Lad with sixty Dad, did you ever worry that your power wasn't enough?
Every general day the world leeds yours to become something more. It's actually kind
of cool. Biting monsters. It's just I'm not very good at it.
Come on very as Oh my god, not good. Wer you could package
ken. She thinks you are a living Okay, it's okay. No,
no, she has acids. Babies get acid refused? Great, I how
do you do it? Juggle everything? Your job, kid, Honestly,
it's not easy. Like the monsters sometimes do your job. I'm doing Yeah,
finally and bring it back alive. Roder yaf im six forty. It's
later with Mo Kelly. We are live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app if you
like me. You were first introduced to Tamla Tameda in The Karate Kid Part
two as Kumiko. I'm stupid but no, no, not at all.
What are you doing? Oh? I was just practicing some moves. What
out moves? Well, it's like a update. I'm trying to figure this
thing out here looks like a Von dance. Well, I must be doing
something wrong, doing something right? Fuck, A role she reprised in the
Netflix series Cobra Kai I did Where's Chosen? He had the TAC class.
Hopefully it goes a little easier on them than he did on me. I
hope you both learned something from me time, and I think so. I
guess that was your plan, huh. Or maybe you fell in love with
her with the Joy Luck Club. The next week, I brought Rich to
Mom's birthday dinner, sort of a surprise present. I figured she was going
to have to accept Rich, like it or not. Rich. This is
my father and Mom, this is Rich regardless. She is beloved the world
over. Now you can hear her as the voice of Imico and the AI
module Mina co starring in Netflix's animated feature Ultraman Rising, premiering globally Friday,
June fourteenth. And it's my pleasure to welcome Tamblin to me to later with
Mo Kelly right now, this TMITA. Thank you for coming on today.
How are you very well? Thank you so very much, and yo Mo,
and thank you so much to all the iHeartRadio fans out there, thank
you for listening. In what you are. You are so humble in how
you present yourself in and as a kid growing up in Los Angeles. You
and me both. You went to Granada Hills High School. You went to
UCLA. Weren't you supposed to become a history teacher? How did I was?
I was? I was asked to participate in what was called the audition
process, the open call process for Karate Kid Part two. And I was
studying history at UCLA in order to become a history teacher. And I just
this was the summer of nighteen eighty four, and I said, or nineteen
eighty five, And I said, yeah, why not? And so I
auditioned and somehow I impressed the director and he said, want to come in
and meet the producers and da da da da da, and down the line
and you get to meet Ralph Macho And I go, what? And so
I jumped through all those hoops and I landed the role of Kumiko in the
summer of eighty five, and we filmed it and it released in nineteen eighty
six. And here we are in twenty twenty four, still talking about Coomi
Coo. I love it. And speaking of growing up, I grew up
watching the original Ultraman television series, which debuted in the mid sixties, but
I saw it in the early seventies. Ultraman is one of the highest grossing
media franchises of all time. How did you and when did you come across
Ultimately? Do you remember how you were watching Ultraman? Was it on PBS
or was it on the Japanese American channel or was it on some kind of
Japanese movie house, because I remember seeing it very very sporadically because it wasn't
on American tele You had to watch the UHF or the VHF panels, right,
club titles, right, we had to watch slub titles. So knowing
that that, you know it was a super cool superhero and it had all
this other worldliness because being Japanese American but not growing up in Japan, it's
like, what is this other world? And so it kind of opened it
up for so many kids to watch this new superhero that wasn't Superman or wasn't
the Hulk or any of the other American superheroes that we saw, and it
was a It just blew my mind. So to be here at Ultraman rising
through Netflix is like, is that kind of reiteration that a good story will
last forever and that we're just so happy and thrilled and honored to be a
part of this new franchise. Are you all right? See for yourselves?
And you really are high on that life? Of course I'm high on that
and nobody else? Is that clear? Keptain? Has the monster been destroyed?
Destroyed to a man out of this guy, a man from space to
today? It's too bad we can't thank him for all he's done for us?
Who saved you when you're crashing to the monster? Yes, hey,
just a minute, you're talking. You know all the answers. So tell
me what the man is called? He hasn't got a name, he doesn't
they listen? I bet he does. Now, what is it? I'll
think of one. Does Ultraman sound all right? Uh? Huh? Ultraman
but not only a good story. You can add to a different chapters,
add more chapters to that story, and an Ultraman rising. He tells the
story of Kenji Sato, a superstar baseball player who returns to Japan to take
on the mantle of Ultraman because the rise and Kaiju attacks on Tokyo. In
your character is Kenji's mother, and there's an la tie in for both of
those characters. Who is Kenji and how is his mom so important to him?
