search results for '2008/12/02'

  1. 2008/12/02 Wonder Girls as Bakery Clerks for One Day
  2. 2008/12/02 Wonder Girls To Conclude Nobody Promotions At Year-End Music Shows
  3. 2008/12/02 SS501: Kim KyuJong “Used hand to stop water when he first saw a bidet”
  4. 2008/12/02 SS501 Kim HyunJoong, ‘Surprise Raid’ at JungMin musical before departing (2)
  5. 2008/12/02 The Liberation of Jet Li
  6. 2008/12/02 Ariel Lin takes on the role of 'Aids Angel'; Kisses AIDS-infected babies
  7. 2008/12/02 Mao Inoue to star in "Boku no Hatsukoi" adaptation
  8. 2008/12/02 50th Japan Record Awards
  9. 2008/12/02 Big Bang to transform into ‘The Good, The Bad and the Weird’
  10. 2008/12/02 Wish upon a star
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Wonder Girls as Bakery Clerks for One Day

No category 2008/12/02 19:15
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The Wonder Girls who are currently appearing on Mnet reality tv show Wonder Bakery experiencing the life of a patisseur, was given the opportunity of working as bakery clerks with each member being designated to work at different Crown Bakeries confectioneries around Seoul for one day.
Sun Ye expressed, “I have always wanted to try something like working part-time and so I think it would be fun. I am anticipating it a lot”, as she showed her high expectation and positive approach before her working stint.
So Hee showed her “aggressive” side as she herself went out to the streets to approach people and distribute flyers. But people started avoiding So Hee and she expressed her feelings saying. “I don’t know why they are avoiding me. I was really saddened by it”. Yoo Bin and Sun Mi, Ye Eun meanwhile cleaned the store, placing the food on display and also experienced being sale girls.
Kwon Youngchan PD who was in charge of the Wonder Bakery production said, “This was an experience for them (the Wonder Girls and their partners) to see at first-hand what kind of cakes that consumers wants/would be buying from a confectionary. I hope that this experience will allow them to create cakes that will be one grade higher than their previous creations”.
This particular Wonder Bakery episode will be aired on 3rd December and the translation was bought to you by gomdorii.
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Wonder Girls To Conclude Nobody Promotions At Year-End Music Shows

No category 2008/12/02 19:11
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Popular girl group, the Wonder Girls plan to finish up their Nobody album promotions in December before starting preparations for their concert.
JYP Entertainment revealed on the 2nd, “They (Wonder Girls) plan to end their album promotions at the end of the year music programs (gayo daejun).” They also added, “During this time, thank you for loving Nobody so much. Without promoting a follow-up song, the Wonder Girls will work hard in preparing for their own concert after concluding the Nobody promotions.”

The Wonder Girls would be involved with the JYP Tour 2009 in January and then their own concert in February. The Wonder Girls who debuted with Irony in 2007 have continued to create hits such as Tell Me, So Hot, Nobody and have been playing an active leading role in reviving bokgo (retro) mania.
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SS501: Kim KyuJong “Used hand to stop water when he first saw a bidet”

No category 2008/12/02 19:10
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Male group SS501 member Kim KyuJong disclosed his perilous experience of going to Seoul.

Kim KyuJong, who is from JeonJu, disclosed during cable channel Mnet ‘My Favorite’ recordings, an anecdote on coming to Seoul recklessly during his junior high school days.

Kim KyuJong said “At member Kim HyunJoong’s house, I saw a bidet for the first time and was at a loss of what to do with it.” At the same time, he also disclosed an incident.

After running an errand and getting with the bidet for awhile, Kim KyuJong said “In any way, I felt that the water will keep running. At the moment when I pressed the button, a jet of water came spurting out.” He continued “I used my hand to stop the water and was troubled for some time before I thought ‘in motion’ means move. And the water spout moves up and down. I blocked the water for quite some time after which Kim HyunJoong came and helped me out of the difficulty.”

“In JeonJu, a pigeon is an animal that we can only see in zoo. Coming to Seoul, I saw pigeons lining up the whole street.” He continued and once again made the audience roar with laughter.

