Sean Akizuki's East Asian Drama and Movie Blog

I've been shifting my focus to Korean entertainment lately. However, I'd like to recall my moments with Chinese entertainment, whether it came from the People's Republic of China (PRC), Taiwan (also known as the Republic of China or ROC), or Hong Kong. I grew up hating my Chinese heritage, since I was more into the AMERICAN SUPERIORITY MENTALITY for some time. I hated my Chinese heritage. Well, who wouldn't if one had boomer parents who were still stuck like they were still in China -- THINK OF A CHINOY VERSION OF THE JOY LUCK CLUB ! I could recall my late paternal grandmother, who would rent Chinese movies via Betamax . I couldn't remember the name of the store anymore -- the rental shop already closed years ago! I didn't give an F*** about Chinese entertainment back then. I didn't like studying Chinese either -- well, blame the Chinese schools in the Philippines that taught Chinese through rote overload! It didn't help that there was the rather ridicu...

It was more than 20 years ago that she died at only 40 years old -- on December 30, 2023. I was looking into the CHALLENGE Of making biopics . After doing some research, it turned out that there were two media based on Anita's life story namely Mei Yan Fang Fei (which was spoken in Mandarin) and Anita (2021) . It turned out that were too many creative liberties. I gave some Louisse Wong from Hong Kong while watching the mini-series on Disney+. Those scenes made me wish that Jolin Cai played the role of Anita ! It turns out that the Anita (2021) film had a lot of creative liberties -- such as creating the fictional character Goto Yuki as Anita's boyfriend. IRL, Anita's two known failed romances are Masahiko Kondo and Vincent Zhao. As I looked into the film, there have been issues like: The creation of the fictional Goto Yuki. Seriously, why are we adding a fictional character to a BIOPIC? The scene where Anita goes to the doctor, who tells her to have some surgery to remove ...

I became a fan of several old-time singers -- some of them were even DEAD. I could talk about how F4 led me to appreciate the late Teresa Teng's music. It's bizarre to think that the late Barbie Xu's ashes are now in Chin Pao San Cemetery -- the same place of Teresa's burial. It would be strange that I only started listening to Anita Mui's music after she DIED. F4 and Jolin Tsai were often the talk in the 2000s. In my case, Jolin was once called Britney Spears, then she was called an Asian Madonna, presumably so short after Anita passed away. One can think that a biographical series Mui Yim Fong Fei (2007)  was released a few years after Anita died -- something that I never knew existed. I tried watching Anita (2021) as a mini-series on Disney+.  I found myself and now I'll confess, I actually bashed Louisse Wong trying to do the song numbers. Sure, Louisse delivered the minimum needed for the other parts -- I found myself wanting to shoot the television screen ...

Today Online I wrote about how I wanted Jolin Tsai to play the late actress Anita Mui . Was it because Jolin didn't speak fluent Cantonese that she couldn't be used? I only got more familiar with Anita's music after she died. Now, I recall I heard Anita's name when she already had cervical cancer. It was in 2000 when Anita's sister Ann died. Jolin also has a sister, referred to as Jo Tsai (Tsai Minmen), who almost looks like Ann herself -- although I doubt that's her real name. A sad reality is that the circumstances of the Mui sisters and the Tsai sisters were too different. The Anita film had one emotional scene. Ann was seen talking about her diagnosis with cervical cancer. Even worse, Anita lost contact with her nephews -- Pan Wenhao and Pan Jinhao. Both were seven and five when their mother Ann died. However, Ann's husband Pan Lide (Lap Tak Poon in Cantonese) took the children to Canada. Sadly, Anita died without being able to see her nephews. I feel li...

What I found weird was that F4 led me to listen to the music of the late Teresa Teng. F4 was also the reason why I became a fan of Jolin Tsai -- once dubbed the Britney of Taiwan though I prefer to call her Madonna of Taiwan. Take note that I have nothing against Louise Wong and she still did the part well. However, I felt that someone else could've played the late actress. That actress is Taiwanese actress Jolin Tsai.  It was because of Jolin Tsai that I learned to appreciate Anita Mui's music. I only listened to Anita's songs after she died on December 30, 2023. It was my time to appreciate more of the Cantonese language and its songs.  Before that, I saw Jolin Tsai perform the song "Love Love Love" on MYX -- which is a cover of "Stop Stop Stop" by Nu Virgo. It was easy to see why Jolin was compared to Britney. However, the more I saw her, the more I thought about Madonna instead. There were several other songs, but her song "Love Love Love" ...

