Michael Kang (director)

Last updated

Michael Kang (born May 3, 1970) is an American film director and screenwriter. He is Korean American and based in Los Angeles.

Contents

Feature Films

The Motel

His feature directorial debut was the independent movie The Motel , which premiered at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival. The Motel won the Humanitas Prize and the NHK International Filmmakers Award, as well as the top jury prizes from the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival, the San Diego Asian Film Festival, and the VC Film Festival (the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival). Most recently, The Motel was nominated for Best First Feature Film by the Independent Spirit Awards. It is currently on DVD through Palm Pictures and stars Sung Kang.

West 32nd

Kang also directed the Korean American feature West 32nd . West 32nd premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2007. The film was produced by Teddy Zee and features John Cho, Grace Park and Jeong Jun Ho.

Knots aka Four Wedding Planners

Kang's third film was the Hawaii-set romantic comedy Knots which was written by Kimberly-Rose Wolter, and stars Kimberly-Rose Walter in addition to Sung Kang, who also starred in his first film, The Motel. The film also stars Illeana Douglas, Janel Parrish and Samantha Quon. It was re-released under the title "Four Wedding Planners." [1] [2]

Short Films, Web Series and Music Videos

Kang has also directed the short films A Waiter Tomorrow (1998), a spoof on John Woo's A Better Tomorrow but set within a restaurant (which he also stars in), as well as Japanese Cowboy (2000), starring John Fukuda. Kang has also directed multiple episodes of the web series Easy to Assemble starring Illeana Douglas (who he would later collaborate with again in 4 Wedding Planners) as well as the web series Suite 7. Kang has also co-written a short film directed by Charles Mehling entitled For The First Time (2010). Michael was also a participant in the 1998 “Say Something” Virgin Cola campaign in which mostly unscripted citizens stood on soap boxes and expressed personal views. Mike politicked for more Asian men to be featured dancing in music videos. (1998) [3] [4]

Kang has also starred as "the Delivery Man" in Greg Pak's short film, Asian Pride Porn (2000).

Kang has also directed Emi Meyer's music video for her track, "Happy Song" in 2011. [5]

Accolades

Kang was honored with a National Endowment for the Arts Artist’s Residency Grant at the MacDowell Colony. He is recipient of the Geri Ashur Award in screenwriting through the New York Foundation for the Arts. He also received a fellowship through the ABC / DGA New Talent Television Directing Program. Kang is also a member of the Directors Guild of America.

Related Research Articles

<i>The Wedding Planner</i> 2001 film

The Wedding Planner is a 2001 American romantic comedy film directed by Adam Shankman, written by Michael Ellis and Pamela Falk, and starring Jennifer Lopez and Matthew McConaughey.

Virgin Group British multinational branded venture capital conglomerate

Virgin Group Ltd. is a British multinational venture capital conglomerate founded by Sir Richard Branson and Nik Powell.

Illeana Douglas American actress

Illeana Hesselberg, most commonly known as Illeana Douglas, is an American actress, director, screenwriter, and producer. She appeared in three episodes of Six Feet Under, for which she received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination as Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series and won the Best Guest Actress in a Drama Series award from OFTA, the Online Film & Television Association, and in the TV series Action opposite Jay Mohr, for which she won a Satellite Award for Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy. As of 2015, she can be seen on Turner Classic Movies where she hosts specials focused on unheralded women directors from film history.

Joshua Leonard American actor

Joshua Granville Leonard is an American actor, writer, and director, known for his role in The Blair Witch Project (1999). He has since starred in films such as Madhouse (2004), The Shaggy Dog (2006), Higher Ground (2011), The Motel Life (2012), Snake and Mongoose (2013), If I Stay (2014), The Town That Dreaded Sundown (2014), 6 Years (2015), and Unsane (2018).

Kang Hye-jung South Korean actress

Kang Hye-jung is a South Korean actress. Making her film debut in arthouse film Nabi (2001), she rose to stardom and critical acclaim in Park Chan-wook's 2003 revenge thriller Oldboy. She furthered her merit, gaining acting awards through Han Jae-rim's relationship drama Rules of Dating (2005), and Park Kwang-hyun's Korean War comedy Welcome to Dongmakgol (2005).

<i>The Hole</i> (1998 film)

The Hole, also known as The Last Dance, is a 1998 Taiwanese drama-musical film directed by Tsai Ming-liang. It stars Yang Kuei-mei and Lee Kang-sheng.

Kim Jee-woon

Kim Jee-woon is a South Korean film director and screenwriter.

