Asian Beauty Appreciation

Imagine this: After a long, tiring day at the office, you’re ready to go out for a couple of tall, cold, Kirin Beers with a few of your mates at work. However – they decline. Just then your wife calls. Can you come home right away? We have a problem. It’s serious. When you ask her is everyone okay, she says, Just come home right away. It’s very serious….

When you finally get home, all the lights are out. Tadaima! (I ‘m home!), you say but there’s no answer. When you turn on a lamp – your wife jumps out and says turn it off. You’re dumbstruck – you have no idea. What’s wrong?

She directs you to get a flashlight, and to take a look out in the courtyard. And it is out there, in your own courtyard, which is your enclosed back yard – a young girl lies dead in your back yard. Hello…!

Not quite the Okari (Welcome home) response you expected. This is how the latest entry from the producers of Shinzanmono which I reviewed last year here, begins. This time, the series has returned to the broadcast medium in the form of a 2 hour Special Movie. The title is Red Finger.

Hiroshi Abe returns as Detective Kyouchiro Kaga

Detective Kyoichiro Kaga, portrayed once again by the wonderful Hiroshi Abe, returns to TV. This SP is a prequel to the series and takes place two years earlier. Kaga is still a great detective. And the beautiful Meisa Kuroki is once again on hand as a local reporter Aoyama.

Meisa Kuroki as Ami Aoyama

As the DVD cover tells us – when Maehara returned home to find a corpse on his property, this average salary-man and his family, were looking at just the beginning of a tragic chain of events.

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Akari (Aki) Dojima, played by Yukie Nakama, is an illustrator, and the third daughter of Chairman Dojima, the head of a construction company. During her childhood, she had an accident which left her crippled and forced her to spend her life in a motorized wheelchair.

The sudden suicide of Akari’s father sets off a chain of events. Members of Dojima family gather and their servants are killed one after another and an investigation begins. After that, the body of their driver (Kitaro), who had hung himself, is found in the garage.

So there’s your set-up for the March 2011 release Gaze (aka Mesen) taken directly from the DVD box cover. I decided to watch this one because I’ve been a fan of Yukie Nakama for a long time.  She’s the cover girl , and the lead actress, but this is far from a glamorous role for her.

In fact even though we get a brief peek at her in a hot-springs (onsen) this made for TV movie is definitely short on glamor. This is not to say that the female actresses are unattractive. No, with certainty I can state that all of the three daughters are quite nice looking, as is the girl friend of one of the sons. She’s played by Misa Uehara. While I’m at it – let’s not forget the family housekeeper either.

Misa Uehara as the girl friend who is marrying into this family

The head of housekeeping

The eldest sister

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A shirtless man is dragged into someplace by a few masked men. He is definitely there not by his own choice. He’s roughly handled. He’s being dragged by his arms and his legs have been tied together during this transit – secured against movement There’s a hefty piece of tape over his mouth. But his eyes are able to see. He’s brought to a bed-frame and laid on his back and secured with his arms and legs taped down.

A sheet of glass is placed on his chest. We can see the terror on his face.

Another masked man approaches. He carries a baseball bat. Without a word, he swings the bat with all his might bringing it down on this bound man. Again and again. The camera pulls back and we see that this event is being watched by a group of about 15-20 people, mostly men with a few women. We only see them briefly. The bat repeats its deadly journey again and again.

This is the first couple of minutes and how the Japanese TV Special, Strawberry Night opens. We have just witnessed an execution, an execution clearly not sanctioned by the state.

This special aired last fall on November 13th, 2010 and a series will begin in January  2012. The star is the beautiful Yuko Takeuchi. I think she’s irresistible. In this show, and coming series, Yuko plays Inspector Reiko Himekawa who is the only female section chief in the Tenth Homicide Section of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department’s First Investigative Division.

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There is a word (or words) in Chinese that means ‘old sames’. That word is laotong. As understood, it is used to describe a relationship between two women that would be similar to close and strong friends, would last longer than sisters, and be even more intimate than marriage, but yet would not involve sex. In short, a laotong would be an emotional match that would last a lifetime.

In 2005, Lisa See wrote a novel called Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. This book would become a best seller. In the book, a character describes a laotong thusly: A laotong relationship is made by choice for the purpose of emotional companionship and eternal fidelity. The book opens with the following sentence:

I am what they call in our village “one who has not yet died.”

