Two foreign films by Asians win Oscars

The director and some of the cast of 'Drive My Car,' traveled to L.A. for the Oscars.

Two films by Asian moviemakers won the coveted Oscars last night, the highest award in the movie industry.

The Oscar for Best Foreign Feature went to the Japanese production, Drive My Car, which was also nominated for Best Picture.

RELATED: Why weren't tere any AAPI nominees for Oscars?

Adapted from the Haruki Murakami short story of the same name and directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi, the film follows grieving theater director Yusuke Kafuku (played by Hidetoshi Nishijima)  who is mounting a stage production of Uncle Vanya while grieving the death of his wife. As he is driven to work, he uses the ride to practice his lines and developes a connection with his personal driver.

Highly praised by film critics, the 3-hour feature previously won awards at the Golden Globes and the Cannes Film Festival.

The film's Oscar win was one of the few victories by an Asian or Asian American project.

RELATED: Complete list of Oscar winners.

Riz Ahmed and Aneil Karia celebrated their Oscar wins for 'The Long Goodbu=ye.'

Pakistani Brit Riz Ahmed won an Oscar for his live short film, The Long Goodbye.

The 12-minute film paints an unsettling and unfortunately believable picture of a dystopian future, where a British South Asian family are violently rounded-up by a gun-toting gang, Ahmed describes the short as a piece about “being broken up with by the country they live in.”

“In such divided times, we believe that the role of story is to remind us there is no ‘us’ and ‘them’. There’s just ‘us,’ said Ahmed, who wrote and starred in the film.

“This is for everyone who feels like they’re stuck in No Man’s Land,” Ahmed said while accepting the Oscar. acceptance “You’re not alone. We’ll meet you there. That's where the future is. Peace."

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news, views and tips from an AAPI perspective, follow @DioknoEd on Twitter.

Minari snubbed in Golden Globe nominations

AAPI watchers of the entertainment industry were up in arms early this morning when the Golden Globes announced its nominations for the awards because the Hollywood Foreign Press Association passed over Asian American film 'Minari in the acting,  directing and writing categories.

There was already a controversy when the film, which walked away with a best picture in the Sundance Film Festival, about an Korean American immigrant family was classified as a Foreign Language film. Since the movie is predominantly in Korean, the language spoken at home of first-generation immigrants from Korea, HFPA rules made it ineligible for Best Picture.

When HPFA announced their decision about Minari last December, writer Lulu Wang tweeted her disappointment about the news that the film would be excluded from the Best Picture category. “I have not seen a more American film than #Minari this year,” Wang wrote. “It's a story about an immigrant family, IN America, pursuing the American dream. We really need to change these antiquated rules that characterize American as only English-speaking.”

Adding insult to injury, when Minari's lead actor, Steven Yeun (Walking Dead)  and presumed frontrunner Youn Yuh-Jung were passed over for best actor and best supporting actress, respectively, the criticism exploded on social media.

Minari director Lee Isaac Chung, who also wrote the screenplay partially based on his real-life experiences, also missed out when he wasn't among the nominees for best director, either.

Some of the sting of having Chung overlooked was eased by Chloe Zhao's nomination in the Best Director's category. She is the first woman of Asian descent to be included in that classification. She was nominated for her work for Nomadland, a moody piece of contemporary Americana starring Frances McDormand, who was also nominated for Best Actress in a Drama.

Nomadland is in the running for Best Motion Picture Drama. Zhao also nabbed a nomination for her screenplay.

The Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama includes Riz Ahmed for his performance in The Sound of Metal, in which he plays a metal band drummer who is losing his hearing.

(For the curious, Tahar Rahim who received a Best Actor nomination for The Mauritanian, although Muslim, is from Algeria and so we could not list him as an Asian.)

Joining Ahmed is Dev Patel, who in a case of color-blind casting, was nominated in the category of Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy, for  playing the lead role in The Personal History of David Copperfield.

Filipino American H.E.R. (Gabriella Sarmiento Wilson) was nominated in the Best Song category for "Fight For You" (cowritten by Dernst “D’Mile” Emile II and Tiara Thomas) for Judas and the Black Messiah, the story of Black Panther Fred Hampton who was killed in the infamous shootout with Chicago police.

