Friday, October 26, 2007

APA Hollywood Pioneers: Anna May Wong

Phil Chung's Top 10 Picks; The Most Influential APA Hollywood Pioneers, Part II
Chung, Philip W.. Asianweek. San Francisco, Calif.: Jul 22-Jul 28, 2004. Vol. 25, Iss. 47; pg. 8
Abstract (Summary)

He's shot everyone from Tom Hanks to Jodie Foster. He's one of the most in-demand cinematographers. He's known as a cinematographer's cinematographer. But it was a twist of fate that was his big break. Only a camera assistant on Terrence Malik's classic story of teen alienation, Badlands, Fujimoto was promoted to director of photography when all the other cameramen either quit or were fired. His collaboration with director Jonathan Demme continues to this day, and can be seen in the blockbuster re-make of The Manchurian Candidate this summer.

It was watching La Bamba, the film bio of rocker Ritchie Valens, that inspired [JANET YANG] to convince Universal Studios to make Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story. "I really wanted to do a movie about an incredible person who happens to be Asian," she said. She went on to head Oliver Stone's production company which brought Amy Tan's best-seller The Joy Luck Club to the screen. Yang's recent projects include the Ashley Judd thriller High Crimes. She is also one of Hollywood's biggest supporters of APA talent and is developing Korean American filmmaker Grace Lee's next feature and a big-screen adaptation of Helie Lee's In the Absence of Sun.

The Hong Kong-born filmmaker started directing television programs in his native country (including a Hong Kong rip-off of All in the Family), but it wasn't until he released his 1981 super low-budget Chan is Missing in America that he kicked off a filmmaking revolution. Shot for only $22,000 in San Francisco's Chinatown, the film presented a "real" portrayal of APAs unlike anything seen before. It became a commercial and critical hit paving the way for other independent filmmakers, both Asian (like Peter Wang) and not (like Jim Jarmusch and Spike Lee). Although 1993's The Joy Luck Club was his last film tackling the APA experience, he's gone on to big budget challenges, having recently helmed the Jennifer Lopez hit Maid in Manhattan.

Full Text (1595 words)
Copyright Asian Week Jul 22-Jul 28, 2004

Last week, we presented the bottom half of the 25 most influential Asian Pacific American artists in Hollywood history. Now you hold in your hand... drumroll please ... the top half of the list.

Some of you may be looking at this list and asking yourself-- well, where's John Woo? Better Luck Tomorrow director Justin Lin? Jackie Chan? Or countless other favorites?

The answer is that this is a short list, and deserving people had to be cut. Hollywood is just vicious.

Artists like Woo and Jet Li who, arguably, did their best works in Asia were excluded. Younger Hollywood transplants like Justin Lin and Kelly Hu have demonstrated tremendous potential but it is too early to know if they will have a real long-term impact.

Other calls were purely subjective and/or employ non-artistic criteria as outlined last week. Take Keye Luke and Philip Ahn: they were contemporaries--successful character actors of Hollywood's Golden Age. With so many actors already making up this list, I needed to choose between the two. I chose Ahn because there was no other Korean American on this list. Luke would have been No. 26.

But who was not included should also be a reminder that there have been many APAs who have made deep and lasting contributions to Hollywood over the past 100 years. These are only 10 of the magical ones.

10. TAK FUJIMOTO

Cinematographer

He's shot everyone from Tom Hanks to Jodie Foster. He's one of the most in-demand cinematographers. He's known as a cinematographer's cinematographer. But it was a twist of fate that was his big break. Only a camera assistant on Terrence Malik's classic story of teen alienation, Badlands, Fujimoto was promoted to director of photography when all the other cameramen either quit or were fired. His collaboration with director Jonathan Demme continues to this day, and can be seen in the blockbuster re-make of The Manchurian Candidate this summer.

Essential viewing: Badlands, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, The Silence of the Lambs, Philadelphia and The Manchurian Candidate (summer 2004)

9. JANET YANG

Producer

Born: July 13, 1956

It was watching La Bamba, the film bio of rocker Ritchie Valens, that inspired Yang to convince Universal Studios to make Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story. "I really wanted to do a movie about an incredible person who happens to be Asian," she said. She went on to head Oliver Stone's production company which brought Amy Tan's best-seller The Joy Luck Club to the screen. Yang's recent projects include the Ashley Judd thriller High Crimes. She is also one of Hollywood's biggest supporters of APA talent and is developing Korean American filmmaker Grace Lee's next feature and a big-screen adaptation of Helie Lee's In the Absence of Sun.

Essential viewing: The Joy Luck Club, The People vs. Larry Flynt and High Crimes

8. CHRIS LEE

Producer

Born: Oct. 30, 1956

Lee threw away his growing career in TV news to work on Wayne Wang's low-budget Dim Sum as an assistant director. After discovering his passion Lee became a script reader at TriStar Pictures and worked his way up to president of production. At one time considered the most powerful APA in Hollywood, Lee oversaw films including Philadelphia and Godzilla. As an independent producer, he's had successes (S.W.A.T.) and failures (Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever), but continues to put his mighty resources behind projects he loves while always advocating to put more APA faces both behind and in front of the camera.

Essential viewing: Philadelphia, Legends of the Fall, Jerry Maguire and S. W.A.T.

