Johnny K Wu - Producer & Director | Co-Founder Cleveland Asian Festival

Takeaways:

• The Cleveland Asian Festival is a vibrant celebration that promotes Asian culture and community, attracting over 50,000 visitors annually and featuring diverse food, performances, and activities.
• Johnny K. Wu, a prominent figure in Cleveland's cultural scene, co-founded the festival in 2010, aiming to unite various Asian communities and enhance cultural visibility.
• This year marks the festival's 16th anniversary, highlighting its growth from a one-day event to a major two-day festival filled with engaging activities, entertainment, and delicious food.
• The festival showcases a range of performances, including a fashion show celebrating Asian culture and a cosplay event, inviting attendees to express their love for Asian pop culture.
• Community involvement and volunteerism are key aspects of the festival’s success, with local artists and community members contributing to its planning and execution.
• The conversation touches on the importance of cultural appreciation versus appropriation, emphasizing the significance of understanding and respecting diverse cultural backgrounds.

Links referenced in this episode:

• clevelandasianfestival.org

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
All living in a world gone geek.
It's time to geek hard or go home.
The podcast is real.
Here's your host, grounded geek.
Greetings, programs.
It is I, Utah, running the ship.
I am the captain now.
Jeff is here.
Don't worry.

(00:21):
He is the silent partner, theman behind the curtain.
Still producing and will beediting this show, I'm sure.
So let's not make it toodifficult for him.
Or do.
I don't care.
As always, I'm joined byanother partner in crime, Aaliyah,
AKA Aaliyah.
Hello.
Hello.
Hi.

(00:42):
I am waiting.
Greetings, Aaliyah.
How have you been?
I've been so good.
How are you?
You know, hanging in.
Life happens things.
Life events.
A couple of things.
Juggling in the air.
The last thing I did do thatwas fun though, was I was in the
production of Willy Wonka andthe Chocolate Factory at Cassidy

(01:04):
Theater in Parma Heights.
That was fun.
Had a good time with that.
Oh, wow.
How did that turn out?
Turned out great, actually.
I was a little concerned.
Tech week was a littlestressful, but we made it through.
I played Mr.
Bucket, the one of the parentsof Charlie that gets shunned and
denied a tour of the factory.

(01:25):
Wow.
I don't know.
I mean, you know, you thinkabout it, why would Charlie not choose
the person that birthed him?
Birthed Charlie?
In our.
In our Charlie.
Charlie was a girl or, youknow, her father.
But anyways, that's neitherhere nor there.
What about you?
Anything exciting for you, Aaliyah?

(01:46):
No, I actually don't.
I mean, I've traveled a little bit.
Yeah, I saw some hiking pictures.
Yeah, definitely a lot of hiking.
I have a backpacking tripcoming up at the end of this month,
and that's really about it.
Nothing too crazy over here.
Way to go.
Way to go for you.

(02:07):
All right, well, let's getright into it because we have a special
guest who we want to make surethat we take advantage of the time
that he has with us.
He is a true powerhouse inindependent filmmaking and a cornerstone
of Cleveland's cultural scene.
His name is Johnny K.
Wu and he's an award winningproducer, director and editor with

(02:29):
over 25 years of experience.
He founded Media DesignImaging, or MDI, a film in 1998,
a company that has beeninstrumental in providing video and
event production services to adiverse clientele.
Johnny has produced more than14 feature films, including the sci
fi, the action film Bullets,Brothers and Blood, which has garnered

(02:51):
many awards and secured global distribution.
He's had a documentary calledHistory of Cleveland's Chinatown
was featured on WKYC and wviz.
Beyond filmmaking, Johnny is adedicated community leader.
He co founded the ClevelandAsian festival, attracting over 50,000
attendees annually, and hasbeen producing the Cleveland Cultural

(03:12):
Gardens One World Day since 2015.
His contributions have earnedhim inductions into the International
Indie Filmmakers hall of Fameand the Cleveland International hall
of Fame.
Fluent in Chinese, Spanish andEnglish, Johnny holds an MBA in marketing
from Cleveland State University.
His commitment to diversity,storytelling and community building

(03:33):
makes him a remarkable figurein both the arts and.
And civic engagement.
Welcome, Johnny.
Thank you so much for spendingtime with us here tonight.
Thank you for having me here.
I wonder whether you got thosebio from the AI or something.
ChatGPT is your friend.

(03:53):
Look, you know what?
At some points I feel like weneed to accept our AI overlords and
I hope to befriend them oncethey take over.
Well, hopefully they don'ttake over.
At least they can make ourlife easier, right?
Yes.
Well, that's the whole.
Yeah.
Yes.
It would be very nice if theAI deemed us worthy and perhaps kept

(04:14):
us around.
Right.
Wow.
So thank you for joining us.
Johnny, why don't you tell usa little bit about.
Well, we've got the ClevelandAsian Festival coming up this weekend,
which is a big deal.
You've been doing it for thepast few years.
Why don't you tell us a littlebit about it and your involvement

(04:35):
with it?
Sure.
Well, back in 2010, we startedthinking, well, 2009, we started
thinking about doing somethingmore beneficial to the community
after we were doing a TV showwith a TV20 back then.
And me, Lisa Wong and Vihoonsat down and then we said, why don't
we do something big like afestival like Columbus Asian Festival

(04:55):
here in Cleveland.
We were like, maybe not gonnahappen because, you know, we were
having a problem with all thedifferent AI AIPI community here
who doesn't like each other.
So yeah, it can be a problem.
But we're like, let's try.
Let's say we got nothing tolose, right?
So we, we said, let's do a oneday event.

(05:16):
Let's see how many people canput on.
Oh my God.
It was a lot of.
A lot of feedback, bad feedbacks.
But everybody say that that'snot gonna work.
It's not possible.
You're not gonna make this work.
This is stupid.
You know, you cannot put a.
Get everybody working together.
This is ridiculous.
But we got, we raised lots ofmoney and we actually pulled it off.

(05:38):
About 10,000 people showed upand after that, everybody changed
their Tone, it's now like ohmy God, this is such a great event.
We should do it more often.
Why don't you do a three days event?
I said hell no, we're notgonna do a three days event.
That's too much work.
So we decided to do a two daysevent Saturday, Sunday.
Since then, 2010, 2011.

(05:58):
So I've been doing that for 16years now.
This is our 16 year celebration.
We do try to do a lot ofdifferent things every year but you
know I waste the same thing eventually.
But the major, the main thingpeople like to go there is for the
food, the performances, theatmosphere, the, the diversity we
have there and some freescreen that we offer to everyone.

(06:22):
That is incredible.
Well, the decide for this yearAsian festival poster design.
So local Thailand.
Lisa Tang designed this whole poster.
Oh nice.
Looks really, really nice.
I really love it.
I mean animals.
Oh that's oh that's so cute.
I love the.
It's cats and fruits and catsand fruit.

