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The Electric Image Express

Arts & Culture Podcasts

The Electric Image Express celebrates Asian American/Asian films and their creators. On each episode we invite our guests to share their personal creative journey and explore their latest work. Episodes come out every two weeks! You can reach us via e-mail: electricimageexpress@gmail.com or IG/Twitter @electricimageexpress

Location:

United States

Description:

The Electric Image Express celebrates Asian American/Asian films and their creators. On each episode we invite our guests to share their personal creative journey and explore their latest work. Episodes come out every two weeks! You can reach us via e-mail: electricimageexpress@gmail.com or IG/Twitter @electricimageexpress

Language:

English

Contact:

9492284668


Episodes

Episode Swap: 'Boogie' w/ Raymond Luu, Alan Duong, Renee Ya

6/22/2021
Ray, Alan, and Renee discuss Eddie Huang's coming-of-age, basketball drama and why it resonated differently among the team. They talk about the unique perspective of the Black/Asian cultural interactions, how the basketball scenes were shot, and where this fits in the ranking of popular basketball movies. Hint: Space Jam is still the best. Links to donate/educate/organize to stop AAPI hate: https://www.gofundme.com/c/act/stop-aapi-hate DONATE so we can improve the show at...

Duration:01:00:00

Asian American Tik Tok and 2021 Oscars (Minari, Nomadland, Sound of Metal) with Lily Lei and Katie Quan

4/29/2021
In episode 40, we sit down with Tik Tok creator Lily Lei as she shares her jourrney to obtaining Tik Tok fame over the last year. As we are all well aware, Tik Tok is an incredibly influential video platform. As a podcast interested in how Asian Americans portray ourselves across any creative medium, we were really fascinated by how Lily employed many elements of her Asian upbringing into her skits, and how those skits helped contribute to her rise. Lily also gives us insight into her...

Duration:01:04:35

Days of Being Wild (阿飛正傳), Haruki Murakami, and our ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY PART 1 with Hon Hoang

4/14/2021
It's our ANNIVERSARY! THANK YOU to all of our listeners and fans for your continued support! THANK YOU to our guests for lending your time and sharing your stories, and THANK YOU to everyone else who has contributed to the show! In this episode, Hon Hoang returns to talk about (what else) Wong Kar Wai's Days of Being Wild and some Haruki Murakami. COULD there be a more appropriate topic for a Sean Niu-hosted podcast? Watch Hon's films and appreciate his photography here:...

Duration:00:40:11

BONUS ANNIVERSARY EPISODE: Surviving Battle Royale (バトル・ロワイアル) with Raymond Luu and Alan Duong from the Reel Asian Podcast

4/7/2021
It's our ANNIVERSARY! THANK YOU to all of our listeners and fans for your continued support! THANK YOU to our guests for lending your time and sharing your stories, and THANK YOU to everyone else who has contributed to the show! We've added a BONUS episode for our anniversary: Raymond Luu and Alan Duong from [The Reel Asian Podcast] (https://www.reelasianpodcast.com/) join us to revisit Kinji Fukasaku's Battle Royale. Notes: 1) The Reel Asian guys explain the appeal of Battle Royale and...

Duration:00:54:47

Love Boat Taiwan, Taiwanese Diaspora, Violence against Asians with Valerie Soe

3/30/2021
Director, writer, and professor Valerie Soe joins Sean to share her creative journey and the making of her newest documentary: Love Boat: Taiwan You can watch Love Boat here: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/loveboattaiwan and you can watch more of Valerie's activist-oriented films here: Picturing Oriental Girls The Chinese Gardens Notes: 1) Valerie gives her thoughts and action items in reaction to the recent violence on Asian Americans (3:27) 2) Valerie shares her career path as a...

Duration:01:04:06

A Father's Son, Shanghai Kiss, Asian Father roles (Warrior) with Patrick Chen, Perry Yung and Hon Hoang

3/15/2021
Director Patrick Chen and Actor Perry Yung join Sean and Hon Hoang to talk about their upcoming film A Father’s Son: A 90’s Chinatown Noir Thriller based on the character’s from Henry Change’s Jack Yu crime novels. Kickstarter Patrick and Perry are long time filmmaking veterans. You can find some of Patrick’s shorts here: (I personally like Love Express the most bc surprise surprise, it reminds me of Wong Kat Was) Love Express https://vimeo.com/181145058 Underneath The Grey...

