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It's hard today for genre fans around the world to imagine a horror industry without long haired, vengeful female ghosts, with the likes of Ringu, its US remake The Ring, and their countless clones having been terrifying viewers for over a decade now. However, there is far more to the origins of the new wave of Asian horror cinema than Hideo Nakata's television troubling goblin. Back in 1998, at the same time that Ringu was reinventing the modern horror genre in Japan, ghoulish goings were also starting to stir in Korean cinemas. Although perhaps slower to take off and to gather international recognition, the modern Asian ghost film had by the early years of the new century become firmly... [read more]
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It's one of the most instantly recognizable faces in Japanese entertainment. The wild eyes, wide toothy grin, the even wider forehead crowned by a tuft of bleached hair - Takenaka Naoto may bear a passing resemblance to a demented cupie-doll, but that hasn't prevented him from becoming Japan's most ubiquitous and in-demand character actor of the past three decades. His supporting roles in films as diverse as Shall We Dance?, Waterboys, and Azumi - to name only a few - should make Takenaka's mug familiar to anyone with even a passing interest in contemporary Japanese cinema. But despite his unforgettable face, Takenaka's name somehow never seems to stick in the minds of Western fans, who... [read more]
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John Woo is a legend. Simply put, he is one of the most successful and influential directors working today in Asia, Hollywood, and indeed the world. Known for his slow motion, two-handed gun battles, he almost single-handedly revolutionized the action genre at home and abroad, and launched the heroic bloodshed form which is still being copied today. After a somewhat rocky start to his career, Woo has been responsible for some of the most enduring classics of Hong Kong Cinema, including the likes of A Better Tomorrow, The Killer, and Hard Boiled to name but a few. On top of this, he has succeeded where countless other Asian directors have failed by managing to conquer Hollywood and become... [read more]
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He's been stepped on by Godzilla, crossed paths with Musashi and Yoshitsune, and wielded the sword of Alexander the Great. He filled Mifune Toshiro's shoes in a remake of a Kurosawa Akira classic, and he's worked with the best of Japan's current crop of filmmaking masters, including Iwai Shunji and Kore-eda Hirokazu. Abe Hiroshi just might be the luckiest guy at work today in Japan's entertainment industry. The one-time model's quirky, atypically handsome features allow him to essay suave dramatic leads, over-the-top comic book heroes and villains, and comedic clowns with equal believability. Abe Hiroshi has played them all, and if you've seen the exuberant energy he's put into any of the... [read more]
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Takeshi Kaneshiro, perhaps more than any other actor, seems to have been destined from the start for pan-Asian success. Of mixed ethnicity and fluent in Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese and English, his career has seen him rise from model to singer, and from early success in genre films to working with some of the biggest names in the industry. What is perhaps most interesting about Kaneshiro is the fact that despite his melancholic good looks, which have seen him act as a spokesperson and model for countless top brands worldwide, unlike so many Asian actors who have built their reputations on playing it safe, he has repeatedly shown a predilection for choosing offbeat roles and for balancing... [read more]
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Hong Kong, a city-state of only 1,100 square kilometers, was once the third largest film industry in the world. During the golden era of Hong Kong Cinema in the eighties and early nineties, the territory produced over 200 films per year. Entering the new millennium, business began to slow at alarming rates. By 2005, Hong Kong was down to around 50 films per year, and the age of Hong Kong films had become a nostalgic memory. In 2006 a familiar name of the past appeared in movie theaters again - Jacob Cheung. Best known for social dramas like Cageman and The Kid, Cheung returned in 2006 with the period blockbuster A Battle of Wits, a historical war epic with a pacifist message starring Andy... [read more]
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Words somehow fail to do justice to the visual splendor and poetry of director Kore-eda Hirokazu's cinematic treasures. The piercing beauty of Maboroshi no Hikari, the quiet introspective drama of After Life and Nobody Knows, even the satiric samurai comedy of Hana simply must be seen to be properly appreciated. Japan's most acclaimed art-house darling of the past fifteen years, Kore-eda may not have the mass marketability of Miike Takashi or Kitano Takeshi, but his unmatched eye for crafting visually sumptuous and emotionally profound pieces of celluloid easily qualifies him as one of Japan's greatest living filmmakers. More so than any of his contemporaries, Kore-eda invokes the spirit of... [read more]
