The Mikado Project, a feature film directed by Chil Kong will be

The Mikado Project, a feature film directed by Chil Kong will be premiering at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival (LAAPFF) organized by Visual Communications, on May 1st at 9:30 pm at the Directors Guild of America. This marks the world premiere of the film and cast and crew will be in attendance.

The Mikado Project is a musical comedy (based on the stage performance written by Ken Narasaki and Doris Baizley and adapted for film by Chil Kong) of a struggling Asian American theater company that, in a desperate publicity stunt to save their company, decides to produce a modern reconstruction of Gilbert and Sullivan’s, The Mikado, to stir controversy and jolt ticket sales.

The Mikado, one of the most beloved comedy operas by legendary collaborators, Arthur Sullivan and W.S. Gilbert, first opened on stage in 1885 in London. The story was set in Japan (considered an exotic land to the British during that era) which allowed Gilbert & Sullivan to satirize British politics. However, by doing so, Asians around the world and Asian Americans today have found this opera hard to embrace—making the notion of Asian American actors performing The Mikado controversial and palatable only through a comedic reconstruction.

The Mikado Project will be playing at the DGA’s Theater #1, a 600 seat state-of-the-art theater in where the LAAPFF traditionally schedules their most popular feature films throughout the festival. The feature presentation will be followed by a Q&A session with cast and crew.

“This is truly an honor to have our film premiere here at VC’s film festival,” says Director Chil Kong. “I have attended this event year after year, seen the dedicated work this group has devoted to Asian American cinema and it is incredible to know that my film will be playing here.”

The most notable component of The Mikado Project that audiences won’t be able to see but will certainly hear, are the new hip-hopera versions of the Gilbert & Sullivan’s musical compositions—outstanding beat box and rap mixes. The dance numbers are choreographed by members of the dance troupes, Kaba Modern and Jabbawockeez, from Randy Jackson’s hit show on MTV, “America’s Best Dance Crew,” giving the movie a whole new identity to an old operetta.

The story begins with the news that The Angry Buddha Theater Ensemble, has lost its leading male actor, Jace (David Lee McInnis, Never Forever, TYPHOON), to a primetime TV gig. Without Jace’s star power the company faces imminent demise. Led by Lance (Allen Liu, Broadway revival of Flower Drum Song), a scrappy artistic director secretly living out of the back office of the theater, the members of the group fight over the idea of putting on The Mikado, which to some in the company is the equivalent of reviving “Charlie Chan” or “Kung Fu”.

“We are using the story of this Asian American theater company in the same way Gilbert & Sullivan used a Japanese story to comment on their society,” says Producer Quan Phung. “Hopefully, we can laugh at ourselves while shedding light on the challenges facing Asian American actors or any actor of color in Hollywood today.”

“This story came out of my very own personal experience in the Asian American artist,” says Director Chil Kong. “I am the Artistic Director of an Asian American theater company called Lodestone, based in LA, and we went through 10 years of introspection about the landscape of Asian Americans in arts and cinema. The one thing I know for sure is that history is evolving and my goal is to create a really good and entertaining story. For me, a musical comedy was the best way to go to address anything we had to say about being Asian Americans or The Mikado.”

(Top Row Left to Right: Ryun Yu, Tamlyn Tomita, Erin Quill, David Lee McInnis
Bottom Row Left to Right: Allen Liu, Gerald McCullouch)

Check out The Mikado roundtable pow wow!

ASIANCE: Can you tell us how you got to direct The Mikado project and how you got the actors involved?

Chil: I directed a theater production of the play, which this was loosely based on. After the production, I said, “I’m going to do a feature”. We quickly got the money for it. When we started the process, I knew I wanted to do it differently. In particular, I wanted to focus on 3 generations, particularly the women; the new one, the one that is trying to break through and then the one who has been around for a while and has broken through.

