INTERVIEW: JOHN CHO

Preface: I was really happy to be able to do this; I knew John as a classmate from UC Berkeley - *15 years ago* - and I've taken a lot of pleasure in seeing his career accelerate over that time. I finally had the opportunity to interview him and at the risk of sounding immodest, I thought it was a great conversation, especially with his candor about issues of acting, media and race.

THE INTERVIEW (there are two parts) (originally appeared in UCLA's Asia Pacific Arts Magazine)

--O.W.

LAAPFF 2009

Oops, late pass (esp. since I forgot to post up about the SFIAAFF) but the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival is still going on through this Thursday.

--O.W.

REVIEW: BABY (2009)

Buy | Rent

I first saw this at the 2007 SFIAAFF and I was really struck by it at the time. The gangster genre is, of course, nothing new to Asian cinema but I couldn't recall an Asian American film that managed to pull one off very well. My first impression of Baby was that Juwan Chung had delivered a stylistically compelling and intriguing film about a young Asian American gang banger growing up in Southern California.

I think one of the most interesting things about Baby is how the Asian American gang he's involved in seems inherently pan-Asian but this is never something that becomes central plot-wise; the fact that the gang is made up of different Asian ethnicities is made to seem perfectly natural. Whether this is realistic or not, I can't say but it seem like a detail that was meaningful, especially for a film set in the polyglot that is L.A.

As a first-time feature director, Chung has some good instincts around filming drama. This film depends quite a deal on suspense and tension and Chung creates the atmosphere he's looking for in most scenes. He's also got decent chops in the action arena too; there's a shoot-out towards the end that has the kinetic force of a Cowboy Bebop episode (and I could have sworn borrowed from one).

However, I think one of the most notable shortcomings of the film has been how derivative its plotlines are from other films in the gangster canon. To compare it to the Asian Boyz N The Hood is fairly accurate - there's a lot in Baby that will make you feel as if you've seen it before and you probably have. Provided, as a genre film, it depends on certain conventions, but on more than several occasions, I wish Baby could have transcended some of the more obvious cliches.

This is especially relevant in terms of the main romantic female lead (Sammy), who is one of the least developed characters in the whole film and basically feels like a prop piece. In a film already so heavy with testosterone, you just wish the sole female character wasn't so marginal. As she's envisioned, Sammy contributes very little to the film as a whole and that's a shame.

Overall, I think Baby is worth seeing (and it's in select theaters right now) but to me, it's another triumph of style and technique over the basics of storytelling and character. This is one of my never-ending rants but I feel that as technological access has made professionally production quality more easily achieved, no editing suite or HD camera is going to teach someone the basics of how to tell a story well or cleverly, nor coax better performances out of the actors. Baby is hardly unique in its shortcomings and that's precisely the problem.

--O.W.

A SONG FOR OURSELVES PREMIER

Back in 1997, I had the distinct honor of working on a reunion concert for A Grain of Sand, arguably the first self-identified Asian American musical group, a folk trio that originally formed in the early 1970s between Nobuko Miyamoto, William "Charlie" Chin and Chris Iijima.

A Grain of Sand were important beyond just their historical stature - having come out of the Asian American Movement of the late 1960s, the group were tackling any number of critical - and complex - social and racial issues through their music at a time where Asian Americans were still largely invisible in popular media and culture.

All three members went on to continue their careers in the arts and music, especially Chris Iijima who put another album in 1982 with Chin called Back to Back (he was also a law professor outside of his musical life).

Sadly, Chris passed away a little over three years ago, on 12/31/05. A new documentary by Tad Nakamura pays tribute to his life and legacy and it will be premiered in Los Angeles this upcoming Saturday night. I've seen the film and it was wonderful - extremely well-made and powerful in its message and the history is covers.

Accompanying the film will be appearances by Nobuko and Charlie, as well as performances by the Blue Scholars, Kiwi and Bambu. You can find more info on the film here.

Also, DJ Phatrick, formerly DJ for Native Gunz (now hosting the weekly Devil's PIe party), has put together a mixtape in honor of the film's premier: A Song For Ourselves Mixtape which features songs from all of the above artists noted in this post.


Here's one of my favorite songs by Chris, from Back to Back called "Asian Song."

Chris Iijima: Asian Song
From Back to Back (East/West World Records, 1982)


Bonus: Robert Ito wrote up a nice profile of Tad Nakamura for the LA Times on the day of the premier.

--O.W.

FEATURE: ASIAN AMERICAN CINEMA'S "NEW" GLOBAL SCOPE

Preface: This feature was written for the Asian Cinevision 2008 Cinevue catalog and I tackled what I saw as two growing, parallel trends in Asian American cinema, namely 1) the emergence of what you might call "new immigrant" stories that have a markedly different relationship to ethnic identity compared to previous generations and 2) more and more Asian American filmmakers traveling to Asia to make their films. I tackle this with a historical awareness that both trends have important antecedents but also try to discuss what's different now and where this all may be headed.

THE FEATURE (originally appeared in Asian Cinevision's Cinevue).

--O.W.