Showing posts with label Asian actors. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Asian actors. Show all posts

November 27 – Happy Birthday, Bruce Lee!

Posted on November 27, 2017

Is Bruce Lee one of the most influential martial artists who ever lived, or is he one of the most influential Asian American actors who ever lived?

Yes!



It's not an either-or; Bruce Lee was both. He gets credit as an actor, director, martial artist, martial arts teacher, and founder of a particular martial art (Lee Hoi-chuen). Not only did his martial arts movies spark interest in Chinese martial arts in the West, but also Lee helped to change the way Asian actors were presented in American movies!

Bruce Lee is considered an icon - and both during his life and after he died, he was considered a source of pride for Chinese people everywhere.

Did you know...?

  • Bruce Lee was born in the U.S. (in San Francisco's Chinatown) but raised in Hong Kong.
  • Lee came back to the U.S. in order to escape possible trouble with Chinese gangs and to attend college.
  • Lee's first roles in martial arts movies were in Hong Kong cinema, when he was just a teen.
  • Lee is best known for his five feature-length films - three from Hong Kong film companies, and two created by a collaboration between Golden Harvest, a Hong Kong company, and Warner Brothers, a Hollywood film company.
Lee got married and had
two kids during his short
life.
  • Tragically, Lee died when he was just 32 years old. He had a cerebral edema, but his death is categorized as "death by misadventure" because he had a reaction to a medicine he took for a headache.







Take a look at some of these pearls of wisdom from Bruce Lee:







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March 27 – Happy Birthday, Ram Charan!

Posted on March 27, 2017


 Ram Charan talked to college students a few days ago. This accomplished actor / dancer / producer / entrepreneur told the students that he loved being a college student - but that he hoped they would all set goals at an early age, and pursue them with dedication.

 Charan is Indian, and he works in "Tollywood" - that is, he is in the business of making films in the Teluga language. (Teluga is an official language in several different states in India and is the primary language in those states and among sizable minorities in other locations.)

 Charan has won loads of awards and is one of the highest paid actors in Tollywood, and he started his own production company.

 I have heard several times from Asian American students what is apparently commonly acknowledged: Asian men, including Asian American men, are one of the least and worst represented groups in Hollywood. In other words - they are mostly absent, and even when they are present, they are usually minor roles, stereotypes, and negative (bad / evil / unpleasant) characters. They are rarely complex, funny, or romantic "leading men."

 One of my husband's high school friends made a wonderful living playing mostly bad guys in movies and TV shows, but I'm happy that other movie-making centers like Bollywood and Tollywood exist.

 To learn more about Asian men in Hollywood, you could watch the 2006 documentary The Slanted Screen on Amazon video. Of course, being a decade old, the documentary was filmed before all these great TV characters were created:
Tim Kang in The Mentalist - a regular but not leading character, with a bit of the inscrutable stereotype but certainly some nuance and complexity as the show continued for seven seasons

 John Cho in Selfie - the romantic lead who is comic gold - but the series was cancelled WAY-way-way too soon

 John Cho in Flash Forward and Go On - Cho is also great in minor roles!

 Daniel Dae Kim in Hawaii Five-O - a regular in an ensemble cast, Kim plays the action-hero lead and the romantic lead in some story lines and has a ton of complexity

 Danny Pudi in Community and Powerless - I loved-loved-loved Pudi's extremely funny, unexpected, and complex character in Community

 Masi Oka in Heroes and Hawaii Five-O - one of the most memorable characters in almost any cast, Oka became a breakout character in Heroes

 Jon Foo in Rush Hour - a bit stereotypical, in that Foo plays Jackie Chan's original movie character / martial arts expert - but a starring role

 Aziz Ansari in Master of None (if it were a movie, it would have an R rating) - this is so funny AND Ansari created the series as well as stars in it

 Randall Park in Fresh Off the Boat - a very funny major character in a show that some think misrepresents "the Asian American experience" but that also portrays one small slice of the Asian American experience and that can therefore start valuable conversations

 Kunal Nayyar in The Big Bang Theory - a funny and quirky main character on a popular show
Dev Patel in Newsroom - a very minor character, but played with passion

 Kal Penn in House and Designated Survivor - Penn is good at pointing out the racism and stereotyping in Hollywood, as well as at playing even minor roles with nuance

 Alex Mallari, Jr., in Dark Matter - again, an ensemble cast; again, a martial-arts specialist
I am really happy that things are getting better for Asian and Asian American (and British Asian) men in Hollywood... More diverse characters, more starring roles, more comedy and romance as well as martial arts and action-adventure, and - crucially - at least a little bit more voice in plots, characters, and how the characters are played.

 Onward and upward!

Also on this date:






Architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's birthday  











Quirky Country Music Song Titles Day


































Plan ahead:
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