As Wonder Woman continues to break box office records, there still isn’t enough content featuring everyone’s favorite Amazon. That’s why artists Jermaine Dickerson and Taylor Cordingley have each been championing for a Wonder Woman animated series.
Both artists stop by Hard NOC Life, along with Keith’s DCTV Classics’ co-host Desiree Rodriguez, to talk about how an animated Wonder Woman can finally be the intersectional, feminist, and diverse series we’ve all been waiting for!
After shattering box office glass ceilings with a $200 million global debut, Keith breaks down the latest, and most successful, entry in the DC Extended Universe with two Wonder Women in their own right: N’Jaila Rhee (@BlasianBytch) — who also wrote the official NOC review — and Britney Monae (@HiBritneyMonae). Together they rank Wonder Woman against other comic book superhero movies and why the “No Man’s Land” scene is the best, discuss the problems with the last act of the movie, break down the argument that Gal Gadot is a person of color and/or a Zionist, and determine which Chris is the Ultimate Champion White Actor Dude Named Chris.
Continue reading “Wonder Woman, Now the World is Ready For You”
The second season of AMC’s Into the Badlands concludes on Sunday, so our intrepid live tweeter Laura Sirikul joins Keith to look back on one of our favorite shows! Of course, they can’t help juxtaposing Ballands and Iron Fist, but they also explain Daniel Wu’s previous comments about whitewashing and why Oliver Stark needs to be a guest on a future episode. They also share their predictions about the finale and how Keith decided to mashup Badlands and Hamilton for #IntoTheHamLands.
In the first part of a special podcast crossover with DC TV Classics, Keith chats with Into the Badlands co-creator Al Gough. They talk about Al’s start in Hollywood with his writing and producing partner Miles Millar; working with Hong Kong cinema legends like Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Donnie Yen, Michelle Yeoh, and Daniel Wu; how difficult it is to accurately portray kung fu on broadcast television; and the importance of representation and why the onus is on producers and directors to find and cast diverse talent.
Subscribe to DC TV Classics or download part two of this interview here.
Continue reading “Journey Into the Badlands with Co-Creator Al Gough”
Originally posted at Just Add Color
If you told anyone that the movie that was going to shake up the superhero genre in the best way would be the film adaptation of Power Rangers, they would be shocked and probably, in some strange, elitist, I’m-too-old-for-Power Rangers way, appalled. But Power Rangers has come out of the blue as the film when it comes to portraying a diverse group of people in a way that is both organic and makes sense for today’s world and today’s multicultural and diverse audience.
Continue reading “Power Rangers Shows Superhero Genre How Representation is Done”
It’s been nearly two weeks since Iron Fist debuted all 13 episodes of its initial season on Netflix. Prior to its release, the first half of the season previewed for critics received a drubbing the likes of which is unheard of for a Marvel/Netflix property. I’ve since watched the whole season, and yeah, it wasn’t good. Setting aside my issues with the casting of the lead, Iron Fist suffers from the worst sin of any piece of entertainment: it’s boring! Worse than that, it has absolutely zero point of view. I still don’t know what Scott Buck is trying to say with this show. To that end, I wrote a post about different Asian American showrunners who could have brought a unique perspective to the Iron Fist story that the current show lacks. In response to my article on twitter, one of those writers, Steven Maeda, even revealed he actually pitched an Iron Fist concept to Marvel!
I reached out to the former X-Files and Lost writer to get the skinny on what happened to his pitch to Marvel.
Continue reading “The Iron Fist That Almost Was: One-on-One with Steven Maeda”
Last week, we hosted a special live-streamed edition of Hard NOC Life with filmmaker John Brougher about his new short film Iron and Rage. John talks about his inspiration for creating his own #AAIronFist and why representation of Asian American humanity on screen is so important.
We are rapidly approaching the release of Iron Fist, the fourth Marvel series on Netflix, and reviews have been less than kind. When the show announced it had a (non-Asian American) showrunner, NOC re-introduced the hashtag #AAIronFist. It was an attempt to get Marvel to acknowledge that Iron Fist is a character whose origins are Asian, and should be played by a person of Asian descent, to increase representation in media.
For my part, I wrote an opinion piece about why we need an #AAIronFist. I submitted that being Asian, or even half-Asian, would give Danny Rand a depth to his character that we hadn’t seen before. The “stranger in a strange land” trope where the white man is the foreigner has been done to death, and is vaguely insulting. An 8-year old orphan comes to magical Asian land and becomes the ultimate martial artist? That right there is the definition of the white savior.
Why would my approach have been more interesting? Let me educate you on what it’s like to be an outsider.
Filmmaker Releases Iron and Rage to Contribute to National Conversation of Fairer Asian American Representation in Hollywood.
Continue reading “RELEASE: Netflix’s Iron Fist Reimagined with Asian American Superhero”
It’s been nearly a year since we were hit with the double whammy of Tilda Swinton and Scarlett Johannson. Now with Iron Fist and Ghost in the Shell just around the corner, we’re joined by BuzzFeed News’ entertainment reporter Susan Cheng to let us know where Asian Americans currently stand in the greater pop cultural landscape.
Continue reading “BuzzFeed’s Susan Cheng on the State of AAPI Pop Culture”
