Today my role was Ningin’s third cameramen during our interview with the Apop superstar, BoA Kwon. I basically just walked around with a Flip video camera taking candid videos of BoA and her staff/entourage to possibly add a behind the scenes type angle if needed. We brought a pretty big crew in total, two photographers, three cameramen, one audio guy, and of course the interviewer, Jeannette Eng. Seeing how this was BoA, we brought in all seasoned professionals including Eddie Lebron, director of the Megaman Movie that we’ve been helping to promote.

I think we were the 5th or 6th interview of the day for BoA having already met with the likes of Seventeen Magazine, Nylon, and others mostly American media sites. By far we were the biggest production crew, though I thought this was standard for someone of BoA’s caliber. I don’t know how many chances I’ll get to spend time with BoA, so I made sure to get squeeze as much as content as I could with the multiple photographers and cameramen. More »

63 Comments

With BoA crossing over to America, it makes me think of other artists I would love to see cross over.

For example, I believe the Japanese band Exile has a lot of promise. Recently dubbed the Best Selling Artist from Japan at the 2008 World Music Awards, the group blends R&B and Techno to form their signature style. Some of my favorite songs are “Real World,” “ChooChoo Train,” “Song for You” and “Heart of Gold.”

Another artist I would enjoy is Japanese R&B duo Chemistry. As opposed to Exile’s upbeat hits, Chemistry is a purist of R&B. Being very talented, they have collaborated with various Korean artists like Lena Park, producing various chart topping singles. Of all of their music, their live album recorded at Suntory Hall in Japan is one of my favorites.

Also on my list is Korean boy band Dong Bang Shin Ki (DBSK/TVXQ). There is no denying that DBSK is marketable as they are talented. They’ve won various awards in both Korea and Japan and hopefully one day, in the U.S. I’m sure everyone will grow to love their ballad “O” as much as I have. More »

49 Comments

With BoA crossing over to America, it makes me think of other artists I would love to see cross over.

For example, I believe the Japanese band Exile has a lot of promise. Recently dubbed at the 2008 World Music Awards as the Best Selling Artist from Japan, the group blends R&B and Techno to form their signature style. Some of my favorite songs are Real World, ChooChoo Train, Song for You and Heart of Gold.

Another artist I would enjoy is Japanese R&B duo Chemistry. As opposed to Exile’s upbeat hits, Chemistry is a purist of R&B. Being very talented; they have collaborated with various Korean artists like Lena Park producing various chart topping singles. Of all their music, their live album recorded at Suntory Hall in Japan is one of my favorites.

Also on my list is Korean boy band Dong Bang Shin Ki (DBSK/TVXQ). There is no denying that DBSK is marketable as they are talented. They’ve won various awards in both Korea and Japan and hopefully one day the US. I’m sure everyone will grow to love their ballad O as much as I have. More »

49 Comments

The world over, in every village and street corner, millions of kids want to make it big in music. Every country has its own “pop machine,” but making the ultimate name (and royalties) for yourself invariably means success in the U.S. market. A few from Europe, Latin America, Africa, and Australia have crossed over, but why aren’t there more Asian stars on the U.S. charts?

They have the looks, the talent, the cutting-edge fashion and dance moves. In recent years, they’ve been coached by some of the same producers and talent-shapers behind big U.S. acts. So why are Americans not buying? People who know the music industry have a variety of theories. More »

24 Comments

Cape No. 7 (海角七號) is a Taiwanese comedic romance film written and directed by Wei Te-Sheng, his first full-length motion picture. The film is mainly in Mandarin Chinese but also contains significant lines in Taiwanese and Japanese. Before its commercial release, the film premiered world-wide on June 20, 2008 at the 2008 Taipei Film Festival as its opening film. The film later won 3 awards in this festival.

Prior to this film, the two leading actors Van Fan (范逸臣) and Chie Tanaka (田中千絵) only had minor acting experience while some of the supporting roles were filled by non-actors. Even without a strong promotional campaign, this movie has become so popular in Taiwan that on November 1, 2008 it became the 2nd top grossing film in the island’s cinematic history, behind Titanic. The film has been nominated for 9 awards in the 2008 Golden Horse Award and it is Taiwan’s entry to compete in the 81st Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film. More »

9 Comments

Apop princess BoA performed live in Times Square NYC this morning, where only a selected few were allowed inside. Even though I had arrived much later than most fans (some had arrived at 5AM), they allowed a second batch of fans to enter, including yours truly.

