Category Archive

Just came back from watching The Forbidden Kingdom. My initial reaction is that this movie met my expectations—predictable plot filled with fortune cookie dialogue of the cheese variety that’s filled with some pretty good action sequences. However, I must admit that this movie also surprisingly had some well thought out and delivered jokes. Now for a more in depth movie review or plot summaries, please visit Rotten Tomato and IMBD.

Meanwhile, on to the case study!

Background
If you have watched any of the movie trailers or have seen any of the promotional posters plastered on billboards and buses in the past two months, you are likely to believe that this is strictly a martial arts film starring Jackie Chan and Jet Li. But don’t be fooled, that’s just what the movie’s marketing team wants you to believe.

You see, if you have watched the movie’s original trailer (also see below), you would have known long ago that this is actually an Alice in Wonderland story about white American boy who travels back to ancient China where he become the reluctant hero on a LOTR type quest.

Problem
In my personal and professional opinion (i.e. this is just speculation as I don’t work for Lions Gate), I think that the marketing team quickly realized that enough people (both martial arts movie buffs and lay people) who saw the first trailer didn’t know what to think about the movie’s main character and plot. While there was not an overwhelmingly volatile sentiment or any newsworthy controversy against the film or the film makers, the people who watched the trailer were obviously perplexed. Here are few blog examples with some interesting reader comments:

• /film
• The Movie Blog
• First Showing
• Film Junk
• Nerd with Swag

Solution
So to prevent their most profitable market (though obviously not the film’s target audience which is arguably children and fantasy fans) from being alienated from the film, the marketing team hauled ass to prepare some bad-ass trailers and posters to focus on the film’s headliners and their martial arts skills. See below for exhibit A and exhibit B:

Exhibit A: Movie Poster

Exhibit B: Movie Trailer

Here’s the full trailer #2, which starts to move the focus away from the American boy in ancient China plot while only referring to him as the “lost traveler” among the rag-tag band of misfits out to stop an evil warlord.

Here’s a TV spots edited from trailer #2, which has completely eliminated the American boy entirely from the trailer’s plot summary and images. They pretty much lead you to believe that you are going to watch a martial arts epic like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon or House of Flying Daggers.

On anther note, I also suspect that the opening sequence in the actual movie that takes place in modern times was edited significantly. This was probably done when the film makers realized that no body cares about the boy’s back story or his participation in the film. So in order for the movie to get to ancient China quicker, much of the scenes in modern times that were featured in the first trailer were cut. Coincidence? I think not.

Conclusion
So, did it work? Well based on my observations at the office and at the theater, this crazy idea just may have done its job…..

• At the office: In passing I heard that someone, whose self-proclaims to be “really into those martial arts action movies” was planning to see the movie with a group of friends and then grab dinner. In response, a second person said, oh you mean like “Crouching Tiger”? I love those movies! My thoughts…..”Boy, oh boy, is this person in for a surprise!”
• At the theater: It was packed. Granted, it’s opening night, so its not that surprising; however, its interesting to note that a good percentage of them looked like the martial arts film buffs and were Asian/Asian American. When the opening scene cut from the Monkey King fighting sequence to American boy getting out of bed in modern times, I heard a quiet but collective “What the F*ck! Are we in the right theater?” Clearly, the marketing team was successful in misleading some of these people to buy tickets….which of course forces them to continue watching in order to get their money’s worth.

But its hard to tell with the movie only having been out for one day. Guess we’ll have to wait on the weekend box office numbers to know for sure.

UPDATE: It’s official. The Forbidden Kingdom is the #1 movie in America (all thanks to some rather smart, though very misleading promotional materials from the marketing team). Though as MikeMai also points out in his comment below, the editing team should also be commended for making some very wise choices to make this movie more “acceptable” to those of us who were tricked into watching it.

My only hope is that this doesn’t become the new Hollywood formula for martial arts action movies (i.e. Send a present-day American kid back to ancient Asia to become the savior to the Asian people). It would be a revival of the Karate Kid saga all over again…..once was enough…please!

