'The Goods,' Lee, Yi, and Yimou Too

August 21, 2009

Speaking of box office, if you haven't seen Hayao Miyazaki's newest animated film Ponyo or Nicholas Jasenovec and Charlyne Yi's Paper Heart, try to make it to the theater. indieWIRE reports that the films are performing below expectations. Remember, you have no right to complain about a lack of diversity in the movie industry if you don't throw in an occasional ten bucks to support Asian/American films. Okay, you can always complain. But, you look more legit if you actually pay to see these films once in a while.

Hopefully Ang Lee's upcoming Taking Woodstock (which takes us back to the 1969 music festival, not the pyromania and sexual assault-fueled 1999 version) will fare better when it opens in wide release on August 28. Check out the diverse Mr. Lee talk with Stephen Colbert about wanting to lighten up after going on a serious drama streak:

And finally, good news from Asia. With numerous American directors having remade or in talks of remaking popular Asian films (Infernal Affairs, Oldboy, My Sassy Girl), Asian filmmakers are now getting into the game. Venerated Chinese director Zhang Yimou (most well-known stateside for Hero), is getting Sony to back his remake of the Coen Brothers' Blood Simple. Pretty bad ass, I must say. However, I would have rather seen a Zhang-ian take on The Big Lebowski. How do you say "dude" in Chinese?

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Sylvie Kim

contributing editor & blogger

Sylvie Kim is a contributing editor at Hyphen. She previously served as Hyphen's blog coeditor with erin Khue Ninh, film editor, and blog columnist.

She writes about gender, race, class and privilege in pop culture and media (fun fun fun!) at www.sylvie-kim.com and at SF Weekly's The Exhibitionist blog. Her work has also appeared on Racialicious and Salon.