Asia-Celebs.com - Hot celebrities of Japan, China, and Asia

Jackie Chan is recycling water

2009-02-08T00:12:06+08:00

I stumbled upon this article on the world wide web, on that corner where northwest Asian weekly has set up their web servers and this is what they store, written by Ninette Cheng.

If it’s yellow, let it mellow?
Finally, Jackie Chan offers some strange tips for saving the environment. While speaking at a Go Green initiative for Segway (the two-wheeled transporter) in Singapore, Chan talked about how much water is wasted from using the restroom each day. He said he urges the cast and crew on his film sets to flush the toilet once a day at the end of the day. Apparently, it’s his small contribution to saving the environment. Note to self: To conserve sense of smell, stay away from bathrooms on Jackie Chan’s movie sets.

I don't know what to say? Should I point out at the small button for the smaller flushing that most toilets in China have (at least in urban areas)?

I am no stranger to recycling water when it comes to toilets. While I lived with my female friend and her family in Shanghai, we always recycled the bathroom water.
Not that water is too expensive in Shanghai, nope, it is more about Chinese collective thinking. Imagine 1,4 billion Chinese flushing toilets, imagine 1,4 billion Chinese doing this and that....

A'right, before drawing any conclusions about our bathroom water recycling, before letting any images enter your mind. This is how it is done, the person who was the last one to have a bath or a shower in the evening, let the water stay in the bath tube. Then the following day this water in the bath tube mixed with amounts of soup and shampoo was scooped with a bowl to flush the toilet. No smells nor other disgust -factors. Hey, the toilet even got washed in the process.

This really is a good way to save water and energy. Now something else.

Can anyone who reads Korean provide asia-celebs.com with a translation please? My wild presumption goes something like this:

You have to be of the age of 21 or above to use these public toilets.
Being a peeping tom gives you bad karma.
Being a beeping tom with a peek-a-boo way of scaring the ladies away (as if they wouldn't get scared off anyway) gives you seriously bad karma.

Joshua,

signing off

for tonight...

Song Hye-kyo - Korean Actress & Model

2009-02-07T22:09:51+08:00

Song Hye-kyo, born November 22nd 1981, is a South Korean model and actress. While studying for an arts degree at Sejong University, Song Hye-kyo made her debut by winning the Grand Prize in model search in SunKyung Smart and starring in a Sunday morning drama called Happy Morning (KBS, 1996). She is currently signed to Eden 9 talent agency, but hasn't finished her arts degree. Well, it is nothing one would prioritize up to numero uno, right?

Song Hye-kyo debuted in the entertainment industry when she won the Grand Prize in SunKyung Smart, a school uniform company in 1996 when she was finishing her third year in junior high school. It was not long until she starred in her first drama, Happy Morning. Since then, she would continued to star in a string of various dramas and sitcoms but it wasn't until the KBS drama Autumn Fairy Tale in 2000 with Song Seung-hun and Won Bin that Song rose to fame throughout Asia. The show quickly became popular as it depicted a tragic love story between three people.

Song Hye-kyo's popularity continued to climb when she played a leading role in the poker drama All In, alongside Lee Byung-Hun. They say in Korea the drama was so popular that the title of the show itself entered into everyday Korean vocabulary.

Song Hye-kyo then played a supporting role in the drama Sunlight Pours Down, and later in the popular TV comedy series Full House, in which she co-starred with pop figure Rain. Full House became one of the highest rating drama during its year.

My Girl And I, which was critically panned by audience and critics alike. Song went on a 2-year hiatus afterward, returning to acting to star in her second film, the movie-version of Hwang Jin-i, which was released in South Korea on June 6, 2007, as the kisaeng Hwang Jin-i. Though promoted heavily, it fared poorly at the box office.

Song Hye-kyo is planning to release a video album, produced by StarM Planning entertainment company because she has been pursuing her dream of becoming a "hallyu queen" in Japan. However, while the shooting is already completed, the release date is still unconfirmed.

This work of art was uploaded to cgsociety.org forum in 2006.

Song Hye-kyo also became known in the computer graphics scene in 2006 when an Indonesian 3D artist Max Edwin Wahyudi created a photo-realistic 3D picture of her. Max briefly explains the process of making her 3D creation:

http://www.3dm3.com/forum/articles.php?action=viewarticle&artid=69

Now who would complete it altogether? what is left to do is the rendering of her lower body, and a skilled team of developers to program an Artificial Intelligence, and eventually a portal for virtual dimension to meet up with her, or alternatively a team of engineers in nano robotics.