Over the Moon, the animated feature of an Asian American girl and her friends seeking the moon goddess, based on a Chinese fable, was nominated for Best Animated Movie. It featured AAPI actors giving voice to the characters.

The HFPA, made up of about 90 members who are based in Southern California and write for a wide-ranging list of foreign media, are the voters of the Golden Globes. The group are not exclusively movie critics but also include feature writers or gossip writers, have been criticized for their subjectivity and for their susceptibility to celebrity glamor and influence. In other words, if an actor or studio caters to the HFPA, he or she would likely be better received by the HFPA than someone who doesn't cater to them.

It's no small comfort to know that a lot of really outstanding products got overlooked  by the Golden Globes, and perhaps its just coincidence that the majority of the snubs were films that featured POC. I mean, Emily in Paris? Really? Certainly  Netflix's Da Five Bloods, HBO's groundbreaking Insecure, the actors of Lovecraft Country and PEN15, the Good Place deserved some mention.

The 78th Golden Globe Awards will take place 8 p.m. ET, on Feb. 28 on NBC. Comedians Tina Fey and Amy Poehler will split co-hosting duties for the ceremony, (or should I say "ceremonies?) being held simultaneously in New York City and Los Angeles.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is my opinion. Readers are urged to read several sources to form your own opinion.

Thanks to 'Minari,' 'Nomadland' & 'Sound of Metal,' Oscars and AAPI could have a historic convergence

The Americanization of a Korean American immigrant family is told in 'Minari.'

OPINION

More and more, it looks like it could be a history-making year for Hollywood, AAPI movies and filmmakers when the Oscar nominees are announced March 15.

It looks like Minari could be up against Nomadland for best picture and best director with Sound of Metal starring Riz Ahmed as a darkhorse.

Minari, written and directed by Lee Isaac Chung, won the best picture award by the New York Film Critics Online last week. This is the third straight year the critics  picked a foreign language film as best picture. Minari, the story of a Korean American family and set in Alabama is mostly in Korean.

Last year, the film critics picked the Korean film, Parasite and the year before that, Roma, the Spanish-speaking Argentinian movie. Both films were named in the Best Picture by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts in their respective years with Parasite winning Best Picture last year and Roma winning best foreign feature the year before. 

If history is a predictor, it bodes well for Minari, to win Hollywood's coveted Oscar.

Director Chloe Zhao on location for 'Nomadland.'

Although the film Minari won the NY film critics' Best Picture accolades and Best Supporting Actress went to Yuh-Jung Youn as the grandmother in Minari, the Best Director award went to Chloé Zhao for her work on Nomadland, which she can add to the three dozen other awards she received for directing the Frances McDormand starrer.

The NY critics gave the best actor award to another Asian American, Riz Ahmed for his performance in Sound of Metal. Ahmed is also in contention to be nominated for the Oscar's best actor award along with Minari's Steven Yeun.

The exclusive club of studio heads who give the green light to most Hollywood production is still overwhelmingly white and despite China overtaking the U.S. as the No. 1 moviegoing market, they are hesitant to venture beyond the Eurocentric paradigm when deciding which movies get made.

Riz Ahmad delivers an Oscar-worthy performance in "Sound of Metal."

There is also an outside chance that no Asian or Asian American will win an Oscar nomination, in which case, we should skip the Oscars altogether. If nothing else, this year demonstrates the depth of Asian and Asian American talent to Hollywood decision-makers. 

EDITOR'S NOTE: The nominations for the 93rd Academy Awards will be announced March 15 and the in-person awards show will held on April 25, 2021.

While the awards -- Golden Globes, SAG, Critics' Choice, People's Choice -- are nice to have, just as important is that there are so many choices to pick from. There are still not enough movies by and about Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders but this year, there is at least more than one film under consideration. That's a sign of progress, I guess. It is too early to say whether this year is an anomaly, a temporary trend or the birth of a permanent genre.

