TV Appearance on Chicago Tonight

Jennifer and I have a conversation with Phil Ponce on Chicago Tonight!
Watch the interview here.

Chicago Tribune gives us 3 Stars!!!

Take that Ocean's Thirteen!!! They only got 1.5 stars and we scored a whopping 3 stars from Tribune writer Michael Phillips. So folks come out and see Second Moon at the Film Center this weekend! This is also the second time I got compared to Tarantino. We all know he borrowed his skills from Asian folks! After all he is from Torrance.

Here's what the Chicago Tribune said:
Shot in Chicago, writer-director-editor Sugano’s stylish oddity plays like someone in the projection booth mistakenly ran simultaneous prints of films by Wong Kar-wai, Quentin Tarantino and Hal Hartley. Andre Ing portrays Q, an agent of a shadowy organizations called Art of Love, which encourages free and open sexual relationships and demands of its staff only that they never, ever let a woman sleep over. Or cook for them. Then Q meets M (Jennifer Shin), a Korean national whose old school subservience makes Q rethink his modus operandi. It’s a bit coy, but Sugano and cinematographer James B. Heck have a gift for composition and color. And Shin is very good.

2 More Chicago Screenings at Fim Center

Our thanks to the Gene Siskel Film Center!
Be sure to catch the screenings:
Saturday, June 9 @8pm
Tuesday, June 12@8pm

Check out what they wrote about the film:
Boasting a dash of Tarantino verve and a heaping helping of Chicago filmmaker Sugano’s (HISAO, SUPER KAMADA) dry humor, SECOND MOON is shot entirely in Chicago with a cast of homegrown actors. Dubbed a “neo-Yakuza romantic farce” by the director, this debut feature follows the increasingly absurd adventures of Q (Ing), an agent for “Art of Love,” a clandestine organization that contracts adulterous trysts for lovelorn suburban housewives. Requests from the many turnaways at the film’s sold-out screening in April prompted this encore engagement.

Back by Popular Demand!

Thank you everyone! Looks like all your phone calls and emails worked because the Film Center is going to give Second Moon another 2 screenings in June!

Reflections on the Chicago Asian American Showcase

The Chicago Asian American Showcase and I go long way. We have had a relationship since my first student film "Hisao". They took me under their wings ever since and screened pretty much all of my films. They've been a great support. So this has been especially a great honor for me to present Second Moon as part of FAAIM for its U.S. premiere. During one of their earlier festivals in the 90s, I had a chance to watch a feature that was directed by this Japanese guy who came to the states as a student, just like me. It was a piece of crap. Back in those days, there were many bad features made by Asian Americans. Judging from the programs of recent festivals, I can really say we have come a long way. I remember thinking, while having a very pleasant conversation with this Japanese director after the screening, how I could kick his ass any time and how he was insulting my art. I couldn't wait to show to the world how much better my feature would be compared to his piece of crap. Now that I did finish my first feature, I am scared if I did the right thing. After the screening during the Q&A, I caught myself thinking, my goodness, I hope I did not inspire younger Asian artists and filmmakers in the same way. Arrogance has a way of catching up with people, you know. But honestly, I would rather present my film to a generation of younger Asian American filmmakers who think they can kick my ass anytime, and can't wait to prove it. That's how we get better as a whole. I truly believe it.

Second Moon Rising

Giles Morris does a little write up about Second Moon on his blog.

I had forgotten that he interviewed me for this write up. He had asked my why I wanted to do a "serious farce." I had forgotten I had said the following:
I'm a very serious guy and sometimes it makes people crack up. The more serious something is, the more tragic, the more funny it has to be. I didn't study how to make farce, I just thought about it in terms of the rhythm and pacing of the movie. You do a serious scene, then you need a funny one, something with out of nowhere humor. It's a reflection of how I am.

Other highlights from his write up include:
Perhaps the greatest success of his film is that it creates a lush and coherent visual language that is its own, but Kubrick's influence is clear enough in the slow, uneasy pacing, the way sound and vision heighten the character drama so that the audience feels the rank tension of cheating in their shoulders.

The real miracle of Second Moon is that it is at one time incredibly thought provoking and also ridiculous. It is absurd and also conventional.

A pretty good review if you ask me. Read the full review here.

Chicago Premiere: April 4, 2007 at Gene Siskel Film Center

Finally...the day chicagoan's have been waiting for. Come and check out Second Moon's hometown debut: Wednesday April 4, 2007. We are on at 7:45pm after Justin Lin's new feature: Finishing the Game. Tell your mama and your papa and their mamas and papas and other next of kin.

Chicago Premiere!

Our hometown debut and we can wait to share it with all the Chicagoans that have put a lot of work, dedication, and support behind this film. We are part of the 2007 Asian American Showcase. Thanks Tim for believing in our little film!

The Energy of Pusan

I grew up in Japan. Pusan gave me a sense of nostalgia I did not expect from a country I had never visited. Some organizer told us that, during those two weeks of festival, all the bath houses in Pusan get so packed with college students you had no room to walk in the changing room. They sleep there. They come from all over the country? to watch the films, meet the filmmakers and actors. I talked with a few of them after the screening, and I learned that each of them had something very important to tell me about my film. These were no passive observers. They took ownership on their own cinema experience and shared it with you with pride. Filmmakers and the audience were equal partners. The festival felt big and important, but the energy was definitely coming from the regular Korean folks who just loved the films.?

Second Moon: Critic's Choice at Pusan International Film Festival

Anyone who reads Korean...let us know if the translation is correct! Hopefully, the audience here in Pusan will enjoy this screening.

34 hours...Pusan...finally!

Okay...it didn't take me 34 hours to get here, but it felt like it. We arrived in Pusan, Korea on October 13th, 2006. Our world premiere is on Sunday the 15th. The flight was quite draining. But I met an Icelandic filmmaker who endured a 34 hours of trip to get here, so it could've been worse. Pusan is just like Japan with an exception of whole a lot of writings I cannot read.

Our World Premiere: 11th Annual Pusan International Film Festival

This is it! Our film's world premiere and Second Moon makes it into the selection for Critic's Choice at the 11th Annual Pusan International Film Festival. My producer Sanghoon Lee is amazing! I'm going to take him with me and make him pay for our plane tix too! Get ready world...this is Asia's largest film industry event!

First whispers of Second Moon

Read the first writings on reelchicago.com about my first feature: Second Moon.