November 5, 2015​ by thepopculturehistorian.com

And the closing film for the 2015 Boston Asian American Film Festival is Miss India America, which is on a considerably different note from Help Us Find Sunil Tripathi and The Killing Fields of Dr. Haing S. Ngor.

Miss India America tells the tale of exactly the bitch just about every high achieving Asian American student hated in high school, Lily Prasad (Tiya Sarcar), a newly-graduated valedictorian who is ready to go to Harvard, become a brain surgeon, and marry her boyfriend Karim (Kunal Sharma). After a disagreement over what he wants to do with himself, Karim breaks up with Lily and starts dating the winner of the national Indian-American beauty contest. Unused to being anything but first in anything, Lily enlists the help of her friend Seema (Kosha Patel) and decides to enter the contest herself in the hopes of winning Karim’s heart back.

As an alumnus of JP Stevens High School in Edison, New Jersey, I’m all too familiar with the archetype Lily represented. JP Stevens is a severely overcrowded dump which was fortunate enough to wind up with a large population of high-achieving college-obsessed Asian-Americans who made the school look good by increasing the percentage of the student body to get accepted to Ivy League schools. Relative proximity to New York brings good things even to those that don’t really deserve it.
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Some people, like Amy Chua, celebrate the archetypical Tiger Mom by basically saying, “Am I squashing...READ FULL ARTICLE

November 1, 2015 by thepopculturehistorian.com

I’m doing a first on this site, and that is talking about documentaries that I saw at the Boston Asian American Film Festival last weekend. My reviews will be brief, but I will say that both of them need to be seen.

In my new home of the Boston area, one event that basically shook the world was the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombing. The bombing was perpetrated by two Chechen brothers, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar (I might have spelled this wrong and I honestly don’t care) Tsarnaev. Tamerlan died in a shootout with the police later on and Dzhokhar has been apprehended and, in the big news from earlier this year, has been sentenced to death. You know you’re in Boston when people care more about Tom Brady’s suspension for cheating that led to the Patriots winning the Super Bowl than a convicted terrorist’s sentencing.

In a time period coincidental to the bombing, Brown University student Sunil Tripathi seemingly disappeared. His family, recognizing the advances of technology, took to Facebook and launched a social media campaign to help find Sunil. However, it didn’t take long for the Internet to decide that Sunil Tripathi was also the Boston Marathon bomber.
The main reason I believe this movie is important is because it addresses two topics that are a lot like Asian-on-Asian racism, in that they are things that people know are problems, but at the same time would prefer not talking about. These topics are the issue of mental health and the dangers that lie with the Internet with the rise of social media.
As an Indian-American, like Sunil, I know there is a lot of stigma associated with basically being anything out of the ordinary. My Indian colleague told me...READ MORE

SEOUL SEARCHING (2015)
​October 27, 2015 by thepopculturehistorian.com

Once again, I found myself volunteering at the Boston Asian American
Film Festival. Unlike last year, I managed to see most of the movies that were shown this year. BAAFF 2015 kicked off with Benson Lee’s Seoul Searching.
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Seoul Searching follows a group of foreign-born students of Korean descent taking part in a South Korean government-sponsored summer camp to help them connect with their heritage and shows why the program was as short-lived as it was.

Benson Lee aimed to make this movie his tribute to John Hughes (it does take place in 1986 after all) and it shows in the classic Breakfast Club formula of having the characters start off as stereotypes and letting the viewer see that they are in fact more than what is on the surface.... READ MORE

By Yvonne Ng

At BAAFF, we've seen an incredible array of Asian American talent both on-screen and behind the scenes. From actors and directors to producers and writers, BAAFF has showcased films that share their exquisite skills, transporting the movie-goers into their worlds, their homes.

Here are some of the brilliant people who have been part of BAAFF and where they are now.

Although Randall Park has more than 100 film credits, we first saw him as 'Nice But Boring Guy' in BAAFF's 2010 film, The People I Slept With. Park was also the father in a short film, My Name is Asiroh (2014), and he co-wrote and starred in the comedic short, At Your Convenience (2013). Park now stars in ABC's Fresh Off the Boat.

In BAAFF's 2011 season, the legendary James Hong was a guest speaker. Hong is credited with more than 500 film roles and continues to be one of the most hardworking actors. This year alone, he's been in three different TV series, three films, one video and a short film. He'll be the voice of Mr. Ping in Kung Fu Panda 3 set to release in 2016.

Director, producer, writer, and editor, Jennifer Thym recently produced, Jasmine, a psychological thriller with The Fast & the Furious: Tokyo Drift and Better Luck Tomorrow star Jason Tobin. Thym's dark and beautifully jarring short, Bloodtraffick, was part of BAAFF's 2012 season.

From BAAFF’s previous season, Producer, Director, and Cinematographer, Ursula Liang of the award winning documentary, 9-Man, has also co-produced Tough Love, a documentary about two American parents navigating the welfare system and trying to regain the custody of their children. 9-Man is now available on DVD.

In 2008, BAAFF’s opening night film was Planet B-Boy, a documentary (directed by Benson Lee) that delved into the lives of some of the best breakdancers from Japan, France, South Korea, and the US. Lee also directed the 2013 breakdance film Battle of the Year, which is a 3D version of Planet B-Boy backed by Sony. This season, we’re particularly excited to showcase Lee’s film, Seoul Searching, a 1980’s John Hughes inspired romantic teen comedy about a group of Korean misfits from around the world forced by their parents to attend a cultural propaganda camp in Seoul resulting in the best summer of their lives.  Seoul Searching is BAAFF’s opening night film and Lee will be available for a Q&A after the film, so get your tickets today.

The Boston Asian American Film Festival is next week! See you at the movies.