If I were to make a list of things I can’t pull off but a Wonder Girl can, I’d top it off with dancing, followed by almost-fire engine red hair. Our beloved Sun Mi recently departed the US to attend to family business, only for pictures of her as a redhead to surface the Internet. More »

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Gianna Jun, actress formerly known as Jeon Ji Hyeon (My Sassy Girl), will be making her English debut in Blood: The Last Vampire. The film is set to release June 26 in the UK, followed by July in the US. With the success of Korea’s *answer to Twilight, “Thirst” at this year’s Cannes Film Festival and Twilight’s highly anticipated New Moon sequel, 2009 is quickly becoming the year of the vampire. Judging from the trailer, Blood: The Last Vampire’s is looking a lot like a Buffy/ Blade/Underworld-esque movie. In short Saya, the movie’s ferosh heroine is on a mission to kill…well you get it. Explosions, blood and cheesy lines happen somewhere in between. Czech out the trailer: More »

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Today is the last day of May. It’s also the last day to score points for our May EXP contest, which I see that some of you are frantically doing. For the month, first and second are pretty much locked up. 3rd place, not so much. It’ll be interesting to see who’ll eventually finish in that spot with half a day to go. More »

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Rising to the cream of the crop for pop girl groups, AfterSchool is deciding to add in a 7th member, as announced by Pledis Entertainment. Currently it is not known who this singer will be. Will After School become like Girls Generation and have 9, or like Morning Musume and have “graduation” periods where singers split off to do solo careers? We can’t be sure, but stay tuned and for now just enjoy the music. More »

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Tomorrow is Japan Day in New York City. If anyone is going, you just might find me there. I might be the only girl wearing a Ningin t-shirt. I dunno how yummy the food will be, but it should be fun to try! For now, here’s a list of tasty Japanese food to look at.

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It’s been a long time since I was that idealistic college freshman taking an Asian American history course. The first assignment in that class had us reading Strangers From a Different Shore by Ronald Takaki. I remember thinking how great it was that someone took the time to make a textbook on Asian American history. More »

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David posted an entry about Duanwu/Dragon Boat Festival earlier. I’d like to follow up with an entry about the history of the festival.

Duanwu Festival is believed to have originated in China. The holiday is observed by Chinese worldwide as well as Koreans (who, unlike the Chinese, treat it more like Valentine’s Day). While there are many folklore tales and stories that explain its observance, the most common one relates to the suicide of a Chinese poet and statesman of the Chu Kingdom in 278BC. His name was Qu Yuan. More »

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Like anyone claiming to be pop-savvy since the Spice Girls, I have become the biggest sucker for British girl groups. Even moreso when said girl groups include a Filipina member a la the Pussy Cat Dolls. The Sugababes had Mutya Buena, The Saturdays have Vanessa White. More »

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Yesterday was the 5th day of the 5th lunar calendar month aka the “Double Five” — Dragon Boat Festival Day! Here in the US, it’s more like the kickoff for the Dragon Boat season. Men and women that get out in the boat, roast in the hot sun, and paddle their azz’s off. Trust me, I’ve done it and it’s hard azz work. I spent a day out with the Shanghai Expat Dragon Boat crowd, came home exhausted and woke up Monday hurting. Respect to the Dragon Boaters! More »

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What did I tell you about Pixar? They didn’t disappoint again. The Up movie got 98% on Rottentomatoes!! Pixar must have like all the best movie makers and animators in the business working for them. More »

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This week it was reported that Teddy of 1TYM kindly rejected the offer to produce for radio smash artist Lady GaGa due to scheduling conflicts with 2ne1.

It’s also been reported that Son Dam Bi also rejected an offer to act in the film Hype Nation due to her own contract obligations. More »

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Not to sound like your favorite random E! special or anything, but I thought I’d expose the lesser known 2ne1 members from a time when they were small fries in the Kpop music world. Or while Sandara was busy gracing magazine covers as a celeb in the Philippines. After viewing these pre-fame Youtube videos of CL and Bom, I’ve concluded that YG does not mess around with picking (and packaging) their talent — the girls are legit: More »

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DEPARTURES won this year’s Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and America’s been waiting to see what the hype is all about… and that includes me! Originally titled OKURIBITO, the film also won 13 Japan Academy Awards. Well, I finally got to see it last nite at a special screening sponsored by Regent Releasing, the film’s distributor, and promoted by New York-Tokyo and Asian Cinevision. More »

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Today is a day for the cute and weird…though mostly cute. I think most people would agree with me when I say that anything panda equal cute automatically. Even this robot panda which is OMG SO CUTEEEE!!

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DramaFever.com, the K-dorama site for those in the know, has uploaded all remaining episodes for eight fantastic drama series — and now with less advertising for your viewing pleasure! DramaFever hosts 27 great titles with an average of one new drama series being added per week. Hot stuff! Here are the eight dramas now uploaded and streaming for free in their entirety: More »

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Apparently some dog in Japan can do more squats in 30 seconds than what I can do in a year.  I bet this bitch can do more squats than the other bitch who’s always screaming “Come on, You Can Do It!” at my gym. More »

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I know suicide is a hot-button issue here on Ningin and just about everywhere else. A few weeks ago we had the reported suicide of a former South Korean president. I don’t know if there’s trends in suicide or not, but yesterday the lead singer of the KPOP group Shines swallowed 40 sleeping pills. All I can say is, without trying to be judgmental, how can we expect teens and kids not to commit suicide if leaders and public figures keep doing it?

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Japan Day @ Central Park returns this year to New York City, Sunday, May 31. Among the entertainers will be Kollaboration 2009 winner Kenichi Ebina, Jpop singer-song writer Ai Kawashima, and Japan Gold Disc Award winners Orange Pekoe. The festivities will be held at the East Meadow of Central Park (Fifth Avenue and 97th Street). There’s lots of food and music — and it’s all free! Take my advice and go early else there won’t be any chow mein, gyoza, gyudon Over Rice, miso soup, and sanuki udon noodle left. (Yes, I have learned the hard way.) More »

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As promised we’ve got the video recap of the MAP THE SOUL New York City show! Epik High, Far East Movement, MYK, Kero One, Dumbfounded and Beatbox DG made a hot stop at Irving Plaza to kick off Memorial Day weekend. More »

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Magnolia Pictures‘ specialized genre distributer, Magnet Releasing, has acquired the rights to the epic, historical Chinese film The Warlords, which stars Jet Li, Andy Lau, and Takeshi Kaneshiro. More »

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