I used to laugh whenever I saw people getting their cars blessed at Shinto shrines in Japan. Well, I am laughing no longer. Since I bought my Prius two years ago, my eco-conscious move has caused nothing but mishaps:
- a log dislodged by a 18 wheeler came hurling at me on the freeway and hit the car
- I was backed into in a parking lot by a guy talking on his cell
- a construction cone got lodged in the front grill when a truck hit the cone and made it fly into my lane
- someone side swiped me from the lane next to mine and drove me up onto the curb.
And now, I find out that I am driving a speeding death trap with sticky pedals. Read more...
In a previous blog, I had briefly mentioned Takarazuka–the all-women musical reviews of Japan. Now, having done some Internet research, I realize that this world is even more bizarre than I thought. In fact, I may have to join with my fellow offender, Phil in declaring that “Japanese are Freaks”. (And being Japanese-American, I guess that makes me Freaky-American. On the other hand, I believe Americans are freaks as well, so that must make me 100% Freak. But I digress.)
One part Ziegfield Follies, one part Broadway and one part tranny club, Takarazuka is a highly popular institution that dates back to 1914. Takarazuka musicals can be based on Western Broadway musicals, historical dramas, or Japanese manga—all performed with lavish sets, glittering costumes and big choreographed numbers, and of course, all the parts are played by women. Read more...
By now, everybody must have heard of the gigantic Pacific Garbage Patch—millions of square miles of crap, which consists mostly of tiny pieces of plastic debris, floating in a toxic oceanic vortex. And now, I find out that there’s another garbage patch forming in a gyre in the Atlantic Ocean as well. Apparently, there are 5 gyres in our ocean systems and soon we’ll be over-run with islands of debris that break down into nasty chemicals like bisphenal A, PCBs and derivatives of polystyrene, which are all making its way into our food supply. AAAAAAGGGHHHHH!!!
So I have been thinking of ways to solve this problem, otherwise I won’t be able to get my sushi fix without thinking I’m playing Russian roulette, and I have come to realize that the great creative minds of Hollywood have already come up with some solutions to our woes: Read more...
Whenever I received a jury summons, my reaction used to be the same as most people’s—bitching and moaning along with colorful expletives. Serving jury duty is about as pleasant as getting your teeth drilled at the dentist’s office or listening to American Idol contestant William Hung on an endless loop.
Through the years, my friends and I have discussed various ways of getting out of jury duty by answering jury screening questions with quips like “Is this going to take long? Because I’ll be needing my methamphetamine fix in an hour,” or, “I’m psychic so I would know who’s guilty even before the trial,” or “Yes, I know many police officers. Some of them are my best clients.” Wink wink. Read more...
Oscar day is tomorrow and I didn’t quite get around to showcasing all the worthy films on my list that were neglected by the Academy. So I will throw them all out in my last blog on this topic and open it up to your suggestions as well.
Diva
“Cool” is the only word I can think of to describe “Diva”. This was probably the first foreign film I saw that really made me want to watch more foreign films. It was so different from the usual Hollywood movie. It was so flashy, so colorful. The unique cast of characters included a young, bootlegging postman who lives in an auto garage; an African American opera singer; a Vietnamese, roller-skating, pink-plastic-raincoat clad shoplifter; and her older boyfriend?/guru who likes to cook wearing a snorkel mask. This movie even made me actually want to listen to opera. What more can I say but to give kudos to a movie that was ahead of its time in showing diverse and anti-stereotypical characters. Read more...
Before Zhang Ziyi, Michelle Yeoh, or Lucy Liu, there was Etsuko Shihomi (aka “Sue” Shiomi). She was my hero growing up in Hawaii. She was the female version of Bruce Lee – strong, beautiful and able to kick some major butt.
She was a member of Sonny Chiba’s Japan Action Club. (Another graduate of the JAC is Hiroyuki Sanada, who has been making guest appearances in the series “Lost”). Ms. Shihomi has appeared in a number of martial arts films, which often co-starred Sonny Chiba and/or Hiroyuki Sanada. But more impressive was the fact that Ms. Shihomi was the headlining star in several films including the “Sister Street Fighter” series and “Dragon Princess”. There aren’t many action women out there that can actually open a movie today, let alone back in the ‘70s and ‘80s. Read more...
