Wake up! Saturday School is a podcast where Brian Hu (@husbrian) and Ada Tseng (@adatseng) teach your unwilling children about Asian American pop culture history. New episodes released Saturdays at 8am, when all your friends are still in bed watching cartoons. It'll be a blast from the past, as they dig up some of their favorite works they've come across covering Asian American arts & entertainment over the years -- and discover other gems for the first time. Saturday School is a proud found ...
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In this week's Saturday School episode, we revisit the 2004 Alice Wu film "Saving Face," on the tail of its 20th anniversary. If you've been following this semester, you know we are paying tribute to the "Stars of Asian American Cinema." This episode is our PhD thesis for why Lynn Chen is the ultimate star of Asian American cinema. We also talk abo…
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In this week's episode, we're revisiting Gene Cajayon's 2000 film "The Debut," starring Dante Basco and Joy Bisco! Also starring Bernadette Balagtas! Eddie Garcia, Tirso Cruz III and Gina Alajar! Darion, Dion and Derek Basco! Premiere! DJ E-Man and DJ Icy Ice! Traditional Filipino Culture Night choreography! Trays and trays of food! Hip hop dance o…
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This week, we are revisting 1999's "ABCD," directed by Krutin Patel. It stars Sheetal Sheth and Faran Tahir as Indian American siblings, aka the "American Born Confused Desis" of the title. Madhur Jaffrey plays their mom, who has many opinions about who her kids should marry, and Aasif Mandvi (of "The Daily Show" fame) plays Sheetal Sheth's charmin…
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Season 9, Ep. 3: Hundred Percent
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Episode 3 of Saturday Season Semester 9 -- where we bask in the glow of our "Stars of Asian American Cinema" -- takes us back to the '90s. 1998's "Hundred Percent," directed by Eric Koyanagi, came out post-"Joy Luck Club," as Asian American filmmakers were experimenting with style, shedding the burden of representation and embracing hotness + silli…
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Season 9, Ep. 2: Hito Hata: Raise the Banner
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Episode 2 of our "Stars of Asian American Cinema" season goes back to the beginning with 1980's "Hito Hata: Raise the Banner," considered the first feature-length film made by and about Asian Americans. It was recently restored in 4K by the National Film Preservation Foundation. The film traces Japanese American history from the issei generation's …
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Season 9, Ep. 1: The Joy Luck Club
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Saturday School is officially back for Season 9! Brian and I are here to teach your unwilling children about Asian American pop culture history (which includes Russell Wong and watermelons). The theme for this semester is "Stars of Asian American Cinema." In recent years, it's been fun to see Asian Americans starring in Hollywood hits and winning p…
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We’ve arrived at the last episode of Saturday School Season 8, which explored the history of Asian American sci-fi films! And we end this semester of boundary-pushing imagination with a… documentary! Pailin Wedel’s “Hope Frozen: A Quest to Live Twice” from 2018, which is available to watch on Netflix. “Hope Frozen” is about a Thai family who decide…
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Season 8, Ep. 9: Advantageous (Futurestates Part 3)
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Where were we going with a Saturday School season delving into the history of Asian American sci-fi? In some ways, all episodes prior were leading up to Jennifer Phang's "Advantageous," a 2015 feature film that started as a 2012 short film in the Futurestates series. Often, Asian Americans and other people of color in Hollywood sci-fi represent a p…
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Season 8, Ep. 8: Futurestates (Part 2)
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On this week’s Saturday School, we’re continuing our exploration of Asian American sci-fi with a second episode on Futurestates, a groundbreaking sci-fi short film series spearheaded by Karim Ahmad that ran from 2010 to 2014 on public television and online. Before Black Mirror was another anthology series set in the future, Futurestates gave direct…
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Season 8, Ep. 7: Futurestates (Part 1 with Greg Pak)
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Throughout this season of Saturday School, we've been exploring the history of Asian American sci-fi films. So far, we've mostly focused on indie films from the 1980s to 2000s that overcame limited budgets and technologies to show what creative genre storytelling about Asian Americans could look like. Where was it leading? What would be possible if…
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Season 8, Ep. 6: Lumpia and Lumpia with a Vengeance
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Before "Shang-Chi," before "Ms. Marvel," Asian American film gave us the superhero Lumpia Man. On the latest episode of Saturday School (where this season we're exploring Asian American sci-fi), we revisit "Lumpia" (2003) and its sequel "Lumpia with a Vengeance" (2020). "Lumpia" was shot in director Patricio Ginelsa's hometown of Daly City with his…
