For real - #StarringJohnCho

IT'S A CASE of life imitating art. The internet viral sensation #StarringJohnCho -- where actor John Cho's face was superimposed on popular movie posters in order to show the plausibility of more diverse casting in Hollywood movies -- has come true.

Paramount has released three new character posters to promote the upcoming release of Star Trek Beyond. Today’s posters feature Simon Pegg as Scotty, Zoe Saldana as Uhuraand John Cho as Sulu.

Cho's image is one of the very few times an Asian male was prominently promoted in order to sell a movie. The only other Hollywood distributed movie that featured an Asian male actor in its PR materials was Enter the Dragon featuring martial artist Bruce Lee.

The new posters follow the same aesthetic style of those released last week. Posters with McCoy, Jaylah, Spock and Chekov were unveiled on Wednesday and Thursday, in addition to a colorful international poster, last Monday.

RELATED: AAPI decry whitewashing of Asian roles

The lack of diversity in U.S.-made films has been a topic of discussion in the movie industry for several years but really picked up steam last year when the Academy Awards didn't nominate a single actor of color for an Oscar. The 2015 Oscars spawned the Twitter hashtag #OscarsSoWhite.

RELATED: #OscarsSoOffensive

#OscarsSoWhite became a more topical issue this year when the actors of color were excluded again. However, a pair of tasteless jokes against Asians during the awards show sparked a rare outcry of protest from the AAPI community. 

RELATED: That's a rap for $StarringJohnCho

The last straw appears to have occurred when several movies that had Asian roles in the source material of the comics and anime were given to white actors. AAPI actors began speaking out and articles about the protests began appearing in mainstream media giving birth to #StarringJohnCho, which in turn inspired #StarringConstanceWu.

Star Trek Beyond, which was directed by Asian/American director Justin Lin, will be released July 22.

Here's a chance to work with 'Star Trek Beyond' director Justin Lin

By Anderson

Reposted from YOMYOMF

BY POPULAR DEMAND, the deadline to submit a short film to Interpretations and a chance to direct a project produced by Star Trek Beyond director Justin Lin has been extended to July 15, 2016.

By popular demand, the deadline to submit a short film to Interpretations and a chance to direct a project produced by Star Trek Beyond director Justin Lin has been extended to July 15, 2016.

Justin Lin

We’ve been getting a lot of inquiries regarding this initiative and we also know that producing a film, even a short one, is really difficult. It takes a village, as one would say. So, we’re extending the deadline by almost a month to provide you budding filmmakers some extra time to complete your short film entries and also convince anyone else who hasn’t decided to submit to consider now and enter your film!

However, do keep in mind that if you finish your film before the new deadline, we encourage you to submit early, because it allows more time for the judges to review your entries and also allows you, the filmmaker and your team, to also promote your entry via social media as we’ll start making the entries live on the website after June 17. It’s like campaigning but without the super delegates!

If you haven’t heard of Interpretations, then head over the contest website. But in a nutshell, Interpretations is a way of encouraging aspiring filmmakers to develop their own original and unique voice. All participants will “interpret” a four line script, and can produce and shoot it any way they wish. The only caveat is that the lines are static and must be in that order and the actual film itself is no more than 3 minutes long. Therefore, everyone is shooting their films from the same material and leveling the playing field in a way that traditional filmmaking competitions cannot. Three shorts will be selected from the entries and these winning filmmakers will have an opportunity to direct a project for one of the Comcast or NBCUniversal platforms (or equivalent platform) under the mentorship of Justin Lin (Better Luck Tomorrow, Fast and Furious, Star Trek Beyond) and other industry professionals. YOMYOMF will produce the projects.

In an interview with Salon, Justin explained why he started Interpretations:

“I made a lot of mistakes along the way, but feel incredibly lucky to be in the position I am now and to be able to play a small part in trying to support talented, aspiring young filmmakers out there through a program like ‘Interpretations’ who, like me, had the desire and passion, but no connections to the industry.”

Interpretations really stretches your creative chops. It’s like a filmmaker brain game and if you’re one of the lucky final three winners, you get an opportunity to work with Justin and other mentors on a digital project. Seriously, there are no more excuses. Take this opportunity and submit your entry to Interpretations!

Head over to the Interpretations website for all relevant info, including the rules, an FAQ, the script, and how to enter your film.