With Oscar day nearly upon us, I still have a few more picks for “Should Have Been Nominated”. For my latest, I have selected the 1986 film “Jean de Florette” directed by Claude Berri. But really, the film must be seen with its sequel “Manon des Sources” or “Manon of the Springs” in order to complete the tale of greed, betrayal and revenge.
The story is about a manipulative landowner, Cesare Soubeyran (played by Yves Montand) and his nephew Ugolin (Daniel Auteuil) who conspire to block the only water source for a nearby property in order to bankrupt the unsuspecting heir of the property, Jean Cadoret (Gerard Depardieu) and force him to sell.
On the surface, it may seem like a simple story of good guys against bad. But where the story excels is in the complexity of the characters who are not so black and white. In fact, the POV is actually with the bad guys. Daniel Auteuil does an excellent job in his portrayal of Ugolin, the ugly nephew and pawn of his uncle. You find yourself both despising and sympathizing with Ugolin. Even his evil uncle, Cesare Soubeyran, is revealed to be a tragic figure in the end. Read more...
I’ll never forget this great story my late professor at Berkeley, Dr. Larry Stark, told me. By then he was tenured, established and about to retire, but back in the day, when he was still getting his doctoral degree, he needed to get his technical papers published to establish his resume.
He had done all the research, run the experiments and written out his results. To better his odds, he had written up three different papers, hoping to get at least one published. He sent “Paper A” to “Journal A,” “Paper B” to “Journal B” and “Paper C” to “Journal C”. He waited anxiously to find out whether they’d been accepted for publication. Unfortunately, all three papers were rejected. Needless to say, Larry was pretty dejected.
Along with each rejection came suggestions from the editor on how he could change the paper to be publishable. So Larry set the papers aside, thinking eventually that he would get to them and make the necessary changes–maybe he would rerun some of the experiments. But then he had an idea. He decided to switch up the papers. So he sent “Paper A” to “Journal B,” “Paper B” to “Journal C” and “Paper C” to “Journal A”. And guess what? All three papers were accepted! Read more...
My family was not particularly religious growing up, but what my mother lacked in religion, she made up for in superstitious beliefs. Not only did we have to incorporate Japanese superstitions, but American ones as well. So besides the whole 7-years-bad-luck broken mirror thing, I also couldn’t wear a new pair of shoes in the house or bunch things in four (the pronunciation for four “shi” is the same as the word for death, but I have no idea where the shoes bit came from.)
Some of the superstitions are common across different Asian cultures. For instance, sticking chopsticks upright in a rice bowl is a no-no, since that is the way rice is offered to the dead. I remember being at a function once where the dinner was supposed to be an “Asian” theme, but clearly was not decorated by an Asian because the center display at all the tables was a bowl of rice with chopsticks sticking straight out of it. There was a collective gasp as those of us who were Asian approached our tables. I quietly removed the chopsticks from my table display and I saw others do the same.
Some of my mother’s superstitions were outright nutty Read more...
My latest pick in my series of films I think should have been nominated for an Oscar, is the 3rd and final film of Sergio Leone’s “Dollars” trilogy: “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” (AKA “Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo.”) None of the films in the trilogy were nominated for any Oscar, but I think this last one is particularly deserving.
“The Good the Bad and the Ugly” is the quintessential Western film with an unforgettable, classic, 3-man show down at the end. The film is currently ranked #4 in IMDB’s list of top 250 movies of all time, as ranked by tens of thousands of film lovers. Quentin Tarantino has stated that this movie is “the greatest achievement in the history of cinema.” Besides Tarantino, the great Leone has had an enormous influence on directors such as Sam Peckinpah, John Woo, and of course, Clint Eastwood, who dedicated his movie “Unforgiven” “to Sergio and Don.” Read more...
I grew up reading comic books, but not the American variety, rather the Japanese “mangas” that were geared particularly to young girls, or “shoujo manga” as they are known. Although I could really only read about half of the Japanese characters, there were plenty of pictures to get the gist of what was going on. Probably my favorite manga series was “Berusaiyu no Bara” which translates to “The Rose of Versailles”
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This the 4th pick in my series of movies that should have been nominated for an Oscar. (And happily I’m on target for this week’s Flavah of “Oscars”.)
The movie is Tarsem’s visually stunning “The Fall”. Practically every shot in this movie is a work of art, full of breathtaking and unforgettable imagery, and yet, I was surprised to learn, none of the backdrops were computer-generated. Instead, Tarsem scouted for the perfect locations over a period of 17 years while shooting ads in 18 countries to give him just the right shots.