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We're back to continue Season 8 of Saturday School, where we're exploring the roots of Asian American science fiction films. This week, we're thinking about movies like "Frankenstein," "Face/Off" or "Eyes Without a Face' -- plastic-surgery-gone-wrong films. So we are revisiting Pamela Tom's 1990 short film "Two Lies." It's from the point of view of…
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On Ep. 4 of Saturday School Season 8 (looking at Asian American sci-fi), we're talking about Shu Lea Cheang's 1994 experimental film, Fresh Kill. Shareen (Sarita Choudhury) and Claire (Erin McMurtry) are drawn into a corporate conspiracy when their daughter eats contaminated fish, her head glows green and she disappears. The same evil conglomerate …
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This week on Saturday School, we continue our season on Asian American sci-fi with the 1988 film "The Laser Man." What happens when an immigrant actor/director (Peter Wang) who's been one of the faces of burgeoning Asian American cinema in the 1980s (with the seminal indie "Chan is Missing" and "A Great Wall," the first US feature to be shot in Chi…
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For Saturday School Season 8, we are exploring Asian American sci-fi films. In this episode we explore the genre's prehistory, diving into the robots, Buddha livestreams, and fantastic futures of video artist Nam June Paik. We took a field trip up to SFMOMA, which is presenting a massive retrospective of Paik's work, on display until October 3. Pai…
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It's the year 2021. Asian Americans have survived the apocalypse, but as we emerge as a community blamed for the deadly virus, are we the villains, are we the misunderstood heroes or are we the robots? To help us figure it out, we're exploring Asian American sci-fi films for our 8th season of Saturday School. This is not a season about Hollywood sc…
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Season 7, Ep. 10: Down a Dark Stairwell
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We promised ourselves we would finish this season by the end of 2020, as it was inspired by the events of 2020. And here we are: episode 10 of our Saturday School semester on Asian American interracial cinema. We started from the 70s/80s and slowly worked our way up to the present. Ursula Liang's documentary "Down a Dark Stairwell" had its premiere…
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Season 7, Ep. 9: Signature Move
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It's the second to last episode of our season on Asian American interracial cinema, and this week, we're talking about Jennifer Reeder's 2017 film "Signature Move," written by and starring Fawzia Mirza. It's about a Pakistani American lawyer, Zaynab, who falls for a Mexican American bookstore owner, Alma. As they get to know each other, they compar…
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In this episode of Saturday School, where we're exploring Asian American interracial cinema, we look at the 2014 documentary "Lordville" by Rea Tajiri. The filmmaker had purchased a property in Lordville, New York, and she learned the land title traces back to John Lord, one of the original founders in Lordville, and his wife Betia Van Dunk, a Nati…
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Season 7, Ep. 7: American Revolutionary: The Evolution Of Grace Lee Boggs
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In this week's episode of Saturday School, as we explore Asian American interracial cinema, we revisit Grace Lee's 2013 documentary "American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs." The director Grace Lee first interviewed Grace Lee Boggs when she was searching for different women with the name "Grace Lee" to interview for her first film …
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In our next episode of Saturday School, where this season we're exploring Asian American interracial cinema, we look at the 2011 documentary "The Learning" by Ramona Diaz. It's about four women from the Philippines as they're recruited to be teachers in the American public school system around 2006. It follows them over the course of their first ye…
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Season 7, Ep. 5: Fakin' da Funk
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As we've been exploring Asian American interracial cinema this season at Saturday School, we've covered a lot of heavy subject matter. But not everything related to cross-cultural storytelling is traumatic and existential. This week, we revisit the 1997 comedy "Fakin' da Funk," starring — are you ready for this? — Dante Basco, Pam Grier, Ernie Huds…
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Season 7, Ep. 4: Mississippi Masala (again)
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This week's episode is a rebroadcast of our Season 2 episode on Mira Nair's 1992 film "Mississippi Masala." Our second season was about "Asian Americans in Love," and this romantic drama. about an Indian Ugandan family in Mississippi, is also an example of a story that ties Asian American and African American history together. So as we explore the …
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Season 7, Ep. 3: Sa-I-Gu and Wet Sand: Voices from L.A.
