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Meet Ien Chi: filmmaker, photographer, dreamer. His mission: to empower, inspire, and influence people through his films which aim to discover what it means to be human. At only 20 years old, Ien has already won several awards including Best Director and Best Picture at Campus MovieFest—the largest student film festival, First Place at the 2010 Annual Emory Arts Competition, Seoul Foreign School Visual Arts Awards, among others. Ien talks to us about venturing into the film-making world, staying true to his ultimate artistic goals, and shares his thoughts on film school and Hollywood.

Your first film-making experience was in the seventh grade. Can you tell us more about it and why it inspired you to continue in film?

So in junior high, I was part of a mock trial team in school and we had to find a way to tell the jury what happened to our defendant. Instead of just telling them though, we came up with the idea to make a movie. One of my buddies brought his video camera and we just started fooling around filming the event we were trying to delineate. It was a marvelously fun experience for me – to be able to create this story with a few good buddies. And it seemed like I had a knack for it as I was the one who chose most of the angles and came up with different shots. When we showed the final video in class, all of the students were howling and having such a good time watching it; it was a tremendously rewarding experience. When I moved to Korea for high school, the memory of making those little films in junior high stuck with me and made me want to make more because it was so fun! I guess that’s how my filmmaking passion was ignited.

Who are your favorite directors/filmmakers, and what qualities do you admire about them?

I don’t think I have one favorite director but I tend to have phases of obsession with a particular filmmaker/director. These phases have included Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Gus Van Sant, Sean Penn, Akira Kurosawa, Stanley Kubrick, Danny Boyle, David Fincher, etc. Pretty much any filmmaker who is notable, haha. All of these figures I admire greatly because of their ability to be themselves and be so ruthlessly determined through their passion to tell great stories. All of them have their distinct individual qualities – but that’s still the one thing among them all that I truly admire: the ability and willpower to be oneself.

We heard that your award-winning short film, Tick Tock, was inspired by Steve Jobs’ commencement speech at Stanford. Where do you look to for inspiration for your films?

Haha, you guys seem to know a lot about me! Well, I think inspiration comes in infinite forms. It’s a mysterious thing. But for me, I think it only works when it comes very naturally through something I’ve been thinking about for a while. That commencement speech by Steve Jobs was in my head for a long while and I still think about it occasionally. That’s what popped up when I was writing the screenplay for Tick Tock. Crippled—another film I did—was made in a time when I was feeling cynical about the nature of human beings; and certainly you can see this reflected in the film’s plot. So I guess inspiration comes from whatever I’m going through in life. It’s as if I’m mirroring my life experience in my films – and that’s probably the way it should be to try and make something genuine.

What’s involved in the process from nurturing an idea to executing it? And what’s the average time frame?

There is a very different process for each film. I’ve done a film in a single night that turned out pretty good. In the case of Tick Tock it took about 4 months or so. But of course, it wasn’t as if I was constantly working on the film for four months. Just thinking about the overall process though, I think the pre-production stage should be significantly long. After writing an initial screenplay, letting it boil for a couple months or years makes the best potential in it come out. For Tick Tock we had like two months prior to filming. But every week or so I’d come up with a new idea and change around the screenplay. So imagine if we’d filmed Tick Tock right after I wrote it the first time. It would’ve been a lot worse than what it is now. In terms of execution, it’s just a matter of staying consistent with your own expectations and vision. This means casting the right people, choosing the right locations, getting good music, etc. It’s a process with very many factors.

What are the biggest challenges that you face right now as a young filmmaker?

Well, I gotta be truthful. I worry about my future every day. Literally. Especially in our generation where filmmaking has become very democratized, I’ve got to find a way to wade through all the ridiculous amounts of content out there. And somehow, I need to make films that are both artful and engaging. Film is a business, but it’s also an art – and therein lies the paradox. Many people say to me that to make widely distributed films, I’ve got to be willing to give up a lot of creative freedom. This is what I’m most worried about. I must be able to find a way to stay very focused and clear in what kind of stories I want to tell. I must not be a sellout.

Emory isn’t particularly known for its film department. Why did you decide to stay in Atlanta instead of transferring to a school in LA or NYC?

