September 7, 2006: News Bites

Chicago's Autumn Author of Choice

To Kill a Mockingbird. Night. Pride and Prejudice. Now you can put Jhumpa Lahiri's Interpreter of Maladies on the list of the prestigious books that Chicago has chosen for their "One Book, One Chicago" program. Each season, the Chicago Public Library encourages their urbanites to read and discuss one book at the same time to help share and bring community among the Chicagoans. Interpreter of Maladies, a collection of short stories about Indian immigrants and their children, was the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2000 and Lahiri's first book. Since then she has also written The Namesake, which has been adapted into a film by Mira Nair, starring Kal Penn, which will be out next Spring.

http://www.chipublib.org/003cpl/oboc/maladies/welcome.html
The Namesake official website: http://www2.foxsearchlight.com/thenamesake/

Lost Stars on the Cover of TV Guide

Yunjin Kim and Daniel Dae Kim were recently on the cover of TV Guide, making Yunjin Kim the first actress from Asia, and the first Korean to appear on the cover of TV Guide. Also, Yunjin Kim is on the cover of three total magazines in September, including UK's Arena magazine where she shows off her sex appeal in black hot pants. Even though US audiences are used to seeing her in quiet sophistication as the character of Sun, this might remind people that Yunjin Kim rose to fame in Korea, playing a martial arts assassin in the film Shiri. Her character Sun in Lost is set to have a more active role in the series as Lost's third season premieres on September 27th. Now it's time for Jin, Daniel Dae Kim's character, to start speaking some English and wreaking some havoc.

Lost premieres Sept 27th.
The Lost: Season 2 DVD came out Sept 5th, 2006.
Official site: http://abc.go.com/primetime/lost/

APA interview with Daniel Dae Kim

Man Push Cart: Art Imitates Life

In addition to Red Doors, another film is also opening in NYC on September 8th. Man Push Cart, a film by Ramin Bahrani, follows Ahmad, played by Ahmad Razvi, a street car vendor in Midtown Manhattan and former Pakistani rock singer who just wants to save money to buy a place to live with his estranged son. Razvi, in fact, was a New York City street car vendor himself prior to this role. Since then he has been involved with numerous businesses and restaurants and co-founded the Council of Pakistan Organization (COPO). An official selection at Venice and Sundance Film Festival in 2005, Man Push Cart has earned critical praise as well as two Best Actor awards for Razvi -- Thessaloniki International Film Festival and Seattle International Film Festival. This is also writer-director Ramin Bahrani's first feature film.

Opens in NY (Sept 8th); LA/Pasadena (Sept 22nd); Chicago (Oct 20th)
Official site: http://www.noruzfilms.com/

Disillusioned Teens in the Theatre

Kenneth Lonergan's acclaimed play This Is Our Youth has previously attracted the cream of the crop of Young Hollywood who have gone to London's West End to prove their seriousness about the craft. Big names have included Matt Damon, Hayden Christensen, Jake Gyllenhaal, Anna Paquin, and Allison Lohman. This month in Los Angeles, the Chugg Actor Group is producing their own version at the Actor's Playpen, starring actor David Huynh in the role of Warren Stubb. Warren a role originated by Mark Ruffalo and later played by the likes of Gyllenhaal, Kieran Culkin and Casey Affleck. The play takes place in 1982 in Upper East Manhattan. In this version, directed by Danilo Di Julio, Jason Ciok plays Dennis Ziegler, and Kim Kutner plays Jessica Goldman.

September 1st - October 7th
Actor's Playpen, Hollywood, CA
http://www.myspace.com/thisisouryouth

Watching Movies Together in Chinatown

Film and the outdoors. Doesn't get any better than that. Unless you add kung-fu ninjas. From September 13-17, Bostonians will have a chance to enjoy classic Chinese and kung fu films, as the vacant lot outside Chinatown gate is transformed into a free outdoor theater. The mission of the five-day event "Films at the Gate" is to recapture the excitement and magic that used to fill the Chinese community decades ago. From the '40s through the '70s, Chinatown was known as a movie mecca, attracting rambunctious crowds that came to see everything from free Marx brothers movies to Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan spectacles. Ever since they turned most of the movie houses into restaurants in the '80s, older residents reminisce about the good old days. "Films at the Gate" hopes to become a regular event and revive the tradition. Films featured this year include Bruce Lee's Enter the Dragon, Stephen Chow's God of Cookery, and Jet Li's Once Upon a Time in China II.

http://www.filmsatthegate.org/Home.html

Tony Jaa on the Big Screen Again

That Quentin Tarantino. Presenting so many movies for us. The latest is Tony Jaa's The Protector (Tom yum goong), which hits screens in the US on September 8th. Tony Jaa created quite a stir with his Thai martial arts hit Ong Bak: The Thai Warrior, for being able to leap to ridiculous heights and pull off crazy stunts without any wiring.  The plot of The Protector revolves around a man who is taking revenge on some gangsters who have murdered his father and stolen his family's prized elephants. The new flick hits close to home because Jaa hismelf grew up raising elphants, and jumping off of them while performing childhood acrobatics. Elephants are a prized symbol of Thai culture. The Protector reteams Jaa with his Ong Bak director Prachya Pinkaew. It's distributed by the Weinstein Company, and the music is by none other than the abbot of the Wu-Tang Clan, The RZA.

