in the middle of a pop-art exhibition, namely in Los Angeles' Museum of Contemporary Art. Except, if your international household name is Takashi Murakami, whose upcoming comprehensive retrospective features "more than 90 works in various media-painting, sculpture, installation, and film -- to be installed in five sections, occupying over 35,000 square feet of exhibition space." Even as recent as September, Takashi's artwork can be seen as the cover art of Kanye West's Graduation CD release. The forty-five year-old Japanese artist is known for challenging the divide between art and commerce, which he especially emphasizes in his collaboration with Louis Vuitton for his latest retrospective debut at the MoCA's Geffen Contemporary. Specially-created leather goods and handbags are to be sold at the independent LV store entity, within Takashi's exhibition. The show runs from October 29th to February 11th. --LiAnn Ishizuka
Films awarded at San Diego Asian Film Festival
The eighth annual San Diego Asian Film Festival wrapped up an exciting week of events on Oct. 18, with select features, shorts, animation, and music videos emerging with festival awards. The Grand Jury Award went to Linda Hattendorf's Cats of Mirikitani (which also won the 2006 Audience Award at the Tribeca Film Festival). The film documents the friendship that develops between the director and Jimmy Miriktani, an 80-year-old Japanese American man living on the streets of Soho as an artist. Owl and the Sparrow, directed by Stephane Gauger and recent Audience Award-winnter at the Los Angeles Film Festival, was named best dramatic narrative feature. The film immerses viewers into Vietnamese street life with the story of Thuy, a young orphan girl who runs away to Saigon and meets other children working as street vendors. In an attempt to create a new family, she becomes an unlikely matchmaker between a female flight attendant who is involved in a hopeless affair and a zoo employee recovering from a broken engagement.
Lisette Flanary's Na Kamalei: The Men of Hula -- which follows legendary hula teacher, Robert Cazimero, and Hawaii's oldest all-male hula group as they prepare to compete in the world's largest hula festival -- won for feature documentary. Mookey's Story, the winning short documentary directed by Carolyn Goossen and Daffodil Altan, looks at the life of a 24-year-old, transgender college student going through hormone treatment. The dramatic narrative short winner was Shyam Balse's Monsoon, a story about the difficult reconciliation between an Indian American doctor and his dying father in India. In animation, Gaelle Denis' City Paradise chronicles a girl's journey below the streets of London to discover a mysterious secret. And Native Guns' winning music video, "Champion," directed by Patricio Ginelsa empowers youth through media. --Juliana Kiyan
Comic Inspired Astro Boy Launches to Theaters in 2009
Planned for the big screen in 2009, Hong Kong's Imagi Animation Studio's third film will be DreamWorks animator Jakob Jensen's first experience animating the beloved Japanese manga character, Astro Boy. Hailed as the "God of Comics," Osamu Tezuka created the 1952 manga/TV series about a boy robot's journey to fight the forces of evil, and Astro Boy has become one of Japan's most recognized characters. The Astro Boy comic was something Jensen first discovered an intrigue for when Imagi approached him about the project in June. Jensen said in an interview, "Astro Boy has the moral underpinning and strong emotional resonance that a lot of animation today is lacking." Jensen promises to remain loyal to Tezuka's original creation, but says that the film will also incorporate new elements to familiarize viewers to the Pinocchio-like story. --LiAnn Ishizuka
Margaret Cho takes The Sensuous Woman on the road
Stand-up comedian Margaret Cho wants you to see her as you've never seen her before in The Sensuous Woman, a boisterous "burlesque-style variety show" currently touring the U.S. Cho's previous self-love show, I'm the One that I Want bared all in the metaphorical sense, revealing the racism and sexism behind the production of All-American Girl, the short-lived television series that led her to drastic weight loss and health problems. Now, thanks to belly dancing, Cho has become a comedic success and queer icon. The Sensuous Woman features Cho's in-your-face humor and strip teasing along with risqué performances by "the country's most renowned" burlesque dancers. It's time to get the Cho on the road. --Lisa Leong
Live Action Dragonball Z Movie in the Works
20th Century Fox is reportedly close to beginning filming a live action Dragonball Z movie with director James Wong. Wong, who also directed Final Destination 3 and Jet Li's The One, will begin filming Akira Toriyama's hugely popular manga and anime in Montreal, Canada as early as this year. Fans of this series will wait with much anticipation Goku's adaptation to film, as well as the answer to who will star as the hero. Dragonball Z's other characters who are rumored to have roles in the film are Goku's blue-haired friend Bulma, Mai, and Gohan. The original story followed the adventures of Goku and his companions while they tried to collect seven orange balls while battling various aliens and saving the Earth a couple of times; once all together, a giant dragon would grant them a wish (hence the title). We will see if Wong will follow this riveting storyline. --Richard Park
Central Asian Music Comes to UCLA Live
"Spiritual Sounds of Central Asia: Nomads, Mystics, and Troubadours," a concert featuring 18 of Central Asia's greatest singers and musicians, will take the stage at the University of California, Los Angeles on Nov. 2. Many of the artists hail from the former Soviet controlled countries of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Karakalpakstan (Uzbekistan) and Kalmykia -- areas that have experienced a resurgence in ancient musical traditions in recent years. Among those appearing is Alim Qasimov, who is considered Azerbaijan's most renowned singer in mugham -- the classical art music that has flourished for centuries in urban North Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia -- and ashiq -- the rural bardic tradition that is found in Turkey, Azerbaijan and the Azeri region of Iran. He will be joined by his daughter, Fargana Qasimova and his virtuosic four-man ensemble.
The seven-person Badakhshan Ensemble of Tajikistan will perform mystical songs from the majestic Pamir mountain range of Tajikistan and Afghanistan. The all-female ensemble The Bardic Divas will feature two singers from Kazakhstan and two from Karakalpakstan, who illustrate a range of Central Asian musical styles. The program will include photo projections and film segments to introduce the musicians and their instruments within the social context of their home countries; there will be supertitles with translations of song lyrics. The concert will take place Nov. 2 at 8 p.m. at UCLA's Royce Hall. --Juliana Kiyan
Published: Friday, October 19, 2007
