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To celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander (Aapi) Heritage Month in May, Fox’s free streaming service Tubi has curated a container of titles that highlight Asian American voices from its catalog. The collection features Academy Award nominees, films from female and male Asian American directors, Sundance Film Festival selections, documentaries, and titles that prominently feature Aapi stories, actors, and actresses.

Films

A Thousand Years of Good Prayers (2007) – Directed by Wayne Wang (Joy Luck Club)

Bitter Melon (2018) – Directed by Hp Mendoza

Children of Invention (2009) – Sundance Film Festival selection

Chu and Blossom (2015) – Featured in the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival

Go Back to China (2019) – Starring comedian Anna Akana, written/directed by Emily Ting

I Will Make You Mine (2020) – Directed/written/produced by Lynn Chen, produced by Emily Ting

Love Arcadia (2014) – Featured in the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival

Miss India America (2015) – Featured in the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film...

The coronavirus has made everyone a bit sensitive, with good reason, inspiring memes around such now-sensitive movie titles as delayed 007 entry “No Time to Die” and Emily Ting’s culture-shock indie “Go Back to China.” To this list of inappropriately named movies we might add “Why Don’t You Just Die!” — except that Russian director Kirill Sokolov’s pitch-black horror debut, which nixed its April 10 theatrical plans in favor of a straight-to-streaming option two weeks later, is the kind of deranged Grand Guignol bloodbath that’s wrong in all the right ways. So, in a sense, it fits.

Set almost entirely in a corrupt cop’s Moscow apartment, “Why Don’t You Just Die!” is a neatly conceived dark-comedy chamber piece — à la the Wachowski siblings’ clockwork-perfect queer-noir “Bound” or Sidney Lumet’s airtight but otherwise diabolical “Deathtrap” — in which a simple setup spirals into unimaginably twisted mayhem. A tough, agitated young...

Editors’ Note: With full acknowledgment of the big-picture implications of a pandemic that has already claimed thousands of lives, cratered global economies and closed international borders, Deadline’s Coping With Covid-19 Crisis series is a forum for those in the entertainment space grappling with myriad consequences of seeing a great industry screech to a halt. The hope is for an exchange of ideas and experiences, and suggestions on how businesses and individuals can best ride out a crisis that doesn’t look like it will abate any time soon. If you have a story, email mike@deadline.com.

Lynn Chen has been seen on numerous TV series including Silicon Valley, The Affair and Shameless, and starred in Nice Girls Crew from Sundance winner Tanuj Chopra. Her indie résumé includes the recent Emily Ting comedy Go Back to China, and she is probably best known for her role in Alice Wu’s film Saving Face.

Those hungry for more of the East/West culture-clash terrain of “Crazy Rich Asians” and “The Farewell” may savor the slightly downsized pleasures of “Go Back to China,” which offers up some of the first film’s lifestyle glamour plus the second’s more earnest family drama. Emily Ting’s second scripted feature is essentially a freely fictionalized revamp of 2008 documentary “Family Inc.,” in which she charted her own reluctant but ultimately rewarding move from New York City to Hong Kong, where she trained to run her hot-tempered father’s plush toy factory.

Tethering that real-life tale to some rather stock narrative beats, this isn’t a memorable seriocomedy. But it’s a pleasant one that should do well in home-format sales. A year after the film screened in competition at SXSW, Gravitas Ventures is launching it on demand as well as in a handful of U.S. theaters this Friday.

