I’m not going to sit here and pretend Paws of Fury is a good movie, per se. But I will admit that it wasn’t nearly as bad as I assumed it was going to be. And the biggest reason you’ll be able to sit through it without a migraine comes down to one person: the legendary Mel Brooks.
Continue reading “NOC Review: If You’re Stuck Seeing ‘Paws of Fury’ It Could Be Worse”
Paramount Pictures has been on fire this year! With hits like Scream, Jackass Forever, Sonic 2, and now the mega blockbuster Top Gun: Maverick, the studio has pulled off one of the most impressive comebacks in the history of studio market shares imaginable. In the past three years, they rocketed from a #6 rank to a #1 rank this year on the strength of their slate and the quality of their movies! Will they keep the streak going with the animated comedy Paws of Fury? We’ll let you be the judge.
Continue reading “New Trailer for ‘Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank’”
Today, Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies dropped a trailer for their upcoming animated movie called Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank. The movie features the voices of Samuel L. Jackson, Michael Cera, George Takei, and Michelle Yeoh among others.
Continue reading “New Trailer for ‘Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank’”
On November 17, Hit-Monkey, Hulu’s latest TV-MA rated animated Marvel property, makes its debut on the streaming platform. Based on the comic by Daniel Way and artist Dalibor Talajić, Hit-Monkey tells the tale of a Japanese snow monkey who seeks revenge against the gangsters that decimated his family. One of the characters drawn into Hit-Monkey’s orbit is Detective Haruka, played by the incomparable Ally Maki.
Continue reading “Ally Maki Brings the Asian American Girl Club to Hulu’s ‘Hit-Monkey’”
M.O.D.O.K was just the beginning! This November, Hulu is continuing to crank out the epic Marvel animated shows, with its latest ambitious adaptation of Marvel’s Hit-Monkey!
Continue reading “Make Way for Hulu’s ‘Hit-Monkey’”
Happy Holidays! Not only is it Christmastime, but this is also Jamie Noguchi week on Hard NOC Media! Before he guests on a special Rise of Skywalker focused edition of Hard NOC Life, Jamie is also Keith’s guest on this month’s Southern Fried Asian.
In the third episode of The Terror: Infamy, one of the main characters told his wife, who put up some items to protect from evil, “It may protect us from spirits, but not from human evil.”
The latest installment of the supernatural anthology series by Alexander Woo and Max Borenstein explores a dark part of history in America during World War II — Japanese American internment and the ghosts (yūrei) that haunt them.
Continue reading “‘The Terror: Infamy’ Doesn’t Need Ghosts to be Scary”
Tonight, NBC will be airing a Halloween special celebrating the 15th anniversary of the smash Broadway musical, Wicked.
So I figured what better opportunity to revisit this thread I started over two years ago when I fancast a bunch of Asian Americans as characters from the musical? Now that we live in a post-Crazy Rich Asians world, a movie adaptation of Wicked starring an all-Asian American cast is not as far-fetched as it seemed when I started the #AAWicked tag in 2016. Hell, even though Universal Pictures has already tapped Stephen Daldry to direct, Jon M. Chu might be the best person to bring an Asian American Wicked adaptation to life. His next project is bringing Lin-Manuel Miranda’s In The Heights to the big screen after all. Anyway, here’s who I’d cast in an all-Asian Wicked.
To get to my failure, I should start with a childhood that took place in Los Angeles. Hawthorne, California is a small community situated in Southwest Los Angeles. With Inglewood to the north, Gardena to the east, Torrance to the south, and the glamorous beach communities to the west, it was basically the edge of working class/POC Los Angeles butting up against the elite.
Continue reading “#AACC2017 and Failing to Get a Photo with Lewis Tan”
In 2009, the Asian American ComiCon was held in New York City, bringing together Asian indie and mainstream comics creators for a historic gathering to celebrate the unique and flourishing graphic storytelling of our community. Now, eight years later, AACC is hosting its second event: a Summit on Art, Action and the Future. In a time where diversity and creativity are both under attack, the Summit will feature diverse creators talking about where we’re going next.
Continue reading “The Asian American ComiCon Presents: A Summit on Art, Action & the Future”
The team behind the groundbreaking Asian American superhero anthologies Secret Identities and Shattered, in partnership with the Japanese American National Museum, have issued a Call for Submissions for New Frontiers: The Many Worlds of George Takei, an original graphic novel anthology that will serve as a companion volume to JANM’s historic exhibition of the same name (running through August 2017), which showcases Takei’s life and the cultural landscapes through which he has traveled. The anthology’s target publication date is July 2017.
Diverse creators with stories to share that speak to the themes and issues Takei has confronted in his life are encouraged to pitch them at the Submissions Form located at here before the pitch deadline of April 24, 2017. Relevant issues include, but are not limited to: unlawful incarceration, status as an “illegal” alien and the push for LGBTQ equality and civil rights for all, yellowface, whitewashing, media stereotypes, and the rise of digital culture and social media.
Continue reading “Announcing New Frontiers Anthology Inspired by the Life of George Takei”
If you missed out on George Takei’s Allegiance during its acclaimed, but brief, Broadway run, Fathom Events is giving you an opportunity to see the musical — that made Hamilton’s Lin-Manuel Miranda sob — in a cinema near you!
