Takeaways:
- The Cleveland Asian Festival is a vibrant celebration that promotes Asian culture and community, attracting over 50,000 visitors annually and featuring diverse food, performances, and activities.
- Johnny K. Wu, a prominent figure in Cleveland's cultural scene, co-founded the festival in 2010, aiming to unite various Asian communities and enhance cultural visibility.
- This year marks the festival's 16th anniversary, highlighting its growth from a one-day event to a major two-day festival filled with engaging activities, entertainment, and delicious food.
- The festival showcases a range of performances, including a fashion show celebrating Asian culture and a cosplay event, inviting attendees to express their love for Asian pop culture.
- Community involvement and volunteerism are key aspects of the festival’s success, with local artists and community members contributing to its planning and execution.
- The conversation touches on the importance of cultural appreciation versus appropriation, emphasizing the significance of understanding and respecting diverse cultural backgrounds.
Links referenced in this episode:
All living in a world gone geek.
Speaker AIt's time to geek hard or go home.
Speaker AThe podcast is real.
Speaker AHere's your host, grounded geek.
Speaker AGreetings, programs.
Speaker AIt is I, Utah, running the ship.
Speaker AI am the captain now.
Speaker AJeff is here.
Speaker ADon't worry.
Speaker AHe is the silent partner, the man behind the curtain.
Speaker AStill producing and will be editing this show, I'm sure.
Speaker ASo let's not make it too difficult for him.
Speaker AOr do.
Speaker AI don't care.
Speaker AAs always, I'm joined by another partner in crime, Aaliyah, AKA Aaliyah.
Speaker AHello.
Speaker AHello.
Speaker BHi.
Speaker CI am waiting.
Speaker AGreetings, Aaliyah.
Speaker AHow have you been?
Speaker CI've been so good.
Speaker CHow are you?
Speaker AYou know, hanging in.
Speaker ALife happens things.
Speaker ALife events.
Speaker AA couple of things.
Speaker AJuggling in the air.
Speaker AThe last thing I did do that was fun though, was I was in the production of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory at Cassidy Theater in Parma Heights.
Speaker AThat was fun.
Speaker AHad a good time with that.
Speaker COh, wow.
Speaker CHow did that turn out?
Speaker ATurned out great, actually.
Speaker AI was a little concerned.
Speaker ATech week was a little stressful, but we made it through.
Speaker AI played Mr.
Speaker ABucket, the one of the parents of Charlie that gets shunned and denied a tour of the factory.
Speaker CWow.
Speaker AI don't know.
Speaker AI mean, you know, you think about it, why would Charlie not choose the person that birthed him?
Speaker ABirthed Charlie?
Speaker AIn our.
Speaker AIn our Charlie.
Speaker ACharlie was a girl or, you know, her father.
Speaker ABut anyways, that's neither here nor there.
Speaker AWhat about you?
Speaker AAnything exciting for you, Aaliyah?
Speaker CNo, I actually don't.
Speaker CI mean, I've traveled a little bit.
Speaker AYeah, I saw some hiking pictures.
Speaker CYeah, definitely a lot of hiking.
Speaker CI have a backpacking trip coming up at the end of this month, and that's really about it.
Speaker CNothing too crazy over here.
Speaker AWay to go.
Speaker AWay to go for you.
Speaker AAll right, well, let's get right into it because we have a special guest who we want to make sure that we take advantage of the time that he has with us.
Speaker AHe is a true powerhouse in independent filmmaking and a cornerstone of Cleveland's cultural scene.
Speaker AHis name is Johnny K.
Speaker AWu and he's an award winning producer, director and editor with over 25 years of experience.
Speaker AHe founded Media Design Imaging, or MDI, a film in 1998, a company that has been instrumental in providing video and event production services to a diverse clientele.
Speaker AJohnny has produced more than 14 feature films, including the sci fi, the action film Bullets, Brothers and Blood, which has garnered many awards and secured global distribution.
Speaker AHe's had a documentary called History of Cleveland's Chinatown was featured on WKYC and wviz.
Speaker ABeyond filmmaking, Johnny is a dedicated community leader.
Speaker AHe co founded the Cleveland Asian festival, attracting over 50,000 attendees annually, and has been producing the Cleveland Cultural Gardens One World Day since 2015.
Speaker AHis contributions have earned him inductions into the International Indie Filmmakers hall of Fame and the Cleveland International hall of Fame.
Speaker AFluent in Chinese, Spanish and English, Johnny holds an MBA in marketing from Cleveland State University.
Speaker AHis commitment to diversity, storytelling and community building makes him a remarkable figure in both the arts and.
Speaker AAnd civic engagement.
Speaker AWelcome, Johnny.
Speaker AThank you so much for spending time with us here tonight.
Speaker BThank you for having me here.
Speaker BI wonder whether you got those bio from the AI or something.
Speaker AChatGPT is your friend.
Speaker ALook, you know what?
Speaker AAt some points I feel like we need to accept our AI overlords and I hope to befriend them once they take over.
Speaker BWell, hopefully they don't take over.
Speaker BAt least they can make our life easier, right?
Speaker AYes.
Speaker AWell, that's the whole.
Speaker AYeah.
Speaker AYes.
Speaker AIt would be very nice if the AI deemed us worthy and perhaps kept us around.
Speaker CRight.
Speaker CWow.
Speaker ASo thank you for joining us.
Speaker AJohnny, why don't you tell us a little bit about.
Speaker AWell, we've got the Cleveland Asian Festival coming up this weekend, which is a big deal.
Speaker AYou've been doing it for the past few years.
Speaker AWhy don't you tell us a little bit about it and your involvement with it?
Speaker BSure.
Speaker BWell, back in 2010, we started thinking, well, 2009, we started thinking about doing something more beneficial to the community after we were doing a TV show with a TV20 back then.
Speaker BAnd me, Lisa Wong and Vihoon sat down and then we said, why don't we do something big like a festival like Columbus Asian Festival here in Cleveland.
Speaker BWe were like, maybe not gonna happen because, you know, we were having a problem with all the different AI AIPI community here who doesn't like each other.
Speaker BSo yeah, it can be a problem.
Speaker BBut we're like, let's try.
Speaker BLet's say we got nothing to lose, right?
Speaker BSo we, we said, let's do a one day event.
Speaker BLet's see how many people can put on.
Speaker BOh my God.
Speaker BIt was a lot of.
Speaker BA lot of feedback, bad feedbacks.
Speaker BBut everybody say that that's not gonna work.
Speaker BIt's not possible.
Speaker BYou're not gonna make this work.
Speaker BThis is stupid.
Speaker BYou know, you cannot put a.
Speaker BGet everybody working together.
Speaker BThis is ridiculous.
Speaker BBut we got, we raised lots of money and we actually pulled it off.
Speaker BAbout 10,000 people showed up and after that, everybody changed their Tone, it's now like oh my God, this is such a great event.
Speaker BWe should do it more often.
Speaker BWhy don't you do a three days event?
Speaker BI said hell no, we're not gonna do a three days event.
Speaker BThat's too much work.
Speaker BSo we decided to do a two days event Saturday, Sunday.
Speaker BSince then, 2010, 2011.
Speaker BSo I've been doing that for 16 years now.
Speaker BThis is our 16 year celebration.
Speaker BWe do try to do a lot of different things every year but you know I waste the same thing eventually.
Speaker BBut the major, the main thing people like to go there is for the food, the performances, the atmosphere, the, the diversity we have there and some free screen that we offer to everyone.
Speaker CThat is incredible.
Speaker BWell, the decide for this year Asian festival poster design.
Speaker BSo local Thailand.
Speaker BLisa Tang designed this whole poster.
Speaker AOh nice.
Speaker BLooks really, really nice.
Speaker BI really love it.
Speaker BI mean animals.
Speaker AOh that's oh that's so cute.
Speaker AI love the.
Speaker BIt's cats and fruits and cats and fruit.
Speaker ACats and fruits.
Speaker ALeah, you have fruit on your counter.
Speaker AYou're halfway there.
Speaker CCat is.
Speaker AOh and you have a cat.
Speaker AYou're there.
Speaker ASee, look at that.
Speaker AYou've already.
Speaker AYou're already.
Speaker AAll you.
Speaker AAll you got to do now is.
Speaker AIs show up this weekend.
Speaker CWow, that's amazing.
Speaker CSo when where did you guys originally.
Speaker CSpeaking of cats, I definitely see yours crawling around in the back.
Speaker BOh yeah, there she is.
Speaker CI'm curious to know how you like where was it originally?
Speaker CBecause you guys are at the Cleveland Zoo so.
Speaker BWell, not nothing to do with the zoo.
Speaker BIt's just more about we want to do something different.
Speaker BSo every year we we commission a local talent.
