Better Luck Tomorrow
After watching the movie Better Luck Tomorrow, there was a lot of things that i found very interesting. The way that the writer began the movie with the boys looking for the cellphone ringing in the ground and found the dead body was so confusing at first. But then it swings you back in time and you find out that they actually buried the body there. My first intentions were that they werent aware that there was a body in the ground and they ended up stumbling across it.
Throughout the movie it also seemed like the characters personalities changed and they ended up being completley different people than I anticipated them to be. Ben actually turned out to be the one that was so angered by Steve that he was actually the one that came in and clobbered him with the bat. Virgil turned into being the one that was most emotionally effected by everything and he couldnt live with himself after what happened. Han ended up being a very emotional guy as well and shaved his head to cope with all that happened. Derek ended up being a cocky guy that didnt feel any remorse over anything that happened.
I found this movie to be very interesting and the way that it was set up caused many suprises throughout that I didnt anticipate occurring.
4 comments November 20, 2008
Margaret Cho
Watching the Margaret Cho standup was hilarious to me. I really enjoyed the parts where she talked about how she had to struggle to become skinny but she still was able to joke about it and tell the story in a way to ammuse and entertain the audience. The way that she joked about the fact that she wasent “Asian enough” for the producer of the show she was in. And how when she was meeting her boyfriends family she felt like she was in a host family. I couldnt believe how well she could talk about those things in a joking manner. The whole entire time i wasent just entertained and laughing hysterically, i also was able to learn about her and understand the journey she went through to be where she is today.
In the clips from the Cho Show i thought it was crazy how she came out in a painted chinese dress in front of her parents. The way that acted was shocking too, they seemed a little embarrassed and taken back but not to the point where they were telling her she was crazy and that they didnt approve. I couldnt believe the things that she could easily talk about and the way that she acted in front of her parents. She clearly has a lot of self-esteem after all shes been through and I personally think that she does great things for the Asian American community. I loved her!
4 comments November 13, 2008
In class discussion
In class we discussed some of whats going on within the book and what we predicted would happen in the end. Our group had decided that we think that Henry and John would become such good friends that they Henry would not be able to carry out his job that he has to find more information about him. We also predicted that John and Sherrie would end up having an affair with eachother and that Henry and Lelia would not end up working out there differences and get back together.
Another thing that we talked about was some of things that are brought up in the book that related to other things that we have talked about throughout the semester. One thing that were stuck out to me was the incident that was written about with Saranda Harlans where she had visited a Korean market place and was shot in the back of the head after being accused of stealing. This was just like the story of Latisha Harlins except the first name was changed, the last name was spelt different, and she was an older women with children when in reality Latisha was only 14 or 15 years old. I thought that the way that Chang Rae Lee used this incident was very interesting and as soon as I read it i knew exactly what he was trying to relate it to.
1 comment November 10, 2008
Native Speaker 1
While reading the beginning of the book there were many things that stuck out to me, one of which was on page 63, “He started speaking, but in English. Sometimes, when he wanted to hide or not outright lie, he chose to speak in English. He used to break into it when he argued with my mother, and it drove her crazy when he did and she would just plead, “No, no!” as though he had suddenly introduced a switchblade into a clean fistfight”. Reading this, I felt like Henry’s father would use English as a way to punish Henrys mother. He knew she couldnt understand and didnt approve of it but he still did it to anger her and set her off even more.
I feel like when he did this, it made Henry hate the language in a way and grow anger towards his father. You can even see that when he gets into the story of the mysterious women, that he seemed very distant from his father. Not only because this women would wear his mothers apron or try and cook meals for them like his mother did, but because his father seemed to be using this women to replace his mother.
Add a comment November 10, 2008
class presentations
Listening to the class presentations was very interesting to me. I was able to learn a lot more about each topic than I had known from just reading the information that Helen Zia got in the book. What i found very interesting was the information about the red apple boycotts. When i first saw that topic i didnt think that there would be a lot of interesting information but really a lot of what the group talked about really caught my attention. The fact that the African American women had been supposively “beaten” by the Asian American grocery worker reminded me a lot of the Latisha Harlins case where she had gotten into a scuffle with the convenient store owner. But in my opinion from the information that they had given to the class, it seemed as though it was a bit of a set up maybe due to the fact that the African Americans were upset with the Latisha Harlins incident.All of the presentations were very interesting and gave a lot of information that I had no idea about.