Carina Lau - Hong Kong Actress and the Triads

2009-02-06T20:13:36+08:00

Carina Lau Kar-ling, born on the December 8th of 1965 in Suzhou, Jiangsu, China with family roots in Rongxian, Guangxi, is a Hong Kong actress. She was especially notable in the 1980s for her innocent-girl-next-door appeal.
Carina Lau emigrated to Hong Kong at the age of fifteen, and joined TVB acting classes.
She may have the-girl-next-door look, but her mob connections render her anything but innocent.

1990 abduction

In 1990, during the filming of Days of Being Wild, Carina Lau was abducted for several hours, and topless photos of her were taken. At the time, Reuters news agency, reported that Lau was kidnapped, though a police report was not filed. It was believed that the man behind the kidnapping is a show business entrepreneur with whom Lau was having a financial dispute. Leung has said that Lau never wanted to talk about what happened in those missing hours with anyone, including him.

As the ancient Chinese proverb goes, the truth will come out sooner or later, an in this case 18 years later.

In 2008, Carina Lau revealed that she was abducted by four men working for a triad boss, as "punishment" for having refused a film offer. She said that she had not been taken advantage of during her two-hour ordeal. Despite her claims, there has been video and photographic evidence of her being molested by one of the gang members during her abduction. Source say that she was not mention her encounter, for triads have been very active at that time. One of the reasons why Lau never wanted to talk about what happened, was because it was simply degrading and inhumane.

2002 East Week Magazine Photo Incident

In October 2002 naked pictures of Carina Lau were published in East Week magazine. Lau's kidnapping supposedly took place roughly 12 years earlier. The nude photos revealed the actress in distress. Massive protests and petitions were held by fellow Hong Kong entertainers, and media ethics by Hong Kong tabloids and gossip magazines were questioned. I, personally, wonder why? The Triad's presence in Hong Kong is not a small one. The magazine was shut down in November 2002, only to be resumed in late 2003. This incident certainly has the Triads written all over it. How can one be so naive? It's the way of the world, the way of the Triads, you can't just walk-away calling it quits. If you are to collaborate with them, rest assured, it is a life long commitment.

Further reading of Carina's career at IMDb

Sources divaasia and Wikipedia

Chinese American Actress Bai Ling - just a wannabe bi?

2009-02-06T18:46:58+08:00

Bai Ling shaking her arse with another ho - respectfully. Can anybody tell me who she is?

Bai Ling was born in Chengdu, People's Republic of China. Her family name, Bai, literally means white. Ling, a common Chinese given name, means clever. Her father, Bai Yuxiang was a musician in the People's Liberation Army, and later a music teacher. Her mother, Chen Binbin was a dancer, stage actress, and a literature teacher in Sichuan University.

Bai Ling has described herself as a very shy child who discovered self-expression through acting and performance art. She has said that acting allows one to ignore how society tells one to behave and allows other parts within oneself to be expressed. During the Chinese Cultural Revolution (1966–1976), Bai Ling learned how to perform by participating in Eight model plays her elementary school shows. After her graduation from middle school, she was sent to do labor work at Shuangliu, a suburb county of Chengdu, where the Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport is located.

Before long, she managed to pass the People's Liberation Army's exams, and became an "artist soldier" at Linzhi, Tibet. She also served shortly as an Army nurse. Three years later, she was discharged from the army, and joined People's Art Theater of Chengdu, and became a professional actress. Her performance as a young man in the stage play Yueqin and Little Tiger drew the attention of movie director Teng Wenji, which gained her her first movie role in On The Beach (1985), as a village girl who becomes a factory worker and struggles against her father's will for her to marry her cousin.

In later years, she appeared in several movies. She temporarily moved to New York in 1991 to attend New York University's film department as a visiting scholar, but later obtained a special visa that allowed her to remain in the United States until she became a citizen in 1999.

Bai Ling certainly has had an unusual raise to stardom, It makes one wonder why does she keep flashing her nipple to paparazzi's all over the place? Yes, I use the singular form of the word nipple, as it hasn't come to my attention that she's been shot on camera with both nipples on sight. If anyone knows better, please keep the comments coming.

I can't help but pondering if it's her way to compensate for her shy military teen years? It mustn't have been easy for her in the hugely male dominated people's Liberation Army. Just imagine the harsh environment of Tibet; over 5000 km above the sea level, the rugged mountain winds whispering to the PLA soldier's ears; "I don't know what you've been told, but I know Bai Ling's hot pussy is worth much more than gold!". Sorry, was that Frank Zappa on my mp3 player?

