Hats off to Kotaku’s Brian Ashcraft, who recently was approved for permanent residency in Japan. Bash (as he’s affectionately known over yonder) penned a handful of reviews for us back in tha’ day, which I’ll get around to re-posting in his honor.

Anyway, congrats Brian!

I’m not sure what to make of this one. 75-year-old Tran Trong Duyet, who held Republican Presidential nominee John McCain prisoner for five years in Hanoi, Vietnam, says he would cast his vote for McCain in the upcoming election and refers to him as an ‘old buddy’.

Mmm-kay…

“If I were an American voter, I would vote for Mr. John McCain,” Tran Trong Duyet said Friday, sitting in his living room in the northern city of Haiphong, surrounded by black-and-white photos of a much younger version of himself and former Vietnam War prisoners.

At the same time, he denies prisoners of war were tortured. Despite detailed POW accounts and physical wounds, Duyet claims the presumed Republican presidential nominee made up beatings and solitary confinement in an attempt to win votes.

Rating:  

Well friends, this may very well be the last edition of Yaoi Menace. I think I found the book that will put me off the genre forever.

Yaoi: Anthology of Boys’ Love Volume 1 from Yaoi Press is a collection of three short stories brought to life by international teams of writers and artists. Also, it sucks. Hard. No, that’s not a good thing.

The first story, The Price of Freedom, is written by Misa Izanaki and drawn by Yishan Studios. It begins when a family of what appear to be less-than-Yeti but more-then-human creatures rescues a young woman and her baby, who are lost in the forest. The child, Aren, is a half-incubus (wings, tail, horns etc.) and grows up with the Yeti family’s son, Kumari. Then one day Aren’s mother announces that they are going back to her family.

We meet Aren again years later, when he is the star attraction of a circus sideshow, where he plays demon to an ‘angel’ (a man who inexplicably has feathered wings, as opposed to Aren’s bat wings). The ‘angel’ happens to be the lover of the sideshow’s owner, and after work they get their kicks raping and humiliating Aren.

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A self described ‘film enthusiast, [...] passionate student of Eastern philosophy, and an admitted Nipponophile’ Patrick Galloway is the author of the book Stray Dogs and Lone Wolves: The Samurai Film Handbook out now from Stone Bridge Press.

Mr. Galloway was recently kind enough to chat with us regarding his new book, and future plans.

Yellow Menace: Congratulations on your book; it’s a real hoot.

Patrick Galloway: Thanks! I was going for “hoot.” Also “romp,” “blast,” and “brilliant, informative read” (laughs)

YM: Well, you certainly succeeded!

PG: Thanks. Thanks a lot.

YM: Can you tell us a little about yourself? I read a little on your background from your site. What spurred your interest in Japanese film?

PG: The short answer is Akira Kurosawa, but really it goes back to my teen years and the discovery of Eastern Philosophy, particularly Hinduism and Buddhism. These teachings had a profound effect on me, and made me want to learn more about the cultures where they thrived. Buddhism led me to Zen and Zen led me Japan. However it wasn’t until the late 1990s that I finally discovered Japanese film.

YM: Wow…consider me impressed! I’ve been watching Japanese movies all my life, (thanks to my Asian Dad) and I found plenty to learn from your book.

PG: I wish I had an Asian dad! Sure would have helped writing this book. But I’m an obsessive type. Once I get into something, I can get pretty monomaniacal which tends to shorten the catch-up period.

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I loves me some Max Fleischer’s Superman…hands down the best non-comic representation of the Man of Steel. Here’s a fun little oddity courtesy of the Internet Archive, a wartime short entitled ‘Japoteurs’ in which Supes takes on the YELLOW MENACE! Yeah, it’s more than a little jingoistic (and racist), but definitely worth a look.

If you live in New York City, or plan to be there this weekend, just a heads up: the Lincoln Center is hosting a retrospective of anime maestro Satoshi Kon’s work, dubbed ‘Satoshi Kon: Beyond Imagination‘. It’s things like this that make me wish I still lived in New Jersey (sniff).

The New York Sun gives prospective attendees a glimpse of what to expect.

Hitchcock was an exquisite motion picture craftsman who, like Mr. Kon, was wary of his own medium. He channeled his suspicion about heroic behavior stemming from self-serving motives into Jimmy Stewart’s kinky character in “Vertigo,” and his belief that moviegoing was inherently sadistic provided the meaty subtext for “Rear Window.” Mr. Kon embodies the same ambivalence, despising anime for its laziness and its substitution of safe yet empty spectacle for authentic but messy experience. In an early interview, he slipped a dagger in the ribs of anime artists when he dismissed their obsession with beautiful little girls and giant robots as “a little sad.” The movie he had just made, “Perfect Blue,” was more than a little sad. It was downright devastating.

Cute Japanese girls plus ESL education = funny…right?

My fascination with all things Olivia Munn continues unabated. I’m not exactly sure what this whole Overnight Vlog thing she’s got going on is, but the YouTube clips she’s been posting with cohort Asher Levin are pretty funny. Oh, and this one has Karen the IT-Stripper…bonus!

The International Tribune takes stock of Japanese batsu game shows, known for their degree of humiliation and punishment, which are about to make the leap to American shores. I have a sneaking suspicion that, like Iron Chef America before it, adding hapless gaijin to the mix will simply water down what was once a fascinating phenomenon. I could be wrong, but I doubt it. Might make for some good YouTube clips, though.

“I Survived a Japanese Game Show” and “Wipeout” — making their debuts Tuesday on ABC — each borrow from the batsu format but in different ways. “I Survived” takes American contestants to Japan and puts them through 16 games. These contests, collectively known as Maji-Deh, which roughly translates to “you must be crazy,” actually form a show within a show. Segments that are shot on film to distinguish them from the video of the actual games offer a backstage glimpse of the competitors and crew. “Wipeout” is more straightforward; its contestants run obstacle courses.

The new shows are the most recent examples of American programmers cribbing from other countries, although the producers say they are not direct imports. “I Survived” is a compendium of recreated stunts from different Japanese hit shows. And Matt Kunitz, an executive producer of “Wipeout,” said his show paid homage to its Japanese predecessors but was not based on any particular program. Still, some of the obstacles — like the “sweeper,” a giant arm that whips around while contestants stand on poles and try not to fall — seem straight out of the Japanese playbook.

A sequel to last years’ monsteriffic k-horror flick The Host is due in late 2009 as a joint effort between Korean studio Chungeorahm and China’s Stone Man Films. The sequel will reportedly take place in China (man, that monster gets around!)

Original film, which was seen by more than 12 million people and grossed some $60.6 million, was a monster movie with political undertones.

New pic will have to tread carefully to avoid criticizing the Chinese government. Story will concern a calamity caused when people ignore a monster due to their desire for money.

Sounds positively cool.