Tamlyn had seen the show and I had mentioned that I wanted to do this and she came onboard. Then we audition Yuri. We saw her in Kaba Modern, the first season of ABDC. We had met accidently at one of these Asian award events. I asked her if she would be interested in auditioning. It was new for her. She said, “Why not?” She was exactly what I was looking for in the young character. It was kismet how this all came together.

I had seen Raymond in New York at a musical, Kevin So’s “Victor Woo the Average Asian American” at the New York Festival. About once a year, I see someone who I think is going to be really great. So that year, he was that guy. I went up to him and said, “Ray you are really fantastic. One of these days we are going to work together”.

About a year later this came up and I thought of him immediately. The producers didn’t know who he was because he’s from NYC, so I had to make sure he got everything to us, because a few different names were being thrown around. Raymond was working right out of school. He has such an amazing voice and he can dance. This character needed to dance, sing and rap. I knew he could be that.

There are two people from the play who transferred over. Erin (Quill) is one of them but she’s playing a different character. Alan was in the play and he’s playing the same character. He was so memorizing as the lead, that we just had to keep him for the feature.

ASIANCE: What other Asians in entertainment career do you follow?

Chil: Justin Lin. He’s amazing. He’s had a very successful career and has broken through. Another is Michael Kang. He did West 32nd Street and The Motel. He just shot another feature this year. Those are the two main ones I follow for Asian American directors. But really my favorite director of all time is Clint Eastwood, the way he directs, how he directs, the people who he directs with, his philosophy on directing and his multitalented skills. He has so much experience. What he does with his experience is amazing. Rarely do you walk away from one of his films, and say, “Eh that was ok”.

ASIANCE: Is there an ultimate project for you or someone you would like to work with?

Chil: It’s less about who and more about what. I want to do different genre. I want to do one giant MGM style musical. That takes us back to the old school.. I come from a musical theatre background. I have an appreciation for it and I think I can do it justice. It would be a film.

I want to do one epic Korea story, not Korean American. I want it to be about 3 generations of Koreans; the Japanese occupation, the Korean war, Korean dictatorship into the success it has now.

I have this script that my wife wrote, It’s called “K-Town PI”. It’s a fantastic comedy and I want to do it soon.

I think it’s a great point in my career where I can put these stories out.

ASIANCE: Where do you see the Asians in media going or heading? When will it be mainstream enough for you?

Chil: I don’t think we’ll ever be mainstream enough. It’s a tough thing. We represent less than 10% of the population. For us to have a face on some of these shows is just great. We have a face on “Lost”, “Heroes”. We’ve come a long way. These are not stereotypical characters. They are done by really stand up people, who have come from the community or support the community in some way. We need more behind the camera (directors, writers, producers), not in front. At the end of the day, we’re not going to have a say.

As long as non-Asians are creating for us, it’s going to be tough because it’s the actors that need to sustain our image. That’s not really their job.

I think we’ve come a long way. At least, now we don’t have people doing chinky faces on shows. Now they just do it photographs (laughs). There are some times where Asians do it themselves though. Until Asians write for Asians, it’s harder. That’s why these Asian film Festivals are so important.

Raymond J. Lee was born in Atlanta, GA to Korean parents but spent the majority of his childhood moving throughout the United States due to his father’s work with the military.

An avid music lover, Ray studied the violin starting at age 6. However, it was his fascination with pop music that propelled him to buy his first cassette tape (Mariah Carey’s Music Box) and teach himself how to sing. Ray attended Northwestern University and originally planned to major in pre-med chemistry, but felt the need to switch majors and follow his dreams. He was accepted into the Radio/Television/Film program in the School of Communication, and after several rounds of auditions was also accepted into the prestigious Musical Theater Certificate Program.

Upon graduation, Ray moved to New York City and took a job with MTV Networks and their Summer Associate Program. His first job was with the VMAs in Miami as a Production Assistant, which led to other projects including HIP HOP HONORS, MTVs NEW YEARS EVE, the mtvU WOODIE AWARDS, AMERICA’S BEST DANCE CREW, and the MTV MOVIE AWARDS.

