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Who Wants to Split $1 Million with Some Old-Fashioned Racism

  • April 18, 2013 9:26 pm

Hyun Lee, a Korean American woman from Egg Harbor City in New Jersey, is suing CVS for this:

Apparently, Lee placed an online order to print some photos at CVS using her real name, but when she went to pick up her order, the name on the receipt read: Ching Chong. Lee has filed a $1 million lawsuit for the hurt and embarrassment this incident has caused her.

This story raises a lot of questions, but possibly the most pressing and thought-provoking one is this: why the hell didn’t I think of this idea myself?!  Read more...

Why Japan is Awesome #36: The Girlfriend Coat

  • April 8, 2013 12:01 am

If you’ve ever felt lonely and wished you owned a coat that would hug you from behind and whisper things like “I’m sorry I’m late” in a cute, anime voice, you’re in luck. Behold the “girlfriend coat.”

Created by a group of students at the University of Tsukuba, the Riajyuu Coat does just that. Check it out:

Gotta give it to the ingenuity of these students. This is about as inventive as I got when I was in college:  Read more...

No Need for a Seat Belt with This Shirt

  • April 5, 2013 12:01 am

Is this what it’s come to? Has it become such a difficult chore to buckle your seat belt that you need to resort to desperate measures like this:

Look carefully at the man in the driver’s seat. It may appear as if he’s safely buckled in, but what he’s actually doing is simply wearing the “belt t-shirt.” It’s a t-shirt with a design that creates the illusion that you have your seat belt tightly strapped around your body and it’s apparently a hit in China.

Because of the high rate of car accidents in China, law enforcement officials are taking a stricter stance on requiring motorists to buckle up. But clearly, there are a number of people who would much rather prefer to go out and pay $8 U.S. to purchase this shirt so they don’t have to deal with the hassle of putting on their seat belt because we all know what a hassle that is—you have to reach over to grab the belt and pull it over your body and…geez, I’m getting tired just thinking about it.  Read more...

Japanese Pervy Ad!

  • March 7, 2013 6:35 pm

YouTube Preview ImageAKB48 is the biggest J-Pop girl group ever. They’re supposed to be cute and innocent, but really, they are just a symbol of Japan’s infantile perversion for young girls. Wait, that’s true everywhere in the world. Revision: Japan is ichiban when it comes to pervertedness. Case-in-point: This commercial featuring the aforementioned J-pop girl group. And this is the same group that splashed headlines a few weeks ago when one of their members, Minami Minegishi, shaved her head and tearfully apologized and pleaded for the world’s forgiveness because she was caught (ON CAMERA), leaving a guy’s apartment late at night.

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Using Your Android Phone Will Find You Love in Japan

  • February 24, 2013 5:31 pm

YouTube Preview ImageCheck out this Japanese commercial for Google Android. The office lady seems to be way too cheery for being an office lady in Tokyo. And isn’t that mom super ungrateful? And will she find true love with the handsome clown? I can’t wait for the Japanese TV drama to be spawned from this… (Thanks, Kevin for the link)

Cramped Hong Kong Apartment Photos Taken from Above

  • February 20, 2013 4:38 pm

These photos have been making the rounds today on the interwebs. Simply crazy….Here are more photos (you can see the rest over at Imgur):

Now You Can Pay for Air in China

  • February 11, 2013 12:01 am

You heard that right. Chinese entrepreneur Guangbiao Chen has launched a new product—canned air.

Yes, you can now pay for “fresh” air. While I applaud Chen’s intentions—he wants to bring attention to the air pollution problem in his country—are people really going to pay for canned air? Couldn’t he have spent his money to develop a marketing campaign to make his point?

But then again, when bottled water first hit store shelves, most people thought that idea would bomb—why would anyone pay for something they could get for free out from their faucet? Boy, were they wrong.

And as you can see from pics like this, the pollution in cities like Beijing is pretty bad:  Read more...

Everybody Must Get Stoned…in North Korea

  • January 24, 2013 4:10 pm

Apparently, North Korea is the marijuana capital of the world. Who knew?

According to Alex Hoban, a contributor to VICE, who has been covering North Korea for a number of years, it’s always 4/20 in the NK. He writes:

North Korea, the most tight-lipped, conservative, and controlling country in the world is also a weed-smoker’s paradise. Despite the government’s deadly serious stance on the use and distribution of hard drugs like crystal meth (which has a notorious legacy in the country), marijuana is reportedly not considered a drug. As a result, it’s the discerning North Korean gentleman’s roll-up of choice, suggesting that, for weed smokers at least, North Korea might just be paradise after all.

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China’s “Cute” Masks

  • January 18, 2013 9:51 pm

In China, it’s not uncommon to see people walking around in public wearing surgical masks. Whether it’s to protect themselves from airborne illness (bird flu, anyone?) or the poor air quality (this week saw Beijing’s worst air quality on record), those masks have become a necessity for many.

But why walk around in the boringly sterile white masks when you can make them “cuter.” And that’s just what some Chinese have done as you can see in the following pics. With a severe flu season facing us here in the U.S., maybe it’s just a matter of time before we see Americans walking around with these:

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Shanghai Surprises (Part III)

  • January 17, 2013 10:33 pm

1930s Forever at Shanghai Film Studio.

My producer Aaron Shershow, who had been working as a production manager for Iron Man III in Beijing, was a true pal to fly into Shanghai and make our New Year Eve’s celebration complete with wine, cognac, Szechuan food and watching fireworks over the Shanghai skylight right on Andreas’ balcony. After a great evening of fun and conversations, Aaron took me on a preliminary location scout for a passion project that I’m developing set in Shanghai 1930s.

On New Year’s Day morning, I met Aaron bright and early at a local café where we had a quick brunch and hopped onto the Buick passenger van ready for the location scout.

“Directors and producers always ride in Buicks,” Aaron told me matter-of-factly. When we get to make our movie together in Shanghai, I’m sure we’ll have a blast!  Read more...

Why Japan is Awesome #515: D-Cup T-Shirts

  • January 12, 2013 4:52 pm

Take a close look at this t-shirt. What do you notice:

Yup, they’re fake. Not the woman’s breasts, but the breasts on the woman’s t-shirt.

Courtesy of Japanese designer Takayuki Fukuzawa, the red bra t-shirt (at $40 U.S.) is apparently a hit; having sold out three days after they went on sale.

Fukuzawa explains that the success of his design comes from making the breasts as realistic as possible: “The contours of the lower breasts and the various shadows are important, but even more so is the deep ravine between them.”

How realistic are they? D-cup realistic! (according to the designer)  Read more...

Shanghai Surprises (Part II)

  • January 10, 2013 1:57 pm

After a night of clubbing at a club aptly named Obama, I was awoken by Steven’s call saying he was downstairs in my hotel ready to pick me up for my screening. I glanced at the clock–it was already 1:30pm—and I jumped in the shower to get ready. I had little expectation of the screening as I didn’t know how it was advertised or publicized. It was also kind of an “underground” screening.

When we arrived at the venue, there was a crowd waiting in the café. The screening was sponsored by the Chi Heng Foundation, an AIDS prevention and support organization along with PFLAG of Shanghai. It was theoretically an unofficial screening and Steven Gu said that Chinese government could shut us down any time.  Read more...