Male Entertainers. Usually trailing female entertainers for our the most popular story of the year. We wonder why. This year's male performances ranged from chillingly real to smoldering hot.
Aamir Khan
Known for being extremely picky about his scripts, Aamir Khan must have really liked Rang De Basanti to agree to play a young man in his 20s, even though the actor in real life was pushing 40. Not that it showed. Aamir Khan's work in the film created a nuanced character who convincingly bounces from carefree and playful charmer, to embittered and hopeless citizen, to self-aware and intensely impassioned martyr. Though Khan is already a huge star in Hindi film, he graciously shared the screen with a talented group of actors that held their own onscreen. Together with Khan, R. Madhavan, Sharman Joshi, Siddarth Narayan, Kunal Kapoor, and Atul Kulkarni made up the rest of the past and present revolutionaries. Rang De Basanti not only broke records in terms of box-office sales, but the impact of the film could be felt so much amongst the youth that the "Rang De Basanti effect" was accredited with springing an indifferent generation into action. Awakening them, if you will. -Ada Tseng
Sung Kang
Hotness is such a difficult entity to quantify. Is it the perfect bone structure, or some inarticulable animalism that derives its pleasures from, err, discomfort? Take Sung Kang, for instance. In nearly every film he's been in (and judging by the interview he gave us earlier this year), he's been a bit of a bad boy, but not the kind that huffs and puffs and clenches his jaw, and smacks his lips, and throws things (or people), but, well, it's like this: he's bad, he knows it, and he's not in the least bit impressed. Now that, if you ask us, is hot. Poster boys come and go, and we know better than to dub Sung the savior of Asian American cinema. (Even though we can think of at least six reasons to do so anyways: he's hot, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, he's hot, The Motel, he's hot, Undoing.) Because right now, if he were to read that, he'd probably grimace slightly, then unmerrily go about his business. Which, of course, is looking uncomfortably hot. -Chi Tung
Masi Oka
NBC's breakaway hit Heroes features Japanese American actor Masi Oka as the loveable Hiro Nakamura, a Japanese salary man who happens to have the power to bend time and space. Oka's importance has already brought about one tag-line for the show (it was his line that spurred the "Save the cheerleader, save the world" ad campaign by NBC). And while Oka speaks mainly Japanese on the show, he speaks English fluently, as he moved to the United States at a young age. In fact, the writers of the show give him his lines in English so he can translate them himself to ensure authenticity. Once a part of Industrial Light and Magic (working on the coding of films such as the Star Wars franchise), Oka now finds himself a recognizable new talent. The actor has just completed work on Balls of Fury, a mock martial arts comedy, and has recently signed on to the film 21, which is about MIT students that take Las Vegas for a ride. -Larry Kao
Ken Watanabe
As Lt. Gen. Tadamichi Kuribayashi in Letters from Iwo Jima, any remaining residue of the "Last Samurai costar" label will disappear for Ken Watanabe. For prior to being introduced to mainstream American audiences with the latter film in 2003, Watanabe had been acting in Japan since the early 80s, one of the most memorable roles being in Itami Juzo's 1985 comic film about gastronomy, Tampopo. Fast-forward to 2006 and alongside Letters from Iwo Jima, Watanabe demonstrates his intense acting mettle in the Japanese production Memories of Tomorrow (Ashita no kioku), where he portrays a middle-aged man slowly being consumed by Alzheimer's disease. Though having a much tougher persona than Koji Yakusho (the only other 'mainstream' Japanese actor who is internationally known), Watanabe is also capable of conjuring the most subtle of emotions and transitions with the twitch of his mouth. No surprise, then, that for the role of Kuribayashi, whose character blends pathos in his letters to his family in Japan and brutality in the face of the enemy, there's no one more suitable. -Rowena Aquino
Yul Kwon
Survivor contestant Yul Kwon truly proved that it is "mind over matter" when he became the winner of 2006's racially-charged season of Survivor: Cook Islands with his sly and clever game strategies. At the beginning of this season, the contestants were immediately divided into teams according to their ethnic backgrounds. Kwon was turned off by the show's gimmick and was tempted to quit the show the night before it began. However, it was a good thing he stayed in, because the 31 year-old management consultant beat out 19 other contestants, including finalist Oscar "Ozzy" Lusth, the athlete who dominated the physical challenges. Kwon's mental agility and savvy reputation of being the show's "Godfather" and "Puppetmaster" were no surprise considering he earned degrees from Stanford University and Yale Law School prior to being on the show. In contrast to the media's caricatures of Asian men as wimpy, nerdy, and passive, Kwon smashed the stereotypes with his leadership abilities, athleticism, and his good looks. He was even featured among "The Sexiest Men for 2006" by People Magazine. -Julie Hong
