SFIAAFF - "Crossing Over" with Daniel

On Saturday, I made it out to the portion of S.F. International Asian-American Film Festival taking place at the Kabuki Cinemas in Japantown.

No rain this morning which made it conducive to hang out at Japantown and enjoy the indoor and outdoor SFIAFF festivities.

Here we are at the queue prior to the "Crossing Over" panel discussion.


Inside with front and center seating. The theater was one of their smaller (smallest?) ones. Seating could not have been over 120. Very intimate indeed.


The man on the left, Andrew Ooi, works for Echelon Talent Management which represents Maggie Q, among others. He mentioned that she studied Mandarin for months in preparation for her role in Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon.




"Let me start by talking about that hideous accent I had to affect for  my role in Around the World in 80 Days." No, he didn't really say that in so many words.


This is Dan answering one of numerous questions about his preference to use his natural, non-Asian accented English in the roles that require any use of English. It started out by DW sharing his experience in one of his earlier films, Around the World in 80 Days in which it was insisted he speak with an Asian accent because it would aid in the continuity of the film's Asian characters as all the other Asian actors involved, including Jackie Chan, speak English with an Asian accent in real-life. He wasn't too pleased with this situation which is why we hardly seeing him doing this in his films.


DW contributed to the panel discussion by providing insight into the film world from his perspective. He was quite lively and animated compared to the other industry insiders. He talked about the possibility of someday participating in a Hollywood production - if the scrīpt was right.

I even posed a question for the panel. Nothing to do with accents.

Here, we see DW probably talking about his mother or answering yet another question about his feelings about affecting an Asian accent.


DW's mom was present at the panel. Saw her take a seat and saw her in the lobby. He acknowledged her during the Panel. Aww.

During the Q&A, someone had asked him how his parents felt about him choosing to pursue a modeling/acting career after graduating from college. He said they knew he was inclined towards doing his own thing so it didn't surprise them and they were supportive. His first film was the gay film, Bishonen, and probably was the shocker of shockers though.

Jane would not let DW slip out of the theater (which needed to be cleared out for the next feature) without getting a pic with him.


Some of the Bay Area AnDers.


And looky, looky! We made that tall guy actually crack a smile. Whoa!
This is my Andrew Lin pose, by the way.



I checked my pics from last year's SFIFF and noticed DW's wearing the same jacket.  haha.

I bumped into Wendy in the lobby. We had arranged to (finally) meet before she was to catch a film screening at the festival. I felt as if I already "knew" her upon our first physical meeting. She's a fascinating and funny lady. Very soft-spoken too.

Here we are in Japantown's Peace Plaza where there was live music and dancing. A mid-day snack was enjoyed at one of the many Japanese eateries inside the mall. AnD artist Scott Tang (a humorous and talented guy) joined Cass, Jane, Wendy and I. We shared a big laugh over something we all have in common at the moment (besides being Asian and AnDers).



I had had enough excitement out in S.F. It was evening and time to head back to the home front. From the San Mateo bridge, I captured this cloud formation over the Bay while driving (taking photos on windy day on bridge not recommended).


##

Add a comment