When a Chinese man attempted to make his troupe of performing monkeys…well, perform, he began to beat it with a stick. His other two monkeys promptly attacked him, picking up his cane and smacking him with it until it broke. Bastard deserved everything he got, and then some. The Story The dazed trainer told his audience: “They were once wild [...]
Stephen Chow leaves Green Hornet. Excuse me while I weep tears of grief. Chow, who directed and starred in “Kung Fu Hustle” and “Shaolin Soccer,” signed in September to direct the film and play the role originated in the TV series by Bruce Lee. He stepped out as director over creative differences. Damn you, creative differences – DAMN YOU.
(Note: This is the first in a series of articles about media representations of Asians and Asian-Americans in the West. In this and subsequent features, we’ll be examining a single television episode or film to study their treatment of Asians and Asian-American minorities. THe purpose of these articles is not solely to view Western media with a skeptical eye, but [...]
Some time ago I saw an episode of Saturday Night Live hosted by The Rock (he’s a pretty decent actor, that guy) and one skit made me laugh pretty hard. The Rock was pitching a product to help people stop smoking called Nicotrell. The thing is, he was Nic Otrell- and when you bought the product, he moved in with [...]
This doesn’t really compare with a bunch of rowdy Koreans, but there is a frog in Cambodia with turquoise bones and green blood. Weirdo Frog Apparently, on the outside this thing is so well camouflaged that no one has ever gotten a photo of it. So if you can bring me a picture of a Samkos bush frog, I will [...]
If the U.S. Congress was as interesting as this, I bet C-Span would be a lot more fun to watch. More details here.
I always bristle whenever a friend of mine makes an offhand comment about Chinese restaurants and their supposed use of cat-meat. Aside from being vaguely racist, it’s a joke that has clearly run its’ course. Of course, there are some people in China who actually do eat cats – just as there are Koreans that eat dogs. Personally, I’m not [...]
Le Trung of Toronto, inspired by anime, has built an android to assist the elderly. Dubbed Aiko, the bot is currently more of an anthropomorphic reminder-device, telling its’ users when to take meds for instance, but Trung hopes that Aiko will one day be able to move about. Which is good, because Aiko looks eerily like a crippled RealDoll – [...]
Film pirate Kazushi Hirata recieved a two-year prison sentence for uploading a bootlegged (and self-fansubbed) copy of Wanted to a P2P network. Really? Wanted? Damn, son – if you’re going to give up two years of your life, at least do it for something worth watching. The Japan and Intl. Motion Picture Copyright Assn. (Jimca) brought a complaint to the [...]
I read this report over at AICN Anime last night, and after sleeping on it, I’m thinking Keanu Reeves might not be such a bad choice to headline Cowboy Bebop. As Scott Green points out, Keanu certainly has the look – and Spike Spiegel has about as much dialogue in Cowboy Bebop as Ein, the dog. I’ve always maintained that [...]
I used to say that I’d hate to be the guy in Heaven who got there because he stepped on a rake. I think I found a new low – the guy who was strangled by his foot-massager. Saitama-based Matoba Electric Manufacturing Co. said the three died when their clothing got caught in the rollers. The victims had removed the [...]
More shameless self-promotion. But hey…no one’s going to do it if I don’t, right? Right! My short story “The Dancing Teapot” is up on the new e-zine Silver Blade, which is devoted to fantasy fiction. Somehow my story was listed under ‘Fiction for Younger Readers’. Well, I didn’t write it for kids (since I hate kids and all) but there’s [...]
Just wanted to post this as a followup to our post about the situation at the Tsukiji fish market, and because the Japanese guy in the hat and glasses halfway through looks exactly like my dad. (Linkage from Japan Probe).
Just a quick note to acknowledge that – yes – I am a few days behind on posting the Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex Episode Guide. Like many of you, the holidays are wreaking havoc on my schedule so while I’m trying to get everything online as quick as I can, there will be some delays, at least [...]
This is what you get for being a criminal in Malaysia: ghost punishment. Held Captive by Ghost I wonder if the cops put him in jail, or if they figured he’d had enough? Those people who came home to find the guy in the house are better human beings than me. They called an ambulance; I would have hauled his [...]