8Asians is proud to be a community co-presenter of this film at the 2017 Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival (LAAPFF). As a reader of 8Asians, please enjoy a discount to this film using the code: 8AZN17. Or the code CGVBP17 for $4 off General Admission tickets to all Buena Park screenings!
Sam Voutas and Producer Melanie Ansley in attendance!
"A heartwarming story about movie piracy," just doesn't gel well at a film festival where the theatrical experience is the enterprise's bread and butter. Yet in the case of Sam Voutas's sophomore directorial feature KING OF PEKING, this tagline fits the story to a tee. Set in late '90s China, KING OF PEKING evokes CINEMA PARADISO in its depiction of a country at the cusp of a socio-cultural explosion into a new century of economic prosperity.
Big Wong and Little Wong are a close-knit father-son duo. They travel around in a mobile cinema projecting Hollywood movies for local villagers. When Big Wong's ex-wife demands he start paying child support, he realizes he may lose custody of his son. In order to raise enough money to stay together, Big Wong takes up a job as a janitor in an old Beijing movie theater. Happening upon an old DVD recorder at a pawnshop, he hatches a plan to raise money to pay for child support and retain custody of Little Wong. Setting up shop in the basement of the theater, Big Wong secretly records movies after hours and the result is the birth of a nascent bootleg DVD empire. At first, Little Wong has a good head for this business, which they name 'King of Peking.' But as business booms, Little Wong soon develops a crisis of conscience over the moral and ethical implications of this scheme. Big Wong sees his son's torment and senses that he may be losing his trust.
Like his first film RED LIGHT REVOLUTON (Festival 2011), director Voutas' stories capture working-class heroes trying to buck the system, infusing them with inherently Chinese nuances (thanks in part to his many years living and working in China, along with his producer and partner Melanie Ainsley). KING OF PEKING is an ode to cinema that eschews the sappy histrionics often associated with the magic and inspiration of the movies. This gritty take on a movie pirate's desperate attempt to keep his son brims with inflections of Hollywood movie plots and characters that permeate into their everyday lives. It is an endearing love letter to cinema, but one populated by pedicab drivers, factory workers, fathers and sons.
Eleven year old Yi-Jie plays with her younger brothers in piles of used plastic materials, often made into wondrous simulacra of modern life. Sheets of confectionery wrapping become colorful wallpaper; old newspapers and grocery store leaflets take flight, either as a superhero cape or an English lesson. While her family lives and works alongside their employer in the ever-continuous task of sifting, processing, melting and reformatting the vestiges of the first world, Yi-Jie takes care of the household. Being put to task by her ne'er-do-well father, a Yi minority man who brought his family to a small industrial town that is thousands of miles away from home, Yi-Jie remains ever willful and perspicacious, stealing moments away to learn a new word or concept — or to observe the parallel lives of Kun, their family's employer, while he aspires and works hard towards achieving a better life for his own peasant-rooted family.
Director Wang Jiu-liang spent years investigating the post-consumer waste industrial systems which link China to the rest of the world (and vice versa), beginning with his renowned photography work and documentary BEIJING BESIEGED BY WASTE (2011). His unique approach to the award-winning documentary PLASTIC CHINA, however, remains far from didactic or inflammatory. Closely following two families over six years, this work invites us to see the universal in the ultra-personal: we may witness difficult family conversations, take stock in the banality (and toxicity) of their work, decipher divisions along ethnic and social classes, and even rejoice at the miracle of life. Coming full circle, then, the film may even prepare us to answer the question: How are we personally connected to one girl's dreams of going to school, and what are we doing about it?
Happy-go-lucky Jake Chen (Anthony Ma) puts both heart and soul into perfecting his signature blends of sweet, creamy, and chewy goodness at his parents' modest boba tea shop located in a sleepy corner plaza of sunny and suburban Arcadia, CA in the heart of the "626" (an area code symbolic of the material home of recent highly educated and solidly middle class Chinese immigrants from Taiwan and the Mainland). This influx of high rolling investors and consumers as new additions to the Chinese diaspora in the U.S. and specifically here in the West Coast, plays a central critical role in the plot of this big hearted, Taiwanese American romantic comedy-drama. As home-grown as it comes, director Lawrence Gan and screenwriter Theresa Chiu concoct this affable micro indie as both love letter to celebrate the continued, strong bonds of family and friendship in the contemporary Chinese American community and as a signpost of the burgeoning powerhouse, immigrant community planting roots and asserting economic and cultural influences in CA and the U.S.