Whoever it was, don't be alarmed, PLA soldiers are heavily trained to resist temptation (and I am not being ironic).

Bai Ling is a controversial American-Chinese Actress, enough so that I'll write more posts on her, and no, not because she's a bi nor a semi-exhibitionist, that isn't controversial enough in my weblog, and sexual undertones don't qualify for controversy if you ask me, sex's way too over-rated and over advertised.

Still, there is something captivating about Bai Ling, she's like a spoiled, mischievous femme fatale diving into the camera flash lights while almost dancing on the red carpet, promoting her cleavage up to a point where other stars start to frown upon her behavior but she just can't be bothered to think what others may or may not think about her actions.

Check out her filmography on IMDb.

Read her ramblings and prose on her personal blog.

Chinese Film Censorship vs. Paul Verhoeven

2009-02-02T22:35:28+08:00

Dutch director, Paul Verhoeven's film, Black Book (2007), a World War II thriller, is to premiere in China tomorrow - February 3rd 2009.

This is the first time one of Verhoeven's films will appear on Chinese cinema screens although his name has been known to Chinese movie fans for decades and Black Book was released in western cinema nearly two year ago.

The Hollywood-based director established his cool-violent-and-sexy/sexist -style in both drama and science fiction films. After a long career as a film director in his native Netherlands, the Dutchman established a reputation in Hollywood with sci-fi hits RoboCop (1987), Starship Troopers (1997) and Hollow Man (2000). He initially became known in Hollywood for his controversial thriller Basic Instinct (1992) which also shot American actress Sharon Stone to stardom.

Paul Verhoeven returned to his European roots with Black Book in 2006. Based on true historical facts, it tells the story of a Jewish Dutch woman, who survived the holocaust and then infiltrated Nazi headquarters as a spy to exact revenge.

Black Book made nearly 100 million dollars across the globe, it's interesting that Verhoeven will shoot a sequel to the film. After all he didn't directed Hollow Man 2, nor any of the Starship Troopers nor Robocop sequels.

In Black Book 2, Verhoeven will focus on 30,000 Jewish refugees who escaped to Shanghai during World War II. A Chinese actress is expected to cast for the female lead role. crienglish.com doesn't reveal their source information, and IMDb doesn't list this film at all.

Would be interesting to know when and if they shoot on location in Shanghai so all Shanghai expat ( and native Shanghainese) film freaks know how and when to apply to be in the film as extras.

Jackie Chan's Top 10 Fight Scenes

2009-02-01T22:43:54+08:00

What is so special about Jackie Chan films and the fight scenes in them? Why is Jackie black-listed by nearly every insurance company?

Jackie Chan does his own stunts. The retakes of his stunt scenes are usually shown during the end credits of his films.

Jackie holds the Guinness World Record for "Most Stunts By A Living Actor", which emphasizes "no insurance company will underwrite Chan's productions, in which he performs all his own stunts". In addition, he holds an unrecognized record for the most number of takes for a single shot in a film, having shot over 2900 retakes for a complex scene involving a badminton game in Dragon Lord, directed by himself (1982). The end fight scene at a steel factory in the film, Drunken Master II (1994) directed by Chia-Liang Liu, took 4 months to shoot.

Jackie Chan came closest to death filming Armour of God (1987), directed by himself, when he fell from a tree and fractured his skull. Over the years, Jackie Chan has dislocated his pelvis, broken his fingers, toes, nose, both cheekbones, hips, sternum, neck, ankle and ribs.

You can read more about Jackie Chan and his upcoming film here and have a look at a Jackie Chan (web 1.0) injury map here. http://www.jackiechankids.com/files/Jackie_Injury_Map_Main.htm

Cape No. 7 avoids Chinese Censorship

2009-01-31T21:36:47+08:00

Cape No. 7 gets a green light for a Valentine's Day release in China from the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT).

Due to Cape No. 7's plot references to Japan's "colonialist foreign policy" from the era of World War II, it wasn't certain at all if the film would make it through the Chinese film censorship. The latest batman film, The Dark Knight, wasn't allowed a theater screening in China. I think the reason it ended up on their forbidden in China -list, is this:

The film represents a Hong Kong (=a real city) business man collaborating with the criminal underworld of Gotham (=a fictional city), which consequently represents China (=a real country) in a bad light.

