Angry Asian Man 25th Anniversary Celebration at LAAPFF

Screening and Party - Saturday, May 2 in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles

Friends, if you're in Los Angeles, you're invited to the 25th anniversary celebration of Angry Asian Man, in partnership with the 2026 Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival.

We're presenting a 40th anniversary screening of The Karate Kid Pt. II, featuring a fun live "Crane Kick Commentary" with star Tamlyn Tomita, myself, and some good friends. It's happening Saturday, May 2 at the Japanese American National Museum, followed by the Angry Asian Man 25th Anniversary Party at Far Bar.

THE KARATE KID PT. II
Democracy Center @ JANM
May 2, 2026
7:30 pm
$25
Info/Tickets

This 40th anniversary screening, presented in celebration of the 25th anniversary of Angry Asian Man, will feature a live “Crane Kick Commentary” with star Tamlyn Tomita, and guest commentators Phil Yu, Jenny Yang, Jeff Yang, and Dino-Ray Ramos.

Summoned by his dying father, Miyagi returns to his homeland of Okinawa, with Daniel, after a 40-year exile. There he must confront Yukie, the love of his youth, and Sato, his former best friend turned vengeful rival. Sato is bent on a fight to the death, even if it means the destruction of their village. Daniel finds his own love in Yukia’s niece, Kumiko, and his own enemy in Sato’s nephew, the vicious Chozen. Now, far away from the tournaments, cheering crowds and safety of home, Daniel will face his greatest challenge ever when the cost of honor is life itself.

ANGRY ASIAN MAN 25th Anniversary Party
Far Bar
May 2, 2026
10:00 pm
$25, (FREE for festival artists; RSVP required)
Info/Tickets

Celebrate 25 years of the Angry Asian Man Blog! Join us after the screening of The Karate Kid Part II to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of Phil Yu’s blog, Angry Asian Man.

Come out and help me celebrate a quarter century of this blog and our community!

For info and tickets, go here.

Kash Patel Sues The Atlantic Over "Hit Piece"

And Other Items of Note From Angry Asian America.

Kash Patel sues The Atlantic over report alleging excessive drinking and absences

FBI Director Kash Patel filed a lawsuit Monday against The Atlantic over a story it published Friday that alleged he drinks to excess and has had unexplained absences at the bureau. Seeking $250 million(!) from the magazine, the defamation lawsuit alleges that the story is a "sweeping, malicious, and defamatory hit piece." Sure, Kashyap. I mean, it's not like excessive drinking, unexplained absences and "freak outs" will get you booted from the Trump administration. But I'm pretty sure this guy's days in the job are numbered.

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Former Hawaii Gov. George Ariyoshi, first U.S. governor of Asian American descent, dies at 100

Former Hawaii governer George Ariyoshi -- the first Asian American to serve as governor of any U.S. state -- died Sunday night at the age of 100. Ariyoshi, a Democrat, was Hawaii's longest-serving governor, leading the state from 1973 to 1986.

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Burglary ring leaves Eugene Asian American residents feeling unsafe

In Eugene, Oregon, a string of ongoing burglaries appear to be targeting the Asian American community. Police say burglars surveil potential targets, disable surveillance devices, and rob homes where there's likely cash, jewelry and other expensive items while the victims are at work. According to the Asian American Council of Oregon, this crime ring has been hitting the community for several years.

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Lagging in polls and fundraising, Betty Yee drops out of California governor’s race

Former State Controller Betty Yee dropped out of the 2026 California governor's race on Monday, saying she was unable to raise the necessary campaign funds and additional support from undecided voters. Yee was one of the earliest to enter the race, running on her experience handling the state budget and her family’s middle-class, immigrant background, but she could never quite gain a foothold in the polls. With six weeks left before the primary, she announced her campaign was folding.

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How the Creator of "Beef" Got from Petty Feuds to Class Warfare

Lee Sung Jin, creator and showrunner of Beef, talks about tailoring dialogue to Oscar Isaac and Charles Melton in the show's second season, the differences between Korean and American élites, and making TV in an age of "all-gas, no-brakes capitalism."

They Call Us Dumbfoundead

Jeff Yang and Phil Yu present an unfiltered conversation about what's happening in Asian America.

What's up, podcast listeners? We've got another episode of our podcast They Call Us Bruce. (Almost) each week, my good friend, writer/columnist Jeff Yang and I host an unfiltered conversation about what's happening in Asian America, with a strong focus on media, entertainment and popular culture.

