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The Expendables fuckin' rocked.

Last month, I predicted for Jeff Yang’s summer blockbuster round-up that The Expendables (co-starring Jet Li) would be the best movie of the summer. Although I planned to see the movie on opening night, I only managed to make it to the theatres last Monday night — which was all the better since the movie’s first two weekends were jam-packed.

And yes, it was well worth the wait. The Expendables was fuckin’ awesome.

The incredible thing about The Expendables was how it knew exactly who its audience was — 25-34 year old males — and adapted itself accordingly. The Expendables is best described as a campy eighties action flick with post-millennial special effects.

Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone) is an aging special forces-type guy who heads a gang of mercenaries, along with his lieutenants Lee Christmas (Jason Statham) and Ying Yang (Jet Li — yes, his name is a play on yin and yang). Sure, they’re mercenaries, but they’re “mercenaries with morals” — they apparently only get hired to save innocents from bad guys with big guns. The movie establishes this point clearly within the first few minutes of the movie: the mercs are hired to save some hostages from some pirates. Shortly after Stallone and Statham ruthlessly execute five pirates (using handguns and knives respectively — it’s a running gag), they are aghast when Gunner (Dolph Lundgren) wants to hang one of the pirates from a noose.

“We don’t do that,” says Stallone’s character, moments before Jet Li attempts to stop Lundgren with his fists. After the dust settles, Gunner is fired from the crew for being too cold-hearted. And, so we know that the Expendables are “good mercenaries”.

What follows is some completely meaningless events to get the team of Expendables to the final, climatic fight scene. We can’t really even call it a plot — it’s more of an excuse to move the characters to the fight scene. It had something to do with Angel from Dexter leading a massive army of faceless soldiers (aka cannon fodder for the Expendables) to take over a small South American island, and working with Eric Roberts to rule it with an iron fist and a ton of cocaine. Angel’s daughter is Stallone’s love interest, and she needs a-rescuing. But who cares, right? Within fifteen minutes, we know who the good guys are and who the bad guys are, and all we care about is how the good guys will destroy the bad guys.

Much like the “A” Team, the Expendables each have a silly name, a field of expertise, and a personality quirk. Stallone is the strategist (yes, that is probably ironic) and the gunner, Statham is the knife expert with a superfluous white knight subplot, and Li is the stealthy martial artist who inexplicably wants more money. Hale Caeser (Terry Crews) is the heavy weapons expert (AA-12 baby!) who names his weapons after women, and Toll Road (Randy Couture) is the MMA specialist who preaches the virtues of psychiatric  therapy. Mickey Rourke plays Tool, Stallone’s mentor and retired war buddy.

On the villain side, we have Angel and his army of red shirts. Eric Roberts is his business partner, an ex-CIA agent turned drug kingpin; Gary Daniels (kick-boxing champ) plays The Brit and Stone Cold Steve Austin plays Paine, Roberts’ bodyguards.

Just like ’80’s action flicks, The Expendables doesn’t concern itself with race consciousness or stereotypes. Yes, the black guy is a fast-talkin’ brutish dude with biceps bigger than my thighs. Yes, the Asian guy is money-grubbing. Yes, the plot involves White guys saving brown people from other White guys. Yes, the only Expendables who even remotely get a nod at character development are the White guys in the lead. Yes, none of the women have agency, and are little more than props to help the boys demonstrate the size of their cojones. And the movie can be justifiably criticized for these points — this was, after all, a problem with all 80’s action flicks.

In fact, I was disappointed in the treatment of both the female characters in this movie. Charisma Carpenter’s entire point in the movie was to suffer domestic violence and be rescued. Giselle Itie spends most of the movie captured and being tortured, or otherwise powerlessly angry. And there’s really no excuse for this — even 80’s action flicks had powerful heroines. Why couldn’t there have been a sexy but bad-ass female Expendable?

But, when it comes to the race stuff, there’s something a little charming and tongue-in-cheek about how it’s done. The stereotypes are there, without a doubt. But, Terry Crews’ Hale Caeser steals every scene he’s in, and I guarantee that he will be considered the most bad-ass of the characters by anyone who watches the movie. Racebending’s review suggests that Crews doesn’t get his own characterization, but I would argue that none of the Expendables excluding Statham and Stallone, get any real chance to develop a personality. Crews is forgettable for the first hour, but so is Couture — and, unlike Couture, Crews is unmissable in the last thirty minutes.

