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 back old friend Dino-Ray Ramos to discuss the techno-horror movie AfrAId, starring John Cho. We talk about John Cho's suburban dad thriller era and why it might not be a great idea to surrender every aspect of your family life to artificial intelligence (i.e. it might subscribe you to a meal prep delivery service). Also -- spoiler warning -- The Good, The Bad, and The WTF of AfrAId. .
And Other Things to Know From Angry Asian America.
Lululemon Fires Employee Over 'Bat Fried Rice' Shirt
The athletic-wear company Lululemon has issued an apology after its art director posted a racist "Bat Fried Rice" shirt design on social media. Trevor Fleming shared a link on Instagram to the design first shared by artist Jess Sluder, featuring a Chinese take-out box decorated with bat wings and the words "no thank you" on the back. Fleming has reportedly been fired. But the real crime? The damn shirt was selling for $60.
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92-year-old Asian Man Assaulted in Vancouver Hate Crime
Police are searching for a man who assaulted a 92-year-old Asian man with dementia last month in East Vancouver. On March 13, the victim, who suffers from severe dementia, wandered into a convenience store, where staff were trying to assist him. That's when this guy started yelling racist remarks (including comments about COVID-19), draged the elderly man out of the store, then shoved him, causing him to fall to the ground and hit his head.
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Coronavirus Reminds Asian Americans Our Belonging is Conditional
"You can’t stand up for some and not for others. And like the virus, unchecked aggression has the potential to spread wildly. Please don't minimize the hate or assume it's somewhere far away. It's happening close to you. If you see it on the street, say something. If you hear it at work, say something. If you sense it in your family, say something. Stand up for your fellow Americans."
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Korean Drama Podcast: Season 2
The Korean Drama Podcast is back! After a long hiatus, the mildly popular podcast I used co-host is back for a second season. While Will, Joanna and I won't be back as your guides, we've handed off the reins to an awesome new set of hosts, Steven Lim, Kathy Yamamoto and Kim Cooper, who will be watching, re-capping and reacting to the 2010 series Secret Garden. I'm looking forward to following along with them.
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Submit Your AAPI Heritage Month Online Event Calendar Listing
With May coming up, and the community basically under lockdown and unable to gather, Jeff Yang and I are compiling a public calendar of online events taking place for Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Do you have an online event scheduled or know of one? Email us your event details at theycallusbruce@gmail.com or fill out this form. And if you're reading this and finding out for the first time that May is Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month -- yes, we get a month -- consider yourself informed. Now you know what's up.
Watch the trailer for the new remake of the Japanese horror classic.
Wait, a Hollywood remake of a remake of an Asian horror movie... starring an actual Asian person? Actually starring John Cho, actually. In this trailer for the upcoming new take on The Grudge, we see Cho as a real estate agent named Peter Spencer arriving at a spooky house and inspecting a really yucky bathtub. Later, we see poor Peter taking a shower... and more yucky things happen. Dude needs some new shampoo.
Cho leads a diverse cast in Netflix's remake of the iconic anime series.
John Cho will star in as Spike Spiegel in the live action adaptation of the classic Japanese animated space western Cowboy Bebop, arguably the coolest damn show ever made. And now actually #StarringJohnCho.
Cowboy Bebop is "the jazz-inspired, genre-bending story of a rag-tag crew of bounty hunters on the run from their pasts as they hunt down the solar system's most dangerous criminals," aboard their spaceship, the Bebop.
Former KoreAm Journal reboots as the only print publication covering Asian Americans in entertainment/culture.
KORE is back. The magazine formerly known as KoreAm Journal, recently rebranded as KORE Asian Media, has been rebooted as a full-fledged print magazine. They'll be publishing ten times a year as the only print publication covering Asian Americans in entertainment and culture.
Kicking off the reboot, the inaugural September 2018 issue features the likes of John Cho, Ronny Chieng, Nina Yang Bongiovi, Sujata Day and the artist Gajin Fujita. Contributing writers include Euny Hong, Oliver Wang and Susan Cheng. Contributing photographers were Joyce Kim and Melly Lee.
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. 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.