Back in college, I fell in love with Chinese entertainment thanks to F4. What I didn't know was that, like the Filipino language, there are several Chinese dialects. F4 had its famous song "Can't Lose You" which was the opening song of Meteor Garden II . Then there was the F4 concert in Hong Kong to which I couldn't different Cantonese from Mandarin. It was until I started listening closely to music of the late Anita Mui (and I only appreciated her existence after she left us so soon), I could say Andy Lau played an impact (and I first saw him in Magic Kitchen with Jerry Yan), Jacky Cheung (who had a duet with Regine Velasquez-Alcasid), and Faye Wong. Interestingly, some Cantonese singers did a Mandarin cover for songs originally in their native language. I remembered my habit of changing Cantonese audio to Mandarin. My aim back then was to well, learn, Mandarin, so that's what I did. Ironically, I still enjoyed Cantonese music after knowing that it was well, ...

It's very often that people who are of non-Chinese origin or that outside of the Chinese countries may confuse Wuxia and Xianxia. I could remember a conversation I had with some Filipino friends who called all of them "Wuxia". I also kept calling every martial arts series Wuxia. What wasn't too surprising is that Xianxia is often confused as Wuxia. It's very easy to confuse the two especially if one's knowledge about Chinese culture is rather casual. For me, I was too involved with too much American superiority mentality and only started to appreciate my Chinese roots when Meteor Garden (2001) aired in the Philippines.  What does Wuxia  (武俠) actually mean? For some Filipinos, their first exposure to Wuxia may have been in  The Amazing Twins . In my case (or for others), it was with the  Once Upon a Time in China film franchise or Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon . So what does Wuxia mean? The Chinese words for Wuxia are martial (wu) and xia (heroes). That...

After watching quite a hefty serving of Korean crime series -- I think I might go back to watching Wuxia and Xianxia series now though I might want to focus first on the movie. Since today is the 24th day of the 12th lunar month -- I decided to do a bit of a Merry Mortal Khristmas Review instead. I decided to watch the movie that premiered on Netflix Philippines called The Yin-Yang Master: Dream of Eternity which has Wuxia/Xianxia regular Allen Deng (who really resembles Korean actor Park Seo Jun) and Mark Chao as Yin-Yang practitioners Bo Ya and Qing Ming respectively. There will be some spoilers but I'd try not to get too much out. Just remember don't confuse this movie with the other movie known as  Yin-Yang Master which stars Chen Kun as the Hanyo known as Qing Ming.  The movie itself seems like the Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon franchise hit with Doctor Strange or other similar franchises. The portals may make you think of Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy . For me, it doe...

  It's really easy to bash Mulan (2020) a lot and maybe bring up Mulan (2009) which was obviously NOT made for children. Watching Mulan (2009) alongside Mulan (1998) by Disney will make you realize Jingle Ma produced an adult version of Disney's Mulan. Sure, the movie Huadu Chronicles was advertised as not suitable for children but the movie itself felt more like a PG-13 flick. Mulan (2009) which came out nine years after the Disney adaptation really had a lot of blood in battle or some scenes deemed inappropriate for children. It's not just meant to be realistic Mulan - no wirework, no magic spells, no Mushu (and yes, that's a GOOD THING), and no spirits of ancestors guiding Mulan. Though I think the 2009 movie could've utilized some supernatural elements to further communicate that Mulan is just a folk legend and not a real person. How is the 2009 movie really an adult version of the 1998 Disney movie? Well, you need to check for some Disney tropes before 2009 and...

  It's no surprise that Mulan (2020) by Disney really had it coming. Crystal Liu's big mouth along with Disney's support for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) really brought it down with #BoycottMulan . Now, it's time to re-review the film that truly brought honor to us all called Mulan (2009 ) by Jingle Ma . It has a DVD re-release which I think would get a lot of sales to protest against Disney's Mulan. I also think that both Angry Joe and Nostalgia Critic may want to watch this film. I mean, this film was a lot of well-timed WTF moments that Nostalgia Critic could make fun of (such as the bathing scene or the Rouran princess's desire to be a queen in Wei) without derailing it. The 2009 film is obviously not for children - it doesn't do violence for the sake of it. I don't think it'd get a PG-13 rating either since it's got blood.  Now, a look back at how the movie did bring "Honor to Us All". The movie itself actually knows when to b...

