Passionate Suzuki conducts Bach’s cantatas for Easter

Conductor Masaaki Suzuki lives in a J.S. Bach world. He founded a Bach performance group in 1990 called the Bach Collegium Japan, which is currently recording all of Bach’s 200-plus cantatas at the rate of about three a year. Suzuki’s wife sings with the group, and his son plays organ in the ensemble. “I can’t […]

“˜Luck’ gambles on Asian stereotype

A week from Friday, MTV Films is releasing its new film, “Better Luck Tomorrow,” which features overachieving American high schoolers who idle in their idyllic suburbia until they develop violent lives of crime. It’s a vibrantly tense picture about teenage identity that caused controversy at Sundance. In a post-screening discussion, the negative hubbub even prompted […]

Martial arts star reveals strength at UCLA screening

During a span of seven years in the 1960s and 1970s, actor Cheng Pei-pei made twenty-some films that redefined the Chinese martial arts film, starting with King Hu’s 1966 film “Come Drink With Me.” “I did a lot of movies but no one recognizes them (as much as) “˜Come Drink With Me,’” Cheng said. “Today […]

Scores don’t carry right tone in silent Chinese films

To score or not to score, that is the question. Sunday’s screening of silent Chinese martial arts films at the James Bridges Theater, showed that sometimes it’s better not to score. The experiment in cultural cross-pollination started with the idea to bring a local DJ to score the rare 70-plus-year-old films being screened. The UCLA […]

Fists of History

Writer, stuntman and fight choreographer Craig Reid, who has worked with Jackie Chan, wants to let people know ““ everybody was not kung fu fighting. “That song shouldn’t have been created,” Reid said. “It cheapens what the martial arts film is about. Chop socky is a very derogatory term to me because it creates that […]

The Notes Between

Music takes time to impact the eardrums. The Kronos Quartet (“kronos” being the Greek word for “time”) has been making its impact across the world for 30 years. But the culmination of those decades of experience has moved beyond sonic experimentation and into the realm of visual imagery. Playing at Royce Hall on Saturday at […]