Yes, this is true. Truth be told, I was rejected from everywhere else when I applied to colleges (including from USC film school). Oxford College of Emory was pretty much my only choice, and now I’m at the Emory main campus. But I think this has all been for the better. Must one go to film school to be a filmmaker? I don’t think so. Making my own films has kind of served as my own film school and so far it’s been working out very well (thank goodness!). In addition, I think college is pretty much the last time in your life when you can study whatever you want to study without any huge obligation to stick to it for the rest of your life. I’m a religion major because I feel like the most powerful stories come from religion or have religious undertones. I always tell people what my dad tells me: if Jesus was born today, he’d be a filmmaker. He was a world-changing figure who spoke through stories and parables. And essentially, filmmaking is storytelling. Emory itself has a great religion department, and I’m glad it does because it’s my major! In the end, it’s all for the storytelling.

Do you plan on going to film school in the future? Moreover, do you think aspiring filmmakers of this generation—with YouTube and other valuable sources readily-available online—need to invest on having a traditional film school background in order to succeed in the field?

As of now, I don’t plan on going to film school. Graduate film school is probably too expensive for me anyways. In answering the latter question, I definitely don’t think one must go to film school to succeed in the field. Proof of this is a bunch of the biggest directors that have made it already. Look at James Cameron, Christopher Nolan, Peter Jackson, Steven Spielberg, etc. These are all ridiculously good filmmakers who all made it into filmmaking their own way. Specifically, figures like Christopher Nolan majored in other areas in order to develop storytelling abilities. I think that’s most important – reading, experiencing, discovering, etc.

What other activities/hobbies do you enjoy doing?

I have to think about this one, haha. Lately, my hobbies have declined because of schoolwork and everything. Besides film watching, I enjoy photography, playing the guitar, and just hanging out with people in general. I’ve recently discovered how nice it is to be social and meet new people and mingle; to have lunch with random people I read about in the school newspaper doing cool things or meet through clubs.

What are your views on the current state of Hollywood (remakes, IMAX 3D)? Do you see yourself as being a part of it?

I think Hollywood is very unoriginal these days and is trying to play it way too safe. Too many superhero stories and films based on books. Of course there are exceptions where the film version has its own creative interpretation and twist. But maybe it’s because of the state of the economy or something – but Hollywood needs to step up its game and put out some more original and innovative films! In my case, hopefully I can be fearless enough to take the risks to make engaging and challenging films. But first, I need to actually get the attention to be able to make some more widely seen films – which is why I’d like to make a feature or two on my own.

Can you tell us a little about your upcoming projects?

In July, I shot something in San Francisco with William Sun – a friend from high school. It’s a short film set to be about 17-20 minutes long. I think it’ll be all done by February. We just haven’t had the opportunity to work on it a lot because of no computer, time issues, etc. The film is about a young guy named Zane. The story covers his struggles growing up as the only white kid in the neighborhood; one day, he encounters a situation representative of his crucial decision of whether or not to follow the common path of crime. It’s a film about his struggle to do the right thing amidst the intense pressure around him to take the easy way out. Hopefully it’ll turn out to be good!

Watch Ien’s short film, Tick Tock below:

To see all of Ien’s films, visit www.ienchi.com, subscribe to his YouTube channel, and follow him on Facebook.

[Photos: Courtesy of Ien Chi]

“I’m done,” she tells the new issue of Entertainment Weekly.  “We just finalized our agreement,” continues Heigl, 31, who played Dr. Izzie Stevens on the ABC medical drama for six seasons. “Everyone had been working really hard to find an amicable and gracious way of letting go and moving on. It’s sad but it’s what I wanted.”

She says she wants more time to focus on her 16-month-old daughter Naleigh, whom she adopted from South Korea with husband Josh Kelley last September.

“I started a family and it changed everything for me,” says Heigl, who took a three-month leave after welcoming her baby girl. “It changed my desire to work full-time.”

Source: US Weekly

It looks like Daniel Dae Kim is staying in Hawaii after the final season of LOST is finished because he has been cast in a lead role for the CBS remake of Hawaii Five-O.  Kim will play Detective Chin Ho Kelly, a role played in the original series by Kam Fong.

The new “Hawaii Five-0″ hails from hot feature writers and “Fringe” co-creators Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci and “CSI: NY” executive producer/co-showrunner Peter Lenkov.

Kim, who played Jin Kwon on “Lost” for its six-season run, is the first actor from the show’s core cast to book a new series project this pilot season as the ABC mystery drama heads to its May finale.