 

Is is just me or have the local Bay Area radio stations been getting some interesting guests this week.

• Jeff Ma - Original member of the MIT Blackjack Team
  Monday, March 23rd | Alice 97.3 | Sarah and Noname in the Morning

Not sure how they got him as a guess, but my guess is that Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures’ PR teams have signed him on to promote their new movie 21, which opens this Friday (3/29). Based on the The New York Times bestseller, “Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six MIT Students Who Took Vegas for Millions” by Ben Mezrich, it’s the story about MIT Blackjack Team, six MIT students that would go to Vegas every weekend to make bank playing Blackjack by counting cards during the early 90s.

The title character, Kevin Lewis was based on Jack Ma. Apparently Jack had originally attempted to pen his story but gave up quickly after writing one sentence. He then asked his friend Ben Mezrich to write the story and the rest is history.

One interesting tidbit that I remember from the show was about a site called DoublePlayTV.com where Jeff Ma has published instructional videos that teach you how to count cards. If you’re heading to Vegas soon, it’s recommended that you check it out.

If you want to hear the whole interview, here’s a link to the podcast.

Sub-note: I had first learned about the MIT Blackjack Team from a documentary about the world’s greatest heists and thieves that was included as a special feature in the Ocean’s 13 DVD/BluRay. It’s a pretty interesting feature and some of the other heists (including a woman who would steal jewelery but simply walking out of the store with it on her finger).

• Jennifer 8. Lee - Author of “The Fortune Cookie Chronicles”
  Wednesday, March 26rd | KQED Radio (NPR) 88.5| Forum

If you are a foodie with a special interest in China and Chinese/Chinese American culture, then you might want to read a new book by New York Times reporter, Jennifer 8. Lee (Yes, her last name is actually the number 8). Named “The Fortune Cookie Chronicles” the book (I hear….as I have not yet read) is a anthropological study about Chinese food in America.

As part of a fairly typical but very successful publicity/PR book tour in nine U.S. cities. While I am not too familiar with book/publishing public relations, her publicist, Cary Goldstein has been scoring some amazing media placements—NPR, Entertainment Weekly, Reader’s Digest, Everyday with Rachael Ray, Newsweek, AOL’s Home Page, Maxim, Glamour, etc.— with the book only out in less than a month and not yet in wide distribution.

Though my only thought is that it would be nice if she clip those placements and posted on her site, instead of listing them. It would be interesting to read different reviews, especially considering how diverse her placement has been and it would have saved me the trouble of trying to find all of those articles myself (click on the media outlets listed in the paragraph above to see their views on this book).

I had noted her appearance in the San Francisco Bay Area a couple of weeks ago but forgot to save the date and missed her talk at a local book store. On wells. But fortunately, I did tune-in to NPR/KQED Radio at the right time tonight and caught her interview on Forum.

Jennifer share some interesting facts and tidbits about specific dishes, but she raised a few interesting points that had never occurred to me:

• Chinese food in American is actually highly regionalized. For example, there’s a dish called velvet chicken that is very popular in the Chicago/Mid-west region but is largely unheard of in the New York region and California. Likewise, another Chinese American dish called cashew chicken was originally developed in Springfield, MO first and later grew in popularity around the country.
• Chinese Cuisines at the Tipping Point: Several listeners called in during the show to share their experience with Muslim Chinese food or Western Chinese food (i.e. not westernized Chinese food, but rather cuisine from West China) from the Kunming region. Many of them lamented that they were unable to find restaurants that served those styles in the U.S. and asked if she knew were they might be able to find it. Jennifer pointed out that these styles have yet to really become introduced in the U.S. in a very mainstream way, much like Sichuan and Hunan cuisine, though she did note a couple Muslim Chinese food in the Bay Area.
• Traditional Chinese American Cantonese Cuisine is best found in Mexico. This seemed a bit over the top, but Jennifer had an interesting explanation. The Chinese American cuisine that most Americans were first introduced to was a Cantonese style (not to be confused with traditional Cantonese food from China and Hong Kong). In the 60s and 70s, this style in the U.S. became influenced by the influx and popularity of Sichuan and Hunan food (probably coinciding with new waves of Chinese immigration). Meanwhile, the Chinese restaurants in Mexico remained largely untouched by this influence and in some sense could be considered a more traditional Chinese American Cantonese food.

