http://www.asiaarts.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=52373An EXCELLENT interview with Sung Kang and Russell Wong about their new movie Undoing.
Sung Kang has a lot of stuff to say, and they're so deep and insightful!
Make sure to read it!!
One thing I thought was interesting:
APA: Do you think you're going to continue going back and forth between Hollywood and independent films?
SK: In a perfect world that would be great. Do Hollywood films where you're paid a certain rate, you can send your kids to school, and work with some really established actors. At the independent level, that's where an Asian American actor is really going to get the chance to play a three-dimensional character and take a risk. We can look at Variety and Hollywood Reporter or imdb to see all these films in production, and how many of the first to fourth principle roles will go to Asian Americans. I'd say 99% of them will not, so on the indie level, there might be more opportunity. But independent films are designed to fail, so if these films don't get distributed and tickets don't sell, I think the likelihood of indie films is pretty sparse too.
Plot (from Wikipedia)
After a mysterious year-long absence, SAM KIM (Sung Kang) returns to Los Angeles determined to find redemption from the past. His mentor and only friend, DON OSA (Tom Bower), is a retired gangster with a parallel desire to leave the former world behind. But as Sam tries to balance revenge with reconciliation, he is drawn back to the shadowy world he left behind. Can Sam undo his mistakes before losing what he came back to save?
The story unfolds as we learn about the night, a year ago, when Sam and JOON (Leonardo Nam) meet for a joyride through Koreatown. Joon has more serious plans for the evening, but they soon go terribly wrong, leaving Sam alone and lost in a world he desperately wants to escape.
A year later, Sam returns to the scene of the crime, and with Don’s help, finishes what he should have done a year ago. But just as things appear to be resolved, we find out that Sam came back not only to avenge Joon’s death, but also to win back his love, VERA (Kelly Hu). Sam locates Vera working as a waitress/bar manager at the Red Room, and they’re suddenly thrown back into their impossible desires for each other; two people who seem hopelessly isolated from the world around them and from each other. Abandoned a year ago, Vera resents Samuel and now finds herself deep in debt and also emotionally entangled with the owner of the Red Room, RANDALL (Jose Zuniga). With no family and no outside resources, Sam must return to the Koreatown streets of his past in attempt to settle Vera’s obligations, as well as his own debts to the past. His reckless naiveté leads him to hustle a corrupt, veteran police detective named KASAWA (Mary Mara). Unbeknownst to others, Kasawa and Sam’s mentor Don share a history in a former generation of inner city crime. Though the two have lead their lives in opposing order: one in law enforcement and the other in crime; they share a unique bond in their attempt to find comfort in the niche they’ve spent a lifetime carving out. But Sam stirs chaos and, in classical noir form, “good” and “bad” are not so easy to differentiate; each character struggles with the conflicting impulses of good and evil in the world around them, and in themselves.
Posted 12 December 2007 - 08:24 PM