Getting key “LOST” players to do pilots this season is proving tricky as ABC’s drama doesn’t wrap its final season until April. In Kim’s case, it helped that both “Lost” and “Hawaii Five-O” are filming in Hawaii.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

Comedian and actress Margaret Cho will join the cast of CBS’s “Ghost Whisperer” starting February 5.  She will play Professor Avery Grant.

“Ghost Whisperer” follows Jennifer Love Hewitt’s character of Melinda Gordon- a woman who has the ability to see and communicate with ghosts. While trying to live as normal a life as possible, Melinda helps them pass over to the other side by working as an owner of an antique store, sometimes dealing with people who push her away, and disbelieve her ability. The show was created by John Gray and is produced by Sander/Moses Productions, in association with ABC Studios and CBS Television Studios.

Margaret Cho has performed nationwide with one-woman shows including “I’m the One That I Want,” “Notorious C.H.O,” “Revolution,” “State of Emergency,” and “Assassin.” On screen, she has played John Travolta’s FBI colleague in the action movie “Face/Off.” On television, she appears as Terri – assistant to lawyer Jane Bingham – on Lifetime’s Drop Dead Diva.

“Ghost Whisperer” airs on CBS Friday’s at 8 pm EST.

Source: Broadway World

The very popular TV show LOST kicks off its final season on Tuesday at 9pm EST on ABC.  LOST was the first time we saw a Korean couple kiss on an American television program, and what was also remarkable about LOST is that the Korean couple played significant roles in the show as the only married couple on the island.  Daniel Dae Kim plays Jin, the very stoic and subdued husband of Sun, who’s played by Korean actress Yunjin Kim.  It was awesome seeing their relationship evolve over the course of 5 seasons but sadly Jin’s death on the show was a shock which shook the series and further created twists in the already crazy story lines of LOST.  Sadly for the viewers, the show is finally concluding this season but we can look back and say that this show was the first to break ground in revealing Korean relationships.

Here’s an excerpt from a recent interview with Yunjin Kim regarding the final season of LOST.

What were your expectations when you signed on as a cast member?

When I read the script, I thought it was like a movie script. I had never seen anything like this on television. I thought, “Either this is going to be the best TV show or the worst TV show.” And when I say it had the potential to be bad, I mean so bad that we would be made fun of for years!

What do you think of the journey of personal growth that Sun has taken over the years?

Sun has come such a long way from the pilot. If you remember, she was very subservient, a really quiet, scared woman who did whatever she was told by her husband. Now you cut to Season 6 and she’s a very different woman and very much her own person. That’s something that [producers] J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof promised from the beginning. I was concerned that I was playing into this stereotypical image of that Asian woman. But J.J. said, “You’re going to end up loving this character.”

Sun and her husband Jin (played by Daniel Dae Kim) differ from most of the other characters. Your thoughts about their relationship?

Sun and Jin’s stories have touched a lot of people, I think, because we are the only married couple on the island. We do have Rose and Bernard, but they’re guest stars. They sometimes show up and sometimes don’t, and they’re loved by fans as well. But Sun and Jin represent the only marriage and the most real and most tangible relationship on the island. And people root for us. They can’t wait to see us get back together and into each other’s arms. People really want to see a happy ending for Sun and Jin. It’s really touching.

What will be your most cherished memory of working on the show?

I had a such good feeling about it once I stepped into the set of Lost for the first time and saw that chopped-off half plane sitting on the beach. That was my first impression: “Oh, my God, is that a real plane chopped up in half?” And they said, “Yeah, we brought it in from L.A.” This beautiful Hawaiian beach and the chaos of the crash site to contradict it, it was quite stunning. I think I will always remember that first moment of just going, “Wow!”

For the promotion video of season 6, go to ABC.com and find a few spoilers.