If you want to hear the whole interview, here’s a link to the podcast.

Sub-Note: I first heard about the book from my cousin’s blog and have been trying to locate the book in a brick and mortar bookstore ever since. I was later told to order it from Amazon, which I will once I get around to it.

The San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival is done, closing its run in San Francisco, Berkeley and San Jose. While this was not my best year in catching all of my top picks, I did fall in love with two of the films that I did watch.

Friday, March 14th

The Princess of Nebraska | Directed by: Wayne Wang

Recap: I bought the ticket, but I didn’t make it to the show. As you may recall, I was pretty sick last week so I made a choice between my two Friday scheduled films, The Princess of Nebraska and the short program. I choose the short program because I really wanted to watch Anti Sex (….it also helped that my film festival buff friend (CK), had given the film a thumbs down). So, that’s that.

ANTI SEX | Directed by: Ryotaro Muramatsu

Recap: This not-so-short, short film (It was about 30 minutes long, most shorts are only 5-10 minutes) was such a charming, funny, adorable and very unconventional love story. The premise of the story is about a young Japanese high school girl named Ai who inherits her father’s love hotel after his sudden death. As some of you may know, “love hotels” are rent-by-the-hour rooms, that are predominately used by couples (in both open and secret relationships) for sex. While this film could have take a variety of directions given this premise, it’s underlining story is actually about finding real love and falling in love.

***SPOILER ALERT***

As the new manager, Ai grows increasingly disgusted by the idea of sex as well as by her guests who are having sex in her love hotel. In her eyes, sex is just some dirty thing that everyone one around her is doing all the time (there’s a funny scene where Ai just stands amazed at all the cars parked at the hotel in broad daylight, while she asks in a voice over, why all these people aren’t at work).

Meanwhile, one of her employees has a secret crush on her. In his youth he was “typical guy” who frequented the love hotel with as many women as he could, until one strange incident when one girl tried to jump out of the hotel room window to force him to “love” her. After that, Ai’s father pulled him aside and lectured him about difference between sex and “making love”. He becomes so inspired that he has worked at the love hotel since while secretly crushing on Ai. His problem though is that he doesn’t know how to express his love to her because all he’s known is how to bed women.

Long story short, both of these two characters are falling in love for the first time. As he learns the way to a woman’s heart, she lets her “disgusted” guard down and lets herself fall in love as she begins to understand why her father and mother had opened the love hotel in the first place — they had (rather strange) ideals about love and making love. the ideas of love, sex and making love, all while falling in love herself for the first time. It’s all very, very cute.

***END OF SPOIILER***

On another note, here’s an interesting article about “fantasy” love hotels from Wired Magazine. It’s features a photographer’s collection of images these love hotels that cater to people’s fantasies no matter how strange they can be.

Saturday, March 15th

Panel—Crossing Over: Asian Americans and Asia

Recap: I knew that Daniel Wu was coming and so being the star-gazer that I am, I was planning to go. Unfortunately, I didn’t bring my movie/panel list when I went to buy my tickets and forgot to buy this ticket. By the time I could make it to the box office again, everyone would have already found out that Daniel Wu was coming and the tickets would have been sold out, which it was.

My friend, TT, who did attend the panel told me though that while the topic was interesting, pretty much all of the questions became directed to Daniel Wu only and often would not even touch on the panel topic, but on Daniel Wu’s work and life. That’s unfortunate, especially for the other panelists.