On this episode, recorded live at Sony studios, we welcome actor John Cho, who stars in the Aneesh Chaganty's new thriller Searching. We discuss the film's inventive storytelling conceit, his unique leading man status, and the Good, Bad and WTF of being John Cho.
'Harold and Kumar' star talks to NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour.
Actor John Cho was recently interviewed on one of my favorite podcasts, NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour. He talks to host Linda Holmes about why he misses doing broad comedies, what appealed to him about joining The Exorcist, what it's like being the subject of intense internet fandom (see: #StarringJohnCho), and his latest film, the charming indie drama Columbus. They also lament the late, great Selfie.
John Cho reveals a significant new detail about his iconic character's private life.
Oh myyyy. Spoiler alert.
Sulu is gay in Star Trek Beyond and it's not a big deal. In the latest Star Trek movie, it is revealed that the USS Enterprise's helmsman, played by John Cho, is married and has a daughter with a same sex partner.
Okay, this is kind of a big deal, but I guess the movie is treating it like just another character detail about Hikaru Sulu's personal life in the forward-thinking future of Star Trek. We've already established that he's a badass and exceptionally good at his job. He's also a dad and married to a man.
The decision by director Justin Lin and screenwriter/co-star Simon Pegg to make Sulu gay was, of course, a nod to George Takei, who played the character in the original 1960s television series and beyond.
Who's hyped for the new Star Trek movie? For those clamoring to see John Cho back in action as Hikaru Sulu in Star Trek Beyond, here's a little taste. This recently released quick-cut 15-second character promo puts the spotlight on the USS Enterprise's intrepid helmsman, who brings just the right amount of Starfleet swagger, confidence and raised eyebrow when it comes to jumpstarting alien spacecraft.
The totally awesome, widely celebrated #StarringJohnCho campaign challenges the dismal lack of diversity in Hollywood, imagining what it would look like if today's blockbusters cast an Asian American actor -- specifically John Cho -- as their leading man. Started by William Yu, the viral web project got the attention of a lot of folks, jamming social media timelines and getting mainstream news shoutouts from outlets across the board.
But what does the actual John Cho think of #StarringJohnCho?
"I thought the idea was fantastic," the Star Trek and Harold and Kumar star told Yahoo7. "I loved that it was sparking this discussion that otherwise we wouldn't be having and it did it in a postive way. It [the campaign] was kind of silly, but then people really did have that discussion, and it did get people thinking about it. I felt like it was me on the poster but it wasn't really about me. I really dig it."
Cho recently got to tell the creator of #StarringJohnCho how much he dug it -- in person. On Monday, he posted a photo he took with Yu, confirming once and for all that it wasn't his own mom behind the campaign.
'Star Trek' actor to star alongside Lola Kirke and Zoe Kravitz in Aaron Katz's thriller set in Los Angeles.
Add this one to the list of films actually#StarringJohnCho... John Cho has signed on to star alongside Lola Kirke and Zoe Kravitz in the indie thriller Gemini, from award-winning writer/director Aaron Katz.
Plot details are currently being kept under wraps, but I'm told that Cho has the most significant male role in the film. So far, all we know is that it's a thriller set in Los Angeles, where principal photography has already begun.
In addition to Cho, there are three other Asian characters in Gemini, played by Greta Lee, Abraham Lim and Levy Tran. The film's ensemble also includes Ricki Lake, Michelle Forbes, Nelson Franklin, Reeve Carney, Jessica Parker Kennedy and James Ransone.
New Get-Out-The-Vote PSA urges AANHPI community to vote in this important election year.
George Takei and John Cho want you to vote! Just in time to close out AAPI Heritage Month, the two Sulus have come together for a new video PSA from Asian Americans Advancing Justice and APIAVote urging Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders (AANHPIs) to go vote in this important election year.
The video also features the likes of Constance Wu, Vincent Rodriguez III, Sonal Shah and Joey "Q" Quenga, and highlights both the historic injustices that AANHPIs have faced in the United States, as well as the some of the many contributions our communities have made to this country.
New 'Star Trek Beyond' character banner features John Cho as Sulu.