I don't know what to think, when I imagine the local film censors tagging film plots for clearance or censorship in this kind of pattern, or western film censors comparing wild and naughty scenes with books based on developmental psychology.

Well I try and maintain an unbiased attitude, let's not forget that every country has its' own censorship laws, which is demonstrated by these two randomly picked examples, French media and sales of Nazi items and US Government vs. television networks in Jackson and the nipple hysteria.

Then again, the censorship of films in China isn't taken place too effectively as most people who want to see Cape No. 7 or The Dark Knight, can purchase a perfect digital copy from their local DVD vendor.

Photo by dbmboise (Flickr)

Yes, what they do isn't exactly legal, but I have to say some of the Blu-Ray/DVD street vendors really do come off as honest, hardworking and peaceful business people and - cats like in this rare photo, that displays the scene in some back alley of Shanghai.

I don't recommend the practice as no intellectual property laws are respected, but how to introduce them to a nation that seems to lack the whole concept altogether? To not come off as an anti sinophile, I should add that this applies to many, if not most, other Asian countries as well, and always remember:

A moving picture, movie, film, is a very dangerous drug, it fulfills one of mankind's most primitive desires - it changes fantasy into pseudo-reality. Why don't the world governments tag DVD and Blu-ray covers with such disclaimers? Similar information is found on most other consumer products.

Poster for Cape No. 7, directed by Te-Sheng Wei.

I'll sign off with a brief comment on Cape no. 7, the film is about music, love and laughs on a small village on the southern peak of Taiwan. Not the best of what Asian cinema has to offer, but well worth watching and if you're not a cynic, you might find it enjoyable, in a matine film way of appreciation type of thinking. You can read more about the role of Chie Takana in Cape No. 7 on one of my previous posts.

Rosa Kato - Japanese / Italian actress

2009-01-30T18:58:36+08:00

Rosa Kato - born June 22, 1985, in Naples, Italy - is an actress and TV commercial model. She was born to an Italian father and a Japanese mother, but they all moved to Japan when she was six years old. She spoke fluent Italian when still a child, but has forgotten the skill by time.

Rosa Kato appeared in numerous TV commercials before starting her acting career. She became popular after a TV commercial for Zexy because of her brown Italian eyes. Most of her TV advertisements and commercials are usually colorful and lively like this Glico ice cream commercial.

Video from video.filestube.com

Later in 2005, she started to appear in Japanese television dramas in supporting roles. A year later, she won the Best Newcomer Award for her performance in the Japanese television drama, Dance Drill from the most prominent entertainment magazine in Japan. Rosa Kato was then cast for a female lead role in a Japanese TV drama, Jotei (photo below).

Smile (2007) a Japanese film starring Rosa Kato, directed by Takanori Jinnai.

Source: Wikipedia

Japanese trailer for Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li

2009-01-30T01:48:21+08:00

New Japanese trailer for Street Fighter: Legend of Chun-Li, which will have its' US release on the 27th of February.

Street Fighter: Legend of Chun-Li, directed by Andrzej Bartkowiak, is a live-action feature film based on Capcom's video game. The film is focused on female fighter Chun Li and her quest for justice.

Omega and Zhang Ziyi's beach photos

2009-01-30T01:08:59+08:00

Chinese Actress Zhang Ziyi was signed up by Omega for their advertising campaign for 2009, alongside with Nicole Kidman, Georgy Clooney and Michael Phelps. It didn't take many weeks after when private beach photos of Zhang Ziyi appeared all over the Internet drawing a lot of attention.

In my opinion, the photos weren't really not much to write home about, nor to upload online for that matter. There's public nude beaches all over Scandinavia and many other European Regions, where these things take place all the time.

It seems that Kevin Rollenhagen, a top executive for Swatch Group's China operations takes the "incident" calm as well.

Mr. Rollenhagen points out to a similar incident which took place years ago with the Omega brand. Not long after signing American supermodel Cindy Crawford to represent the brand, she appeared on the cover of Playboy. While awkward at the time, it “never really made any long-term impact,” Mr. Rollenhagen states.

“Now are Chinese superstars held to a higher standard than Western ones? Maybe, but there’s no sign that this incident was inappropriate,” he said. “She’s a beautiful woman, on vacation with her boyfriend on a private beach. And some photographer climbed over a fence and took some photos that shouldn’t have been taken.”

You can read more about it here.

I don't know what else to say but any publicity is good publicity.