It's only a movie, but what a good time to watch "a winning comedy-drama of cultural differences and complicated family dynamics"! As described by our own Christopher Bourne in his review, writer/director Emily Ting's sophomore feature Go Back to China is "an endearing, brightly colored, and deceptively light film that turns sour racist lemons into sweet cinematic lemonade." The film follows spoiled rich girl Sasha Li (Anna Akana) as she reluctantly goes to work at her family's toy factory in China. Richard Ng, Lynn Chen, Kelly Hu, and Kendy Cheung also star. Go Back to China will open in select U.S. theaters and on various VOD platforms on March 6, 2020. (Pre-order on iTunes here.) Whet your appetite by watching the fun, very inviting trailer...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Surprisingly, it hasn’t even been two years since the debut of “Crazy Rich Asians” in theaters. That means it hasn’t been long at all since Hollywood wondered if it made sense to finance and release a film with an Asian director and a cast primarily filled with Asian actors. Just reading that has to make you shake your head in disbelief. Thankfully, it appears that time is finally in the past, and films such as “Go Back to China” are allowed their rightful moment to shine.

Continue reading ‘Go Back To China’ Exclusive Trailer: Anna Akana Stars In A New Comedy From Director Emily Ting at The Playlist.

Exclusive: Gravitas Ventures has acquired the worldwide rights to Emily Ting’s second directorial feature Go Back to China starring Anna Akana. The film will have a limited theatrical release and will be available on VOD starting March 6, 2020.

The semi-autobiographical film made its world premiere at SXSW earlier this year. The story follows Sasha Li (Akana), a spoiled rich girl who after blowing through most of her trust fund, is forced by her father to go back to China and work for the family toy business. What begins simply as a way to regain financial support soon develops into a life-altering journey of self-discovery, as she learns the business from the ground up and reconnects with her estranged family in the process.

Go Back to China serves up a heartfelt story of cultural identity, family relationships, privilege and an honest look at the human cost of things that are made in China.

Exclusive: Lynn Chen and Idara Victor are set to join William H. Macy and company in recurring on Shameless, which returns to Showtime for its 10th season on November 10.

Chen is set to play Mimi, an accidental new friend for V (Shanola Hampton) who introduces V to a lucrative new career. Victor will step into the role of Sarah, who leads a mommy AA group and welcomes a struggling new dad Lip (Jeremy Allen White).

Chen has appeared in such films and TV series as Silicon Valley, NCIS: Los Angeles, Numb3rs, Lakeview Terrace and multiple episodes in the Law & Order universe. She is repped by Sovereign Talent Group and Authentic Talent and Literary Management.

Victor’s credits include Alita: Battle Angel, An American Girl Story – Melody 1963: Love Has to Win, Turn: Washington Spies, The Choir and Vegas. She...

Scheme Birds Edinburgh International Film Festival is putting Scottish films in the spotlight again this year, with stars including Shauna Macdonald, Jack Lowden, Angus Macfadyen, Peter Mullan and director Mark Cousins joining the line-up.

Among the films announced today is Dundee-shot Schemers, by writer/director David McLean. An autobiographical look at the director’s early years in the music business. Ellen Fiske and Ellinor Hallin's Motherwell-set documentary Scheme Birds - which won the Albert Maysles Award and Best Documentary accolade at Tribeca Film Festival last month - will also screen.

Macfadyen reprises the role of Robert the Bruce, from Braveheart, in a retelling of the story, while Brian Cox stars alongside Blythe Danner in thriller Strange But True.

Scottish-born producer Sophia Shek brings comedy drama Go Back To China to this year’s Festival. Directed by Emily Ting, the film tells the story of Sasha Li, a spoiled rich kid whose father.

“Stop being such a princess.”

We have probably heard the phrase, this has been a story a director has been eager to tell so many times, it has become something of a cliché . However, in the case of director and producer Emily Ting’s film “Go Back to China”, this particular reason for telling a story has an autobiographical foundation. On the occasion of the movie’s screening at this year’s South by Southwest festival, Ting explains further how the story eventually became one she needed to tell before she was able to focus on other projects after her last feature “Already Tomorrow in Hong Kong”.

Even though she emphasizes she does not resemble the main character of her movie, she was also forced to return to her home country China at the age of 24. The experience of working in this culture, which had become somewhat foreign to her,...