He also disclosed an incident about his first time taking the subway. He said “I thought the numbers on the subway gate means line number. I saw the number until 13 and thought that Seoul is indeed, a huge and complicated city. However, I had certainly changed to another line, but I always ended up at the same place. Only after I roam around for some time that I realized the number is a gate number.”

All the others from other provinces such as MC Kim ShinYoung and VOS said “We have the same feeling!” and applaud with laughter.

Recently, Kim KyuJong, Kim HyungJoon and Heo YoungSaeng are doing activities as a 3-member group SS501, Mnet “My Favorite” which they’ve participated in will air on 3-Dec at 11pm.
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SS501 Kim HyunJoong, ‘Surprise Raid’ at JungMin musical before departing

No category 2008/12/02 19:09
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Male group SS501’s leader Kim HyunJoong made a surprise visit to member Park JungMin’s musical performance before he departs to Macau.

Kim HyunJoong watched musical ‘Grease’ on 29-Nov which was shown in Seoul, Gwanghwamoon SeJong Culture Theatre. Kim HyunJoong will leave for Macau on 01-Dec, but in order to watch his comrade Park JungMin’s musical ‘Grease’, he went to SeJong Cultural Theatre without his manager.

One of SS501’s spokesperson said on 01-Dec “(Kim) HyunJoong went to the performance venue in order to encourage Park JungMin who debuts as a actor for musical. Actually, JungMin is still stressed over it and had asked the members not to go. However, Kim HyunJoong has to go overseas for drama filming so he went to find him without any prior notice.”

Needless to say, a lot of people appeared and crowded over Kim HyunJoong at his seat so he had to come out even before finish watching the performance.

The spokesperson said “Without a manager around, he can’t do anything to deal with the fans who gathered around. Kim HyunJoong came out without finish watching as he is concerned not to create any trouble.”

Kim HyunJoong will depart to Macau on 01-Dec for the filming of KBS 2TV ‘Boys Over Flowers’
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The Liberation of Jet Li

No category 2008/12/02 19:06
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As the convoy of 18 SUVs pulls to a halt on the narrow road above Sanjiang, Wenchuan county, Sichuan, the gleeful shrieks of an excited crowd float upwards through the autumnal mist. The vehicles have made the three-hour journey from the provincial capital Chengdu, spending two hours of it crawling through countryside affected by the cataclysmic earthquake in May. We say countryside — in fact, the view through the windows is an unsettling inversion of what the term normally evokes. Giant fissures sunder the hills and there are yawning voids where roads should be. Broad swaths of boulders and debris remain on the mountain slopes just as violent landslides deposited them on that terrible afternoon nearly seven months ago. Down in a flooded valley, bare and broken tree trunks poke through the water like the spars of a vanquished armada, and over everything hangs the cold, the damp and the fog.

Villagers have been lining the road to Sanjiang, awaiting the convoy's arrival, and now they slip and surge down muddy paths in the hope of getting closer to its head. A vehicle door finally swings open and Donatella Versace — of all people — shyly emerges from her sanctum of tinted windows and tobacco smoke. Standing in blonde tresses and heels, she is a fabulously incongruous sight here in the mountains. But the good villagers of Sichuan have no idea who she is. They are here, instead, to see her companion for the day — Li Lianjie, otherwise known as Jet Li. And when he appears before them, a great roar erupts.

The celebrity duo is visiting a school and counseling facility for children affected by the Sichuan earthquake, paid for by Versace and operated under the auspices of Li's charity, the One Foundation. The occasion is only theoretically private. Hundreds of people pour in from the road or strain at the wire mesh that separates the school from the tract of temporary housing it adjoins. There is barely room to stage the songs and dances that the children have so assiduously rehearsed. When Li and Versace tour a classroom, they do so while amazed farmers press faces at every window. Those who can't get close shove mobile phones through the bars in the hope of capturing a grainy memento. As the stars emerge, they find themselves in a perilously crowded courtyard of people and paparazzi. There are three film crews jostling for sight lines. Tempers fray, pushing starts and a local policeman begins to yell at the top of his voice at a knot of uncomprehending Italian journalists. Li's and Versace's entourages make time-out gestures at each other, cutting the visit short and bundling everyone into the SUVs for the long drive back to Chengdu airport and the evening flight to Beijing. It has been an exhausting business, spending a day in Li's wake. "Oh this is nothing," laughs his personal videographer. "You should have seen the crowds when we were in Shanghai."

