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FEATURING ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICANS Click HERE for Part 1, HERE for Part 2 and HERE for Part 3 (2001) Director: Gurinder Chadha Studio: Vidmark/Trimark Cast: Joan Chen, Julianna Margulies, Mercedes Ruehl, Kyra Sedgwick, Alfre Woodard, Maury Chaykin, Estelle Harris, Dennis Haysbert, Lainie Kazan, Victor Rivers, Douglas Spain, François Chau, Kieu Chinh, Chao Li Chi, A Martinez, Will Yun Lee, Kristy Wu, Jimmy Pham, Brennan Louie, Scott Nguyen At first glance, What's Cooking? looks like it was dreamed up by some politically correct screenwriting committee: a series of overlapping stories that intercut among four families (one Hispanic, one Vietnamese, one African American, one Jewish) all preparing for Thanksgiving dinner. But what could be toothless and smarmy is made gripping and genuinely affecting by a mixture of observant writing, fluid direction, and a truly superb ensemble of actors, including Mercedes Ruehl, Alfre Woodard, Joan Chen, Julianna Margulies, Kyra Sedgewick, Dennis Haysbert, and a host of less well known but just as capable others. The script is a marvel of orchestration: small annoyances blossom into fierce conflicts, secrets are deftly revealed, and sanctimoniousness is subtly punctured. The acute but sympathetic portrait of family stress and tension is layered with quiet observations about race and class, as well as the capacity for tolerance and forgiveness. It's recently become a cliché to have characters express themselves through food (examples include Soul Food, Big Night, and Eat Drink Man Woman), but What's Cooking? turns food into a witty exploration of culture as everyone prepares their turkeys in entertainingly different ways--this is not a movie to watch on an empty stomach. Warm without false sentiment, What's Cooking? is deeply enjoyable. -- Bret Fetzer (2001) Director: Ho Yim Written By: Pearl Buck (novel), Yan Luo (screenplay), Paul Collins (screenplay) Produced By: Simon Edery, Rowena Li, Xiageng Li, Yan Luo, Hugo Shong, Bob Warden Studio: Sony Pictures Entertainment Music: Conrad Pope Cast: Willem Dafoe, Yan Luo, John Cho, Chieng Mun Koh, Amy Hill, Kate McGregor-Stewart, Shu Chen, Lisa Ng, John Dunn, Anita Loo, Yi Ding, Shek Sau, Koh Chieng Mun 
STORY: The movie tries to follow Pearl Buck's book, which is as follows: On her fortieth birthday, Madame Wu carries out a decision she has been planning for a long time: she tells her husband that after twenty-four years their physical life together is now over and she wishes him to take a second wife. The House of Wu, one of the oldest and most revered in China, is thrown into an uproar by her decision, but Madame Wu will not be dissuaded and arranges for a young country girl to come take her place in bed. Elegant and detached, Madame Wu orchestrates this change as she manages everything in the extended household of more than sixty relatives and servants. Alone in her own quarters, she relishes her freedom and reads books she has never been allowed to touch. When her son begins English lessons, she listens, and is soon learning from the "foreigner," a free-thinking priest named Brother Andre, who will change her life. The movie tries to illuminate what existed in the book, a thought-provoking combination of Old China, unorthodox Christianity, and liberation. The film, however, with the added romance between the concubine and her son failed to communicate on more than just one level. 
(2001) Directed and Written or: Takeshi Kitano Produced By: Claude Maki, Jeremy Thomas, Masayuki Mori, Peter Watson & Takeshi Kitano Music: Joe Hisaishi Studio: Sony Pictures Entertainment Cast: Omar Epps, Takeshi Kitano, James Shigeta, Claude Maki, Tetsuya Watari, Masaya Kato, Ren Osugi, Susumu Terajima, Ryo Ishibashi, Tatyana Ali, Wanda Lee Evans, Joy Nakagawa, Takeshi Kitano, Masaya Kato, Susumu Terajima 
SYNPOSIS: - When Yakuza gangster Yamamoto is forcibly retired from his clan after a hostile takeover, he flies from Tokyo to Los Angeles to find his younger half brother Ken, whom he believes he has been financing through college. When he finds that Ken has dropped out of school to run a sloppy drug-dealing operation with his buddy Danny, Yamamoto slaps him on the back of the head in disgust, then shows the motley crew how to take over the LA underworld, Yakuza style. In the most violent ways imaginable, Yamamoto transforms the ragtag gang into a styling posse of professional punishers and schools them in a kamikaze code of honor that puts all other forms of gang bonding to shame. 
DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT
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