Plot/Synopsis In “North Korea Kidnapped My Daughter”, Sakie Yokota recollects the past thirty of her life without her daughter, Megumi who had abruptly disappeared while walking home from school on the streets of Niigata, Japan. Without any trace of her whereabouts, she and her family were left to fill an empty void.

Twenty five years later, Sakie and her family are told that Megumi had been kidnapped by North Korean spies. With the relief of an answer, Sakie is also filled with pain after realizing the situation in its entirety; she becomes fully aware of the difficult living circumstances in North Korea and that saving Megumi is beyond her reach. Regardless, she continues today in full effort and hope to bring her daughter, as well as other victims, back home to Japan. More »

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Ever wish you had a younger sister? Oh yea, me too. Now, imagine what her voice would sound like. Then, take that voice, and make it 100 times cuter, and you’re in the ballpark of the devastating instrument that Tamura Yukari posesses. Just like Kugimiya Rie is typically associated with the tsundere character, Yukarin is typically typecast as the imouto (younger sister) character. More »

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Following the rumor that the Chinese government had banned the Taiwanese film Cape No. 7 (海角七號; Hai Jiao Qihao) from being released on the mainland, comes new word that Cape No. 7 will indeed be released in China. According to the Taiwan-based English language newspaper China Times, Cape No. 7 will see a Valentine’s Day release in China.

Cape No. 7, the highest grossing Taiwanese film of all time, shot to the top of the Taiwanese box office this past summer. In short, the film tells an optimistic love story between a Taiwanese musician and a Japanese model/manager. At the same time, a love story, from 60 years prior, is told through letters. More »

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The second Monday of January is celebrated in Japan as “Seijin Shiki” or “Coming of Age Day” by young adults who have just turned 20 years old within the Japanese school year. Many are proud to take part as not only do they get to skip school but mark the date when they are no longer children. These new adults can now drive, vote, drink and smoke, hopefully not all at once. More »

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Happy Birthday to me! I woke up to a little feast that looked like a smaller version of the Christmas dinner I had a month ago. Galbi, kongnamul, spinach, hot dogs, sweet potato salad, and rice were given to me by my mother. Along with these food, I was also given a bowl of miyuk (seaweed/kelp of some type) soup — similar to the picture on the left.

To be honest, I’ll take some sinfully delicious chocolate cake over miyuk soup, but according to Korean traditions, I have to eat a bowl of that soup on my birthday to guarantee me good health and yadada for the entire year. Oh well. I can tolerate that once a year. But now I am anticipating my cake! Let them eat cake? You betcha I’ll eat them cakes!

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Hope you’re not all partied out from New Years because Lunar New Year is just around the corner (Jan. 26th). While I’m probably too old to receive money, I’ll never be too old to stuff my face for 3 days straight. What do you guys plan to do on the biggest Asian holiday of the year?

Anyways for those of you who have been sick like yours truly, here’s your wrap up: More »

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The 2008-2009 NBA season is just about halfway through – teams and players alike have seen their share of ups and downs; some players have stepped up to the challenge and others have disappeared into the bench. Still, others have been ravaged by injuries, and others have benefited from the extra available playing time. Joe Alexander, who I covered in the previous edition of NBAsian, is in the running for the dunk contest, but since he’s not actually Asian, that’s all I’m gonna say about him. At any rate, we continue our coverage of the three Chinese players in the National Basketball Association – Yao Ming, Yi Jianlian, and Sun Yue: More »

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Gomen ne, I never got around to listing the dramas I’m looking forward to this year (back in the EotY TV Show special), but I finally put together a list of the first-quarter dramas that have caught my eye. Here we go! More »

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With Wonder Girls taking a few-month-long break, this leaves new “rivals” Kara and Girls’ Generation vying for the spot as the top girl group in Kpop.

With the release of their latest mini-album Pretty Girl, Kara has been enjoying a lot more popularity. Unfortunately, it’s not enough. Girls’ Generation, on the other hand, has too much. Within only a few hours of the release of their latest single “Gee,” the song was #1 on countless Korean music charts and even managed to turn a lot of their anti’s into fans. More »

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Apparently, Nintendo is “recession-proof”, or so says this article. Even though South Korea is suffering from a pretty bad economic setback, people still want to have some fun in their life, which makes sense. And the DS and the Wii are great for casual gamers, which the article notes on how the gaming user-base has shifted here. Kudos to Nintendo for doing that, even if some their stuff is too cutesy/family-friendly and doesn’t appeal to me. I still love my DS, though!

Although I can’t help but wonder on how if the economy is pretty bad here, how can the South Koreans afford these extra stuff like games and other “frivolous” merchandises. If the poor economy affected me, I know I wouldn’t be spending my funds on materialistic items. But oh well. Whatever makes people happy.

