Year: 1996

Jackie Chan Wants to Conquer Your Country

Jae-Ha Kim

Jackie Chan’s stunt man has the easiest job in film. All of Chan’s action films are full of dangerous free falls, explosions and rapid-fire kung fu fighting, but the stunt man doesn’t have to participate in any of them. Chan insists on doing all the stunts himself and uses his stunt man more as a double. “I believe all the people who come to my movies buy tickets not to see the double,” said Chan. “They want to see me do everything, which is why I do all my own stunts. My double does things like run from a car into a store.”

Asian Men Are Emerging In Hollywood 

Jae-Ha Kim

Jackie Chan isn’t the only Asian actor ready for the big screen. After decades of being relegated to roles playing houseboys or, worse yet, losing roles to Caucasian actors made up to look Oriental, actors of Asian descent finally are getting their time on the big and little screens in America. Heck. Even the all-American hero,  Superman, is played — on TV — by Dean Cain, who is part Japanese. 

Chita Rivera Dazzles in `Spider Woman’

Jae-Ha Kim

Chita Rivera made a triumphant return Wednesday evening when “Kiss of the Spider Woman” opened a five-night run at the Chicago Theatre. Dancing up a storm and singing in perfect voice, the 63-year-old Broadway star gave a smoldering performance that made all the difference in the world. Last year when the musical opened at the same theater, Rivera’s understudy took her place on opening night after Rivera injured her leg. And while all the actors did a fine job, the show was lackluster and I left feeling bored. Not so this night. Regal and poised, Rivera (who won a 1993 Tony Award for her role) started and closed the show with a standing ovation.

Overindulgent Lenny Kravitz Still Delights

Jae-Ha Kim

Kravitz fares best when he sticks to four-minute rock songs. The lengthy jams have got to go. Unlike some of his critics, Lenny Kravitz doesn’t view it as a problem that some of his music is reminiscent of songs by the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Smokey Robinson or Led Zeppelin. Rather, the sinewy musician flicks away any comparisons – good or bad – as easily as he tosses aside his long dreadlocks and keeps writing songs with strong backbeats and deliciously catchy pop hooks.

A First-Rate `Friends’ With Guests From High Places

Jae-Ha Kim

Julia, Jean-Claude, Chris and Brooke joined Monica, Rachel, Phoebe, Chandler, Ross and Joey in a special “Friends” Sunday night, and the high-profile guest stars proved a hilarious addition to the cast. The one-hour episode, titled “The One After the Super Bowl,” compared to the best of “Friends” – and that includes last season’s hourlong sweeps special where Monica (Courteney Cox) and Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) tried to one-up each other on a double date with guest stars George Clooney and Noah Wyle from “E.R.,” and the episode where all the pals made and broke a pact to spend New Year’s Eve dateless.

All-Star `Friends’: Free Agents Join Sitcom Team For Super Bowl Ratings Drive

Jae-Ha Kim

The stars of “Friends” were happy to welcome all the guests on Sunday’s celebrity-studded special episode — except one. Julia Roberts,  Jean-Claude Van Damme,  Chris Isaak and  Brooke Shields all reportedly received adoring, excited welcomes on the set of NBC’s hit sitcom. But not so for Marcel, the temperamental monkey  who hurled feces at the cast last season.

The Flying Nun Becomes A Drop-Kicking Vigilante

Jae-Ha Kim

After portraying relatively passive women in “Forrest Gump” and “Mrs. Doubtfire,” Sally Field is back on the big screen as a gun-toting mama – literally – in “Eye for an Eye.” As Karen McCann, Field plays a successful career woman, wife and mother who decides to create her own justice when the man who raped and murdered her daughter goes free on a technicality.