Posted: March 15th, 2012
Filed Under: Back Issues , BLOG , FEATURED ARTICLE , March 2012
A Family Affair
Wedding Palace is a romantic comedy about a quirky Korean American family that will be hitting theaters nationwide later this year. KoreAm spoke with writer/director Christine Yoo and leading man Brian Tee for a behind-the-scenes look at how the movie— filmed with two separate crews in the U.S. and Korea—got made, how Yoo wouldn’t take “no” for an answer and how a community said “yes” to a dream.
by Oliver Saria
They say to make it in Hollywood, it takes moxie, grit and a bit of good luck. You might want to add a PowerPoint presentation to the list.
“I had a PowerPoint presentation, and I literally walked in off the street and would talk to anybody that would talk to me,” Christine Yoo, director of the romantic comedy Wedding Palace, tells me as we sit in a coffee shop in Los Angeles’ Koreatown, where much of the film was shot. “If I wanted to shoot here in this location. I would just come in, I would introduce myself, and I would ask who do I need to talk to.”
Her ambitious indie film certainly needed all the production help it could muster.
With a sizable cast, a flashback sequence set during the Joseon Dynasty, and the film touted as the first U.S.– Korea independent co-production, Yoo had no choice but to go big.
Wedding Palace tells the tale of Korean American Jason Kim (played by Brian Tee of The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift) doomed by an ancient family curse to die if he does not wed by his fast-approaching 30th birthday. Left at the altar by his fiancée (played by Joy Osmanski), Jason must contend with a family frantically scrambling to find him a new wife, and thus save his life. But Jason chooses to tempt fate by holding out for true love, which he finds during a business trip to Korea, embarking on a long-distance, online relationship with the enchanting Na Young Song (played by Korean starlet, Kang Hye-Jung, the ingénue in the critically acclaimed classic, Oldboy, in her first English-speaking role). But when the family finally meets Na Young, some aren’t convinced she’s the right one to break the curse. Continue Reading »
by Elizabeth Shim
Meet Jason Kim. He’s Korean American, a Los Angeleno, and a filial son who’ll do near anything to please his demanding, immigrant parents. So during a business trip to Korea, he meets and serendipitously falls in love with a young, attractive business associate in Seoul. Upon his return to Los Angeles, he takes up an online relationship with his new love interest.
The gyopo-meets-FOB girl storyline may be familiar to some of you, but the comedic twists and turns that define Christine Yoo’s feature debut “Wedding Palace” will probably be what you remember most about a film we don’t regularly encounter, that rarest of beasts: a Korean American romantic comedy. Continue Reading »
Korean American Actor Will Yun Lee Wins Best Ensemble Acting Award
HanCinema
Being an Asian American in Hollywood is challenging, says Will Yun Lee who recently shared in the award for Best Ensemble Acting at this year’s Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival for the film Where the Road Meets the Sun. But it is getting better, Lee adds, and more opportunities are opening up every day.
Crystal Kay aims for spring break vibe in Zushi
The Japan Times
The Japan Times published a Q&A with Crystal Kay, the biracial Korean American who just so happens to be a Japanese pop superstar.
Crystal Kay has been an exciting singer to watch mature in the music industry. Since her debut at 13 years old, this Yokohama native has wowed fans with her powerful vocals and a compelling personal story of being a mixed-race singer (Korean-American) in Japan.
Film Review: ‘Wedding Palace’
Hyphen
On a completely different note is the AAIFF closing night feature Wedding Palace by Christine Yoo. This is the fictional story of Jason Kim (Brian Tee, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift), a Korean American in L.A. whose family is cursed (the origins of which are shown in an imaginative hand-drawn/CGI animation blend), meaning that the 29-year-old must marry by his 30th birthday. A relationship with a long-term girlfriend doesn’t work out; neither do set-ups orchestrated by his meddling parents (in one fun scene, Jason and his parents are in a Dating Game-style show to assess potential brides). Eventually, a business trip to Seoul leads Jason to the seemingly perfect Na Young (Hye-jung Kang, Oldboy), but of course several wrenches are thrown in along the way to their budding relationship.
