On May 8th, the long awaited (by sci-fi geeks) Star Trek reboot movie will appear in theaters across the US. The movie has the multi-national, John Cho of Harold and Kumar fame, as Hikaru Sulu. That’s him in the top left of the poster. I believe there are other Asians playing minor roles in the movie as well. So let’s do another movie pin game. What’s the Rottentomatoe score going to be for this one? More »

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Bradley Rust Gray’s latest feature film THE EXPLODING GIRL has its North American premiere Thursday night in New York City as part of the Tribeca Film Festival. Credits include producers Karin Chien (THE MOTEL, W32nd) and So Yong Kim (IN BETWEEN DAYS, TREELESS MOUNTAIN), cinematographer Eric Lin, unit production manager David Hou (yours truly), key grip Douglas Seok, grip Kevin Lee, and production assistants Miranda Xu and Krista Carter. Not to mention special thanks to Mynette Louie from CHILDREN OF INVENTION and Ningin’s own Eddie Lebron of MEGAMAN fame. More »

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Last Friday, Rain announced he would join Jackie Chan’s Good Friend Concert in Beijing on Friday, May 1. Sounded like a great combo two days ago, but what about today? Let’s see… today the China Law Blog says “Jackie Chan Is A Know-Nothing Self-Loathing Racist”. Sing Tao News Network writes “Jackie Chan Deeply Disappointed Me”. And Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party said “Jackie Chan is unwelcome in Taiwan”. Ouch. Is this all because of booking Rain for the concert? More »

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I’ve been a big fan of Final Fantasy related material ever since 9 years ago. I’ve played through Final Fantasy VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, X-2 and XII (incomplete) and both Kingdom Hearts. More »

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TREELESS MOUNTAIN opens this week in New York City and I cannot stress how great an opportunity this is for cinephiles. Director So Yong Kim has crafted a touching film that can only come from the creative inner depths of one’s own heart. It’s the kind of film that gets easily overlooked with all the millions of advertising spent on big budget films. And that’s a shame. More »

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Unlike the weekend, there was much more news to sift through. While I was doing just that, I noticed a pattern ladies and gentlemen. The “S” word appeared a lot. Yes, I mean scandals. I didn’t need to spend more than 5 minutes to find the ones I have below. My strict protestant upbringing prevents me from searching further. More »

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This is going to be the first of what I hope will be many of what I call, Pin Games. (I really tried hard to think of a better name!) There’s going to be many different kinds. The basic premise is this: we’ll going to ask you to do something – answer a question, pick a debate side, argue a point, or just comment in the post – and we’ll award you a unique pin if you do what we ask and achieve the purpose of the post. More »

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Got your interest. Nothing perverted, this is just a new indie movie which is going to be released soon and I think if you guys have a chance to go check it out. I did see this movie at the LA Asian Film Festival last year and was pleasantly surprised at how good the movie was. It was well written and had a very effective cast. I am usually skeptical while watching an indie movie because independent directors usually only care about the lead and the supporting cast is usually ignored. In this case, the supporting cast is what made the movie, especially Gerry Bednob and Jalleel White who steal every scene they are in. More »

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The Korean Film Festival DC 2009 starts tomorrow, April 17, and runs weekly until June 10. The long list of films and dates are mostly weekend screenings, in case you were wondering how the festival could run for almost 2 months. Programming blocks are New, Classic, and Women Directors of Korean Cinema. Don’t worry English-speakers. All the films are subtitled. I recommend BREATHLESS and TREELESS MOUNTAIN. Monster list below of films, times and synopsis. More »

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On April 10th, blasting from America’s big screen, half Korean Daniel Henney and “Wolverine” Hugh Jackman took a visit to the red carpet in S.Korea. Will “Agent Zero” Daniel Henney be a slash above the rest? Hugh Jackman seems to think so and provided enthusiastically his utmost support. More »

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The 2nd Annual Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival (PAAFF) is now accepting submissions for the following festival award categories:

Narrative Fiction (70 mins+) Documentary (35 mins+) Short Film (1-30 mins) More »

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Shoji Gatoh’s Full Metal Panic! has been recently reported to be turned into a live-action film by Mandalay Pictures. Another anime bites the dust?

Not much is known about the movie just yet; however, there are rumors that actor Zac Efron may be involved with the project. Could this get any worse? High School Musical already ended his career, does he really have to take down an anime franchise? Let’s hope not. More »

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“Paco and the Magical Book” will have its American premiere in New York City, Tuesday, April 7 as part of New York-Tokyo’s ANA Nippon Eiga Series. The screening is free with RSVP, but seating is limited. “Paco and the Magical Book” is directed by Tetsuya Nakashima whose credits include “Kamikaze Girls” and “Memories of Matsuko” (an absolute favorite of mine). More »

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Last night I went to the premiere midnight screening of Fast and Furious 4, and holy sh*t was it awesome. Let’s face it, the last two weren’t such a let down that I had completely given up on the franchise but with the new direction of director Justin Lin, this movie doesn’t fail to impress. More »

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Beloved Oscar-nominated actor for his role of Mr. Miyagi in The Karate Kid, Pat Morita will have his final film Royal Kill released posthumously on April 10, 2009 at select AMC Theatres in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Washington DC surrounding areas. More »

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The Fourth Annual DisOrient Asian American Film Festival of Oregon returns this April 17-19 with three days of films, workshops, parties, panels and special guests. Tze Chun’s acclaimed feature film “Children of Invention” will open this year’s festival. Film director Dave Boyle (of DisOrient 2008’s “Big Dreams, Little Tokyo”) and actor Hiroshi Watanabe (”Letters from Iwo Jima”) will attend with their latest film “White On Rice” for DisOrient’s closing night. More »

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If only I was in Tokyo, and believe me there are many reasons I would want to be in Tokyo, but at the moment this one takes the cake. At the Miraikan: The National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation they have a special exhibit on the history of the Terminator which includes all the different types of terminators from across the franchise. Called Terminator Exhibition - Battle or Coexistence?, the exhibition was created in anticipation of the fourt film in the series Terminator Salvation and focuses on how the movies portray not only the designs of the robots but the concept of coexisting with robots that contain Artificial Intelligence (AI). How sweet it would be if an exhibit like this came to the U.S. More »

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Quick Gun Murugan is finally having a premiere in LA at the Indian film festival on April 24th. If you haven’t heard about this or seen the trailer you are surely missing out on one of the funniest spoofs since Airplane or Scary Movie.

Quick Gun Murugan is a western spoof with attitude, featuring outlandish songs, outrageous melodrama and crazy action sequences including a classic duel in a traffic jam. More »

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The teaser trailer for Finale, starring Korea’s “Bokgo Princess” Bae Seul Ki in her acting debut, was just recently released online has now become a hot topic of netizens.

The independent film directed by Rouchdi Guedria, the amazing action director Jung Doo Hong (who was also the action director for the Korean film The Good, the Bad, and the Weird) and starring actors from both Korea and Europe focuses on a battle between the Italian mafia and the Korean mafia during the Korea VS Italy soccer game during the 2002 World Cup. In the movie, Seul Ki plays the character of a “cold blooded killer” and the daughter of a mob boss, Si Yeon. More »

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Tze Chun, one of Ningin’s favorite filmmakers, has his acclaimed film “Children of Invention” screening at festivals across America in the coming weeks. “Children of Invention” world premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, and just recently won the Special Jury Award at the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival. In case you missed it, we interviewed Tze back in January while he was preparing for Sundance. You can read the interview here. More »

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