Currently, he is starring as “Eddie” in the Broadway company of Mamma Mia! His past credits include “Applause” at City Center’s Encore Series, the title role in the New York Fringe Festival production of “Victor Woo: Average Asian American”, and various readings and workshops, including “Shrek” and “Honeymoon in Vegas”. He has also produced and directed several Mamma Mia Easter Bonnet and Gypsy of the Year presentations.

Ray’s film work includes “Ghost Town”, starring Ricky Gervais and Greg Kinnear, and the independent feature “The Mikado Project”, which will tour the film festival circuit in 2009.

ASIANCE: How did you get Mamma Mia?

Raymond: It was 2 years in the making. I had auditioned when I first moved to the city for Mamma Mia. It wasn’t the right role. The casting director kept calling me for other projects. In 2006, I went for a callback, did the right stuff, danced, read some things. Three weeks later I found out I would be making my Broadway debut. It was a big blessing.

ASIANCE: Have you followed anyone else’s career?

Raymond: The only Asian American person I follow is BD Wong. I’m a more rock, pop, contemporary type of guy. It’s hard not having a rock, pop Asian theater role model. I just try to go to the auditions and rock it out. I receive mail from people saying, “Hey Asian people can sing opera and dance and be in a pop musical”. Hopefully, they’ll have the strength to audition as well.

ASIANCE: What about Kevin Stea?

Raymond: Oh yeah I remember him from Madonna’s Blonde Ambition.

Chil: He choreographed for Lodestone.

ASIANCE: Raymond, please describe your director.

Raymond: I met Chil through Erin. We were doing a workshop together. I met Chil through her. We became really great friends. When this opportunity came up, I jumped at it because he is so talented. For me, being on set is like working with an older brother and learning so much from him. He has so much knowledge. I’m still learning from Chil and Erin.

Erin: We’re supposed to go shopping too.
Erin Quill is A graduate of Carnegie Mellon University’s Music School, she holds a BFA in Vocal Performance. Her popular cabaret show, “They Shoot Asian Fosse Dancers, Don’t They?” has been seen on stages in New York City, Los Angeles, and in Sydney, Australia as part of the Sydney Cabaret Convention. Most recently the show has been invited to perform at the legendary space, The Magic Castle, in Los Angeles. She is a frequent performer for “Musical Mondays’ on both Coasts at SPLASH Nightclub and ELEVEN.

Her TV Credits include NYPD Blue, a pilot for Bravo called “Dishin’”, the pilot “Screening Party” based on the book of the same name by Dennis Hensley, The Movie Club with John Ridley on AMC, an undercover “Punk-ing” of the TODAY Show morning crew and a small recurring on the 3rd season of DAMAGES on F/X.

Her Voice Over work includes the E! Network cartoon, Starveillance, the Audio Book of Screening Party, and several radio spots.

She has an Irish music CD entitled, “And We’ll All Go Together”, based on her 3 years of touring with Irish Music Legend, Paddy Noonan and one of the most popular singers in Ireland, Red Hurley.

She is an Associate Producer on the feature film, THE SENSEI, which was recently released on DVD.

Chil: I want to make it very clear that Raymond earned this role. He sent the tapes; he did all the right things. The same way he earned his role on Broadway.

Raymond: The cast was oh my god. Every Asian show that I do, turns into an Asian family. Everyone goes out for lunch. There’s Karaoke afterward. It’s a good time. Tamlyn talks about Top Chef all the time. I love Yuri. I was a huge fan of America’s Best Dance Crew. She was so down to earth. Erin is like my sister from another mother. We always talk. It’s hard being an Asian American actor, especially from theater. She’s been there when I needed to vent about being an Asian American actor and not having a lot of Asian roles. I couldn’t have asked for a better cast.

Raymond: David (David Lee McInnis) should be a movie star. He is such a good looking guy. For me being the newbie of the group, life imitates art. This is my first film ever. It was such a joy to watch him and Tamlyn in front of the camera. A month or two after we wrapped, we went to K-town and had some Korean barbecue. We all keep in touch.