The Real One
The cosseted youngest of five siblings, a child sports star and a big-screen actor from the age of 19, Beijing-born Li has known nothing but attention for every one of his 45 years. But the smiles that emanate from the trailing multitudes are often of a different kind now. They are not just the silly simpers that form in response to a celebrity sighting. They are also the warm, seraphic beams accorded to individuals who walk a righteous path. People generally don't ask Li to do flying kicks or the wushu horse stance for the camera these days. They don't even want his autograph much. What they want to do, amid the moral vacuum of modern China, is feed off the aura of a man preaching compassion and civic duty. When Li takes the rostrum, he reminds people of a time before land grabs, kickbacks and beatings — of a China in which people were not counterfeiting, short-changing, corner-cutting, milk-adulterating hucksters but virtuous and simple. "Before this country opened up, people were more focused on their spiritual lives," he says. "Since this country opened we have been more focused on the material life. For the sake of Chinese culture, it's time for a balance."

Established in April 2007, the One Foundation is Li's contribution toward that balance, and for its sake he has taken time out from films, becoming a full-time relief worker and traveling tirelessly on foundation business. This month he is set to appear at a Clinton Global Initiative meeting in Hong Kong. "Philanthropy is my passion and my life now," he says. "I wake up and eat and I'm thinking about it. I'm still thinking in the bath. I talk to everyone I can." It is difficult to name any other A-list celebrity, not even Bono, who has made such a total commitment. There are plenty who touch down in Africa between albums or movies, but none has actually walked off the job as Li has done, at the top of his game.

The One Foundation's name carries unfortunate echoes of Li's 2001 movie The One — an execrable film, which borrows from The Matrix to an embarrassing degree. Its plot — Li plays a cop saving the world from a version of himself who arrives from a parallel universe and desires to become a god — is doubtless some sort of comment on the struggle between egotism and responsibility. But it's far better to think of the One Foundation as so called because of its essential idea: that if every able person in China were to contribute one renminbi (about 15 cents) once a month, then an enormous reserve could be built up for the relief of deserving causes (and thus create "one big family," to use One Foundation – speak). Although large corporate endowments are solicited and obtained, the soul of the enterprise really does lie in spare change. Ordinary Chinese donate by patronizing one of many businesses that Li has signed up — by dining at the South Beauty restaurant chain, for example (one renminbi off the bill goes to the foundation), or by using their China Merchants Bank credit cards. They can also donate at post offices, through PayPal or via SMS. By these means, the foundation had raised, as of July this year, $13.7 million, the great bulk of which has gone to Sichuan earthquake relief.

It's hardly the biggest charitable sum that China has seen. Property magnate Zhu Mengyi has given away $160 million in the past five years (and the octogenarian entrepreneur Yu Pengnian has set aside well over twice that for the provision of cataract operations). But the One Foundation is not about billionaires. It is about a celebrity who has forsworn a pleasant life of premieres and parties, and the ordinary people who support him with their pennies. It is for them, perhaps, that Li places an almost neurotic stress on the One Foundation's "transparency" and "professionalism." He says he wants to run the organization "like a listed company" and make it a "21st century charity." Before discussing how a single cent has been raised, he speaks of "best practices," explains how the foundation's finances are independently audited by Deloitte, and name-checks Boston Consulting Group and McKinsey as his management partners. Scores of funds were established in the wake of the Sichuan calamity — in fact the public's response to the disaster marked an epochal shift in the whole business of Chinese philanthropy. But the One Foundation's businesslike style and the way in which it has made charitable giving a matter of a mouse click or a text message hopefully presage the sector's future.

