AFFD 2007 has begun!!

The Asian Film Festival of Dallas 2007 had its opening night tonight. Justin Lin’s new movie Finishing the Game was the opener. It is sort of a fake documentary about an attempt to finish Bruce Lee’s last movie Game of Death. You can catch the Fist of Führer spoof from the movie on youtube. Sung Kang and Roger Fan are the stars but it has cameos from Ron Jeremy, George Takei, MC Hammer, and James Franco.

Beyond the reverence they have for Bruce Lee its clear that Eric Byler’s movies or James Hou’s documentary Masters of the Pillow are part of the subtext. Unlike those filmmakers who focus on subverting Asian stereotypes Lin chooses to leverage them as humor in the subtext. Sung Kang’s character being cast in a “European” (porn) movie seems like a light jab at Dr. Darrell Hamamoto making porn movies with an Asian male lead to repair the Asian male’s self-image. I had most recently seen Sung Kang in The Motel where he gives an outstanding performance.

I sprung for the VIP pass this year so I plan to hit a lot more movies. As usual the programming really looks top notch.