tnppostwoman.com archives

May Choon Says: Hollywood, it is time to wake up and smell the green tea. Time to stop looking at Asian stars and assuming they all look alike.

Korean star Rain’s recent series of hiccups with the American and UK media who either confused him with another actor or mixed up his nationality had me thinking. Hollywood still had a long way to go in recognising Asian stars as equals to their Hollywood counterparts.

It’s not as if Hollywood doesn’t understand Asia’s potential. If anything it seems to be obsessed by it. Lionsgate and the Weinstein Co backed the Jet Li-Jackie Chan starrer, The Forbidden Kingdom. Universal Pictures will be releasing the US$160 million The Mummy sequel called The Mummy: The Tomb of the Dragon Emperor starring Jet Li, Brendan Fraser and Michelle Yeoh later this year.

And there is a US$30m film by Weinstein called Shanghai starring John Cusack, Chow Yun Fat, Ken Watanabe and Gong Li. Hollywood films like Iron Man and Street Kings were recently launched in Korea to test the Asian box-office market.

So what is Hollywood’s problem? At the moment, sheer ignorance for anything outside the LaLa land borders. Hopefully as more films are made in Asia with Asian directors and actors, that will change. And maybe next time they can easily identify Rain by his name and nationality.

Tell Us: Do you think Hollywood is ignorant of Asia? Will the Western movie industry ever take Asian entertainers seriously?

You can leave a comment here or e-mail us at tnpshow@sph.com.sg. Don’t forget to leave us your contact details: name, age, occupation and e-mail address or telephone number.

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LETTERS VIA E-MAIL

Hollywood is never going to take the Asian entertainment industry seriously. Period. They know money can be made in this region, they will exploit it, but we’ll never see the day an Asian actor headlines a mega blockbuster. The western media are run primarily by white men, who create content primarily with the white audience in mind. The ignorance will always be there. Why bother when your target audience are generally just as ignorant. As for the Asian market, they will most likely lap up anything thrown at them.

Many of the Asian countries are still suffering from the colonial syndrome and associate western products with being superior. It’s time to realise that content coming out of this region is just as good, if not superior. Afterall, the best directors, like Wong Kar Wai, Lee Ang and Zhang Yimou are from Asia. Is it any coincidence that last year’s Best Picture at the Academy Awards was a remake of an Asian film? Even then, a gross case of ignorance was displayed. They mentioned the Departure being a remake of a Japanese film and not a Hong Kong one.

It’s up to us to not be blinded by what we see and read in the western media and their perception of what is good. When we realise the quality that is coming out from our region, who needs Hollywood?

Keith Tan

I remember that Rain was introduced before this in United States in TRL show, (one of MTV shows).

I believed that westerners do have problems in recognizing Asian talents. Artistes such as Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Chow Yuen Fatt really worked their way up and I am proud of those guys. However, I am not too sure if the westerners could differentiate Japanese and Korean artistes. For all readers, I just would like to highlight here that in Asia, Korean artistes are really well known due to the exposures given but in western countries Japan artistes are more well known.

I do have friends who are in Netherlands, USA and France who actually are big fans of Japan artistes such as Arashi (whose member, Ninomiya Kazunari acted alongside with Ken Watanabe in Letters from Iwo Jima), Yamashita Tomohisa from NewS (who came out in I-Weekly), EXILE, Koda Kumi and of course no 1 Diva in Japan, Ayumi Hamasaki.

It is not that westerners do not want to recognize Asian artistes but we as Asians have yet to prove ourselves that we are proud of our Asian artistes. We should show the westerners that Asians are proud of our own local acts as well as the regions artistes.

I do believe that sooner or later westerners would realize that the Asian artistes are also equally talented as theirs.

Noor Azlin Hassan

Maychoon Says:On which planet does German dictator Adolf Hitler - you know, mustachioed mass murderer and mastermind of the Holocaust - symbolise anything revolutionary?

Apparently, it’s Korea. We know that because a controversial Korean skincare commercial by South Korean brand Coreana starring actress Park Jin Hee has caused a flap around the world. In it, she’s wearing a Nazi-inspired military uniform.

Sirens wail in the background, German voices fill the air, a bomb explodes and raucous cheers resound. Then comes this message: “Even Hitler didn’t have the East and West.”

No matter how “revolutionary” this lotion’s moisturising and calming effects supposedly are, Hitler and cosmetics just don’t go. Unless of course you are a fan of The Producers and believe that the man was really gay.

But seriously, what the hell were they thinking? Or maybe they weren’t.