If you’re an aspiring Asian/American filmmaker, don’t miss this opportunity and regret it later. July 15 is right around the corner.

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Celebrity short takes: Constance Wu, Justin Lin, Daniel Wu, Matt Damon, Vanessa Hudgens and more

The anime characters in FullmetalAlchemist and their human actors.

Director's decision counters Hollywood's 'whitewashing' practice

When the live-action adaptation of the wildly-popular manga-turned-anime Fullmetal Alchemist hits theaters next year, its entire cast of lead characters will be Japanese.
“I want to depict something that follows the original work as much as possible,” the movie’s director Fumihiko Sori told Natalie. “The cast is entirely Japanese, but the setting is Europe. However, their race and nationality isn’t expressed in a specific form.” This news is particularly refreshing in the wake of the upcoming Dr. Strange and Ghost in the Shell movies’ whitewashing of the Asian characters in their source material, tapping Tilda Swinton and Scarlett Johansson, respectively, to play them. Read the full story here.

Asian/American actors speaking out against 'whitewashing'

"AN ASIAN PERSON who is competing against white people, for an audience of white people, has to train for that opportunity like it's the Olympics," actress Constance Wu told writer Amanda Hess in the New York Times piece, titled 'Asian-American Actors Are Fighting For Visibility. They Will Not Be Ignored'. "An incredibly talented Asian actor might be considered for a leading role maybe once or twice in a lifetime. That's a highly pressured situation." Among the actors who were interviewed were heavy-hitters George Takei, Aziz Ansari and Daniel Dae Kim. Read the full article here.

AMC has renewed martial arts drama “Into the Badlands” for Season 2

The dystopian drama will return for a 10-episode second season that is slated to premiere on AMC in 2017. The show delivered the third highest-rated first season in U.S. cable TV history, averaging 5.6 million viewers per episode. “With its deep dive into authentic martial arts, the visually stunning ‘Into the Badlands’ proved to be unlike anything else on television,” said Charlie Collier, president of AMC, SundanceTV and AMC Studios. “Co-creators and showrunners Al Gough and Miles Millar, along with a talented team of producers, cast and crew, brought us an artfully crafted series. We’re eager to return to the world of barons and blades and spend even more time with these compelling and evolving characters across an expanded second season.” It stars California-raised Daniel Wu as its leading man.

Lin

Vin Diesel wants Justin Lin to direct the final 'Fast & Furious'

Vin Diesel wants Justin Lin to direct the final Fast & Furious Universal Pictures and director F. Gary Gray are currently shooting Fast 8 for an April 14, 2017 release, which is planned to launch a new trilogy of films. Fast 8 will be followed by a ninth film to be released April 19, 2019 and a tenth film planned to hit theaters April 2, 2021. Forward-thinking star Vin Diesel is already coming up with a master plan for Fast 10, which a new article from Wired indicates could include the return of Read the full story


'Space Jam 2' has found its director

It's finally on now. While Space Jam 2 has lingered in the minds of basketball and sneaker enthusiasts behind a regular season filled with Curry and Kobe headlines, LeBron James' summer is now closer to set. As The Hollwood Reporter breaks, the busy Justin Lin will direct the sequel to the cartoon classic. It's nice to be in demand. Read the full story

Chinese/American actress nominated for 2016 Tony Award

Phillipa Soo was nominated as Best Actress in a musical for her role as Eliza Hamilton in the Broadway hit Hamilton.  All together, Hamilton, the diversity-setting, rap-inspired musical set a new record with 16 nominations. Read the full story

Fukunaga

Cary Fukunaga may adapt Stanley Kubrick’s 'Napoleon' as HBO miniseries

According to a new report from ScreenRant, HBO is eying a revival of Stanley Kubrick’s famously never-produced version of "Napoleon" with Cary Fukunaga directing the historical epic. If done right, this could be spectacular. Anyone who has seen the first season of True Detective (or Sin Nombre or Beasts of No Nation) knows that Fukunaga is a special talent, one that could be trusted to bring a version of Kubrick’s singular vision to the screen. The project would also have the benefit of more modern technologies than Kubrick ever dreamed of, as well as the backing of HBO, which has shown a willingness to spend big money on huge projects. An hours-long program, with frequent battle scenes, filmed in multiple countries for a massive amount of money? That sounds an awful lot like Game of Thrones. Read the full story