Jake's family business faces extinction when Joanna Lee (Michelle Huang), the precocious, no holds barred, uptight daughter of a Taiwanese real estate developer, steps into his shop to avail herself of wi-fi and simultaneously, sweeps him off his feet by her candor and confidence. Her presence sets off a chain reaction in Jake's daily life forcing him to question his own direction. Should he go off to college like his peers and/or pursue his dream of becoming a chef? His contented attachment to home and hearth, his kind, supportive BFFs, Louie (Arvin Lee) and Samantha (Lana McKissack), and his little patch in the Shire may not be enough anymore. Can love conquer his Hobbit-like ways and teach him a thing or two about growing up and realizing his full potential?
The sugar rush comes to a head at Louie's big brother's wedding, where we get served cake, Shakespearian dramatics of a best man's speech, and resolutions to long-standing family and community grievances. Transformation, reconciliation, "Arcadian Sunrise," and maybe, a "Phoenix Surprise" await you. It is truly sweets to the sweet.
What a difference five years makes: back in 2010, music video director and online content developer Daniel Park brought his brilliantly rude, crass, and homemade web series KTOWN COWBOYS to the Film Festival as a self-contained featurette, with one crucial detail — he stitched together all but the last of eight episodes to create a work that would deliver to him the Festival's Special Jury Award for Best First Feature, and compelled viewers to visit the film's website to discover how the whole story ended. A brilliant example of transmedia, certainly, but an experience that screamed out for a fuller, more complete story. So, working with many of the principals from the web series, director Park returned to K-Town, so to speak, and revisited much of the same terrain covered in that earlier, heralded work. The result, also named KTOWN COWBOYS, should not be confused with the earlier feature: taking place months before the events of the web series, this new iteration of the adventures of Jason (Shane Yoon), Sunny (Sunn Wee), Peter (Peter Jae), Danny (Danny Cho), and Robby (Bobby Choy, aka folk guitarist Big Phony) is even more of a comedy caper than the earlier effort, and renders obsolete Chris Chan Lee's classic YELLOW (Festival 1997), acknowledged as the progenitor of modern Korean American cinema.
Jason, a reluctant heir and caretaker to the family-run business, is in trouble as this new story opens: no thanks to an embezzlement scheme perpetrated by a mid-level manager (a deliciously twisted cameo by comedian Steve Byrne), the company teeters on the brink of collapse. As Jason's straight-laced uncle and v-e-r-y loopy and self-absorbed cousin Mindy (Angie Kim) fly in from Seoul to confront Jason, his buddies confront problems of their own. Sunny, an aspiring entrepreneur, chafes at the prospect of inheriting the family-owned liquor store. Hot-headed macho-man Peter toils by day at the Fashion Institute, where none of his fellow buddies can see his nascent talents as a dress designer. Danny, a struggling comic, wonders if his big break will ever come. And Robby, a Korean adoptee ensconced in a mind-numbingly suburban reality, begins to get in touch with his Koreanness and contemplates a return to the motherland to find his roots. Together, the five join forces with Mindy to seek out a solution to Jason's problems — a trek that will take them through Koreatown's designer hotels, noraebangs, K-BBQ hangouts, afterhours drinking spots, and lounges.
8Asians is working with McDonald's to give away free tickets for you and a guest to watch the highly anticipated documentary Twinsters at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival on April 25, 2015, AND reconnect over a shared meal at McDonald's.
Winners will be provided with a "Lovin' Meal on Us" (via a $15 value Arch Card) to share a meal with a loved one at McDonald's. If you cannot attend the screening, you can have a still win a "Lovin' Meal on Us" at McDonald's.
For more information, check out the Official Rules. This giveaway closes soon, so hurry up!
Ok, ok… you want a chance to win? Read on!
Many exciting and wondrous things have happened to Wesley Chan, Ted Fu, and Philip Wang in the decade since they produced the cheeky comedy short YELLOW FEVER — the trio formed an independent production company, Wong Fu Productions; established a beachhead on the then-nascent streaming web destination YouTube; formed, with hip-hop/electropop artists Far East Movement the International Secret Agents (ISA) as a means of bringing together Asian American talents from the online universe and their adoring audiences; and built an ongoing legacy as pioneers (and game-changers) in Asian Pacific American cinema. As their latest endeavor, EVERYTHING BEFORE US, makes clear, the guys still feel they have things to prove. Having cornered the market in the online cinema realm, the trio (recently augmented to include producer Christine Chen and screenwriter/actor Christopher Dinh Nguyen) had always set their sights on producing a proper feature-length theatrical narrative. Not that they haven't accomplished even that lofty goal: their 2006 A MOMENT WITH YOU, completed as their informal graduation thesis from UC San Diego, helped jump-start the trio's online subscriber base as it was taken to college campuses throughout the country. These days, though, Wesley, Ted and Philip downplay the film's impact, insisting that their growth as artists and filmmakers have set the stage for the "proper" creation of a full-length feature. Developed and incubated through Visual Communications' VC Film Development Fund and augmented by a wildly successful crowdfunding campaign, EVERYTHING BEFORE US finds Wong Fu, and indeed its very own legion of fans and supporters, at an important artistic crossroads.