For members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts who vote in the several categories, especially the newly inducted members who were "invited" to join in order to diversify its membership, we refer you to the list compiled by Gold Open in partnership with the Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment (CAPE) for their first-ever Gold List of outstanding work by AAPI artists. 

The full list of Gold List selections are below:

Best Picture
Minari and Sound of Metal
Honorable Mentions: The Half of It, The White Tiger, Yellow Rose

Best Director
Lee Isaac Chung (Minari) and Chloe Zhao (Nomadland)
Honorable Mentions: Ramin Bahrani (The White Tiger), Diane Paragas (Yellow Rose), Alice Wu (The Half of It), Alan Yang (Tigertail)

Best Actor
Riz Ahmed (Sound of Metal) and Steven Yeun (Minari)
Honorable Mentions: Adarsh Gourav (The White Tiger), Dev Patel (The Personal History of David Copperfield), Harry Shum Jr. (All My Life) 

Best Actress
Yeri Han (Minari) and Leah Lewis (The Half of It)
Honorable Mentions: Hong Chau (Driveways), Tsai Chin (Lucky Grandma), Eva Noblezada (Yellow Rose)

Best Supporting Actor
Alan Kim (Minari) and Orion Lee (First Cow)
Honorable Mentions: Lucas Jaye (Driveways), Tzi Ma (Mulan), Rajkummar Rao (The White Tiger)

Best Supporting Actress
Phillipa Soo (Hamilton) and Yuh-Jung Youn (Minari)
Honorable Mentions: Priyanka Chopra Jonas (The White Tiger), Gong Li (Mulan), Lea Salonga (Yellow Rose)

Best Original Screenplay
Lee Isaac Chung (Minari) and Alice Wu (The Half of it)
Honorable Mentions: Mong-Hong Chung and Yao-Sheng Chang (A Sun), Diane Paragas (Yellow Rose), Isabel Sandoval (Lingua Franca), Alan Yang (Tigertail) 

Best Adapted Screenplay
Ramin Bahrani (The White Tiger) and Chloe Zhao (Nomadland)

Best Documentary Feature
Be Water and A Thousand Cuts
Honorable Mentions: 76 Days, The Donut King, The Social Dilemma

Best Animated Feature
Bombay Rose and Over the Moon
Honorable Mentions: Demon Slayer: Mugen Train, On-Gaku: Our Sound, A Whisker Away

A WORD OF CAUTION: This is an opinion piece. Readers should research multiple sources to form their own opinion.

CORRECTION Feb. 3, 12:30 p.m. to clarify Roma winning an Oscar for Best Foreign Motion Picture in 2019.

Riz Ahmed's historic Emmy award; Aziz Ansari repeats as winner

Riz Ahmed, left, and Aziz Ansari won Emmy's last night.

HISTORY was made at the Emmy's last night (Sept. 17) when TV's most coveted honor was awarded to Riz Ahmed, the first Asian/American actor to win an Emmy.

Ahmed won the award for Outstanding Acting In A Limited Series for his work on HBO’s The Night Of. In his speech, the British actor gave a shout out in his acceptance speech to South Asian Youth Action and The Innocence Project for helping him prepare for his turn as Nasir ‘Naz’ Khan on the HBO limited series.

“It was an endurance test. It was quite emotionally and physically draining work,” Ahmed told EW. “But I just caught the slightest glimpse of what it would be like to be a prisoner, as an actor who got to go home every day, and I found it extremely difficult. I can’t even begin to think what it must be like for people who live in that situation. Just experiencing that for eight months and to shoot for eight months was new for me. So the fact that the most challenging project for me has also been  probably the most prominent and successful, certainly in America, that’s satisfying.”

“It is always strange reaping the rewards of a story based on real world suffering but if this show has shown a light on some of the prejudice in our societies, xenophobia and some of the injustice in our justice system, then maybe that is something,” said Ahmed.

The only other Asian/American to win an Emmy for acting was Archie Panjabi who won Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for her role on CBS's The Good Wife in 2010.