In this episode, we welcome rapper/actor/writer Jonnie Park, aka Dumbfoundead, author of the new memoir SPIT: A Life in Battles. He talks about why the time felt right to share his story through this book; coming up in Koreatown and finding his voice as an artist through the Los Angeles battle rap scene; making the leap from music to movies and TV in projects like K-Pops! and Beef; and why I'm the only person who calls him by his government name. Also: The Good, The Bad, and The WTF of writing SPIT.

Surprise! MAGA Indians Face Racism From the Right

And Other Items of Note From Angry Asian America.

MAGA Indians Went All In on Trump. Many Right-Wingers Can't Stand Them

South Asians are a powerful, visible minority with top roles in the overwhelmingly white Trump administration. They’re also facing a racist backlash, fueled in part by the white nationalist Groyper movement.

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Street Fighter | Official Trailer

Behold, the insane trailer for Street Fighter, the upcoming latest movie adaptation of the hit video game. "Set in 1993, estranged Street Fighters Ryu (Andrew Koji) and Ken Masters (Noah Centineo) are thrown back into combat when the mysterious Chun-Li (Callina Liang) recruits them for the next World Warrior Tournament: a brutal clash of fists, fate, and fury. But behind this battle royale lies a deadly conspiracy that forces them to face off against each other and the demons of their past. And if they don’t, it’s GAME OVER!" It looks chaos, and I'm digging it. In theaters everywhere on October 16.

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Behind the Hacker Leak of 'Legend of Aang: The Last Airbender'

The highly anticipated animated feature Legend of Aang: The Last Airbender leaked online months ahead of its premiere on Paramount+. An anonymous X account claimed that a Nickelodeon employee emailed him the entire film, though that appears not to be the case. The fallout has sparked a discussion over Paramount's decision to forgo a traditional theatrical release for a valuable franchise.

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Charles Melton on Beef Season 2, New Fatherhood, and Life as a Zillennial

After going from Riverdale heartthrob to art-house breakout with May December, actor Charles Melton put his own life story into his latest role on the second season of Netflix anthology series Beef.

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My Strange Dysphoria

Supirya Ganesh, who plays Dr. Samira Mohan on The Pitt, opens up about conforming to notions of Western, white beauty standards before finding her queer community. In this essay for Vulture, she writes about the gender dysphoria she experienced when she moved from India to the US as an 18-year-old to attend Columbia University. She details a specific moment at a New York bar when someone directly asked her if she was a man or a woman.

Oh Shit: The New Last Airbender Movie Got Leaked Online

And Other Items of Note From Angry Asian America.

The Last Airbender Leaked Online

Over the weekend, a full version of the highly anticipated animated feature Avatar: Aang, The Last Airbender leaked online -- about six months before the film was scheduled to officially premiere on Paramount+.

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Bao Nguyen - "BTS: The Return" | The Daily Show

Acclaimed filmmaker Bao Nguyen sits down with Ronny Chieng on The Daily Show to discuss his latest documentary, BTS: The Return. They talk about following BTS' creative process as a fly on the wall, the big reunion after the band completed their national military service, the documentary narrative around honesty rather than facts, and the band's vulnerable moments when living out their normal lives.

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Valarie Kaur’s Sage Warrior Reframes Love As A Tool For Justice In A Divided America

"Revolutionary Love is not passive. It is disciplined and asks us to see no stranger, be brave with grief, harness rage as information and not as destruction, listen across difference, and reimagine institutions that were never designed to hold all of us. Through tools designed for classrooms, homes, and communities, the movement translates these ideas into practice and invites individuals not just to believe in love, but to operationalize it."

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How An NFL Cheerleader Became One Of America's Most Exciting New Chefs

As executive chef at Perry's, an award-winning Japanese fusion restaurant in Washington, DC, Masako Morishita has made it her mission to introduce diners to a broader range of Japanese cuisine. But her path into the culinary world was far from traditional -- including corporate jobs and a five-year stint as a cheerleader for the Washington Commanders.

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THE BLADE (1995): The Edges of Wuxia

In this video essay, Taylor Ramos and Tony Zhou, the filmmakers behind Every Frame a Painting, reveal how Tsui Hark radically reimagines the wuxia genre in the 1995 tour-de-force martial arts movie The Blade.

The Kaiju Comes to America in Godzilla Minus Zero

And Other Items of Note From Angry Asian America.

GODZILLA MINUS ZERO | First Look Teaser

The first trailer for the upcoming sequel Godzilla Minus Zero has dropped, with a good glimpse of more kaiju goodness. A follow-up to the surprise international hit Godzilla Minus One, the sequel picks up two years after the events of the first movie, continuing the story of the survivors' from the kaiju's last attack. In the closing moments, Godzilla stomps his way to the Statue of Liberty, setting his sights on New York City. Hell yeah.