Vanessa Hudgens agrees to pay $1,000 fine for carving on red rock wall

Actress Vanessa Hudgens has paid $1,000 in restitution for carving a heart into a red rock wall during a trip to Sedona, Arizona. The payment resolves a citation issued to the Filipino/American on a misdemeanor count of damaging a natural feature on U.S. Forest Service land. Read the full story

'The Great Wall' aims to bridge Hollywood-China divide

Matt Damon sported a new ponytail as he told fans in Beijing about his part in the fantasy epic The Great Wall, a $150 million U.S.-China co-production which could be a game-changer for the world's second biggest film market, according to the Hollywood Reporter. The legendary fantasy film, which is described as the largest film ever shot entirely in China for global distribution, centers on an elite force making a last stand for humanity on the iconic Great Wall in China. The English-language movie is directed by Zhang Yimou and is due to finish filming in August. The global release date is Nov. 23, 2016. Read the full story

First Filipina to win 'Best Actress' at Cannes Film Festival

Jaclyn Jose has become the first Filipino to win the best actress award at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival. Jose won for her performance as a mother who falls prey to corrupt police after being forced to sell drugs to survive in Ma’ Rosa. The movie was directed by Brillante Mendoza, who in 2009 became the first Filipino to win best director at the festival for Kinatay.

The Filharmonics

NBC winds up its 'Life Stories' of Asian/Americans

The Filipino/American a capella singing group, the Filharmonics, was one of the groups and individuals profiled by NBC as part of its 'Life Stories' series in honor of Asian/American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Other episodes of 'Life Stories', can be found here.

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CELEBRITY SHORT TAKES: Cho, Takei, Rodriguez, Lin and Wong

Cho: SNL needs an Asian/American host

IF DONALD TRUMP can host Saturday Night Live, why not an Asian/American? Margaret Cho wondered out loud in an interview in The Guardian. "Politics here is so undignified. It’s gotten scary and messed up. Remember Pink Floyd’s movie The Wall, when Bob Geldof becomes this totalitarian leader cum rock star? That’s happening with Trump. A reality TV star becoming president. 

"SNL has never had a single Asian-American cast member or musical act. They had one Asian-American host 16 years ago, which was Lucy Liu. Yet they want Trump, a known racist? 

"I said they should swap Trump for Ken Jeong, who’s a big star here, and I offered to be his musical guest. But no dice. If Trump becomes president, the whole world’s in big trouble. He’s using Isis to make points about mosques, immigration, torture, oil… In fact, I’ve come to the conclusion that Donald Trump is Isis."

Takei: Beyond black and white

IN A lengthy interview with the Hollywood Reporter, the entertainment industry newspaper, actor George Takei expounded on the anger he felt when Asians were a butt of a couple of jokes during the Oscar telecast. 

"I mean, diversity means much more than black and white," said Takei. "It means Asian-Americans, it means Latinos, it means LGBT people, it means Native-Americans, it means — particularly in today's context — Arab-Americans. And yet it was a show in black and white — black-and-white pictures, like going back a half-century. I was astounded at the obliviousness and the ignorance of the Academy people with regard to the notion of stereotypes." 

It prompted him to get together with other AAPI Academy members well known and respected in the entertainment industry to issue a letter asking for an explanation and an apology. The apology issued by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts was not satisfactory to the signees and the Academy said that they would meet with the letter writers this week. However, that meeting has not occurred as far as Views From The Edge can tell.

Interview by Michael Hogan

Rodriguez: Bringing Broadway training to Bay Area schools

VINCENT RODRIGUEZ III, one of the stars of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend romantic-comedy musical and who grew up in Daly City, California, came home to the San Francisco Bay Area recently and met with students of a several high schools. “Whenever I meet these kids, I tell them, ‘These are the techniques you will need in order to be successful in the rehearsal room, at auditions, or in performance,’” says Rodriguez in an article at SFGate. “When I was growing up, I didn’t have that kind of mentoring.”