For the second year in a row, Aziz Ansari won the award for Best Comedy Writing. He shared the award this year with Lena Waith who teamed up to write the "Thanksgiving" episode in Master of None's second season.

Ansari stepped aside and let Waithe have her historic win as the first Black woman to win the Emmy for Best Comedy Writing.

“Thank you for embracing a little Indian boy from South Carolina and a queer Black girl from Southside of Chicago,” said Waithe.

The episode the duo won was for the “Thanksgiving,” episode in which Waithe’s character, Denise comes out to her family. It immediately garnered acclaim, but more than that, it was a personal story for Waithe.

Ansari said of the episode, “It was pretty ambitious — even finding two young Indian kids was hard. It was the most demanding episode for the whole crew and everyone came through.”

Ansari added that he hopes “that people see the different kind of stories out there and that people are responding to them.”

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TGIF FEATURE: The 'Hamilton' Challenge goes viral: 'Immigrants (We Get The Job Done)'

THERE'S A LINE in the hit musical Hamilton that never fails to bring the house down: "Immigrants, we get the job done."

Although the lyrics were written before Donald Trump's election, a video has been produced to reflect the current debate over immigration. 

The new video of "Immigrants, we get the job done" was released Wednesday  (June 28) by Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda in time for America's birthday, July 4th, as we reflect on what makes this country great. It portrays refugees and immigrants from around the world in camps, garment sweatshops, fruit-picking fields and crowded trains. It is accompanied by a new song, set to rap lyrics, about their struggles, setbacks and contributions to society.

This election cycle has brought xenophobia and vilification of immigrants back to the forefront of US politics. This is a musical counterweight," Miranda wrote in a commentary on the music community website Genius.com.

Riz Ahmed, the British/Pakistani actor that starred The Night Of, is featured in one of the segments as Riz MC, along with rappers K'naan, Residente andSnow Tha Product, appear in the video to rap their verses as immigrants from various backgrounds work, struggle, and ultimately come together. 

"The music vid + track I always wished existed," Ahmed tweeted. "Beyond proud to be part of it."

The video, which was directed by Tomás Whitmore, is part of a social media campaign -- #Ham4All -- asking participants to sing a song from Hamilton and to make a donation to the Immigrants: We Get the Job Done Coalition,  and -- not unlike the viral Ice Bucket Challenge -- then challenge two friends to do the same, The coalition, made up of legal agencies, immigrants and civil rights groups, provides legal representation and advocacy for “immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers who come to us in search of the American Dream.”   

Entrants have a chance to win tickets to see Hamilton in Los Angeles. Famous contributors so far include Steph and Ayesha Curry, who challenged Olivia Munn and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. Others who have taken part include Gina Rodriquez, Ben Stiller, Shonda Rhimes, and the cast and crew of The Beguiled.

Lin-Manuel Miranda joins Ayesha and Steph Curry in the video challenge of Immigrants (We Get The Job Done).

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Riz Ahmed: Lack of inclusion in media leads to alienation and Isis

Ria Ahmed speaks at Parliament

ACTOR Riz Ahmed has warned that the failure to champion diversity on TV and the movies is alienating young people, driving them towards extremism and into the arms of Isis.

Ahmed, known for his roles in Four Lions and the the Star Wars prequel Rogue One, said the lack of diverse voices and stories onscreen led people from minority backgrounds to “switch off and retreat to fringe narratives, to bubbles online and sometimes even off to Syria.”

Ahmed made his remarks in a speech in the House of Parliament last Friday (March 3) stressing the importance of diversity in the media and how it affects the self-image of minority viewers, giving them a sense of being a part of society and feeding their aspirations with a sense of hope.

“If we fail to represent, we are in danger of losing people to extremism,” The Guardian quotes him as having said, adding that young people who feel unrepresented could “switch off and retreat to fringe narratives, to bubbles online and sometimes even off to Syria. We are going to start losing British teenagers to the story that the next chapter in their lives is written with ISIS in Syria.”

Ahmed has had quite a year with his introduction to American audiences in the award-winning HBO production, The Night Of, which earned him a Golden Globe nomination and co-starring in the blockbuster, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. 