Racebending notes that Jet Li’s Yang never wins his own battles (even though the other Expendables get their own fight scenes) — however, I think this was a running joke of the movie. Yang complains several times that the other Expendables keep stepping in to ”rescue” him — when he was perfectly capable of taking care of the fight himself. The other Expendables think of Li as weaker, but Yang repeatedly disputes this point and even gets angry at Stallone for saving him in his first fight scene.

Further — and hopefully I don’t get flamed for this — the one scene where Li makes short jokes about himself was hilarious. Offensive, but hilarious. Jet Li is smaller than the other Expendables (and we see Crews make a quip about that in the trailer), but Li’s character actually runs with it. He argues to the effect that because he is shorter, he has to work harder than the other Expendables, and therefore should be paid more money. To me, this was using a stereotype, but also reappropriating it to the benefit of Li’s character — we end up appreciating Li’s good-natured humour about his stature. Further, I also liked how Li’s money-grubbing was contrasted with his character’s integrity — Yang is the one who goes toe-to-toe with Gunner at the beginning to save the pirate, and he’s the first mercenary to join Stallone on the suicide mission to the final fight scene.

And how about that final fight scene? I’m not going to give away its awesomeness, but let’s put it this way: if you grew up on vintage 80’s action movies (and you miss them now), and liked the recent Rambo sequel, than you will love this movie’s action scenes.

In summary, The Expendables was total schlock — and that’s what made it so damn awesome. Fuck, yeah!

How long until the sequel?

Are you a sexy, yet sensitive, Asian American man who just hasn’t received the kind of lovin’ deserve? Fear not — Hyphen Magazine has just the outlet for your good-lookin’, yet dashingly philanthropic, self. I’m re-posting this announcement, for those of you who missed it last week:

Hyphen Magazine is having its annual Mr. Hyphen contest November 6th, 2010! We are on our MEGA search for contestants: Asian/Pacific Islander American men who are involved in their communities. This is great opportunity for our fellow leaders be recognized for their empowering work and raise money for a charity that concerns them. We would love for you to pass this announcement along to any friends, family, or community members you know via email, Twitter, Facebook or word of mouth! This link includes all information, contest rules, and the application itself!

The deadline is Friday, September 17th, 2010.

What are you still doing reading this blog? Go apply!

I stumbled upon this article earlier this week detailing a paper recently published by two University at Buffalo researchers on health disparities that disproportionately disadvantage Asian Americans. Here’s an excerpt:

In their paper, “Barriers to Health Care Among Asian Americans,” UB School of Social Work professors Wooksoo Kim and Robert H. Keefe write that Asian Americans cannot be carelessly lumped together with such easy stereotypes as “well adjusted” or “successful.” In addition to the many Asian Americans who have assimilated well and become accomplished professionals, able to enjoy all the accompanying benefits, millions of Asian Americans still face daunting obstacles that stand in the way of quality health care, the UB researchers say.

Their conclusions are based on analysis of previous research into health care disparities among U.S. racial and ethnic groups, including Asian Americans, and upon U.S. Census data.

Four major barriers — language and culture, health literacy, health insurance and immigrant status — create vast differences between some Asian Americans with access to good health care and those who endure these barriers as best they can, the researchers conclude in their study, published this summer in Social Work in Public Health.

“Previous researchers (who studied selective nationalities or regional groups) may extrapolate from their findings to form a model they believe is representative of all Asian Americans,” explain Kim and Keefe. “This limitation not only fails to flush out differences among the Asian-American groups not being studied, but the one group under study is unlikely to be representative of its own ethnic Asian-American population.”

All these factors “perpetuate the myth of the well-adjusted Asian American,” the researchers find.

“Asian Americans are considered a ‘model minority,’ which prevents many Asian Americans from getting help when they need it, and this study addresses that issue,” Kim explains. “There is a dire need to expand our knowledge regarding better health care services for Asian Americans. I hope health care providers and policy makers become more cognizant of the needs of 12 million Asian Americans in this country.”

What I found fascinating about the study was how the researchers described a network of factors that create obstacles for Asian Americans. It’s not just one thing or another that makes Asian Americans (or other minority groups) more susceptible to health disparities, but several factors that work together to make it more difficult for Asian Americans to receive the healthcare they need.

