• Fish Story – Japan (2009)
  Forget the upcoming blockbuster 2012 for a moment and check back into something a little more fun about the impending doomsday. Fish Story is about a song, woven throughout a tapestry of characters over time and how it saves the world. Not exactly light fare, nor is it a heavy sitting. It is touching at the parts where it matters the most and funny when it needs to be. All in all, a very entertaining film that has everything from a little romance, to martial arts, to punk rock music.
• Breathless – South Korea (2009) – Closing Night Gala
  With an armful of awards under its belt, Breathless is brutally violent and aggressively touching at times. A debt collector who uses his fists to talk meets his match with a high school girl unafraid of him even after he hits her. Unbeknownst to each other, they share a parallel background of domestic abuse each wanting to move past their past but constantly wrestle with the demons locked in their closet. Brace yourself for some really brutal fight scenes. Watch the trailer below.

• Toronto International Reel Asian Film Festival
• NIWE Style Clothing
• BANANA: an AA blogger conference

Special thanks to Marcus who yelled at me to put up another podcast. Thanks, man!

If you like what you hear, please show your support by supporting the artists and buy their CDs and DVDs using the links provided on this site. For any requests, comments, suggests, dedications or feedback, feel free to leave a comment at Popcast88.com or send an email.

• Popcast88.Ning.com
• POP 88’s Official Facebook FAN Page
• POP 88 Merchandise
• Follow me on Twitter!
• Shimmy & Shake w/ Christine Monday Evenings 9pm EST @ The SRC @ OMGKPOP
• Join us in the SRC Chat @ Rizon Network - channel #soompi.radio

Playlist

1. Road – Kara
(2009) Music Travel LaLaLa

2. Sunny Day, Rainy Day (Moving On) – Zhang Li Yin
(2009) Moving On

3. She Is – Clazziquai
(2006) My Name is Kim Sam Soon OST

4. All About You – G.E.M. Tang
(2009) 18…

5. Noona’s Song (feat. E.via) – Lyn
(2009) 6.5 New Celebration

6. Promise You – A.N.Jell
(2009) You’re Beautiful

7. Catch You – Hirai Ken
(2009) 僕は君に恋をする

8. Dunk Shoot – 2AM’s JoKwon & Whale
(2009) Hwantastic Project Vol.2

9. Half (feat. SunnySide) – After School
(2009) 탐나는도다

10. Sign – Brown Eyed Girls
(2009) Sound G. Sign

11. BUMP BUMP! (Feat. Verbal) – BoA
(2009) BUMP BUMP!

12. Love Seat (feat. Humming Urban Stereo) – Wheesung
(2009) Vol. 2 Love Seat

The Toronto International Reel Asian Film Festival rolls into town November 11 – 15th, 2009. Check out a short interview with the Director of the Canadian film The Ache, Keith Lock above and the second part of my mini reviews below.

• White on Rice – USA (2009)
  Fluffy and cute, White on Rice follows the antics of Jimmy, a naïve divorce in America living with his sister and sharing the bunkbed with his nephew. After meeting the niece of his brother-in-law, he convinces himself that she is perfect for him, unknowing that she has already fallen back in love with her ex-boyfriend, his co-worker. Albeit cute and starring a cast of rising Asian-American talent, Jimmy’s comedic in capabilities toe the line between being earnest and irritating. Popcorn fare at best.
• The Ache – Canada (2009)
  Inspired by sex columnist/ poet Louise Bak’s curious family story and mysteries of ancient “fox spirits”, The Ache is a quirky supernatural tale of how sex has the power to make people behave in very bizarre ways. Perhaps one of the more interesting films in the festival despite a rather imbalanced cast, it provokes in unexpected ways. While there is an overriding theme of sex, more subtle and important is everyone’s need and want for intimacy. Despite its shortcomings, it lingers in your mind long after it ends.

The Toronto International Reel Asian Film Festival rolls into town — mine! — November 11 – 15th, 2009. In honor of the film festival, this is the first of a three-part mini reviews post of the features being presented. Watch the trailer and if you like, check out the limited edition shirts over at NIWE Style Clothing.

