From the personal archives of Korean America
Joseph Ileto used to carry around this bag while making his mail rounds in neighborhoods throughout the San Fernando Valley of Southern California. Today it sits in a room in his younger brother Ismael’s house in Chino Hills—and the only letters it carries are ones of sympathy that the Ileto family received after Joseph was killed in a hate crime attack 11 years ago. Although many may remember white supremacist Buford O. Furrow’s infamous shooting spree at the North Valley Jewish Community Center on August 10, 1999, when he wounded three children, a teenager and a grandmother, sadly, too many tend to forget that the only person he killed that day was Joseph Ileto. Continue Reading »
Dumbfoundead
Rapper, producer, actor
By Julie Ma
Photographed by Brian Lee and Kevin Lee in Los Angeles.
Check out a vid of Dumbfoundead rapping about his trip to Seoul.
The Brat Pack: (from left) Bart Kwon, Clara Chung, Ted Fu, Megan Lee, Ryan Higa and Joe Jo.
By Elizabeth Eun and Julie Ma
Photograph by Eric Sueyoshi
It all seemed self-indulgent and border-line narcissistic before 2005, uploading videos of yourself belting out pop songs or talking to an invisible audience. But YouTube made it not only acceptable, but also a cultural norm. And while videos of screaming babies and neurotic cats have flooded cyberspace, there’s been a not-so-quiet revolution stirring within the YouTube arena. Asian American artists are practically omnipresent on the video-sharing website, posting clips of themselves and each other singing, dancing, playing instruments and telling jokes. Which anyone can do these days, right? But these artists actually get views. Continue Reading »
By Randall Park
Believe it or not, there was a time when I had difficulty in the dating world. Yes, even I, Randall Park, actor of stage and screen, had bad luck with the ladies. I call this period of my life “The Dark Ages,” and it spanned from when I hit puberty (around 19 years old) to just before I got married (in 2009.) During this time, I was no stranger to phrases like: “Sorry, you’re not my type” (Sally Lawrence, 1992); “I don’t go for guys like you” (Michelle Chan, 1999); “I see you more as a friend” (Isabel Sanchez, 2002); or “Seriously, dude, I’m a lesbian” (Sally Lawrence, again, 2005).
Yes, I was no stranger to heartache. And I had only one person to blame: Gedde Watanabe.
Watanabe was the actor who played Long Duk Dong in the seminal teen film of my generation, Sixteen Candles. He was a bumbling foreign exchange student, butcher of the English language, an emasculated, horny, Oriental Sambo whose every scene was accompanied by the sound of a gong. Seriously. Continue Reading »
About a year after her well-publicized North Korean capture, imprisonment and release, Current TV journalist Euna Lee comes out of the shadows to tell her story in a new book, several chapters of which are dedicated to the North Korean refugees she was trying to chronicle.
By Stephan Lee
It’s telling that since arriving in the United States from South Korea in 1996, Euna Lee has pursued film editing—a career defined by dawn-to-dusk hours spent mostly in isolation—with single-minded dedication. Mild-mannered and sotto-voiced, Lee is comfortable burying herself in behind-the-scenes work while the more assertive personalities in front of the camera reap the glory and recognition. So when her five-month detainment in North Korea last year attracted round-the-clock media attention, Lee was out of her element, to say the least.
But now Lee is intentionally throwing herself back into the spotlight with a book about her ordeal, The World Is Bigger Now: An American Journalist’s Release from Captivity in North Korea … A Remarkable Story of Faith, Family, and Forgiveness (Broadway Books).
“This book is my way of finishing the documentary we never got to show,” said Lee during a phone interview last month. Continue Reading »
FOR ONLY $28!
Featured Event
One of the the biggest Asian cinema events to hit Southern California opens on May 10. The Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, presented by Visual Communications, features the latest works by established and emerging filmmakers, along with seminars, panel discussions and symposiums on topics relevant to Asian Pacific cinema.
Opening Night features “Shanghai Calling,” directed by Daniel Hsia and starring Korean American Daniel Henney, who plays a Chinese American expat lawyer navigating his way through the mean streets of Shanghai (the picture above also indicates he is a raisin smuggler). But does he take off his shirt? Go watch the movie to find out! read more
LINKS
Featuring Recent Posts Wordpress Widget development by YD
