At 13 years old, Ernest (Jeffrey Chyau) is, like any kid his age, struggling with the pains of growing up. But unlike most protagonists in American movies, Ernest is a middle class Chinese American kid who works at his family’s motel business. Michael Kang’s The Motel is told from his perspective. While other kids are […]
There is a chill that runs through Kim So Yong’s In Between Days, frigid air that occupies the space between characters, between film and viewer. The film takes place in Toronto, although it could be anywhere in this part of the world where winters bring biting wind and teenagers roam aimlessly. Aimie (played by Kim […]
When I watched Jennifer Phang’s Advantageous (2015), I was supposed to be working, finishing up a deck to be presented that afternoon. That day, the US had pulled out of the Paris climate accord. Over 230,000 Americans lay dead from a disease that a monstrous man bolstered by a monstrous party had let ravage the […]
When Fast & Furious: Tokyo Drift first came out 14 years ago, I was ten. Now, I don’t remember much about those days–save the odd holiday or the never-ending studying–but what I do remember is that that was the year that cars became cool. In my little Asian American suburb in Southern California, Fast & […]