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'Mr. & Mrs. Smith' Star Maya Erskine To Direct Teen Comedy From A24 And Fruit Tree

Mr. and Mrs. Smith star Maya Erskine is set to make her feature film directorial debut on an untitled teen comedy for A24. Details about the movie are under wraps, but the project was reportedly the subject of a heated bidding war. Erskine, who previously has written and directed episodes of the hit Hulu comedy Pen15, apparently blew away the producers and studio with her pitch.

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Woman accused of setting fires at 3 Queens businesses, including blaze that destroyed Chinese restaurant

In Queens, a woman is accused of setting fires at three separate establishments on Monday night. One blaze was set at a Chinese restaurant with people living above it, while other fires were set outside a funeral home and a Jewish center. 36-year-old Shaniqua Fort is facing multiple charges, including attempted manslaughter, assault, arson, criminal mischief and petit larceny. While a motive is unclear, police do not believe this was a hate crime targeting either the Asian or Jewish establishments.

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Vang: I wasn’t an 'alien.' And neither is anyone else. (Except maybe Superman.)

"In recent months, the Trump administration has revived the use of terms like 'illegal alien' and 'alien' in official communications, reversing a shift under the Biden administration toward more humanizing language like 'undocumented noncitizen' or 'migrant.' To some, this may seem like a technical correction — a return to legal terminology. But to the people described by these words, it feels dehumanizing. So why resurrect these terms now?"

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At a World War II Internment Camp, History Blows Away Wind Energy

A coalition of the descendants of a Japanese American internment camp and Trump-aligned wind power opponents helped kill an Idaho wind farm, but A.I.-driven energy demand keeps rising.

Minnesota Investigates Possible Criminal Charges Against ICE

And Other Items of Note From Angry Asian America.

Minnesota investigates the arrest by ICE of a Hmong American man as a possible kidnapping

In Minnesota, local authorities are investigating the arrest of a Hmong American man by federal officers as a potential case of kidnapping, burglary and false imprisonment. In January, ICE officers bashed open the front door of ChongLy "Scott" Thao's home at gunpoint without a warrant, then led him outside in just his underwear and a blanket in freezing conditions. He was returned to his home a few hours later when these ICE geniuses realized they had made a mistake -- a mistake that might mean criminal charges.

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Trump nominates former lawmaker Michelle Steel as US ambassador to South Korea

The White House announced that former California congresswoman Michelle Steel has been nominated to ‌be the U.S. ambassador to South Korea. Steel, who is Korean American and ⁠a conservative Republican, lost her bid for re-election to her Orange County congressional seat in 2024. The nomination will require congressional approval. This administration continues to elevate the worst damn people.

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How Laufey's Star-Studded "Madwoman" Music Video Came to Life With Hudson Williams, Lola Tung

Laufey has assembled an all-star cast for a sixties pool party in the new video for "Madwoman," off the deluxe edition of the Icelandic-Chinese singer's Grammy-winning album A Matter of Time. Directed by Warren Fu, the video features some of the most celebrated stars of the moment: Heated Rivalry breakout Hudson Williams, Olympic gold medalist Alysa Liu, KATSEYE's Megan Skiendiel and The Summer I Turned Pretty's Lola Tung -- or, as one commenter put it, "the wasian avengers."

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Isa Briones Speaks Out on Audience Member Shouting to Her Mid-Performance

According to Isa Briones, "some people need to brush up on theater etiquette" -- specifically, the audience member who shouted out her The Pitt character's name mid-performance at Just in Time. While starring on Broadway as 'Connie Francis' in the hit musical, Briones shared that an audience member inapropriately yelled out "Dr. Santos!" during the show. "I'm not Dr. Santos. I'm not even Connie Francis. I am Isa Briones, one of the actors in the show you have paid to enjoy," Briones wrote in an Instagram story. "You are not a kid at Disneyland. You are an adult man at a Broadway show. Act like it."

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Seeking Paid Extras for Feature Film "Gold Mountain"

Hey, wanna be in a movie? Ang Lee is casting extras to be in his latest movie Gold Mountain, a historical drama set during the 1850s California Gold Rush, shooting in and around the Sacramento this July. According to the casting call, they're looking for faces of a variety of ethnicities to play townspeople, kids, railroad workers, male horseback riders, blacksmiths, butchers, wagon drivers and coal miners. If you're interested, refer to the flyer above. Good luck!