(06:45):
Cats and fruits.
Leah, you have fruit on your counter.
You're halfway there.
Cat is.
Oh and you have a cat.
You're there.
See, look at that.
You've already.
You're already.
All you.
All you got to do now is.
Is show up this weekend.
Wow, that's amazing.
So when where did you guys originally.
Speaking of cats, I definitelysee yours crawling around in the

(07:07):
back.
Oh yeah, there she is.
I'm curious to know how youlike where was it originally?
Because you guys are at theCleveland Zoo so.
Well, not nothing to do withthe zoo.
It's just more about we wantto do something different.
So every year we we commissiona local talent.

(07:29):
So we always looking for aapidesigner artists to draw a design
and this year we.
We don't want to do anythingwith horoscope related because snake
ear.
The snake is not reallysomething you want to showcase and
poster.
And we thought about we'regoing to do let's do cats because
cats is a symbol of.
Of good luck in Asia.
Good luck.
Yeah.

(07:49):
In Japan, China, Thailand, Korea.
Good luck cat is always a good luck.
Especially c cats.
In Japan the hello Kitty came from.
Yep.
So we thought about that andthen we say well what's going to
work with cats would besomething with fruits or vegetables
and that we.
We mentioned that to Lisa Tangand she said easy.

(08:11):
So she do this really, reallynice for us.
All the different fruits fromdifferent country, Asian country.
And then yeah she is at blurry.
Oh yeah, there we go.
Yeah.
So yeah.
I don't even know what theycall but you had.
You have pineapple up there, right?
You got the colorful cats overhere, the orange.

(08:33):
Yeah, very cute.
Yeah.
And this design really looksreally nice.
I really like it.
No, it's a great design.
Way to go, Lisa.
I had no idea.
No, I.
I had no idea that theClevelandation festival have been
going on for so long.
But it makes sense becauselike, because you had mentioned that
at the very beginning it wasvery small, very difficult and you

(08:57):
guys were kind of like, likeyou said, growing up as an Asian
child on the west side ofCleveland, it always felt like the
Asian community wasn't.
There wasn't one Asian community.
There were pockets and theynever really coalesced or did anything

(09:18):
together.
And so I can only imagine.
Was there a point where youwere able to get everybody on the
same page or did the.
Did that take years before?
No, actually after for acouple months of talking to everybody
and, and make sure everybodyunderstand that there's no who is
a leader, who is not a leader.
It's all working together andwe all volunteer.

(09:41):
Except for now.
Now Lisa and our co producer,we've been hired to do a job because
there's lots of work.
But back in the beginning wewere making sure that everybody have
a great time, making sureeverybody are the leaders.
We delegate tasks and becausein the past I've done any.
I had done movies production.
So I understand about how to organize.

(10:01):
And prior to that, when I was14 years old, I put together a mountain
choir for the diplomaticcommunity in Panama.
So I got experience how to dothis together.
So when we did it in 2010 forthe first year, I actually put together
a different list or detailedlist about the tasks that each committee
need to do.
So we start with a executiveboard and then we branch out to different

(10:23):
committee chairs and everyfive committee chairs, they recruit
the committee members,volunteers to go to the community
members and from there goingto the other volunteers.
So almost like a littleChristmas tree.
Right?
Right.
Spread it out.
And the reason doing that alsoways to make sure that every community
member or every chair only cando two different type of committees.

(10:44):
So this way they don'toverload themselves.
So if you are a communitychair for volunteer, you can do marketing
and that's it.
If you are a vendor, you cando marketing.
That's it.
This way that we don't want toover kill each all of us because
it's a lot of work.
But we also noticed that wereally need to bring in new generation
new leaders because we'regetting old.

(11:06):
I mean, I'VE been doing thisfor 15 years.
I don't think I can continuedoing this forever, but I probably
have to because I have amortgage to pay.
It is something that we wouldlike to see younger generation say,
say, hey man, you know,Johnny, you can take a break this
year.
I'll take over your job andyou can like, moving forward.
You know, they may do thingsdifferently, but we want to make

(11:26):
sure that the futuregeneration was.
Appreciate what we do and wantto say, I would like to help.
I would like to be part of it.
I would like to become a.
Be a leadership position.
Right.
And that's always, that alwaysseems to be, I wouldn't say a struggle,
but kind of a goal for a lotof these things.
Right.
Especially in the immigrant,immigrant communities where you've
got first, second generationimmigrants who are trying to put

(11:50):
on these things and build community.
But you want to make sure thatthat legacy continues.
And so you've got to get theyounger generations involved and
interested and also invested too.
And so I can see, I can seehow that is.
Did you set it up so thatevery, every ethnicity, every different

(12:13):
type of Asian, Were they onlyin charge of their particular communities?
No.
Did it matter?
Doesn't matter.
If you want to be involved, wedon't care what kind of AAPI community
you with.
Just come in, do the work andthen let's share the fruit of our
event.
That's one thing that.

(12:33):
Yes, fruit and cats.
And that's one thing I likeabout the Asian festival is every
year I'll be frustratedbecause there's too many people there.
But at the same time, I'm veryhappy to all those people, 40, 30,
40, 50,000 people showing upfor one weekend event and they are
doing, they are loving eachother, enjoying each other's company,

(12:53):
no matter what, no matter yourcolor, your race, your sexual orientation,
nothing.
Just, just that doesn't matter.
Family together.
Yeah, we don't have complaints about.
Yeah, we do have complaintsabout all the way.
Parking is difficult, butthat's nothing to do.
People, nobody people.
Right.
That.
That's a trick logistics thing.

(13:14):
Everyone complains aboutparking in Cleveland, though.
That's.
That's a univers.
That's for sure.
That's a universal truth.
Here's the funny part.
We also have, we do surveysevery year to make sure we know what
people like.
Majority of time every yearthere'll be three or four people
say the weather is too hot.
We didn't have the weather.
Too cold.
The weather, it's raining.

(13:36):
I can't Control the weather.
Right?
That's.
You can't.
I.
I thought you could, you know.
I wish I could.
Everything changed.
Like Thanos.
Right?
Right, exactly.
So I know you guys weretalking about, you know, the positive

(13:56):
effect that it has withindiverse communities.
But I am curious, like what,what ways has the.
The festival contributed tothe growth or recognition in Asiatown?
Because that's.
I work right on Sinclair.
Then that's super cool.
So have you heard of theCleveland Asia Festival?

(14:17):
Yeah, I have.
How long have you been hearingabout it?
For at least the past likefour year.
Three, four years.
There you go.
That's your growth.
Well, there you go.
There's the growth.
The Golden Asian Festival.
I should probably mention thedate is it's May 17th 18th from 11
to 7pm andclevelandationfestival.org is the

(14:37):
website.
The goal of festival is topromote the AAPI Heritage Fund because
that's May also to celebrateour culture and festivities.
And last also with the onething we also do is to bring economic
growth into the neighborhood.
And because of the Asianfestival for all many years we're
doing it, it's been consideredthe kickoff event for the summer.

(15:01):
Every people in Cleveland say,oh, Asian Festival is the beginning
of the beginning, early this summer.
So that's a kickoff event andwe are the best organized event considered
by the city of Clevelandbecause we are.
Well, they said that we have atight ship.
We did everything.
Well, not really.
We just produce and produceand planning ahead of time to make

(15:22):
sure everything works.
So that's.
Yeah, I was going to say thatthat that comes from your experience
because you know you've got toget things planned and organized
in order for something to go out.
Well, yes.
And then because of thatevent, Cleveland Festival did so
well.
I was hired back in 2015 torun the Cleveland Culture Gardens
One World Day.
And that's another pushback atthe beginning.

