The Electric Image Express

Everyone knows South Asians are stereotypically portrayed as terrorists in Western film. But have you considered that all terrorists on film have a stereotypical personality? Chris Morris's dark comedy Four Lions portrays terrorists first as people-- misguided, idiotic, clumsy fools who have been swayed to perpetuate evil not by holy scripture, but by anger, hate, fame, or listening to a misguided authority.

Anupam Sharma, a college friend and British Indian joins us to revisit his favorite comedy--that doubles as one of the few British films to give South Asian and Muslim characters almost all the screen time and dialog. Anupam starts with sharing his British minority's perspective on the US protests over George Floyd's murder (11:10) before sharing his view as a part-time actor/comedian on how comedy and Asian representation has evolved in Britain, and how Indians are portrayed differently in the UK and US over the last 20 years. (39:20) Once we get past the serious bits, we do our best impressions of our fav scenes...including my first desperate attempt at an accent on the pod.(55:11)

Questions? Comments? E-mail us at [email protected] or follow us on IG/Twitter @electricimageexpress/@the_electric_image_express

In Episode 10 Eric comes back to talk Enter the Dragon, Bruce Lee,(14:30) but most importantly, the murder of George Floyd by the Minneapolis Police as the latest in a long string of institutionalized racist acts against black people in America. (21:55) We share how we have digested the events of the last week, how we have begun educating ourselves on the topic, what we and our listeners can do to help, and our largely unqualified understanding of our shared history as minorities in America.

NOTE: I will be donating $1 for every listener of this episode, and episode #9 (Crazy Rich Asians) and $5 for every feedback form filled out. The donations will be made 50% to the ACLU and 50% to Black Lives Matter I measure streams by unique downloads measured by my RSS provider Zencast and listeners measured by Spotify.

Questions? Comments? Requests? Please e-mail us at [email protected] or give us a follow on IG/Twitter @electricimageexpress/@the_electric_image_express

Other resources

• This link includes institutions that need donations, petitions, protest info, and more.[https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/]([Ways you can help BLM)

You can't talk about Asian American identity in media without talking Crazy Rich Asians. Shannon Fong, a close family friend and a Taiwanese American who moved back to Taipei helps us wrap up Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month by talking about her personal experiences with family, money, and dating in an Asian city where everyone knows everyone else. Shannon first gives us a glimpse of how Asians in Taiwan and Singapore reacted to the movie (17:15) before we start giving our opinions on the star-studded asian american cast (26:25). (I'm Selling Constance stock, Buying Awkwafina) Later, we discuss if the film accurately portrays the different values Chinese-Americans have vs. Chinese diaspora in Asia (40:50) and share our own crazy rich asian stories (45:30). Finally, we finish with a Nick Young basketball scouting report (1:03:00) and Shannon gives a detailed gambler's breakdown on why the Mahjong scene was so touching. (1:14:53)

Note: We recorded this before the protests over the murder of George Floyd escalated. We touch briefly upon representation in this movie (21:52) but we dive deeper in Ep. 10. I will be donating $1 for every listener of this episode, and Ep.10 (Enter the Dragon) and $5 for every feedback form filled out. The donations will be evenly split between the ACLU and Black Lives Matter I measure streams by unique downloads measured by my RSS provider Zencast and listeners measured by Spotify.

Questions? Comments? E-mail us at [email protected] or follow us on IG/Twitter @electricimageexpress/@the_electric_image_express

In Episode #8, Akshay Singh makes his return to talk about Kumail Nanjiani's The Big Sick with more of his awkward anecdotes and convincing theories on marrying modern love with traditional, asian parents. As two single guys with our parents breathing down our backs, we put on our introspection aprons and serve up our feelings on the constant underlying pressure on marriage (28:30), why we've waylayed ourselves by looking for the wrong attributes in our partners (29:00) and why the Bag of Devotion is never, ever, ever, a good idea. (51:10) Of course, we can't talk about Kumail without mentioning his fearsome new physique (14:00) and Akshay shares his own Kumail-like story about coming to America. (6:40)