Speaker BSo we always looking for aapi designer artists to draw a design and this year we.
Speaker BWe don't want to do anything with horoscope related because snake ear.
Speaker BThe snake is not really something you want to showcase and poster.
Speaker BAnd we thought about we're going to do let's do cats because cats is a symbol of.
Speaker BOf good luck in Asia.
Speaker AGood luck.
Speaker AYeah.
Speaker BIn Japan, China, Thailand, Korea.
Speaker BGood luck cat is always a good luck.
Speaker BEspecially c cats.
Speaker BIn Japan the hello Kitty came from.
Speaker AYep.
Speaker BSo we thought about that and then we say well what's going to work with cats would be something with fruits or vegetables and that we.
Speaker BWe mentioned that to Lisa Tang and she said easy.
Speaker BSo she do this really, really nice for us.
Speaker BAll the different fruits from different country, Asian country.
Speaker BAnd then yeah she is at blurry.
Speaker AOh yeah, there we go.
Speaker DYeah.
Speaker BSo yeah.
Speaker BI don't even know what they call but you had.
Speaker BYou have pineapple up there, right?
Speaker BYou got the colorful cats over here, the orange.
Speaker AYeah, very cute.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker BAnd this design really looks really nice.
Speaker BI really like it.
Speaker ANo, it's a great design.
Speaker AWay to go, Lisa.
Speaker AI had no idea.
Speaker ANo, I.
Speaker AI had no idea that the Clevelandation festival have been going on for so long.
Speaker ABut it makes sense because like, because you had mentioned that at the very beginning it was very small, very difficult and you guys were kind of like, like you said, growing up as an Asian child on the west side of Cleveland, it always felt like the Asian community wasn't.
Speaker AThere wasn't one Asian community.
Speaker AThere were pockets and they never really coalesced or did anything together.
Speaker AAnd so I can only imagine.
Speaker AWas there a point where you were able to get everybody on the same page or did the.
Speaker ADid that take years before?
Speaker BNo, actually after for a couple months of talking to everybody and, and make sure everybody understand that there's no who is a leader, who is not a leader.
Speaker BIt's all working together and we all volunteer.
Speaker BExcept for now.
Speaker BNow Lisa and our co producer, we've been hired to do a job because there's lots of work.
Speaker BBut back in the beginning we were making sure that everybody have a great time, making sure everybody are the leaders.
Speaker BWe delegate tasks and because in the past I've done any.
Speaker BI had done movies production.
Speaker BSo I understand about how to organize.
Speaker BAnd prior to that, when I was 14 years old, I put together a mountain choir for the diplomatic community in Panama.
Speaker BSo I got experience how to do this together.
Speaker BSo when we did it in 2010 for the first year, I actually put together a different list or detailed list about the tasks that each committee need to do.
Speaker BSo we start with a executive board and then we branch out to different committee chairs and every five committee chairs, they recruit the committee members, volunteers to go to the community members and from there going to the other volunteers.
Speaker BSo almost like a little Christmas tree.
Speaker ARight?
Speaker ARight.
Speaker BSpread it out.
Speaker BAnd the reason doing that also ways to make sure that every community member or every chair only can do two different type of committees.
Speaker BSo this way they don't overload themselves.
Speaker BSo if you are a community chair for volunteer, you can do marketing and that's it.
Speaker BIf you are a vendor, you can do marketing.
Speaker BThat's it.
Speaker BThis way that we don't want to over kill each all of us because it's a lot of work.
Speaker BBut we also noticed that we really need to bring in new generation new leaders because we're getting old.
Speaker BI mean, I'VE been doing this for 15 years.
Speaker BI don't think I can continue doing this forever, but I probably have to because I have a mortgage to pay.
Speaker BIt is something that we would like to see younger generation say, say, hey man, you know, Johnny, you can take a break this year.
Speaker BI'll take over your job and you can like, moving forward.
Speaker BYou know, they may do things differently, but we want to make sure that the future generation was.
Speaker BAppreciate what we do and want to say, I would like to help.
Speaker BI would like to be part of it.
Speaker BI would like to become a.
Speaker BBe a leadership position.
Speaker ARight.
Speaker AAnd that's always, that always seems to be, I wouldn't say a struggle, but kind of a goal for a lot of these things.
Speaker ARight.
Speaker AEspecially in the immigrant, immigrant communities where you've got first, second generation immigrants who are trying to put on these things and build community.
Speaker ABut you want to make sure that that legacy continues.
Speaker AAnd so you've got to get the younger generations involved and interested and also invested too.
Speaker AAnd so I can see, I can see how that is.
Speaker ADid you set it up so that every, every ethnicity, every different type of Asian, Were they only in charge of their particular communities?
Speaker BNo.
Speaker ADid it matter?
Speaker BDoesn't matter.
Speaker BIf you want to be involved, we don't care what kind of AAPI community you with.
Speaker BJust come in, do the work and then let's share the fruit of our event.
Speaker BThat's one thing that.
Speaker BYes, fruit and cats.
Speaker BAnd that's one thing I like about the Asian festival is every year I'll be frustrated because there's too many people there.
Speaker BBut at the same time, I'm very happy to all those people, 40, 30, 40, 50,000 people showing up for one weekend event and they are doing, they are loving each other, enjoying each other's company, no matter what, no matter your color, your race, your sexual orientation, nothing.
Speaker AJust, just that doesn't matter.
Speaker BFamily together.
Speaker BYeah, we don't have complaints about.
Speaker BYeah, we do have complaints about all the way.
Speaker BParking is difficult, but that's nothing to do.
Speaker BPeople, nobody people.
Speaker ARight.
Speaker AThat.
Speaker AThat's a trick logistics thing.
Speaker CEveryone complains about parking in Cleveland, though.
Speaker BThat's.
Speaker AThat's a univers.
Speaker BThat's for sure.
Speaker AThat's a universal truth.
Speaker BHere's the funny part.
Speaker BWe also have, we do surveys every year to make sure we know what people like.
Speaker BMajority of time every year there'll be three or four people say the weather is too hot.
Speaker BWe didn't have the weather.
Speaker BToo cold.
Speaker BThe weather, it's raining.
Speaker BI can't Control the weather.
Speaker ARight?
Speaker AThat's.
Speaker CYou can't.
Speaker CI.
Speaker CI thought you could, you know.
Speaker BI wish I could.
Speaker BEverything changed.
Speaker BLike Thanos.
Speaker BRight?
Speaker ARight, exactly.
Speaker CSo I know you guys were talking about, you know, the positive effect that it has within diverse communities.
Speaker CBut I am curious, like what, what ways has the.
Speaker CThe festival contributed to the growth or recognition in Asiatown?
Speaker CBecause that's.
Speaker CI work right on Sinclair.
Speaker CThen that's super cool.
Speaker BSo have you heard of the Cleveland Asia Festival?
Speaker CYeah, I have.
Speaker BHow long have you been hearing about it?
Speaker CFor at least the past like four year.
Speaker CThree, four years.
Speaker BThere you go.
Speaker BThat's your growth.
Speaker AWell, there you go.
Speaker AThere's the growth.
Speaker BThe Golden Asian Festival.
Speaker BI should probably mention the date is it's May 17th 18th from 11 to 7pm and clevelandationfestival.org is the website.
Speaker BThe goal of festival is to promote the AAPI Heritage Fund because that's May also to celebrate our culture and festivities.
Speaker BAnd last also with the one thing we also do is to bring economic growth into the neighborhood.
Speaker BAnd because of the Asian festival for all many years we're doing it, it's been considered the kickoff event for the summer.
Speaker BEvery people in Cleveland say, oh, Asian Festival is the beginning of the beginning, early this summer.
Speaker BSo that's a kickoff event and we are the best organized event considered by the city of Cleveland because we are.
Speaker BWell, they said that we have a tight ship.
Speaker BWe did everything.
Speaker BWell, not really.
Speaker BWe just produce and produce and planning ahead of time to make sure everything works.
Speaker BSo that's.
Speaker AYeah, I was going to say that that that comes from your experience because you know you've got to get things planned and organized in order for something to go out.
Speaker BWell, yes.
Speaker BAnd then because of that event, Cleveland Festival did so well.
Speaker BI was hired back in 2015 to run the Cleveland Culture Gardens One World Day.
Speaker BAnd that's another pushback at the beginning.
Speaker BNobody want to know.
Speaker BNobody want to have an Asian guy run a European gardens.
Speaker BAll the gardens over there back then was all European except for right.
Speaker BVietnamese and Chinese.
Speaker AY.
Speaker BSo when I was the producer, I had a lot of pushback from Gardens because I feel like I'm not white enough to do the job.
Speaker BBut you, you, I, we learn.
