Last Thursday, I was invited to attend the launch party for DramaFever, a new online video start-up focusing on fully licensed Asian dramas.  In their own words:

DramaFever will be starting off with over 50 Korean Dramas, adding Chinese and Japanese dramas later in 2009. All our videos are legally licensed, subtitled and streaming in high def. Viewers can watch for free with a few ads per episode. Later on we plan to offer an ad-free subscription model.

I sat down and talked with Seung Bak and Suk Park of DramaFever, as they elaborated some more on the site. You can read more, after the jump.

Brian: What initiated the development of DramaFever?

Suk: We noticed that a lot of people in were watching Asian programs, particularly Korean dramas, through illegal channels.  So we wanted to legally license the content and create a unique experience without any copyright infringement issues.

Seung: And just to chime in on that, there’s clear evidence that there is a demand for this content here in the US but there’s no destination site where you could go, without the hassle and everything comes out.   There’s quite a bit of ‘drama’ fans in this country… but the options that they have are illegal sites where for the most part, the experience is pretty horrendous.  We looked at it like, “Why don’t we create a place where we provide the infrastructure [for video programming] that is easy, high quality and enjoyable to the end user.”

Suk: We’re starting with the Korean dramas because of the immense popularity they have.  Our plans for expansion go beyond the dramas, and into movies and music.

Brian: How important is it for DramaFever to expand its user base beyond Asian Americans?

Seung: It’s interesting you say that because at the onset, we thought that would be a huge challenge.  We thought our users would primarily be Koreans, some Chinese perhaps.  However, we created a survey with our beta user base, and we were shocked by how diverse our viewers were!  It’s about 45% non-Asian, in fact our Korean dramas we have more Blacks and Hispanics, as a group, than Korean [viewers].

Suk: One thing we noticed is that we have a large female demographic.  So we plan on focusing on bringing in more guys.

Brian: How broad will the content be?  Any plans for comedies?  Sports?

Seung: It’s all in the plan!

Suk: Coming soon will be music, movies, everything… [Live] Sports is a little challenging, but we’ll see!

For more on DramaFever, visit their site.

Apparently Otaku can take many forms.  One guy in particular, named Nisan, 37, has fallen in love with an anime character… on his pillow.

What if they got into a lovers’ quarrel?  That’d be one helluva pillow fight.  I would NOT want to see this guy consummate his relationship.  (”Hey, is that drool on your pillow?”  “…That’s not drool…”  “Aaaaaghhh!!”)

C’mon, buddy.  Get a sock like everybody else.

More pics at the Dragonball: The Movie blog. (Extra emphasis on the douche-chill-inducing Chow Yun Fat picture…)

This just in: the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics The Movie has been announced!  They’re going to cast the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics as the film’s star.

Jumbo-tron! Respeck!

I’ve been away from the NY area and was shocked to see just how much change a year’s worth made.  Yes, we got a Pinkberry opened up (and the obligatory Red Mango just half a block down), and across the street is a four story Old Navy (FOUR whole floors of shitty clothing!).  But now we got a jumbo-tron!!!  So take that all you other Chinatowns!

Flushing gets a bad rap for being overly congested, have rude pushy people, and a “distinct” odor that is par for the course when you have open fish markets.  But to me, that all adds to her charm.  These characteristics are commonly associated with urban new immigrant East Asian communities.  But if it weren’t for them, Flushing would still be a shithole like it was before all the Chinese got there.  (And now I soap-box: I hate hearing some of these jerk off Asians thumb their noses at Flushing, like they’re somehow too good for it, then when they need to eat some decent Chinese food or get their cars fixed or pick up some accessories, they go back to the very place they trashed.  Get the fuck outta here…)

So this summer, go check out a Mets game or go see some US Open Tennis.  Afterwards, stop by Main Street and smell the fish; it’s embedded in the sidewalk.