High schoolers Seth (Brandon Soo Hoo) and Haley (Victoria Park) are a happy, loving couple, but with the two headed to different colleges, the strain of a long-distance relationship is beginning to show in an increasing series of petty arguments and misunderstandings. Meanwhile, thirty-something professionals Ben (Aaron Yoo) and Sara (Brittany Ishibashi) are already a former couple who want nothing more to do with each other. Their opposing career paths — Ben, an artist, seeks employment at a design firm; Sara, a barista, dreams of opening her own coffee shop — have left them no time for each other. Yet the travails of both couples do not go unobserved. Their relationship activities are documented and monitored by the Department of Emotional Integrity (DEI), a DMV-styled agency that issues a relationship score to keep individuals accountable for their relationship activity and choices. The score is public for all to see, and affects various aspects of their daily lives. As the changing relationship dynamics of the two couples are monitored by a world-weary DEI case worker (Randall Park), a series of occurrences and the emergence of darker secrets threaten to unsettle the lives that both couples have attempted to build with, and apart from, each other. Can they conduct their lives in accordance with the DEI? Or will the restrictive nature of the agency undermine their aspirations?
EVERYTHING BEFORE US has much to say about today's society as well as the legion of netizens who follow Chan, Fu, and Wang. The film — co-written with Nguyen — comments the very social network that have greatly benefitted Wong Fu and provided them an audience. That network, in the guise of the emotional integrity score, promotes classism, favoritism, a touch of racism, and even…state terrorism? That's pretty disturbing stuff coming from a trio best known for extolling the virtues of "(f)unemployment," among other things. EVERYTHING BEFORE US finds Wesley, Ted, and Philip a full decade removed from frivolous endeavors as YELLOW FEVER. The three have adult things on their minds. And so too, we suspect, do their audience.
Lunar New Year is about to charge into our lives: the Year of the Goat is almost upon us, with Chinese Year 4713 beginning on February 19, 2015.
In celebration of Lunar New Year, legendary Belgian chocolatier GODIVA launched the Year of the Goat collection in North America featuring unique Asian ingredients such as ginger, gui flower, and jasmine. Continuing the success of previous limited edition Lunar New Year chocolate collections, GODIVA is once again offering its Asian-American consumers a special product to celebrate one of the most important holidays for many Asian communities.
The 15 and 20-piece Year of the Goat collection is enclosed in a red and gold luxury gift box featuring a beautiful goat pattern. Using traditional red and gold colors, both gift boxes are perfect for gifting to friends and family during the Lunar New Year. And knowing that you give GODIVA to send your best wishes for the new year, let GODIVA also treat you with a complimentary special edition red and gold keepsake tin filled with its signature truffles when you purchase the 20-piece luxury gift box.
The GODIVA Year of the Goat collection is available as a 15-piece gift box for $38 and a 20-piece luxury gift box for $50 at select GODIVA boutiques in the U.S. and Canada. They will be in stores and online for a limited time until March 8, or while supplies last. Visit www.GODIVA.com for more information on the Lunar New Year Gifts and for store locations.
Ok, ok… you want a chance to win the gift box? Read on!
UPDATE 9/10/2014: Congrats to Douglas C, winner of the GODIVA Limited Edition 2014 Chocolate Mid-Autumn Festival Mooncakes.
In 2014, the Mid-Autumn Festival falls on September 8. That means it's mooncake time!
Now if you're like me, and you basically hated mooncake time because you think red bean paste is disgusting (I know, I know… I should get my Asian card taken away for that), then this is the mooncake treat for you!
Back by popular demand, legendary Belgian chocolatier GODIVA has debuted a new collection of limited-edition chocolate mooncakes in celebration of the Mid-Autumn Festival. First successfully introduced in Asia seven years ago, GODIVA chocolate mooncakes have previously only been available in select U.S. markets. This year, the limited-edition GODIVA chocolate mooncake collection is available throughout U.S. and Canada with new tea and fruit flavors that capture the spirit of the holiday.
GODIVA still remains the only premium chocolatier in North America that offers customers a non-traditional, luxury mooncake. Since mooncakes are traditionally enjoyed with tea, GODIVA incorporated tea flavors into its exquisite chocolate to create this year's delectable collection.
The GODIVA chocolate mooncakes are presented in luxurious gift boxes that have become collectors' items of their own. This year's crimson-colored gift box features Chang'e, the Chinese goddess of the moon, in front of a beautifully embossed gold moon. Additionally, two mooncakes – the Grapefruit Black Tea Crunch, and a Lychee Green Tea Crunch – are available individually in the chocolate case in GODIVA boutiques.
