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jon moritsugu · MW · News · pig death machine · Reviews Cinema ·

Jon Moritisugu on Pig Death Machine and his retrospective at the Downtown Independent (L.A.)

Underground filmmaker Jon Moritsugu not only has a mind-blowing new movie out, Pig Death Machine, but he has also been on the receiving end of recent retrospectives in San Francisco and New York City. Coming up on August 9 it’s the City of Angels’ turn at the Downtown Independent. I asked my friend about the honor as well as the flick to get all of you excited about it.

MW: Is this the first time you’ve ever depicted a character with the problem of being too smart?
JM: Yeah, it’s a first. I’ve had characters in other movies who thought they were really smart. F’rinstance, Miles Morgan (played by Kyp Malone from TV on the Radio) in Scumrock and Kazumi in Mod Fuck Explosion. But Cocojoy is the only legit, hands-down, I’m-so-smart-this-sucks character. Amy and I wanted to portray “too smart” as an affliction, a total problemo, like not something you’d ever wish for.

MW: Santa Fe looks amazing, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen you show nature like this before in a movie. Can you talk about how your new home base has affected your film making?
JM: New Mexico is totally intense–visually, physically, psychically. I love it. You have the desert (of course), blue-screen colored skies, summer monsoons that bring full-on thunderstorms and torrential rains and then blistering sunshine half an hour later, seven thousand foot altitude and 30 percent less oxygen. Green chili sauce so hot it makes you puke (no joke, the place is Horseman’s Haven). The sweet smell of pinon wood burning in fireplaces at night. Plus, we live in a 200-year-old adobe (!!!) house that looks like a baked potato with holes poked in it for windows. This area is totally weird and cool, foreboding and beautiful all at once. Perfect inspiration for making the movies. Plus Albuquerque is only an hour away for getting rowdy in that Walter White sort of way.

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jon moritsugu · MW · News · pig death machine · Reviews Cinema ·

Jon Moritisugu on Pig Death Machine and his retrospective at the Downtown Independent (L.A.)

Underground filmmaker Jon Moritsugu not only has a mind-blowing new movie out, Pig Death Machine, but he has also been on the receiving end of recent retrospectives in San Francisco and New York City. Coming up on August 9 it’s the City of Angels’ turn at the Downtown Independent. I asked my friend about the honor as well as the flick to get all of you excited about it.

MW: Is this the first time you’ve ever depicted a character with the problem of being too smart?
JM: Yeah, it’s a first. I’ve had characters in other movies who thought they were really smart. F’rinstance, Miles Morgan (played by Kyp Malone from TV on the Radio) in Scumrock and Kazumi in Mod Fuck Explosion. But Cocojoy is the only legit, hands-down, I’m-so-smart-this-sucks character. Amy and I wanted to portray “too smart” as an affliction, a total problemo, like not something you’d ever wish for.

MW: Santa Fe looks amazing, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen you show nature like this before in a movie. Can you talk about how your new home base has affected your film making?
JM: New Mexico is totally intense–visually, physically, psychically. I love it. You have the desert (of course), blue-screen colored skies, summer monsoons that bring full-on thunderstorms and torrential rains and then blistering sunshine half an hour later, seven thousand foot altitude and 30 percent less oxygen. Green chili sauce so hot it makes you puke (no joke, the place is Horseman’s Haven). The sweet smell of pinon wood burning in fireplaces at night. Plus, we live in a 200-year-old adobe (!!!) house that looks like a baked potato with holes poked in it for windows. This area is totally weird and cool, foreboding and beautiful all at once. Perfect inspiration for making the movies. Plus Albuquerque is only an hour away for getting rowdy in that Walter White sort of way.

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asian girls · Asian Girlz · import car models · Levy Tran · News · racism · yellow fetish · yellow fever ·

Yellow Fevah Forevah

By now, most of you have probably seen the “Asian Girlz” video, by Day Above Ground. They credit Linkin Park as one of their influences, but clearly they couldn’t afford to hire Joe H. to help them make a video that wouldn’t end up becoming the laughing stock of the internet… The controversy surrounding the video is also the hottest topic on sites sensitive to Orientalism, even if they aren’t entirely sure what it means. Asian American fans who used to fetishize the featured “music video girl” in their private realm of import car model worship, are super bummed that Day Above Ground are doing it now. The video features the 30 year old Vietnamese model, Levy Tran. She dances around a modern-day opium den apartment in lingerie, while the band in a gilded cage, serenades her with degrading, racist lyrics featuring every cliched stereotype in the Yellow Fever lexicon. She has a Lilliputian bubblebath gangbang with the entire band, after they’ve all taken her out to eat in the most Asian areas of Los Angeles – which they give shoutouts to in the video. (Hey, 626 Night Market, I think you’ve got your next headliner!!) She farts sparkling designer vinyl toys, lucky cats, and bootleg high-end fashion brand logos. The band claims that the video is satire, but that’s a pretty lousy excuse for such profound grossness. They even throw their Indonesian bass player under the bus, using the classic “we aren’t racist, we have Asian friends” routine. Write-ups about the video have inspired some of the best headlines I’ve read in a while, including “‘Asian Girlz’ Video So Racist, You Almost Don’t Notice The Misogyny”. I’d be bummed for Levy Tran, who has publicly apologized for her participation in the video, except that she’s built a career on selling her Asian sexuality to fetishists. You reap what you sow in your Pan-Asian rice paddies of objectification.
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asian girls · Asian Girlz · import car models · Levy Tran · News · racism · yellow fetish · yellow fever ·

Yellow Fevah Forevah

By now, most of you have probably seen the “Asian Girlz” video, by Day Above Ground. They credit Linkin Park as one of their influences, but clearly they couldn’t afford to hire Joe H. to help them make a video that wouldn’t end up becoming the laughing stock of the internet… The controversy surrounding the video is also the hottest topic on sites sensitive to Orientalism, even if they aren’t entirely sure what it means. Asian American fans who used to fetishize the featured “music video girl” in their private realm of import car model worship, are super bummed that Day Above Ground are doing it now. The video features the 30 year old Vietnamese model, Levy Tran. She dances around a modern-day opium den apartment in lingerie, while the band in a gilded cage, serenades her with degrading, racist lyrics featuring every cliched stereotype in the Yellow Fever lexicon. She has a Lilliputian bubblebath gangbang with the entire band, after they’ve all taken her out to eat in the most Asian areas of Los Angeles – which they give shoutouts to in the video. (Hey, 626 Night Market, I think you’ve got your next headliner!!) She farts sparkling designer vinyl toys, lucky cats, and bootleg high-end fashion brand logos. The band claims that the video is satire, but that’s a pretty lousy excuse for such profound grossness. They even throw their Indonesian bass player under the bus, using the classic “we aren’t racist, we have Asian friends” routine. Write-ups about the video have inspired some of the best headlines I’ve read in a while, including “‘Asian Girlz’ Video So Racist, You Almost Don’t Notice The Misogyny”. I’d be bummed for Levy Tran, who has publicly apologized for her participation in the video, except that she’s built a career on selling her Asian sexuality to fetishists. You reap what you sow in your Pan-Asian rice paddies of objectification.
Continue reading