Kenji's Santo is the superstar of the La Dodgers, and so shout out
to show hew Otani, and I think it's just serendipitous that we see that
Ultraman Rising is the film is the film's titled from Netflix, Ultraman Rising,
but that just in March of this year that Robert Varga, is a very
famous Los Angeles muralist, painted the Otani mural in Little Tokyo and it's called
La Rising. So it's like that kind of connection of a Japanese American baseball
hero, where Shohotani is a Japanese baseball guy who plays for the Dodgers,
where's Kenji Sato's now playing for the yomi Uri Giants. Emiko is that mother
to Kenji, and she is that kind of motherly force who is always going
to be sacrificing and loving and caring for her son, knowing that he can
only do the best that he can and to be a superhero at the same
time he's being a baseball hero is a mighty big plate to fill or plates
to fill, and she does her best. And in the iteration of what
you see is the ai in Mina. She's just the continuation of what it
means to be a mother who loves her son. She thinks you are her
mother. I am not feel for this. I've got a life, a
title. Poen you do something nice and now I'm babysitting atade bed lizard thing.
We've got to get it out of here. And where would you suggest
we take her? Ken? Oh? Oh oh, We'll take her to
Kaiju Island. Unfortunately, Ken, no one knows where to find it,
either your parents nor the Katif we're ever able to locate the island, Ken,
it would be very bad if you change back. Right now. My
guest right now is actress Tamlin Tamita. You know her from the Karate Kid
Too, and she's reprised her role as Kumiko on Cobra Kai and you know
her from The Joy Luck Club and more. But today she is sharing and
previewing her starring role in Netflix's Ultraman Rising, streaming nationwide this Friday, June
fourteenth. It's Later with mo Kelly, More with Tamlin to media in just
a moment. You're listening to Later with Moe Kelly on demand from KFI AM
six forty and right now I'm joined by venerable actress and LA's own Tamlin to
Meda. We all first met Tamida as Kumiko in The Karate Kid Part two.
We remember her as Waverley in The Joy Luck Club, and we loved
seeing her once again as Kumiko in Netflix's Cobra Kai. But speaking of Netflix,
this Friday, June fourteenth marks the global streaming premiere of the highly anticipated
animated feature Ultraman Rising, in which to Meeta stars as both Imiko and the
Ai module Mina double duty for Tamlin to Meda. But Tamlin in the last
segment we talked about how Ellie is a prominently featured character as you had he
plays for the Dodgers. There are shout outs to show hey Otani, and
there's even and there's also a Digiti animated hologram version of Dodger Stadium. Tell
me about why La is such a good and prominent character for this. You
know what, mo, You live here in La. You know that it's
on the west coast, the best coast, and it's literally a bridge between
the US of A and Japan. It is literally has been the gateway to
what it means to be Japanese American. But I think what it means also
to be an American of Japanese assent. So it's a kind of a switch
in our brains is that we as Americans all come from somewhere else. You
know, we're either brought here like African Americans. We're either immigrants here or
we're indigenous here. So let's rectify that idea of what it means to be
American and what it means to be a superhero. Superheroes can really come from
everywhere, because superheroes care for everyone. And so just because Ultraman traditionally came
from Japan, it is like in Netflix's Arms, he becomes the superhero of
the world. And I think that's it's such an eye opening, a brain
opening, and a heart opening experience to be part of this new iteration of
ultra Man. It's Dad, you're mad at me. I get it.
I know it wasn't an easy choice, leaving your life behind La the Dodgers,
millions of adoring fans. But what I'm asking is bigger than baseball.
The world needs you to become something more. Sorry, your mom was better
at this anyway, I'm around for the last few weeks, one name has
dominated the headlines and what is sure to be a historic moment in baseball.
In just three days, Giants fans will welcome a legend to the new Tokyo
door as Ken Sazo returns to the land of his birth. Please show me
I can subtle, folks. I love your enthusiasm, but tell me if
I'm reading something into this that's not fair given just your own personal history of
being born in Okinawa, didn't grow up there, but you still have ties
to your heritage that just kind of fit into your own life. Yeah.
Absolutely, there's aspects of it that fit in because it's like, what am
I going to claim as an American of Japanese, Okinawa and Filipino descent.
I'm going to pull the best things from all of those cultures and live here
in America and share it with America because I think these wonderful qualities are present
in every culture, are present in every society around the world. That's the
blessing of what it means to be here in America is that we get to
pull from all the other world cultures and say we're going to be here and
we're going to live and do it together. My time is growing short with
you, so let me ask you this Ultraman Rising. I've had the opportunity
to see it. There's some twists, there's some turns, but it is
it is a very nice iteration on the character, and I've seen it grow
and evolve over years. Do we know? Do we know what the future
may hold for the Ultraman franchise? Do we get Can we say whether this
is company something coming more in the future. I think, as with every
family, we can only hope for the best, and with every family,
we know that every good family grows. All right, speaking, good family
grows? Before I let you go, any thoughts on Copra Kai last season.
I know that's the last season. Just finished filming and I talked to
Yuji Okamoto just the other day and he says it's going to be a slam
banging season. Netflix love the smell of karate in the afternoon. No,
mercy, get your asses ready, We're not keeping up without a fighting Cobra
Kai is back. Well, all I can say is I cannot wait.
I've already seen Ultraman Rising. It premieres globally June fourteenth, Do not miss
it and of course, Cobra Kaby right there. For it tendly to me
that it has been always been a dream for me to have a conversation with
you. Oh you're so sweet. Oh my god, I love you.
Thank you so very much, and go la. It's Later with bo Kelly
camp I AM six forty. We're live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. You're
listening to Later with Moe Kelly on demand from KFI a M six forty