Speaker BWe.
Speaker BWe hate each other.
Speaker BWe love.
Speaker BWe love each other.
Speaker BWe continue moving together.
Speaker BAnd then because every year I'll be doing that with them.
Speaker BThey trust me now.
Speaker BThey don't ask me, they don't tell me don't do it.
Speaker BThey don't ask me anymore to bring me a proposal.
Speaker BThey already Automatically say, Johnny, you can do it next year again.
Speaker BAnd we brought in one day event, brought in almost 45,000 people over there.
Speaker BThis is my 11 year doing it too.
Speaker BSo that can show that capability is what you can show people that who you are doesn't really matters.
Speaker ANo, it's true.
Speaker ANo, I remember, remember when the one World day was just kind of a small thing and just a handful of families, whatever, walking down the path down MLK to see all the gardens and stuff.
Speaker AAnd I don't know if it's a coincidence or not, but I feel like you with your overhead Oakleys and your hoverboard really pushed.
Speaker APush the visibility of it up.
Speaker AI'm half joking, but I do re.
Speaker AI, I do remember seeing you in, in your overhead Oakleys and your.
Speaker BYes, I still bring in my overhead Oakley, which actually is over here.
Speaker ALook at that.
Speaker AThere they are.
Speaker AYeah, the legendary.
Speaker AThe legendary.
Speaker ALook at that.
Speaker ASee, this is, this is the Johnny I met and I remember.
Speaker AThat's awesome.
Speaker CThat's amazing.
Speaker BEvery year I'll bring this out for the Cleveland Asian Festival just because I like to showcase it.
Speaker BKind of funny thing about this is right now on tik tok and YouTube, every young influencer are talking about it.
Speaker BLike this is ever happening right now.
Speaker BLike, man, you guys are slow.
Speaker BYou guys, right?
Speaker AWhere, where have you been?
Speaker CEverything comes back and we're not very original, you know.
Speaker BSo when I was wearing this, people said that I have bug eyes because it looks like bugs.
Speaker BOr you tell me I'm wearing bra on my, on my head, women's bra.
Speaker BSo, yeah, we, I had all this pushback, but I'm still can't bring it out because now it's the hit thing to do.
Speaker ARight.
Speaker AWell, and that also still.
Speaker AI mean, it's just such a unique thing, right?
Speaker AIt's.
Speaker AIt's kind of a trademark now.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker BAnd the good thing is I still have it and you can buy on ebay, but there are thousands of dollars.
Speaker AYeah, I know.
Speaker AYes.
Speaker ASo good on you.
Speaker ALook at that.
Speaker ASee?
Speaker ATrendsetter.
Speaker ABefore you even knew it.
Speaker BYeah, yeah, that's all I do.
Speaker ARight.
Speaker CSo how do your, like, other roles in like, in other cultural events, like one World Day, complement what you're currently doing with the Asian festival?
Speaker BI, I would appreciate the culture more now that I've been working with the culture gardens for over 40 years now.
Speaker BI love the people there.
Speaker BI love how they embrace me finally.
Speaker BAnd they're saying that I'm not just another Asian guy, but rather a guy who can pull it off, can make it happen.
Speaker BIt can make and promote culture.
Speaker BI don't see a division between diversity.
Speaker BI see everybody together as a family.
Speaker BI don't see culture, I don't see different faces.
Speaker BI see more one faces by different cultures that easily explain with the Asian festival.
Speaker BI see a lot of people there.
Speaker BI see Asian.
Speaker BWe see, we have Asian members, we have non Asian, we have blacks, African American and all working together.
Speaker BBut then when you go to the culture garden, you actually understand the different culture and what's going on.
Speaker BAll the politics that they had to deal with Ukraine, Russia, Pakistan, India now and all this happening and we had as a cultural groups, we are still loving each other, but unfortunately politics is a little bit different.
Speaker AI think that's one of the great things about kind of the theme with, with your two projects is the kind of the uniting the community, whether it's just the Asian diaspora or just the different world cultures.
Speaker AWith the gardens is all about unifying about how we may look different and come from different places and have different traditions and different cultural things, but we're all part of the human race.
Speaker AWe're all, I dare say one world gone.
Speaker AGeek.
Speaker BYeah, it was, it was, it was tough for me because in the gotcha garden there's about 49 different gardens back then and I had to memorize them all.
Speaker BIt took me about three years to actually got know where every garden at.
Speaker AFind because they're all, they're very spread out along that path.
Speaker BThe culture garden is located over the MLK and East Boulevard.
Speaker BSo the whole stretch about eight miles distance, not eight miles, maybe four miles distant.
Speaker B237 acres of land.
Speaker BSo all the different gardens have different culture there and there's 40 something gardens right now.
Speaker BAnd it's, it's a lot for me to memorize when I start the beginning.
Speaker BBut I got it there.
Speaker AYou've had 11 years so you've got, you've got it down.
Speaker BYeah, I got.
Speaker BFunny no, you can mention one in the garden.
Speaker BI know exactly where you're going to be at.
Speaker BSo it's only maybe one or two smaller ones I don't remember but rest of majority I do.
Speaker BI also memorize all the culture.
Speaker BIt's so beautiful.
Speaker BWhen we had the culture gardens this year it's gonna be August 24th.
Speaker AOkay.
Speaker BCalled the parade of flags where every garden dress out with a costume and parade throughout the whole street.
Speaker BIt was beautiful to see thousands of people wearing different kind of cultural outfit and parading themselves.
Speaker BAnd speaking of that in this Cleveland Asia festival this year we brought back in the fashion fashion show, which is the colors of Asia.
Speaker ANice.
Speaker BSo this is something we stopped doing it for many, many years in the past just because we didn't have the main power.
Speaker BBut we don't bring it back.
Speaker BWe want to have all every different ethnic groups come out to stage and present the culture and the outfit they were.
Speaker BSo that's one thing we're doing this year a little bit different.
Speaker BThe other thing we're doing this year is cosplay.
Speaker BSo, yeah, cosplay is something that we haven't done many, many years, almost a decade ago.
Speaker BAnd we're going to bring that back because we felt like K Pop, Apop J Pop, so popular now.
Speaker BSo why don't we bring something like this and to embrace the culture.
Speaker BSo anybody who like to dress up with an Asian themed cosplay playing, you are welcome to do so and come to stage and parade it.
Speaker BI will be there.
Speaker BI'll be both on the colors of Asia and cosplay wearing my armor.
Speaker BSo this is a real armor from the Ming dynasty.
Speaker BWell, replica now.
Speaker BAnd now we're wearing that and gonna be displaying that and showcasing a little bit.
Speaker CYou know.
Speaker AGo ahead.
Speaker CSorry.
Speaker CI was going to say this might be a little bit controversial and Jeff, you might have to cut.
Speaker CYou might want to cut it out.
Speaker CBut it gets in a little bit in the weeds.
Speaker ASo.
Speaker CYou know, a lot of people talk about like cultural appropriation and you know, people stealing other people's.
Speaker BSo you want to know what my view on that?
Speaker CWell, I am very curious, but I also think too just in general, people absolutely love.
Speaker CAmerica loves the Asian, Japanese, Chinese culture.
Speaker BYeah, they.
Speaker CThey love that as a culture.
Speaker CBut we are always as accepting.
Speaker CI think sometimes of.
Speaker BSo it's.
Speaker BIt's a.
Speaker BIt's a kind of the way to.
Speaker BYou have to distinguish.
Speaker BThere's a fine line between being appreciated culture and culture.
Speaker ARight.
Speaker BSo different is when you're marking a culture or you don't respect in the culture doesn't mean that you're not actually appreciating the culture.
Speaker BThat's the difference.
Speaker BThe quickest way the easy to do is for example, if you see a Japanese walking the street and you say nihau to Japanese guy, that is insulting racist comment.
Speaker BBecause Japanese don't understand word.
Speaker BNihau means.
Speaker BNihao is a Chinese word for hello.
Speaker BBut then if you say that to a Japanese Japanese person or going to the country Japanese culture, Japan do this, then you are insulting the Japanese and you are, you are not doing anything correctly.
Speaker BSo that's a racist coming.
Speaker BAnd also can be considered as a cultural appropriation because you think it belongs to China.
Speaker BSo everybody else going to be understood the word nihau.
Speaker BSo another way, let's say you are a non Asian person and you decide to sell Asian clothing with and altering them to say it's your own.
Speaker BThat may be cultural appropriation, depending how you quote, unquote, design the design.
Speaker CYes.
Speaker ARight.
Speaker AI think it has a lot to do with intent.
Speaker ARight.
Speaker BBut the intent is very, I can give you a very good example.
Speaker BAnother thing is about Asian town.