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Hip Korea, a documentary about Korean tourism, is produced by the Discovery Channel and is really exciting.  The two-part documentary features super-celebs Rain (Jung Ji-Hoon) and Lee Byung-hun, as they trace throughout the most interesting destinations in Korea.  The terrific twosome was chosen because of both entertainers’ new found Hollywood hotness. Rain has the starring role in the May release Ninja Assassin, and Lee will play Shadowstorm in G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra. More »

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I was scheduled to speak with Kenichi Ebina at 1:00pm. Unfortunately, I failed to factor in the fact that we live on opposite coasts, making my phone call three hours late! What was I thinking? [clearly, not enough] Fortunately, Ebina is an understanding fellow and graciously spoke with me whilst he drove and made a pit stop at the drive-thru. More »

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So as it turns out, Asians are pretty good dancers. Thank you Jabbawockeez and Super Cr3w and all the other Asian crews from the first two seasons of America’s Best Dance Crew on MTV. You’ve completely dispelled a long, long time standing negative stereotype of Asians and you did it in basically one year. That’s the amazing thing to me. Not that other Asians on other tv shows didn’t have an impact. The combination of Jabba’s greatness and the shear reach of MTV provided a perfect opportunity. Funny, what happens when you categorically dismissed 3.5 billion people’s ability to do something.

Since ABDC has a special significance for Asian media, it has a special significance for Ningin. As you’ve noticed, we’ve expanded our coverage of ABDC with two bloggers writing recaps and commentaries. Ningin blogger, Tiffinie Lee will be covering the show live. They’ll be contests, at least two of them, cuz everyone loves free stuff. Of course, we’ll also have stills and videos of the Asian crews in the show. There’s other stuff we’re still trying to confirm, so just expect more than what I just listed. All of this is neatly presented in our special ABDC microsite which you should bookmark for the next 8 weeks!

Make sure to follow the progress of Beat Freaks, Boxcuttuhz, Quest, and Team Millennia with us! More »

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I’m always looking for music that has a real feel to it. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes I like listening to the type of music where you don’t know the lyrics and you just like the beat; you’re just having a good time dancing and singing along with it. But most of the time, I want the music to move my soul and grab a hold of my heart and make me feel passion – whether it’s from hate, love, or sorrow – running throughout my veins. One day, I came across a musician-producer by the name of Taiyo Na. I bought his album Love Is Growth, which I love. I decided to talk to him about it and about his career. More »

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Okay Vikings! The first one to eat all that kimchi in one minute will be the winner. On your march, get set –

. . . Sorry. Wrong competition. Seriously, reading “Vikings Win its First Kimchi Bowl Title” bought many strange images in my mind. First I was thinking of the Minnesota Vikings doing some mad kimchi eating contest. Then real Vikings from the ancient times popped into my head, and I’m wondering if they borrowed a bunch of sauerkrauts from ancient Deutschland. More »

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It feels like 6℉ here in NYC today, but my heart is feeling the warmth, since my favorite bitch of all bitches Bai Ling is back in the news. Yes, bitch was spotted making out with hatchetface Mickey Rourke at the Chateau Marmont in LA the other night. The two were going at it pretty hard, and our Asian ho probably gave fish jerky face here a solid hand job.

I was not planning to watch the Oscars this year, but now I will, since the degree of the red carpet freakshow-ness has been kicked up a notch with Bai Ling potentially making an appearance with her flavor of the month, the soon-to-be Best Actor nominee Mickey Rourke (for The Wrestler). I love this union! It takes a lot of courage to wake up next to Mickey every morning, but I have no doubt that our bitch can stomach it. She has seen worse.

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Seems that the flu is going around, since everyone and their mom is getting sick! I’m still recovering and hooked on Nyquil but no worries, I was able to pump out this blog post.

It seems to have been an eventful week with new MV’s released, some old stars making their comebacks, in addition to some parody love. I’m glad the week’s over.

As always, enjoy! More »

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What a premiere… In terms of diversity of dancing, this episode had it all, whether it was Latin dance, crumpin’, flexin’ or clogging. While it was refreshing to see new acts, most of them floundered. For those who succeeded in episode one, a solid foundation in hip hop and bboy was key. Stomp and Riverdance may have their places in the dance world, but as far as being America’s Best Dance Crew, few of these specialized dances translated into wide, mainstream appeal. More »

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What Seoul seriously needs is snow. It really doesn’t feel like winter in Seoul. Okay, yes, it gets cold, but still, it would be nice to have several inches of snow here and there that sticks! Maybe I should move to Gangwon-do in the winter. I know that region gets a lot of snow. Looking at Chosun Ilbo’s Picture of the Day makes me want it even more. More »

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Randy Jackson’s America’s Best Dance Crew premiered its third season tonight. Again, casting has brought out the most skilled and talented teams. In addition, we saw several different styles new to the show. Several groups stand out as fan favorites who raised the bar, while others have fallen flat. More »

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