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October 17, 2008: News from Abroad
Veteran actor Ken Ogata passes away, Aravind Adiga picks up the Booker Prize, and BoA eyes US stardom. All this and more in the latest edition of News from Abroad.
Ken Ogata Passes Away at 71
Actor Ken Ogata passed away Sunday, October 5 at age 71. Ogata, who appeared in a variety of pics and television shows is a three time award winner at Japan’s Academy Awards and is best known for his role in the Cannes award winning film Ballad of Marayama and Paul Schrader’s 1985 Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters. He began his career playing in the Japanese based drama troupe Shinkokigeki and gained national recognition playing lead in the popular period drama series Hissatsu Shikakenin. Ogata gained international recognition for his role as a cold-blooded killer in Vengeance is Mine. His latest film Kaze no Garden will be airing in October 9. --Christie Liu
BoA Wants to Eat the World Up
With promotion already on full steam, Kpop singer BoA has her sights now set on a new land to conquer: America, home to some of the world's most famous pop stars. Having already conquered most of Asia, the 22 year old has spent the last three years preparing for her foray into the US market, working with producers Bloodshy and Avant (who's produced works by Madonna, Britney Spears, and Jennifer Lopez). Her debut single "Eat You Up" will hit the US music portals on October 21st, with the rest of the world to follow suit. Her agency, SM Entertainment, had also announced the single will be available in 30 countries, on 300 music sites. During her press conference on September 8th, a short documentary on her history was aired, as well the music video for "Eat You Up". Currently, teaser versions of the video (one in English, the other in Korean) have been making their rounds on the internet. Following up to her single, BoA will also release a full-length American album in early 2009. --Kanara Ty
Aravind Adiga Wins Booker Prize
Novelist Aravind Adiga wins the 40th Man Booker Prize, Britain’s best known literary award. The author wins the generous $86,000 prize for his novel The White Tiger, a story commenting on the severe class struggle in India. His novel follows a young , poor boy’s experience as a chauffeur to a rich man. Adiga currently resides in Mumbai, but was partially raised in Australia and attended Columbia and Oxford. In addition, he was correspondent to Time magazine in India. Now, he is officially the second youngest recipient of the Man Booker Prize. --Christie Liu
A Winter Sonata for the silver screen
Winter Sonata, the Korean drama that is credited with launching the hallyu (Korean wave) movement into Japan, and the rest of Asia, is about to be made into a film. Korean production company Culture Cap Media are meeting with Korean and Japanese film financiers to make this project happen. However, as anticipated as collaboration might be, the movie version will be without two people who were pivital to the TV drama's success: original Winter Sonata stars Bae Yong-joon and Choi Ji-woo. The producers are hoping this will be the perfect vehicle to launch the careers of two new megastars. Culture Cap Media is also currently producing a film adaptation of another Korean TV serial, Autumn in my Heart. --Ada Tseng
Beat Takeshi plays controversial historical figure
TBS had recently announced the production of a new drama featuring Beat Takeshi in the starring role of General Hideaki Tojo, tentatively titled Ano Sensou wa Nan Datta no ka. The show has already stirred up a lot of controversy due to the fact that Tojo was a former Prime Minister of Japan during World War II, but was later given the death sentence after being tried as a war criminal. The time span of the drama will begin three months before the Pacific War, starting with the Imperial Conference on September 6, 1941 and ending with the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. A broadcast date has not yet been announced. --Kanara Ty
Re-enter the Dragon
Although Bruce Lee didn't immediately achieve fame in the reclusive China of the 70s, not even The Big Boss, the Communist Party, could hold back The Chinese Connection between him and the mainland masses. Over thirty years later, China's official China Central Television (CCTV) unveiled their $7.3 million biography called The Legend of Bruce Lee, set to air every Sunday on CCTV starting this month. Danny Chan, who plays the Bruce Lee lookalike goalie in Futbol Kung Fu...I mean Shaolin Soccer, will once again emulate Lee, but in a more serious way. Specifically the Way of the Intercepting Fist, Lee's martial arts philosophy that Chan captures in the 50-part series. Chan promises it'll be a very detailed and realistic portrayal of the tribulations Lee faced in his rise to stardom. How well Chan will be able to imitate Lee's famous Fists of Fury, who knows. He'll find a way, ideally like the Way of the Dragon and not the groan inducing duplicity of The Game of Death. --William Hong
Zhang Ziyi finds more romance
CJ Entertainment announced at the Pusan International Film Festival that Zhang Ziyi's next project will be a China-South Korea co-production: a Chinese-language romantic comedy called Sophie's Revenge. Not much else has been said about the project, but they say the director will be an up-and-comer who won't be revealed to the public until November. In the meantime, Zhang recently finished shooting Chen Kaige's Mei Lanfang, about a Peking opera legend (click here to see the "You Feel My Love" promotional music video for Mei Lanfang, also starring Leon Lai), and she will soon start shooting the a romantic comedy with Hugh Grant called Lost for Words. --Ada Tseng
Popular K-Pop Artists Will Hold Benefit Concert for Korean-Japanese
The annual Autumn "Super Live" festival, which aims to promote cultural exchanges and awareness of Koreans living in Japan, will be held on October 26th at the Sun Plaza in Osaka, Japan. Popular K-Pop artists such as Jun Jin (known for his dancing and rapping in the Korean group Shinhwa), Park Hyun-bin (who shot to stardom from the drama My Lovely Sam-soon), and singers Jun Young-rok and Yang Ji-won will be performing. Contributing to its Korean-Japanese theme, the benefit concert will also feature appearances by Japanese-Korean singers such as the accapella group Permanent Fish and the percussion group Santa. --Kristie Hang
Copycat suicides in South Korea's entertainment industry
Following the suicides of actors of Choi Jin-Shil and Ahn Jae-hwan, came along a wave of a copycat suicides: transgender entertainer Jang Chae-won and model Kim Ji-who both took their own lives on October 3rd and 6th, respectively. Jang Chae-won's last message was left on her Cyworld (the South Korean social networking site), stating "I'm sorry Mom -- next time I'll do better." There were speculations that she was depressed over a breakup with her boyfriend on the same day of her death. Kim Ji-who took his life two days later, with media reports speculating that he was dealing with depression following his announcement that he was gay. In the past couple of years, South Korea has had alarming suicide rate due to an enormous amount of pressure from society. Since the death of actor Ahn Jae-hwan on September 8, numerous counseling centers received double the amount of calls from suicidal individuals. –-Kanara Ty
Date Posted: 10/17/2008