Meeting new people can make anyone a little nervous. Asian CineVision is here to help! We're launching the 33rd Asian American International Film Festival and your new romance all in one event. Up for speed dating? Here is your chance to enjoy the happy hour specials at Forbidden City, meet your cinema soulmate (or a really good movie buddy) and win festival tickets for that first real date.
If you happen to be a pair of film aficionados, then the sparks of romance will already be flying. Register if you're seeking a fling with the ultimate lovers: film and culture.
Pre-registration is required. Limited spaces available.
Marvel Studios is trying something a little different to rustle up the money for Iron Man 3 and help it become a huge hit not just in the United States, but in the increasingly important foreign market. As announced last week, they're teaming up with China's DMG Entertainment to co-produce the film and release it in China, with scenes also scheduled to shoot in the country that's famously restrictive for releases of non-Chinese movies. The co-production deal will allow Iron Man 3 to be treated like a native film, meaning the box office returns in that country of 1.3 billion could make this co-production deal pay off in spades.
Disney's announcement on Monday that it will make Iron Man 3 in partnership with a Chinese company is the latest sign that movie studios are warming to China's new openness.
For decades, China has capped the number of foreign films it allows into the country. Until recently, the limit was 20, but in February Chinese officials announced that they are increasing the quota to 34.
China said it will also allow foreign studios to garner a greater share of box office revenue. Foreign companies can now expect to earn 25 percent of their movies' ticket sales in China, up from between 13.5 and 17.5 percent.
The changes are a significant move for a bureaucracy that is leery of outside cultural influences and competition from foreign films. The change could affect everyone from action movie fans in Guangzhou to Hollywood's most powerful filmmakers.
The relaxing of China's strict rules comes at a price for US studios. The world's most populous nation wants foreign studios to bring their movie making know-how to China by forming joint ventures with Chinese studios.
The Linsanity that Jeremy Lin touched off this winter has faded, a casualty of the New York Knicks point guard’s drop in productivity and the recent knee surgery that ended his regular season.
But the surreal period in which a former bench warmer led the Knicks on a seven-game winning streak while helping a lot of headline writers show off will live on, at least if Hollywood has anything to do with it.
Lin is the subject of a documentary that is being pitched to distributors in Hollywood by agency CAA; footage is currently being assembled.
published by RelationshipsAsArt on Sun, 03/18/2012 - 13:29
Get Women To Buy You Stuff
March 18, 2012 – The Asian Alpha Male : Dating Coach
Below is a voicemail from a former model and current business woman, although I guess she would still model if her agency calls her and she thinks the job is lucrative enough for her to take. Although I think she might have mentioned something about how she’s going to be in a fashion show a couple of weeks ago……… anyways back to the topic at hand.
published by RelationshipsAsArt on Tue, 03/06/2012 - 07:30
The first time a cougar legally bought me alcohol.
March 6, 2012
The Asian Alpha Male: Dating Coach
In my previous blog entry “Milk The Linsanity For All Its Worth”, I briefly mentioned how I learned a lesson the first time a cougar legally bought me alcohol. I had just turned 21, roughly a few months prior to me going to this particular bar. I still had the undergraduate drink until you get drunk mentality. One of my best friends had come out from Long Island to Manhattan, New York City to hangout and drink. For our purposes let’s call him Professional Gamer, because he actually does play video games professionally sometimes.
New York, NY – Feb 07, 2012— Two of Hollywood’s top Asian Pacific American actors star in the follow-up film to the 2008 hit, “Journey to the Center of the Earth.” Chinese-Filipino American actress/singer Vanessa Hudgens (Disney’s “High School Musical” series) and Samoan American Dwayne Johnson (“Fast Five”) take center stage in this year’s anticipated family adventure film, JOURNEY 2: THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND. The 3D movie is a New Line Cinema presentation of a Contrafilm production and will be distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company. The film will be released in IMAX® theaters worldwide on February 10, 2012. For more information about the film, visit http://www.themysteriousisland.com.
First Asian American Serial Killer Movie Begins Fundraising Drive on New Crowd-Funding Site USA Projects
Los Angeles, CA. December 1, 2011 – The filmmakers responsible for independent hit, The People I've Slept With, are joining together again to make Chink, the first Asian American serial killer movie. It is the directorial debut of Stanley Yung, the film is written by Koji Steven Sakai and produced by Stanley, Koji, and Quentin Lee. The film stars Jason Tobin (Better Luck Tomorrow and The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift) and Eugenia Yuan (Memoirs of a Geisha and The Eye 2).