Anna Akana and Lynn Chen have a new film called Go Back to China, which centers on a wealthy Asian-American girl from L.A. named Sasha Li who is forced to go to China to work for her family’s toy business after her father chastises her for blowing through her trust fund. The film follows last year’s romantic comedy Crazy Rich Asians, a […]...

Actresses Anna Akana and Lynn Chen are exploring wild cultural conflicts in their new drama film Go Back to China. The actresses spoke to uInterview exclusively about the movie at the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in Austin, Texas. Go Back to China, which was written and directed by Emily Ting, centers on a spoiled Asian-American rich girl named Sasha Li who is […]...

The 35th Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, running May 2 to May 10, will screen 200 films, including eight world premieres and a number of works by women filmmakers. For the first time in its history, the fest will open and close with feature films written and directed by Asian Pacific American women.

The festival, presented by Visual Communications, will be held at a number of venues in Los Angeles.

Opening night will be the world premiere of “Yellow Rose,” written and directed by Diane Paragas, and starring Lea Salonga and Eva Noblezada. The fest will close with “Empty by Design,” written and directed by Andrea A. Walter, and starring Rhian Ramos and Osric Chau.

Special programs include Spotlight on Taiwan, featuring Golden Horse Award winners “Long Time No Sea” and “Cities of Last Things,” and a 25th-anniversary salute to the 1994 TV series “All-American Girl,” with Margaret Cho and other cast members in discussion.

The 35th annual Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival has set its centerpiece films, The Hollywood Reporter has exclusively learned.

Both movies hail from rising young Asian-American filmmakers: Justin Chon's Ms. Purple, which debuted in January at Sundance and has been acquired by Oscilloscope, and Emily Ting's Go Back to China, which premiered at SXSW earlier this month.

Chon's follow-up to his Sundance Next- and Indie Spirit-winning 2017 L.A. riots period drama Gook takes place in L.A.'s Koreatown, where a pair of estranged siblings (Tiffany Chu and Teddy Lee) are forced to reconnect to take care of their ...

The 35th annual Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival has set its centerpiece films, The Hollywood Reporter has exclusively learned.

Both movies hail from rising young Asian-American filmmakers: Justin Chon's Ms. Purple, which debuted in January at Sundance and has been acquired by Oscilloscope, and Emily Ting's Go Back to China, which premiered at SXSW earlier this month.

Chon's follow-up to his Sundance Next- and Indie Spirit-winning 2017 L.A. riots period drama Gook takes place in L.A.'s Koreatown, where a pair of estranged siblings (Tiffany Chu and Teddy Lee) are forced to reconnect to take care of their ...

A funny, light, and heartfelt situation comedy, Go Back to China finds a fashion school graduate Sasha (Anna Akana) in her father’s toy factory after she’s cut off, blowing half a million dollars on food, drink, and fashion in Los Angeles. Written and directed by Emily Tang, the film feels like a pilot concept and that’s not entirely negative criticism thanks in part to its likable lead whose adventures to find herself don’t involve meeting the man of her dreams but rather landing a dream job after learning the value of hard work.

Failing to land a gig in Los Angeles, she’s either a wise capitalist who knows her worth or a brat after she discloses to several hiring managers she doesn’t want to work for free. Sasha now finds her trust fund and credit cards suspended when the bill comes on her lavish birthday party.

In a mainstream entertainment landscape that’s still sorely lacking on-screen Asian representation, Emily Ting’s winning “Go Back to China” will inevitably draw comparisons to other films like “Crazy Rich Asians” and “The Farewell.” And while each feature focuses on Americanized young people returning to their ancestral roots and finding surprises both good and bad, each film offers its own distinct charms and viewpoints. Why, it’s almost as if there’s more than one story to tell about people who make up literally more than half of the world’s population! Such sardonic observations would not be out of place in Ting’s sophomore film (the writer and director made her debut in 2015 with the amiable romance “Already Tomorrow in Hong Kong”), which takes a spit-out slur and turns it into the start of an unexpectedly sweet coming-of-age comedy.