Marketing for the new Star Trek movie is now upon us in full force. Here's one of the newly unveiled character posters for Star Trek Beyond, featuring the one and only John Cho as Hikaru Sulu. Make no mistake: this movie is legitimately #StarringJohnCho -- no need to Photoshop his head into this poster.
Watch the new trailer for director Justin Lin's foray into the final frontier.
Hey Trekkies! In case you missed it... Director Justin Lin and Co. recently dropped the new trailer for Star Trek Beyond, the latest feature film installment of the long-running sci-fi franchise. The movie, hitting theaters this summer, finds the intrepid crew of the U.S. Enterprise exploring the furthest reaches of uncharted space, where they encounter a mysterious new enemy who puts them and everything the Federation stands for to the test.
What would it look like if today's Hollywood blockbusters starred an Asian American leading man?
The ongoing dialogue around the whitewashing of Asian roles in movies like Ghost in the Shell and Dr. Strange has prompted some pretty interesting conversations about the dismal lack of opportunities for Asian American performers in Hollywood. One thing is for sure: Asian American leading men and women in feature films are few and far between. That's why #StarringJohnCho is so awesome.
The #StarringJohnCho campaign challenges Hollywood's resistance to casting Asian leads. "Today, only 1% of lead roles go to Asians. But if studies show that films with diverse casts result in higher box office numbers and higher returns on investments for film companies, why doesn't Hollywood cast lead actors to reflect this fact?"
Look, Asian Americans have the chops to be lead actors. Even if Hollywood continually refuses to see it. #StarringJohnCho is a social movement that literally shows you what it would look like if today's Hollywood blockbusters cast an Asian American actor -- specifically John Cho -- as their leading man.
John Cho reveals that Hikaru Sulu has a baby daughter in the newest 'Star Trek' movie.
Entertainment Tonight was invited to the set of Star Trek Beyond, where it got the exclusive lowdown, including an interesting character revelation about the latest installment of the big budget sci-fi franchise: Sulu's a dad.
Star John Cho, who plays Hikaru Sulu, explains that Star Trek Beyond finds the Enterprise crew a couple of years into their mission -- and feeling kind of homesick. For Sulu, that means missing his baby daughter, whose photo sits on his console at the ship's helm. (Which is a little unprofessional, Cho admits.)
Director Justin Lin takes on the latest adventure into the final frontier.
For Trekkies eagerly anticipating director Justin Lin's take on the final frontier, here's your first glimpse. Paramount just dropped the first trailer for Star Trek Beyond, with the veteran Fast & Furious director now helming the adventures of Kirk and Co. in the bigger and badder latest installment of the space adventure franchise. From the looks of things, the U.S.S. Enterprise is in pretty bad shape.
View the unaired episodes of ABC's cancelled romantic comedy starring John Cho and Karen Gillan
If you were bummed about ABC's premature cancellation of Selfie after just seven episodes -- whether you're a fan or simply never got around to watching it -- you'll be happy to know that the remaining six unaired episodes of the show, starring John Cho and Karen Gillan, will be available for streaming on Hulu.
While the seventh episode of Selfie was the last to hit airwaves on November 11, the romantic comedy's remaining six episodes will be released once a week on Hulu, Hulu Plus and ABC.com through the end of the year. Episode 8 was released last week, while episode 9 is currently available exclusively to Hulu Plus subscribers. You can catch up on the last couple of episodes here.
Shiiiiiiiiiit. ABC has canceled Selfie. According to EW, the network will not be ordering any more episodes of the comedy series, which had been suffering in the ratings, beyond its initial order of thirteen.
Selfie stars John Cho and Karen Gillan in a contemporary re-imagining of My Fair Lady, in which a self-obsessed social media personality attempt to "rebrand" herslef.. The show is significant, as many have noted, because it features an Asian American leading man front and center in the Henry Higgins role.
Okay, I totally missed this last week... but dammit, it's John Cho in a Power Ranger costume dancing to Crayon Pop's "Bar Bar Bar." Everything about that last sentence is certified awesome. John rocks out Red Ranger-style, plus Selfie co-star Karen Gillan decked out in pink, along with the Green Ranger. Getting down.
People, I am morally obligated to share this, by the powers vested in me as a blogger.
