Class Notes: Week 3

API popular culture.

vs.

API’s and popular culture.

vs.

API’s in popular culture.

Better Luck Tomorrow (2002)

Directed by Justin Lin.

Coming of age crime-drama.

Film is out of order – starts near the end. Viewer knows they will kill someone.

Asian American high schoolers – Ben, Virgil, Han and Derik. They are all smart on the decathlon but they start to get involved in petty crimes. (asian stereotype)

Main character: Ben. He loves Stephanie and hates her boyfriend Steve.

Ben kills Steve and his friends help him bury the body. This scene however gruesome, was my favorite. I loved how it was shot. The camera went around in a circle, in one continuous shot as we saw Derik and Virgil make Steve die.

Virgil attempts suicide.

The viewer is left not knowing what will happen to the characters. We are led to believe that Ben and Stephanie end up together.

Foreshadowing:

Stephanie making gun with her hand, “shoots” Steve – Steve dies.

Steve takes Ben to the batting cages – Ben kills Steve with a baseball bat.

Rabbit in the Moon (1999-2004)

Directed by Emiko Omari.

Omari tells the story of the Japanese American concentration camps with the use of passed down stories, interviews and archival footage.

Japanese Americans were shipped off to camps after Pearl Harbor.

(1942-1945)

Nisei – American born, Americanized, went to school in America

Kebei – immigrants / undocumented

Isei – First generation American, went to school in Japan

The government did not trust the Japanese, they made them take a quiz to prove their loyalty.

Questionnaire:

27) Are you willing to serve in the United States Army?

28) Are you willing to give up your allegiance to the emperor of Japan?

Answering no = disloyal / untrustworthy