‘Snakehead’ to Finally Hit Theaters and Digital in October

August 25, 2021August 26, 2021 Keith Chow

After more than a decade in development, director Evan Jackson Leong is now ready to unveil his magnum opus, Snakehead, to the world. Starring Shuya Chang, Sung Kang, and Jade Wu, Snakehead tells the story of Sister Tse, a woman who rises through the ranks of a Chinatown crime family before having to reconcile between personal success and her family. Check out the trailer below:

Movies, Podcasts

Southern Fried Asian: Sung Kang

June 25, 2021July 21, 2021 Southern Fried Asian

Justice is coming to Southern Fried Asian! Ahead of the world premiere of F9, the latest installment of The Fast Saga, its fan-favorite star Sung Kang joins the podcast to talk about the film and growing up in Georgia.

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Interview, Movies

Justin Lin on the Future of the ‘Fast Saga’ and Han’s Relationship with Shaw

June 21, 2021June 21, 2021 Laura Sirikul

With the upcoming release of the ninth installment of the Fast Saga F9, The Nerds of Color got to chat with director Justin Lin about the 20-year franchise and how the movies have evolved — including the theme of family.

Movies, Reviews

NOC Review: ‘F9’ is F-ing Ridiculous… Yet Still Sorta Fun!

June 21, 2021June 21, 2021 Mike Manalo

I’ll say it upfront right now, this is probably the most ridiculous installment yet in terms of what they try to get away with in this one. I mean even for a franchise where someone can crash a car through three skyscrapers and survive without a scratch, they do stuff here that just makes zero sense, and it’s incredibly laughable because of it. But let’s be honest, we know the franchise is going to try crap like this, because the filmmakers are blissfully aware about how stupid all of this is, and that makes it honestly a lot more acceptable.

Interview, Movies

Furious Fun at the ‘F9’ Press Conference

June 14, 2021June 14, 2021 Mike Manalo

Very few franchises have had an enduring 20 year lifespan that’s still revving up the box office. But back in 2001, we were introduced to Dominic Toretto and his family, and since then, movie theaters have never been the same. When you think about The Fast Saga, it is an unparalleled accomplishment; a franchise in Hollywood that was written off after its third installment, before making a monumental comeback after reinventing itself as an ensemble heist/spy series that was capable of enduring 15 more years.

Movies, News

Race Through 20 Years of ‘Fast and Furious’ in New Featurette

May 17, 2021May 17, 2021 Patrick Strange

NOC Readers! Our friends over at Tremendous Communications, shared this brand new featurette from Universal Pictures’ Fast and Furious 9, entitled, “The Originals“, which celebrates 20 years of the the blockbuster franchise!

F9 sees the return of Justin Lin as director, who helmed the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth chapters of the series when it transformed into a global blockbuster!

Movies4 Comments

‘Fast & Furious’ Dawn of Justice For Han

February 1, 2020February 4, 2020 Keith Chow

If there was ever any doubt that the Fast & Furious franchise was the most important movie saga in cinematic history, the trailer for its ninth and latest episode (tenth, I guess, if you count Hobbs & Shaw) basically solidifies that The Fast Saga has surpassed Avengers and Star Wars. I mean, just look at this:

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Movies4 Comments

Our Picks For The 2017 Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival

April 26, 2017April 26, 2017 Edward Hong

The Annual Gather-up of Los Angeles Asians in Entertainment is upon us.

I mean, the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival.

Starting tomorrow, from April 27 to May 4, the LAAPFF will showcase a week of films from the opening of Better Luck Tomorrow for its 15th anniversary, the centerpiece Gook starring Justin Chon, the closing film Columbus with John Cho as the romantic lead, and a whole slew of shorts and features in between.

To be exact, there are 45 features and 139 shorts to choose from. Here are the few select ones that have caught my attention as Josephine Chang and I will cover the festival:

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Movies12 Comments

Asian Americans Should be Movie Stars: an Update

December 18, 2014June 23, 2020 Keith Chow

So a few days ago, I wrote a thing. Maybe you’ve seen it. Ever since that post has been passed around, I’ve been taken to task about the stars I included (or didn’t include) on the list and whether or not I was basically proving Sorkin’s point by coming up with only three names.

On the first point, the names I included were not meant to be my casting suggestions for the role of Brad Katsuyama in a hypothetical Flash Boys movie. Instead, I was more concerned with Sorkin’s assertion that Asian movie stars didn’t exist. So I went to Box Office Mojo, and scanned their list of actors’ all-time domestic grosses and looked for the ones who were (North) American of Asian descent — whether or not you think hapas or Pacific Islanders should’ve been appropriately considered criteria is another matter¹.

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Movies98 Comments

There are No Asian American Movie Stars

December 15, 2014June 23, 2020 Keith Chow

Last week, North Korean hackers allegedly broke into the personal files of Sony Pictures execs as retaliation for the studio producing the James Franco and Seth Rogen comedy The Interview, which is about a CIA plot to assassinate Kim Jong Un. Normally, we’d be all over the nerd-friendly news about, say, Spider-Man coming home to Marvel Studios, but that’s been covered plenty of times on the web. Besides, we already told the world the best way to mashup Spidey and the MCU.

The thing to emerge out of the Sony leak that really bugged me was the assertion by Oscar-winning screenwriter Aaron Sorkin that “there aren’t any Asian movie stars.”

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Animation, Anime, Movies6 Comments

Live-Action Akira: An All-Asian American Dream Cast

November 19, 2013February 14, 2014 Jenn

With all the debate this week over cross-racial and trans-racial casting of comic book movies, one aspect that hasn’t really been discussed in depth yet is the phenomenon of Hollywood White-washing of explicitly non-White characters in live-action adaptations. Famously, Aang of The Last Airbender was played in the live-action adaptation (directed by M. Night Shyamalan) by a young White actor despite repeated references in the comics to Aang’s non-White racial makeup. More recently, a non-comic book (but nonetheless grindhouse-esque cult classic) Korean movie called Oldboy is being remade in Hollywood with an all-White cast.

With the existing dearth of non-White faces in film, let alone comic book film, it’s safe to say that most of us can agree that cross-racially casting a non-White character with White actors is problematic.

A few years back, Hollywood was also rumoured to be developing a live-action adaptation of the landmark anime, Akira. At one point, the film was going to star Zac Efron, and although he has since backed out, it’s still unlikely that today’s Hollywood will cast Asian actors to play Akira‘s all-Japanese cast of characters.

And why not? Hollywood typically argues that there aren’t enough (or talented) non-White talent in Hollywood.

Well, that argument sounds like complete trash to me.

After the jump, check out a re-post of something I wrote in 2010, containing my own all Asian/Asian-American casting of a hypothetical Akira live-action movie.

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