7. ANG LEE

Director

Born: Oct. 23, 1954

"My passion for film goes all the way back to when I was in my mother's womb," Lee said back in 1993, with the release of The Wedding Banquet. "[My mother] was crazy about two things -- eating sugarcane and going to the movies every night." His filmmaking has spread out across all genres. He hit his apex with 2000's multi-Oscar-winning Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, the highest-grossing foreign-language up to that time. Although his big-screen version of The Hulk was received with less enthusiasm, his next film about two gay cowboys who fall in love promises a return to the magical Lee touch.

Essential viewing: The Wedding Banquet, Eat Drink Man Woman, Sense and Sensibility, The Ice Storm, and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon

6. SESSUE HAYAKAWA

Actor

Born: June 10, 1889 - Nov. 23, 1973

A partial loss of hearing sidelined the Japanese-born Hayakawa's promising naval career; he instead turned to the stage and was discovered by American filmmaker Thomas Ince in 1913. Playing exotic and oftentimes ruthless Asian men in silent films like The Typhoon and The Cheat made him a star and a sex symbol. He was nominated in 1957 for an Academy Award in David Lean's masterpiece The Bridge on the River Kwai. JA actor Clyde Kustasu (All American Girl) adds: "Not only was he a star, producer and director, he owned his own studio. I'd say that would make him one of the great [APA] film pioneers [whose career] has yet to be duplicated to this day."

Essential viewing: The Cheat, Daughter of the Dragon, The Bridge on the River Kwai and The Geisha Boy

5. M. NIGHT SHYAMALAN

Director, Writer

Born: Aug. 6,1970

"By the time I was 19, I had five failed scripts under my belt," Shyamalan jokes about his early rejections. Then the 1999 sleeper hit The Sixth Sense with its surprise ending and low-key suspense -- catapulted the Indian American onto Hollywood's A-list. Although he faltered somewhat with his follow-up Unbreakable, his third film Signs was a huge hit and The Village is one of this year's most anticipated releases. With a genius for self-promotion and storytelling, the admitted film geek is poised to join his heroes Steven Spielberg and Alfred Hitchcock as that rare breed of director: one who is as much a star as any of the actors in his or her pictures.

Essential viewing: The Sixth Sense, Signs and The Village

4. BRUCE LEE

Actor

Born: Nov. 27, 1940- July20, 1973

His life and film career cut short by tragedy (he has only one bona fide classic, Enter the Dragon), Lee single-handedly invented the modern martial arts action film. The American-born actor got his start playing the ass-kicking sidekick Kato in the short-lived cult television hit Green Hornet (1966-67). Dismayed when a white David Carradine became lead actor in the Kung Fu TV series, Lee returned to Hong Kong where his films became an international sensation. His template came to be used by stars like Jackie Chan, Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh, to great cinematic and financial effect.

Essential viewing: Fists of Fury (The Big Boss) and Enter the Dragon

3. WAYNE WANG

Director

Born: Jan. 12, 1949

The Hong Kong-born filmmaker started directing television programs in his native country (including a Hong Kong rip-off of All in the Family), but it wasn't until he released his 1981 super low-budget Chan is Missing in America that he kicked off a filmmaking revolution. Shot for only $22,000 in San Francisco's Chinatown, the film presented a "real" portrayal of APAs unlike anything seen before. It became a commercial and critical hit paving the way for other independent filmmakers, both Asian (like Peter Wang) and not (like Jim Jarmusch and Spike Lee). Although 1993's The Joy Luck Club was his last film tackling the APA experience, he's gone on to big budget challenges, having recently helmed the Jennifer Lopez hit Maid in Manhattan.

Essential viewing: Chan is Missing, Dim Sum, The Joy Luck Club, Smoke and Maid in Manhattan

2. ANNA MAY WONG

Actor

Born: Jan. 3, 1905 - Feb. 2, 1961

"Anna May Wong personified the essence of Asian [Pacific] America," says Anthony B. Chan, author of Perpetually Cool: The Many Lives of Anna May Wong. She was the first APA movie star, her career spanning five decades from break-through work in silent films like The Toll of the Sea to her own 1950s television series The Gallery of Mme. Liu Tsong. In between, she confronted racism when she lost the role in The Good Earth to a Caucasian actress in "yellow face," paved the way for everyone to come after her, and proved that even in the precivil rights era, being Asian and American was beautiful and empowering.

Essential viewing: Shanghai Express, The Thief of Baghdad, Piccadilly and Chu Chin Chow

1. JAMES WONG HOWE

Cinematographer

Born: Aug. 28, 1899 - July 12, 1976

The Chinese-born Howe started his career in 1917 as a janitor at Lasky Studios and worked his way up to become one of the most influential cinematographers in history. Nominated for 10 Academy Awards --he won two for The Rose Tattoo and Hud -- Howe collaborated with the great directors and stars: Paul Newman, Sidney Lumet, John Frankenheimer, Barbra Streisand, Burt Lancaster... the list goes on. He pioneered techniques like deep-focus photography and the hand-held camera for all of Hollywood. (For the boxing scenes in Body and Soul, Howe donned a pair of roller skates and shot the fight scenes from inside the ring.) Our only choice for the No. 1 spot.

Essential viewing: The Thin Man, The Sweet Smell of Success, Picnic, Hud and Funny Lady

Philip W. Chung is a writer and co-artistic director of Lodestone Theatre Ensemble. He writes a regular column for AsianWeek and also wrote last year's "50 Most Memorable APA Moments in Film."

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