(15:44):
Nobody want to know.
Nobody want to have an Asianguy run a European gardens.
All the gardens over thereback then was all European except
for right.
Vietnamese and Chinese.
Y.
So when I was the producer, Ihad a lot of pushback from Gardens
because I feel like I'm notwhite enough to do the job.

(16:06):
But you, you, I, we learn.
We.
We hate each other.
We love.
We love each other.
We continue moving together.
And then because every yearI'll be doing that with them.
They trust me now.
They don't ask me, they don'ttell me don't do it.
They don't ask me anymore tobring me a proposal.
They already Automaticallysay, Johnny, you can do it next year
again.
And we brought in one dayevent, brought in almost 45,000 people

(16:30):
over there.
This is my 11 year doing it too.
So that can show thatcapability is what you can show people
that who you are doesn'treally matters.
No, it's true.
No, I remember, remember whenthe one World day was just kind of
a small thing and just ahandful of families, whatever, walking

(16:52):
down the path down MLK to seeall the gardens and stuff.
And I don't know if it's acoincidence or not, but I feel like
you with your overhead Oakleysand your hoverboard really pushed.
Push the visibility of it up.
I'm half joking, but I do re.
I, I do remember seeing youin, in your overhead Oakleys and

(17:14):
your.
Yes, I still bring in myoverhead Oakley, which actually is
over here.
Look at that.
There they are.
Yeah, the legendary.
The legendary.
Look at that.
See, this is, this is theJohnny I met and I remember.
That's awesome.
That's amazing.
Every year I'll bring this outfor the Cleveland Asian Festival
just because I like toshowcase it.

(17:35):
Kind of funny thing about thisis right now on tik tok and YouTube,
every young influencer aretalking about it.
Like this is ever happeningright now.
Like, man, you guys are slow.
You guys, right?
Where, where have you been?
Everything comes back andwe're not very original, you know.
So when I was wearing this,people said that I have bug eyes

(17:57):
because it looks like bugs.
Or you tell me I'm wearing braon my, on my head, women's bra.
So, yeah, we, I had all thispushback, but I'm still can't bring
it out because now it's thehit thing to do.
Right.
Well, and that also still.
I mean, it's just such aunique thing, right?
It's.
It's kind of a trademark now.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And the good thing is I stillhave it and you can buy on ebay,

(18:20):
but there are thousands of dollars.
Yeah, I know.
Yes.
So good on you.
Look at that.
See?
Trendsetter.
Before you even knew it.
Yeah, yeah, that's all I do.
Right.
So how do your, like, otherroles in like, in other cultural
events, like one World Day,complement what you're currently

(18:41):
doing with the Asian festival?
I, I would appreciate theculture more now that I've been working
with the culture gardens forover 40 years now.
I love the people there.
I love how they embrace me finally.
And they're saying that I'mnot just another Asian guy, but rather
a guy who can pull it off, canmake it happen.
It can make and promote culture.
I don't see a division between diversity.

(19:06):
I see everybody together as a family.
I don't see culture, I don'tsee different faces.
I see more one faces bydifferent cultures that easily explain
with the Asian festival.
I see a lot of people there.
I see Asian.
We see, we have Asian members,we have non Asian, we have blacks,
African American and allworking together.

(19:26):
But then when you go to theculture garden, you actually understand
the different culture andwhat's going on.
All the politics that they hadto deal with Ukraine, Russia, Pakistan,
India now and all thishappening and we had as a cultural
groups, we are still lovingeach other, but unfortunately politics

(19:48):
is a little bit different.
I think that's one of thegreat things about kind of the theme
with, with your two projectsis the kind of the uniting the community,
whether it's just the Asiandiaspora or just the different world
cultures.
With the gardens is all aboutunifying about how we may look different

(20:12):
and come from different placesand have different traditions and
different cultural things, butwe're all part of the human race.
We're all, I dare say oneworld gone.
Geek.
Yeah, it was, it was, it wastough for me because in the gotcha
garden there's about 49different gardens back then and I

(20:33):
had to memorize them all.
It took me about three yearsto actually got know where every
garden at.
Find because they're all,they're very spread out along that
path.
The culture garden is locatedover the MLK and East Boulevard.
So the whole stretch abouteight miles distance, not eight miles,
maybe four miles distant.
237 acres of land.

(20:53):
So all the different gardenshave different culture there and
there's 40 something gardensright now.
And it's, it's a lot for me tomemorize when I start the beginning.
But I got it there.
You've had 11 years so you'vegot, you've got it down.
Yeah, I got.
Funny no, you can mention onein the garden.
I know exactly where you'regoing to be at.
So it's only maybe one or twosmaller ones I don't remember but

(21:15):
rest of majority I do.
I also memorize all the culture.
It's so beautiful.
When we had the culturegardens this year it's gonna be August
24th.
Okay.
Called the parade of flagswhere every garden dress out with
a costume and paradethroughout the whole street.
It was beautiful to seethousands of people wearing different
kind of cultural outfit andparading themselves.

(21:36):
And speaking of that in thisCleveland Asia festival this year
we brought back in the fashionfashion show, which is the colors
of Asia.
Nice.
So this is something westopped doing it for many, many years
in the past just because wedidn't have the main power.
But we don't bring it back.
We want to have all everydifferent ethnic groups come out
to stage and present theculture and the outfit they were.

(21:57):
So that's one thing we'redoing this year a little bit different.
The other thing we're doingthis year is cosplay.
So, yeah, cosplay is somethingthat we haven't done many, many years,
almost a decade ago.
And we're going to bring thatback because we felt like K Pop,
Apop J Pop, so popular now.
So why don't we bringsomething like this and to embrace

(22:17):
the culture.
So anybody who like to dressup with an Asian themed cosplay playing,
you are welcome to do so andcome to stage and parade it.
I will be there.
I'll be both on the colors ofAsia and cosplay wearing my armor.
So this is a real armor fromthe Ming dynasty.
Well, replica now.
And now we're wearing that andgonna be displaying that and showcasing

(22:38):
a little bit.
You know.
Go ahead.
Sorry.
I was going to say this mightbe a little bit controversial and
Jeff, you might have to cut.
You might want to cut it out.
But it gets in a little bit inthe weeds.
So.
You know, a lot of people talkabout like cultural appropriation
and you know, people stealingother people's.

(23:07):
So you want to know what myview on that?
Well, I am very curious, but Ialso think too just in general, people
absolutely love.
America loves the Asian,Japanese, Chinese culture.
Yeah, they.
They love that as a culture.
But we are always as accepting.

(23:30):
I think sometimes of.
So it's.
It's a.
It's a kind of the way to.
You have to distinguish.
There's a fine line betweenbeing appreciated culture and culture.
Right.
So different is when you'remarking a culture or you don't respect
in the culture doesn't meanthat you're not actually appreciating
the culture.
That's the difference.