Fighting for Nonviolence
To the rest of the world, Li's show-biz sabbatical may appear abrupt, but to his countrymen he is reprising the major themes of his life — self-sacrifice, service and discipline. At the age of 8, Li was randomly enrolled in a wushu class during a summer sports program. He had no idea what wushu was, which isn't surprising. At that time, wushu was only 13 years old. It was a committee-ordained synthesis of the various age-old Chinese combat forms (wushu literally means "martial arts"), intended to create a new codified sport. Emphasis was placed on the solo execution of martial stances and routines, and the system of point-scoring rewarded purity of form. In effect, it was a Chinese form of gymnastics, and Chinese officialdom was rather proud of it, making it an integral part of the country's cultural-exchange program. It reached thousands of foreign spectators, who fancied they were watching something ancient instead of the hypermodern creation of a socialist state.

Young Li was among the performers who accompanied Chinese delegations around the world, and his extraordinary ascent through the sport has never been duplicated. At the age of 11, he was part of a troupe sent on a goodwill tour of America and performed in front of U.S. President Richard Nixon, who jokingly asked the young fighter to become his bodyguard. Li's precocious reply — "I don't want to protect an individual; I want to defend my 1 billion Chinese countrymen!" — was regarded as a great propaganda coup by Chinese apparatchiks, whose darling he became. Li also became, at the age of 12, China's national wushu champion — not junior champion, but champion, period. He held that title for the next four years and performed in over 45 countries before his 18th birthday, trotted out like a national mascot. "I felt like I was carrying a lot of responsibility," he says. "I felt like I was representing a billion people and needed to do good."

You can see those sorts of sentiments running through Li's film corpus. In Bruce Lee's action movies, the Eurasian outsider fought for no greater cause than himself (the sole exception is 1972's Fist of Fury, in which he battled the cocksure Japanese). Jackie Chan made the action-comedy subgenre his own, reducing martial arts to a form of slapstick. Li, however, has most often played the sober upholder of national pride.

Li has made five films — Born to Defence (1986), The Master (1989), Once Upon a Time in China (1991), Fist of Legend (1994) and Fearless (2006) — in which he protects his countrymen from cruel and rapacious foreigners, mostly Americans. In 1994's The New Legend of Shaolin, he is a Han Chinese rebel fighting against Qing (or Manchu, and thus foreign) rule. In Hero (2002), Li is an assassin who, to his own detriment, abstains from an attempt on the life of the Qin King, who goes on to become the venerated Qin Shi Huangdi, the first Emperor of China and the ruler who would unify the nation, standardize the Chinese language and commence construction of the Great Wall. And on it goes. If you want to picture Li's résumé, imagine it on red paper and bedecked with gold stars.

Of his films, Li considers the most important to be Hero, Fearless and 2005's Danny the Dog, in which he plays a senseless brute, trained to savage anyone running foul of his loan-shark master. "Everything I want to say is in those three movies," he declares. "The message of Hero is that your personal suffering is not as important as the suffering of your country. The point of Danny the Dog is that violence is not a solution. Fearless is actually about personal growth — about a guy who decides that in the end his greatest enemy is himself."

That is the thing about Li. He has spent more than two decades as a superior practitioner of on-screen violence, so all he wants to talk about now is oneness and universal concord. "The strongest weapon is a smile and the best power is love" is typical of the beatific remarks he ventures to anyone within earshot. The conventional explanation for this is that after a horrific near-drowning in the 2004 Asian tsunami, Li experienced a Siddhartha-style bolt of enlightenment and decided to abandon Hollywood venality for a life of good works. It makes great press, and Li does nothing to correct this idea, but the truth, naturally, is more complex. He was walking on a beach in the Maldives with his two small daughters and maid when the tsunami struck. The swells came up to Li's chin (he stands just under 5 ft. 7 in., or 1.7 m), but the group was able to struggle the short distance back to their hotel unmolested save for a slight injury to the star's foot. This was clearly a frightening experience, and the poor Li girls are scared of the sea still, but it is by no means among the first rank of tsunami survival stories. Rather than bringing on an epiphany, this relatively clement brush with death simply brought out the spiritual tendencies that Li had been harboring for years. The tsunami liberated him from the desire to make films.

