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 writer/director Amy Wang and actress Shirley Chen to talk about their new film Slanted, a horror/comedy described as "Mean Girls meets The Substance." They discuss blending body horror and black comedy to tell an Asian American story about race, shame, and belonging; why the American high school prom is a useful and universal -- they love this movie in Germany! -- cinematic narrative device to interrogate some big ideas; how to find the "whitest" stock footage for your fake karaoke video; and why McKenna Grace speaks Chinese so well in the movie. Also: The Good, The Bad, and The WTF of making Slanted. This episode is sponsored by Chinese Republicans, a new play from Roundabout Theatre Company.
The award-winning feature film Slanted, written and directed by Amy Wang, is a genre-bending sci-fi horror satire that interrogates beauty standards, assimilation, and the cost of belonging. The film follows Joan Huang, a high school outsider who idolizes the popular girls and dreams of becoming prom queen, but fears the only way to win is to look like every past queen whose portraits line the school halls. Enter Ethnos, a mysterious cosmetic surgery clinic that makes people of color appear white. Joan undergoes the procedure and wakes up as a blonde girl destined for the crown... but at what cost? Slanted hits theaters on March 13.
We mourn the passing of civil rights pioneer Jesse Jackson by remembering a moment of solidarity with the Asian American community. In May 1984, Jackson appeared in San Francisco Chinatown with Vincent Chin's mother, Lily Chin. As he took the stage, he said, "Our hearts are made heavy by a mother who sits here with us, whose son was brutally killed, just because he was. What can we do in the aftermath?" In his speech, he drew parallels between Emmett Till's lynching and Vincent Chin's murder, showing just how similar the struggles of both communities were and the need to "redefine America."
Here Lies Love, which opens this week at the Mark Taper Forum, three years after its Broadway debut, is arriving in downtown L.A. at a prescient moment right here in the United States. The musical, which follows former First Lady of the Philippines Imelda Marcos and her family's rise to power and subsequent fall from grace, considers how corrupt leaders often appear charming at first.
The U.S. Postal Service honors and celebrates the life of Chinese American martial artist, actor and filmmaker Bruce Lee with a new stamp featuring an eye-popping image of his iconic flying kick. The stamp was dedicated at a ceremony Wednesday at the Nippon Kan Theater in Seattle. I ordered mine!
I am obsessed with these Kpop Demon Hunters sixth scale figures from Hot Toys and Sideshow Collectibles. These are highly-detailed, meticulously designed action figures that come with a variety of interchangeable face sculpts, hands and accessories to enable a wide range of gestures and poses. I must have them! But they cost close to $300 each. So... I am contemplating donating plasma in order to fund my action figure budget.
