Go See: "Trishna"

 
I was recently in New York and was asked by Audrey magazine to interview the lovely and beautiful actress Freida Pinto.  (Unfortunately the press conference was cancelled.)  But I was able to attend a screening of "Trishna", which I highly recommend.  Pinto plays the title character, "Trishna", who comes upon a wealthy man who ends up hiring her at his father's resort, also to keep a better eye on her.  He eventually wins her over but the relationship and story takes a bit of a twist.  No spoiler alerts from me.

Director Michael Winterbottom has taken this adaptation from the novel, "Tess of the D'ubervilles" which is a 180 degree turn from the comedy TV series and film he directed, "The Trip" starring Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon.  But who is this very handsome indian man who plays Pinto's boyfriend?  Riz Ahmed.  Little tidbit about Riz - This London bloke is also known by his hip-hop alias Riz MC. He released his first hip-hop single in 2006, Post 9/11 Blues: a controversial satire that was temporarily banned from British airplay.  Oh...you didn't know that, did you?  Well, maybe you did if you read imdb like I do.  Enjoy!

Go See: Joyful Reunion

Wow, where has the time gone?  Well, it definitely flies by when you're having fun and I have been having soooo much fun!  (I just returned from a two week holiday in Korea and Thailand.)

So many things to catch you up on but we'll start here with a film that touched my heart...and my stomach!  I covered the red carpet for the 2012 LA Asian Pacific Film Festival on the closing night for Audrey Magazine and got to see a screening of the film, "Joyful Reunion" which was directed by Tsao Jui-Yuan.  This touching film (which was inspired by Ang Lee's "Eat Drink Man Woman") centered around two daughters, their relationship with their vegetarian restauranteur aging father and lost love.

Director Tsao Jui-Yuan describes his film, “If EAT DRINK MAN WOMAN is said to be a film that uses savory, affection and sexual desires to explore man and woman’s family relationship and social issues then, JOYFUL REUNION will instead be using the simplicity, neutrality and purity of food to portray a long-awaited love…of course, Ang Lee did a great job. I don’t expect myself to surpass his result, but I just hope both films will shine equally in their respective era.”

So, if you're a fan of foodie films such as "Eat, Pray, Love" and "Big Night", go see this film.  And also bring some tissue as there are quite a few touching moments!