A cursory glance at the entertainment headlines this week will guarantee reference to Rob Marshall’s "Memoirs of a Geisha", but closer scrutiny reveals that film critics from all corners have a lot to say about this film - and most of it isn’t good. This page created by the Scotsman Online, posts two of the best criticisms we’ve seen: one by Sarah Kaufman, originally published in the Washington

[ The official movie poster - inaccurate and deceptive. ] I have a confession to make. I hated "Memoirs of a Geisha" when I read it several years ago, when the novel by Arthur Golden was released in paperback. At the time, it seemed that everyone around me was also reading it, and gushing praise upon it. So, reluctantly, I held back, biding my time until I finally couldn't stand it anymore, and I

Last year, I was pleasantly surprised to see the ABC network cast a pair of Asian-Americans on their soon-to-be-hit series Lost. Daniel Dae Kim and Yunjin Kim, both Korean-Americans, play a Korean couple shown speaking their native language only, often with subtitles, and many flashback scenes depict their life in Korea before becoming stranded on the now infamous tropical isle. Although some

People all over the world marked August 6th, 2005, the 60th anniversary of the first atomic bombing of Japan, by rekindling a world-wide push to abolish all nuclear weapons. From Germany and India, to Australia and England - hundreds of thousands held demonstrations and commemorations that called for the dismantling of atomic arsenals. Americans in New York City drew chalk outlines on sidewalks

[ The following article originally appeared on artist Mark Vallen’s Art For A Change web log - link ] Virtually unknown in the west, The Hiroshima Panels are as profound an antiwar work as Pablo Picasso’s famous mural, Guernica. The creation of Japanese artists, Iri and Toshi Maruki (both now deceased), the panels depict the atomic holocaust wrought upon Japan when the U.S. dropped nuclear bombs

[ The following article originally appeared on artist Mark Vallen’s Art For A Change web log - link ] August 6th, 2005, marks the 60th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Japan. August 9th, marks the bombing of Nagasaki. Those who survived the blasts became known as hibakusha (Atom Bomb Survivors), and in 1974 the hibakusha began contributing artworks to an unusual project that would preserve

The Hong Kong Comics Festival in Hong Kong opened with a pre-party “Costume Play” competition on July 19th, 2005. The much anticipated Cosplay event attracted hordes of fans dressed up as their favorite Japanese anime or manga characters, like the lovely creature pictured above. The international press and local media went nuts photographing the flocks of otaku dressed as characters from Saint

[ The following article originally appeared on artist Mark Vallen’s Art For A Change web log (link) under the headline of Mural Masterwork: Myth of Tomorrow. ] An important antiwar mural painted in Mexico by famed Japanese modern artist, Taro Okamoto (1911 - 1996), has been rediscovered after thirty five years. In Spanish the work is known as Mito del Mañana (Myth of Tomorrow), and in Japanese,

On June 27 in Los Angeles, Professor Masumi Izumi of Doshisha University in Japan, will present a lecture titled, "Music and Community Building, Imagined and Real: Nation, Race, Gender, and Politics in Taiko Drumming in Japan and North America". From a press release: "In spite of its appearance as traditional folk music, taiko (Japanese drumming) as a performance art is a relatively new form of

Aficionados of Japanese cuisine, and cooking fans in general, are probably already familiar with the over-the-top Japanese cooking show, Iron Chef. Now a standard program on the Food Network cable channel, the show also inspired an ill-conceived spin-off, Iron Chef America. The original Japanese broadcast of Ryori no Tetsujin (Iron Chef), set two master chefs against one another in a competition