Duration:01:10:15

Kenneth Pai on Taipei People, Chinese/Taiwanese identity, and Asian American literature

2/28/2021
In Episode 35, I’m joined by legendary Taiwanese writer Kenneth Pai (白先勇). Professor Pai’s works pioneered the modern Chinese experience: including as waishengren (外省人) living in Taiwan (Taipei People, Crystal Boys) and as immigrants to America. (Pleasantville, Death in Chicago) In our conversation, we talk about: My further thoughts on Taipei People and Chinese Identity [https://sameseanniulook.medium.com/taipei-people-and-chinese-identity-540741f093b7] Where you can watch his work:...

Duration:00:55:38

Happy Cleaners: Religion, Family, and The Asian American Dream with Charles Ryu, Yeena Sung, and Kat Kim

2/12/2021
Welcome to Season 2! Happy Lunar New Year! 新年快樂! 새해 복 많이 받으세요 ! Chúc Mừng Năm Mới”! After reflecting for a few weeks I decided to dedicate more time on the show talking to AsAm/minority creators and focusing the conversation around their journeys and experiences. I hope this helps you understand about how to pursue your own creative passions and furthers the conversation beyond variations of “what did you think of seeing someone that looked like you on screen?” In Episode 34, I’m joined by...

Duration:01:06:29

A Very Harold & Kumar (and Akshay and Sean) 3D Christmas

12/25/2020
Merry Xmas and happy holidays to everyone! Akshay Singh returns to make good on the Xmas episode he promised us way back in episode 4. Akshay and I first determine where we will record our next Xmas special when the pandemic (hopefully) finally ends (7:04) before we get into how we celebrate Christmas as non-Christian minorities in America (13:17) including Akshay's memories of Christmas growing up in Brazil and India. At (23:52) we get into the very bad/good movie that completes the Harold...

Duration:00:49:54

To All the Boys I've Loved Before: Happa representation and Gen Z High School hijinks with Blake Lew-Merwin and Shannon Fong

11/9/2020
In Episode #29, Shannon Fong and Blake Lew-Merwin come back to revisit To All the Boys I've Loved Before: the 2018 high school Netflix romcom written by Jenny Han that notably features Lara Jean, a half-asian protagonist. After sharing our first reactions, Shannon, our resident asian drama expert (and the only one of the shares the movie's plot similarities to Asian dramas (17:04) before we have a roundtable discussion on Jenny Han's "pragmatic" approach to racial representation (21:11),...

Duration:01:11:16

Fallen Angels: The Wong Kar-Wai Experience with Hon Hoang

10/26/2020
In Episode #28, we FINALLY get to the Wong Kar-Wai episode! Hon Hoang, photographer and director, joins me to talk about my favorite (and I suspect, one of his favorite) directors and his movie Fallen Angels. Hon starts by sharing his journey to become a visual artist (10:18) and where he gets inspiration for his stories. At (16:44), we start revisiting Fallen Angels. I asked Hon to pick a WKW movie to revisit, so at (25:11) he explains why, and how it encouraged him to break the rules of...

Duration:01:11:53

The 2020 Vice Presidential Debate: Through the Eyes of the Asian American Voter with Minh-Thu-Pham, Kim Thuy Seelinger, and Anuj Vohra

10/8/2020
Today we have a special episode of the pod recapping the Vice Presidential Debate! I'm joined by Minh-Thu-Pham, Kim Thuy Seelinger, and Anuj Vohra-- legal and policy experts as well as founders of New American Voices, Asian Americans Against Trump, and Desis United to share our thoughts on Kamala Harris and Mike Pence's performance and what their organizations are doing to help Joe Biden and Kamala Harris win in 2020. After our guests share a little background on themselves and their...

Duration:01:03:36

Saving Face: LGBTQ Chinese American cinema and family reputation with Katie Quan and Vivian Liu

9/28/2020
In Episode #26, we revisit Alice Wu's Saving Face:quietly one of the most important movies of the last 20 years for Asian American cinema. Our guest is Katie Quan,who teaches Asian American Issues through Film in San Francisco (basically, she's way more qualified than I am to host this podcast!) and runs This Asian American Life, a platform for highlighting and empowering Asian creators from all walks of life. Katie is joined by Vivian Liu, a former student whose passion and personal...