They are hoping to raise at least ten thousand dollars to cover production expenses on USA Projects, created by United States Artists to expand its mission of investing in America’s finest artists. They plan on beginning production in the spring of 2012.
Surviving the Independent films Landscape: A conversation with Mimi Taksue.
Museum of Chinese in America | August 14, 2011 | 5:00PM
Waiting for that call to get your dream project off the ground? Wondering how to continue to make film and maintain a sustainable lifestyle as an independent filmmaker? Emerging director Kimi Takesue is the recipient of numerous awards. Her commissioned works include WHERE ARE YOU TAKING ME? (Rotterdam International Film Festival) and THAT WHICH ONCE WAS (ITVS).
Kimi Takesue is the recipient of a 2005 John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in Filmmaking, as well as a 2005 New York Foundation for the Arts in Film. Her award-winning films E=NYC2, SUMMER OF THE SERPENT, HEAVEN'S CROSSROAD, ROSEWATER AND BOUND have been televised in the U.S. and screened at over 200 film festivals and museums.
R&B / hip hop trio AZIATIX made waves at the iTunes music charts in the week of May 20. The group’s AZIATIX EP hit the #4 spot on the US iTunes R&B/Soul album chart and climbed the international charts too. Soompi reported seeing the Nocturnal album at the 10th spot in the Top 10 iTunes Soul/R&B Charts.
Made up of rapper Flowsik from New York, Eddie Shin from Boston and Nicky Lee from Los Angeles, AZIATIX launched their first teaser MV and single Go in March. It was well received worldwide (No. 72 in Australia, No. 56 in New Zealand, No. 79 in Norway, No. 20 in Sweden and No. 38 in the United States).
Aziatix has already released three single albums, which all showed remarkable results on iTunes. This time Aziatix’s title track, “Slippin’ Away” was released with the potential to enter the top ten on iTunes charts to further show that their music is being recognized all over the world.
Let me begin by firstly admit to my personal skepticism of any mainstream movie that attempts to portray Asian people positively, in particular Hollywood movies.
We are about to see an upcoming release titled 'Snow Flower', an adaptation to the original story. We have been informed that this is not a rehash of the old pain known as 'Joy Luck club', perhaps the Asian Americans may feel relieved.
However this has yet to be confirmed as the question still poses as to whether this movie be end up as another Hollywood-ized packaged disappointment for the Asian audience.
The big question, will this movie differ to it's evil predecessor 'Joy Luck Club' film, as we had already known to draw criticism from many Asian Americans, as a fabrication of Chinese culture to entertain the masses.
All thanks (but no thanks) to Tan and her "Joy Luck club" co-writers, our Asian American youths could only ever grow up misguided by false representations of identity.
Jeff Yang writes another great article in contrast to the latest Asian stereotyped sellout piece 'Hangover 2' and in this article he touches on the economics of Asian Americans and their appraoch to the mainstream movie industry. The challenges are clearly there, no doubt Asian Americans are full of talent in the entertainment industry, we have notable directors, actors and actresses . Asian Americans are also more than capable of setting up their own alternative media sources but is that just enough?
A Hollywood movie was met with an awkward situation on Saturday in China. While fans are standing in long queues to watch the first show, others are advocating a boycott on the American movie with Chinese story elements.
After "Kung Fu Panda", a cartoon movie telling a story about a panda' s Kung Fu master journey, hit China's silver screens in 2008, its sequel, Kung Fu Panda 2, was released in China just ahead of International Children's Day, adding more Chinese elements such as shadow play and lion dancing.
However, some Chinese artists and scholars argue that the movie, produced by DreamWorks, has twisted Chinese culture and serves as a tool to "kidnap" the mind of the Chinese people.
It’s highly likely that you’ve heard of Jay Chou before—he’s the
Taiwanese singer-songwriter behind hits such as “Cute Girl (Ke Ai Nu
Ren),” “Simple Love (Jian Dan Ai),” and “Silence (An Jing).” If you
haven’t heard the original songs, you may have seen YouTube covers by
Mandarin and non-Mandarin speakers alike (our favorite: sisters Riney and Bam, who used Chou’s music to learn Chinese), or heard his catchy melodies while singing karaoke.
If you’re a fan (or if you grew up in Asia), you may have even caught
him on the big screen. He’s acted in movies such as “Initial D” and
“Curse of the Green Flower,” and even directed a movie called “Secret”
in 2007, with a sequel planned for next year.
But if you haven’t heard of Jay Chou before, get ready to get
introduced to him in January, with his first foray into Hollywood as
Kato in “The Green Hornet.”
He also launched his much anticipated Eco Chef App available for the PC Computer, MAC Computer, iPhone, iPod, iPad, iTouch through iTunes and App Store last year.
