~Film~

  👋     Hi, blog! 🎥     This week we watched  Margaret Cho: PsyCHO . Margaret Cho is an Asian American standup comedian who had starred in the first Asian American television show titled All-American Girl . Although that show failed, Margaret isn't shy about mentioning its impact on her life.  😅    In this film, we got to hear Margaret talk about many things including  pills, rape, racism, sexuality, body weight, tattoos, and even about girls who were kidnapped in Nigeria. Honestly, I didn't really find anything that funny. I didn't laugh much while watching this film because these topics sounded pretty sensitive. I wasn't used to this kind of humor, nor was it to my taste. I did appreciate the openness of it all, though. 🙌    I want to take a moment to praise Margaret Cho for showing her non "model minority" personality. She doesn't feed the issue of racial melancholia. She doesn't try to hide by mimicking the model minority stereotype. Instead, s

  👋     Hi again, blog! 🎥     This week's film was  Better Luck Tomorrow . It was directed by Justin Lin who also worked with the Fast & Furious movies. Better Luck Tomorrow is an independent film that held many similarities to Hollywood narrative films, but it includes more Asian American representation. Hollywood tends to oversexualize Asian women's bodies and hardly gives Asian American males any character other than the geek or the Kung Fu guy. Justin Lin tried to change that pattern through his film. 👍    This film started off strong by showing us a dead person's hand peeking out of the ground. We get a glimpse at the main characters, Ben and Virgil, and just by their way of speaking and the limited actions they make, we could already tell they weren't your typical Asian American guys (at least, according to Hollywood standards). We get to see them go from being the nerdy kids to practically becoming gangsters. I thought this film really captured how one de

  👋     Hey, blog! 🎥     This week's film was AKA Don Bonus . It was a documentary that showed the life of an Asian American high school student named Don.  👍    This film was very real and I was impressed by how Don took on the challenge to show his life as it was.  He recorded many hours of footage, but it was compressed to be less than an hour long. Even though it was a short film, we got to see his life on a personal level. We saw his life at home. We saw his life at school. We were even introduced to his family members and friends.  🤔    While watching this film, I had many deja vu moments. He lived in a bad neighborhood where gunshots hit his house. Even young neighbors broke their windows. I used to live in a neighborhood just like that when I was younger. Seeing him struggle to stay on track in school reminded me of many of my old elementary school classmates. They were constantly conflicted with the urge to escape the "ghetto", yet they had connections with g

👋       Hi again, blog! For those new here, my name is Luisa. I'm a sophomore and I am planning on majoring in film studies. I'm currently in Chicago, Illinois.  ~~~ ❓    Why am I taking this course? I am a big fan of Asian movies and dramas (especially K-Dramas💜). I enjoy having an understanding of diverse places and I know this class will help me learn a lot through the study of the history of Asian Americans in film. I am particularly excited about the week in which we will discuss K-pop artists and their fan communities. I've taken a few courses which also have focused on Asian arts and I hope to apply what I've previously learned to this class. ~~~