The Killing of a Chinese Cookie |Directed By: Derek Shimoda

Recap: While this documentary really sounded interesting to me, I had to make a choice in the interest of time, The Killing of a Chinese Cookie or Gentle Breeze in the Wind. I choose Gentle Breeze in the Wind. So that’s that.

A Gentle Breeze in the Village | Directed By: Nobuhiro Yamashita

Recap: I can’t being to say how much I adored this film. In telling the tale about falling in love for the first time, the story captures all the nuances of youth and growing up.

The story follows a young girl, named Soyo Migita, who lives in a very unpopulated part of Japan where she is one of six children in the entire village. This group of kids ranges from a first grader to a ninth grader (Soyo). The story begins when a transfer student, a cute boy from Tokyo named Osawa Hiromi, enters the school and becomes Soyo’s first classmate. The story then follow the relationship that forms between them. Their bond though is pretty circumstantial — For Soyo, Osawa is her first peer that she’s ever had that her own age; For Osawa, he’s new in the village and becomes gradually drawn to Soyo since she’s is his only peer in the village. In the end, the two become insepratable as they come to relay on each as friends and as boyfriend/girlfriend.

The story is based on a supposedly popular manga by the same name, Tennen Kokekko. (I say supposedly because I spent a good part of my weekend searching for translations/scanlations and found pretty much nothing, all I know its an 18 volume manga and I have seen one image of the art.) If I can find this at Kinyokineo, I just might try to translate it because I am so in love with this story. [UPDATE: Kinyokineo does carry the manga and I'll soon be en route to purchase volume 1, ISBN # 9784086181044]

While it would be a bit much to try and type out a summary of this story, I did want to highlight all of my favorite scenes (careful now, there are a lot of spoilers):

• When Soyo first lays eyes on Osawa, indicating her immediate attraction; this scene subsequently leads to her utter humiliation and deflated attraction, when Osawa asks if her hands are clean since the fruit she handed him smells like pee; She was earlier washing the underwear of the 1st grade student who had wet her pants.
• When Soyo is greeted with a hug by the 1st grade student. This scene is great because Soyo is anticipating that the little girl will be angry and in pain because of her bladder infection, which was cause by Soyo asking her to hold it as long as she could.
• When Soyo negotiates to let Osawa kiss her in exchange for his jacket. This is the funniest and most awkward first kiss sequence I have ever seen on film.
• When Soyo is shunned by her friends at the summer festival after she puts her foot in her mouth and unintentionally insults her friend. It was heart breaking to watch her as she tried to make it up to her friends, only to be repeatedly rejected and abandoned at the festival, though in the end, her friends come back and they all make up.
• When Osawa’s mom asks if Soyo is his girlfriend. The puzzled and speechless looks on their faces are priceless, since neither of them have really called each other that, nothing officially that is.
• When Soyo goes to Tokyo with Osawa as part of their 9th grade school trip. The actress, Koho is great as a fish out of water, looking at Tokyo as a foreign country almost.
• When Osawa smashes the large rock in order to Soyo a smaller piece to take home; Soyo had insisted on keeping the “souvenir” that Osawa’s friends gave him as a practical joke.
• When Soyo and Osawa are hand in hand on the train to go take their high school entrance exams; This is when we realize that Osawa has decided not to apply for a school in Tokyo but rather stay in the village with Soyo.
• When Soyo drinks some “juice” that the first grader gives her after she returns from her high school entrance exams. Though it is not spelled out, I think that every member of the audience can discern that that is pee and that the first grader has learned to go to the bathroom on her own.

While I loved this movie, its definitely not for everyone. As expected, I saw DL doze off at one point. The pace is a bit slow (and goes on for 2 hours) and the story is rather anti-climatic, but I think what makes this film great is its details to each scene and how the cinematography and acting capture the story’s vision of youth being simple, awkward and exciting.

I think that I related to the film because I was from a small town in the “countryside” (though its not that small anymore). It reminds me of my own childhood (at some points), going with the neighborhood friends to the “creek” (more like a ditch by an underpass) to look for frogs, moving on to high school from an elementary-middle school where you and your 30 classmates have been together since Kindergarten and all the awkwardness of young love.