"It takes American remakes of British shows to cast someone like me," said Ahmed. "We end up going to America to find work. I meet with producers and directors here and they say ‘we don’t have anything for you, all our stories are set in Cornwall in the 1600s’. People are looking for the message that they belong, that they are part of something, that they are seen and heard and that despite, or perhaps because of, their experience, they are valued. They want to feel represented. In that task we have failed."

Although he was talking to British audience, his words ring true this side of the Atlantic where America has its own problems of breaking through old Hollywood biases and outdated business assumptions.

“If we fail to represent, we are in danger of losing people to extremism,” continued Ahmed.

“In the mind of the Isis recruit, he’s the next James Bond, right? Have you seen some of those Isis propaganda videos, they are cut like action movies. Where is the counter narrative? Where are we telling these kids they can be heroes in our stories, that they valued?”

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The Oscars: More AAPI appearances than expected

Auli'i Carvalho wasn't fazed by one of the flags representing the moving ocean, brushed her hair as she was singing.

SIXTEEN-YEAR OLD Auli'i Cravalho showed how much a pro she is when a banner hit her in the head while singing 
"How Far I'll Go," which was nominated for Best Song for the Academy Awards.

Fortunately, the banner barely grazed her, slightly missing up her hair, but the Hawaiian/American, who provided the voice for Moana in the animated film of the same name, kept on smiling and singing as if nothing happened.

The song didn't win (the award went to "City of Stars" from La La Land) but the teenager's performance and natural good looks was a breath of fresh air in an auditorium full of movie industry big wigs, big names, silicon implants, nose jobs and face lifts. Considering the ovation she received from the audience and the fact it was the first time the world saw her live (not in animated form), that last night, a star was born. I wouldn't be surprised if she shows up onstage in a Lin-Manuel Miranda production.

I loved the "real" look she expressed as she was receiving a standing ovation. It was a combination look of relief and "I-told-you-I-could-do-it."

After Auli'i Cravalho's performance, she gave this look to someone in the audience.

The flag incident wasn't the only goof-up on the show watched by millions across the globe. The biggest mistake occurred at the end of the show.

While naming the winner of the Best Picture, Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway mistakenly announced La La Land. Midway through the thank you speeches, it was announced that there was a mistake. The real winner was Moonlight. The La La Land crew was gracious in handing over their Oscars to the the Moonlight actors, director and producers.

It's a good thing that I wasn't playing the drinking game during the Oscars telecast last night. You know, every time an Asian appeared, drink a shot of scotch. With the number of Asian appearances, I might be so incapacitated that I wouldn't be able to write this post.

Newlyweds Patrick and Eulery were interviewed by emcee Jimmy Kimmel.

Besides Auli'i, there was a surprising number of AAPI folks representing during the show than expected. It was as if the camera people were told to zoom in on people of color in order to  beat back #OscarsSoWhite that's haunted the awards show the last two years: the wife of an awards winner; Patrick and Yulree, the anonymous honeymooning couple who were in a tour group that was surprised when they walked into the middle of the Oscar telecast, introduced to the star-filled audience and got to meet and shake hands with some of the biggest names in the movies.

Dwayne Johnson, looking dapper in his tux, introduced his Moana co-star, Auli'i Carvalho. 

RELATED:

• Hollywood has mainly a black and white view of America
• The Anna Awards are for overlooked AAPI artists

It was good to see Jackie Chan introduced and get some screen time and a round of applause for wining an honorary Oscar in an earlier, separate ceremony. 

Filipino/American Hailee Steinfeld looked stunning wearing a Ralph & Russo creation as she gave out the Oscars for best animated features with actor Gael Garcia Bernal. Zootopia beat out Moana.

John Cho was funny and charming, Hailee Steinfeld was beautiful, Riz Ahmed looked like James Bond and Dev Patel looked at ease on stage as the AAPI actors introduced or presented awards.

Illustrator Tyrus Wong was among the people honored in the Memoriam segment.

Emcee Jimmy Kimmel found Sunny Pawar, the young star of Lion, in the audience. Sunny is so adorable, he continues to capture the hearts of Hollywood.