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In this week’s Saturday School episode, in our season exploring Asian American interracial cinema, we look at the 1993 documentary “Sa-I-Gu” by Dai Sil Kim-Gibson, Christine Choy and Elaine Kim, as well as Kim-Gibson’s update 10 years later in 2003’s “Wet Sand: Voices From L.A.” Both films are available to watch for free on YouTube, courtesy of the…
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Season 7, Ep. 2: ...I Told You So (with Josslyn Luckett)
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For this week's episode of Saturday School, where we're exploring Asian American interracial cinema, we have a special guest: Josslyn Luckett, assistant professor of cinema studies at New York University! We've invited her to our podcast to tell us about her research, which explores the beginnings of an affirmative action initiative at UCLA's film …
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Season 7, Ep. 1: Mississippi Triangle
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Welcome back to Saturday School! This is our 7th season, and this semester, we'll be exploring Asian American interracial cinema. When we signed off last season, coronavirus had just taken hold and the nation had erupted with protests for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Black Lives Matter. As racial tensions escalated, it had many Asian Americans …
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Season 6, Ep. 10: My Name Is Khan (with Rowena Aquino and Winghei Kwok)
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Our final episode of Saturday School's sixth semester, where we explore Asian films about Asian America, is about the 2010 Karan Johar film "My Name Is Khan," which brings us full circle to the first episode of the season, where we explored Bollywood's earlier portrayal of Indian America in "Kal Ho Naa Ho." Over the last decade, no one ever thinks …
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Season 6, Ep. 9: Love Is A Broadway Hit
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For the second week in a row, Brian and I take you back to Dec 2019, when we recorded this and then didn't edit it for months cause that's the kind of responsible Saturday School hosts we are. It's a bittersweet episode and last minute addition to our syllabus after Godfrey Gao passed away last November, and we try to honor him through revisiting t…
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We accidentally took a months-long break, recorded our last few episodes of our season in Dec 2019, then accidentally took another break, and then coronavirus happened. But last week, Ada's daughter was back to Chinese school on Zoom, so we're back too. In this week's episode, we continue our exploration of Asian films about Asian America through t…
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Season 6, Ep. 7: Batang West Side
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On this week's Saturday School, we continue to explore Asian films about Asian America, diving head first into the international film festival/art film world with the 5 hour 15 minute Lav Diaz film "Batang West Side" from 2001. It's a film that takes place in the snowy New Jersey winter. A Filipino American cop Juan (Jose Torre) is investigating th…
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Season 6, Ep. 6: Gen X Cops and Gen Y Cops
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In this week’s Saturday School, we break our sixth season streak of epic, emotional and honorable love stories, and as we hit the turn of the century, we look at “Asian films about Asian Americans” from an entirely different, warped mirror. We’re talking about 1999’s “Gen X Cops” and 2000’s “Gen Y Cops,” which is like a who’s who of Asian American/…
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Season 6, Ep. 5: Sana Maulit Muli
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This week's episode of Saturday School continues our semester of tear-jerking romances... just kidding, our semester on Asian films about Asian Americans, and we've progressed semi-chronologically to the 1990s in the Philippines with Lea Salonga. 1995's "Sana Maulit Muli" stars Lea Salonga and Aga Muhlach as a young couple who hope to start the nex…
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Season 6, Ep. 4: An Autumn's Tale
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This week's Saturday School is about the 1987 Mabel Cheung-directed film "An Autumn's Tale," starring Chow Yun-fat and Cherie Chung. We revisit a period in the '80s after the British have made a deal to hand over Hong Kong to China in 1997, there is a fear of of losing freedoms, a wave of emigration and a curiosity about what it'd be like to be an …
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This week's episode of Saturday School continues our Season 6 theme if exploring Asian films about Asian America, and we're looking at the 1978 Japanese film Take Me Away! (Furimukeba Ai), directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi and starring both on-screen and off-screen couple Momoe Yamaguchi and Tomokazu Miura. It's a love story so sweeping that they are t…
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Season 6, Ep. 2: Home Sweet Home
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We recorded the latest episode of Saturday School a while ago, but fitting that we’re posting it when I’m actually in Taiwan! This season, we’re exploring Asian films about Asian America, and this week, we’re looking at the 1970 Taiwanese film "Home Sweet Home," which gives a glimpse into why Taiwanese people of a certain generation would have want…
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Season 6, Ep. 1: Kal Ho Naa Ho (with Angilee Shah)
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Season 6 of Saturday School (where we explore Asian films about Asian America) kicks off with us inviting one of our favorite people to talk about one of our favorite actors. Journalist Angilee Shah thought we were joking when we asked her to join us to discuss the 2003 film "Kal Ho Naa Ho," because 15 years of friendship hasn't taught her that we …
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Season 5, Ep. 10: The Big Boss and Way of the Dragon