Here’s the trailer:

Sunday, March 16th

Traveling with Yoshitomo | Directed By: Koji Sakabe

Recap: This documentary sounded very promising, but as CK had put it, “You don’t know any more about the artist then before you had watched this movie.” There were some very touching parts about Yoshitomo Nara’s 7 years old fan from Korea who adores Nara’s work and wants to become an artist one day herself.

But most of the movie follows Nara as he builds many, many little houses. You see, when he displays his works for gallery exhibitions, he displays them within these intricate little houses.

I could see that the underling story about the artist, who is notorious for being a loner (working, living, etc all alone), learns to be more social as builds more and more little houses with increasingly larger teams of people, as he is forced to make friends along the way. You see that he begins to work on his art in the presence of other people and he becomes less recluse.

The film also suggests that this transformation has also transformed his art, making the little pouty girls a little less sad. Overall, I wish that the subject was

more engaging, because this movie really dragged on. It was like LOTR ROTK where the movie just would not end even though there were so many instances where it could have ended.

West 32nd | Directed By: Michael Kang
Recap: Again, this was a movie that I forgotten to purchase a ticket and before I knew it, it was sold out. Oh well, though it did summary sure sounded intriguing.

So after many days of endless procrastination, here is my finalized selection this year for the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival. Now all I need to do is to trek over to the box office and buy my tickets…

If anyone wants to join me, let me know

Friday, March 14th

The Princess of Nebraska | Sundance Kabuki 4 | 9:45pm
Directed by: Ryotaro Muramatsu
Summary: “Asians in the Claws of Neon Lights” short program. When the owner of a love hotel passes away, his daughter, Ai, inherits rooms of illicit, explicit and complicit love affairs.

ANTI SEX | Sundance Kabuki 4 | 9:45pm
Directed by: Ryotaro Muramatsu
Summary: “Asians in the Claws of Neon Lights” short program. When the owner of a love hotel passes away, his daughter, Ai, inherits rooms of illicit, explicit and complicit love affairs.

Saturday, March 15th

Panel—Crossing Over: Asian Americans and Asia
1:00pm | Sundance Kabuki 2
Summary: Asian American actors are increasingly finding more opportunities in Asia, particularly in Hong Kong. Meanwhile, Asian film companies are investing in Asian American filmmakers. This panel will discuss the unique versatility of Asian American actors and filmmakers and the opportunities that await them on both sides of the Pacific. Featuring a panel of actors, filmmakers and more.

The Killing of a Chinese Cookie | 2:00pm | Landmark Clay Theatre
Directed By: Derek Shimoda
Summary: What do Powerball, the planet Mars and sexual innuendos have in common? Filmmaker Derek Shimoda invites us to take a closer look at a little something taken for granted at the end of nearly every Chinese restaurant meal. Who invented the fortune cookie? And most importantly, what does your fortune say?

A Gentle Breeze in the Village | 4:30pm | Pacific Film Archive
Directed By: Nobuhiro Yamashita
Summary: In a small, bucolic village, the arrive of a handsome city-boy form Tokyo sets off gentle tremors in the halcyon life of a teenage girl. The director of Linda, Linda, Linda with a blissful evocation of the emotional universe of adolescence.

Sunday, March 16th

Traveling with Yoshitomo Nara | 12:30pm | Landmark Clay Theatre
Directed By: Koji Sakabe
Summary: A rare behind-the-scenes glimpse of this critically acclaimed artist and pop culture figure, the film documents Yoshitomo Nara’s greatest work to date, following him on a remarkable 240-day international road trip as he sets out to create an imaginary town populated by his iconic images and enigmatic sculptures.