This pro-Nazi concept sparked outrage among foreigners in Korea and beyond, leading irate officials from the Israeli Embassy in Seoul and the US-based Simon Wiesenthal Center, an international Jewish human rights organisation, to send letters of complaint to Coreana.

Eventually, good sense prevailed and the advertising campaign was withdrawn.

Oddly enough, the South Koreans themselves have remained apathetic and insensitive to the atrocities committed by the Nazis during World War II. Most of the mainstream media in South Korea didn’t even bother pursuing the story, nor did Jin Hee come out to make any statement.

However, you can bet your last won that they’ll be singing a different tune once anything Japan-friendly comes into the picture.

Tell Us: Do you think such ads cross the line of good taste? Are consumers getting more sensitive? Or should all things Nazi remain taboo?

You can leave a comment here or e-mail us at tnpshow@sph.com.sg . Don’t forget to leave us your contact details: name, age, occupation and e-mail address or telephone number.

May Choon Says: Taiwan’s Ella Chen did it. So did Japan’s Maki Horikita. Now, Korea’s Yoon Eun Hye has also jumped on the same cross-dressing wagon.

In the romantic serial Coffee Prince, which is now showing on local TV, Eun Hye chopped off her hair and flattened her chest to play a tomboyish girl who cross-dresses to work in an all-male cafe. But she ends up falling in love with her very hunky boss (Gong Yoo), and soon begins a romance filled with laughs and homosexual innuendoes.

To play the role convincingly, Eun Hye told reporters that she studied male behaviour and observed how they move, speak and behave. The result? A lovable and pretty “boy” whose cute smile and animated expressions drew a rating of more than 30 in Korea. Many girls even cut their hair and copied Eun Hye’s character’s tomboyish dressing.

Tell Us: Do you think Yoon Eun Hye is convincing as a guy? Or is she still too pretty to pull it off? Compared to Ella Chen and Maki Horikita, who is best at playing a guy?

You can leave a comment here or e-mail us at tnpshow@sph.com.sg. Don’t forget to leave us your contact details: name, age, occupation and e-mail address or telephone number.

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LETTERS VIA E-MAIL

Yoon Eun Hye does look like impish youngest brother and she also resembles a guy with pretty girl looks.

In ancient Chinese history ladies dress-up as guys like Meng Lu Chun who became briefly as premier in Yuan Dynasty or Han Dynasty’s Hua Mu Lan who eventually became a General by dressing up as a man so that her elderly dad need not fight in the war with Huns.

Both ladies look pretty guys that even their male colleagues and the guys they like think they are men too.

Chinese literature Butterfly Lovers or known as Liang San Puo and Zhu Ying Tai.Zhu Ying Tai dress up as guy to go for her studies and room-mate Liang San Puo also thinks she is pretty guy.

Pretty ladies do have the looks of men when they dress-up as male gender and Yoon Eun Hye is one of them that do have the looks of Pretty Impish Guy.

Chester Low

I think she is just being HERSELF, Ayu. She is not pushing herself too hard or being professiona. If you happened to watch a video in youtube, you can see why despites while she was having problesm with her ear, she still went on with her job. About more that 5 years ago, a television compnay approached her company and manager saying that thet want to interview her and a staff asked her why she wanted to be a singer/entertainer, her reply was simplesyet sad but it was an unforgettable answer as she was being truthful to not only herself but the staff; ” It is where i feel that i can be belong to”. A strong and bold statement.

All the lyrics that she had written are all by her own experiences or friends and family around who had share with her about it. She always bare her all in her lyrics. She just wanted to make an album that she could proudly said that ” this is who i am”. Her lyrics had also touched many people reardless of age and also cause people to listen to it because they feel that they can realate to the lyrics. Even in each of her every MV, she is always showing her true self without a mask. Listen to her voice too, you can hear how much her voice matured from her first album to her recent album. It become more powerful and daring. Showing the world that no matter what obstacles standing in her way, she can break through them and make sure that she will be successful in doing so yet without losing her inner and true self along the way.

I personally think she is one role model that any girl can look up to, judging from her family background and how journey to become one of Asia’s leading iconic artist in her own rights. It is not easy beiong totally deaf on the left ear and still being able to go this far. As an artist and singer, hearing is every important. Her courage and bravery is one thing that we should not over look regardless whether you are a fan or a passer-by.

I hope this comment will help in your article and hope that i am not too late in doing so. Good luck and hope this will be a successful article.

Amaya Moriko