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April 15, 2008

Arthur Dong's Hollywood Chinese

"Hollywood Chinese,'' Arthur Dong's latest documentary, is now playing at the Grand Lake Theater in Oakland and the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas in San Francisco, and runs through April 24.

The film traces the history of Chinese Americans in feature films, starting with the late 1800s. Dong does a nice job of interviewing folks who are active in Hollywood, including directors Ang Lee, Wayne Wang and Justin Lin, to name a few.

What's nice about this particular film is that I think it has appeal beyond Chinese and Asian Americans. It's really an interesting look at how the industry has changed - and how some things have not.

The interviews with actors, writers and directors are quite good. Candid, and introspective responses from all. Though the topic is pretty broad and spans 100 years, the film is also very coherent and a pretty seamless 90 minutes.

One of the most interesting tidbits about this film is that through the 10 years in the making of it, Dong rediscovered and helped restore a 1916-17 Chinese American feature film, "The Curse of Quon Gwon," the first known Chinese American film made by Oakland resident Marion Wong. It was basically sitting in a basement for decades. Dong was able to get 2 reels of the black and white silent film, or 35 minutes, restored by the Academy Film Archive.

There is a special one-time screening tomorrow night (Wednesday) at the Grand Lake Theater at 7:30 p.m. Audience members will get to watch the restored "The Curse of Quon Gwon" preceding the documentary. "Hollywood Chinese" includes snippets from the film, but otherwise this is one of the few chances to see 35 minutes of the 1916-17 historic film.

I wrote a piece in the Oakland Tribune about this film and about "Hollywood Chinese," which you can read here. It really is an inspiring story. Marion Wong started the Mandarin Film Company and cast her family members, including sister-in-law Violet Wong, in the film.

The film's gotten some good press around here, and it is definitely worth a peek. The film also opens in May in the Los Angeles area and in NYC. More details to come!

Posted by momo at April 15, 2008 10:07 AM

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5 Comments

EL said:

This is a good film to portrait Asian American not well represented in Hollywood.

This is a good film to encourage more people to be in the film industry and break the barrier for API.

April 16, 2008 11:02 AM

lisalee said:

saw the film tonight at grand lake. "the curse..." was quite good, especially with the organ player. was it an organ player? i'm not even sure. but you couldn't even tell that the music wasn't live. although, i must say that i've never seen a documentary before when nancy kwan had to answer hard questions. or maybe she always just dodged it, and the filmmakers always let her get away with it. i don't know. i don't think she understands how the roles she played impacted the asian american community. for her, it was just making a living.

April 16, 2008 11:28 PM

momo said:

just learned that the Grand Lake Theater in Oakland will be showing the “The Curse of Quon Gwon” again (with live accompaniment on the Wurlitzer) at the 7:30 p.m. showing TOMORROW (Sunday, April 20)!

April 19, 2008 11:09 AM

momo said:

another update: Hollywood Chinese continues its run in the Bay Area at the 4 Star Theater in San Francisco Friday, April 25. the 4 Star is in the Richmond district and owned by a Chinese American family, which we profiled in our Faith issue. !

April 24, 2008 10:21 AM

Arthur Dong said:

Hi -- Arthur Dong here. Fyi, we open in L.A. and N.Y. today:

The ImaginAsian Theater
239 East 59th St., New York City
Screens Daily, 3pm & 7pm. 212/371-6682
http://www.theImaginAsian.com

Laemmle’s Music Hall
9036 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills
Daily: (Sat/Sun 12:40, 3:00) 5:20, 7:40, 9:55
310/274-6869

Laemmle’s One Colorado
42 Miller Alley, Old Town Pasadena
Daily: 1:00, 3:10, 5:25, 7:40, 10:00
626/744-1224

Q & A with Filmmaker:
MUSIC HALL: Friday, May 30, 7:40pm show
ONE COLORADO: Saturday, May 31, 7:40 pm show

May 30, 2008 8:01 AM