West 32nd | 6:00pm |Castro Theatre
Directed By: Michael Kang
Summary: Michael Kang’s (The Motel) second feature is a sleek and stylish Koreatown noir set in the underbelly of New York. John Cho stars as an ambitious lawyer allured into the seductive “room salon” culture of the Korean underworld, where he meets an equally ambitious gangster. Also staring Grace Park (Battlestar Galactica).

Side Note: Special thanks to the SFIAAFF staff who wrote all the film summaries listed above and also for the images.

• Monopoly - Probably an ensemble comedy about a bunch of would-be millionaires and money makers. In accordance to the game, someone will be thrown in jail, and someone will become rich, building properties on Broadway and Park Place while taking away more money from the residents of low-income housing and properties at Baltic Avenue.
• Candy Land - A kid’s fantasy movie thats probably computer-animated or possessing of a lot of CGI. I can’t help but think that this film will look like its on crack, like someone threw up cotton candy everywhere. It will be perfect for little girls everywhere who think of themselves as a princess.
• Clue - If I recall correctly, the earliest board game based-movie was Clue, which was made in 1985 (so I guess the new Clue movie will be either a remake or a sequel) which was actually pretty funny and entertaining but not commercially successful. Perhaps Universal is hoping to cash in on the cult following, as the original Clue movie did not gain traction until now.
• Ouiji - A family-friendly ghost story that’s similar to Jamanji. It will be about a bunch of good-looking kids who summon a great evil through their nifty Hasbro Ouji board that’s been cursed by the devil.
• Battleship - A war movie thats based on an aircraft carrier during which someone will say “You sunk my battle ship!”
• Magic, the Gathering - A LOTR or Narnia wannabe that will be an ode to the fantasy/science fiction geeks who love it. Though it would be more hilarious if it were coming of age story about Magic geeks who battle in basements after school.
• Stretch Arm Strong - Probably a cheesy/too-much CGI super hero movie that’s in the same league with Under Dog, which got a 15% on Rotton Tomatoes, by the way.

Becoming Jane

I couldn’t help but notice that this movie had many very suspicious parallels to “Pride and Prejudice” such as the typical “I find Mr. X so arrogant and full of himself” in the beginning then start to flirt and fall in love after a series of encounters. Though its sad to think that the real Jane Austen might have fell in love young but could never bring herself to marry anyone else. But I suppose that it’s one way of explaining the constant themes and plots of her novels. What this movie really has going for it is the chemistry between Anne Hathaway’s Jane and James Mcavoy’s Tom that really drove this story. Some scenes gave me goosebumps or perhaps it is the Jane Austen fan in me that causes me to feed on these kinds of romance stories. In another unrelated note, I would almost argue that there was more chemistry between James Mcavoy and Anne Hathaway than James Mcavoy and Kiera Knightley in Atonement.

La Vie en Rose

First off, the acting by the lead actress, Marion Coittilard, was incredible! She switches from a vibrant and idealistic youth to the proud and carefree established singer to the slowly deteriorating but determined Edith Piaf in her old age throughout the whole movie. But what kind of drove me crazy was that this movie was fractured, flashing back and forth and back and forth between the singer’s youth and her approaching death. If I hadn’t read her biography on Wikipedia before I watched this movie, I would be even more confused. I think what was the hardest to follow was who was who. Besides the title character, it was hard to keep track of all her people because you only see them for moments before flash to another period of life. Then when that character (I think) comes back into the film, they look so different because of age that I don’t pick up on the fact that its the same character as before. Perhaps this is just the way that the French make their movies, or perhaps I have been spoiled too much by Hollywood spelling everything out for me in bio pics.

Assembly (集 結 號)

As I was falling asleep one night, DL was watching this new war movie called, Assembly from Mainland China. He calls it the Chinese version of “Saving Private Ryan.” From what I could hear and from what I read online so far, this movie looks really, really good. Feel free to correct me if I am incorrect for saying this, but I think that this would be China’s first big commercial epic war movie about on the civil war between the Guo Ming Dang (KMT) and the Communists in the years following World World II. More on this movie, once I get around to watching it.