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The Fifth Generation of Chinese directors have been largely responsible for the popularity of the country's cinema around the world. Their struggles with breaking from tradition and incorporating political commentary into their films can to an extent be seen as both national and deeply personal journeys. This is particularly true of Chen Kaige, one of the key figures of the movement, whose career has seen him progress from telling stories of the past and trying to make sense of history, to making wuxia epics and even trying his hand at Hollywood. Like the Japanese master Akira Kurosawa, Chen is a deeply humanistic filmmaker, his films influenced by his interest in traditional Chinese... [read more]
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The continuing popularity of Korean Cinema around the world has seen a number of directors thrust into the international limelight, notably the likes of Park Chan Wook and Bong Joon Ho. However, perhaps the most successful of these newly crowned industry leaders has been their countryman Kim Ji Woon, one of the few Korean, or indeed Asian filmmakers to have consistently seen his work enjoy box office success not only at home but also abroad with his on target blend of eccentric originality and commercial acumen. A writer-director who has rapidly become known for his visual craftsmanship and storytelling skills, Kim has won over the critics as well as audiences, having become a regular at... [read more]
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Herman Yau is easily one of the most interesting, talented, and strangely overlooked directors working in Hong Kong Cinema. Although he has over 80 films to his credit and is acknowledged as one of the best cinematographers in the business, for many people he is still only known for his infamous exploitation screamers The Untold Story and Ebola Syndrome. Unforgettable as these films undeniably are, they are by no means wholly indicative of the wide range of Yau's talents. Having worked in t, he has also made a name for himself in cultural journalism and writing, having founded several publications and been recognized academically. A winner of multiple awards, he has proved himself time and... [read more]
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From F4 and Fahrenheit to Big Bang and Dong Bang Shin Ki to w-inds and Arashi, it's hard to escape the power and presence of boy bands in the world of Asian pop. In that respect, rookie group Square, formed by four tall and handsome guys, is just like any other Asian boy band - except they're from Hong Kong. While Hong Kong has produced and exported many heavenly kings and pop divas over the years, only one Hong Kong boy band has ever managed to establish true local stardom and successfully penetrate the Mandarin music market - The Grasshoppers - and that was back in the heyday of Hong Kong pop. Meanwhile, Taiwan has churned out one boy band after another in the last decade, as the explosion... [read more]
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Comic books have always been a popular source of cinematic inspiration, and over the past few years such films have been enjoying unprecedented success on the silver screen, with the likes of The Dark Knight and Iron Man racking up incredible box office figures across the world. This has also long been the case with the Asian film industry, primarily in the case of Japan, with manga comics having provided a never-ending list of popular films and television series, both animated and live action. Indeed, the country has become famous for such adaptations, with recent hits such as Death Note receiving international releases. Even other Asian countries have used manga as source material, as in... [read more]
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Hong Kong television has undergone many changes in the past decade, seeing the rise of joint productions with China and the emergence of a new broadcasting platform in the Internet. The introduction of HD broadcasting in 2008 also marks an important milestone in Hong Kong television. In these ten years, Hong Kong's television studios have also moved in sync with the social, cultural, and technological changes of the time to produce TV dramas for a new generation of viewers. With 2008 also being YesAsia.com's 10th anniversary, we've especially selected some representative Hong Kong TV series of the past decade to revisit. Healing Hands (1999-2000) In 1998, not long after Hong Kong's Handover... [read more]