The article speaks to the complexity of political issues that affect minority groups in America, and particularly how healthcare professionals and legislators who understand the unique challenges faced by our community can help alleviate these problems.

According to the researchers, attempts to address the issue of uneven health care among Asian Americans need to take these barriers into account.

“The presence of health care experts who are knowledgeable about Asian-American culture and social conditions can help remove, or mitigate, the effects of the barriers to health care for Asian Americans,” the researchers write.

Improving access for Asian Americans also improves the chances other under-served groups will benefit from quality health care.

In the long run, a country with healthy Asian Americans is a necessary condition for a stronger health-care system in the United States, the researchers say. “Health care for Asian Americans cannot be conceptualized without considering health care for all Americans,” Kim says.

It’s that time of year again! Hyphen Magazine is looking for their next Mr. Hyphen. Here’s the call for applicants:

APPLY TO BECOME THE NEXT MR. HYPHEN! 

This competition highlights Asian American men who are leaders and give back to their communities. This event is chance to win a $1,000 prize for nonprofit cause you represent, and it’s also the only competition that gives recognition to our Asian American brothers, the recognition that they — and you — deserve!

DEADLINE: September 17, 2010
APPLY ONLINE

If you fit the bill to be the next Mr. Hyphen, head on over to Hyphen Magazine and submit your name to strut your stuff this November!

Cuts sustained by Tila Tequila at Gathering of the Juggalos

Tila Tequila, reality TV star and aspiring musician, was allegedly mobbed Friday night at The Gathering of the Juggalos, a music festival for hardcore fans of Insane Clown Posse. Tequila was performing a set as part of the festival’s Ladies Night.

According to Tequila’s own account of what happened, video of the first few seconds of the attack, statements by law enforcement, and Tweets from festival-goers, the audience was riled up within minutes of Tequila appearance on-stage. Tequila attempted to calm the audience down by baring her breasts, which only seemed to infuriate the audience more. Tequila was pelted with thrown objects, including rocks and beer bottles, causing multiple cuts and bruises all over her face and body. She left the stage to hide in her trailer, which was quickly surrounded by the mob who smashed its windows. Only when she escaped the trailer did the violence die down.

Look, I’m no fan of Tila Tequila. I think she’s an embarassment to the Asian American community, and her attempts at a music career are laughable.

But no one deserves to be physically assaulted, particularly not in what may have been an organized attack by uncaring music fans trying to intimidate and threaten her. Tila Tequila may not belong at an Insane Clown Posse music festival, but girl doesn’t need the message sent in the form of a brick to her head.

Charles Djou, Congressman from Hawaii

Republican and Chinese-American Congressman Charles Djou, from Hawaii, has an opinion piece on the Wall Street Journal today defending the 14th Amendment. The article is protected by subscription access, but VDARE has graciously reposted an excerpt:

“The 14th Amendment is one of the crowning achievements of the Republican Party. Following the Civil War, the 14th Amendment guaranteed due process for every person under the law and helped to reunite a fractured nation. It pains me to think that we may start tinkering with this fundamental fabric of our union.

The problem of illegal immigration is a difficult one, touching deeply held beliefs and emotions. But the president and both parties in Congress have a responsibility to engage in a good-faith effort to reach a consensus on an approach that enforces the law, expands legal immigration, and closes the door on illegal immigration.

In the midst of this complex debate, I have faith that the same political process that created the 14th Amendment can produce sound immigration policy that respects our borders and the people who cross over them. I have faith that “We the people” will ultimately move us closer to a “more perfect union.”

As the son of legal immigrants, Djou recognizes that the issue of illegal immigration can only be resolved by encouraging legal immigration. This must involve reforming the current immigration system, making it simpler to navigate immigration law and shortening wait and processing times for applicants. To me, Djou’s position is a textbook example of why improving political representation for minority communities is important; here, Djou’s racial and ethnic background informs his position on the immigration debate in such a way as to provide diversity of thought even within the Republican party.

That being said, Djou also makes a couple comments that seem ahistorical, at best. First of all, while it’s important to recognize the 14th Amendment as a crowing achievement of the Republican Party, we must remember that the Republicans of the Civil War era are not the same Republicans as today. Furthermore, as VDare points out, the “political process that created the 14th Amendment” included a bloody Civil War that fractured the country. Although America is currently politically divided over immigration, advocating a second Civil War seems a wee bit impractical.