(23:50):
The quickest way the easy todo is for example, if you see a Japanese
walking the street and you saynihau to Japanese guy, that is insulting
racist comment.
Because Japanese don'tunderstand word.
Nihau means.
Nihao is a Chinese word for hello.
But then if you say that to aJapanese Japanese person or going
to the country Japaneseculture, Japan do this, then you

(24:11):
are insulting the Japanese andyou are, you are not doing anything
correctly.
So that's a racist coming.
And also can be considered asa cultural appropriation because
you think it belongs to China.
So everybody else going to beunderstood the word nihau.
So another way, let's say youare a non Asian person and you decide
to sell Asian clothing withand altering them to say it's your

(24:34):
own.
That may be culturalappropriation, depending how you
quote, unquote, design the design.
Yes.
Right.
I think it has a lot to dowith intent.
Right.
But the intent is very, I cangive you a very good example.
Another thing is about Asian town.
We, we had this in happeningpast is two white people went into

(24:55):
Asian town and tried to sellan event of West Asian town claiming
to be authentic Asian culture.
Do you think that'sappreciation or appropriation?
Yeah, right.
There's context there.
Because if at the face of it,you would think that that might be
appropriation, but if thosepeople actually researched and know

(25:21):
about that did not reach.
Oh, see, if, if they were just.
Doing it for the money, thenyeah, that's appropriation.
Not only that, they don't hireany Asian person in their group and
they owe everybody money.
Yeah, See.
Yeah.
It comes down to intent.
It's.
Yes, intent.
So it's a, it's a fine word.

(25:42):
Also, the other thing you canalso notice if somebody said to you,
oh, I'm looking for Asianwife, that is kind of like a racist
to say because you're notappreciating the culture because
they are Asian, you actuallywant to have a trophy.
Right.
That's what that, that, that,that goes into, like, what is it
they call the fetish?

(26:02):
Right.
Where Kind of a fetish.
Yeah, yeah.
They're not reallyappreciating the person or the culture.
Exactly.
They're, they're, they're morewanting the, like you said a trophy.
Yeah.
Or they're, they're more of anobject than anything else.
Yeah, I think I was justmeaning it in the terms of, like,
especially in terms of cosplay.
You know, I'm trying to thinkof how I'm like wanting to phrase

(26:28):
it, but I, I, I thinksometimes we can get, we get excited
about or to sell.
We can be excited to celebrateother cultures, but sometimes we
don't always know the mostabout them or the people.
So I do agree with you.
It can be intent, but.

(26:49):
Yeah, yeah.
So for cosplay, for example,if you're going to dress as an Asian
character, research about theAsian character and make sure everything
that you Your.
Your cosplay is correct.
All right.
So for another good examplewould be my friend Wayne, also executive
director, executive boardmember for the Cleveland Asian Festival.
He wearing the yellow suitwith a black stripe.

(27:13):
Most people nowadays thinkit's from the Kill Bill movie.
I.
I went straight to Bruce Lee.
There you go.
Big difference.
Right.
When you dress like that, it'sa Kill Bill movie.
So that's a culture because.
Right.
It's not part of the Bruce Leewho created.
So it's again, it's a culture thing.

(27:34):
But if you want to.
And also the H thing, if youwant to go cosplay any character,
research a character,understand a character and understand
why the character were doingcertain way, wearing certain things.
And you know, you no longerappropriating the culture because
you can explain this outfit,this side of the street, this sword
is about, this weapon is about.

(27:56):
You can tell people what it's about.
Now you're not appropriating.
Yeah, right.
That's proof of yourappreciation of the culture versus
just.
This is a cool thing that Ibought online.
I think it's awesome.
That's, you know, that's not quite.
That's not taking that extrastep or doing that.
You know, you can, you.
You can see a lots of movies too.
Lots of American movies thathave possibly a master ninja, but

(28:19):
wake.
A kung fu uniform.
All right.
Yeah.
It's again, conflating theJapanese Chinese.
Yeah, yeah.
So, yeah, it's an intent too.
It's not understood the culture.
You, you know, I, I see a lotof movie also where people were using
a katana in a Chinese outfit.
Like, no, Chinese people donot work, do not wear katan, use

(28:39):
the katana as a weapon.
Right.
That's not.
That, that wasn't.
Yes, exactly right.
That come back to one thing.
When I did my short film ToHunt, we have everybody wearing different
colors period outfit.
So I have a white guy wearinga Chinese outfit and a black guy
wearing Chinese outfit.
Then I explained to them, whatare you wearing?

(29:01):
Is not appropriating becausethis hat is based on this time frame.
This outfit with a round ropecolor is all based on this time frame.
I explained to the time framethe kind of sword they need to wear
use so they.
When they go outside and talkto people, they can appreciate the
culture.
Instead of say, I, oh yeah,Johnny, just throw me this outfit
together.
And then they said, this is aChinese outfit.

(29:23):
Right, right.
And that.
And that.
So, and so not only does thatshow your appreciation of the culture,
it gives them education.
So they Learn also about theculture and they can show their appreciation
and then share thatinformation further on.
This is how you.
You promote a culture and then not.
Not in avoiding theappropriation part of it.
Right.

(29:43):
Right.
When you've got, you know, youput in the intent and the effort
and that makes a huge, huge difference.
Exactly.
So was.
Is your Ming Dynasty armor part.
Was that your costume for the hunt?
Is that what.
Yep, that's the one I waswearing on hunt.
And we're gonna be.
I'm very happy to wear this on Sunday.
Is actually very good because64 degrees.
Perfect weather for the outfit.

(30:04):
It's perfect weather for armor.
Heavy 28 pound.
It's gonna be.
It's very.
It's actually can be protectme from any starving for knife.
I mean it's not probably strong.
Wow.
Okay.
So it's.
It's.
It's not just, you know, it.
It's not really.
It's not just cosplay.
It's an actual.
It's actually armor.
Wow.

(30:25):
Steel armor plate.
So how heavy is it?
How much does that.
28 pounds.
Which.
Wow.
I lost 20.
I lost 10 pounds of it fit in there.
Just.
Just wearing it for the film.
Yeah.
Well, I.
I need.
I need it because otherwise Iwon't be the walk.
I mean I was two months ago.
I was 176.
And then we're in the thingabout almost 200 pounds.

(30:46):
Like I can't do that.
I can't move around.
So I lost 10 pounds to weardown a little bit.
So that.
Ah.
Okay.
It'll be okay.
So bounce it out my weight.
Amazing.
Hey there.
Mike is working now.
Not only can we see you, butwe can hear you.
You can hear me.
That's good.

(31:07):
That's good to know.
It's a little too loud.
Yo.
It's a little loud.
Can you turn down your gain?
Yeah, well, I mean it'salready down.
I'll just step back a little bit.
Just.
Yeah, just step further back acouple steps more.
A couple steps more.
We got to see that armor atfan expo.
You were wearing it there.
And.
And I got a sense of how heavythat was.
That's insane.
Yeah, it's a.

