Review by Booklist Review
Yang (Rise: A Pop History of Asian America from the Nineties to Now, 2022), who founded A. Magazine, one of the first Asian American national magazines, and who contributes frequently to CNN and the New York Times, takes readers on a journey through the history of Asian and Asian American films in the U.S. Themed chapters ("Across the Diaspora," "Fists of Fury," "The Family Way") highlight both successful, authentic films as well as those that projected racist stereotypes in Hollywood, in deft profiles from Yang that include comments from other critics and photos. In dialogues with Yang, actors, filmmakers, and directors (Ken Jeong, Alice Wu, Daniel Dae Kim) share their experiences. A foreword from Academy Award--winning actress Michelle Yeoh and an afterword from Jonathan M. Chu, director of Crazy Rich Asians, round out this thorough and thought-provoking book. Hand this to readers interested in film history, pop culture, and Asian American studies and any reader wanting to better understand the diverse experiences and rich history of Asians and Asian Americans in film.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review
A comprehensive, incisive, and gorgeous celebration of a century's worth of Asian actors, characters, and contributors who have helped shaped American perspectives and Asian American representation. Yang's (I Am Jackie Chan) book more than ably addresses the rich, complex topic of cinema's influence on how Americans view Asians and how Asian Americans see themselves. This book contains a vibrant collection of more than 130 films, featuring Asian casts or key characters, from the last 100 years. The book presents one- to two-page profiles of each selected film, which are organized nonchronologically into eight thematic categories. Credits, plot points, and contextual commentary draw attention to each film's significance to the Asian American experience. Breathtaking visuals, including both color photographs and thought-provoking illustrations by nine Asian artists, fully engage readers' senses. Incisive, genre-spanning entries include Flower Drum Song, Mississippi Masala, Ghost in the Shell, The Goonies, Parasite, and RRR, all of which cover both the awkward and the award-winning moments in Asian representation on screen. Heartfelt quotes and interviews with Asian culture makers add additional depth and industry insight. VERDICT Highly recommended for libraries, general cinephiles, and readers interested in Asian American viewpoints.--Robin Chin Roemer
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A wide-ranging celebration of Asian Americans in film. Once opened, this book is hard to close. Lushly produced with a mix of screenshots and illustrations, it unwraps the history of Asian cinema in the U.S., punctuated by interviews with important figures. Yang, co-author of Rise: A Pop History of Asian America From the Nineties to Now, has worked in this area for long enough to speak with understated authority, and he looks at 136 films, providing reviews and background information. He groups them into categories such as immigration, family, action, and romance, which demonstrates the breadth of Asian cinema. His criteria for inclusion seem rather loose, with some movies made by Asian directors, some made in Asia that were imported by U.S. distributors, some with Asian headline stars, and others where only a minor character is Asian. In Hollywood movies in the postwar era, Asian characters were often portrayed by Westerners with heavy makeup and appalling accents, and most were pushed into stereotypical roles. But there was a slow process of change, helped along by directors like John Woo and Ang Lee. On the anime side, the visually stunning Akira (1988) broke through to the American teenage audience. Slumdog Millionaire won a slew of awards, and the huge success of Crazy Rich Asians cemented the commercial viability of Asian-themed movies. By the time Michelle Yeoh (who provides a foreword to the book) stepped up in the wildly enjoyable Everything Everywhere All at Once, Asian faces on the screen were no longer remarkable. Fortunately, most of the movies Yang discusses can be accessed in some way, and many readers will find themselves making a list. Perhaps the author might have delved deeper into the future of Asian American cinema, but this is not a fatal shortcoming, and the book is a fun, informative piece of work. Whether you dip into it or read it from cover to cover, this book brings a hidden history to life. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