The multi-talented entrepreneur, actor and activist recently answered a few questions about his latest book:
Tell us about your latest book Eco Bryan Au Raw Star Recipes: Organic Meals, Snacks & Desserts in 10 Minutes:
The 1940's period drama "Shanghai" still awaits its U.S. premiere. Filmed in 2008, "Shanghai" was given an international release in China, India, Hong Kong and more recently Isreal, but has yet to be given a U.S. release.
The film stars several Asian stars Gong Li, Rinko Kikuchi, Chow Yun Fat and Ken Watanabe, along with American stars John Cuscak, David Morse and Jeffrey Dean Morgan. It was directed by Mikael Hafstrom from a script by Hossein Amini.
Produced by the Thai company Living Films and the Weinstein Company, it was originally intended to be shot on location in Shanghai, but, due to the controversial WWII time period the film is set in, the Weinstein Company had its permits taken away by the Chinese government one week prior to when filming was scheduled to start.
The film crew relocated to Bangkok, Thailand, where it built an elaborate two-block replica set of 1940's Shanghai.
But despite its all-star cast of Asian actors, the film, which was produced for an estimated $50 million, has earned a mere $7.5 million at the Asian box office during its limited release this year.
Judges have selected five finalists for the API TV Pilot Shootout.
Writers submitted their TV Pilot pitch idea for an opportunity to pitch their project to a FOX TV executive.
The top five finalists are: Amy Anderson “Amy Anderson Project”, Jared Asato “Supreme”, Benjamin Hsu “East Wilshire”, William Lu “Showrunners”, Roy Vongtama “The Zone”
The judges were: Ed Moy, a screenwriter and journalist for LA Asian American Movie on Examiner.com; Kelly Yee, VP of Development @ RipMedia Group, a social media marketing firm specializing in entertainment; and Susan Stark, pop culture follower.
The finalists will work with selected directors to make teasers for their projects.
The most anticipated film of the summer had its big Hollywood premiere at Mann's Chinese Theatre on Tuesday, and fans carrying both English and Japanese-language signs stood patiently behind barricades, waiting (some since 6am) to catch a glimpse of their favorite actors. Photographers crowded each other for shots of Marion Cotillard and Ellen Page. Security guards positioned themselves on either side of Leonardo DiCaprio as he walked along the street to greet his fans and sign autographs. One of the earlier stars to arrive, Ken Watanabe gamely waved at the fans, inciting cheers as he walked down with his wife Kaho Minami.
The Media Action Network for Asian Amerians (MANAA) will stage a protest of the new film "The Last Airbender" on Thursday July 1st at the Arclight Cinerama Dome on Sunset Blvd in Hollywood. Guy Aoki, Founding President of MANAA, which is the only organization solely dedicated to monitoring the media and advocating balanced, sensitive, and positive portrayals and coverage of Asian Americans, has stated that "the film sends the message that Asians can’t be the heroes in their own story."
Don’t jump to conclusions on Asian-perpetrated gun violence By: Amelio The · March 23, 2010 · Filed Under Criminal Law, Diversity in Law, International Law ·
Commenter Lynne rightly points out that even we perhaps jumped to conclusions in the case of Philadelphia law student, Gerald Ung.
In January, we linked to Above the Law coverage of Ung, who had been arrested after shooting a man six times in the wee hours of the night. The story had described the incident as “(If true), not the first time an Asian-American law student in Philadelphia has gone on a shooting spree.
Harvard University is known for its top notch academics, but not exactly as the hotbed of hoops excellence. It has been more than 60 years since the nation's top-ranked academic institution has been invited to compete in the NCAA March Madness tournament. But that could change this year, thanks, in part, to star basketball player Jeremy Lin, who some say has a shot to going to the NBA. Host Michel Martin talks with Lin about his skills on the court and some of the racism he's faced as an Asian-American player.
The movie is based on the true story chronicled in the book The Cure: How a Father Raised $100 Million and Bucked the Medical Establishment in a Quest to Save His Children by Geeta Anands. There is a real John Crowley who really did start a biomedical company to develop a cure for Pompe disease.
But the real guy who developed the cure was not a Dr. Robert Stonehill, nor looks anything like Indiana Jones. The real guy is a fellow named Dr. Yuan-Tsong Chen, who developed the treatment with colleagues at the Duke University Medical Center.
I learned this from, of all places, Roger Ebert's movie review:
Korean actress Jun Ji-hyun is set to appear alongside Chinese movie star Zhang Ziyi in a new film by Wayne Wang, according to her agency Sidus HQ on Wednesday.
