Does it feel like everything is falling apart, like you’re constantly pushing a boulder up hill and life just kicks it down again? That’s basically what this episode is about.
Continue reading “FDI Cast 166: The Trial of Sisyphus”
Writer Gene Luen Yang and artist Bernard Chang are returning to deliver a brand new 12-issue miniseries starring the Monkey Prince. Marcus Young, a.k.a the Monkey Prince, is DC’s resident simian superhero. Based on the classic Chinese tale, Journey to the West, DC’s Monkey Prince will feature characters influenced by Asian folklore as well as Asian American experience.
Continue reading “DC’s ‘Monkey Prince’ Returns in New 12-Issue Comic Series”
Well, this is kind of embarrassing. Monday, April 19, was Simu Liu’s birthday, and all I got him was an edible arrangement. In any other instance, that would be a perfectly safe and standard gift, in my opinion. But of course, here comes Marvel in an epic move of one-upmanship with the release of the Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings teaser trailer! Though in all fairness, their gift is way more universal than mine.
Continue reading “The Who, What, and Why of Marvel’s Epic New Movie, ‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’”
Feast your eyes on the official English trailer for director Zhang Yimou’s (Raise The Red Lantern, The Great Wall, Shadow) historical spy thriller Cliff Walkers, which will be released in theaters on April 30, 2021! Cliff Walkers follows four Chinese special agents who embark on a secret mission in the 1930s puppet state of Manchukuo. After being sold out by a traitor, the team find themselves surrounded by threats on all sides. Cliff Walkers stars Zhang Yi (Operation Red Sea), Yu Hewei (I am Not Madame Bovary), Qin Hailu (The Pluto Moment), and Zhu Yawen (The Captain, The Witness).
Continue reading “The Trailer for ‘Cliff Walkers’ is Here”
We recently received the official poster for the upcoming CMC Pictures film Cliff Walkers, which will bring director Zhang Yimou’s (Raise the Red Lantern) historical spy thriller Cliff Walkers to theaters across North America and internationally on April 30. Marking the acclaimed director’s first foray into the spy genre, Cliff Walkers follows four Chinese special agents who embark on a secret mission in the 1930s puppet state of Manchukuo. After being sold out by a traitor, the team find themselves surrounded by threats on all sides. Cliff Walkers stars Zhang Yi (Operation Red Sea), Yu Hewei (I am Not Madame Bovary), Qin Hailu (The Pluto Moment), and Zhu Yawen (The Captain, The Witness).
Continue reading “Check Out the Poster for ‘Cliff Walkers’”
I recently had the pleasure of sitting down for a NOC Exclusive interview with Director, Dante Lam, behind the CMC Pictures film The Rescue, starring Taiwanese actor Eddie Peng! Boasting one of the biggest budgets ever for a Chinese film at $100 million, the stunt- and pyrotechnic-filled spectacle features an A-list Hollywood production team that includes Academy Award-winning cinematographer Peter Pau (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), production designer Martin Laing (Titanic, Clash of the Titans) and special effects supervisor John Frazier (Spider-Man, Transformers). The film also stars major Chinese and Taiwanese talent, including Eddie Peng (The Great Wall), Wang Yanlin, Xin Zhilei, and Lan Yingying (Pacific Rim Uprising).
Check out my interview with this amazing Hong Kong filmmaker!
Continue reading “NOC Exclusive Interview: Director, Dante Lam, of ‘The Rescue’”
Heyyy! We recently received the official trailer for the upcoming CMC Pictures film The Rescue, directed by Hong Kong filmmaker Dante Lam and starring Taiwanese actor Eddie Peng! Boasting one of the biggest budgets ever for a Chinese film at $100 million, the stunt- and pyrotechnic-filled spectacle features an A-list Hollywood production team that includes Academy Award-winning cinematographer Peter Pau (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), production designer Martin Laing (Titanic, Clash of the Titans) and special effects supervisor John Frazier (Spider-Man, Transformers). The film also stars major Chinese and Taiwanese talent, including Eddie Peng (The Great Wall), Wang Yanlin, Xin Zhilei, and Lan Yingying (Pacific Rim Uprising).
Continue reading “Check out the Blockbuster Trailer for ‘The Rescue’”
The trailer for Jackie Chan’s latest action film Vanguard has just dropped in the US. Directed by Stanley Tong, the adventure spy-thriller marks the 9th collaboration between the Hong Kong filmmaker and Chan. Tong is known for his action films … Continue reading Jackie Chan Hopes to Draw American Audiences for His Latest ‘Vanguard’
With less than three weeks to go for the 2020 Presidential Election, Keith sits down with filmmaker and subjects from the new documentary, First Vote: director Yi Chen, podcaster Kaiser Kuo, and professor Dr. Jennifer Ho on this special election edition of Southern Fried Asian.
No, but here’s a regular-ish episode!
Continue reading “FDI Cast 87: Will We Bring Honor to Us All?”