Then there were the four anonymous Chinese fans in a clip explaining (in a Chinese dialect) why they like the movies (perhaps a nod to the emerging audience in China).

Anonymous Chinese fan.

John Legend performed "City of Stars," the Oscar-winning song from La La Land,  and wherever the singer performs, his wife, model Chrissy Teigen is not far away. The camera loves Teigen and often pans over to her as her husband sings.

Unfortunately, someone got a picture of her (see below) during the awarding of the Best Actor category near the end of the show -- which went to Casey Affleck's work in Manchester -- and posted it online. Uh ... perhaps Teigen's apparent slumber can best be explained by the fact that she was spotted making her way to the bar prior to the show. 

More likely, though, as any mother to an infant can understand; sometimes the exhausting work of being a mother catches up to you at the most unexpected time.

Chrissy Teigen, center, was found napping in the long, long awards show.

All in all, it was a fairly enjoyable show. The goof-ups added a bit of unrehearsed action that added to the entertainment.

At least we didn't have any crude anti-Asian jokes coming from Kimmel or any of the presenters although Kimmel was chided for making fun of Yulree's name. I think there was a pretty good blowback against those jokes that marred last year's Oscar telecast and it shows the value of speaking out and the power of social media.

Let's see: That would have been 13 shots of scotch, in case you're counting. Enough to put anyone over.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Earlier versions of this post misspelled Yulree's name.

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Awards season means the return of the Anna Awards

Best Picture goes to Rogue One: A Star Wars Story by casting three Asian actors in prominent roles. Above, the Rogue One crew didn't include a single white male (See below).

IT'S AWARDS SEASON for the entertainment industry and once again, Asian/Americans and Pacific Islanders have mostly been overlooked for the best known awards for the Oscars, Emmy's and Tony's. 

Hence, the Anna Awards returns for its third installment. The awards below are named after Anna May Wong, a pioneer Asian/American actress who - even back then in the start of the motion picture industry - was conscious of the stereotypes Hollywood was perpetuating with its portrayal of Asian men and women and turned down roles that would reinforce those stereotypes.

This is the third year of the awards given to the performances on stage, the silver screen and on television. The categories are whimsical ones that I just made up which I get to do since I'm judge, jury and the majority vote in determining who is deserving based on their performance in 2016.

Drumroll, please ...

From left: Donnie Yen, Jiang Wen and Riz Ahmed.

Best Asian/American motion picture
For this category, we had to stretch a bit because so few movies prominently feature AAPI characters. Even though they were not in the lead, three Asian/American actors formed the core rebel team in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Donnie Yen, Jiang Wen and Riz Ahmed had key roles in the sci-fi storyline started by George Lucas. Outside of the fact they formed the majority of the rebel team -- they were were gay, bad ass and non-stereotypical. Although they were not the lead actors, they managed to lend unusual depth and conflict to their characters that we rarely see in these space swashbucklers. Rounding out the team of five was the lead character Jyn Ersois (British actress Felicity Jones) and Cassian Andor (Latino actor Diego Luna). A lesson to Hollywood: The fact there wasn't a white male among them did not hurt the box-office appeal as audiences flocked to the theaters to watch the latest installment of the Star Wars franchise.


Best Director

Taika Waititi on the set of The Hunt for the Wilderpeople.

Taika Waititi is a Maori whose offbeat sense of humor is well-known in his native New Zealand. He used that sense of humor with an overlay of poignancy to make a small film about human beings and relationships, The Hunt for the Wilderpeople. It is a movie that wasn't widely seen but it should be seen by any minority director who doesn't want to slip into the basketfull of ethnic stereotypes. His next film moves him from the small human drama category into the superhero realm of big budgets and big action. He'll direct Aquaman, starring fellow Polynesian actor Jason Mamoa (Game of Thrones), who is half-Hawaiian.