The film, titled "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan", will be based on the 2005 novel of the same title by Chinese-American writer Lisa See.
Set in 19th century China, the film chronicles the lives of two women -- Lily and Snow Flower -- and their intimate lifelong friendship. Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi is set to play the main character Snow Flower while Jun's role in the film has not been decided as of yet.
Wanye Wang, a Chinese-American filmmaker, has directed several notable movies such as "The Joy Luck Club" (1993), "Maid in Manhattan" (2002) and "Smoke (1995)", for which he won the Silver Bear award at Berlin International Film Festival.
Dec. 31 (by James S. Russell) -- I didn’t want to let the year close without reflecting on the new Museum of Chinese in America designed by Maya Lin.
The location, on Manhattan’s lively Centre Street, poignantly underlines the mutability of ethnic identity. It is steps from the bargain-hunting throngs on Canal Street, around the corner from what’s left of Little Italy, and smack in the path of SoHo’s encroaching slickness. It’s the perfect spot to consider what it is to be a hyphenated American.
The museum’s tinted-glass storefront, half-framed by a long horizontal L of wood, is a rather tentative invitation to a building with richly entwined stories to tell and tough questions to ask.
It’s too bad that Lin, famous for the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C., avoided the tough task of making a specific statement rather than a generalized one.
THE Asian Festival of First Films (AFFF), the world's premier film and documentary festival that celebreates the achievements of first-time film-makers, announced its winners last Friday at the Raffles Hotel Ballroom.
Japanese film Looking For Anne, directed by Takako Miyahira, took the top honours of Best Film and Best Director, the AFFF said in its press release.
The movie tells the story of a 17-year-old Japanese girl with a secret mission to find her recently deceased grandmother's first love.
First-time producer Sona Jain bagged four awards - including Best Producer - for her film, For Real, a story about a family seen through the eyes of a child.
Last Friday's event was the fifth instalment of the AFFF.
China is moving to take back one of its own — even if it is legend. Mulan is the Middle Kingdom's gender-bending heroine, its Joan of Arc. The character from folktale is a daughter who disguises herself as a male soldier to take her father's place in the conscription army. The problem for the Chinese is that, since 1998, the definitive version of the story has been Disney's.
Indeed, because of the animated Disney film, the character Mulan has become one of the most recognizable symbols of Chinese culture worldwide. Baby girls adopted from China have been named Mulan by their American parents. Disney has staged musical versions of the movie Mulan from Mexico to the Philippines. And posing for a photo with Mulan is a must for hordes of tourists at Hong Kong Disneyland. (See China's long road to prosperity.)
It’s Raining, y’all! With the advent of his first starring role in a major Hollywood feature, the Korean pop god known simply as Rain sat with us exclusively to talk up his martial arts manifesto, Ninja Assassin. We chatted about the film’s surprising violence, his future as a singer, his fans and his mom. Never let it be said that LMD was ever smart enough to come in out of the Rain.
Dig it.
The Lady Miz Diva: Ninja Assassin is a really violent, bloody film. Were you concerned that so much of your fan base, which consists of younger kids and people who might not usually go to this type of movie, wouldn’t be able to see your big Hollywood film?
Rain: Yeah, I know, but it’s gonna be huge. I believe they will like my movie. I am a little bit worried, but it’s something different from what I’ve done, so it’s interesting that way. And I believe more male fans will be interested in this movie.
We all know her story. She was a beautiful, bright 24-year-old graduate student in Yale's pharmacology department who went missing just four days shy of her wedding. Her body was found on what was to be her wedding day hidden behind a wall in her laboratory, a Yale building at 10 Amistad Road in New Haven. A few days later, a 24-year-old animal technician who also worked at her laboratory was arrested for her murder.
I first read about her in The New York Times in my apartment in Manhattan. Across the globe, my brother read about her on Bloomberg News in his office in Hong Kong. We felt the pain and horror of her death and of the tragedy facing her family.
Annie Le was also Asian-American. As her story appeared all over the Internet and on 24-hour news updates, blogs, commentaries, Facebook and Twitter posts, the fact that she was an Asian-American female was to become an important part of her narrative, speaking to uniquely American anxieties about sex, violence, gender and race.
Li was born into utter poverty in Mao’s communist China, at the age of 11 he was selected to train in Madame Mao's Beijing Dance Academy. And so began Li's journey. The 7 years of harsh training regime at the Beijing Dance Academy taught him discipline, resilience, determination and perseverance. Li’s astounding drive and relentless hard work made him one of the best dancers China has produced.
