Real Clothes was a Japanese TV Drama series that played last fall. Starting on October 13th, its last episode aired on December 22nd, a few days before Christmas, and just a little more than two months ago. The DVD will be released in the middle of next week on March 3rd. Simply described, the story has everything you ever wanted to know about high fashion, or to be more exact – it is about selling high fashion which is really the selling of dreams. If they had a tag-line, it might have been, To be your best, you have to look your best.
Karina has the lead role and is just one of many Japanese beauties lighting up the screen in this 11 episode series. She does a superb job as Kinue Amano, a girl who was doing quite well selling bedding in the fictional top of the market Echizenya Department Store in Tokyo. Then one day she finds she’s been transferred to the Women’s Clothing Department.
Karina as Kinue Amano, looking like a plain Jane in Episode 1. This scene is in Paris where the series begins.
Speaking of Asians and the Olympics, should pole dancing become an Olympic sport? If it means that I would be able to check out Mai Sato, the current world champion in her sport on national television, absolutely.
There’s video of her in action after the break, but I don’t know why anyone would be against making pole dancing an official event. Who wouldn’t want to watch women work the pole? Plus, think about the ratings the sport would get if it is televised nationally and internationally. If figure skating and curling can draw millions of viewers worldwide, so could pole dancing. Hopefully, it makes it in someday.
If you are a snowboarder at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, beware of Asian chicks trying to polish your medal.
Scotty Lago, who won the bronze medal in Halfpipe on February 17th, volunteed to leave the Olympics after the photo on the right was taken and started making its rounds on the internet.
I can’t be too upset about this because he is a snowboarder. The problem that I have is why even have snowboarding at the Olympics if you are going to send someone home because of a photo such as this. Just tell snowboarders to not have any fun whatsoever while they are at the Olympics. Cut Scotty a break.
Dance Subaru is not an animated cartoon about dancing Japanese cars. It is a 2009 film about one girl’s climb into the world of ballet; a place where deception, lies, back-stabbing, and using people to get ahead are considered the norm.
Subaru Miyamoto is played by the beautiful and talented Meisa Kuroki. As is usually done in the movies – to achieve success one has to have previously suffered. Subaru and her twin brother Kazuma are introduced to ballet at an early age by their Mom who soon passes away because of a cancerous brain tumor. But not before ballet had taken hold in the children.
The kids loved ballet and shared a dream about becoming ballet dancers. They could be seen in the street practicing some classical dance movements from Swan Lake. However their conservative father discouraged them, But again, death intervenes. Kazuma dies at the age of 10 from a brain tumor, just like his Mother. Read more…
Painted Skin (Wa Pei) is a fantasy tale based off the classical Chinese novel of Liaozhai Zhiyi (Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio) and is directed by Gordan Chan. It starts out with general Wang Sheng (Kun Chen) and his army invading and inevitably demolishing a bandit outpost in the middle of the desert. The action choreography is too pretty and perfect as only the bandits take a beating, leaving the army unscathed. The battle includes decent wire work as the general and his legion jump up walls and on top of buildings.
As general Wang Sheng fights his way through, he comes upon a graceful and stunning beauty (Xun Zhou) amid the dirty bandits. She lies barely covered by an animal pelt next to a murdered man and as the general makes his appearance, she is noticeably intrigued by him. He carries her to safety and as his army make their way back, a lone lizard looks on almost as an omen as the titles come up.
At the army’s return to their city, Wang Sheng’s wife Chen Peirong (Wei Zhao) appears and is instantly and understandably wary of the young looking Xiaowei’s proximity to her husband. This early sense of danger leads her to future revelations regarding the newly rescued damsel.
Just when I thought that Nonami Takizawa’s acting career was on hold….
or maybe I should amend that statement: Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water…
But that was the tag-line for Jaws 2 released all the way back on June 16th, 1978, just in time for the summer beach season (kids off from school and all that). Apparently that scary great white shark dreamt up by Peter Benchley for his novel Jaws more than 35 years ago is still attracting movie makers.
Which brings us to Jaws in Japan, a 2009 film that apparently went straight to DVD. And that brings us back to Nonami Takizawa who gets the star billing in this movie. I can’t say if this film was a success or not but the film makers attempted a cross-over between gravure and gore.
What little I’ve been able to find out about this movie is that four girls journey to a southern Japanese island to re-live some memories from their college days. There’s some problems with the lodging at a local inn, and there’s some nefarious bad guys in the area. There’s also that monster swimming around in the sea waiting for some bikini-clad beauties to munch on. Read more…
Water Boys began as a Japanese movie back in 2001. It was the story of some geeky male students who joined a synchro team. That’s a short way of saying synchronized swimming. It proved so popular in Japan that it was packaged and delivered as a TV series which ran for two seasons in 2003 and 2004. Finally, a TV Summer Special was aired in 2005. It was broadcast over two nights each with each segment running about 90 minutes.
Admittedly, synchronized swimming is still in the Summer Olympics but aside from that you don’t hear much about it these days. It is sort of like ballet and swimming combined. Meaning that I could have a look at it with girls doing the swimming, but watching guys do this – I think not.
At least not for me. But I can see how Japanese girls might like watching a wholesome story that showed off a lot of guys in brief racing swimsuits.
So why I am doing an article about this? Well, I learned that buxom gravure idol Nonami Takizawa had a speaking role in this TV Special with appearances on both nights. Read more…
After coming across the above video, I figured it was a good time for the readers here to become reacquainted with Mai Nishida who is a luscious Japanese beauty. And what better way to become reacquainted with her than by starting this post off with a video of her taking a shower.
Dance Subaru is not an animated cartoon about dancing Japanese cars. It is a 2009 film about one girl’s climb into the world of ballet; a place where deception, lies, back-stabbing, and using people to get ahead are considered the norm.
Painted Skin (Wa Pei) is a fantasy tale based off the classical Chinese novel of Liaozhai Zhiyi (Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio) and is directed by Gordan Chan. It starts out with general Wang Sheng (
Just when I thought that Nonami Takizawa’s acting career was on hold….
Water Boys began as a Japanese movie back in 2001. It was the story of some geeky male students who joined a synchro team. That’s a short way of saying synchronized swimming. It proved so popular in Japan that it was packaged and delivered as a TV series which ran for two seasons in 2003 and 2004. Finally, a TV Summer Special was aired in 2005. It was broadcast over two nights each with each segment running about 90 minutes.