Confirmation about his last name

There were many good stuffs revealed during this panel discussion, but what caught my attention most is Justin's confirmation about Han's last name not being "Seoul-Oh." According to Justin, it was a fake ID that was shown on the monitor. That was not Han's real name! I know, I said it the other way earlier in this blog. But now, I know I was wrong. One famous dispute got fully settled.

Though I'm not naively Asian American, I can relate many things they were saying there. But I also have to agree with Justin said at the end. This kind of struggle won't be understood (or cared) by Asians in Asia. And it's not good or bad. It is just a fact. No point to feel positive or negative about that. I think I know which movie Justin was talking about. And I watched it. Now, I know why Sung did the role instead of the main character. But I actually liked the bad guy he did a lot more than the main character. So, it kind of worked out.

One more fact confirmation during this discussion -- Sung doesn't have a kid. I knew it, but I wasn't sure because that kind of thing could change any time. So, I was wondering if it's still that way or not.

Their conversation brought me back to my 2000 as well. I was in NY. I didn't know about Sung. I didn't know about this movie. It was still my 5th year since I came to the states. I was just out of my grad school and was back to my first employer whom I left in 98. I remember internet was getting popular back then, but most of us still had a very slow connection like 56Kbps modem. Too early to start watching streaming video thought there were a few sites trying to show some video. Yes. VHS tapes were everywhere back then. In fact, my back-then employer was manufacturing and selling VHS tapes. And it was around the time that many of us started having a cell phone. I remember that time very well.

One more thing I remember around that time is that I watched a short video on iFilm (or I forgot how it was called, but that was like pre-YouTube type of video sharing site for creators) and it was featuring Pat Morita as a Sushi Chef. Several years later, I learned that Sung was involved in the production there. I think I saw it somewhere and I felt my fate. Though I did't know Sung until 2006, I was programmed to be his fan since then.

To be honest with you, I still feel a little bit distance from Asian American even after I became naturalized. We can probably never be one of them. They won't like first generation. They won't like our accent. I just felt that way after watching a TV show where a Japanese famous guy who moved to French 20 years ago was criticized by his son about how broken his French is. Though he can communicate with others and he seems to be fairly respected by others for his talent as an award winning novelist and artist, his son feel ashamed. It might be because his son is still too young -- seems to be a teenager -- and he may start seeing it differently later. In the TV show, it was introduced as a "funny" episode. But I felt a pain of the guy. If I have a child who speaks English naively and does not like how I sound when I speak in English, I wont' fight for his or her perception. But I will feel sad and just wish that someday, he or she start taking it differently. Well, it happened to me as well. I thought we have to speak like Americans and try getting rid of our accent from another language as much as possible. Right now, I don't really feel that way. I still feel a bit embarrassed whenever I swap "r" and "l" sound, which happens to me pretty often. But I'm embarrassed just because it often means something else when I do. For example, "it is long" vs "it is wrong." But why I do that? Simple. Because I'm from Japan.

Someday, I wish I have a chance to engage Sung to talk with me about that.