The Many Faces of Paul Walker

Fast Five Desktop Wallpaper

If you haven't watched "Fast Five" in theaters yet, stop what you're doing and go NOW!  I watched Fast Five in IMAX and boy, was it satisfying!!  The fight between Vin Diesel and The Rock was epic, the car chases were exciting and the heist element made for a rockin' good time!  Thank you, Justin Lin, for grabbing the defibrillator paddles and zapping life back into the Fast and Furious franchise.

While I loved seeing all the cool cars and cheering on my boy, Sung Kang, as he hooked up with former Miss Universe contestant Gal Godot, I couldn't help but giggle every time Paul Walker came on screen.  Most of the time, he just had a blank look on his face, not knowing where he was or what he was doing there.  His line delivery at times was just down-right atrocious.  Don't get me wrong, I like Paul Walker.  I met him about a year ago at a racing event as he is a semi-pro race car driver.  He's super nice and super chill (as long as you don't ask him to sign a shirtless photo of himself), but that doesn't stop me from laughing as he's sitting in the back of an armored car with a goofy smile on his face while the other actors have faces of concern and fear.

Maybe "Fast Five" wasn't the right movie to showcase his acting chops?  To show the world that Mr. Paul Walker is, in fact, a classically trained actor, I've put together a collection of screenshots from his various movies, depicting his full range of emotion.

Please enjoy "The Many Faces of Paul Walker".

Of course, I'm posting this all in the name of good fun.  I'm glad that Mr. Walker has a successful career as an actor and I'd be more than happy to trade places with him, even if it meant that I would lose the ability to show any emotion in my face...  I kid!!

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Magic Carpet Ride

This is my second year to volunteer with the L.A. Asian Pacific Film Festival, and boy did it start off with a bang! I showed up at the Director's Guild of America headquarters in West Hollywood, expecting to help with crowd control for the festival's opening night premiere of "Fast Five", but was placed at the front of the red carpet to assist with celebrity arrivals instead!  I was handed a list of names and photos of the people that were scheduled to walk the red carpet.  The list was a "who's who" of Asian American cinema, and I only needed to glance at the list for a moment to digest who was going to show up.  These were the actors that I had been following as a teenager while stuck in Texas, wondering where to even start my pursuit of acting.  There was no need to study a list of my own heroes, so I neatly folded it, placed it in my pocket and eagerly awaited the first arrivals for the red carpet.

I'm not usually one to get star struck, but I couldn't help but smile when the likes of Kelly Hu, John Cho, Brian Tee and Sung Kang walked past me on their way to be blinded by a barrage of flashing cameras.  I wanted to whip out my cell phone and snap photos of everyone, but professionalism is always first in my book, and I was here to do a job.

It was very inspiring to just be in the same room with all of these talented people.  In my eyes, they are pioneers of Asian American cinema.  Even with all of their major successes, they were still gracious enough to come out and support the community to keep that trail that they've blazed full of budding artists.

If you ever find yourself low on creative juices or you've hit a wall with your art, go to that which you love so much: film festivals, art walks, gallery openings, book signings, conventions, coffee shops, concerts, and the list goes on!  Immerse yourself in the world that drives you and I'm sure you will very quickly find the fuel you need to keep that flame of passion lit.

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The U.S. needs more Donnie Yen!

Why isn't Donnie Yen a much larger star/actor in the United States?  He's got the looks, he's an amazing martial artist and he's got the acting chops to carry a film.  But somehow we got the smurf-like Jet Li, whose voice is as threatening as Miley Cyrus', and Jackie Chan, always the accidental hero, who after more than 10 years of living in the U.S., I still can't understand the words that are coming out of his mouth.  Now don't get me wrong, I love Jet Li and Jackie Chan (although I love the Hong Kong film versions of themselves more), but isn't it time we had a martial arts action star that this generation can get behind?

I recently went to see "Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen", starring Donnie Yen.  If you've seen the trailers, it looked awesome!  It was an opening night showing at the Laemmle Sunset 5, Friday, 7:20 pm.  There should have been a lot of people there, right?  Wrong.  There were less than 20 people, half of them were from the martial arts school that gave a demonstration before the movie, and I was the only Asian American male there.  That's right, not even the martial arts school had an Asian male studying there.  The sifu (teacher) was actually Caucasian.  

If you're like me, then you hopefully have found a couple of things wrong with that scenario.

Why was there such a poor showing for this movie?  Was it because it was an international movie that was subtitled?  It's in the heart of West Hollywood, so location isn't an issue.  Was there not enough marketing behind it?  Are people not a fan of martial arts movies anymore?  I know that last statement is not true because epic period-style martial arts movies are garnering much acclaim at many international film festivals.  So what happened?  I thought the movie was awesome.  I literally said "oh sh!t!" probably 3 times within the first 10 minutes of the movie, just due to the badassery that is Donnie Yen.  But where was everyone?  What kind of message are we sending to Hollywood with this lack of support?  "Legend of the Fist" grossed $26 million overseas, but only made a measly $11,000 on opening weekend in the U.S.

Many of my fellow actors complain that there aren't enough roles for Asian actors.  They also complain that many movies are being "white-washed" to star Caucasian actors, even though it's an adaptation of an Asian film. But can you really blame Hollywood?  People forget that Hollywood is a business.  If it doesn't make money, they're not going to do it.  Why would Hollywood make an Asian-centric movie if only 10 people are going to show up to it?  There are 10 million Asian Americans in the U.S. according to the 2000 census, but with the way we're supporting the arts, you'd think there were only 1,000.

So get out and support what you're passionate about.  Be active in the community and show them that you have a voice and that you matter.

A great starting point would be the L.A. Asian Pacific Film Festival, starting April 28th!  It opens with "Fast Five"!  I'm volunteering for the festival so come find me and say hi!  Tell all of your friends to come and enjoy the festivities.  When I tell my friends about the Asian Pacific Film Festival, the typical response I get is: "But I'm not Asian."  So?!  Just because the word "Asian" is in the festival title doesn't mean that you have to be Asian to attend!  The festival features films from Asian filmmakers, hence the title, but that's where the "Asian" part ends!  It's a film festival, people!  Support the arts!

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