Life After Life
Seven years before, at the age of 34 — when he stood upon the summit of the Chinese film world but had yet to venture into international markets — Li was already having existential ruminations. "I started thinking about life," he says. "I started wondering what it is people want. Is it money, power or fame? Is it to see yourself in TIME?" Over the next seven years his fame increased exponentially, but he was unable to completely enjoy it and ended up engaging over 20 different Buddhist teachers. "The main idea taught by the different kinds of Buddhism," he says, "is that the lower you put yourself on the priority level, the happier you become." Surveying the wrecked lobby of his Maldives hotel, Li recalled this lesson, and decided that philanthropy — a thing he had vaguely imagined doing in retirement — was not something that could be indefinitely deferred. Three years later, he had cleared his film commitments and established the One Foundation.

Today, he leads it from the front. At its Beijing offices, there are no p.r. minders corralling the visitor in an antechamber while the great man readies himself. He walks promptly into his own reception area with hand extended. Whenever he is in town (home is Singapore), he shares an apartment near the office with foundation staff, who must have scant hope of rest. He has addressed at least 20 conferences this year, espousing the kind of China that everyone wants to see. The most important point about the One Foundation, he says, is the example it sets, "so that when the Chinese become stronger we can take more responsibility in the world." In other words, it's not just about food parcels or blankets. It's about an idea of what the world's most populous nation can be. And that gets CEOs sheepishly arising from their cognac and shark-fin banquets to write checks. It makes the poor queue at post offices to offer gifts of a few grubby notes. It even persuades Italian fashion icons to sully their extravagant shoes in the mud of ravaged rural Sichuan.


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Ariel Lin takes on the role of 'Aids Angel'; Kisses AIDS-infected babies

No category 2008/12/02 19:05
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On the World Aids Day on the 1st of December, Ariel Lin Yi-Chen (林依晨) took on the role of an 'Aids Angel', hugging a group of Aids stricken babies, hoping that the wider community would be more understanding and help such babies. She felt very sorry that babies suffering from Aids would be ostracised by society, hence she hugged and kissed the babies in front of everyone. She said: "This is a very natural way of interacting with babies, and it is also a very safe way. I hope everyone can change their opinions and views, and accept them with warm and open arms."

In the event, Ariel massaged the babies' faces and chest, even kissing their faces and mouths, showing her warmth and acceptance of them in the most straightforward way, "Bodily contact with them does not transmit the virus, even if you exchange saliva with them, you will only get the virus if it reaches 700cc, provided of course there isn't any open wounds."

A doctor expressed that kissing Aids infected babies on their mouth is equivalent to shaking hands with normal people, and would not transmit the Aids virus in anyway. The ways that the virus can actually be transmitted is through sexual contact with an Aids infected person, and through shared needles. As long as there is no open wounds, kissing an Aids infected patient would not mean any danger to anyone.
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Mao Inoue to star in "Boku no Hatsukoi" adaptation

No category 2008/12/02 19:04
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Kotomi Aoki's popular shojo manga "Boku no Hatsukoi wo Kimi ni Sasagu" is being turned into a live-action movie, directed by Takehiko Shinjo ("Heavenly Forest"). Young actress Mao Inoue of "Hana Yori Dango" fame has been chosen to star in the film.

The story revolves around the relationship between Mayu (Inoue) and her first love, a young man named Takuma (Masaki Okada) whom she has known since childhood. Mayu's father is Takuma's cardiologist, and she learns that Takuma may not live much longer past the age of 20 due to his heart condition. When they were 8 years old, Takuma promised to marry Mayu, unaware of his own lifespan. But when he finds out the truth, he tries to distance himself from Mayu in hopes of sparing her the inevitable pain of his death.