Lin: Public has got to support AAPI movies and plays

DIRECTOR Justin Lin also says if we want to see more diversity in film, “the general public has to demand it,” in an article in Salon, that also outlines what some individual artists are doing to diversify the motion picture industry. “It’s about supporting the many talented artists and filmmakers out there trying to create work from that marginalized point of view,” said Lin, who is directing the next Star Trek movie. “Go out and buy tickets to their movies and plays, support their crowd sourcing campaigns, show the industry that there is a viable audience for this work.”

Wong: Feminism and Asian/American women

COMEDIAN Kristina Wong was interviewed by NBC News about her take on feminism in the AAPI community. "For years, I used to crash public events as a cigar smoking, dry humping, fast talking faux beauty queen named 'Fannie Wong Former Miss Chinatown 2nd Runner Up.' She was the queer, outspoken, messy and hilarious alternative to the perfect Chinese American beauty standards put on the women who compete in the Miss Chinatown pageant. I feel like feminism is about women making and living in a space that wasn't there before. It's about having the choice to choose options that didn't exist before because patriarchy dictated standards that didn't allow women and non-gender binary folks to feel they could exist safely in these new undefined spaces that were previously predominantly centered or occupied by cisgender men."

So, you want to be a filmmaker?

By Susan Chang
Reprinted from AsAm News

Justin Lin

JUSTIN LIN, director of the upcoming Star Trek Beyond, and his colleagues at the Asian American pop culture YouTube channel You Offend Me You Offend My Family (YOMYOMF), are looking for new Asian/ American filmmakers, according to YOMYOMF’s website.

Applicants for Lin’s Interpretations Film Initiative must stretch their creative wings, and interpret the same four lines of script in the same order, in as many ways as they can in a three-minute short. Sponsored by Comcast and NBCUniversal, the Initiative will select three winners to have the opportunity to produce a project for either of the sponsors, under the mentorship of Lin and other industry professionals.

The Initiative inaugurated in 2010, and it received over 275 shorts, including submissions from Wong Fu Productions and Far East Movement.

“Interpretations 2016 is a part of the bigger picture of YOMYOMF 2.0, where we want to establish and nurture an Asian American creative community of content creators and enthusiasts where ideas and collaboration is exchanged regularly and we can see what projects we can develop with emerging talent,” says Lin in a press release. “I never had something like YOMYOMF when I first started my career. It’s an exciting time to be an emerging filmmaker.”

The Initiative is accepting submissions starting March 31 through June 17. Readers who are aspiring filmmakers, stay tuned for the four-line script, written by playwright David Henry Hwang, and application on YOMYOMF’s website here.

TGIF FEATURE: CAAMFest 2016 is a huge celebration of Asian and Asian/American films and videos

Fast & Furious' Sung Kang talks about his career.

FOR those who love film and video, this weekend you can be in your glory. CAAMFest presents a 10-day smorgasbord of documentaries, home movies, personalities, shorts and feature films from the US and from Asia,

Formerly the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival (SFIAAFF), CAAMFest is an 11‐day celebration of film, music, food and digital media from the world’s most innovative Asian and Asia/American artists. 

The team behind the animated Sanjay's Super Team

Presented by the Center for Asian American Media, this year's festival of the video arts will be spread out from San Francisco's Chinatown, to a brewpub to the Castro Theater to the Oakland California Museum.

The offerings are almost too much to take in. Click here for the full schedule of showings and events from March 10 to March 20.

Umrika is a mythical country for this Indian village.

One of the highlights will the rare showing and sing-along for the 10th anniversary of the feature-length with a cast of Asian/American unknowns in the unique but lovable Colma, The Musical, which has become a cult classic. The Bay Area production will be shown this Sunday, 3 p.m. at the Alamo Drafthouse. A lot of the original cast ad director Richard Wong and writer H.P Mendoza will be present.

RELATED: Rare showing Colma, the Musical

Atomic Dust from Tehran is one of the featured films.

For those looking for celebrities, take a look at the panel offerings on March 12 and 13 being held deep in the Mission at the Gray Area Foundation of Arts.

​On March 12, Golden Globe‐nominated Netflix series Master of None has had critics and viewers binge‐watching every episode and thirsting for more. Series co‐creator Alan Yang and cast member Kelvin Yu will be stopping by CAAMFest for a panel on the award‐winning show. Yang and Yu will divulge juicy details on the show’s inspiration and production as well as their own experiences in an industry full of both opportunity and obstacle.