ASIANCE: You wrote the screenplay, produced and starred in the film. How was that?

Erin: I did the screenwriting. I covered lots of little things. I didn’t have a plan in terms of producing. I think they both have different parts of them that cater to different parts of me. The screenwriting is great for my control issues. It’s very flattering to write something down and hear other people speak about it. The Mikado Project was very different because it was adapted from a stage play. We had to choose which parts of the play to keep and to make it more cinematic. You have to make the world of Angry Buddha Theater Company a little more involved than you do in a stage play. In a stage play, the audience walks in and they see it. They know they’re in a play. A lot of times, particularly in this movie, they don’t know they are in a movie. It’s supposed to be a terrible week in their lives, a week where everything goes to hell.

Chil and I worked on it first. I took a couple of cracks at it. We did a lot of re-writing, changing the theater emphasis to the film production. Ryan, Yuni and I brushed it up at the end before the cast got the final edit.

It would be interesting to be on a project where I didn’t have to do double duty. I enjoyed all parts of it. I can’t say I enjoyed one part of it. It was difficult all the way around. I was very tired.

ASIANCE: What is the most difficult part of being an actor?

Erin: Well I’m hapa, multiracial. I think Asians look at me and don’t see someone who is that Asian and white people look at me and say I’m a little too Asian. I look exactly what I am, a mix. That doesn’t fall into any particular category on television or film. I think this is what they do in Hollywood. Every time an Asian face shows up in a TV show or movie, they spend a minute or two explaining why that Asian face is there.

Every “Law and Order”, every “CSI”, they have, what I like to call, The Chinese Whore episode, where it’s human trafficking and will explain why Ming Na is guest starting that week. You know she’s going to come on. She’s going to speak Chinese. She’s going to have lost her sister to traffickers. Then, I’ll see every Asian actor I know in New York and that’s kind of their one “Law and Order” for the year. (laughs)
“Flash Forward”, “Lost” and “Heroes” are maybe the only three that would be the exception to that in my mind. For me, it’s hard to justify my face. Unless they’re showing my parents, where one is Chinese and one is white, which is not something they usually cast.

There was a big brouhahas in the community when they cast John Cleese as Lucy Liu’s father in Charlie’s Angels. I was the Vice Chair of the Screen Actors Guild Asian American Company. I remember we had a meeting around that time and people went bananas. They started yelling about and screaming racism and one of the guys looked at me and said, “What do you think?” I said, “You’re talking to the wrong person, because my daddy is white”. You see a lot of Asian and black but not Asian and white.

For my journey in LA, I was in the original company of Avenue Q on Broadway. I think it’s just hard to place me. I don’t think it’s right because I think if you have the talent, you should get the job. I just did Damages. The part that I did, didn’t have any racial description whatsoever. Hopefully we’re leaning more towards that.

Ray: When I usually come back for a call back, it’s usually me, an African American person and a Latino person. I feel like the token. It gets frustrating. Sometimes they see me to fill a quota.

Erin: We don’t have the same numbers as Latinos and African Americans. I went in for a part that had my exact age and background and they gave it to an African American. They don’t get the bang for their buck. They’ll get more ad potential casting an African American or Latino.

Ray: If I go in for a part and I go on stage, they’ll (audience) know the part is Asian. You don’t need to hit anyone over the head.

Erin: Now there are shows like Glee, where there is an Asian lead but you don’t talk about it. It’s just a diverse high school. Those are things we really tried with the screenplay. They’re talking about perceptions of Asian Americans within the Mikado parameters but they’re not sitting around talking about being Asian. There is a gay story line. We don’t spend time talking about why or how come they are gay. They just are.

Ray: We may look the same but we’re all in different fields. This movie shows that.

ASIANCE: What is next for you?