The speaker of these words is an 80 year old widow. She’s outlived her husband, and her future is limited. So she spends much of her remaining time looking at her past, filtered by memories that are hers alone, or those memories shared with her laotong.

From those 14 words, the story of a specific laotong would be told. The novel is more than 250 pages long, and in 2011, this story will be released as a motion picture. The director is Wayne Wang, who also directed the film version of the Amy Tang novel – The Joy Luck Club.

The film stars Li Bingbing, Gianna Jun, Vivian Wu, and Hugh Jackman. Filming began in China in early 2010. The North American film rights have been acquired by Fox Searchlight Films, and the planned release date in the US is July 15th.

The storyline as described by Fox Searchlight films:

In 19th-century China, seven year old girls Snow Flower and Lily are matched as laotong – or “old sames” – bound together for eternity. Isolated by their families, they furtively communicate by taking turns writing in a secret language, nu shu, between the folds of a white silk fan. In a parallel story in present day Shanghai, the laotong’s descendants, Nina and Sophia, struggle to maintain the intimacy of their own childhood friendship in the face of demanding careers, complicated love lives, and a relentlessly evolving Shanghai. Drawing on the lessons of the past, the two modern women must understand the story of their ancestral connection, hidden from them in the folds of the antique white silk fan, or risk losing one another forever.

From the looks of the trailer, this film will be very special. I have every intention of seeing it and enjoying it.

“Our destinies are tied forever. We will be laotong – sisters for 10,000 years.”

Though this film was produced in China, it is an English language film. Originally Zhang Ziyi was to star in the lead role, but a scheduling conflict caused her to back out.

Stool Pigeon is a 2010 release from noted Hong Kong film director Dante Lam. Lam’s milieu is gritty cops and gangster dramas with plenty of bloody action usually in the form of car chases, heists, knives and gun battles, and he always adds the usual pretty girl or two to the cast. This film, which some have dubbed Beast Stalker 2, mostly because Lam has brought back his two lead actors from the original Beast Stalker in 2008 – Nick Cheung and Nicolas Tse – has all of the above.

Beast Stalker, which I reviewed here had Nick C as a crazed, half blind, contract killer and Nic T as the good cop. In this one, Stool Pigeon, it is Nick Cheung who is the cop. His duty is to recruit low level criminals or just released from jail cons and make them turn against their former cronies – in other words: become paid informants or stool pigeons.

One such ex-con is Ghost Jr., played by Nicolas Tse. He doesn’t trust the cops, and why should he? But his father died and left a massive debt of nearly a million Hong Kong dollars. With no around to pay them off, the loan sharks have pimped out Ghost’s sister, figuring if they prostitute her, the debt could be settled over time.

But Inspector Don Lee (Nick Cheung) knows this and uses it to leverage Ghost into becoming a stoolie. They want to get him into a gang of jewel thieves run by Barbarian and Tai Ping. They arrested Barbarian twice before but were not able to convict him either time. So the police higher ups want Barbarian badly, and so they turn up the heat on Inspector Lee.

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Ex is a film written and directed by a 27 year old Hong Kong woman named Heiward Mak. Despite her youth, this isn’t even her first directorial effort. Released in early June 2010, the film marked the return to the big screen in a starring role for Gillian Chung who had been tarnished by the Edison Chen photo scandal.

Ex is a relationship drama about a group of twenty-somethings in Hong Kong. Though shot in Hong Kong, and with a Hong Kong cast – the only locations I recognized were the highway and bridge leading to the Hong Kong airport, and the airport itself.

Chung as Zhou Yi, has given up her apartment and resigned her job to travel with her boyfriend Woody (Lawrence Chou). Only at the airport, while waiting for their flight, she has a fight with this boyfriend, and they break up. Witnessing this argument because they happened to be seated at the very next table are Ping, played by William Chan, and his girlfriend Cee, played by Michelle Wai.

It was kind of a forced, or staged coincidence, because Ping is Zhou Yi’s ex-boyfriend, and a device or gimmick was needed to have them in the same place. On top of that, Zhou’s passport and luggage have gone missing. So Cee agrees to put up Zhou Yi at their apartment for a few days until suitable arrangements can be made.