The next day, ​CAAMFest will explore the bane of existence for many Asian American actors: typecasting. For Asian/American women and men looking for work, roles can be severely limited and stereotyped, especially when it comes to appearing as a character intended (or specifically not intended) for romance. Featuring actress V​ella Lovell and B​ay Area native Filipino/American actor Vincent Rodriguez III from the hit series Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. Rodriguez and Lovell join other actors and filmmakers (TBA) to discuss the gradually changing landscape for gender roles and what they hope the future holds.

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For more news about Asian/Americans and Pacific Islanders, read AsAm News.

It's awards show season, but not for Asian Americans; We conduct the first annual Eddie Awards

IT'S AWARDS SEASON.  With the Golden Globes, Oscars, Emmy's, the People's Choice Awards right around the corner, it was impossible to note the glaring omission of Asian American artists among the nominees. Therefore, I thought I'd hand out some awards of my own. 


The 'EDDIEs,' modestly named after a blogger who shall remain nameless, will be handed out yearly in the categories I'll make up out of the clear blue sky. There are no trophies or cash awards - just a reminder of what happened and what didn't happen in the past year by and about Asian/Pacific Islander Americans in pop culture. Hopefully with some humor and a dash of irony thrown in.

CAVEAT: I purposely didn't include Asian actors based in other countries. The EDDIEs are reserved for Asian American performances.

Hoon Lee

So, here we go. Drum roll. The envelope, please.

Stereotype-buster: 
Hoon Lee for his portrayal of Job, a cross-dressing ass-kicker (Yes, you can be a cross dresser and a tough guy at the same time) on the TV show Banshee. OK, he's adept at the computer, but that's about the only thing that reminds us of the Asian nerd. He likes his make-up but he can take on three yahoo's at once without hitting the pause button on his laptop. Even though he is officially a sidekick, his character is so strong and complex, he is an equal in scenes with Antony Starr, who plays Lucas Hood, the lead character in this sexy, adrenalin-pumping unpredictable Cinemax series. The writers give him good lines, but I'm hoping the writers delve more into Job's background this coming season of Banshee, which starts Saturday, Jan. 9. What makes this character tick?



Best moment that never happened: 
John Cho and Karen Gillian, the lead characters in Selfie that only lasted six episodes before getting cancelled. The "moment" happened -- or, didn't happen. Cho's character, Henry, and Gillian's character, Eliza played a cat-and-mouse game hinting and searching for their growing relationship with each other. Eliza tells Henry that women liked to be touched and she urges him to touch her. At first he hedges, then suddenly, he pulls her close to him and viewers were screaming at the screen, "Kiss her, dammit!." But she pulls away, realizing her attraction to him. The watershed event, the kiss that Asian America had been waiting for -- the first Asian American romantic leading man on a TV series almost - ALMOST - happened. We were robbed! So we must wait for another series, another time, another leading man, for that moment to happen.

Click here for the complete GIF. 

Worst moment that did happen (over and over again):

Matthew Moy

Just about any episode of 2 Broke Girls where the character Han Lee is featured, which is ... just about any episode of 2 Broke Girls. Matthew Moy plays the Han Lee character and draws up just about all the traits of the emasculated Asian male stereotype. Lots of the sitcom's jokes are about Han Lee's height, penis size and stinginess. You have to sympathize with Moy because at least he has a job in a Hollywood where Asian males are still the least represented demographic on television. But the character whom the writers create is so bad that even non-Asian media have taken noticed, such as the Hollywood Reporter, The Guardian, innumerable newspaper articles and blogs. Moy and the show's creators discuss the Han Lee character in a fairly objective article in Audrey magazine. There's no sign the producers are going to let up on their reliance on stereotypes to get a laugh.

Best show we'll miss:
Selfie was the show I most wanted to succeed because of John Cho's lead character. However, an uneven start doomed the series and because the title itself, Selfie, would want to draw from the same demographic that least likely would be watching the show on the television set, the same group that prefer mobile devices a their chief mode of interaction. Although the ratings were not high, they weren't so bad, either. But the ABC honchos were not patient enough for the show to establish its audience. Other shows with poorer ratings for the first six episodes eventually found its niche and audience. There's a petition to the show but chances are slim for Selfie's revival. The remaining episodes of the 13 total that were made, can be seen at Hulu and at ABC.com  Unfortunately, the fate of this series may make future producers reluctant to put an Asian male in a romantic lead.