I did enjoy the brutal choreography (which was close to Arnold Schwarzenegger's version of Conan the Barbarian) of Jingle Ma's Hua Mulan with one character dying after the other. Heck, I even thought the death of Jaycee Chan's character as a human version of Mushu was something satisfying to watch. Now, I thought that the ending was a cliffhanger and I hated that, "Why must Weitai marry that Rouran princess to secure a treaty? It's just not FREAKING FAIR after all they have gone through!"Some may argue that he can take Mulan as a second wife but WTF - it's just not fair for any woman to be forced into that position! Then I remembered Disney's Mulan had a sequel. Well, there's no Mushu-type character to ruin it so that means don't expect Jaycee to return. What's my possible plot? Wentai doesn't love the Rouran princess and he still loves Mulan. Mulan makes that sacrifice for the good of the nation until she sees that she still loves W...

I could remember the time when technology was still limited, there wasn't Netflix and I didn't have much technology with me yet -- I could remember I got stuck into the world of Chinese entertainment one way or another. As I love to say it --  it all started with Meteor Garden  but it didn't end with Meteor Garden. Right now, I just find the current Meteor Garden to be meh at best with its really bland acting. But back then, I was simply crazy about Chinese entertainment even after I developed a taste fatigue for Chinese food. I could remember thinking F4 was once a Japanese boyband until I remembered the song "Can't Lose You" by F4. It's the first time I heard of a Chinese song! I remembered how I got hooked into that song, got the lyrics but it wasn't the end. I really couldn't think of it. Then I started listening to the late Teresa Teng's songs because Jerry Yan sang "The Moon Represents My Heart" though my favorite version was...

I like to do some nostalgic throwbacks last decade. I thought about the time I ended up hearing of the love team between Brigitte Lin and Chin Han. Then I checked out " Red Dust " which was pretty fine except that I couldn't relate too much to the love team due to the generation gap. So what if Brigitte's "daughter" Liu Yi Fei had a project with Chin Han's "son" Jerry Yan? My comedic thought is the possibility that anybody who may have enjoyed the tandem of Chin Han and Brigitte Lin could get a momentary shock. I remembered how somebody compared Jerry's appearance to Chin Han and later, compared Yi Fei's appearance to Brigitte. It might make them think that they missed a movie with both of their favorite celebrities back in the 70s. If Barbie Xu-Wang's one-time love team with Jerry was pretty much Chin-Liu  then maybe Jerry and Yi Fei would have created a short-term revival of the Chin Han/Brigitte tandem in the 70s. It could ...

It's nice to enjoy the incarnations of Journey to the West in both TV and film. I was thinking of a couple of times that Hong Kong and Taiwanese films and series end up hiring foreign actors to play in their scripts. I could remember having Korean actors and half-Chinese, half-something actors play the parts. One particular character comes to mind namely Mother Avalokitesvara (Sanskrit name) or Gayatri (Hindi name) in the Journey to the West. In Chinese, she is known as Guan Shi Yin Pusa or Guan Yin Pusa for short.  I could talk of some actresses I wish played the said character. The Singaporean actress Michelle Zheng Saram is half-Indian and half-Chinese. I remembered her appearance in Meteor Garden as a runaway princess from Bhutan known as Yesha. Speaking of which some legends say that Guan Yin Ma was actually an Indian princess who became a Boddhisatva. If she could play as a runaway princess in Meteor Garden then I don't see any problem with her playing as a runa...

So what's the difference between adaptation and localization? Here's the definitions that could be used to prove the difference between them but they're both similar in some way in doing business from the Business Dictionary : Adaptation: 1. Edited or revised version of a work aimed at serving a specific need. 2. Modification of a concept or object to make it applicable in situations different from originally anticipated. Localization: The practice of adjusting a product's functional properties and characteristics to accommodate the language, cultural, political and legal differences of a foreign market or country. Let's take this example with City Hunter which had both a Manga and Anime (Japan) and the City Hunter live action series which was made in South Korea: City Hunter in Japan both has a Manga and an Anime adaptation based on the Manga. The Anime adapted from the Manga was meant for the Japanese audience where the changes don't reflect t...

Kung Hei Fat Choi!  Considering today is the first day of the Lunar New Year (and too bad we never got to see Noynoy and Pabaya get run over when the clock struck 12), I want to write a recollection of how I got into Chinovelas whether it was from Taiwan, China or Hong Kong. I have the guilty pleasure of lumping them as "Chinese entertainment" and in a sense, Taiwan is called the Republic of China while China is called the People's Republic of China. I showed little or no interest with Chinovelas (combination of Chinese and telenovelas) before the craze started. Amazing Twins showed up but I wasn't all too interested in it. I was more interested with some Japanese entertainment with dubs or that there was a time I was more into American entertainment. I was trying to live the American dream  and I wanted to detach from everything Asian and become American. I didn't care too much about Jackie Chan or Jet Li. Although I watched a few Chinese movies but mo...