I’m hopeful that we can reach comprehensive immigration reform without pulling out our muskets.

(H/T Angry Asian Man)

This is my "badass" face.

This has to be the most brilliant video game review I have ever read. Boing Boing managed to get three current, honest-to-God members of the yakuza, to play and review Yakuza 3, a Grand Theft Auto-style videogame inspired by the infamous Japanese gangsters.

Yakuza 3 follows the story of protagonist Kazama Kiryu, a retired yakuza who runs an orphanage in Okinawa. Unfortunately, plot events conspire to force Kiryu to return to his yakuza ways, so that he can defend his orphanage from corrupt real estate developers.

Jewish-American reporter Jake Adelstein was joined by three yakuza members (given nicknames for the purposes of the article) to play through the Japanese version of Yakuza 3 and review its authenticity. Although their gameplay was hampered by missing fingers (which apparently makes holding a PS3 controller difficult), the three yakuza members managed to finish the game.

Boing Boing recounts their reactions to various elements of the videogame. Here was my favourite:

FIGHT SCENES

Author’s note: Midoriyama gets very excited during the fighting sequences, standing up from the couch at points and actually lurching towards the screen. Kuroishi never loses his cool playing the game and keeps practicing combinations until he gets it right. Shirokawa curses under his breath, but whenever he wins he yells “Yatta!”. They all agree that the combat is strictly fantasy material, with some exceptions.

S: Nobody ever dies. It’s unrealistic.

K: Kiryu is fighting all the time. He’s gotta be a fucking idiot. No yakuza is going to run around getting into fistfights like that. Especially not an executive type. He’ll wind up in jail or in the hospital or dead, maybe even whacked by his own people for being a troublemaker. These days, he’d probably get kicked out before even going to jail. Guys like that start gang wars and nobody wants that now. When a yakuza gets into a fight, it’s serious business.

M: A real fight–it’s short and it’s brutal. Over in a minute. Nobody goes around trading blows and crap like that. Usually the first guy to punch wins.

K: I like that you can grab things like ashtrays or billboards and beat the crap out of the punks bothering you. Or smash their faces into car windows. That’s what you’d really do in a fight, grab something and use it as a weapon.

S: Why doesn’t he just shoot them?

K: That would be unrealistic. Nobody is going to waste a bullet on some street punk, like the ones that keep bugging Kiyru.

M: If they wanted to make it realistic, he’d pull out a gun and shoot it and miss! Or the damn thing wouldn’t fire. That would be realistic. (They all laugh).

K: Shooting people sends a message.

M: So does shooting anything. Shooting people gets you sent to jail.

K: That’s part of the job description.

I don’t know if this review makes me want to buy and play Yakuza 3, but it sure as heck makes me want to read other video games reviewed by yakuza. Could you imagine? Metal Gear Solid 4 as reviewed by yakuza. Dynasty Warriors as reviewed by yakuza. Super Mario Brothers as reviewed by yakuza. Dance Dance Revolution as reviewed by yakuza. Monkey Ball as reviewed by yakuza. There should be a whole blog devoted to this subject.

Fred Korematsu

My latest post over at Change.org:

Tell Gov. Schwarzenegger to Support Fred Korematsu Day

From Arizona’s SB1070 to anti-government rhetoric spouted by the Tea Party, this election season, threats to our basic civil liberties abound. Against this political backdrop, it seems more important than ever to remember the civil rights heroes and champions who paved the way ahead of us.

Fred Korematsu was one such champion — if an unrecognized one.

In 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt passed Executive Order 9066, ordering the round-up and imprisonment of thousands of Japanese Americans along America’s West Coast. Families of Japanese Americans were herded into temporary internment camps, and later into permanent relocation camps that dotted the deserts of the Southwest.

An American citizen who was born in Oakland, California, Fred Korematsu refused to abide by E.O. 9066. As families across the West Coast were forced into barbed-wire camps, surrounded by armed guards, Korematsu refused to report for internment. In 1942, he was arrested and convicted in a federal court for violating a military executive order and forcibly detained at a series of internment camps. But that didn’t stop him from appealing his case in front of the U.S. Supreme Court in 1944 on the grounds that E.O. 9066 was “racist.”

Fred Korematsu, who passed away on March 30, 2005, dedicated his entire life to fighting for civil rights. Now, it’s our turn to honor him.