• Overheard - Hong Kong (2009) – Opening Night Film
  From the same team that produced Infernal Affairs, Overheard explores the lure of insider trading as it takes a toll on three surveillance team members struggling to decide whether or not to profit from their knowledge. At a time when the crash of the economy has many financial casualties, it’s easy to sympathize with the main characters personal dilemmas. It’s a gripping, unpredictable edge of your seat blockbuster-like cop-drama thriller that gets confusing at times but pays off in the end.
• Yang Yang (Trailer) – Taiwan (2009)
  In the coming of age story, Yang Yang tries very hard to fit in. Thanks to her French genes, her Eurasian features gets a lot more attention than she would like. After all, she sees herself as Taiwanese and nothing else. It’s an interesting take on a kind of discrimination and exoticism with Asian cultures revering bi-racial children and how these kids have to face a set of challenges from the family where they are supposed to belong to. The film is well crafted and performed. Highly enjoyable.
• Yanggaw – The Philippines (2009)
  Part family drama, part horror story, Yanggaw sets itself in a remote village in the Philippines. Far from any formal law enforcement or modern medicine, the locals still take the advice of witch doctors and carry out their own justice. When the daughter comes home with an undiagnosable illness, livestock are slaughtered and people start disappearing at night. The family struggles to keep their ties together while dealing with the beast in their midst. The film is a bit slow and dragging, even for a drama.

For those who are regular listeners of my podcast, POP88 or listen to me Monday evenings on SRC at omgkpop would know I’m a regular viewer of Global Talk Show, aka ChitChat with Beautiful Ladies. It’s basically an informal round table discussion with twenty female foreigners living, working, and going to school in South Korea. Their perspectives are offset with five Korean celebrity guests. I enjoy watching it because while a bit cheesy, it’s also fun and sometimes insightful.

In this particular episode, instead of the five Korean celebrities, they invited seven foreign men to discuss topics such as: “Foreign men are considered more attractive in Korea,” “Is it easier for foreigners to get into Korean universities?” and more — more along the lines of social intricacies and preconceived notions. Be prepared for some outrageous stereotypes and a lot of fighting words back and forth. (The best part is one of the ladies defining LBH — “Loser Back Home.”)

The show is available with full English subtitles. My fave is Alberto from Italy and Poh from Malaysia (rowr) but I regularly watch the show for Dominique from Quebec, Dongling from China, Cristina from Italy and Taru from Finland.

The rest of the episode is available after the jump if you’ve got an hour or so to kill.

It’s kinda funny this article comes around now because I’m also essentially “forced” into the fashion business launching my own line of graphic and custom designed T-shirts next month, hopefully. I’ve done it for years previously as a hobby for friends and family, but never thought of pursing it as a career. But shortly before I got laid off, things started to falling into my lap – essential pieces in launching my own T-shirt line. It was one of those things that was in the back of my head, that I couldn’t ignore anymore, so when I got laid off, everything else kinda snowballed in my favour.

With a rise in popularity, also comes harsh criticism and resourceful, yet misguided anti-fans and netizens who dig up his MySpace blog and translate it. The phrase ‘Korea is gay’ is taken out of the body of his post and gets translated literally. A huge uproar occurs with netizens crying for his blood and in a matter of four days was eventually exiled back to his modest humble family in Seattle.

Overseas Asians
I’ll admit that I’ve never actually lived in another country, but I do understand you have to adapt to the culture of your surroundings. This takes time, a lot of time, especially if you’re a person who is very stubborn like a 16 year old teenage boy. Likewise, I don’t blame newcomers because they lack understanding, are unfamiliar with certain practices or have a tough time using broken English to communicate. I remember getting into an argument with my sister who only speaks English with a little French and Italian, believes people should learn English when they come to North America. I retorted, “Let’s see you go to China and how quickly you can pick up the language there.”

Lost In Translation and the Lazy Korean media
In the four days following his self-exile, the complete, correctly translated post emerged online. Part of the issue was the knee-jerk reaction of the Korean media not double checking facts. I honestly don’t have much respect for most Korean media. At best, it’s entertaining and shallow, at worst it’s a lynch mob always siding with bias and agenda-driven netizens. It makes me believe that the “tips” sent in are taken at face value and never get the proper investigation it requires. Gossip is fine, if delivered in an appropriate manner with a certain level of journalistic integrity. However if a media outlet feels a celeb uploading photos to their CYWorld — think MySpace in Korea — is newsworthy, I believe otherwise. They are no better than gossip blogs created by bias fans. Above all, I blame the media and its small town minded carelessness for not doing their jobs properly from the start.

Celebs and fans show their support for Jaebeom
While some of it is misguided, it comforts me that his fellow colleagues actually have demonstrated in more than one way that they both understand and support him. Many have retreated to their CYWorlds writing beautiful poems and blogs about life as an idol, while others release official statements to the public decrying that society gives too much power to faceless netizens hiding behind userIDs. Fans launched post-it campaigns in both Korea and NYC begging for his return. Korean-American Pops In Seoul host Isak, aka Ida Simmons, twittered “7=1~”, a tagline use to represent that the 7 members of 2PM = 1 group. At this point, the only thing that can save his career are the fans and his supporters.

