west 32nd Tagged Articles at Cinematical

I admit, one of the main reasons why I decided to see West 32nd was to catch a glimpse of John Cho (better known as Harold from Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle) in a more serious role. That, combined with the fact that it was being labeled a thriller set in the seedy underground world of New York's Koreatown was enough to grab my interest. As a life-long New Yorker, there aren't many places within the city that I'm not familiar with. I've lived on the Upper West Side and on the Lower East Side; gone to weddings in Chinatown; worked in Tribeca and Midtown; partied in the West and East Village; and grabbed a bite in practically every neighborhood there is ... except K-town. For anyone that's ever taken a cab across town and away from either Madison Square Garden or Penn Station, you've probably passed through West 32nd street, noticed the Korean BBQ shops, but never actually stopped to look around. With his second feature, not only does director Michael Kang (The Motel) deliver one of the more beautifully shot films I caught at Tribeca, but he introduces us to the complexity of an entire world that's carefully and delicately situated within one city block.

John (Cho) is a young Korean-American attorney who's assigned to do pro bono work on a capital murder case. Smart and well-dressed, he's the type of guy who craves power and respect; the kind that comes along with making partner at the firm. Meanwhile, cocktails with the rest of the suits at a swanky midtown bar are just an added luxury. Things change when John's research on said case (in which a teenager is accused of gunning down the manager of a Korean "salon room" club) drops him knee-deep in the middle of gang-related politics; so much so that he begins to question which one of his two lives is more exciting: the wealthy, straight-laced attorney or the corrupt, turbo-charged gangster in training.

With American studios starting to seriously look east (particularly to Korea, where the film industry is thriving) for films and investment opportunities, it's not surprising that Asian studios are beginning to look back this way, as well. Among those studios is Korean major CJ Entertainment, which is in the middle of making its first US-based film.

According to Variety, CJ's film is entitled West 32nd and is set in New York's Koreatown, where it is currently shooting under the direction of The Motel writer-director Michael Kang. Though details about the movie's plot are few and far between, it revolves around a lawyer (played by Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle star John Cho) who gets mixed up with the Korean mob. In addition to Cho, the film features Battlestar Galactica's Grace Park, as well as what Kang calls "some Korean actors you probably don't know but who are really well-known in Korea."

The shoot is scheduled to wrap next month, with US and Korean releases planned for early 2007.