Add a comment October 30, 2008
Wiki Project
While doing the wiki project, i have learned a lot more about our topic in a much more detailed way. I have found even the littlest bit of information, and some of it just add’s so much more to what i already knew. Also, being able to watch videos and see pictures of the event gives me an even better understanding of what went on in this Vincent Chin case. I found one video where a camera man and an interviewer went around to students that were Asian American and white asking them if they knew who Vincent Chin was. No one person could say that they knew who he was or knew about the situation. How sad is that? This was an important event that happened and that really affected Asian Americans and to this day this event is looked over. By seeing this, it made me realize that there is so many things that happen everyday in life that you’ll never hear about. This wiki project allowed me to find more information and I really enjoyed learning more than i had already known.
1 comment October 20, 2008
Twilight Los Angeles Article
After reading this article i was given an even better understanding of the movie and the LA riots in general. I completely agree with her on the fact that as individuals we are far more concerned with what is going on in our own lives than what is going on around us. For myself, I have noticed that through all the incidents that we have read about or talked about in class, there is a lot more racism in our world than i had imagined. People are so judgemental of others and hold opinions to the point where they do some very uncalled for things. For example rather than moving on from the Rodney King and Latasha Harlins incidents, African Americans retaliated and hurt others that had nothing to do with it. And as for the officers that beat on Rodney King, they had no reason to beat him with such force just because he was African American. The world needs to become more aware of these sort of incidents and move on from them rather then carry the anger on. All in all this movie really gave me a better idea of the LA riots and just how severe it was. The way it was acted out and how it was shown really gave me a better understanding.
1 comment October 10, 2008
Twilight
Watching this video really enabled me to be able to see these events in a much clearer way than i had before. It had given me the ability to have a much better understanding of that these people went through and why they had some of the rage that they had towards different races.The way that she had acted as the different people that she interviewed rather then just showing the interview, interested me so much more in what she had to say and it helped her get her point across a lot better.
As i watched the videos of people getting beat and fires being set it made me so angry. I really cant understand how somebody could have the nerve to treat someone that way or even want to treat someone that way. One of the interviews that she had acted out that really stuck out to me was the interview with one of the assailants from the Reginald Denny incident, he didn’t even seem to remotely care at all, it was almost like he was proud of what he had done. Another interview that had stood out to me was the interview that she had acted out of the Chinese women who’s husband had been murdered. The look on her face when she explained her husbands death made my heart wrench, it was so sad. It really made me see how innocent these people were and how they didn’t deserve to be treated they way they had been treated and had some of there lives taken when there was no reason for it.
3 comments October 6, 2008
Helen Zia Ch. 7
Chapter seven talks about some police officers that killed a man named Rodney King in 1992. These men, just like Vincent Chin’s killers that had killed him with a baseball bat, got away with only doing community service. Rather then going to prison or facing a much higher charge, they were served with a minor penalty just because they were white. It seems like the court system is always on the white mans side, rather than thinking about the extent of the crime and seriousness, all they seem to care about is that the white race will get off easier, when faced against other races. It makes me so mad to think about how true this actually is and how unfair it is to put people of other races into this situation, and to think this was in 1992, which really isent that long ago.
2 comments September 29, 2008
Asian American Dreams Ch. 5
What really caught my attention in this chapter was the whole idea that Asian Americans were unable to portray themselves as characters on stage. They were pretty much told that they werent qualified enough to play the parts of there own people and therefore, many whites would instead play the part of Asian Americans and make them come off as completely different people. There race was portrayed as almost a joke and the women came off at very sleezy and inappropriate. Asian Americans were only given small parts and werent able to play major roles like they wanted to.
The reason why Asian Americans werent given opportunities was because many of the producers that made these plays were white and didnt want any Asian American actors to play a part in there shows. There were many times that they had said that they had held auditions but in reality they gave them a small opportunity to try out and always responded with the excuse that they werent qualified enough.
Add a comment September 26, 2008