Seeya "Selfie." The show had a diverse cast but race didn't enter into the conversation.

Best show nobody ever watched
With all the hoopla around Selfie and F.O.B., this show never got the attention it needed. "Sullivan and Son," the first Irish-Korean family featured on TV was about a bar-owner married to a Korean woman and their hapa children. It was Cheers with kim-chee. Unfortunately, it was sporadic in its writing and laughs but it was interesting to see how they used the Korean angle. They never made a big deal about it, which was kind of nice, but maybe that was also what was wrong about it. Perhaps the biggest hurdle it couldn't overcome was it was on at odd hours on a station (TBS) hardly anybody watched, unless you were an Atlanta Braves fan watched. TBS should be applauded though, it gave S&S time to try and find its legs - three seasons - that's more than what you can say about ABC's handling of Selfie (See above).

Goodbye, we hardly got to know ye.

Best director:

Yes. There are a few Asian directors in the Hollywood scene. Unfortunately, you can count them on one hand. This year's EDDIE for "best director" goes to Taiwan-born Justin Lin. Lin started out with the under appreciated Better Luck Tomorrow, a small budget delightful film about Asian young people that surprisingly showed some cross-over appeal. He has proven himself to the money people of moviedom with four movies in the profitable Fast & Furious franchise, two of which opened with $70 million each. Lin was recently tabbed to direct the upcoming third film of the Star Trek prequels with his biggest production budget yet.

Justin Lin will direct Star Trek.

Justin Lin is a busy guy these days. He opted out of his fifth Fast and Furious film to direct the next Bourne Legacy movie. When that was cancelled, he producer J.J. Abrams picked him for the next Star Trek movie which reportedly will be released in 2016, the 50th anniversary of the TV series debut. His career goes where only a few Asians dared to go.

Lumpia lover Darren Criss.

Is he, or isn't he?
The award goes to an actor we didn't know was Asian (or part Asian). The winnah is ...  Darren Criss, who plays Blaine, an out-and-proud gay character in the hit show Glee. The question is not: Is he really gay, or not? but: Is he really Asian American? Turns out that Criss is a lumpia lover. His mother is a native of Cebu, Philippines. Unfortunately, this is Glee's last season which starts Jan. 9. If you don't know about Glee, what rock have you been living under?  A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, his father was a director for the San Francisco Opera. Criss went to the University of Michigan where he majored in theatrical arts. 

The Samoan-Canadian sports Samoan tattoos.

Best kickass man:
This was a tough one. There are not too many roles out there depicting Asian males as - what we in America like to call "ass-kickers," you know the tough-as-nails, no nonsense indestructible, macho, he-man hero. For assistance, I turned to "Nerds of Color," for suggestions. Hmm, Keanu Reeves or The Rock, AKA Dwayne Johnson. I like those nominations. This year, however, I'm going with the Rock, Every movie he's in - I mean, talk about type-casting - he's just kickass. He's got the physique and the death-stare down pat. And in Hollywood terms, the color of money is more important than the color of your skin, Johnson is one of the top money-makers in town based on his roles in the Fast and Furious sequels and Hercules. In 2014, the black/Samoan pro-wrestler made over $52 million. His casting appeal is partly because of his racially ambiguous appearance which allows him to play characters of various races. Not that he's denied his heritage; if asked, he'll proudly describe his Pacific Islander roots.

Best kickass woman:
This is a another really difficult category. There are bunch of ass-kicking Asian women on TV. It seems the white producers and writers have a proclivity for this type, but what-the-hell? For better or worse, work is work, This year's award goes to Ming-Na Wen of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., for the episode in which her character, Agent Melinda May, fights with her doppleganger. The fight is really well choreographed and technically, really difficult to pull off. It took almost three days to film the scene for the S.H.I.E.L..D. episode, which usually takes 8 days to produce.  Really good stuff.

At least, Woo Hwang's honor is intact.

Stupidest move on a reality show:
Woo Hwang chose Tony to be in the final trio of Survivor: Cagayan. Tony was the best player of the season with his aggressive strategizing and he deserved the $1-million prize, but Woo had the chance to eliminate the strongest survivor and he didn't. Woo chose to abide with his agreement with Tony rather than succumb to the temptation to "outwit" his competition. By choosing honor over greed, Woo walks off the beach with the nothing but his integrity. By the way, Woo is the dude who described himself as the "stupidest" survivor player ever.  