Justin Lin Taiwanese American film director

Justin Lin is a Taiwanese-born American film director. His films have grossed US$2.3 billion worldwide as of March 2017. He is best known for his directorial work on Better Luck Tomorrow (2002), the Fast & Furious franchise from The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006) to Fast & Furious 6 (2013) and F9 (2021), and Star Trek Beyond (2016). He is also known for his work on television programs like Community, and the second season of True Detective.

This is a list of Richard Branson's business ventures from the 1960s to today.

<i>The Motel</i> (film)

The Motel (2005) is the debut feature from director Michael Kang. The film won the Humanitas Prize in the Sundance Film Festival category, and was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature.

Offspring Entertainment is a production company owned by producers Adam Shankman and Jennifer Gibgot. The company was established by the siblings in 2004 after their work together on the film The Wedding Planner, which Gibgot produced and Shankman directed.

Russell Mulcahy Australian film director

Russell Mulcahy is an Australian film director. Mulcahy's work is recognisable by the use of fast cuts, tracking shots and use of glowing lights, neo-noir lighting, windblown drapery, and fans. He was one of the most prominent music video directors of the 1980s and he has also worked in television since the early 1990s. He is known for directing Highlander (1986) and Resident Evil: Extinction (2007).

Ben Charles Edwards British film director, producer and writer

Ben Charles Edwards is a British film director, producer and writer. Edwards began his career working as a photographer. Upon the release of Edwards' feature debut, The British Film Institute remarked that "Charles Edwards’ has crafted distinctive, admirable work that seems to have emerged from the unseen margins of British cinema."

Liquid Comics is an Indian comic book Publishers company, founded in 2006 as Virgin Comics LLC, which produced stories for an international audience. The company was founded by Sir Richard Branson and his Virgin Group, author Deepak Chopra, filmmaker Shekhar Kapur, and entrepreneurs Sharad Devarajan, Suresh Seetharaman, and Gotham Chopra. In August 2008, the company restructured and relocated from New York to Los Angeles. On September 24, 2008, it was announced that Virgin Comics was renamed Liquid Comics after a management buyout.

Maneesh Sharma Indian film director, screenwriter & producer.

Maneesh Sharma is an Indian film director, screenwriter and producer. He has received a Filmfare Award and a National Film Award as a director and producer respectively. His work as a director includes Band Baaja Baaraat (2010), which earned him the Filmfare Award for Best Debut Director, Ladies vs Ricky Bahl (2011), Shuddh Desi Romance (2013) and Fan (2016). He has also produced films such as Dum Laga Ke Haisha (2015), Hichki (2018) and Sui Dhaaga (2018), winning the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi for the former.

Ed Lin

Ed Lin is a Taiwanese-American writer, actor and novelist. He is the first author to win three Asian American Literary Awards. His first novel, Waylaid (2002) won a Members' Choice Award at the Asian American Literary Awards and also a Booklist Editors' Choice Award in Fiction in 2002. Lin has written a series of crime novels revolving around Chinese-American cop Robert Chow and set in 1976 New York City Chinatown, beginning with This Is A Bust (2007), which won a Members' Choice Award at the Asian American Literary Awards. The sequel, Snakes Can't Run, was published in 2010, followed with One Red Bastard in 2012, both by Minotaur Books.

Nadine Truong is a director, writer, and photographer. She received her MFA in Directing from the American Film Institute Conservatory.

Christine Yoo is a Korean-American writer, director, producer and filmmaker. She has written and directed a romantic-comedy feature film entitled "Wedding Palace," starring Brian Tee, Kang Hye-jung, Bobby Lee, Margaret Cho, Joy Osmanski, Steve Park, Kelvin Han Yee, Elaine Kao, Charles Kim, Jean Yoon, Nancy J. Lee, Simon Rhee, and more. The film is a U.S.-Korea joint production that won Best Feature Film and Best Cinematography at the Cine Gear Expo Film Series Competition and a Golden Angel Award for Best Asian American Film at the Chinese American Film Festival and was also an official selection of the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, the Asian American International Film Festival, the Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival and a number of other film festivals. For the film, Yoo also received a Best Director award at the Atlanta Korean Film Festival as well.

My Wedding and Other Secrets is a 2011 romantic comedy film directed by Roseanne Liang, written by Liang and Angeline Loo, and produced by South Pacific Pictures. The film is based on Liang's real-life cross-cultural romance.

Tanuj Chopra is an American filmmaker. His debut feature film, Punching at the Sun (2006), screened at the Sundance Film Festival where it was nominated for a Humanitas Prize.

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.