(31:27):
It's a real thing.
It's a very heavy.
And when I was doing the shortfilm, it was painful because I was
waiting for about four hours.
I said I need to get out of this.
And then I had to put it backin for another three hours.
Like I.
I'm done.
I need to get on this.
I can't handle this anymore.
It's too hot.
Oh, where were you filming?
We were filming at Coran, Ohio.

(31:49):
Okay.
All right.
So how do you like balanceeverything between filmmaking and
event planning?
And you know, he's stilltrying to.
I think he's still trying tofigure that out himself.
Well, actually I probably kindof have an idea.
First thing, first thing,first thing is I go to bed at 9:30.
Oh, that's smart.

(32:09):
So I forced myself to have atleast eight hours sleep.
So I also take about 20minutes to 30 minutes nap after lunch.
This way I can build up soanytime anybody text me after 9:30,
I just ignore to the next day.
However, I had a tendency towake up about two or three o' clock
in the morning because I hadto go to your usual restroom.
Okay.
And when I use the restroom Ijust start thinking and I can't go

(32:31):
to sleep for another hour.
So I'll be sitting the phonein bed for an hour for then until
I get tired I go to sleep.
So it balance out my timeframe what I do.
And that helped me in a way ofrelaxing because I force myself to
relax so I don't get too tiredand then I can balance it out to
do everything else.
Making movies, lots of work.
So the older I get, the less Iwant to do that just because I don't

(32:54):
want to carry heavy gears anymore.
Ah yeah, freaking heavy.
So the older you get, the lessyou want to carry the, the gear.
So you get younger generation people.
But then they're not always here.
So.
And we just want to like walkaround with like a little phone on
a stick.
It's not like oh y' all just.
On a little phone.

(33:14):
You don't know you can't do that.
No.
We have 4K cameras,professional cameras.
They need to bring all thelights and then bring on the lenses.
Then they bring all thedifferent outfit and whatever.
So like that's too much work.
It literally is quite a production.
Yeah.
So we.
I'm doing more short film nowbecause I can handle that a little
bit better than doing featurefilm organizing event.

(33:37):
I just forced myself to be doa daily to do list and accomplish
that in the morning and mostof the time in the afternoon.
I have nothing else to dobecause I already did everything
in the morning for four hourstime frame spent.
I get up on 7 6, 6, 6:30, 7 o'clock, do about half an hour workout
and then go, go do start working.

(34:00):
I see the kitty.
Hello.
There she is.
Yeah.
After that I will just do workwork until 12 o' clock, feed the
cats, have my lunch, take aquick nap, wake up, do a couple hours
and then watch tv.
If I don't force upset myselfto be to relax.
I don't think I can be able tofunction that well.
Ah, okay.

(34:20):
So you, you make sure you setaside time to.
To watch tv.
I also have another reason why.
Because last year I almosthave a heart issue.
Last year I almost diedbecause of heart issue.
Apparently I have a heartsmaller than most people.
It's not pumping enough toblood to my heart.
And I also have high bloodpressure or low blood pressure depending
the medicine I take.

(34:41):
So that forced me to take morenaps and also go force myself.
I said it'll be more relaxing.
It's ironic that you have amedical condition where your heart
is smaller considering howmuch you give back to the community.
I just want to point that out.
Before we go on point.
Go ahead Jeff.
I was just going to say tellus a little bit about how you got

(35:03):
into filmmaking in the first place.
Like what was the impetus forthat in your life?
So I started actually back in 1998.
I met this guy, Greg Petoski,good friend of mine and, and we dated
and he, he was working for theMuseum of Natural History.
It was a great photographer.
Every time you take a photo,it's beautifully you can capture

(35:23):
your soul.
So I said to him, you know, Ihad a background in business business
and I know how to organize ifyou can help me, let's put together
a movie.
So he said sure.
He actually owns all the film cameras.
16 millimeters film cameras.
Oh.
So that was actually somethingfun to.
To help.
So we said we should be ableto make a movie with.

(35:45):
With a 16 film camera filmstock for about 3000$.
So that's 1998.
We said let's do it.
I wrote the script, we puttogether shot it.
We never developed the filmbecause we were so busy doing something
else.
And then he decided he doesn'twant a lifestyle anymore because
he see me doing movie with me.

(36:05):
And then he had to do it inmovies do film photography stuff
at work.
So that's too hard for you to handle.
So he decided to move on his life.
I said no problem.
And then the film start.
Just keep staying in thefridge forever till stir.
And then suddenly Kodakdecided to shut down all the film
development processes processing.
So we also shot our reversalfilm which means that it's harder

(36:29):
to be processed.
But because of that I justcontinue doing movies and got fortunate
enough to do what I can do.
I Do a pretty good job I guessuntil now.
Well, well, yeah, obviouslyyou're still doing it, so.
So that's a full story basically.
So is it.
Is that film still in thefridge somewhere?
Is it still under.

(36:49):
Yeah, it's in my basement onthe fridge.
A little small fridge that I have.
Oh my gosh.
I almost feel like we need tofind out there's somewhere that can
develop it like it.
Right.
Is it.
Is that wrong?
Not going to be that expensive.
The problem is the, the mainactor, one of the main actor named
Sean ferris.

(37:09):
You can IMDb him.
He did a free Free Runner the movie.
He's actually was really bigback then and then married to Asian
girl and then disappeared for.
For filmmaking.
So I just.
This, this was his firstfeature film seventeen years ago

(37:30):
back then.
So I'm not sure what.
I want to release it becausehe doesn't.
He's not as good as he is now,as I thought.
All right.
That's amazing though that youstill have it.
I still have that I wish Icould develop but I haven't had a
chance to do so.
That's like such a unique typeof time capsule.
That's great.
Yeah.
What were, what were some ofyour film influences?

(37:54):
My dad would be my majorfriend film influence because apparently
film making was part of my, myextended family.
I did not know that until mymom, my dad told me the whole story.
I have a very big, well knownfilm director in Hong Kong.
It's related, supposed to berelated to me.
We never verified that.

(38:14):
So I don't want to talk too much.
But my dad, when he wasyounger, he will take me to see all
kind of movies.
I remember still very vividlythat he told me to watch 12 or 13
Bruce Lee movies in one day.
One day never ending.

(38:34):
I was driving me crazy.
But it's not about aboutmovies or him.
It's movies about him, hisfuneral, how he died.
Oh my gosh.
It's like we were inPhilippines and he take me to the
movie theater.
We sat there all day longwatching all the different.
All different version ofChinese Bruce.
How Bruce Lee died orconspiracy stories about how he died.

(38:57):
Oh, whether he got killed bymafia, whether he got killed by the
studio, whether he got big,killed by a friend or whether he
got killed by his girlfriend.
All the conspiracy theories.
I didn't know there wereconspiracy theories.
Oh yeah.
Oh yeah.
I mean, so is there.
Is there a Bruce Lee is stillalive thing?
Like Tupac and Elvis?
Yeah, I'm sure, I'm surethere's I'm sure, I'm sure people

(39:19):
have seen Bruce lee at the7:11 standing next to Elvis.
They said about, you know,Elvis, right?
Yeah.
Exactly how he died.
Wow.
That was.
That was ridiculous.
I didn't really expect.
There was another.
I think it's like hour long movie.
So he would take me todifferent theaters to watch it.
Well, I didn't know it's someboring now but back then it was crazy.
I just.