Speaker BWe, we had this in happening past is two white people went into Asian town and tried to sell an event of West Asian town claiming to be authentic Asian culture.
Speaker BDo you think that's appreciation or appropriation?
Speaker AYeah, right.
Speaker AThere's context there.
Speaker ABecause if at the face of it, you would think that that might be appropriation, but if those people actually researched and know about that did not reach.
Speaker AOh, see, if, if they were just.
Speaker BDoing it for the money, then yeah, that's appropriation.
Speaker BNot only that, they don't hire any Asian person in their group and they owe everybody money.
Speaker AYeah, See.
Speaker AYeah.
Speaker AIt comes down to intent.
Speaker AIt's.
Speaker BYes, intent.
Speaker BSo it's a, it's a fine word.
Speaker BAlso, the other thing you can also notice if somebody said to you, oh, I'm looking for Asian wife, that is kind of like a racist to say because you're not appreciating the culture because they are Asian, you actually want to have a trophy.
Speaker ARight.
Speaker AThat's what that, that, that, that goes into, like, what is it they call the fetish?
Speaker ARight.
Speaker BWhere Kind of a fetish.
Speaker BYeah, yeah.
Speaker AThey're not really appreciating the person or the culture.
Speaker BExactly.
Speaker AThey're, they're, they're more wanting the, like you said a trophy.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker AOr they're, they're more of an object than anything else.
Speaker CYeah, I think I was just meaning it in the terms of, like, especially in terms of cosplay.
Speaker CYou know, I'm trying to think of how I'm like wanting to phrase it, but I, I, I think sometimes we can get, we get excited about or to sell.
Speaker CWe can be excited to celebrate other cultures, but sometimes we don't always know the most about them or the people.
Speaker CSo I do agree with you.
Speaker CIt can be intent, but.
Speaker BYeah, yeah.
Speaker BSo for cosplay, for example, if you're going to dress as an Asian character, research about the Asian character and make sure everything that you Your.
Speaker BYour cosplay is correct.
Speaker BAll right.
Speaker BSo for another good example would be my friend Wayne, also executive director, executive board member for the Cleveland Asian Festival.
Speaker BHe wearing the yellow suit with a black stripe.
Speaker BMost people nowadays think it's from the Kill Bill movie.
Speaker AI.
Speaker AI went straight to Bruce Lee.
Speaker BThere you go.
Speaker BBig difference.
Speaker BRight.
Speaker BWhen you dress like that, it's a Kill Bill movie.
Speaker BSo that's a culture because.
Speaker ARight.
Speaker BIt's not part of the Bruce Lee who created.
Speaker BSo it's again, it's a culture thing.
Speaker BBut if you want to.
Speaker BAnd also the H thing, if you want to go cosplay any character, research a character, understand a character and understand why the character were doing certain way, wearing certain things.
Speaker BAnd you know, you no longer appropriating the culture because you can explain this outfit, this side of the street, this sword is about, this weapon is about.
Speaker BYou can tell people what it's about.
Speaker BNow you're not appropriating.
Speaker AYeah, right.
Speaker AThat's proof of your appreciation of the culture versus just.
Speaker AThis is a cool thing that I bought online.
Speaker AI think it's awesome.
Speaker AThat's, you know, that's not quite.
Speaker AThat's not taking that extra step or doing that.
Speaker BYou know, you can, you.
Speaker BYou can see a lots of movies too.
Speaker BLots of American movies that have possibly a master ninja, but wake.
Speaker BA kung fu uniform.
Speaker AAll right.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker AIt's again, conflating the Japanese Chinese.
Speaker AYeah, yeah.
Speaker BSo, yeah, it's an intent too.
Speaker BIt's not understood the culture.
Speaker BYou, you know, I, I see a lot of movie also where people were using a katana in a Chinese outfit.
Speaker BLike, no, Chinese people do not work, do not wear katan, use the katana as a weapon.
Speaker ARight.
Speaker AThat's not.
Speaker AThat, that wasn't.
Speaker AYes, exactly right.
Speaker BThat come back to one thing.
Speaker BWhen I did my short film To Hunt, we have everybody wearing different colors period outfit.
Speaker BSo I have a white guy wearing a Chinese outfit and a black guy wearing Chinese outfit.
Speaker BThen I explained to them, what are you wearing?
Speaker BIs not appropriating because this hat is based on this time frame.
Speaker BThis outfit with a round rope color is all based on this time frame.
Speaker BI explained to the time frame the kind of sword they need to wear use so they.
Speaker BWhen they go outside and talk to people, they can appreciate the culture.
Speaker BInstead of say, I, oh yeah, Johnny, just throw me this outfit together.
Speaker BAnd then they said, this is a Chinese outfit.
Speaker ARight, right.
Speaker AAnd that.
Speaker AAnd that.
Speaker ASo, and so not only does that show your appreciation of the culture, it gives them education.
Speaker ASo they Learn also about the culture and they can show their appreciation and then share that information further on.
Speaker BThis is how you.
Speaker BYou promote a culture and then not.
Speaker BNot in avoiding the appropriation part of it.
Speaker ARight.
Speaker ARight.
Speaker AWhen you've got, you know, you put in the intent and the effort and that makes a huge, huge difference.
Speaker BExactly.
Speaker ASo was.
Speaker AIs your Ming Dynasty armor part.
Speaker AWas that your costume for the hunt?
Speaker AIs that what.
Speaker BYep, that's the one I was wearing on hunt.
Speaker BAnd we're gonna be.
Speaker BI'm very happy to wear this on Sunday.
Speaker BIs actually very good because 64 degrees.
Speaker BPerfect weather for the outfit.
Speaker AIt's perfect weather for armor.
Speaker BHeavy 28 pound.
Speaker BIt's gonna be.
Speaker BIt's very.
Speaker BIt's actually can be protect me from any starving for knife.
Speaker BI mean it's not probably strong.
Speaker AWow.
Speaker AOkay.
Speaker ASo it's.
Speaker AIt's.
Speaker AIt's not just, you know, it.
Speaker AIt's not really.
Speaker AIt's not just cosplay.
Speaker AIt's an actual.
Speaker AIt's actually armor.
Speaker CWow.
Speaker BSteel armor plate.
Speaker ASo how heavy is it?
Speaker AHow much does that.
Speaker B28 pounds.
Speaker AWhich.
Speaker AWow.
Speaker BI lost 20.
Speaker BI lost 10 pounds of it fit in there.
Speaker AJust.
Speaker AJust wearing it for the film.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker BWell, I.
Speaker BI need.
Speaker BI need it because otherwise I won't be the walk.
Speaker BI mean I was two months ago.
Speaker BI was 176.
Speaker BAnd then we're in the thing about almost 200 pounds.
Speaker BLike I can't do that.
Speaker BI can't move around.
Speaker BSo I lost 10 pounds to wear down a little bit.
Speaker BSo that.
Speaker AAh.
Speaker AOkay.
Speaker BIt'll be okay.
Speaker BSo bounce it out my weight.
Speaker AAmazing.
Speaker AHey there.
Speaker DMike is working now.
Speaker ANot only can we see you, but we can hear you.
Speaker AYou can hear me.
Speaker BThat's good.
Speaker DThat's good to know.
Speaker BIt's a little too loud.
Speaker BYo.
Speaker AIt's a little loud.
Speaker ACan you turn down your gain?
Speaker DYeah, well, I mean it's already down.
Speaker DI'll just step back a little bit.
Speaker AJust.
Speaker AYeah, just step further back a couple steps more.
Speaker AA couple steps more.
Speaker DWe got to see that armor at fan expo.
Speaker DYou were wearing it there.
Speaker DAnd.
Speaker DAnd I got a sense of how heavy that was.
Speaker DThat's insane.
Speaker BYeah, it's a.
Speaker BIt's a real thing.
Speaker BIt's a very heavy.
Speaker BAnd when I was doing the short film, it was painful because I was waiting for about four hours.
Speaker BI said I need to get out of this.
Speaker BAnd then I had to put it back in for another three hours.
Speaker BLike I.
Speaker BI'm done.
Speaker BI need to get on this.
Speaker BI can't handle this anymore.
Speaker BIt's too hot.
Speaker AOh, where were you filming?
Speaker BWe were filming at Coran, Ohio.
Speaker AOkay.
Speaker AAll right.
Speaker CSo how do you like balance everything between filmmaking and event planning?
Speaker AAnd you know, he's still trying to.
Speaker AI think he's still trying to figure that out himself.
Speaker BWell, actually I probably kind of have an idea.
Speaker BFirst thing, first thing, first thing is I go to bed at 9:30.
Speaker AOh, that's smart.
Speaker BSo I forced myself to have at least eight hours sleep.
Speaker BSo I also take about 20 minutes to 30 minutes nap after lunch.
