With graying hair and mild-mannered demeanor, Hamamoto is an unassuming presence that belies his new status as a budding porn producer. But he is forceful in his opinions. "The whole sexuality part of our lives is warped and deformed from larger white racism," he said. "I want Asian-American people to look at it and examine it themselves, take matters in their own hands and come up with a solution."

But can porn, which by its nature causes controversy, be used as a tool to debunk stereotypes and start a serious dialogue about sexuality?

"I think there are two different things going on here: the image of Asian-American male sexuality and power. Who controls what is sexy in film, and basically what is sexy, is defined by white guys," says Joyce Guan, who works at the Asian-American Telecommunications Association, and had just seen "Masters of the Pillow," a documentary about the making of Hamamoto's porn video. "Seeing an Asian-American male in a film or in roles where they are sexual is a good thing."

But those roles in porn or mainstream entertainment are lacking, largely because film studios, movie producers and TV news directors assume that Asian-American men can't hold an audience.

"Asian-Americans are stereotyped in a negative way," Rick Lee, creator of the porn site Asian-man.com, says in "Masters of the Pillow." "A straight, Asian-American guy is impossible to find in porn. If you find one, he's gay and a bottom."

Lee charges a monthly fee to view his Web site, which features pictures and video clips of himself having sex with women. He was a guest speaker for one of Hamamoto's classes and was considered for the lead in "Skin to Skin." But Lee doesn't show his face on Asian-man.com and wouldn't do it for Hamamoto's video. But he hopes that there will be an Asian-American male porn star someday. "If an Asian-American goes into porn and has the size, he'll do well," he says in the documentary. The porn industry is about making money. "There's no racism like some might think."

"Masters of the Pillow" is the work of San Francisco filmmaker James Hou, 27, who was a student of Hamamoto's at U.C. Davis in 1996. Asian-Americans have been distorted by the media, Hou says, and "Darrell, with [his] film, wants to tackle the issue head-on and see what happens. People are going to love it or hate it."

Asian-Americans have long complained about being stereotyped or just plain ignored in movies and television. Hollywood has few successful Asian-Americans, with most -- such as Lucy Liu and Ming-Na -- being women. Most of the well-known Asian male stars, such as Jackie Chan, Jet Li and Chow Yun Fat, are imports from Asia and tend to play one-dimensional martial-arts characters who kick their way through movies.

"It seems clear to me that Asian-American men aren't represented in American media in their full complexity, including their sexuality," says Peter X. Feng, author of several books about Asian-Americans in film and an associate professor of English and women's studies at the University of Delaware. "Hamamoto will tell you that this carries over into pornography. The question is, what is the effect of this on my psyche as an Asian-American man?"

Media images alone may not affect the self-esteem of Asian-American males, Feng says, but they can perpetuate stereotypical beliefs. "So do I need to see an Asian-American man in porn to know that Asian-American men can be sexual and can express themselves sexually? No, I don't need to see that," he says. But, "it might change how other people think."

The stereotype of the asexual, geeky Asian guy has endured, affecting much more than porn. During the last 30 years, interracial dating has become common in the United States. Asian-American women are among the most likely to date or marry someone of another race, to the dismay of many Asian-American men. According to the 2000 census, Asian-American women married white spouses 3.08 times more often than Asian-American men did. And if the media is any indication, Asian men aren't viewed as sexually desirable by much of American society. This, he says, leads to the conflict between the sexes that Hamamoto said he is trying to quell.

Much of what is produced in the mass media is created for the pleasure of white men, according to Elaine Kim, an Asian-American studies professor at the University of California at Berkeley. "[White men] can have every woman of every race. For Asian men, they're just not supposed to be men," says Kim, who was also an associate producer of the documentary "Slaying the Dragon: Asian Women in U.S. Film and Television." "If you conquer Vietnam, Korea or Japan, then it all fits in the fantasy that you get the women and vanquish the men."

Hamamoto's plan is to use Asian-American porn as a springboard to finance a media company that would produce and distribute mainstream entertainment for and about Asian-Americans, much like BET provides to African-Americans. He believes there is a piece of the lucrative porn market among Asian-Americans who want to see themselves on-screen and a huge crossover audience, similar to how suburbia has embraced the urban hip-hop music scene.

Many other media ventures have tried and failed to tap the diverse, niche Asian-American market, with several magazines and Web sites going out of business in the last few years. Hamamoto says he'll succeed because, "I'm going for the groin. I'm going to satisfy a more basic need."

Hamamoto wants to market the 50-minute "Skin to Skin" to adult cable and satellite TV outlets or possibly through the Internet. An 11-minute video adapted from "Skin to Skin" (with more pointed messages about race and sexuality) and "Masters of the Pillow" have both been accepted at the Hawaii International Film festival, which begins Oct. 30.

"I'm talking about a lot of very fundamental issues in our society," says Hamamoto. "Sexuality, race and power. I'm touching all the hot buttons. As a professional intellectual, as a writer and as an artist, that's what I'm supposed to be doing."

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