Continue reading “See George Takei’s Broadway Musical Allegiance on the Big Screen”
Thanks to CAPE (The Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment) and AMP (Asian American Media Professionals), I got to attend a small screening of Star Trek Beyond at Paramount studios.
I won’t get into the story itself, but I must say to all my Trekkies: my solid ice cold anti-Trek reboot heart is starting to melt. I understand how this film had a 94% Rotten Tomatoes rating, making it a ripe tomato.
Continue reading “Star Trek Beyond: Be Still My Trekkie Heart”
Originally posted at YOMYOMF
A little context before you jump into reading this: I’m a child of immigrants (access: child of immigrant experience) who grew up in the suburbs of Chicago: the not very diverse kind of suburb (access: white suburbia experience).
I’ve been a Trekkie since I was about seven years old when Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG) first aired. Up until then, my father and I use to watch some old Star Trek episodes or the films… Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home was a favorite of mine. It was great to see George Takei up there, but I really loved seeing Uhura be the strong independent female especially by the time the films came out.
by Phil Yu | Originally posted at Angry Asian Man
LAIKA, the acclaimed stop-motion animation studio that brought you Coraline and ParaNorman, recently released the trailer for its latest feature Kubo and the Two Strings, an epic adventure set in fantastical Japan.
The story centers on a young boy named Kubo who lives a quiet, normal life in a small shoreside village until a spirit from the past turns his life upside down. On the run from gods and monsters, Kubo must find a magical suit of armor once worn by his father, the greatest samurai the world has ever known.
The movie looks incredible. Check out this trailer:
Continue reading “Why is the Kubo and the Two Strings Cast So White?”
Last month, we brought you the trailer and poster for the upcoming fantasy film Yamasong: March of the Hollows. The film, which is a follow-up to a 2010 short, seeks to bring puppetry back to mainstream genre audiences with an all-star cast and backing from a couple of dynastic names in the world of cinematic puppetry.
On the latest edition of Hard NOC Life, Keith sits down with the two men who launched the world of Yamasong half a decade ago: writer-director Sam Koji Hale and composer Shoji Kameda.
Continue reading “Sam Koji Hale and Shoji Kameda: Yamasong’s Masters of Puppets”
In 2010, Los Angeles-based filmmaker Sam Koji Hale released an award-winning and critically acclaimed short film called Yamasong that featured Japanese-style puppetry set to the pulsating rhythm of the contemporary taiko group On Ensemble. Now, five years later, Hale has returned to the world of Nani and her tortoise compatriot Shojun in the full-length feature Yamasong: March of the Hollows. Only this time, he’s backed by an all-star voice cast and the scions of two legendary puppeteering families: Heather Henson and Toby Froud.
Continue reading “Yamasong: March of the Hollows Releases Trailer, Poster”
Last night, I had the distinct honor to attend a screening of To Be Takei — the new documentary about Start Trek actor, civil rights activist, and social media maven George Takei — as part of the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center‘s ongoing Asian Pacific Heritage Month celebrations. Bookended by remarks from Smithsonian APAC Director Konrad Ng and a Q&A with the film’s subjects, the entire evening was a celebration of one of our culture’s most trailblazing icons.
Having made its debut at Sundance in January, To Be Takei was recently acquired by Starz for digital and theatrical distribution later this year. In advance of its formal theatrical release, the film has been doing the festival rounds and made its Washington, DC premiere at the Warner Brothers theater inside the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. I was lucky enough to check it out with the homie (and fellow NOC) Patrick Michael Strange.
It was probably not a coincidence that my adolescent Trekkiehood (and no, I’m not uptight over the whole -ie vs. -er thing) coincided with the beginnings of the interrogation and articulation of the politics of multiracial identity that has preoccupied my academic and extracurricular life since then (and I’m 39 now).
I’d already spent a good number of my childhood Saturday afternoons watching Classic Trek reruns on Channel 13 when Star Trek: The Next Generation started airing at the same time that I started junior high. I don’t think I was quite sure why, exactly, I was so into it, but I was. My friends and I would spend science class talking about the previous night’s episode or passing around the latest NextGen comic book. I filled my bookshelf with TOS and TNG novels from Pocket Books, plus all the oversized manuals and behind-the-scenes-looks and field guides filled with art and graphic design. I hung a framed poster from Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
(a.k.a. The One With The Whales) over my bed and taped a pair of those shades they give you after the eye doctor dilates your eyes to slide into your glasses over Spock’s eyes.
I wore an original series command uniform made by my mom of soft gold velour to school on Halloween at least once if not twice (and somehow avoided getting beaten up). I received TNG action figures as gifts and pinned them to my cork board, keeping them mint-in-box. I went with friends from school to the monthly LA comic-con, first at the Ambassador, then at the Shrine, to browse the dealers’ room and see special guests (the “Save Max Headroom” flyer I got signed by Matt Frewer, Jeffrey Tambor, and George Coe hung on my bedroom wall for a long time after that show’s demise). We graduated to Creation cons devoted to our beloved Trek, and took the bus to the Westin Bonaventure downtown or got my dad to drop us off at the LAX Hilton, where I won a mug in a Pocket Books trivia contest and we saw a surprise preview screening of “The Best of Both Worlds, Part I” introduced by The Great Bird of the Galaxy himself in what was to be one of his last con appearances. I was a teenaged Trekkie, and I was not ashamed.