Speaker BThis way I can build up so anytime anybody text me after 9:30, I just ignore to the next day.
Speaker BHowever, I had a tendency to wake up about two or three o' clock in the morning because I had to go to your usual restroom.
Speaker AOkay.
Speaker BAnd when I use the restroom I just start thinking and I can't go to sleep for another hour.
Speaker BSo I'll be sitting the phone in bed for an hour for then until I get tired I go to sleep.
Speaker BSo it balance out my time frame what I do.
Speaker BAnd that helped me in a way of relaxing because I force myself to relax so I don't get too tired and then I can balance it out to do everything else.
Speaker BMaking movies, lots of work.
Speaker BSo the older I get, the less I want to do that just because I don't want to carry heavy gears anymore.
Speaker BAh yeah, freaking heavy.
Speaker BSo the older you get, the less you want to carry the, the gear.
Speaker BSo you get younger generation people.
Speaker BBut then they're not always here.
Speaker BSo.
Speaker CAnd we just want to like walk around with like a little phone on a stick.
Speaker BIt's not like oh y' all just.
Speaker AOn a little phone.
Speaker AYou don't know you can't do that.
Speaker BNo.
Speaker BWe have 4K cameras, professional cameras.
Speaker BThey need to bring all the lights and then bring on the lenses.
Speaker BThen they bring all the different outfit and whatever.
Speaker BSo like that's too much work.
Speaker AIt literally is quite a production.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker BSo we.
Speaker BI'm doing more short film now because I can handle that a little bit better than doing feature film organizing event.
Speaker BI just forced myself to be do a daily to do list and accomplish that in the morning and most of the time in the afternoon.
Speaker BI have nothing else to do because I already did everything in the morning for four hours time frame spent.
Speaker BI get up on 7 6, 6, 6:30, 7 o' clock, do about half an hour workout and then go, go do start working.
Speaker BI see the kitty.
Speaker BHello.
Speaker AThere she is.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker BAfter that I will just do work work until 12 o' clock, feed the cats, have my lunch, take a quick nap, wake up, do a couple hours and then watch tv.
Speaker BIf I don't force upset myself to be to relax.
Speaker BI don't think I can be able to function that well.
Speaker AAh, okay.
Speaker ASo you, you make sure you set aside time to.
Speaker BTo watch tv.
Speaker BI also have another reason why.
Speaker BBecause last year I almost have a heart issue.
Speaker BLast year I almost died because of heart issue.
Speaker BApparently I have a heart smaller than most people.
Speaker BIt's not pumping enough to blood to my heart.
Speaker BAnd I also have high blood pressure or low blood pressure depending the medicine I take.
Speaker BSo that forced me to take more naps and also go force myself.
Speaker BI said it'll be more relaxing.
Speaker AIt's ironic that you have a medical condition where your heart is smaller considering how much you give back to the community.
Speaker AI just want to point that out.
Speaker BBefore we go on point.
Speaker BGo ahead Jeff.
Speaker DI was just going to say tell us a little bit about how you got into filmmaking in the first place.
Speaker DLike what was the impetus for that in your life?
Speaker BSo I started actually back in 1998.
Speaker BI met this guy, Greg Petoski, good friend of mine and, and we dated and he, he was working for the Museum of Natural History.
Speaker BIt was a great photographer.
Speaker BEvery time you take a photo, it's beautifully you can capture your soul.
Speaker BSo I said to him, you know, I had a background in business business and I know how to organize if you can help me, let's put together a movie.
Speaker BSo he said sure.
Speaker BHe actually owns all the film cameras.
Speaker B16 millimeters film cameras.
Speaker AOh.
Speaker BSo that was actually something fun to.
Speaker BTo help.
Speaker BSo we said we should be able to make a movie with.
Speaker BWith a 16 film camera film stock for about 3000$.
Speaker BSo that's 1998.
Speaker BWe said let's do it.
Speaker BI wrote the script, we put together shot it.
Speaker BWe never developed the film because we were so busy doing something else.
Speaker BAnd then he decided he doesn't want a lifestyle anymore because he see me doing movie with me.
Speaker BAnd then he had to do it in movies do film photography stuff at work.
Speaker BSo that's too hard for you to handle.
Speaker BSo he decided to move on his life.
Speaker BI said no problem.
Speaker BAnd then the film start.
Speaker BJust keep staying in the fridge forever till stir.
Speaker BAnd then suddenly Kodak decided to shut down all the film development processes processing.
Speaker BSo we also shot our reversal film which means that it's harder to be processed.
Speaker BBut because of that I just continue doing movies and got fortunate enough to do what I can do.
Speaker BI Do a pretty good job I guess until now.
Speaker AWell, well, yeah, obviously you're still doing it, so.
Speaker BSo that's a full story basically.
Speaker ASo is it.
Speaker AIs that film still in the fridge somewhere?
Speaker AIs it still under.
Speaker BYeah, it's in my basement on the fridge.
Speaker BA little small fridge that I have.
Speaker AOh my gosh.
Speaker AI almost feel like we need to find out there's somewhere that can develop it like it.
Speaker CRight.
Speaker BIs it.
Speaker CIs that wrong?
Speaker BNot going to be that expensive.
Speaker BThe problem is the, the main actor, one of the main actor named Sean ferris.
Speaker BYou can IMDb him.
Speaker BHe did a free Free Runner the movie.
Speaker BHe's actually was really big back then and then married to Asian girl and then disappeared for.
Speaker BFor filmmaking.
Speaker BSo I just.
Speaker BThis, this was his first feature film seventeen years ago back then.
Speaker BSo I'm not sure what.
Speaker BI want to release it because he doesn't.
Speaker BHe's not as good as he is now, as I thought.
Speaker AAll right.
Speaker AThat's amazing though that you still have it.
Speaker BI still have that I wish I could develop but I haven't had a chance to do so.
Speaker AThat's like such a unique type of time capsule.
Speaker AThat's great.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker DWhat were, what were some of your film influences?
Speaker BMy dad would be my major friend film influence because apparently film making was part of my, my extended family.
Speaker BI did not know that until my mom, my dad told me the whole story.
Speaker BI have a very big, well known film director in Hong Kong.
Speaker BIt's related, supposed to be related to me.
Speaker BWe never verified that.
Speaker BSo I don't want to talk too much.
Speaker BBut my dad, when he was younger, he will take me to see all kind of movies.
Speaker BI remember still very vividly that he told me to watch 12 or 13 Bruce Lee movies in one day.
Speaker BOne day never ending.
Speaker BI was driving me crazy.
Speaker BBut it's not about about movies or him.
Speaker BIt's movies about him, his funeral, how he died.
Speaker AOh my gosh.
Speaker BIt's like we were in Philippines and he take me to the movie theater.
Speaker BWe sat there all day long watching all the different.
Speaker BAll different version of Chinese Bruce.
Speaker BHow Bruce Lee died or conspiracy stories about how he died.
Speaker BOh, whether he got killed by mafia, whether he got killed by the studio, whether he got big, killed by a friend or whether he got killed by his girlfriend.
Speaker AAll the conspiracy theories.
Speaker DI didn't know there were conspiracy theories.
Speaker AOh yeah.
Speaker AOh yeah.
Speaker AI mean, so is there.
Speaker DIs there a Bruce Lee is still alive thing?
Speaker DLike Tupac and Elvis?
Speaker AYeah, I'm sure, I'm sure there's I'm sure, I'm sure people have seen Bruce lee at the 7:11 standing next to Elvis.
Speaker BThey said about, you know, Elvis, right?
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker AExactly how he died.
Speaker BWow.
Speaker BThat was.
Speaker BThat was ridiculous.
Speaker BI didn't really expect.
Speaker BThere was another.
Speaker BI think it's like hour long movie.
Speaker BSo he would take me to different theaters to watch it.
Speaker BWell, I didn't know it's some boring now but back then it was crazy.
Speaker BI just.
Speaker BHe was, he was.
Speaker BHe was also a diplomat.
Speaker BSo you get to meet a lot of celebrities behind the scene.
Speaker BAnd he would take me to see and watch magicians performing and go me to backstage to show me how they do it.
Speaker BAlso when there's like a big circus, it's all those crazy stun shows.
Speaker BHe would take me to swatches.
Speaker BSo I.
Speaker BI have been influent with all this kind of art environment.
Speaker BBut he always said you need to be a doctor.
Speaker AThis is always Malaysian father.
Speaker AYep.
Speaker BYep.
Speaker BSo.
Speaker BSo then when he got older, he started collecting Beta Max Movies.
Speaker BYeah, movies.
Speaker BWow.
Speaker BAt home he built a shelf.
Speaker BThen he built a shelf and then put him bed in the middle.
