Giant Robot: Asian Pop Culture and Beyond / Chungking Express
- This is a past program
Presented by the UCLA Film & Television Archive.
Part of the UCLA Film & Television Archive screening series A Film Series for You: Celebrating Giant Robot’s 30th Anniversary. Learn more at cinema.ucla.edu.
In-person: Q&A with Giant Robot founder Eric Nakamura, magazine co-editor Martin Wong, co-director Dylan Robertson, actor Tamlyn Tomita (schedule permitting), actor-filmmaker Daniel Wu. A book signing for Giant Robot: Thirty Years of Defining Asian-American Pop Culture will begin at 6 p.m.
Giant Robot: Asian Pop Culture and Beyond (2022)
An episode of PBS SoCal’s Emmy Award-winning series Artbound, “Giant Robot: Asian Pop Culture and Beyond” is an insider look at the history and influence of the magazine from its earliest days. Interviews with founder Eric Nakamura along with Martin Wong (co-editor), Margaret Cho, Daniel Wu, David Choe, Claudine Ko (culture editor) and Wendy Lau (graphic designer) capture the DIY, punk-infused spirit that fueled its coverage of Asian and Asian American alternative culture as well as its distinctive, innovate look. Insightful and inspiring, the episode will be followed by an in-person conversation with many of its subjects.
DCP, color, 57 min. Directors: Dennis Nishi, Dylan Robertson.
Chungking Express (1994)
Wong Kar-wai’s masterpiece of Hong Kong cool came out the same year Giant Robot debuted as a zine, a fateful coincidence that, along with the premiere of Margaret Cho’s All-American Girl, makes 1994 a pretty good year in the rise of Asian and Asian American culture. Reviewed in GR issue #3 where it was ranked third in a top 10 of Hong Kong movies (behind Drunken Master II and The Lovers), Wong’s “quirky little gem” with “a very avant-garde, experimental feel to it” is a swirled reverie of action, romance, longing and mystery featuring Christopher Doyle’s dazzling cinematography and iconic performances from its entire cast.
DCP, color, in Cantonese with English subtitles, 103 min. Director: Wong Kar-wai. Screenwriter: Wong Kar-wai. With: Takeshi Kaneshiro, Brigitte Lin, Tony Leung Chiu-wai.
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