Sources: ABC.com and Star Telegram

Who was the first Korean male to star in a leading role in a Hollywood film? That would be RAIN, the Korean pop star known was the Justin Timberlake of Asia. We knew he was going to be big back in 2006 when he was voted #1 to the TIME 100 poll, beating out everyone else in the world that was thrown on the ballot. Fast forward three years later and we found RAIN kicking his way into Ninja Assassin, produced by the guys who brought the Matrix Trilogy. What RAIN represents is the future of entertainment because the economics dictate such. With the advent of digital undermining the traditional Hollywood business model, Hollywood has to seek out new ways to expand their reach and better monetize their products. Asia is the new frontier, but RAIN wasn’t necessarily the first guy to build that bridge to several billion people across the Pacific for Hollywood. There was of course Jackie Chan, Jet Li and others who found themselves as the first set of Asians in co-leading roles of big budget films. It’s obvious that Hollywood is trying to identify someone who has a huge following and leveraging their fame to expand their overall reach. What RAIN has done is open the possibilities for other Koreans to venture into Hollywood and perhaps someday, well be cheering on our version of Slumdog Millionaire. Someday we’ll look back and say that guys like John Cho and RAIN were the ones who put Koreans on the Hollywood radar, and that’s why RAIN is #3 on our top ten list of most influential Korean(-Americans) for 2009.

Big bummer for Korean-American actor Daniel Henney who was a co-star on the CBS medical drama “Three Rivers,” which got cancelled this past week. The TV show about organ transplant doctors in the Pittsburgh area had a tough time slot, going up against NBC’s Sunday Night Football. Of course they were trying to appeal to the female demographic since all the men would be watching football, but initial low ratings compounded by waning interest only made it an obvious candidate for getting cut. To bad for Daniel Henney who made a splash this past summer as Agent Zero in “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” and looked like he was on the rise with a network TV show. I guess you win some and you lose some. Well, his very promising career won’t be curtailed. He could always return to South Korea where he was a star in Korean dramas or he could continue to pursue Hollywood. He certainly has the talent because not to many people, especially Asian, get a big role in a summer blockbuster movie and a network TV show. Doesn’t that sound like John Cho (Star Trek & FlashForward)? We hope to see Daniel Henney sooner than later in another Hollywood movie or TV show.

Ninja Assassin hasn’t gotten the best of reviews from film critics and we won’t find out how well it did in the theaters for another few days but what we do know is that there’s a lot of buzz for RAIN. It’s been reported that Hollywood is engaging RAIN and he’s already looking at a handful of scripts. If his fan base comes out in full force, and the movie does well with box office receipts, then you know Hollywood will give RAIN another try. CNN even took notice this week as they state that RAIN “has all the trimmings of an international superstar in the making.” Let it RAIN!

It has finally come, the week that “Ninja Assassin” opens up around the world.  The movie will be opening out in the U.S. on Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving.  So should you go or should you stay at home?  If you like RAIN and great fighting sequences, then buy that movie ticket.  If you want to support a Korean man in the lead role of a Hollywood action movie, then definitely go because this movie has a lot of ramifications. If you’ve watched the Matrix franchise, then you’ll see distinct plot elements that originated from the Wachowski brothers who produced Ninja Assassin and directed the Matrix movies.  And you’ll also see unique action direction from James McTeigue who is a student of the Wachowski brothers. The fighting is amazing! But what are the implications I mentioned earlier?

This movie does have implications and Hollywood is closely watching because there are certain realities that have Hollywood rethinking their business model.  Big movie stars used to almost guarantee big box office returns, but there have been enough clunkers from Will Ferrell, Tom Cruise and other big name actors that have caused pause.  DVD sales which used to be a cash cow and help counter clunkers is quickly eroding in the new digital world.  So what does Hollywood need to do to refine or change its model?  It looks overseas because there is a growing global box office.  This is why Ninja Assassin is important because it can demonstrate to Hollywood that you can cast an unknown in a lead role, especially Asian and have success because of the global market.  RAIN is one of Asia’s biggest pop stars and his ability to bring in international box office receipts will pave the way for other Asian stars to enter Hollywood and play critical roles.  If you didn’t know, Ninja Assassin is the big movie that’s kicking off the holiday movie season and it only cost $30M to make. The world is changing and Hollywood knows it and it’s realizing that the traditional model of casting and movie distribution has to change. Whether you like Ninja movies or not, let’s hope that the movie is a success and it paves the way for other Koreans and Asians in Hollywood.

For our interview with RAIN, check out the video below.

Check out the movie clips from Ninja Assassin. The fighting is real good!

Ninja Assassin is coming soon to a theater near you during Thanksgiving.  A new video clip was released this week and the fighting looks pretty damn good. We’re getting excited!