Speaker BThe TV and the shelf surrounded him like four walls and he was sleep in there watching the movies.
Speaker CWow.
Speaker AIn bed surrounded in the shelf and.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker BWell because he didn't want to be his bedroom.
Speaker BHe wanted to use.
Speaker BHe wanted to.
Speaker BHe want me to use the.
Speaker BWe had two bedroom apartment.
Speaker BSo he was used.
Speaker BHe.
Speaker BHe decided use.
Speaker BLet me use one bedroom and then he instead of showing saying the other bedroom, he just stayed there because he loved this movie.
Speaker AOh my gosh.
Speaker AWow.
Speaker BAnd then it became 5,000 VHS tapes.
Speaker DYeah.
Speaker AAll right.
Speaker ABecause Beta went away, right?
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker BSo mostly are movies, dramas, Chinese dramas.
Speaker AOh yes.
Speaker BI loved it.
Speaker BI watch it with him all the time.
Speaker BSo when he visited me before he passed away back in 1998, I was.
Speaker BI had a lot of way for the watch.
Speaker BHe enjoyed it.
Speaker BUnfortunately I didn't appreciate him that much.
Speaker BI was so young.
Speaker BI was going crazy doing.
Speaker BGoing to the cops every night and getting drunk and.
Speaker BAnd doing stupid things.
Speaker BSo I wish I spent more time with him now.
Speaker BBut you know, this is one of this.
Speaker BMy one major major regret.
Speaker BI have my life that not spending my time with him.
Speaker BSo anybody watching, doing this, you know, spend the time you much.
Speaker BYou can't have much with your parents, your family because you only have them once.
Speaker BOnce.
Speaker BAnd then if you regret it, you're not going to be able to get them back.
Speaker ATrue.
Speaker BSo right now my mom, she wants something I Just say okay.
Speaker BOkay.
Speaker BOkay.
Speaker BShe tell me to do something.
Speaker BI said fine.
Speaker BEven if she's wrong, I don't care.
Speaker BOkay.
Speaker BOkay.
Speaker BYou don't want to bother with that because you don't want to get them upset.
Speaker AIt's true.
Speaker DI love that.
Speaker AThat's funny.
Speaker ANo, I.
Speaker AI remember my parents used to watch the Chinese dramas too.
Speaker AThey loved anything to do with the Monkey King or Three Kingdoms.
Speaker BYep.
Speaker AWhich was the biggest.
Speaker AMy dad just loved it.
Speaker AAnd it's interesting now because our oldest son Who's he's now 21.
Speaker AJeff.
Speaker AHe's 21.
Speaker DStop.
Speaker BJesus.
Speaker ABut he.
Speaker AHe's very much into video games and he loves the Dynasty Warrior series which is all about the Three Kingdoms.
Speaker AAnd so it's so great to see him learn about the Three Kingdoms through his gaming.
Speaker ABut then talk to my dad about the Three Kingdoms so my dad can tell him about about it from the Chinese dramas.
Speaker AAnd so it's great to see kind of that generational bridge that was very true storytelling through the Three Kingdoms which I thought is.
Speaker AIs just wonderful.
Speaker BSo yeah.
Speaker BWhen I did the hunt I also did lots of research beforehand because I love watching a lot of Chinese movies.
Speaker BI think just for my dad.
Speaker BI can can forget that.
Speaker BAnd so I realized how back in the days in Chinese movie they do salutation like this, right?
Speaker AYes.
Speaker AYeah.
Speaker BThe new generation of Chinese movies they have salutation like this.
Speaker AOh.
Speaker BOr this.
Speaker AOkay.
Speaker CWas.
Speaker BEspecially period movies like the Min Dynasty, Tang Dynasty, the Han Dynasty.
Speaker BThey were like the.
Speaker BBasically it's a big stomach up and then covered it up.
Speaker AInteresting.
Speaker BSo was that this is only the Qing Dynasty.
Speaker BThey just created.
Speaker AOh.
Speaker ASo.
Speaker BSo originally know that until I do a lot more studies.
Speaker BLike that's interesting.
Speaker BI didn't know about that was a younger.
Speaker BI didn't realize.
Speaker BI also realized the Chinese used to you have sword that's curved like the Japanese katana.
Speaker BBefore the Japanese katana actually was popular.
Speaker AHuh.
Speaker BThe Tang Dynasty are straight sword curved a little bit.
Speaker BBecause they learned it from the Turkish.
Speaker BThe Turks are the ones who have the sword.
Speaker BAnd then they reinvented make it more as a Tan Dynasty sword.
Speaker BAnd then when the soldier from Han Tang and Tang Dynasty went to Japan they brought that with him to check that over and perfectionize it to become a better type of katana.
Speaker ARight.
Speaker ABecause the Japanese did the folded blacksmithing that.
Speaker BSo I didn't know that.
Speaker BI did not understand about the outfit too.
Speaker BI thought every Chinese outfit was cross Cross connection.
Speaker BRight?
Speaker BNo.
Speaker BThere was round color ropes that they were back then.
Speaker BAnd there's a lot of different things I didn't know that.
Speaker BI wish I was knowing all this when I was younger, but I did.
Speaker BI learned martial art, but I didn't know any of this style.
Speaker BI thought you learn about shot.
Speaker BYou're like, oh, everybody doing like this, this.
Speaker BSo this is it.
Speaker AThat's all we knew.
Speaker BLots of different ways to do salutations.
Speaker AThat's so interesting.
Speaker ASo even now, even now as an adult, you're still learning these things.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker BSo this is mostly important for when you, you're dealing with emperors.
Speaker BYou want to make sure that they have thumbs up.
Speaker BThere's a reason for everything.
Speaker ARight.
Speaker BWomen go opposite direction.
Speaker BMen's go this way.
Speaker BOh, wow.
Speaker DInteresting.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker CWhat does it mean?
Speaker CI'm sorry, please excuse me.
Speaker BGreat whimper.
Speaker BWe, you know, great emperor.
Speaker AWe.
Speaker BWe salute to you, great emperor.
Speaker BOh, and this for officers and peasants.
Speaker BThey do like this because, you know, you're the, you're officer and we, we embrace you.
Speaker DInteresting.
Speaker DJust different ways of greeting.
Speaker CYeah.
Speaker DDepending on who it is.
Speaker BYep.
Speaker AYeah.
Speaker ABasically.
Speaker AYeah.
Speaker AYour, your, your salutation will depend on your standing to the other person.
Speaker BAnd also I wanted to find out about colors.
Speaker BEvery row, color means a ranking of the.
Speaker BOn the, on the palace.
Speaker BOn the royal palace.
Speaker AOkay.
Speaker BSo purple is the highest rank.
Speaker BI actually have a picture here on my phone because I have to remind.
Speaker AMyself what it looks like.
Speaker AThis is why I like purple so much.
Speaker AWait, oh, Jeff, is that why you have purple in your background?
Speaker AOh, check it out.
Speaker ASo purple is the highest and then it goes all the way down to.
Speaker AIs that blue?
Speaker BYep.
Speaker BSo this is their ranking system for officers in China in.
Speaker BBack in the Ming.
Speaker BTang Dynasty.
Speaker ASo that's depending on the color robes that they wear.
Speaker AYou can tell they're standing or their rank.
Speaker AInteresting.
Speaker BMy cat just felt.
Speaker DDefinitely gonna pay more attention to some of the period films and stuff that I watched.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker DSee where if they follow that representative.
Speaker BYeah, it's.
Speaker BIt's so interesting.
Speaker BIt's so interesting because I didn't know that until, until I watched this.
Speaker BAll these Peter movies.
Speaker BLike, this is a, this is a Ming dynasty sword.
Speaker BShe's cursed.
Speaker AYes.
Speaker AYeah.
Speaker AOkay.
Speaker AJust slightly.
Speaker BYeah, yeah.
Speaker BSo that's, that's me.
Speaker BI say.
Speaker AI was gonna say.
Speaker AAnd that's Johnny, by the way.
Speaker BVery cool.
Speaker CThat's.
Speaker CHuh.
Speaker CThat's really interesting.
Speaker CI was, I don't even, I don't know if this is relevant, but I've, I was been re.
Speaker CWatching Samurai Jack and so like the.
Speaker CHim visiting literally only in the first episode.
Speaker CBut he was like revisiting or not revisiting.
Speaker CHe was going to all of these different places to learn their like fighting styles.
Speaker CAnd that's what I was thinking, like kind of envisioning when you were talking about the different symbols, hand symbols and stuff.
Speaker BNetflix you do.
Speaker BIf you guys have Netflix, check out the, the Chinese movie from there.
Speaker BIt's called the series called the Detective something.
Speaker BI can't remember the name.