(39:41):
He was, he was.
He was also a diplomat.
So you get to meet a lot ofcelebrities behind the scene.
And he would take me to seeand watch magicians performing and
go me to backstage to show mehow they do it.
Also when there's like a bigcircus, it's all those crazy stun
shows.
He would take me to swatches.
So I.

(40:01):
I have been influent with allthis kind of art environment.
But he always said you need tobe a doctor.
This is always Malaysian father.
Yep.
Yep.
So.
So then when he got older, hestarted collecting Beta Max Movies.

(40:22):
Yeah, movies.
Wow.
At home he built a shelf.
Then he built a shelf and thenput him bed in the middle.
The TV and the shelfsurrounded him like four walls and
he was sleep in there watchingthe movies.
Wow.
In bed surrounded in the shelf and.
Yeah.

(40:42):
Well because he didn't want tobe his bedroom.
He wanted to use.
He wanted to.
He want me to use the.
We had two bedroom apartment.
So he was used.
He.
He decided use.
Let me use one bedroom andthen he instead of showing saying
the other bedroom, he juststayed there because he loved this
movie.
Oh my gosh.
Wow.
And then it became 5,000 VHS tapes.
Yeah.
All right.
Because Beta went away, right?

(41:03):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So mostly are movies, dramas,Chinese dramas.
Oh yes.
I loved it.
I watch it with him all the time.
So when he visited me beforehe passed away back in 1998, I was.
I had a lot of way for the watch.
He enjoyed it.
Unfortunately I didn'tappreciate him that much.
I was so young.
I was going crazy doing.
Going to the cops every nightand getting drunk and.

(41:25):
And doing stupid things.
So I wish I spent more timewith him now.
But you know, this is one of this.
My one major major regret.
I have my life that notspending my time with him.
So anybody watching, doingthis, you know, spend the time you
much.
You can't have much with yourparents, your family because you
only have them once.
Once.

(41:46):
And then if you regret it,you're not going to be able to get
them back.
True.
So right now my mom, she wantssomething I Just say okay.
Okay.
Okay.
She tell me to do something.
I said fine.
Even if she's wrong, I don't care.
Okay.
Okay.
You don't want to bother withthat because you don't want to get
them upset.

(42:06):
It's true.
I love that.
That's funny.
No, I.
I remember my parents used towatch the Chinese dramas too.
They loved anything to do withthe Monkey King or Three Kingdoms.
Yep.
Which was the biggest.
My dad just loved it.
And it's interesting nowbecause our oldest son Who's he's
now 21.
Jeff.
He's 21.
Stop.

(42:26):
Jesus.
But he.
He's very much into videogames and he loves the Dynasty Warrior
series which is all about theThree Kingdoms.
And so it's so great to seehim learn about the Three Kingdoms
through his gaming.
But then talk to my dad aboutthe Three Kingdoms so my dad can

(42:50):
tell him about about it fromthe Chinese dramas.
And so it's great to see kindof that generational bridge that
was very true storytellingthrough the Three Kingdoms which
I thought is.
Is just wonderful.
So yeah.
When I did the hunt I also didlots of research beforehand because
I love watching a lot ofChinese movies.
I think just for my dad.
I can can forget that.

(43:11):
And so I realized how back inthe days in Chinese movie they do
salutation like this, right?
Yes.
Yeah.
The new generation of Chinesemovies they have salutation like
this.
Oh.
Or this.
Okay.
Was.

(43:32):
Especially period movies likethe Min Dynasty, Tang Dynasty, the
Han Dynasty.
They were like the.
Basically it's a big stomachup and then covered it up.
Interesting.
So was that this is only theQing Dynasty.
They just created.
Oh.
So.
So originally know that untilI do a lot more studies.

(43:54):
Like that's interesting.
I didn't know about that was a younger.
I didn't realize.
I also realized the Chineseused to you have sword that's curved
like the Japanese katana.
Before the Japanese katanaactually was popular.
Huh.
The Tang Dynasty are straightsword curved a little bit.
Because they learned it fromthe Turkish.

(44:16):
The Turks are the ones whohave the sword.
And then they reinvented makeit more as a Tan Dynasty sword.
And then when the soldier fromHan Tang and Tang Dynasty went to
Japan they brought that withhim to check that over and perfectionize
it to become a better type of katana.
Right.
Because the Japanese did thefolded blacksmithing that.

(44:39):
So I didn't know that.
I did not understand about theoutfit too.
I thought every Chinese outfitwas cross Cross connection.
Right?
No.
There was round color ropesthat they were back then.
And there's a lot of differentthings I didn't know that.
I wish I was knowing all thiswhen I was younger, but I did.
I learned martial art, but Ididn't know any of this style.

(45:00):
I thought you learn about shot.
You're like, oh, everybodydoing like this, this.
So this is it.
That's all we knew.
Lots of different ways to do salutations.
That's so interesting.
So even now, even now as anadult, you're still learning these
things.
Yeah.
So this is mostly importantfor when you, you're dealing with
emperors.
You want to make sure thatthey have thumbs up.

(45:22):
There's a reason for everything.
Right.
Women go opposite direction.
Men's go this way.
Oh, wow.
Interesting.
Yeah.
What does it mean?
I'm sorry, please excuse me.
Great whimper.
We, you know, great emperor.
We.
We salute to you, great emperor.

(45:43):
Oh, and this for officers and peasants.
They do like this because, youknow, you're the, you're officer
and we, we embrace you.
Interesting.
Just different ways of greeting.
Yeah.
Depending on who it is.
Yep.
Yeah.
Basically.
Yeah.
Your, your, your salutationwill depend on your standing to the

(46:03):
other person.
And also I wanted to find outabout colors.
Every row, color means aranking of the.
On the, on the palace.
On the royal palace.
Okay.
So purple is the highest rank.
I actually have a picture hereon my phone because I have to remind.
Myself what it looks like.
This is why I like purple so much.
Wait, oh, Jeff, is that whyyou have purple in your background?

(46:25):
Oh, check it out.
So purple is the highest andthen it goes all the way down to.
Is that blue?
Yep.
So this is their rankingsystem for officers in China in.
Back in the Ming.
Tang Dynasty.
So that's depending on thecolor robes that they wear.
You can tell they're standingor their rank.
Interesting.
My cat just felt.

(46:49):
Definitely gonna pay moreattention to some of the period films
and stuff that I watched.
Yeah.
See where if they follow that representative.
Yeah, it's.
It's so interesting.
It's so interesting because Ididn't know that until, until I watched
this.
All these Peter movies.
Like, this is a, this is aMing dynasty sword.
She's cursed.
Yes.
Yeah.

(47:09):
Okay.
Just slightly.
Yeah, yeah.
So that's, that's me.
I say.
I was gonna say.
And that's Johnny, by the way.
Very cool.
That's.
Huh.
That's really interesting.
I was, I don't even, I don'tknow if this is relevant, but I've,
I was been re.
Watching Samurai Jack and solike the.

