It wasn’t that long ago that the hashtag #StarringJohnCho took over social media.
The point was that you could take any leading man and substitute him for John Cho. The campaign drew attention to the lack of leading roles for Asian Americans.
Debuting this weekend in limited release in New York and Los Angeles is Columbus , a big screen movie that really does star John Cho. The movie scored a 97% from critics on Rotten Tomatoes and a 78% from audiences.
Cho comes to Columbus, Indiana to tend to his ailing father. Along the way he strikes a deep relationship with an architecture student played by Haley Lu Richardson.
She manages to inspire Cho to look at life in a different way. The trailer hints at a romantic relationship, but we’ll have to see the movie to know for sure.
“It felt like a little bit of a dream,” said Cho to the Los Angeles Times.” Projects this small and this unusual are hard to make real, but it happened. All of a sudden we got the call and I was in Columbus.”
The film is directed by Kogonada. The Korean American specifically wrote the part for a Korean American.
The Nashville resident says he was inspired by the unique architecture in Columbus to make this movie.
“It didn’t take long,” he said to the Indy Star. “It was by lunchtime that I turned to my wife and said I want to make a movie here.”
Columbus opens in San Francisco next week. See the schedule for showings across the United States here.
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RE: Starring John Cho is for Real-this time: In all seriousness, John Cho is a fairly average actor…….
RE: Joe on StarringJohnCho is for real-this time: Not commenting on your opinion, but just pointing out that by definition, the vast majority of actors are average. I don’t agree with you, but even if true, that doesn’t lessen the significance of his casting and the importance of diversity
RE: Randall and #StarringJohnCho is for real-this time: You are 100% right. Nothing against John Cho, I think he has a higher ceiling of talent than where he is now and that he will get there in time, just that he isn’t there right now. That being said, I just thought that there are other more qualified Asian American (or Asian) actors at the moment that would have been more effective for this campaign’s purpose.
RE: #StarringJohnCho is for Real-this time: By the way, I hope John Cho absolutely proves me wrong and makes me look like a fool.