Speaker BOh, Detective D.
Speaker BJudge D.
Speaker BMystery.
Speaker AYes, that's.
Speaker BThat's very much from the Ming Tang Dynasty and their culture, their outfit, everything is very, very realistic.
Speaker BAnd there's another show you can, you can find on YouTube.
Speaker BIt's called the 24 the longest time in.
Speaker BIn Changan.
Speaker BSo it's in 24 hours.
Speaker BEverything happened in this show and everything that, that show is authentically correct based on the time free.
Speaker BThe Longest day of the longest day, 24 hours in China.
Speaker BSo it's, it's a very good story because you can see how they fight.
Speaker BThey fight basically.
Speaker BLike they watch you wearing real armor to fight with it.
Speaker BSo all the actors had to feel the weight before they can actually go into the bottle.
Speaker BAnd the reason I said maybe, maybe I understand how realistic this movie the show is going to be.
Speaker CSo what is your favorite movie?
Speaker BWhat kind?
Speaker BEuropean, Chinese, Americans.
Speaker DI know it's hard, right?
Speaker DPeople ask me that question and I have to break it down by genre.
Speaker DOtherwise you're getting Die Hard.
Speaker AI knew it.
Speaker AI knew it.
Speaker CSo you talked about Bruce Lee, but what's like a pivotal film, maybe that.
Speaker BLike I, you know, surprising to say if American film wise.
Speaker BI love Empire of the Sun.
Speaker AYeah, that's a great one.
Speaker BBut it didn't get a lot of attention because it came out with the same time with the Last Emperor.
Speaker BLast Spirit actually did better, which makes sense.
Speaker BLast, Better Emperor.
Speaker BI felt as stupid in the theater watching Last Emperor.
Speaker BSo yeah.
Speaker BThen the other movie I watch, I can watch forever and never get bored is Big Trouble in Little China.
Speaker DOh, my gosh.
Speaker BI think I grew up with being.
Speaker BBeing a martial artist and grew up watching the cool thunder, lighting and rain.
Speaker BThe way that they acted.
Speaker BI was like, oh, this is so cool.
Speaker BThis is so exciting.
Speaker AYeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker BI get very, very, very much enjoying the whole show.
Speaker DThat's one I'm hoping that they, they never remake.
Speaker DThey've been the Rock.
Speaker AThey've been talking about it.
Speaker DHe's apparently got the rights at some point.
Speaker DAnd I was like, if you play Jack Burton, I'm gonna be so upset if Anything they could.
Speaker DI'm.
Speaker DI'm fine.
Speaker DIf they want to like do one of those 30 years later.
Speaker DSe.
Speaker DWell, that's 40 now, I think.
Speaker A40.
Speaker DAt least 40 sequels where you get Kurt Russell back.
Speaker DYou know what I mean?
Speaker DYou can bring in the Rock as his buddy.
Speaker DI don't care.
Speaker DBut do a sequel.
Speaker DDon't remake the original.
Speaker BThe original was, you know, was beautiful.
Speaker BI, I enjoyed it.
Speaker DYeah.
Speaker ASo it's a classic.
Speaker DI want to ask the.
Speaker DSo several years ago, KE Huy Quan, who played Short Round in the Indiana Jones movies and Data and Goonies, he had quit acting because of the.
Speaker DHow difficult it was for as.
Speaker DAs an Asian person to get like roles that were significant.
Speaker DAnd then he, in an interview, he.
Speaker DHe made his comeback after he saw crazy rich Asians becoming such a huge success and obviously immediate immediately won an Oscar too.
Speaker DLike, I mean the dude.
Speaker DLike, like immediately his first rollback, which is fantastic.
Speaker DBut do you feel like he, he saw that movie as being like kind of a resurgence of like where Asian characters are getting more seriously, you know, represented rather than just being, you know, you know, a specific character or a stereotype or a token.
Speaker DDo you feel like we're moving in the right direction as far as Hollywood?
Speaker DAnd would you say where would you think we could do more work there?
Speaker BWell, that can do more work.
Speaker DYeah.
Speaker BHollywood embracing a minority, African Americans, Asians and such is because of the pressure from everybody else.
Speaker BAnd when movies like Rich Asian, all this movie came out, this opportunity for us when we started winning Oscars, that also bring you opening the door a little bit.
Speaker BUnfortunately not.
Speaker BJust because you win us and you win an Oscar doesn't mean that you will get lots of good roles in the future.
Speaker BI mean, look at him right now.
Speaker BHe's.
Speaker BHe played a role the movie Love, Love Hurts.
Speaker AI heard that wasn't very good.
Speaker DI haven't seen it yet.
Speaker DI want to though.
Speaker AI want to see it.
Speaker BI enjoy it.
Speaker AI want to see it.
Speaker ABut like you said, it wasn't that successful at the box office.
Speaker BNo, it's because I think the storyline suffer a little bit.
Speaker BBut the fight sequence, cute.
Speaker BAnd I enjoyed it and it.
Speaker BBut yeah, I enjoy him on the Loki.
Speaker AYes.
Speaker AYeah, I enjoy him and everything, but.
Speaker BI don't in this way.
Speaker BHe just.
Speaker BOkay.
Speaker BI think sometimes because he gets stereotyped.
Speaker BI don't want to see him being a fighter.
Speaker BI want to see the other different roles that'd be better than anything.
Speaker BIt's like right now, if you see Ryan Reynolds in any movies, he will be the same character no matter what movie you see.
Speaker AHe's.
Speaker AHe's Ryan Reynolds with a different costume each time.
Speaker AExactly.
Speaker BI cannot get rid of that.
Speaker BIt's almost like, oh, I'm looking at the same person over and over again.
Speaker BI forget the character's name.
Speaker BMarvel name.
Speaker BDeadpool.
Speaker DYeah.
Speaker ADeadpool.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker BI've seen that character every minute, every time, every movie.
Speaker BNo matter what movie you see him, he's the same character.
Speaker BIt's hard to get out of the mold, but.
Speaker DWell, especially when people.
Speaker DI mean, that's what people pay to see.
Speaker DThey pay to see.
Speaker AThat's what they expect.
Speaker AThat's what they want.
Speaker AYeah.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker BWhich is.
Speaker DIs, you know, but then he just caters to that.
Speaker DBut, you know, he made some better choices when he was younger.
Speaker DHe made some movies where he actually had a little more range.
Speaker DBut now he does seem.
Speaker ANot Green Lantern.
Speaker BSure.
Speaker DBut he does seem to play a very similar wise, cracking character in almost every movie now.
Speaker BSo I can.
Speaker BI can do this back in.
Speaker BBack in the days.
Speaker BAsian representation in.
Speaker BIn Hollywood is horrible.
Speaker BThat's the reason why Bruce D.
Speaker BOnly can do one type of movies.
Speaker BYou know, they play Cato and Green Hornet.
Speaker ARight.
Speaker BHe did offer to try to get his movie warriors, the script written up to do the show warriors.
Speaker BAnd they would say no, he was going to do Kung Fu.
Speaker BThey say no, that's right.
Speaker BI'll.
Speaker BLeon, good friend of mine who is also in Big Charlie China.
Speaker BThe guy with a mustache.
Speaker AYeah.
Speaker ALong hair, long mustache.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker BVery good friend of mine.
Speaker BHe's.
Speaker BHe wrote a story, a script about a man turned into a bug.
Speaker AHuh.
Speaker BGuess what?
Speaker AFamiliar.
Speaker BOh, yeah.
Speaker BIt did Hollywood.
Speaker AHe couldn't get it made, but somebody else did.
Speaker BSomebody stole the idea and made a movie.
Speaker BThe Eye man.
Speaker AWow.
Speaker BAnd he tried to sue them and he didn't get anywhere.
Speaker AWow.
Speaker BIt was his script.
Speaker DWhich move.
Speaker AThat's.
Speaker BI think they called the eye the.
Speaker BThe.
Speaker BThe fly.
Speaker BThe fly.
Speaker BLet me double check.
Speaker BSo.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker BBut now.
Speaker DOh, the.
Speaker DJeff Gold.
Speaker DSo that was a.
Speaker AThe remake of.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker DSo he wrote.
Speaker DHe wrote a script for the.
Speaker DFor a new fly and they made it, but didn't give him credit for it.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker BWell, they took the idea.
Speaker BThey take the concept.
Speaker BThe concept is some of the dialogue.
Speaker ASure.
Speaker DWow.
Speaker BSo he's.
Speaker BHe's very much said that he.
Speaker BHe have a hard time getting any supporting role or major role because of that.
Speaker BAnd this is a guy who's been.
Speaker BBack in the days and then Brandon Lee got better, you know, in.
Speaker BIn the Sense of.