I’m not even going to try to comprehend the complexities of the situation as several of the people responsible are now sorry. When a boy is 16 years old, going to school and training to be a pop star in a foreign country away from his family, he has to retreat back to something familiar to be able to fully express and articulate his feelings. Even though they say you should always be careful about what you say in the present because the past comes back to haunt, this is ridiculous.

GT, who is the blogger behind A-Tunes.net and guest blogs for MTV Iggy — which I don’t get because I’m Canadian — recently put up his first vlog sharing his thoughts on Asian Americans and the whole under/ misrepresented issue in media – specifically music.

In particular, he mentions a post from YouOffendMeYouOffendMyFamily.com about a person who was protesting the lack of misrepresentation of Asians in the media, yet had not paid to see a film directed by or starring Asian Americans. It reminded me of when a filmmaker colleague of mine spoke at an Asian university event where students were complaining of the same thing; he asked everyone in the room who was majoring in film and television, or media-arts related programme. Out of the hundreds in the seminar, only one put up there hand and she was taking journalism.

And that’s the issue at hand: because there is no vested interest in pursuing careers in the arts, there is no one in the industry to tell  anyone to do it differently. After all, if you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.

*shifting my feet around while looking down*

I know I haven’t been around lately. I’ve just been really really busy with school, work, classes, managing a radio station, classes, work… But I hope to make it up to you with a two-parter of my latest episode:

• Part 1 – New Releases from the last 2 months
• Part 2 – 30 minutes of non-stop remixes and mash-ups

If you like what you hear, please show your support by supporting the artists and buy their CDs and DVDs using the links provided on this site.

For any requests, comments, suggests, dedications or feedback, feel free to leave a comment at Popcast88.com or send an email.

Popcast88.Ning.com

• POP 88’s Official Facebook FAN Page
• POP 88 Merchandise
• Follow me on Twitter!
• Shimmy & Shake w/ Christine Monday Evenings 9pm EST @ The SRC @ OMGKPOP
• Join us in the SRC Chat @ Rizon Network - channel #soompi.radio

Playlist

Part 1 – New Releases

1. 아프죠 (feat. After School) – Sunny Side
2. Bittersweet (feat. M, HyunAh, Mabus, Red Roc, Beige) – Brave Brothers
3. Love Class (feat. Han Ye Seul) – Mighty Mouth
4. Half (feat. Sunnyside) – After School
5. Mister – KARA
6. Vari2ty – Jewelry
7. Abracadabra – Brown Eyed Girls
8. My Ears Candy (feat. Taecyeon from 2PM) – Baek Ji Young
9. R2song – Hwangbo
10. Party Time – Coco Lee
11. Shock – Meisi Kuroki
12. Party Girl – Bahnus Vacuum

Part 2 – Mash-up and Remixes
*you can find most on their YouTube channels

1. Ipohmali (Classic Mix) – Point Blanc – G Sweet
2. Shake Again & Again – Chae Yeon vs. 2pm – Freaky Remix
3. Amoled Everybody – Son Dambi/ After School vs. Rain vs. Brown Eyed Girls – Freaky Remix
4. Abracadabra Genie Fire – BEG vs SNSD vs 2NE1 – KZM
5. Hey Mr. Big – Hyori – DJ Hyo
6. Just wanna think nobody (KZM Remix) – KARA vs. Wonder Girls – KZM
7. Tell Me Harder – Wonder Girls vs. Daft Punk – PLo
9. Hypnotic Dancefloor (DJ Amaya vs. Groovebot Club Remix) – BoA – DJ Amaya

I remember having a conversation with a paparazzi friend of mine during the Toronto International Film Festival where that night he had chosen to “stalk” Zhang ZiYi during her film screening of The Banquet. By that time I had grown incredibly tired seeing her in period pieces and loudly remarked someone needs to throw a T-shirt and jeans on her and into a romantic comedy. He agreed. After the screening that night, I looked down below from our balcony seats to find Zhang ZiYi seated just below us.

Now sporting both leading actress and producers cap, Zhang’s first film is a China-Korea co-production entitled Sophie’s Revenge about a comic book artist (Zhang ZiYi) plotting to get her fiance (South Korea’s heartthrob So Ji Sup) back who left her for an actress (Fang Bingbing). Her vivid imagination runs wild along with her bandit of co-conspirators – high jinks and hilarity ensue.

I’m not much of a Zhang fan — anymore at least — but seeing her in a film like this doing campy comedy is refreshing and certainly different than her glamour-pouty image. From the trailer, previews and a five minute camcorder clip, it LOOKS entertaining and fun to watch. I’m guessing it’s also the same production company that also produced the Fitted for Love romantic-comedy films* which did very well in the China box office because it has that same quirky fluffy feel. I just hope the censors don’t keep it too PG.

(* Fitted for Love 2 starring Karena Lam was a good film with the worst ending pay-off.)