Read more

Act Now! And here’s the associated petition you can sign, inspired by the work of the Fred T. Korematsu Institute for Civil Rights and Education.

Angel Island Immigration Center

Jeff of “Asian Pop” has written a brilliant column this week, exploring the irony of the GOP’s war on birthright citizenship on the centennial anniversary of Angel Island. Jeff eloquently recounts how the ”paper son” phenomenon re-shaped the American landscape, and provided the basis for the Asian American community. Here’s an excerpt:

For his part, Wong’s father rarely talked about his paper son status at all. The remembered humiliations of detention and the lasting guilt at having borne false witness had created walls of shame around his Angel Island story, as restrictive as those that had jailed him decades before.

That desire to forget the past comes with its own price, Genny Lim notes. “My mother and father and sister all came through Angel Island, and I never even knew that until I started to do research on the subject,” she says. “My father even accused me of digging up something that shows our community in a very negative light — that we came here illegally, that we violated the law. His psychology is marked by this trauma that we Chinese are unwelcome here, that we are never going to be bona fide Americans. So he and my mother were afraid to participate in politics and in the civic process, because they never felt they had the right to do so, and were afraid that they would be condemned if they did.”

In 1980, Lim was moved by her parents’ plight to write a play about the Angel Island experience, “Paper Angels,” which still stands today as one of the most vivid and important illustrations of this painful era in immigration history. Written as a series of sharply drawn vignettes, it follows a group of detainees of varied background and purpose as they undergo ruthless cross-examinations, attempt to reconcile the bright promises made to them and the miserable reality of their internment, and ultimately, survive or succumb to stress, rage and frustration.

It ends with a resonant moment, as young, pregnant Mei Lai delivers her baby — a son, blessed by accident of geography with the right to U.S. citizenship; this leads the warden to release of Mei Lai and her husband out of “special consideration” for her status as the mother of a newborn American.

It is a hopeful ending to an otherwise bleak narrative, but one that highlights once again the dangerous rhetoric that has entered into recent discourse on immigration. In our contemporary era, Mei Lai’s son Yang would not be seen as a symbol of new hope in a new nation, but an “anchor baby” — an ugly term in an even uglier debate.

There’s little evidence that our borders are being threatened by an invasion of pregnant women, seeking to use their offspring as a tether to America (and the legal reality is that illegals still face deportation even if they have American-born citizen children).

Nevertheless, this alleged phenomenon has inspired leading Republicans like Sen. Lindsay Graham, Sen. Minority Whip Jon Kyl and Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to call for hearings to discuss repealing or altering the 14th Amendment to eliminate jus solis, the standard of citizenship for any and all born on this nation’s soil and under this nation’s laws. It should be noted that without jus solis as laid out in the 14th Amendment and upheld in the Wong Kim Ark decision, some 90 percent of the Chinese American population might not exist today — and nor, in essence, would America.

That’s because birthright citizenship is a quintessential part of what makes our nation what it is — a free and democratic society that abhors tyranny and welcomes its victims; that treats people as individuals and respects their civil and human rights; that does not discriminate based on race, culture or country of origin.

Read the whole article here: Born in the U.S.A.

Kimberly Yee, newly appointed AZ State Rep for District 10. She is the first Asian American woman to serve in the Arizona State Legislature.

Kimberly Yee made history in Arizona by becoming the first Asian American woman to serve in the Arizona State Legislature, nearly 50 years after the first Asian American – Wing F. Ong – was elected to the Arizona State Legislature in 1964.

Yee is a Republican who was appointed by the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors to replace former Representative Doug Quelland as State Representative for District 10. While living in California, Yee served in Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Cabinet as Deputy Cabinet Secretary, and has been active in Arizona politics in Maricopa County since returning to Phoenix.

It’s great to see an Asian American woman making such headway in the political sphere, particular in a state with such regressive racial politics as Arizona. Sadly, I disagree with Yee on virtually all of her politics: she’s pro-life, pro-guns, pro-privatized healthcare, and pro-charter schools . Further, I’m kind of disappointed that the first Asian American woman to serve in the Arizona State Legislature fails to even acknowledge her racial and ethnic background on her official biography.

But, as I said when I was talking about Barry Wong, I have a soft spot for Asian American politicians, even if I completely disagree with their politic and would never, ever vote for them.

So, kudos, to Representative Yee. May you revise your political stances while serving in the State Legislature.

Cross-posted: Blog for Arizona