BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE TOKYO: New Film Series at JANM Spotlights Asian American Film

JANM’s Vice President of Programs, Koji Sakai, announces the launch of an exciting new Asian American film series at the museum.

During the last quarter of 2014, JANM’s Tateuchi Democracy Forum was the site of two sold-out screenings and panel discussions celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of the iconic film The Karate Kid and the tenth anniversary of Alice Wu’s romantic comedy, Saving Face. In December, it also hosted a well-attended screening of Tadashi Nakamura’s feature-length documentary, Jake Shimabukuro: Life on Four Strings, followed by an intimate talk and a live ukulele performance by Shimabukuro.

Now, in an effort to continue screening Asian American films, I am proud to announce a new bi-monthly film series called Big Trouble in Little Tokyo. To organize this series, JANM is partnering with Visual Communications, one of the premier Asian American media organizations; Angry Asian Man, one of the first and most influential Asian American blogs; and First Pond Entertainment, a consultation and distribution service for independent films that focuses on socially-driven documentaries and narratives that feature underrepresented communities in front of and behind the camera.

Starting next week, we will screen a film on the second Wednesday of every other month under the Big Trouble in Little Tokyo banner. The series will feature big Hollywood productions as well as small independent films, from the distant past and the more recent present, and will often include post-screening discussions with actors, directors, and others involved in the making of the movie. It will celebrate some important anniversaries, and most importantly, it will provide a venue for more Asian American films to be seen and appreciated.

Our first screening, taking place on Wednesday evening, February 11, will be The Joy Luck Club (1993), the film adaptation of Amy Tan’s bestselling novel, directed by Wayne Wang. Wang and stars Rosalind Chao and Tamlyn Tomita will be in attendance for a Q&A following the screening. On April 8, we will screen Big Trouble in Little China (1986), the cult film directed by John Carpenter that inspired the title of this film series. Post-screening panelists will include actors George Cheung and Gerald Okamura.

On May 13, we will have a very special screening in honor of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month: The Curse of Quon Gwon: When the Far East Mingles with the West (1916–17), a silent black-and-white film directed by Marion Wong. The Curse of Quon Gwon is the earliest known film directed by an Asian American, and one of the earliest directed by a woman. The evening will include a talk with filmmaker Arthur Dong, who preserved two reels of the historic film, which was later restored by the Academy Film Archive. Parts of the film are still missing.

As an Asian American filmmaker, one of the things that saddens me is the lack of opportunities and places to screen our films. That’s why as a JANM staff member and part of its programming team for more than five years, it has always been important to me to ensure that the museum can be such a place. JANM has hosted dozens of film festivals, from the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival to Outfest, and hundreds of screenings. Now we have a series to call our own. For complete details on upcoming screenings, please visit our Big Trouble event page.