GODIVA chocolate mooncake gift boxes retail for $50. They are now available in GODIVA boutiques nationwide and online at www.GODIVA.com. The individual mooncakes retail for $6.50 each, and are available exclusively in GODIVA boutiques. The collection is available for a limited time until Sept. 8, 2014. Visit www.GODIVA.com for more information and for store locations.
GKIDS presents A Letter to Momo, opening September 5, 2014 at Landmark's Opera Plaza Cinemas in San Francisco, and Landmark's Shattuck Cinemas in Berkeley. It will be presented in two language versions with different showtimes: in English language voice cast, and in Japanese with English subtitles.
The second film by Hiroyuki Okiura (director of Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade and animator on Ghost in the Shell and Akira) is a wonderfully expressive, beautifully hand-drawn tale that combines whimsy and kinetic humor with deeply felt emotion and drama. The last time teenager Momo saw her father before his sudden death they had a fight—and now all she has left to remember him by is an unfinished letter with only the words "Dear Momo." Moving with her mother to a remote but beautiful island, Momo at first suspects their house is haunted. She soon discovers three goblin spirits living in the attic, mischievous creatures that only she can see who, constantly hungry, create mayhem as she tries desperately to keep them hidden. But these funny monsters have a serious side and may hold the key to helping Momo discover what her father had been trying to tell her. Seven years in the making, A Letter to Momo builds to a bravura finale—a frantic chase featuring thousands of squirming, morphing ghosts and spirits that is the best cinematic flight of supernatural fancy in many years.
If you're in the Bay Area, why not catch it in the theatres?
Ok, ok, you just want to know how to win the tickets? Read on!
YouTube sensations, the Fung Brothers, are at it again with a hilarious and heartwarming glimpse into the struggles of young Asians growing up in immigrant households. Four different scenarios (including one starring the Fung Bros, themselves) depict the battles young Asians face while pursuing what they love to do. The Fung Brothers hope its message can empower today's Asian youth.
With catchy lyrics, the Fung Brothers new video makes a play on the acronym V.L.T. The recurring theme is that there is Very Little Time to pursue one's passion. VLT also happens to stand for Vita Lemon Tea, a beverage from Vitasoy. The beverage maker is running a photo contest concurrently with the Fung Brothers video launch. Submit a photo that showcases your own VLT.
Submission period is July 25 to August 22, 2014. You can enter multiple ways – through the myvltcontest.com website, facebook/myvltcontest, and via Instagram and Twitter with #myVLTcontest. All qualified entries are eligible to win two roundtrip air tickets to Hong Kong! After each week, the photo with the most votes wins a year's supply of Vita Lemon Tea.
Editors Note: This is a sponsored post.
V3 Digital Media Conference is coming up right around the corner. The event kicks off on Friday June 20th with an Opening Awards Reception. Then, the all day conference takes place on Saturday June 21st. Both events are being held at the Japanese American National Museum in Little Tokyo (LA). Here is the website for more info: http://v3con.com/.
Registration includes admission to Friday's Opening Awards Reception and Saturday's all day conference, including breakfast and lunch on Saturday. Check out the full schedule and the list of speakers.
Broadcast journalist Ann Curry, Pulitzer Prize-winning food critic Jonathan Gold and singer-songwriter Judith Hill will be honored at the 2014 V3 Digital Media Conference, presented June 20-21 in celebration of Asian American contributions to media and culture.
The third annual conference, presented by the Los Angeles Chapter of the Asian American Journalists Association, recognizes the "Vision. Visibility. Voice" of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in digital and social media, with the goal of showcasing the most influential and interesting Asian Americans online while connecting diverse communities and building new media skills.
The two-day event, which drew more than 500 attendees in each of its first two years, will consist of a gala evening awards reception Friday, June 20, to be followed by an all-day conference on Saturday, June 21, both at the Japanese American National Museum in Little Tokyo in downtown Los Angeles.
The three "V" awards given at V3con recognize the contributions, talents and values of path-breaking individuals who have enabled Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders to become recognized as a significant force in media and the broader community. This year's recipients will be recognized at the Friday event for their roles in significantly raising the profile of the AAPI community in the mainstream.
Five lucky 8Asians' readers will each win a pair of registrations to the upcoming V3con!
Ok, ok, so you think you're ready to enter? Read on!
UPDATE 5/20/2014: Congrats to our Grand Prize winner: Herman C! Congrats also to the runner ups: Dave S, M'ris, and Don M!
Opening May 16, 2014, the world's most revered monster is reborn as Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures unleash the epic action adventure "Godzilla." From visionary new director Gareth Edwards ("Monsters") comes a powerful story of human courage and reconciliation in the face of titanic forces of nature, when the awe-inspiring Godzilla rises to restore balance as humanity stands defenseless.
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