My Thoughts on ‘The Lost Empire’ Movie

May 14, 2008 06:54PM | by Alvin Lin in Entertainment

I recently saw this old TV movie called ‘Lost Empire’, out in 2001, starring Thomas Gibson, BAI LING, Russell Wong, and Ric Young, and (disappointingly) written by David Henry Hwang. If I didn’t know better I’d say the recent movie ‘Forbidden Kingdom’ basically copied this movie, but cut it shorter from ‘Lost Empire’s 245 minute TV version.

The story is about this White asiaphile from the United States, who randomly becomes the ‘Chosen Scholar’ in a mythical Chinese story to free the Monkey King from being trapped in a mountain, and to save a magical book. He gets sucked into this because he falls immediately in love with the Goddess of Mercy, played by Bai Ling, upon seeing her. There are also heavenly celestials and the Emperor God, and then a band of evil extremist Gods who do under-handed things behind the Emperor God’s back. The Monkey King has to teach the ‘Chosen Scholar’ how to fight, and in the beginning he’s a nerdy klutz and by the end he’s defeating heavenly demons single handedly. After making out twice with the asiaphile, spliced in certain places throughout this crappy movie, Bai Ling says she’s in love with the asiaphile and wants to sacrifice her heavenly powers to be with him. In the end the magical book is saved, and a reincarnated Bai Ling meets the asiaphile in a university in China. The end.

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Asian Americans: Be Ready for Backlash

May 9, 2008 02:34PM | by Alvin Lin in Community Education People

Here is an interesting article out from AsianWeek.  I think it is an excellent piece that summarizes a lot of points.  It doesn’t address much to tie in how anti-China sentiments affect all Asian Americans, but it’s not hard to see why.  An easy example is how Vincent Chin, a Chinese American, was murdered by two auto workers, who were frustrated over Japan.  Here are some excerpts from the article

“China is now America’s number 3 Enemy. A February 2008 Gallup Poll found that Americans declared that China had replaced North Korea as our number 3 enemy. Is anyone surprised that China is perceived to be a greater threat than the long time trouble maker North Korea? It seems that every day our fellow Americans are feeling more and more threatened by China’s growing economic power, in addition to China’s growing international influence in Asia, Australia, South America, Africa and the Middle East..”

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Far East Movement, Part II

Apr 29, 2008 08:22PM | by Alvin Lin in Culture Entertainment People

Part II of the interview.  You can find Part I here.

[…and made us realize we can’t and shouldn’t hide the fact we’re Asian] I really respect that.  What has the reception been like within the hip hop entertainment community?

SURPRISE. hahah. We’ve had other artists and djs from radio stations say “I’ve been hearing your songs on the radio and always thought yall might be latino or white maybe… but when i looked yall up on the internet and saw FAR EAST MOVEMENT and yall were Asian i was really surprised.” To us, thats a compliment. it means they felt we sounded authentic to how they hear hip hop music. Hopefully the next time they hear or see an Asian artist it wont be as much of a shock.

[…we’re striving to be an Asian American Brand] How has the support been like from the Asian American community so far, how are you trying to reach out or accomplish this?

The support has been amazing. Just within the growing Asian American entertainment community we’ve been lucky enough meet and become family with some of the most amazing people breaking down doors like Justin Lin, Suchin Pak, Sung Kang, Jin, Brian Tee, Roger Fan, Se7en, DJ Shine (Drunken Tiger), DJ Eman (Power106) and countless other musicians, djs, comedians, actors, directors, journalists, tv personalities, dancers, promoters and executives who have all helped us to the path that we’re on today. And our fans, friends and family are the inspiration and support who have driven us to never give up when doors don’t seem to open as fast as we’d like them to. Our first event ever was MOVEMENTALITY, the charity show we talked about earlier. We pride ourselves in doing as many charity shows, high school, college and community shows as we can, especially with the youth, so that we may reach out to the next generation and give back the love the community has shown us. We’ve started working with an assistant superintendant named Diann from a high school district in Sacramento to reach out to students and inspire them in the arts. Definitely be on the look out for FM working much more closely with schools in the near future.

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Chester Tam in ‘Hot Rod’ Movie

Apr 24, 2008 12:50PM | by Alvin Lin in Entertainment

I saw this recently, the recent new comedy ‘Hot Rod’ starring a whole bunch of semi-big names from Superbad / SNL / Arrested Development.