Most intriguing personality:

Chrissy Teigan

Chrissy Teigan. To her credit, she is the antithesis of the Asian female stereotype of demure, obedient, soft-spoken and compliant. She made the cover of Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. But the reason she's here is because she's everywhere I look. She was on TV as a guest host with Kelly Ripa; cooking with some famous chef on the Food Network or walking down the red carpet witco-h husband John Legend. Last I looked, she was in freezing New York hosting a show on New Year's Eve dressed in a mini-skirt. She's outspoken, fun, irreverent, funny (most of the time) loud, brash and she's managed to make a living by just being "out there." Read her tweets, Instagram or her food blog. (NOTE: She had to discontinue her Twitter account because of death threats from ultra-conservatives.)  Maybe this award should go to her agent?

Arthur Chu

Best villain:
Early in 2014, Arthur Chu stirred a lot of controversy because of the way he played the TV game show Jeopardy. He played an aggressive game, finding those double-doubles by going after the toughest questions first instead using the traditional way of playing bf going down the list from easy to hard questions. He was pretty good at it, winning 11 straight games totaling almost $300,000 in prize money, among the top-four amounts in the game show's history. His critics said his aggressive strategy was ruining the integrity of the game. Puh-leese. Integrity on a game show? He drew a lot of flack, a lot of which was  borderline racist. What I liked about Chu is that he defied the stereotype. Yeah, Chu is a self-professed nerd - he calls himself a "loser" who got lucky. He was picked as the Angry Reader of the Week by Angry Asian Man. He didn't back down from his haters. In fact he embraced his role as villain and continued on his winning ways, laughing all the way to the bank.

Front and center, best Broadway diva:
Not a difficult choice, here. There's only ONE, count them - 1, numero uno, ONE Asian American woman in a lead role in a Broadway musical. That would be Ruthie Ann Miles, the Korean American actress and singer playing the role of Imelda Marcos in Here Lies Love. Finally, someone besides Lea Salonga is front and center on the Broadway stage. She has been getting rave reviews for her performance. She plays Imelda from the time she was beauty queen from Cebu to her rise in power with her marriage to Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos. With the popularity of the Broadway production, it looks like Ms. Miles will be around for awhile giving Lea Salonga some company under the bright lights. So while we await Vanessa Hudgens' debut as Gigi or the aforementioned Salonga in Cinderella or Allegiance, there will remain only one actress deserving of this award. 

Ruthie Ann Miles

 in Here Lies Love

Production that hired the most Asians:
Hands down - this should be no surprise - this award goes to Marco Polo, the dramatic retelling of the exploits of one white man in 12th century China. The Netflix answer to Game of Thrones employs hundreds of extras, an all Asian/Pacific Islander central cast to tell the fictional account of real-life explorer Marco Polo. Shot in Malaysia and Kazakhstan, the $90 million production is epic in every sense of the word. I hope it survives the rating wars because it interprets history from a non-European perspective, an experience that might be a little uncomfortable to its American audience, who have been spoon-fed history from a Eurocentric point of view so long they actually believe America has already reached America's lofty ideals. At any rate, Marco Polo is not without its flaws  and the hoity-toity critics have not been kind, but you have to understand that its historical FICTION, not real history. At its worst, it drags a bit with all the behind-the-throne intrigue that goes on. At its best,  it is visually stunning with the landscape, architecture, costumes and battle scenes popping out of the screen. For the sake of the huge diverse cast and for the presence of Asian faces on America's TV screens and consciousness, let's hope that it gets renewed for a second season.

Let's play "Where's Marco?" In the cast of hundreds, the lead character is often not the main protagonist.

UPDATE: Wouldn't you know it, the day after publishing this post, Netflix announced that Marco Polo's journey will continue into a second season.

That's it for this year, friends. Due to my limited budget and time, I wasn't able to watch or read about all the performances of Asian American actors, singers or dancers. I'm sure there are people or performances worthy of an EDDIE that I left out. Should Lucy Liu's Watson in Elementary be included? What about the romance between Maggie and Glenn in The Walking Dead? Who or what performance would you have nominated for an EDDIE? 

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