Duration:01:02:28

Parasite (기생충): Impact on Asian American creators, memeability, Kpop, and more with Minji Chang

9/14/2020
In Episode #25, we revisit Parasite: one of the most acclaimed Asian movies of recent history...and the movie that caused our last collective moment of joy in 2020. Minji Chang-- actor, producer, activist and a whole lot more joins to offer her valuable insight into the movie and the Asian American creative community. After sharing our initial reactions to rewatching the film post the ongoing disaster of 2020 (8:55), I pitch a new measure of movie success: the memability of its scenes....

Duration:01:08:06

1998 Mulan: Gender roles, Gen Z, and looking forward to 2020 Mulan with Shannon Fong and Blake Lew-Merwin

9/5/2020
When you think of Asian American icons in animation, The Animated, OG 1998 Mulan quickly climbs to the top of the list. When we started this podcast, Mulan was definitely on the shortlist. What better time to revisit this milestone thanthe release of the new Mulan? Returning guest Shannon Fong and rockstar intern Blake Lew-Merwin join us to share their memories of watching an Asian Disney princess growing up (for Shannon) and for the first time (for Blake). After we share our reactions, we...

Duration:00:57:55

The Wandering Earth (流浪地球) + 3 Body Problem ( 三体): Science Fiction in the hands of China with Eric Lee and Mazy Yap

9/1/2020
The Wandering Earth gives us a once in a lifetime chance to observe a new superpower get behind the director's seat for the first time and inject their culture's values and world view through science fiction. Eric Lee and Mazy Yap join me to revisit The Wandering Earth, the Mainland China's first modern science fiction epic and explore the Remembrance of Earth's Past book trilogy written by Liu Cixin, whose short story is the foundation for The Wandering Earth. After reacting to China's...

Duration:01:00:32

Lost in Translation 2: The Tokyo Expat Journey and Tokyo Secrets with Mike Nikolakakis

8/24/2020
Wait, didn't we already cover Lost in Translation? Yes-- but the Japan ex-pat experience is so close to my heart and so fresh in my mind that I had to get Mike back on the podcast and cover some specific experiences related to living life as a foreigner and a minority in Japan. Mike first gives his reaction to the movie (7:55) before we give our thoughts on the unique expat culture in Japan. (9:28) Foreigners come to Japan for different type of reasons-- and we share why we left America and...

Duration:01:10:19

Jeremy Lin 10 years later: Linsanity, Faith, NBA restart, and the future for Asian American ballers with Andrew Noh

8/10/2020
The NBA is back! To celebrate, Andrew and I take a look back at Jeremy Lin's historic career through the documentary Linsanity. Can you believe it's been 10 years since he entered the NBA?? Time flies. We start with recalling our favorite memories from those crazy few weeks (10:01) and I break down how some league-defining events shaped his career for the worst. (13:47) Even with the NBA giving up on him, we admire how he took on the mantle as one of the faces of Asian America, even while he...

Duration:01:11:39

Padma Lakshmi's Taste the Nation: SF Chinatown restaurant recommendations, Lan Zhou vs. Xi'an and the future of Chinese food in America with Eric Lee and Akshay Singh

7/30/2020
Episode 20! Wow! It's crazy how quickly we got here and we couldn't have done it without your encouragement, support, and constructive feedback. This week Eric and Akshay join me to get real deep into a topic near and dear to our hearts: Chinese Food in America, while revisiting Padma Lakshmi's Taste the Nation "SF Chinatown" episode. Specifically, San Francisco and New York Chinese Food. We start out by explaining why, in a world of self-proclaimed foodies, you should trust our opinions...

Duration:01:17:04

Infernal Affairs (無間道) and how Asian Americans navigate self identity with Michael Yap and Stephanie Cheng

7/24/2020
In Episode 19 Stephanie and Michael Yap joins us to revisit Andrew Lau's Infernal Affairs. We kick it off by establishing some sides: Team Tony Leung vs Team Andy Lau? (8:28) After reflection of our rewatch, I describe how Infernal Affairs represents the wonderful memory of discovering incredible content from one world (Asia) and sharing it with another (America). (16:50) At (21:23), we start exploring the big theme of the podcast: agency over identity. By (43:38), Steph and Michael have...

Duration:01:06:42