Ahmad Razvi
Ramin Bahrani's Man Push Cart came and went virtually undetected. Those lucky enough to see it in festivals or during its brief theatrical run have vocally shouted the film's praises, but without the marketing push or big stars, even the sort of cinephiles who like its brand of cyclical storytelling and visual style failed to connect. But at the end of the day, the film's reputation is solidified by a number of tangible accomplishments, namely the awards received for the stellar performance by Ahmad Razvi as a cart vendor in New York City. Razvi plays a Pakistani American, once a rock star, now a lonely divorcee, who peddles porn and sells morning coffee to a paranoid post-9/11 New York. Among Razvi's accolades: well-deserved best actor awards at the Thessaloniki and Seattle film festivals, but most importantly, a best actor nomination at the Independent Spirit Awards, a sign that while audiences don't know his name yet, the indie film community is catching on. -Brian Hu
Daniel Henney
With Korean stars like Kim Yujin borne by the Korean Wave to American shores, it only seems fair that something be sent back in exchange besides cheesy Hollywood blockbusters. American expat Daniel Henney is one of very few foreigners to carve out a successful acting career for themselves in the Korean market. His turn as an American doctor on the incredibly popular drama My Name is Kim Samsoon turned him into the object of worship for millions of adoring fangirls on the peninsula (and elsewhere, thanks to overseas broadcasts of Samsoon). Almost preternaturally handsome, Henney has managed to parlay modeling jobs into commercials into top-rated dramas. Don't write him off as just a pretty face though; thanks to a strong turn in Samsoon, he followed up this year as one of the leads in Spring Waltz, the highly anticipated conclusion to Yun Seok-ho's "Seasons" dramas (Summer Scent, Autumn Fairy Tale, and the ever popular Winter Sonata.) -Jennifer Flinn
Tzi Ma
Tzi Ma wore red sneakers on the red carpet of the Los Angeles commercial premiere of the film Red Doors. And that is why he made this year's Top Ten. Alright, maybe it takes a little bit more than that. But in all seriousness, Tzi Ma had a pretty good year. In the film Red Doors, Ma had a lead role as a family's patriarch who loses his mind and disappears to a monastery to the confusion of his wife and three daughters. Sounds like a comedy to me. But what was more impressive than the film itself was that Tzi Ma and the rest of the Red Doors team, under the leadership of director Georgia Lee and producer Mia Riverton, participated in an impressively successful grassroots campaign -- which resulted in them acquiring distribution and premiering in New York with the highest per screen weekend gross in the United States. Ma also had a role in Akeelah and the Bee, and in television, he reprised his high-profile role in 24 as Cheng Zhi, the Chief of Security for the Chinese Consulate. In addition to these acting roles, Ma was interviewed for The Slanted Screen, Jeff Adachi's documentary about Asian American male representation in the media, securing his status as someone who has had helped break down doors for the younger breed of Asian men to slick their hair back, fight their demons, and hit the red carpet in style. -Ada Tseng
Kal Penn
People might recognize him primarily for his starring role as Kumar in the comedy Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, but Kal Penn has definitely not let his career hanging since his Whitecastle days. Just this year alone, Penn starred as the leads in comedies such as National Lampoon's Van Wilder: The Rise of Taj and Bachelor Party Vegas, while also switching turfs and plyaing a villainous sidekick in the blockbuster film Superman Returns. Penn has also been working on the Harold and Kumar sequel and the spoof comedy Epic Movie. However, Penn will prove that he is more than a comedic actor as the lead role in the more serious Namesake, and as he continues his role in the hit show 24. -Julie Hong
Bong Tae-gyu
Bong Tae-gyu is an unlikely star of cinema. His goofy features make him more likely to elicit giggles than lovelorn sighs. Nevertheless, this earnest gagman has manged to pull off a string of remarkable performances by transforming his usual roles of luckless dorks and picked-on doofuses into something more: a soulful everyman. His nuanced mode of comedy lifted several otherwise medicre films (Ssunday Seoul, See You After School) to a higher level. -Jennifer Flinn
Back to APA's "Best of 2006" issue