(see @ approx. 1:30-2:10)

You can’t take a comedian’s material literally; that defeats the purpose of the entire art form (Yes, it’s actually an art form.  We’re not assholes who wake up one day and say, “I’m just going to talk in front of strangers.”)  A comedian’s bits, stories and jokes are based on truth but it’s being reflected through a fun-house mirror; it’s perverted, distorted, digested and shat out for your listening approval; the cheesecake of truth we eat at noon becomes the feces of humor by sundown.  The end might bear only a faint resemblance to its beginning because the filtering process has taken its liberties.  Does Esther Ku really think Asian guys aren’t worthy of Asian women?  C’mon… use your fucking brain.  She’s making commentary.

Being a comedian of sorts, I don’t like to judge another person’s material — it’s sort of an unspoken rule — but I will say this:  I hear Black and Hispanic comedians do it ALL THE TIME.  No one (White comedians) says shit.  Turn on BET’s Comic View and tell me 90% of the material isn’t self conscious racial humor.  But, hey now! The comedy police suddenly shuts the fuck up and hide behind their mommy’s skirts.  Why don’t they criticize the Black comedians?  I guess that’d be racist.

I’m not saying Esther Ku is the second coming. I’m saying if that’s her material, then that’s her material.  Laugh or don’t.  I do pedophile, rape, bestiality, incest, and midget-donkey-orgy jokes.  It’s not for everyone and I apologize to no one.  But if you’re going to criticize the subject matter of her material, then apply that criticism uniformly.  Don’t say Asians have to stop doing Asian jokes but then conveniently avoid criticizing comedians of other races.

I just finished reading Kokology by Tadahiko Nagao and Isamu Saito.

[From Amazon: Created by a famous Japanese psychologist, Kokology (koh-KOL-oh-jee) is the study of kokoro ("mind" or "spirit" in Japanese). Based on sound psychological principles, Kokology asks you to answer questions about seemingly innocent topics -- such as the color of an imaginary bird that has flown in your window -- and then reveals what your answers say about you. Kokology offers a unique approach to self-discovery and, when played with others, can provide hilarious insight into the you that they never knew.]

It’s a short book of fun little question and answer games you can play alone, with friends or with a significant other. It’s a great way to get to know people better, even finding out stuff about friends you’ve known you’re whole life.  After having read this book, I now know why I cry myself to sleep every night.  Enjoy!

I can’t make heads or tails of this.  I guess Studio Ghibli fans will rejoice.  (I think) the official name is Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea.  Is this good?  Bad?  Ugly? 

Hiyao Miyazaki is good stuff (ever since I first saw Spirited Away).  From what I see above, the video looks like someone gave acid to a child then asked, “Now what do you see?…  Hold on, talk slower!… I can’t draw that fast!  (Why did Timmy stop blinking?)“  And the singing!  Christ!  That’ll be haunting my nightmares for weeks to come.  IMDB says: “An animated adventure centered on a 5-year-old boy and his relationship with a goldfish princess who longs to become human.”  (I like my synopsis better: “Imagine the ramblings of Timothy Leary as a Japanese child.”)

In any event, its Miyazaki.  Now excuse me while I go google all his past works and crobar his name into my next pseudo-intellectual conversation in an attempt to sound pretentiously artistic and quasi hip.

I’m intrigued about this movie (and slightly pissed I didn’t hear about it till now, being that I was out in LA for over a year and there was a screening during that time.  Nothing foreseeable out East, however).  One line in particular that stands out from the trailer, the useless guy from Heroes with no powers says, “You love every Japanese girl you meet, I can’t like one Black girl…?” Ain’t that the truth?  I’ve been in that situation before (Black women, not Japanese men… then again there was that time I may have noticed a slight Adam’s apple… nevermind…) and I’m dying to see what dynamic this movie captures between the leads.

(And for you super nerds)  In honor of Battlestar Galactica’s kick ass mid season finale: More after the JUUUUUMMMP!

Here’s a Q&A session with director Joseph Doughrity from a screening @ the Univ. of Michigan.