Questions? Comments? Requests? Please e-mail us at [email protected] or give us a follow on IG/Twitter @electricimageexpress/@the_electric_image_express

In this episode, we are joined by Trung Phan and his colorful Vietnamese background. We can't hold back the NBA analogies and at (13:30) throw out our desire for a Coppola-style Last Dance. At (17:00) Trung shares some of his experiences from his expat years, backstory on his great-grandfather Phan Bội Châu, a pioneer of Vietnamese nationalism, and why Vietnamese representation in this movie might not be that important. Later, (33:30) we boldly theorize that Apocalypse Now is Coppola's 1993 Finals. With nothing left to prove, he loses motivation to continue to be the best. We tie things up with the most obvious Linsanity award winner ever...Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore. (45:00)

Links mentioned in this episode:

Questions? Comments? Requests? Please e-mail us at [email protected] or give us a follow on IG/Twitter @electricimageexpress/@the_electric_image_express

For our third movie in Asian Pacific American Heritage Month we fast forward to 2019 and revisit The Farewell: one of the standout films of our current "golden age" of Asian-American content. Eric joins us again and takes over hosting duties. We start off with a hilarious story where Eric convinces a woman on his flight he hates his job (6:30), before getting into a lively debate on our big question: What is an Asian-American film? (17:45). Later we relive some of our foundational childhood memories that helped us understand the differences between our upbringing and our family in Asia (29:30), figure out if we would tell our loved ones bad news (46:30) and give a shout out to some of the bad ass women in our life (54:30). We end the podcast with categories by recognizing the "real" China of Changchun (58:40), Tzi Ma, and Diana Lin. (1:05:00)

Sean's website: https://sean-niu.squarespace.com/

This podcast is hosted by ZenCast.fm

We continue celebrating Asian Pacific American Heritage Month with Better Luck Tomorrow: the movie that has had the most impact on my life and a landmark in Asian American cinema. My former roommate, the less abusive Han to my Virgil, Eric Lee, makes his podcast debut to contrast his East Coast public school Asian upbringing with my West Coast private school background. We talk about how this movie altered the course of my life (5:57), the differences growing up on different coasts (20:00), and with different parental oversight (42:00). We also look at how this movie addresses themes of representation, masculinity, and authenticity (33:00) and where Justin Lin's career has taken him post BLT. (23:10)

Links mentioned in this episode:

• Roger Ebert at Sundance: https://youtu.be/LSzP9YV3jbc

Happy Asian Pacific American Heritage Month everyone! We kick off the month with Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle, an all time Asian-American comedy directed by Danny Leiner. Obviously we had to bring on a co-host for this journey, so my good friend Akshay joins as the first guest not related to Sean!

We get stoned and guess which Kumar line sounds most like Akshay, dive deep into White Castle Fish Nibblers, and praise the universal heroism of the supporting-head-nodding-guy.

Questions? Comments? Requests? Please e-mail us at [email protected] or give us a follow on IG/Twitter @electricimageexpress/@the_electric_image_express

This week we talk about Hero, a beautiful but controversial movie directed by Zhang Yimou. We discuss Zhang's up and down relationship with the Chinese Communist Party, how he uses scale and color to emphasize emotions, and compare Jet Li to Elton Brand. At (42:30) Sean's Mom joins to give some backgroud on ancient chinese culture and customs that we see in the movie.

Questions? Comments? Requests? Please e-mail us at [email protected] or give us a follow on IG/Twitter @electricimageexpress/@the_electric_image_express

This podcast is hosted by ZenCast.fm

This week we use Hard Boiled to contrast the hard, masculine action heros portrayed by Chow Yun-Fat and Tony Leung with the limited roles given to Asian-American actors and how it affects our identity. We also introduce a new segment: "Sean's Sports Analogy Corner" where we compare Tequila and Tony to Shaq and Kobe. Finally, Sean's Dad joins us to talk about his favorite actors growing up and his experiences as an Asian man in the States.

Questions? Comments? Requests? Please e-mail us at [email protected] or give us a follow on IG/Twitter @electricimageexpress/@the_electric_image_express

LINKS: As mentioned, here are some great links to explore more of John Woo's filmmaking