(47:32):
Him visiting literally only inthe first episode.
But he was like revisiting ornot revisiting.
He was going to all of thesedifferent places to learn their like
fighting styles.
And that's what I wasthinking, like kind of envisioning
when you were talking aboutthe different symbols, hand symbols
and stuff.
Netflix you do.

(47:52):
If you guys have Netflix,check out the, the Chinese movie
from there.
It's called the series calledthe Detective something.
I can't remember the name.
Oh, Detective D.
Judge D.
Mystery.
Yes, that's.
That's very much from the MingTang Dynasty and their culture, their

(48:13):
outfit, everything is very,very realistic.
And there's another show youcan, you can find on YouTube.
It's called the 24 the longesttime in.
In Changan.
So it's in 24 hours.
Everything happened in thisshow and everything that, that show

(48:34):
is authentically correct basedon the time free.
The Longest day of the longestday, 24 hours in China.
So it's, it's a very goodstory because you can see how they
fight.
They fight basically.
Like they watch you wearingreal armor to fight with it.
So all the actors had to feelthe weight before they can actually
go into the bottle.

(48:54):
And the reason I said maybe,maybe I understand how realistic
this movie the show is goingto be.
So what is your favorite movie?
What kind?
European, Chinese, Americans.
I know it's hard, right?
People ask me that questionand I have to break it down by genre.

(49:14):
Otherwise you're getting Die Hard.
I knew it.
I knew it.
So you talked about Bruce Lee,but what's like a pivotal film, maybe
that.
Like I, you know, surprisingto say if American film wise.
I love Empire of the Sun.
Yeah, that's a great one.
But it didn't get a lot ofattention because it came out with

(49:35):
the same time with the Last Emperor.
Last Spirit actually didbetter, which makes sense.
Last, Better Emperor.
I felt as stupid in thetheater watching Last Emperor.
So yeah.
Then the other movie I watch,I can watch forever and never get
bored is Big Trouble in Little China.
Oh, my gosh.
I think I grew up with being.
Being a martial artist andgrew up watching the cool thunder,

(49:58):
lighting and rain.
The way that they acted.
I was like, oh, this is so cool.
This is so exciting.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
I get very, very, very muchenjoying the whole show.
That's one I'm hoping thatthey, they never remake.
They've been the Rock.
They've been talking about it.
He's apparently got the rightsat some point.
And I was like, if you playJack Burton, I'm gonna be so upset

(50:21):
if Anything they could.
I'm.
I'm fine.
If they want to like do one ofthose 30 years later.
Se.
Well, that's 40 now, I think.
40.
At least 40 sequels where youget Kurt Russell back.
You know what I mean?
You can bring in the Rock ashis buddy.
I don't care.
But do a sequel.
Don't remake the original.
The original was, you know,was beautiful.

(50:41):
I, I enjoyed it.
Yeah.
So it's a classic.
I want to ask the.
So several years ago, KE HuyQuan, who played Short Round in the
Indiana Jones movies and Dataand Goonies, he had quit acting because
of the.
How difficult it was for as.

(51:03):
As an Asian person to get likeroles that were significant.
And then he, in an interview, he.
He made his comeback after hesaw crazy rich Asians becoming such
a huge success and obviouslyimmediate immediately won an Oscar
too.
Like, I mean the dude.
Like, like immediately hisfirst rollback, which is fantastic.

(51:25):
But do you feel like he, hesaw that movie as being like kind
of a resurgence of like whereAsian characters are getting more
seriously, you know,represented rather than just being,
you know, you know, a specificcharacter or a stereotype or a token.

(51:46):
Do you feel like we're movingin the right direction as far as
Hollywood?
And would you say where wouldyou think we could do more work there?
Well, that can do more work.
Yeah.
Hollywood embracing aminority, African Americans, Asians
and such is because of thepressure from everybody else.
And when movies like RichAsian, all this movie came out, this

(52:11):
opportunity for us when westarted winning Oscars, that also
bring you opening the door alittle bit.
Unfortunately not.
Just because you win us andyou win an Oscar doesn't mean that
you will get lots of goodroles in the future.
I mean, look at him right now.
He's.
He played a role the movieLove, Love Hurts.
I heard that wasn't very good.
I haven't seen it yet.

(52:31):
I want to though.
I want to see it.
I enjoy it.
I want to see it.
But like you said, it wasn'tthat successful at the box office.
No, it's because I think thestoryline suffer a little bit.
But the fight sequence, cute.
And I enjoyed it and it.
But yeah, I enjoy him on the Loki.
Yes.
Yeah, I enjoy him andeverything, but.

(52:52):
I don't in this way.
He just.
Okay.
I think sometimes because hegets stereotyped.
I don't want to see him beinga fighter.
I want to see the otherdifferent roles that'd be better
than anything.
It's like right now, if yousee Ryan Reynolds in any movies,
he will be the same characterno matter what movie you see.
He's.
He's Ryan Reynolds with adifferent costume each time.
Exactly.
I cannot get rid of that.
It's almost like, oh, I'mlooking at the same person over and

(53:17):
over again.
I forget the character's name.
Marvel name.
Deadpool.
Yeah.
Deadpool.
Yeah.
I've seen that character everyminute, every time, every movie.
No matter what movie you seehim, he's the same character.
It's hard to get out of themold, but.
Well, especially when people.
I mean, that's what people payto see.

(53:37):
They pay to see.
That's what they expect.
That's what they want.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Which is.
Is, you know, but then he justcaters to that.
But, you know, he made somebetter choices when he was younger.
He made some movies where heactually had a little more range.
But now he does seem.
Not Green Lantern.
Sure.
But he does seem to play avery similar wise, cracking character
in almost every movie now.

(53:59):
So I can.
I can do this back in.
Back in the days.
Asian representation in.
In Hollywood is horrible.
That's the reason why Bruce D.
Only can do one type of movies.
You know, they play Cato andGreen Hornet.
Right.
He did offer to try to get hismovie warriors, the script written

(54:21):
up to do the show warriors.
And they would say no, he wasgoing to do Kung Fu.
They say no, that's right.
I'll.
Leon, good friend of mine whois also in Big Charlie China.
The guy with a mustache.
Yeah.
Long hair, long mustache.
Yeah.
Very good friend of mine.
He's.
He wrote a story, a scriptabout a man turned into a bug.

(54:44):
Huh.
Guess what?
Familiar.
Oh, yeah.
It did Hollywood.
He couldn't get it made, butsomebody else did.
Somebody stole the idea andmade a movie.
The Eye man.
Wow.
And he tried to sue them andhe didn't get anywhere.
Wow.
It was his script.

(55:06):
Which move.
That's.
I think they called the eye the.
The.
The fly.
The fly.
Let me double check.
So.
Yeah.
But now.
Oh, the.
Jeff Gold.
So that was a.
The remake of.
Yeah.
So he wrote.
He wrote a script for the.