North Korea mocks South over artillery fire claims
Stars & Stripes
North and South Korea traded insults Thursday, a day after South Korea responded to what it determined was artillery fire from the North – the latest chapter in the tense relationship between the two countries.
Once again, experts are left scrambling for explanations of what it all means.
‘X-Men’ miniseries coming from Frank Cho
digitalspy
Frank Cho has announced that he is writing and illustrating an X-Men miniseries.
The Liberty Meadows creator listed his upcoming projects for the next 12 months on his website Apes and Babes.
“I can’t say too much right now, but this miniseries will have three of the hottest women in the Marvel Universe,” said Cho of the title.
Lydia Ko advances; Jihee Kim ousted at Women’s Am
Los Angeles Times
Korean Kiwi Lydia Ko, 14, advanced on Wednesday in the U.S. Women’s Amateur Golf Championship with a win over Lauren Dobashi. Meanwhile, defending champion Danielle Kang of Southern California remained alive in her repeat bid.
Returning to help Korean kids through KKOOM
Korea Herald
It all started when Aimee Jachym returned to South Korea for a year-long volunteer program, having left her country of birth at just four months old.
Her year out soon turned into a vocation as the Korean-American adoptee founded the Korean Kids and Orphanage Outreach Mission to help orphans still living here to a better life.
Souvenirs from the World’s Most Dangerous Border
Der Spiegel (Germany)
Given that North and South Korea are still technically at war, the wall between them is officially a cease-fire line. With its watchtowers and guns, the demilitarized zone is the world’s most dangerous border, no matter how popular it may be with tourists.
Koreans Overcome Differences By Way of Cuisine
Voice of America
There is an increasing number of North Korean defectors who are opening North Korean restaurants and even a cooking school in their new home in South Korea. Check out our May 2011 story on a North Korean restaurant in Northern Virginia.
Teaching Korean students to dream big
Korea Herald
Korean students from top U.S. and Canadian universities have helped less fortunate young people here reach for their dreams this summer.
The newly established Teach for Korea has offered free tutoring and mentoring to economically disadvantaged students from four Seoul schools. Graduates and students from world-renowned U.S. institutions including Cornell, Columbia and Pennsylvania Universities are helping with the non-profit project.
The Frontline: Film Review
Hollywood Reporter
The Frontline, one of Korea’s biggest blockbusters this year, depicts the bitter struggle between North and South to gain foothold of a hill at the tail-end of the 1950s civil war. Jang Hun’s (Rough Cut, Secret Reunion) even-handed direction and Park Sang-yeon’s traditional but finely-tuned screenplay instills the right measure of humanist anti-war sentiment and personal heroism, turning the fates of a small company of men confined to one hellish location into an expose of how impersonal military operations literally makes mountains out of molehills.
50 must-visit traditional markets in Korea
CNNGo
With all the online shopping in Korea these days, sometimes you miss some good old-fashioned haggling. That, and actually seeing what you’re buying.
The Small and Medium Business Administration and the Agency for Traditional Market Administration (ATMA) recently selected 50 must-visit traditional markets in Korea, based on criteria such as memorable food, colorful attractions and entertainment.
Surprisingly, only two on the list — Namdaemun Market and Dongdaemun Market — are located in Seoul.
China’s New Wealth Spurs a Market for Mistresses
New York Times
Jian, a 42-year-old property developer in the booming southern metropolis of Shenzhen, had acquired just about everything men of his socioeconomic ilk covet: a Mercedes-Benz, a sprawling antique jade collection and a lavishly appointed duplex for his wife and daughter.
It was only natural then, he said, that two years ago he took up another costly pastime: a beguiling 20-year-old art major whose affections run him about $6,100 a month.
A guest post by Peachies for VoteCPAF.org.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_kD0m6MhKo[/youtube]
Did you know that every 15 seconds a woman is beaten in the U.S.? That every two minutes someone in the U.S. is raped or sexually assaulted? And that 40 to 60 percent of Americans of Asian Pacific Islander descent fall into these statistics? It’s quite alarming, isn’t it? Continue Reading »
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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
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