Yeah, I know I’m late to the KTown Cowboys party. Fellow Asian American bloggers have been raving about this web series since the first episode (above) and now they’ve posted their 8th and final episode (below), with a bonus installment to come, featuring comic Bobby Lee.
But I had a fabulous meal of all-you-can-eat BBQ in LA’s Koreatown last week during the annual convention of the Asian American Journalists Association, and now that I’ve driven through the miles of Korean businesses that make up Ktown and stuffed my face silly with everything from bulgogi and marinated pork neck to baby octopus and beef intestines cooked up at our table, I feel a spiritual connection to the young stars of this popular series. I attend the church of food, as all my friends know by now.
If you’re not familiar with “Ktown Cowboys,” click to the website or to the YouTube channel (subscribe!) — you owe it to yourself to start at the start and enjoy all the episodes in order. They’re each about 7-9 minutes long, and well-written, acted and directed. The production values are very professional; it’s ready for the big screen.
We can only hope to see more of these types of online series as an avenue for expression for AAPIs, as an alternative to the (mostly dumb) mainstream depiction of Asian Americans in Hollywood. Frankly, “Ktown Cowboys” could easily be given the feature film treatment, making it a gritty look at young Asian American lifestyles the same way that “Saturday Night Fever” was a snapshot of Italian American and disco lifestyles back in 1977.
