Summer Movie Asian-spotting

Sylvie Kim
May 19, 2009

May 18

Moon Bloodgood helps Christian Bale's John Connor fight the cyborgs in Terminator Salvation.

Mizuo Peck and Mindy Kaling in Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian. Native Americans may have a bone to pick the casting of hapa Peck: she plays historical figure Sacajawea.

May 29

Reggie Lee and Dileep Rao in Drag Me To Hell, director Sam Raimi's return to the horror genre.

Yojiro Takita's Oscar-winning film Departures opens in limited release.

Jordan Nagai (voice) in Pixar's Up. Nagai voices Russell, an Asian American Junior Wilderness explorer with some extra baby fat, who accompanies elderly Carl on a balloon trip to South America. I think this movie might make a buck or two.


June 5

Ken Jeong in a "what happens in Vegas must be horrifically catastrophic" comedy The Hangover.


June 19

Aasif Mandvi in the Sandra Bullock/Ryan Reynolds romantic comedy The Proposal.

July 31

Ken Jeong in Judd Apatow's (more) mature comedy Funny People.

August 7

Byung-hun Lee as Storm Shadow (Tropic Thunder's kiddie druglord Brandon Soo Hoo plays the character's younger version) in the big-screen adaptation of G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra.

August 14

Animation master Hayao Miyazaki's Ponyo opens in limited release.

Director Ang Lee goes from Chinese espionage in Lust, Caution to smelly, free-lovin' hippies in Taking Woodstock.

Charlyne Li in documentary/romantic comedy Paper Heart.

Vanessa Hudgens, Tim Jo, and Lisa Chung in teen rock flick Bandslam.

Ken Jeong (damn, this man seems to be working a lot) in the comedy The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard.

August 21

Hong Kong cinema legend Maggie Cheung in Quentin Tarantino's Nazi revenge flick Inglourious Basterds.

Not a total coup obviously, but looking a bit promising. Please let me know of any glaring omissions; every role counts. Happy movie-watching!

Categories: 
Film
Contributor: 

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.

Suggested Reads

DVD Review: Someone Else's War (PBS version)
Hyphen Presents “Creation: A Hyphen Original Video Series” Starring Maria Zhang
The Foreigner: White Terrorism, Yellow Heroism

Comments

Comments

michael wrote on Wed, 05/20/2009 - 12:46am
Wow, nice comprehensive list!I recently got to catch a screening of TERMINATOR SALVATION, and Moon Bloodgood does a decent job holding her own against the cyborg baddies. In addendum to the film, Bloodgood is also starring in her own Machinima series to flesh out her character's origin and background:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbF76xE8Q0YAnd to add to your list of Summer Movie Asian-spottingCurrently Playing Now:Youki Kudoh in the arthouse flick LIMITS OF CONTROLCurrently in Limited Release and Opening Wide on May 29:BABEL's Rinko Kikuchi blows stuff up in THE BROTHERS BLOOMOpening July 15:Katie Leung in HARRY POTTER and The Who Cares What This Movie is About, 'Cause its Gonna Make a Billion Dollars Regardless What the Title of This Installment is
hyashinsu wrote on Sun, 05/24/2009 - 12:56am
Well, we're not a movie, but we certainly look like one! :) We're a new thriller web series featuring a delicious cast of Asian Americans and Asian Canadians:http://www.luminaseries.comTrailer is available on YouTube HD:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A79P17gsrCo&fmt=22And the series launches in summer 2009. Check us out and let us know what you think!