Best Actor
Dev Patel in the motion picture Lion. Dev was nominated for Best Supporting Actor in the Golden Globes, which he didn't win because of the super-strong competition and he faces the same hurdles for Best Supporting Actor in the Academy Awards. I wondered about those nominations because anyone seeing the movie can clearly see that Patel was the main actor and if we were to get strict with the rules, he should have been entered in the Best Actor category. The studio, seeing the competition in that category, thought he stood a better chance (albeit, a slim one) in the supporting actor category. 

Best Actress
Lucy Liu in the TV series Elementary. She plays a smart, sassy and deep Dr. Watson to the erratic Sherlock Holmes played by Johnny Lee Hammer. Liu could have just been just another sidekick, but her Watson holds her own against Holmes and the long-running show gives Liu and the show's writers the time to portray a character with a depth rarely given to any character played by an Asian. 

Best Breakout Performance
2016 was quite a year for Riz Ahmed with roles on TV and movies it seemed that the British actor was everywhere. But it was his role in The Night Of, where he starts out as a frightened victimized student who is transformed into a tough, prison-hardened tattooed character. For his performance, he was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild award and may still get an Emmy nod for making us believe in his character as a student and as an ex-con.

Bad-ass Woman of the Year
With the presidential campaigns in 2016, along with the surge of #OscarsSoWhite in the entertainment field, actress Constance Wu stepped up and said all the things we were thinking, even, some say, it might hurt her growing career beyond her Fresh Off the Boat success. She decried the practice of white-washing that saw non-Asian actress cast in obviously Asian roles such as Scarlett Johansson in the upcoming Ghost in a Shell motion picture and Tilda Swinton in the Dr. Strange film. She was in the thick of Hillary Clinton's failed campaign for President and joining the Women's March in Washington, D.C. She is currently in negotiations for the lead role in the all-Asian cast for Crazy Rich Asians directed by John Chu.



Bad-ass Man of the Year
You would have to come up with something really spectacular to give this to anybody but Daniel Wu for his portrayal of martial artist Sunny in Into the Badlands. The Berkeley-born actor made his fame in Asia and came back to this actioned that takes place in a future dystopian America where guns don't work so inhabitants have to resort to various forms of martial arts, swords and fisticuffs.


Best Fight Scene of the Year

It stands to reason that the best fight sequence involves one of our Bad-ass winners. Since Constance Wu won on the basis of her efforts off-camera, that means Daniel Wu (no relation to Constance) was involved. The opening sequence in the premiere of Into the Badlands has one of the best choreographed fights we've since in a long time. It's not quite the breathtaking fight between Michele Yeo's and Zhang Ziyi's characters in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; or the  sword fight in Akira Kurosawa's Sanjuro when Toshiro Mifune's samurai character, Sanjuro, found himself surrounded by about a dozen other swordsmen; but, it's a really, really good fight for TV. Fight choreographer used a lot of the fantastic Kung Fu acrobatics that made him so much in demand in China and Hong Kong flicks.

Promising newcomer(s)
For the first time, we have a tie in this category with three new actors who bear watching. Brandon Perea who plays the smart student in Netflix's surprise sci-fi hit "The OA,"  is half-Puerto Rican and half-Filipino, but all American. His character is named French, who is smart, head on right, the kind of guy who could be voted Mr. Popularity on campus, everybody likes him. Despite all that could lead to being the stereotypical social snob, it turns out he's a nice, sensitive guy. He's a leader-type that doesn't have to show his abs. This unusual show kind of sneaked up on everybody and Bang!, everybody got hooked. It just got renewed for a second season.

Auli’i Cravalho, for her voice-over portrayal of Moana in the animated musical feature of the same name. We might never have seen her in person in the movie, but despite that, she gave a life and energy to the lead character who, in fact, did look a little like the Hawaiian-born actress. Look for her to sing the Oscar-nominated title song "How Far I'll Go," written by Hamilton's Lin Manuel Miranda, during the Academy Awards.

Hayden Szeto who played the unrequited love interest in the movie, Edge of 17, opposite Filipina/American Hailee Steinfeld. The role could just have been of any race but Szeto won over the director and producer. He avoided the nerdy stereotype and played his character as an all-American guy who has a crush on Hailee. Kudos to him and to the director to not succumbing to the way-too-easy portrayal of the stereotype.

