japan

The most anticipated film of the summer had its big Hollywood premiere at Mann's Chinese Theatre on Tuesday, and fans carrying both English and Japanese-language signs stood patiently behind barricades, waiting (some since 6am) to catch a glimpse of their favorite actors. Photographers crowded each other for shots of Marion Cotillard and Ellen Page. Security guards positioned themselves on either side of Leonardo DiCaprio as he walked along the street to greet his fans and sign autographs. One of the earlier stars to arrive, Ken Watanabe gamely waved at the fans, inciting cheers as he walked down with his wife Kaho Minami. But the most diligent man on the black-and-red carpet was indeed Dileep Rao, who took his time getting to the entrance of the theater, graciously speaking to each and every member of the press that requested an interview.

By Jeff Yang, Special to SF Gate
Thursday, February 25, 2010

The notion that Asians and Jews are two shoots from the same cultural rootstock is an old but evergreen meme.

You see it in fringe theories about the Lost Tribes of Israel -- there's an entire body of cryptoarchaeological canon that uses similarities between customs, language and naming convention to "prove" that the ancient vanished Jewish clans ended up in China, India or Japan. (Japan's 50,000-member Makuya sect, which has as its central dogma that the Japanese are descendants of a lost Jewish tribe, keep kosher, speak Hebrew and use the seven-armed menorah as their symbol.)

By Blogger Orvillelloyddouglas

Yu-Na Kim of South Korea earned her gold medal. Her free skate was excellent, flawless, and wonderful. Kim is the Olympic champion, and the judges got that result right. However, some critics on the Internet are suggesting that the judges are racists and they did not want an Asian female sweep of the Olympic medals in figure skating. I agree with this cogent assessment. Since Joannie Rochette is a white Canadian woman, the judges made sure a white female slipped into third place to prevent an Asian sweep.

Thursday, January 28 2010
8pm @ Orpheum Theatre
Tickets at Ticketmaster.ca 604-280-4444
$42-$54

“Powerful, dynamic and unique” -Time Out
“Extraordinarily talented…incomparable muscular zeal” -Chicago Tribune
“This is a show of rare excellence … Run, don’t walk to the box office.” - Edinburgh Evening News
“(It’s) an evening of rhythm, beats, sweaty bodies, melody, dynamic shape, and extraordinary precision.
Tao is inspiring, uplifting and theatrical.” -The New Zealand Performing Arts Review

Japanese film Looking For Anne, directed by Takako Miyahira, took the top honours of Best Film and Best Director, the AFFF said in its press release.

The movie tells the story of a 17-year-old Japanese girl with a secret mission to find her recently deceased grandmother's first love.

First-time producer Sona Jain bagged four awards - including Best Producer - for her film, For Real, a story about a family seen through the eyes of a child.

Last Friday's event was the fifth instalment of the AFFF.

Although accounting for only 4.6% of the total US population, Asian Americans boast the highest income and educational attainment of any US ethnicity. Some of wealthiest and most accomplished Americans are Asians, a group that can claim origins anywhere from Japan to India to Iran to Lebanon.

With a median household income of $65,000, Asians currently possess $509 billion in purchasing power, which is projected to increase 47% by 2013. While they do not account for a huge share of American’s their substantive capital makes them a group to be explored by marketers— and in particular, by businesses offering luxury goods, the newest electronics, fine dining, and travel services.

This report provides an in-depth analysis into this lucrative ethnic group, and covers the following topics:

A demographic overview of Asian Americans, including population growth, earning power, educational attainment, degree of acculturation, and place of residence

Actor Takeshi Kaneshiro, one of Asian cinema's biggest superstars, could soon be following in the footsteps of fellow Asian stars Rain , Jay Chou and Lee Byung-hun and heading to Hollywood.

The 33-year-old was recently spotted by fans in Los Angeles, fuelling speculation that the Taiwan-based actor is in talks to star in a Hollywood film.

While Kaneshiro's agency has confirmed that the actor is indeed in Los Angeles, it said he is actually there on vacation to visit friends.

The actor has always been cautious about taking on foreign films. In 1998, he starred in "Too Tired To Die" with Oscar-winning actress Mira Sorvino but has kept his distance since, and even turned down a role in "The Last Samurai" starring Tom Cruise.

In recent years, the actor has once again caught Hollywood's attention after starring in 2004's "House of Flying Daggers" with Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi and Hong Kong director John Woo's war epic "Red Cliff".

We’ve seen what they have done in the Little League World Series. We’ve seen what they’ve done in the Olympics and World Baseball Classic. Relatively recently, we’ve been able to see what they can do in a full 162-game season, traveling day after day across a country substantially bigger than their own.

Finally, we’ve seen what one of “them” can truly do in the World Series…under the brightest lights…for the brightest team. Though there was a lot of pressure, Godzilla did well. Really well.

Hideki Matsui, as this World Series’ most valuable player, is a direct epitome of what Asian ballplayers (in this case, Japanese) can do. Not too many have heard of Masanori Murakami—pitcher for the San Francisco Giants in 1964 and 1965—so let’s just say that it’s still been a little while since Hideo Nomo jumped the Pacific into the big leagues in 1995. And yet still, there are at times a sort of disconnect from “them” and us.

The Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) in New York and Asian CineVision will co-present the stunning new Taiwanese film "No Puedo Vivir Sin Ti" (Cannot Live Without You) on October 26th from 5:30 to 8:00 at TECO, located at 1 E 42nd St. in Midtown. The script writer and leading actor of the film, Wen-Pin Chen, will be on hand for Q&A following the screening, moderated by Mr. John Woo, Acting Director of Asian CineVision. A Chinese-style buffet dinner will be provided after the event.

"No Puedo Vivir Sin Ti" has received international accolades, winning Best Film among other awards at the 2009 Taipei Film Festival, the Grand Prize of Japan's Skip City International D-Cinema Festival, and Best Feature Film of South Africa's Durban International Film Festival. It has been selected to represent Taiwan in the competition for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2009 Oscars. The film will make its New York-area premiere at the 2009 FilmColumbia Festival on October 24th.

What can be more depressing than a story like this to remind us of our current society and the state of human morality. It is important that we should continue to advocate against human trafficking and foriegners who go overseas to find Asian wives or sex touring for Asian women (or in this case, Children too).

Typically, these are the types that have the imperialist mindset, they prey on those who are inpoverished and live in difficult conditions. The circumstances that exposes a vulnerability can be said without reference, human trafficking or sexual exploitation of Asian women.

We have similar issues that exist in first world countries only that these  problems exist on a another level. In the social context, racism comes  intertwined with stereotypes, race sexual fetish, Asian fetishism, Pedophilia, Asiaphiles, Sexism, Rapists, murders etc all that commonly share the same basis on the grounds of racism.