Getting inside the studio, I noticed there was a diverse group of fans - showing that BoA’s popularity has no limit. The pop princess performed hit singles “Girls on Top” and “Eat you Up,” where she was vocally on key and up to par with her dancing. I found this impressive as she had a broken wrist and admitted to being nervous.

There was only one retake of the entire performance, but it was due to the lack of crowd participation and a microphone issue. While waiting, BoA made jokes about the mic and had everyone laughing.

After the performance, she did a small Q&A, where I learned some interesting facts: More »

82 Comments

Having been around for almost a decade now, Boa has accomplished a lot in her young life. Not only was she discovered by chance at the age of 13, but she is the most well known Asian pop artist of our time. From her training days to her U.S. debut, the young artist continues to excel beyond limitations.

On that note, I’ve made a small timeline of her journey to fame. While it is a short timeline, I expect her to be around for much longer now that she has crossed over to the US.

Stay tuned to the rest of the week as fellow Ningin bloggers talk in more detail about her career. More »

22 Comments

Boa Kwon, easily one of Asia’s biggest pop stars, is crossing over to the United States. Even casual fans of Boa know that this is what she’s been groomed for since she was a little kid. However, preparation and talent can only go so far. There’s a lot of factors beyond Boa’s and her management’s control.

The number one reason why we started Ningin was for events such as this. Everyone here has a serious passion about Asian media and would love nothing more than to see Boa and every other Asian pop star succeed worldwide. When Boa’s management contacted us to help promote Boa’s US arrival, we were extremely thrilled to say the least. We understand that communities like Ningin have important roles to play in making changes and so we’re taking this very seriously.

See http://boa.ningin.com

Starting today for the next five days, we’ll be posting articles, photos, and DVD-quality video related to Boa. We created our own special flash video player (nicknamed the Boa Player) just to accomplish this feat. We’ll take a deep look into her history, her achievements, and her goals. We’re even going analytical and see why Asian pop stars have a hard time crossing over. As mentioned before, we have an exclusive video interview with Boa herself and we’ve put together a professional camera team to go film it. Oh, and all this content will be available to download and share under the Creative Commons license. So please download! More »

38 Comments

Couple of months ago, my Korean cousin from Suwon came up to Seoul with her boyfriend. They stopped by, left their car in our apartment parking lot, and went up to visit N Seoul Tower (or Seoul / Namsan Tower). After reading this article, I wonder if they went up there to declare their eternal love for one another . . . much like the article said how couples would bring locks, lock it, and throw the key away.

As much as I find this really corny and wasteful, this discovery is actually tempting me to go back up to the Seoul Tower. That temptation itself is quite shocking since I have sworn never to go back up there after a field trip that traumatised me. And I do live close to it. Heck, I’m only five minutes away, by car, from the base of the mountain, so one of these days, I may go up there to see such a thing. Make that a day when I’m really bored, have a friend who’s willing to go with me, and when we do go up there, we are taking the cable car. I refuse to walk up there, which stems back to that childhood trauma of the place.

Actually, you guys here at Ningin can motivate me to go up there. Although, I don’t know if going up that high during winter’s a good idea or not. XD

14 Comments

Jinra Ilustrisimo is your average 20-something based in Southern California. Although just average, she likes to experience life beyond the average in her forever on-going pursuit for new sights, sounds and tastes. Ilustrisimo is a walking contradiction in her love for both high and low brow culture. It’s common to spot her at an art gallery or local cafe participating in something seemingly pretentious, but don’t be surprised at the ease in which she’ll speak about the latest Britney album, Gossip Girl episode or Twilight book she’s reading.

Her past professional lives include time as a PR specialist for a boutique PR agency and event coordinator for the 2007 Newport Beach Film Festival’s Asian Spotlight event. Currently, she’s on a break to explore other professional life directions.

Add Jinra to friends Send Jinra a PM

30 Comments

It’s great to see so many enthusiast Megaman movie fans here on Ningin. We had way more entries than we expected and so it took us a bit to sort them out. I think next time we’ll do an automated form or something.