Best Stage Performance
This was a tough one. There were some very good performances by a number of artists on stage this year but if I had to narrow it to just one, ... I can't ... this will have to be another tie for the duet of Darren Criss and Lena Hall for their roles in Hedwig and the Angry Inch musical traveling show. Both of the Asian/American performers received rave reviews for the lead roles in that musical about a transexual glam rocker. While Criss played the lead role most of the time, Hall had the next most important male role of Itzak, and at times, took over Criss' role during his days off. Honorable Mentions go to Daniel Dae Kim in the King and I, Ali Ewoldt in Phantom of the Opera and Philiippa Soo in Hamilton.

Best Portrayal of an Asian by a non-Asian

From left: Scarlett Johansson, Tilda Swinton and Matt Damon don't deserve this award.

Hmmm. Lots of nominations here including Scarlett Johansson as Major in Ghost In A Shell, Tilda Swinton as the Ancient One in Dr. Strange, one can even make an argument that Matt Damon's role in The Great Wall should have been an Asian savior. Problem is, none of them deserve the "best" anything so we're leaving this category empty.

Is She, or Isn't She?
This award goes to the actor who no one would have guessed was AAPI. This year's award goes to Sharon Leal, who at first glance one would perceive to be African/American, but, it turns out, she is half Filipino. She loves her Filipino food, adobo and dinaguan, cooked by her mother. Unfortunately, her role on the CW's Supergirl is that of a Martian (Filipinos from Mars?) so she won't be able to draw on her ethnic heritage for her character.


TV show missing an Asian cast member

Asians are too rare in a setting that should have more Asian staff  since Sandra Oh, 2nd from left, exited the show.

ABC's long-running Grey's Anatomy hasn't been the same since Sandra Oh's Dr. Christina Yang left the cast. Not only did a favorite character leave a void, any urban hospital in America always has a strong presence of Asian staff as med-techs, nurses and doctors. The show is set in Seattle with a large AAPI population but you wouldn't know that watching the show. Produced by Shonda Rhimes, who has been outspoken about diversity in casting, should have an Asian character in a recurring role beyond the masked surgical nurse in the operating room.

Best Musical Performance in the Super Bowl

Well, since there is only one Super Bowl per year, it's pretty obvious the award for 2016 goes, hands down, to Bruno Mars for his performance when he and his dancers faced off with Beyonce and her Formation army of women. Mars more than held his own as the trio belted out Mars' hit "Uptown Funk." The dance-off sequence between Mars' and Beyonce's dancers was a hair-raising thriller, perhaps equalling the gym sequence between the Jets and Sharks in West Side Story. Here's a replay incase you missed it the first time.

Best Stereotype Buster
Conrad Ricamora as Oliver Hampton in How To Get Away With Murder. Well, he is a computer expert, but that's not the stereotype we're talking about. Ricamora recently won the Visibility Award for his portrayal of a gay character. Oliver is an interesting and multi-dimensional LGBTQ person of color -- a great role for the actor but also great visibility for the Asian/American and LGBTQ communities. “I will say that it’s a little ironic to be getting the Visibility Award because so much of growing up as a kid was spent trying to be invisible,” said Ricamora. “It was rough, not only being gay, but having the colored skin that I have. I was terrified that someone would see me as gay and I was also terrified that I would see myself for what I naturally was.”

Best Farewell Performance
We would be remiss if we didn't mention Steven Yeun's portrayal of Glenn Rhee as played in TV's The Walking Dead. Glenn's brutal demise at the hands of Negan and his baseball bat Lucille, was one of the most shocking and dreadful end to one of television's best Asian/American characters. Through seven seasons, Yeun was able to transform Glenn from the pizza-delivery guy to a heroic zombie killer without ever resorting to anything that hinted at the Asian male stereotype. The character of Glenn was perhaps the best nuanced, AAPI characters television has ever presented.

RELATED:

• The first awards was called the Eddies
• The 2nd awards became the Anna's because the Eddies Awards were already taken

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