Filming is scheduled to start in March, around the time that Inoue is expected to graduate from Meiji University. The completed movie will be released next fall.
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50th Japan Record Awards

No category 2008/12/02 19:03
The judging committee of the 50th Japan Record Awards announced most of the winners on Monday. This year, there were 12 Gold Award winners:

* "Soba ni Iru ne" by Thelma Aoyama
* "Ai no Mama de" by Junko Akimoto
* "Ameato" by w-inds.
* "Ti Amo" by EXILE
* "Edo no Temari Uta II" by C-ute
* "Moon Crying" by Kumi Koda
* "Ya Mujo" by Kazuyoshi Saito
* "Jungle Dance" by Nana Tanimura
* "Doushite Kimi wo Suki ni Natte Shimattan Darou?" by TVXQ
* "Genkai Funauta" by Kiyoshi Hikawa
* "Wajima Asaichi" by Kaori Mizumori
* "Girigiri HERO" by mihimaru GT

Five New Artist Awards were announced:

* GIRL NEXT DOOR
* Kimaguren
* Kumiko Sakurai
* Jero
* Mai Fukui

Namie Amuro's top-selling "BEST FICTION" collection was chosen as Best Album. The other Album Awards went to:

* "GAME" by Perfume
* "Beyond Standard" by Hiromi Uehara
* "Captain Hate & First Mate Love" by Keiichi Suzuki
* "Meisaku Uta Tsuzuri" by Fuyumi Sakamoto

Other awards were given to Agnes Chan, "Gake no Ue no Ponyo," Southern All Stars, and Shuchishin, among others.

TBS will broadcast the awards ceremony live on December 30, during which the winners of the Japan Record Award and Best New Artist will be revealed.
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Big Bang to transform into ‘The Good, The Bad and the Weird’

No category 2008/12/02 19:02
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Group Big Bang will transform into the characters of movie ‘The Good, The Bad and The Weird’.

It was announced on 1st December by one of the MBC Korean Movie Festival officials, “Big Bang members will transform and impersonate the characters of the movie and present a startling show for this year’s movie festival.”

The official also added, “Big Bang have done a lot of preparation to fit into the roles of the characters in the movie”

Big Bang will also be in western suits for the complete impersonation for the special show that day.

Also for the movie festival, Jaurim’s Kim Yoon Ah will also transform as Kim Hye Soo’s character in movie ‘Modern Boy’ for a jazz performance, after which she will also do a rock performance for the movie ‘Go Go 70′.

Korea Movie Festival will open on 4th December.
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Wish upon a star

No category 2008/12/02 19:02
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Pregnant or not? The paparazzi are guessing but for Zhang Ziyi the most exciting thing at present is that she has completed a role she really loves.

In Chen Kaige's Forever Enthralled, a biopic on Peking Opera master Mei Lanfang, Zhang plays Mei's lover Meng Xiaodong, a Peking Opera actress.

Zhang doesn't hide her enthusiasm for the role, saying that Meng is one of the women she looks up to most. She even thought of making a film about Meng's life herself.

"Meng Xiaodong experienced many hardships, but she never complained," she says, "and I appreciate her love for Mei Lanfang, strong and selfless."

Like Zhang, Meng was a star and was called "Emperor Dong" because of her refined acting skills at playing laosheng (old man roles), while Zhang is one of the few internationally acclaimed Chinese actresses.

But in terms of her personal life, Meng was less fortunate. She broke up with Mei after a short marriage, left the Chinese mainland with Shanghai gang leader Du Yusheng in 1949 and died in Taiwan, alone.

Zhang's relationship with fianc Vivi Nevo has been a pet topic for gossip columnists and Nevo has confirmed they will marry next year.

Zhang won't comment on the pregnancy rumor - she still has a slim body and 8 cm heels - but admits she is a big fan of babies.

"I have wanted to have children ever since 17," she told an audience of journalists and fans at a recording of the CCTV show Art and Story. "I always want to marry and have a baby. I was under great pressure as a freshman at university and was like a fly without a head, not knowing what to do. I thought of quitting and getting married at that time."

Her plan was postponed when Zhang Yimou recruited her for The Road Home (Wode Fuqin Muqin) in 1999. What followed was one golden opportunity after another, such as a starring role in Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, teaming up with Jackie Chan in Rush Hour 2 and playing the lead in Memoirs of a Geisha.

Like Meng, Zhang seldom talks about the tough times in her life.

"I am not a person who likes to complain," she says. "I think every one has something to complain about but complaints do not solve problems. All you can do is try harder. I would rather share my happiness with friends."
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