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Short of stature, with a permanently cheeky expression etched on his face and a rasping voice that sounds like he has smoked one cigarette too many, it's fair to say that Eric Tsang is nobody's idea of a traditional leading man. Yet in spite of, or perhaps even because of this, a career spanning more than thirty years and more than one hundred and fifty films has seen him become one of the most popular and beloved performers in the Hong Kong entertainment industry. As well as for his near constant presence on the silver screen, the actor is also well known for his outspoken views and often-outrageous ways as a television host and comic. However, behind the laughter and the bumbling onscreen... [read more]
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High-flying martial arts heroes, magical wuxia duels and supernaturally tinged romances have long been trademarks of Hong Kong Cinema, especially during the heady days of the 1980s when imagination and wacky creativity seemed to be the main forces driving the industry. One of the key figures in this movement is Tony Ching Siu Tung, a director, producer, action choreographer and actor whose career of more than forty years has seen him involved in some of the most important and influential films to have emerged from the genre. Working his way steadily up the ladder and picking up an impressive number of awards along the way, Ching has gone from strength to strength, and remains one of the top... [read more]
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Many new terms pop up in common lingo every year in Japan, and those interested in Japanese pop culture are no doubt familiar with the term "Ikemen". The term came into popular usage around 2000 as an expression to describe attractive young men who are of course plentiful in the Japanese entertainment industry. The Origin of Ikemen Starting around 2000, television stations started reaching out to a wider audience range by casting new-generation male artists in the leading or supporting roles of the traditionally male-oriented Kamen Rider, tokusatsu, and ranger superhero shows. With their handsome appearances and sharp images, these young actors won over many female viewers and created an... [read more]
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As China gradually opens itself to the world, particularly during and after the 2008 Beijing Olympics, certain aspects of the country's culture and governance have inevitably come under far greater international scrutiny. One such area that has caused no end of bemusement and consternation is the activities of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT), the Chinese censors who have rapidly become notorious around the world for their strictness, and for their predilection for banning productions, which, to the casual observer at least, may seem wholly innocuous. This has manifested itself in a number of high-profile examples of Hollywood blockbusters falling foul of the... [read more]
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There's a certain bittersweet irony that in Rouge, Anita Mui's most acclaimed film role, the star plays a ghost from Hong Kong's bygone past lingering into the present day. It's been almost five years since the world lost the 40-year-old Anita Mui Yim Fong to complications from cervical cancer, yet in Hong Kong - and indeed the entire Chinese-speaking world - the woman once dubbed "The Madonna of Asia" continues to be an almost palpable presence. Countless memorial shrines, compilation CDs, even a Mainland TV biopic have kept her spirit alive and center-stage in the East Asian pop culture landscape. In life her flashy, constantly evolving onstage personas earned her another nickname - "The... [read more]
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With the seemingly never ending popularity of the Korean Wave continuing to flourish, a number of stars have become household names both at home and all around Asia. Korean television dramas in particular have proved to be a huge success, elevating certain male actors to heartthrob status, especially in Japan. However, Lee Byung Hun is one of the select few who can truly claim to have achieved global stardom, having won over audiences not only in Korea and Asia, but also in the West, with several promising Hollywood roles lined up, and being the only one of his countrymen to currently have US agent representation - no small feat in an industry notoriously resistant to all but the biggest of... [read more]
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When hearing the name Tony Leung, viewers would be forgiven for automatically thinking of Tony Leung Chiu Wai, the internationally acclaimed, sad-eyed Hong Kong star of In the Mood for Love, Hero, Infernal Affairs, and more recently Lust, Caution. However, particularly in recent years, the name is equally likely to be used in reference to another Tony Leung, namely Tony Leung Ka Fai, whose twenty-five year career has seen him grace the screen in nearly a hundred productions. Those confused by the similarity in English names may find it helpful to know that the two are often differentiated by nicknames, with Tony Leung Chiu Wai having been dubbed "Little Tony" and Tony Leung Ka Fai "Big... [read more]
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