Do you see the possibilities of a love triangle looming? Though we are set up for it, Director Mak doesn’t take us down that path exactly. Instead of future complications – most of the film is from Zhou’s Yi’s perspective and it involves a good many flash backs to when she and Ping were a couple as well as some of her other relationships.

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As The Quiet American begins we hear these words spoken by Michael Caine as Thomas Fowler:

I can’t say what made me fall in love with Vietnam – that a woman’s voice can drug you; that everything is so intense. The colors, the taste, even the rain. Nothing like the filthy rain in London. They say whatever you’re looking for, you will find here. They say you come to Vietnam and you understand a lot in a few minutes, but the rest takes a lifetime.

As you watch this 2002 film, which is set in Vietnam, circa 1952, a series of thoughts and ideas will percolate in your mind. The film stars Michael Caine, Brendan Fraser, and Vietnamese beauty, Do Thi Hai Yen. There’s not much of a mystery about what will happen with these three people. Their roles look self-evident.

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I did a piece about Japanese actress Kyoko Hasegawa back in August of 2009. That’s when I became aware of the film Rain Fall. This is a political conspiracy and a thriller combined, and the setting is in Tokyo. Kippei Shiina stars in the role of John Rain, an America with a Japanese father. He’s an ex-CIA covert operative, a trainer of US Navy Seals, and an assassin. In short, he’s one bad dude that you won’t want to mess with.

Gary Oldman stars as the head of the CIA’s Tokyo office. He chews up the scenery in an over-the-top performance. Oldman’s character, William Holtzer, is mostly office-bound where he commands his men from a state-of-the-electronic-arts war room. When he’s not barking orders like ‘Take the shot, TAKE THE  SHOT!, he’s cussing up a storm or bemoaning (Jesus Christ!) yet another missed opportunity.

The gorgeous Kyoko Hasegawa is on hand portraying the daughter of a Japanese whistle-blower. It will be Rain’s job to protect her.

Also on hand are a few Japanese police detectives, and the Yakuza. The detective is a wise and savvy veteran who gets a good handle on the case, but he can’t prove squat. The Yakuza are a shadowy presence. We will see the head guy a few times, but will meet some of his street soldiers on more than a few occasions.

The film was written and directed by Max Mannix. This was just his second time at directing a film. Names with two X’s are pretty rare; Xerxes, anyone?

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The Japanese Fall TV Drama Season was in full swing last month, and is now winding down at this time of the year. The Winter Season will soon begin. There are a number of shows currently being broadcast, or just recently concluded shows that featured some of Japan’s best actresses, former gravure idols, and women that are just beautiful. I’ll give you a few images from many of these shows with a small plot synopsis for each.

Face-Maker began on October 7th. It the story of Kirishima played by Masaru Nagai, , a skilled plastic surgeon. Before returning home to Japan, Kirishima was affiliated with the US Federal Witness Protection Program. Kirishima’s nickname is Face Maker. His practice helps those in need of an identity change as well as a need to look completely different. This doctor doesn’t work for cash. His payment for these surgeries is that he gets to keep someone’s previous face.

One such patient is the beautiful former gravure idol, Hiroko Sato, who has a featured double role in Episode Three. She first appears as one of the ‘before’ patients – Emiko Masubuchi.

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Five people, all twenty-somethings, are active in the workplace as well as members of the digital world. Somehow, via Twitter, or some other social network which they’ve used to communicate, they ultimately agree to meet. This is how the 11 week Japanese TV series called Sunao ni Narenakute begins. I’m not sure what the title actually means – but the tag-line of the series is -  It’s hard to say I love you, and that is a pretty good description about what will follow.

Basically, over the life of the series, which ran this year from mid-April through June 24th, we will learn some in depth info about the five lead characters. We watch as they struggle with their problems like: their aversion to commitments, their lack of confidence, their unwillingness to either express the truth or to face it.

If that sounds kind of grim and disturbing to you, you can rest assured that the series is not completely or only about bumps in the road, it only seems that way. The cast is youthful, attractive, and their problems/issues are not too remote for most of us to identify with or relate to. As they’ve agreed to meet for the first time in the opening Episode, I’ll give you a little thumbnail sketch about each of them to help you decide if you’d like to watch this series.

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