(55:26):
For a new fly and they madeit, but didn't give him credit for
it.
Yeah.
Well, they took the idea.
They take the concept.
The concept is some of the dialogue.
Sure.
Wow.
So he's.
He's very much said that he.
He have a hard time gettingany supporting role or major role
because of that.
And this is a guy who's been.
Back in the days and thenBrandon Lee got better, you know,

(55:49):
in.
In the Sense of.
They got a supreme role,people recognize him and they just
die off.
You know, unfortunately, the,the 90s become ninja, so all the
Japanese actors become popular.
And then the, the during 2000,martial art no longer become popular.
It's become just a dead thing.
And now because of all thedifferent new movies coming out that

(56:12):
in K pop, also influencingpeople, like indication culture a
lot more.
All this coming back becausethey feel like there's, there's.
And you can see Netflix a lotof Asian movies in there.
Yeah, there's a huge popularneed for that.
I really want to see something different.
We've been watching some Kdramas, but I, I think my.
Our favorite one isExtraordinary Attorney Wu.

(56:34):
Okay.
Yes.
We adore that show is so good.
That show is fantastic.
I like.
Yeah, I like K drama betterthan Chinese drama because China
drama is usually 36 episodesof 46 episodes, they did a three.
So last year or the lastcouple of years, they.
Netflix did a.

(56:56):
The Three Body Problemminiseries, but China released one
at the same time.
And I'm like, oh, I think Iwant to watch that.
It's.
It is.
It's like 36 episodes long.
But the book is like, youknow, I read the book.
Isn't that.
The book isn't that long.
Yeah, but I, I, you know, the,the Netflix drama really just kind

(57:16):
of glazed over it.
So I'm very interested to seethe Chinese one because obviously
36 episodes, I get bored.
They're gonna do it justice.
They, they basically page ofthe store, the book or whatever Chinese
drama you watch.
Everything is based on the.
The somebody script orsomebody's story.
Somebody books.
They just do page by page bypage by page.
They don't, they don't, theydon't cut anything.

(57:38):
That's the same thing withlike a, A lot of the Three Kingdoms
series, different series.
They don't cut anything out.
They don't try, you know,because a lot of times with American
scripts especially, they'relike, oh, you know, that's a subplot
that we really don't need, orthis, that, and the other.
But yeah, with Chinese dramas,a lot of times they're like, nope,
this is the source material.
Everything is important.

(57:58):
We're doing it all.
Unfortunately, I don't thinkit works on TV or movies.
I think it works better inscript, on books, because you can
sit and read it throughout thewhole thing.
In story.
It get very, very, very low.
I get bored.
I had to fast forward.
I'm watching right now a showcalled I Can't Remember the Show

(58:20):
name now Some Kind of theCoroner, which basically is based
on the Tang Dynasty and theTang dynasty.
It's a 36 episode.
I had to fast forward becauseI can't.
I can't handle it.
Enough talking.
Yeah.
Enough about the chickens,move on.
And then people.
People complain that, youknow, movies, they didn't include

(58:40):
this one part from the bookand it's like, it's the exact.
You don't understand if they did.
If they included everything,you probably.
If they really gave you whatyou think you want, you're probably
going to like it even less.
Well, well, but then, youknow, that depends, right?
Because like look at Lord ofthe Rings.
Well, it's only three books though.
I mean, three.
Three mov.
Three movies and hob movies orsix movies.

(59:01):
But the books is what, 20 toy books?
Something like that.
But then they.
They still adapted and moved and.
And like.
Right.
They did change things hereand there.
Likely tell it in.
In the same order because it.
It's just easier in thatmedium to tell it a certain way.
Well, Harry Potter stuff's gotto go.
Harry Potter is seven movies.
Yeah, same thing with HarryPotter movies.
And then.

(59:21):
Yeah, but again, it's not thewhole book page by page.
More like condensing each bookin one story.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
No, for some reason the.
The Chinese dramas, they justdon't do that.
So you're telling me I shouldavoid that three body problem?
I'd say if you want to watch,Doug, it's an interesting storyline,
so go ahead and watch.

(59:42):
I love the book.
Well, I would say if you lovethe book and you want a very thorough
presentation of it in a.
In a visual medium, then.
Then I think it's Netflix one.
The Netflix one so much thatit almost wasn't the same story.
Yeah, it was still good.
I thought it was still welldone, but it just was it.
But it wasn't the same.

(01:00:02):
It wasn't the book.
Yeah, not really.
It didn't have a lot of the same.
But before I do that, watchthe Judge D mystery because it's
based on a Thai dynasty and.
Okay, it's really good.
I mean it's.
It's just D is a.
It's like a Sherlock Holmes.
It was a crate.
It's a real person, not likeSherlock Holmes, real judge, very

(01:00:22):
smart.
And then.
But most of the story are madeup by a writer who funny enough,
and European or French writerwrote the book.
It got very popular based onwhat he found the historical papers.
Interesting.
So a French author was the onethat succeeded and made it famous.

(01:00:43):
Yeah.
Quite interesting how.
It's very funny.
Interesting.
But again, now you areappreciating culture.
You're not appropriating the culture.
Yeah, correct.
There you go.
And that is one of the reasonswhy I was asking the question, because
it can.
The lines can be blurred very easily.

(01:01:04):
Yes.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, Johnny, we want to thankyou so much for being a part of the
show today.
It's been such a pleasure totalk to you.
I can't wait to come out.
I'm gonna try to get out thereon Sunday.
Seems like there's a lot ofstuff going on on Sunday.
You can see him in armor.
Yeah.
If you meet at 2 o' clock,you'll see me on armor on stage at

(01:01:25):
2 o' clock.
Are you going to be doing anyscenes from the.
From the movie or just.
Are you crazy?
That's too much work.
Look around and then walk byout the station.
Well, before we let you go,tell everyone how they can find you

(01:01:46):
either, whether it's on socialmedia, things like that, and then
also the.
The festival.
So the Asian Festival.
The Cleveland Asian Festival.
You can find them informationat the cleveland asian festival.org
or you can actually search on Facebook.
Cleveland Asian Festival, youcan find everywhere.
As for me, all you have to dois search for Johnny K.
Wu and you'll find me everywhere.
Or MDI film.

(01:02:07):
Awesome.
That's nice.
All right, well, thanks again, man.
It's been a pleasure having you.
Thank you.
Having been fantastic, Johnny.
Always good to see you, Johnny.
Likewise.
Thank you for taking the leadat the beginning with all of our
technical.
Difficulties, Captain, my captain.
We still got an episode inwhich is awesome.
Nothing wrong with that.
Yeah, yeah.

(01:02:28):
Let me know, Jeff, when you.
When you have it availableonline, I can help.
I'll be happy to share it everywhere.
All right.
Yeah, we're going to try todrop this on Wednesday.
So if you're.
You're listening to it, it'salready Wednesday.
So thanks for listening.
Thanks again.
We'll see you guys next month.
Hopefully we're going to betalking to the Cleveland Guardians.
No, not the baseball team.

(01:02:49):
The original Cleveland Guardians.
The Roller derby.
Roller derby team.
Yeah, we're going to.
We met them at Fan Expo andwe're hoping to talk to them on the
show.
So stay tuned, guys.
We'll see you.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
Thanks.
We're waving.
The podcast is Real is a worldGone Geek production.