Mulan is the latest in a growing line of Disney live-action remakes. Based on the 1998 animated feature film of the same name, as well as The Ballad of Mulan, a young woman (Yifei Liu) disguises herself as a man to take her ailing father’s place in the Imperial Army, to protect the country from Northern invaders. Along the way, she comes to terms with realizing her full potential and to not hold back on who she is.
Continue reading “‘Mulan’ is a Thoughtful but Clunky Iteration of the Chinese Folktale”
This episode of Southern Fried Asian was recorded in February before the coronavirus shut down everything. While Disney may have taken Mulan off its release schedule, we’re filling the void by releasing Keith’s conversation with one of the film’s stars, Chen Tang!
This week on Hard NOC Life, Dominic and Keith are joined by fashion photographer and Birds of Prey superfan Lauren Nakao Winn.
Continue reading “Hard NOC Life: ‘Birds of Prey’ and the Fantabulous Isolation of Self Quarantine”
This week on Hard NOC Life, Dominic and Keith continue to discuss how Coronavirus is upending the nerd pop landscape.
Continue reading “Hard NOC Life: Reflections on the Coronapocalypse”
Over a year ago, in October 2018, I was fortunate the attend the set visit to the live-action version of Disney’s Mulan. Many fans, including myself, have waited over 22 years for the animated version to come to life. It was really surreal to see it play out in person on the set in New Zealand.
When plans of the live-action film were announced in 2015, fans immediately were excited with the idea of seeing their favorite characters come to life — from the Hua family guardian, Mushu, to Mulan’s good luck charm, Cri-Kee, and the bisexual icon, Li Shang.
Continue reading “Disney’s ‘Mulan’ Will be Rooted in Realism”
Yi (Chloe Bennet), a teenage girl in modern-day China, longs to travel to all the places in the country she and her dad were planning to go to prior to his untimely death. In the midst of this mournful longing, she encounters a Yeti of all beings on top of her apartment building, hiding from scientists (Sarah Paulson and Eddie Izzard) wanting to expose him. It is suddenly on her and her two friends Peng (Albert Tsai) and Jin (Tenzing Norgay Trainor) to get this Yeti — whom Yi calls Everest — home to the Himalayas, even with the scientists on their tail.
Continue reading “‘Abominable’ Brings All the Charm in This Magical, Heartfelt Adventure”
After a grueling week in San Diego, Dominic and Keith return to take stock of all of the bombshells that dropped during Marvel Studios’ lauded Hall H presentation. Plus, Keith speaks to A Wave Blue World VP of Sales and Marketing Lisa Wu and illustrator Steenz — who’s working on an upcoming anthology for AWBW this fall — live at the annual NOC Comic-Con meetup.
Continue reading “Hard NOC Life: Marvel’s Fantastic Phase Four”
With the conclusion of the How to Train Your Dragon trilogy, Dreamworks is set to release their new film Abominable this year. The story centers around Yi (voiced by Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D’s Chloe Bennett), a teenage girl in modern day China, and her quest to bring the Yeti she found, while playing her violin on the roof, back home in the Himalayas. She is joined by her childhood friend and popular kid, Jin (Tenzing Norgay Trainor), and Jin’s young cousin, Peng (Albert Tsai).
Continue reading “20 Things We Learned from Dreamworks ‘Abominable’ Visit”
More sights and snikts from the extraordinarily eventful San Diego Comic-Con 2019 (The 50th edition of SDCC!) Check out earlier coverage here and here!
We’ll get into the big reveals from SDCC50 on our podcast; we have plenty of time to contemplate the new Picard series, the Top Gun sequel (Miramar is right there in San Diego, after all), The CW’s Crisis crossover, the multiverse of announcements from Marvel in Hall H. For now, we’re still feeling the sunny afterglow from the melting pot of fandoms, cosplayers, and creative folk who make Comic-Con International such a special gathering, particularly so on this week when our Supervillain-In-Chief was yelling bigotry at POCs to “go back where they came from.” What can I say, fool: We’re from here.
Continue reading “Into The SDCC-Cosplay-Verse With The NOC, Part II”
This week, Dominic and Keith bring honor to us all by breaking down all of the developments in Nerd Pop — specifically, Disney’s live action remake phenomenon.
Continue reading “Hard NOC Life: Reflections on Disney’s Live Action Remakes”
Originally posted on Melancholyball.
The “Disney Princess” mythos is a genre as restrictive as it is globally-superpowered, but in terms of the Official Princess Movie with the most patriarchy-subverting politics, I think it’s no contest: Mulan is by far the most progressive-minded cel-animated Disney Princess film, while also performing its essential sedative-hypnotic function on your child’s developing emotional vocabulary. (Pocahontas has an argument too, but for my taste, the underlying colonization-conquest story is so far outside of Classic Disney’s natural lane, you kinda wonder what they’re even trying to say, and also the songs in Pocahontas are not my jam.)
For the first time ever, the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden will host a beautiful lantern festival called the Moonlight Forest. Celebrating nature, art, and culture, the gardens have been transformed into magical night landscapes illuminated by beautiful, hand-crafted lanterns.
Continue reading “Moonlight Forest: Magical Lantern Festival Lights Up Los Angeles”
