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