Without further ado here are the winners and their prizes:

Rawr – Megaman 9 video game for Wii Zeno – Megaman Movie DVD Joderb - DVD Tsanguan - DVD TKM – DVD

None of the winners were from the NYC area thus no movie premiere tickets were given out. More »

12 Comments

Presented by the Asian American Writers’ Workshop

Featuring David Henry Hwang and B.D. Wong in a special celebration of M. Butterfly

The Workshop presents a Lifetime Achievement Award to Tony Award-winning playwright David Henry Hwang to celebrate the 20th anniversary of his groundbreaking play M. Butterfly. We’ll reunite Mr. Hwang with Law & Order actor B.D. Wong in a special reading and conversation with Oskar Eustis, the Artistic Director of The Public Theater.

We will also honor Fiction award-winner Mohsin Hamidfor The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Nonfiction award-winner Vijay Prashad for The Darker Nations, and Poetry Award-winner Sun Yung Shin for Skirt Full of Black.

All guests will receive a free paperback of M. Butterfly, published by Plume. Purchase tickets online to the Monday, December 8, 2008 by clicking here.

5 Comments

Like many obedient Asian kids, I grew up learning an instrument - piano, in my case. I learned my scales, I did my dozen-a-days, learned a couple songs and eventually did a few recitals. But then, some time in middle school, I just stopped. It’s not that I didn’t like doing it, but there was just no passion. Playing piano was only mindless fun for me - the same as playing soccer during summers, the same as drinking ramune at the night markets - fun to do and fun to reminisce about, but I wouldn’t miss it. Still, a strange yearning egged at me whenever I passed by a piano store at the mall, or heard piano music being played while taking a piss at the local fancy restaurant (hey, details matter). Or whenever I was in Taiwan and it was trash day - those damn trash trucks always blast a butchered midi version of Fur Elise to let the aunties know they’re coming, kind of like how the neighborhood kids start jumping around like rabid snowmen when the ice cream truck rolls around. More »

29 Comments

During the days of November 18-21 my school, Fayetteville State University, held the event “China On The Screen” A Chinese Movie Week. We were shown four films: Shanghai Dream, Still Life, The Drifter, and The World in the language lab in our univesity. I attended all screenings and enjoyed the movies. My favorite was Shanghai Dream. The organizers of the film week were FSU faculty and staff. They included my Chinese language professor, Dr. Hongbing Zhang, Dr. Yali Li, Director of our Language Lab, and Yikang Bai who assists Dr. Li in the lab and teaches Chinese language. Dr. Li worked very hard to ensure that the films shown ran smoothly and she was a wonderful hostess during Chinese Movie Week. I spoke with Dr. Zhang a little about the background of China On the Screen. More »

8 Comments

Okay not really but everyone was shocked to hear at E3 2008 that Square Enix will be taking FFXIII to multi-platform except for in Japan.

Some are pretty pissed that SE is pulling a 360 since they bought the PS3 specifically for FFXIII; however, Corporate Director Shinji Hashimoto doesn’t see it that way. Of course he wasn’t the one spending $300 to buy one.

I’d rather they not think of this as a “betrayal” or disappointment. It’s not like we’re canceling or delaying the PS3 version at all! It’s more of an added bonus for 360 fans. We won’t be putting them at a disadvantage in any way.

In the end, all FF lovers will give in and play the game but Sony lovers (like myself) are a bit disappointed with SE’s decision. We were all expecting FF to save Sony.

Source: Kotaku More »

29 Comments

This article is what led me to discover this new Amerasian (1/2 Korean and 1/2 Caucasian I assume) singer. Born Priscilla Natalie Hartranft, she decided to change her last name to her Korean mother’s native name to reflect her Asian heritage. Born in Georgia and after a stint in Korea, she grew up in Pennsylvania. After high school, she was encouraged to expand her musical skills, so she went to Los Angeles, California.

She independently made an album, Priscilla Ahn, and Blue Note Records discovered her talents and took her in to their company. Her next album, A Good Day was released earlier this year, along with her first single, “Dream”. That song’s received more attention when it was used for season four finale of Grey’s Anatomy.

Amazingly, enough, she will actually be on a tour in Seoul, at Hongik University (Hongdae) on December 4, 2008. I actually took the time to listen to a few of her songs and discovered that I like her style. She’s like Norah Jones on the guitar, but better. I like her voice. It’s really pretty. It’s a darn shame that I can’t go to the performance, though. Something called work is my first priority. More »

8 Comments