When he was 18, Li was awarded one of the first cultural scholarships to go to America, and subsequently been offered a soloist contract with the Houston Ballet. Two years later, Li defected to the West in a dramatic media storm, which involved the then Vice President, Mr George Bush Snr. He then went on to become one of the best dancers in the world, won two silver and a bronze medal at three International Ballet Competitions. In 1995, Li and his family moved to Australia where Li danced his last three and half years as a principal dancer with the Australian Ballet.
Marvel Studios is trying something a little different to rustle up the money for Iron Man 3 and help it become a huge hit not just in the United States, but in the increasingly important foreign market. As announced last week, they're teaming up with China's DMG Entertainment to co-produce the film and release it in China, with scenes also scheduled to shoot in the country that's famously restrictive for releases of non-Chinese movies. The co-production deal will allow Iron Man 3 to be treated like a native film, meaning the box office returns in that country of 1.3 billion could make this co-production deal pay off in spades.
First Asian American Serial Killer Movie Begins Fundraising Drive on New Crowd-Funding Site USA Projects
R&B / hip hop trio AZIATIX made waves at the iTunes music charts in the week of May 20. The group’s AZIATIX EP hit the #4 spot on the US iTunes R&B/Soul album chart and climbed the international charts too. Soompi reported seeing the Nocturnal album at the 10th spot in the Top 10 iTunes Soul/R&B Charts.
Let me begin by firstly admit to my personal skepticism of any mainstream movie that attempts to portray Asian people positively, in particular Hollywood movies.
A Hollywood movie was met with an awkward situation on Saturday in China. While fans are standing in long queues to watch the first show, others are advocating a boycott on the American movie with Chinese story elements.
It’s highly likely that you’ve heard of Jay Chou before—he’s the
Taiwanese singer-songwriter behind hits such as “Cute Girl (Ke Ai Nu
Ren),” “Simple Love (Jian Dan Ai),” and “Silence (An Jing).” If you
haven’t heard the original songs, you may have seen YouTube covers by
Mandarin and non-Mandarin speakers alike (our favorite: sisters 
Eco Chef Bryan Au has just released a new recipe book that will "rawck your world".
The 1940's period drama "Shanghai" still awaits its U.S. premiere.
Judges have selected five finalists for the API TV Pilot Shootout. 
The most anticipated film of the summer had its big Hollywood premiere at Mann's Chinese Theatre on Tuesday, and fans carrying both English and Japanese-language signs stood patiently behind barricades, waiting (some since 6am) to catch a glimpse of their favorite actors. Photographers crowded each other for shots of Marion Cotillard and Ellen Page. Security guards positioned themselves on either side of Leonardo DiCaprio as he walked along the street to greet his fans and sign autographs. One of the earlier stars to arrive, Ken Watanabe gamely waved at the fans, inciting cheers as he walked down with his wife Kaho Minami.
The Media Action Network for Asian Amerians (MANAA) will stage a protest of the new film "The Last Airbender" on Thursday July 1st at the Arclight Cinerama Dome on Sunset Blvd in Hollywood.
Harvard University is known for its top notch academics, but not exactly as the hotbed of hoops excellence. It has been more than 60 years since the nation's top-ranked academic institution has been invited to compete in the NCAA March Madness tournament. But that could change this year, thanks, in part, to star basketball player Jeremy Lin, who some say has a shot to going to the NBA. Host Michel Martin talks with Lin about his skills on the court and some of the racism he's faced as an Asian-American player..jpg)
Korean actress Jun Ji-hyun is set to appear alongside Chinese movie star Zhang Ziyi in a new film by Wayne Wang, according to her agency Sidus HQ on Wednesday..jpg)
Dec. 31 (by James S. Russell) -- I didn’t want to let the year close without reflecting on the new Museum of Chinese in America designed by Maya Lin.
THE Asian Festival of First Films (AFFF), the world's premier film and documentary festival that celebreates the achievements of first-time film-makers, announced its winners last Friday at the Raffles Hotel Ballroom.
China is moving to take back one of its own — even if it is legend. Mulan is the Middle Kingdom's gender-bending heroine, its Joan of Arc. The character from folktale is a daughter who disguises herself as a male soldier to take her father's place in the conscription army. The problem for the Chinese is that, since 1998, the definitive version of the story has been Disney's.
We all know her story. She was a beautiful, bright 24-year-old graduate student in Yale's pharmacology department who went missing just four days shy of her wedding. Her body was found on what was to be her wedding day hidden behind a wall in her laboratory, a Yale building at 10 Amistad Road in New Haven. A few days later, a 24-year-old animal technician who also worked at her laboratory was arrested for her murder.
BOOK BIOGRAPHY (not Movie)