Sasha Li is a spoiled Chinese-American fashion school grad...

At her sixth interview, the interviewer asks Sasha in a slightly snarky way “How do you expect to get experience?” Sasha’s responds in a pleading and confused manner: “…By getting a job?” This interaction is a perfect snapshot of Sasha Li’s issues in writer/director Emily Ting’s film Go Back To China. While many other millennials can […]

The post ‘Go Back to China’ Review: Emily Ting’s Character-Driven Indie is Another Big Win For Asian-American Filmmakers appeared first on /Film.

Getting a feature film into SXSW is a big accomplishment for an independent filmmaker. It’s an important building block toward a full-time career in the industry, but for many it is not an achievement that can, in and of itself, pay the bills. IndieWire asked 30 directors premiering scripted narrative features in one of four SXSW 2019 categories how, when they are not making independent films, do they make a living? Here’s what they had to say.

Sandy K Boone (“J.R. ‘Bob’ Dobbs and The Church of the SubGenius”): I am a licensed realtor and have sold luxury real estate for over 30 years for my day-to-day living.

Travis Stevens (“Girl on the Third Floor”): Since 2010 I’ve been fortunate enough to pay my rent by producing independent films.

Emily Ting (“Go Back to China”): I’ve been working as the Creative Director for my family’s...

Exclusive: Actress and comedian Anna Akana (Youth & Consequences) is giving off some hilarious Goldie Hawn-in-Overboard rich girl out of water vibes in this clip from the SXSW comedy Go Back To China.

Written and directed by Emily Ting (Already Tomorrow in Hong Kong), the film stars Akana as Sasha Li, a spoiled rich girl living in Los Angeles. As she lives off her trust fund, she expects to find a fashion design job easily but has no luck. Luckily she has a pile of money to pad her fall — until her dad (Richard Ng) cuts her off and she is forced to go back to China (hence the title of the movie) and work for the family toy business. While getting acclimated to her new life, she reconnects with her estranged sister (Lynn Chen) and struggles with having to actually work for money and is humbled in the process.

Festival announces 102 features and episodic premieres for 26th edition.

Harmony Korine’s The Beach Bum starring Matthew McConaughey as a rebellious stoner, John Lee Hancock’s western The Highwaymen starring Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson, and The Day Shall Come from British arch provocateur Chris Morris will premiere at SXSW in March.

Festival top brass on Wednesday (16) announced 102 features and episodic premieres line-up for the 26th edition of the festival that runs from March 8-17 in Austin, Texas.

Besides The Beach Bum and The Highwaymen, the Headliners programme includes Universal’s sixth grade comedy Good Boys starring Jacob Tremblay, from...

Festival announces 102 features and episodic premieres for 26th edition.

Harmony Korine’s The Beach Bum starring Matthew McConaughey as a rebellious stoner, John Lee Hancock’s western The Highwaymen starring Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson, and Taika Waititi’s TV version of his vampire feature What We Do In The Shadows will premiere at SXSW in March.

Festival top brass on Wednesday (16) announced 102 features and episodic premieres line-up for the 26th edition of the festival that runs from March 8-17 in Austin, Texas.

Besides The Beach Bum and The Highwaymen, the Headliners programme includes Universal’s sixth grade comedy Good Boys starring Jacob Tremblay,...

Anna Akana continues to add credits to her burgeoning acting career. The YouTube star has begun shooting her lead role in Go Back To China, an upcoming feature film.

Go Back To China, which Variety discussed back in February, will star Akana as a Chinese-American trust fund baby whose father forces her to return to China after she blows through her inheritance. Emily Ting, director of the 2015 film Already Tomorrow in Hong Kong, is at the helm of Go Back To China as well.

Akana noted on Twitter that filming for Go Back To China has begun in the film's titular country.

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