Official site: http://www.warriorkingmovie.co.uk/index2.html

APA review of The Protector

APA review of Ong Bak: Thai Warrior

In Support of Taiwanese Female Filmmakers

Asian CineVision and The New York Film/Video Council are co-sponsoring the 2006 New York Taiwan Women's Film Festival, which runs from September 6 to 29th in New York. The Women Make Waves Film Festival (WMW) is in its 12th year, and it's moved into more and more cities each year. This is the 6th year WMW has been held in New York. The eight day festival will be screening 30 films, it features panel discussions after every film, and there will also be a free exhibition of all the festival posters that are specially designed for this event. This year's program includes documentary Spring: the Story of Hsu Chin-Yu, Tseng Wen-chen's Fishing Luck, Chen Wei-ssu's Viva Tonal and The Stitching Sisterhood, and more.

Portraying Taiwan: Images by, for, about Women
2006 NY Taiwan Women's Film Festival Sept 7-29, 2006 Donnell Library Center, Taipei Economic & Cultural Office, and Taiwan Center in Flushing
Offiical site: http://www.taipei.org/benny/portraying.htm

APA capsule review of Fishing Luck

APA review of Viva Tonal

APA inteview with Chen Wei-ssu

APA interview with DJ Chen

Bombay Dreams Finishes Off in Seattle

From September 12 to October 1, the colorful Bollywood-themed musical Bombay Dreams is coming to the Fifth Avenue Theatre in Seattle. Produced by Andrew Lloyd Webber, Bombay Dreams opened in England, running for two years in London's West End. It also had a run on Broadway in 2004-2005. The musical follows Akaash (Sachin Bhatt), a young man who dreams of becoming an actor. And, as fate has it, he falls Priya (Reshma Shetty), a beautiful girl who happens to be the daughter of one of Bollywood's greatest film directors. Unfortunately, Priya is engaged. What happens next? Washingtonians can find out, as they're dazzled by the elaborate sets and costumes. This run is the last stop of a national tour that started in Tucson in the beginning of this year.

Bombay Dreams Fifth Avenue Theatre (Seattle, WA)
Sept 12 - Oct 1, 2006

In DVD News...

Two notable DVDs are coming out soon. First up, Russell Peters' stand-up comedy DVD Russell Peters: Outsourced just came out on August 29th. The first comedy album with closed captioning in Hindi, Cantonese, and Mandarin, OUtsourced is the extended 72 minute version of his one-hour stand-up special on Comedy Central. Soon, he will be embarking on another world tour. Victor Vu, director of Spirits and First Morning, has a new series coming out. Written by Tung Nguyen and Vu, Mysterious World is an anthology series of parables about ghosts, demons, and the supernatural. The first episode, Love Never Dies, will be released on September 8th. It stars Phoebe Minh Thu, Thanh Tam, Catherine Thuy Ai and Dang Hung Son, and tells the story of a young Vietnamese woman who is haunted by visions and voices after having her third miscarriage.

Russell Peters' website http://www.russellpeters.com

Mysterious World website http://www.envisionmediagroup.org/film.html

East West Players and Mr. Miyagi's Theatre Company Collaboration

East West Players' 41st Season kicks of with SIDES: The Fear is Real... a comedy about six aspiring actors trying to get their big break. Written and performed by Sekiya Billman, Cindy Cheung, Paul H. Juhn, Peter Kim, Hoon Lee, and Rodney To, the production allowed the group to poke fun at all the nightmarishness that comes with the grueling, sadistic audition process. It was first produced by the Ma-Yi Theater Company in New York, and it's coming to Los Angeles.

Sept 20- Oct 1, 2006
Previews: Sept 16 at 8pm, Sept 17 at 2pm
David Henry Hwang Theater, Little Tokyo, Los Angeles
Official sites: http://www.eastwestplayers.org/sides.htm, http://www.mrmiyagi.com/

APA coverage of East West Player's Sweeney Todd

APA coverage of East West Player's Equus

Boys... Gotta Love It

Jay Chandrasekher directed some episodes of Arrested Development. But what he's more known for is the comedy films of the Super Troopers, Club Dread variety. His latest directorial number is Beerfest, a film by his comedy troupe The Broken Lizards, including Steve Lemme, Heffernan, Paul Soter, and Eric Stolhanske. This time Chandrasekher also gets to play in front of the camera. He plays drinking game champion/reformed hustler Barry Badrinath (see picture above). Beerfest tells the story of five men who represent the glorious US of A in an international beer drinking contest. They train hard in order to compete against the reigning champions, Germany. Released on August 25th, Beerfest opened in 4th place with $6.5 million. Almost two hours of raunchy comedy. Watch Beerfest and then go watch Snakes on a Plane. Have a marathon movie night. Kill some brain cells. It'll be worth it.

Beerfest Official site: http://beerfestmovie.warnerbros.com/