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This is the 3rd in my series of blogs of movies that should have been nominated for an Oscar. I also wanted to tie in this week’s Flavah of “Love”. So I racked my brain for a lesser known, but deserving love story and this gem came to mind: “The Road Home” directed by Yimou Zhang (“Raise the Red Lantern,” “Ju Dou,” and “Shanghai Triad”). Read more...
This is the 2nd in my series of blogs of movies that should have been nominated for an Oscar.
Today’s pick falls into the category of being foreign. The film is Akira Kurosawa’s 1952 film, “Ikiru”.
“Ikiru” in Japanese means “to live” and the title is apt for the subject it examines. It follows the story of Kanji Watanabe, a middle-aged man who has worked in the same monotonous bureaucratic position for thirty years, essentially doing nothing and contributing little to society (as can be said about most bureaucrats). Ironically, it’s only after learning that he has stomach cancer with less than a year to live that he finally comes to life and attempts to find meaning in what time he has left. Read more...
With the 82nd Academy Awards quickly approaching, I thought I would write a series of blogs on my favorite movies that were never nominated for an Oscar in any category.
I have to say that most of the time, the Oscars do recognize good movies in some form or fashion, even if it’s just for great sound. That’s not to say that I always agree with the outcomes or that they haven’t left out a movie that deserved to be in a certain category, but for the most part, the best made movies can boast at least 1 Oscar nomination. Still, I am amazed at how some really deserving films slipped completely from the minds of the members of the Academy.
After perusing my list of outcast movies, I decided that they generally fall into 1 of 3 categories: 1. The film is a genre film (Horror, Action, Thriller, etc.) 2. The film is foreign or 3. The film is just too indie (and therefore probably didn’t have the right Oscar campaign budget.)
So my first pick in the series is a very familiar one and perhaps one of the most iconic films ever made in the genre of Horror: Read more...
I think it’s natural that many of my fellow bloggers and I have hopped on to this week’s Flavah, “ANGST”.. Needless to say, there’s a lot of angst in Hollywood. Hollywood creates angst, practically manufactures it. Why? Because Hollywood is a business that revolves around being judged and getting rejected.
Actors have it the hardest. They go in for countless auditions, boxed in to a holding room, staring down the competition, sizing each other up, tensely waiting for their fate. We’ve all heard the stories where an assistant walks in and immediately starts picking off people, “you, you, you. Everybody else, thank you and goodbye.” Read more...
Phil’s blog reminded me of a story that A.C. Lyles told at a function I attended once. A. C. Lyles is a producer and unofficial ambassador for Paramount Studios. He is 91 and sharp as a tack. Having been in the business for 78 years, he has a lot of stories to tell. One of them was about Paul Newman’s tuna casserole. It went something along the lines of this:
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Alfredo’s post reminded me of a cartoon I came across which was actually used during WWII in a U.S. Army pamphlet distributed to soldiers in a Pocket Guide to China. The section called “How to Spot a Jap” instructed military men on how to distinguish between Japanese and Chinese Americans. I think the bit about how Chinese smile more often because the Japanese expect to be shot “and are unhappy about the whole thing” is particularly hilarious.
Jon Moritsugu is a super indie director known for his award-winning, underground films including Scumrock and Fame Whore. The “punk rocker” of filmmaking makes no compromises when he writes his movies and often shoots in low quality 16 mm film stock to give them a home-made feel.
It just so happens that I went to school with Jon in Hawaii. At Lincoln Elementary School in Honolulu, we often played at recess together. Jon, myself, and some other kids played the usual “Hide and Seek,” “Mother May I,” “Dodge Ball” and whatever else second and third graders did that involved running around on the recess field. I even had a crush on Jon because he was the super smart kid. Best in math, best in art, best in everything, pretty much. Read more...
Over the past couple of years or so, I started to notice that there seemed to be a high incidence of older Asian people being afflicted with stomach cancer, including my own father who passed away last year. After doing some research, I found out the startling facts. If you are an Asian American/Pacific Islander or eat Asian food as a staple, read up:
• Asian American/Pacific Islander women have the highest rates for new cases of stomach cancer compared to women of all other groups. Rates of stomach cancer are three times higher than among white women.
• Asian American men are twice as likely as Caucasian men to have stomach cancer and
• Korean men in particular experience the highest rate of stomach cancer of all ethnic groups: five times the rate of Caucasian men. Read more...
