Asian Pacific American Heritage Month

Magnum P. I.

Taiwan has been drawn to cinema as an art form since the summer of 1900 when Oshima Inoshi and his projectionist Matu-ura Shozo brought to Taipei and other cities, the dreamy new moving images created by the Lumière brothers, a mere four years after the novelty had been shown to enthralled audiences in Japan and China. The island, caught between history’s many chapters made of darkness and light, seems to still be looking for its own identity after centuries of dispute between European powers, Tokyo and Beijing.

A colossal, odd-shaped spaceship crash landed in the Haeundaegu-District of Busan, South Korea’s second-largest city, and nobody cleaned up the mountain of debris. That could be the first impression a visitor has at the sight of a remarkable building.

Asian actors have always been a part of the Hollywood landscape, and with the recent emphasis on increasing diversity both in front of and behind the camera, it has only helped them to push the dial forward into mainstream roles. Now, leading men such as Malaysian-British Henry Golding (Crazy Rich Asians, Snake Eyes:  GI Joe Origins), Chinese-Canadian Simu Liu (Shang-Chi, Legend of the Ten Rings), Taiwanese Chang Chen (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Dune), Chinese-British Lewis Tan (Deadpool, Mortal Kombat), and Chinese-American Daniel Wu (Reminiscence), the idea of an Asian A-lister is no longer an anomaly in Hollywood.

At first glance there’s nothing in common between Godzilla, that monstrous lizard terrorizing Tokyo, and the delicate artistry displayed in every Bollywood extravaganza. Yet, those startling creations come from one and same place, Asia, the vast land that keeps giving the world some of the most stirring and inventive moving images ever shown on the big screen.

Reggie Lee has no regrets. He was accepted at Harvard but, instead, he proceeded to Los Angeles to pursue his first love – acting.

Haruki Murakami is a best-selling author, short-listed for the Nobel Prize in Literature, regularly featured in The New Yorker, the darling of more book clubs in the West than in his native Japan. Collector of jazz records, T-shirts, and, as a runner, marathon miles.

Ang Lee was born in Taiwan in 1954, in Pingtung, a southern agricultural region. He was educated at the National Taiwan University of Arts, the best high school in Taiwan where his father was the principal.

Apur Sansar (The World of Apu) concludes the Apu Trilogy, director Satyajit Ray’s magnum opus. The three Bengali language films, based on the books by Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay, tell the coming of age story of Apu – Pather Panchali (1955, Song of the Road) is about Apu’s childhood growing up in the village of Boral in rural Bengal; in Aparajito (1956, The Unvanquished) the story moves to his adolescence in the holy city of Benares; and Apur Sansar concludes the story in Calcutta with Apu facing the challenges of adulthood.

“You may not be able to travel to Tatooine,” reads a comforting announcement currently circulating planet Earth. The Force may lead you instead to the Star Wars Celebration held at the Convention Center in Anaheim, CA, from May 26 to 29, 2022: “Star Wars Celebration,” according to the promise of the ad, “is truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience where memories are made – all in the setting of the ever-evolving Star Wars universe.