In this movie they have this random kid who is their friend/acquaintance named Richardson, played by Chester Tam who is hilarious and basically just does random dances and pelvic thrusts at random times. He also has this t-shirt with the words ‘sexy, charming, boring, awesome’ and a checkmark next to all but boring.

If you like Family Guy type comedy, this is a movie with similar humor:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5q5Ps7vPxM

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Interview with Far East Movement

Apr 21, 2008 04:56PM | by Alvin Lin in News Culture Entertainment Politics

Last week I had a phone and email interview with the members of the Far East Movement (FM), whose songs have gotten radio play on the West Coast, and in movies like ‘Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift’, and ‘Finishing the Game’.  They have a great sound and are starting to get some mainstream attention from TV channels like MTV.  Below is Part I of our interview.

Here is link to their Myspace where you can check out some of their songs.

Here is a link to their own website.

If you want to purchase their first album ‘Folk Music’, you can find it here.

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My Piece on Attraction

Apr 19, 2008 08:51AM | by Alvin Lin in Community Culture Entertainment

(I’ve been hesitant to voice or interject my opinion too much, however I will occasionally put in my thoughts on some issues, as I become inspired to do so.  Here is something I recently summarized.  It kind of ties in things that have been on my mind lately, concerning mass media, Asian American dysfunction, IR, and an empathy divide):

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Fukudome doesn’t find racist T-shirts in Wrigleyville funny.

Apr 18, 2008 06:29PM | by Alvin Lin in Offensive

What is so key is that he took a stand and said it wasn’t funny, which is different from so many Uncle Tom Asians who will do the opposite.  I am tired of hearing Asian Americans defending ‘21’, Abercrombie t-shirts, ‘ching chong’, and loads of other stuff just because they want to fit in or be a model minority.

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/baseball/cubs/901817,CST-SPT-gordo18.article

Kosuke Fukudome didn’t have to wait long for the ugly American part of his welcome to Wrigleyville.

A Fukudome T-shirt with a racist image is the hottest-selling item at a souvenir stand that sells unlicensed Cubs-related merchandise across Addison Street from the ballpark, according to Mark Kolbusz, who’s in his fourth season operating the stand.

On the front of the shirt is the traditional Cubs cartoon bear face but with slanted eyes and wearing oversized Harry Caray-style glasses. It’s accompanied by the words ‘’Horry Kow,’’ scrawled in cartoonish ‘’Japanese’’ script. Fukudome’s name and number are on the back.

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Nerd Love: Guy Proposes to GF Through Reprogrammed Videogame

Apr 18, 2008 06:59AM | by Alvin Lin in Culture People

Article Link

JERSEY CITY, N.J. - Hiding a ring in a bouquet just wasn’t enough when a computer programmer decided to pop the question. Bernie Peng reprogrammed Tammy Li’s favorite video game, “Bejeweled,” so a ring and a marriage proposal would show up on the screen when she reached a certain score.

Li reached the needed score — and said yes.

The word of the romantic feat last December filtered out after Peng, a financial software programmer, posted details on his blog. The reprogramming was a tricky task and took him a month.

“I thought it was pretty cool, in a nerdy way,” Peng told The Star-Ledger of Newark.

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Asian Female Execs Held Back Due to Stereotypes?

Apr 17, 2008 03:58PM | by Alvin Lin in Business Community

Article link

(WOMENSENEWS)--While U.S. corporations are creating and touting their diversity programs, professional women of Asian descent say their needs in the workplace are often overlooked and that these initiatives do not always include them as much as other women of color.

The results, Asian women say, is that they are often locked out of top jobs in the workplace. Compared to other minority groups, Asian women make up a particularly minuscule portion of Fortune 500 corporate officers.

To combat this, female executives of Asian origin who have moved into high ranks within their companies say that it is up to them to shatter the stereotypes of being mild-mannered and submissive and promote themselves vigorously within the corporate setting.

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Wachowskis Developing Top-Secret Movie For ‘Matrix’ star Collin Chou

Apr 16, 2008 11:56PM | by Alvin Lin in Entertainment

Article link

Taiwanese action star Collin Chou, best known in the U.S. for playing Seraph in “Matrix Revolutions” and “Matrix “Reloaded,” revealed to MTV News that he has signed on to a top-secret project the trippy filmmakers hope to begin after “Speed Racer.”

The high-kicking Chou will soon be seen opposite Jackie Chan and Jet Li, appearing as the villainous Jade War Lord in April 18’s damn fine kung fu flick “The Forbidden Kingdom.” Following that film’s release, Chou will continue talking with the Wachowskis as they develop their unnamed script with him in mind.

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