8 Asians

Oh, Internets … In a folly of events I will just label as “poor taste”, the One Dream, One Face of the Miss Daegu, beauty pageant should thank the questionable photoshopping and styling skills of the shows creators for having the rest of the world believed all contestants shared the same face. In fact, sans styling and make-up, the girls look quite distinctive from one another. More photos via Kotaku So, what have we learned [...] Continue »

Photo: via Reddit When I first saw the candidates of Miss Korea 2013, I had no idea they were beauty pageant contestants and just remarked how even I, as an Asian female had trouble telling them apart. The beauty pageant held in Daegu City marketed with the slogan, “One Dream, One Face” had netizens worried judging would be too difficult due to their striking similarities. Clearly many of them had work done and since it [...] Continue »

Hot Docs, North America’s largest International Documentary Festival opens its doors April 25th – May 5. Held in Toronto each year, the festival buzzes with filmmakers and industry agents sharing their untold stories and bringing issues to light for all the world to see and judge for themselves. This year boosts 205 films form 43 different countries. I’ve always had a soft spot for the documentary filmmaker. Rarely is there any lure of glitter, glamour [...] Continue »

For those wanting to turn a blind eye to PSY’s latest release Gentleman may be pleasantly surprised to know that it would be worth at least the 5 minutes for the music video. There are a lot of the same silly “Dress Classy, Dance Cheesy” schtick found throughout the video including the various cameo returns of Yellow-suit guy (Yoo JaeSuk) and Elevator humping guy (Noh Hongchul). Gone is Hyuna, replaced with a far more formidable [...] Continue »

Whatcha Wearin’? (Original title:나의 PS 파트너 MY PS PARTNER) is a sexy romantic comedy about how relationships both make and destroy us and how a little phone sex just may help you make that connection. After finding out his ex-girlfriend has a new boyfriend so soon after their break-up, Hyun-seung (JiSung) accidentally gets a call from Yun-jung (Kim AhJoong) attempting to spice up her dull relationship with a little phone sex. The two strike up [...] Continue »

I’ve been very hesitant to write about PSY’s participation (and apology) in an Anti-American protest particularly because as one of a couple of 8Asian contributors who is not American, I simply was indifferent (and also tired of the whole Gangnam Style craze.) It was only until I came across Glenn Greenwald’s Guardian article “The PSY scandal: singing about killing people v. constantly doing it” that really best explained my indifference. Knowing PSY’s reputation of being [...] Continue »

The Toronto Reel Asian Film Festival celebrates it’s Sweet 16th Nov 6-11 in Toronto and Nov 16-17 in Richmond Hill. For the TL;DR types, check out our video interview with the festival’s Program Director, Aram Siu-Wai Collier. The Opening Gala Opening the festival is FIRST TIME. The China/ Hong Kong remake of the Korean film …ing plays out like a feel good whimsical romantic drama about a girl with a debilitating condition and the rocker [...] Continue »

The Toronto Reel Asian Film Festival celebrates its Sweet 16th birthday Nov 6-11 in Toronto and Nov 16-17 in Richmond Hill. I sat with Aram Siu-Wai Collier, the Director of Programming for this year’s festival to go over some of the highlights and what we can expect, including musical performances, Rum’n’Roti and the festival’s first 3D film screening. This is part 1 of a 2 part post on the 16th Annual Toronto Reel Asian Film [...] Continue »

Blush, formed in 2010 via an Asia-wide talent search, comprises of 5 girls from 5 different Asian countries. Already with a list of solid Billboard Dance Chart toppers such as “Undivided” and “Dance On.” Their latest track “Miss Out” is a catchy tune that has yet exited my subconscious only to be replaced by PSY’s “Gangnam Style.” Blush members Alisha, Angeli, Victoria, JiHae and Nacho failed to catch a cab on their promotional tour in [...] Continue »

A South Korean Air Force team trains, laughs, loves and always has each other’s back in R2B: Return to Base. After pulling a dangerous stunt at the public air show, Tae-hun (played by Cobert-rival Rain) gets kicked out and demoted into the combat unit. Wanting to get back into the elite air show team, he butts heads with his new team leader Cheol-hui and sets his goal to winning the annual Air Force flying competition. [...] Continue »

The Bank of Canada had decided to de-Asianize the original image of a woman looking into a microscope for its $100 banknote after 8 focus groups across the country raised questions about her ethnicity. “The image, alongside a bottle of insulin, was meant to celebrate Canada’s medical innovations.” Despite the Bank of Canada’s policy that “eschews depictions of ethnic groups on banknotes”, a particular ethnicity seemed to emerge amongst the focus groups. Not surprising, the [...] Continue »

In a slow news day, (or perhaps taking a break from Olympic coverage) CNN has reported South Korean rapper PSY’s latest track “Gangnam Style” going viral. Its 10 million view counts and rising is certainly nothing to be dismissed thanks to some notable celebs including T-Pain and Josh Groban tweeting about its genius. Graduated from Boston University and Berklee College of Music, PSY’s first album was fined for having inappropriate content for underage listeners and [...] Continue »