~Film~

  👋     What's up, blog! 🎥     This week I watched the first two episodes of Bling Empire. It is a reality tv show in which a group of wealthy Asian Americans' lives are filmed. This group of the one percent population lives in Los Angeles and they live glamorously without missing out on the crazy drama that most people love to watch and hear about. In order to make us (the general public) feel like a part of that fantastical world, the reality tv show had a focus on a guy who was not born into wealth like the rest of the people in that society. We are meant to relate to him the most and see him as the guy who stands out for being different. 🤩    In these first episodes, I got to get a glimpse into an unbelievable life which is the reality for only a lucky few. Our eyes get to devour a view of a Chinese New Year's festival-like event. We get to see many activities which attract our gaze. Along with that, we get to see all the important guests t...

  👋     Hey, blog! 🎥     This week we watched episodes one and two of "Asian Americans" (Renee Tajima-Pena, 2020). This five-episode series was a PBS documentary project in which they tried to describe the Asian American story. They included a few major historical events in the documentary and asked family members of some important figures to describe how everything affected them and their community. 😞    In the first episode, we saw how Asian immigrants became the first "undocumented immigrants" in America. Even though they were hard-working individuals who helped build up the USA (by working to make train tracks and shops), they were still depicted as evil in cartoons and didn't get any credit for the good stuff they did. They were basically rewarded with the fear of being kicked out if they had no documents which stated that they were allowed to stay in America. In the second episode, we saw how the question of loyalty affected families with...

  👋     Hi, blog~! 🎥     This week we watched a few music videos by some of the most popular figures in the K-pop industry. We watched Psy's "Gangnam Style", BTS's "Boy with Luv", and Blackpink's "Ice Cream". In Korea, there are three main entertainment companies: YG Entertainment, SM Entertainment, and JYP Entertainment. Psy used to be under YG, but he later moved on to create his own label called P Nation. Blackpink is still under YG and BTS is under a different company called BigHit Entertainment. BigHit is a growing company that I predict will officially take over a spot as a 'top-three' very soon due to the popularity of BTS as well as their successful marketing strategies which are used to promote their sensational groups. Psy became a popular figure after the release of "Gangnam Style" which broke a very important YouTube record: the first person to reach 1 billion views. I recall hearing this song being played at alm...

  👋     What's up, blog! 🎥     This week we watched episodes one, two, and three of PEN15. From what I could see, this show is about the seventh-grade experiences of Maya (an Asian American girl) and Anna (her best friend). We get to see how they tried to create a new image of themselves on their first day back at school, how they tried to fit in with the smoking crowd, and how they learn to explore their bodies.  😂    In these episodes, we got to see Maya and Anna go through a few wild experiences. I thought they were very funny even though there were plenty of cringey scenes (for instance, where Anna was with a younger boy during a "hook-up" session). I thought it was nice how Maya and Anna always stuck with each other and were open with each other no matter the situation they were in.  🙌   Although I felt like this show was a bit too American, I could still see how the incorporation and inclusion of Asian American-ness w...