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It's our Season 5 finale of Saturday School, and in some ways, it's all been leading to the most famous Asian American of all time: Bruce Lee. In this episode, we discuss his films "The Big Boss" from 1971 and "Way of the Dragon" from 1972, as a way of highlighting the movies he made in Hong Kong that are specifically about the diaspora experience.…
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Season 5, Ep. 9: Shanghai Calling
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This is the 9th (and 2nd to last) episode of our 5th season of Saturday School, and those who've been there with us from the beginning can probably tell that we start to get a little senioritis-y at this point in the semester. So in this episode, about Shanghai Calling by Daniel Hsia, we spend about 7 minutes delivering what we promise: a compariso…
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Season 5, Ep. 8: The Rebel (with Anderson Le)
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Thanks to film programmer, producer, YOMYOMF writer Anderson Le for being our guest on this week's episode of Saturday School. This semester, we're exploring Asian Americans in Asia, and this week, we're talking about the 2007 film, "The Rebel," directed by Charlie Nguyen starring Johnny Nguyen and Veronica Ngo. Turns out it's much more than a fun …
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Season 5, Ep. 7: Journey From The Fall
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For this week's episode of Saturday School, we're revisiting one of Asian America's rare historical epics: Ham Tran's Journey from the Fall fr om 2006. There's really no other film like it. It's the story that starts with the Fall of Saigon and traces a family's harrowing journey to Orange County. But unlike most classic Hollywood movies about the …
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Season 5, Ep. 6: Seoul Searching
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In this week's Saturday School, we revisit the 2015 film Seoul Searching, which follows a group of teenagers sent by their parents to a government-sponsored summer camp in Korea for them to reconnect with their roots. However, according to the film's prologue, this real-life program in the 1980s (which director Benson Lee himself attended as a youn…
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Season 5, Ep. 5: Big In Bollywood
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After a few weeks of exploring the grittier, more traumatic side of Asian Americans in Asia, this week's episode of Saturday School is a little more light-hearted and fun. We're revisiting the 2011 documentary "Big in Bollywood," which follows Omi Vaidya (at the time, your typical working but little-known LA actor) who lands the role of a lifetime.…
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On this week's episode of Saturday School, we're revisiting the 2005 thriller "Cavite" by Ian Gamazon and Neil dela Llana, which is a unique take on our exploration of Asian Americans in Asia. The film basically takes all the anxieties Asian Americans can feel when we go back to Asia -- the awkwardness of not speaking the language well, the feeling…
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This week's episode, as part of our season on Asian Americans in Asia, we revisit the 2003 documentary "Refugee," by Spencer Nakasako, which follows three Cambodian American young men as they go back to Cambodia for the first time to confront their family histories. Like most of Nakasako's films of the time, the documentary makes use of the subject…
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Season 5, Ep. 2: First Person Plural
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The second episode of Saturday School (Season 5) on Asian Americans in Asia is about the 2000 documentary "First Person Plural" by Deann Borshay Liem. It's a personal documentary about a Korean American adoptee who comes to realize she's not the person her American family thinks she is. And as she uncovers the mystery behind her identities, she bri…
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Saturday School - our podcast where we force your unwilling children to learn Asian American pop culture history - is back for Season 5, and this semester, we are exploring films that involve Asian Americans in Asia. We start with a 1957 episode of a TV documentary show called "Bold Journey," where the legendary Chinese American silent film star An…
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BONUS Episode: The Crazy Rich Asians 5-Timers Club
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For all you overachievers out there, Saturday School hosted an AP Honors discussion group with 5 people who have seen Crazy Rich Asians in theaters 5 TIMES *OR MORE.* The #CRA5timersclub. Like the SNL 5-timers club, but more Asian. Spoilers galore. And full disclosure, Ada's only seen it 3 times, so she's both hosting and crashing the party. Brian …
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Season 4, Ep. 10: Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!
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It's the last episode of Saturday School Season 4, our exploration of Asian American troublemakers in film, and we don't want to say we saved the "best" for last, but we definitely saved the most badass for last. This week, we're talking about 1965's "Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!" by Russ Meyer, starring Tura Satana, Haji, and Lori Williams. It's …
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Season 4, Ep. 9: Female Pervert
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For Episode 9 of our season on Asian American Troublemakers, we revisit Jiyoung Lee's Female Pervert -- a film that we put at the top of our Asia Pacific Arts 2015 Best Asian American Films list, when 2015 was actually a really impressive year for Asian American film with lots of stellar movies that didn't, like, get one-star reviews calling it "mo…
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In this week's episode of Saturday School, we're going back to 1993 to revisit Jon Moritsugu's Terminal USA, his over-the-top, grotesque, drug-filled take on a Japanese American sitcom family. Moritsugu plays dual roles: twins Katsumi, a punk drug dealer, and Marvin, the repressed model minority. Their sister Holly is not as pure as the all-America…
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