Erin: Ray is going off to do the Putnam County Spelling Bee in Portland. He’s taking a break from Mamma Mia. I have a second screenplay that I wrote which is going into production the last week in April. Casting is done on that. It was a very tense time casting. My strength is addressing the elephant in the room without talking about it. The lead characters are all women. They’re all diverse. They all do things that maybe you don’t culturally perceive they are going to do. It’s a genre film. We tried to make it a little smarter and more inclusive. The lead character is Asian America and was written specifically for an Asian American. Querty is the movie.

David Lee McInnis was discovered as a college freshman waiting tables when he was approached to audition for and subsequently debuted his acting career in indie crime thriller, The Cut Runs Deep. David was the face of SK Telecom’s UTO division from 2001 to 2003 while in Korea, and his early Asian film credits include a supporting cast role in A Moment To Remember. McInnis went on to star in critically acclaimed US/Korean movie Never Forever, and then took on a supporting lead role in Gidam (US release Epitaph) as well as guest starred in MBC Network’s television series Air City.

Ray: Glee is having a casting call! I’m hoping to be the other, other Asian! (laughs). I’ll come back to Mamma Mia in July.

ASIANCE: Everyone says you are so good looking. How do you handle that?

David: I don’t! (laughs) How do you take it?

Erin: I’ll back you up on that, David. If you say you are good looking, I’ll say, “yes”. He’s also talented, which is a more important part of that equation.

David: Thanks Erin!

Erin: But it doesn’t hurt!

David: Your daddy is white!

Erin: My daddy is white!

David: My daddy is Korean!

Erin: That stopped the room dead. I’m listening to them complain but how do they know what I am.

David: No, my daddy is white. Half Irish/German and my mom’s Korean. I grew up in Wisconsin and Hawaii. I’m half hick, half island.

ASIANCE: Since you just came in, describe your castmates for us.

David: Raymond is super funny, super outgoing. The nicest guy. Erin is super talented. She is like really, really fair. Chil is the man of the show right there. Yuri was funny, young and sprucey, ready to go!..all that 20 year old goodness. Really diverse. Everyone really got along. What a nice family!

ASIANCE: Do you follow an Asian American’s in Entertainment?

David: I follow John H Lee in Korea. He’s a director. He’s going to make his way to the US and Hollywood pictures. I’m really proud of Will Yun Lee. He just got a lead role in Red Dawn. I’m proud of all the Asian Americans. I love Hugh Jackman. He’s the sit! (laughs)

Erin: I love Hugh Jackman too because I’m Australian!

David: He can do everything!

ASIANCE: Is there an ultimate project for you?

David: I would love to do this role I went out for last week. (laughs) The Mikado Project is my first step at comedy. I really like comedy. It’s really tough…How to be truthful and be funny and not overplay it? I would like to do another comedy. I’m pretty open. I love drama too.

Ray: I wanted to be in the Harry Potter movie. I’m a Harry Potter geek! If John Cho is busy for Star Trek II, I’ll take his role. I’d love to do a sci-fi movie.

ASIANCE: What do you think of Harold and Kumar?

Erin: I would say Kal Penn and John Cho are very mainstream. I think there always needs to be a Harold and Kumar for us because I think one of the things people ignore but there is a very specific path for minorities in America. If you go back to the roots of vaudeville and burlesque, as immigrant groups came in they created comedy around these stereotypes, the Jewish the Italians. Spanish.

Harold and Kumar in my mind is the same as that. It’s the first real mainstream movie where we are seeing ourselves where characters are completely accessible to most of America. One of the great ways to break any perceived barrier is to make people laugh with you. I really admire those movies.

I think it’s so interesting that those movies were written by white guys who believed in talented people and gave them a shot as opposed to sitting there figuring out the return investing in these not so well known actors.

Raymond: I just laughed my ass off. It’s an important movie to have. Look at that poster with two Asian faces like that. It got the younger generation and it’s a cult film.

Erin: I want to do Jason Robert Brown. I would like to be in that musical called “Honeymoon in Vegas”. I want to go on the record and say I want to do that.

The Mikado Project is part of the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival. If we sell enough tickets then we get more screenings.

26th Annual Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival
April 29 – May 8, 2010
www.vconline.org/festival/index.cfm