Speaker BThey got a supreme role, people recognize him and they just die off.
Speaker BYou know, unfortunately, the, the 90s become ninja, so all the Japanese actors become popular.
Speaker BAnd then the, the during 2000, martial art no longer become popular.
Speaker BIt's become just a dead thing.
Speaker BAnd now because of all the different new movies coming out that in K pop, also influencing people, like indication culture a lot more.
Speaker BAll this coming back because they feel like there's, there's.
Speaker BAnd you can see Netflix a lot of Asian movies in there.
Speaker BYeah, there's a huge popular need for that.
Speaker BI really want to see something different.
Speaker DWe've been watching some K dramas, but I, I think my.
Speaker DOur favorite one is Extraordinary Attorney Wu.
Speaker DOkay.
Speaker AYes.
Speaker DWe adore that show is so good.
Speaker AThat show is fantastic.
Speaker BI like.
Speaker BYeah, I like K drama better than Chinese drama because China drama is usually 36 episodes of 46 episodes, they did a three.
Speaker DSo last year or the last couple of years, they.
Speaker DNetflix did a.
Speaker DThe Three Body Problem miniseries, but China released one at the same time.
Speaker DAnd I'm like, oh, I think I want to watch that.
Speaker DIt's.
Speaker DIt is.
Speaker DIt's like 36 episodes long.
Speaker DBut the book is like, you know, I read the book.
Speaker AIsn't that.
Speaker AThe book isn't that long.
Speaker DYeah, but I, I, you know, the, the Netflix drama really just kind of glazed over it.
Speaker DSo I'm very interested to see the Chinese one because obviously 36 episodes, I get bored.
Speaker DThey're gonna do it justice.
Speaker BThey, they basically page of the store, the book or whatever Chinese drama you watch.
Speaker BEverything is based on the.
Speaker BThe somebody script or somebody's story.
Speaker BSomebody books.
Speaker BThey just do page by page by page by page.
Speaker AThey don't, they don't, they don't cut anything.
Speaker AThat's the same thing with like a, A lot of the Three Kingdoms series, different series.
Speaker AThey don't cut anything out.
Speaker AThey don't try, you know, because a lot of times with American scripts especially, they're like, oh, you know, that's a subplot that we really don't need, or this, that, and the other.
Speaker ABut yeah, with Chinese dramas, a lot of times they're like, nope, this is the source material.
Speaker AEverything is important.
Speaker AWe're doing it all.
Speaker BUnfortunately, I don't think it works on TV or movies.
Speaker BI think it works better in script, on books, because you can sit and read it throughout the whole thing.
Speaker BIn story.
Speaker BIt get very, very, very low.
Speaker BI get bored.
Speaker BI had to fast forward.
Speaker BI'm watching right now a show called I Can't Remember the Show name now Some Kind of the Coroner, which basically is based on the Tang Dynasty and the Tang dynasty.
Speaker BIt's a 36 episode.
Speaker BI had to fast forward because I can't.
Speaker BI can't handle it.
Speaker BEnough talking.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker AEnough about the chickens, move on.
Speaker DAnd then people.
Speaker DPeople complain that, you know, movies, they didn't include this one part from the book and it's like, it's the exact.
Speaker DYou don't understand if they did.
Speaker DIf they included everything, you probably.
Speaker DIf they really gave you what you think you want, you're probably going to like it even less.
Speaker AWell, well, but then, you know, that depends, right?
Speaker ABecause like look at Lord of the Rings.
Speaker BWell, it's only three books though.
Speaker BI mean, three.
Speaker BThree mov.
Speaker BThree movies and hob movies or six movies.
Speaker BBut the books is what, 20 toy books?
Speaker DSomething like that.
Speaker DBut then they.
Speaker DThey still adapted and moved and.
Speaker DAnd like.
Speaker ARight.
Speaker AThey did change things here and there.
Speaker DLikely tell it in.
Speaker DIn the same order because it.
Speaker DIt's just easier in that medium to tell it a certain way.
Speaker BWell, Harry Potter stuff's got to go.
Speaker BHarry Potter is seven movies.
Speaker AYeah, same thing with Harry Potter movies.
Speaker BAnd then.
Speaker BYeah, but again, it's not the whole book page by page.
Speaker BMore like condensing each book in one story.
Speaker AYeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker ANo, for some reason the.
Speaker AThe Chinese dramas, they just don't do that.
Speaker DSo you're telling me I should avoid that three body problem?
Speaker BI'd say if you want to watch, Doug, it's an interesting storyline, so go ahead and watch.
Speaker DI love the book.
Speaker AWell, I would say if you love the book and you want a very thorough presentation of it in a.
Speaker AIn a visual medium, then.
Speaker AThen I think it's Netflix one.
Speaker DThe Netflix one so much that it almost wasn't the same story.
Speaker DYeah, it was still good.
Speaker DI thought it was still well done, but it just was it.
Speaker ABut it wasn't the same.
Speaker AIt wasn't the book.
Speaker AYeah, not really.
Speaker DIt didn't have a lot of the same.
Speaker BBut before I do that, watch the Judge D mystery because it's based on a Thai dynasty and.
Speaker AOkay, it's really good.
Speaker BI mean it's.
Speaker BIt's just D is a.
Speaker BIt's like a Sherlock Holmes.
Speaker BIt was a crate.
Speaker BIt's a real person, not like Sherlock Holmes, real judge, very smart.
Speaker BAnd then.
Speaker BBut most of the story are made up by a writer who funny enough, and European or French writer wrote the book.
Speaker BIt got very popular based on what he found the historical papers.
Speaker AInteresting.
Speaker ASo a French author was the one that succeeded and made it famous.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker BQuite interesting how.
Speaker BIt's very funny.
Speaker DInteresting.
Speaker BBut again, now you are appreciating culture.
Speaker BYou're not appropriating the culture.
Speaker DYeah, correct.
Speaker AThere you go.
Speaker CAnd that is one of the reasons why I was asking the question, because it can.
Speaker BThe lines can be blurred very easily.
Speaker BYes.
Speaker AYeah, yeah.
Speaker DWell, Johnny, we want to thank you so much for being a part of the show today.
Speaker DIt's been such a pleasure to talk to you.
Speaker DI can't wait to come out.
Speaker DI'm gonna try to get out there on Sunday.
Speaker DSeems like there's a lot of stuff going on on Sunday.
Speaker AYou can see him in armor.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker BIf you meet at 2 o' clock, you'll see me on armor on stage at 2 o' clock.
Speaker AAre you going to be doing any scenes from the.
Speaker AFrom the movie or just.
Speaker BAre you crazy?
Speaker BThat's too much work.
Speaker BLook around and then walk by out the station.
Speaker DWell, before we let you go, tell everyone how they can find you either, whether it's on social media, things like that, and then also the.
Speaker DThe festival.
Speaker BSo the Asian Festival.
Speaker BThe Cleveland Asian Festival.
Speaker BYou can find them information at the cleveland asian festival.org or you can actually search on Facebook.
Speaker BCleveland Asian Festival, you can find everywhere.
Speaker BAs for me, all you have to do is search for Johnny K.
Speaker BWu and you'll find me everywhere.
Speaker BOr MDI film.
Speaker DAwesome.
Speaker AThat's nice.
Speaker DAll right, well, thanks again, man.
Speaker DIt's been a pleasure having you.
Speaker BThank you.
Speaker AHaving been fantastic, Johnny.
Speaker AAlways good to see you, Johnny.
Speaker BLikewise.
Speaker DThank you for taking the lead at the beginning with all of our technical.
Speaker ADifficulties, Captain, my captain.
Speaker DWe still got an episode in which is awesome.
Speaker ANothing wrong with that.
Speaker BYeah, yeah.
Speaker BLet me know, Jeff, when you.
Speaker BWhen you have it available online, I can help.
Speaker BI'll be happy to share it everywhere.
Speaker BAll right.
Speaker DYeah, we're going to try to drop this on Wednesday.
Speaker DSo if you're.
Speaker DYou're listening to it, it's already Wednesday.
Speaker DSo thanks for listening.
Speaker DThanks again.
Speaker DWe'll see you guys next month.
Speaker DHopefully we're going to be talking to the Cleveland Guardians.
Speaker DNo, not the baseball team.
Speaker DThe original Cleveland Guardians.
Speaker DThe Roller derby.
Speaker ARoller derby team.
Speaker DYeah, we're going to.
Speaker DWe met them at Fan Expo and we're hoping to talk to them on the show.
Speaker DSo stay tuned, guys.
Speaker DWe'll see you.
Speaker BBye.
Speaker DBye.
Speaker BBye.
Speaker AThanks.
Speaker AWe're waving.
Speaker AThe podcast is Real is a world Gone Geek production.