Hong Kong celebrity couple Vivian Chow and Joe Nieh tied the knots yesterday (Jan 5) in a private wedding ceremony after two decades into relationship.
Japan’s airport biometric security system was embarrassed by a news last week that a South Korean woman has successfully passed through its fingerprint reading machine by using a special tape.
The woman was deported in 2007 for overstaying and barred from re-entering Japan for five years. She was however found in August 2008 to have re-entered the country using a fake passport and special tapes which altered her fingerprints to pass through the fingerprint reader.
Japanese airports began (in Nov 2007) fingerprinting and photographing all foreigners aged 16+ upon their entry as a security measure to scan for terrorists, criminals or deportees. A few other countries, including South Korea, are planning to implement similar system in near future… they might want to think twice now.
Japan’s Oricon has released the Top 100 Japanese albums/singles charts for 2008.
Pop band EXILE dominates the album chart with three albums in the Top 10, while the singles chart is ruled by the Johnny’s boybands, i.e. Arashi and KAT-TUN etc.
Pop group TVXQ is the only Korean artist(s) that made it into the singles chart, with “Beautiful You” at 73rd spot… known as Tohoshinki in Japan, the K-pop group has another two singles at 78th and 91st spots respectively.
Top 10 best selling Japanese albums of 2008
1. EXILE Love (EXILE)
2. Best Fiction (Namie Amuro)
3. 5296 (Kobukuro)
4. EXILE Catchy Best (EXILE)
5. Heart Station (Utada Hikaru)
6. EXILE Ballad Best (EXILE)
7. B’z The Best “Ultra Pleasure” (B’z)
8. A Complete: All Singles (Ayumi Hamasaki)
9. And I Love You (Dreams Come True)
10. A, Domo. Ohisashiburi Desu (GReeeeN)
Top 10 best selling Japanese singles of 2008
1. Truth (Arashi)
2. One Love (Arashi)
3. I Am Your Singer (Southern All Star)
4. Kiseki (GReeeeN)
5. Shuchishin (Shuchishin)
6. Hanabi (Mr. Children)
7. Soba ni Iru ne (Thelma Aoyama ft Soulja)
8. Don’t U Ever Stop (KAT-TUN)
9. Lips (KAT-TUN)
10. Beautiful Days (Arashi)
The Japanese official trailer for “Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li”, starring Kristin Kreuk, Neal McDonough, Chris Klein, Michael Clarke Duncan, Taboo Nawasha, Robin Shou and Moon Bloodgood etc…
It seems like an ok action movie if you don’t know much Street Fighter; but if you are a SF fan… you are likely to curse upside down about this.
It’s odd that they are making a movie about Chun Li but not showing much of SF elements in the film; people wouldn’t have guess that it’s a SF trailer if it’s not for the movie title… the characters and fights are just way off from the original gaming series.
The Legend of Chun Li will premier on February 27th in US and a day later in Japan.
Some general news and info from various sources…
Asia - 10 weirdest Asian stories in 2008 [Weirdasianews]
China - An executive for the dairy firm at the centre of the Chinese tainted milk scandal has pleaded guilty to charges that may incur the death penalty [BBC]
Japan - Video of the lucky bags shopping frenzy on New Year’s Day [Youtube]
South Korea - Opposition lawmakers have scuffled with security guards who tried to end their blockade of parliament in the capital Seoul [BBC]
Thailand - At least 59 people have been killed in a fire in a nightclub in Bangkok on New Year’s Eve [BBC]
UK - A Polish woman has become only the second person to give birth on London’s underground rail network since it opened 146 years ago [Reuters]
USA - Summer Breeze, a Kansas mare, has been recognised by Guinness World Records as having the longest horse tail in the world at 12ft 6in (~3.8m) [Dailymail]
USA - A cool photo of a supercell (stormcloud) in Missouri [Flickr]
Malaysian otakus had made an epic hunt on New Year Eve for Japanese star Aya Hirano when it was discovered that the popular seiyu (voice actress) was in Kuala Lumpur for some filming and photo-shooting.
The news was broke loose by a blogger and passed on to various forums, including the popular LYN which prompted the hectic ‘hunt’ for her where-about via the photos she posted on her online diary.
While most of the forum comments were made for the lulz; some of the folks seemed to take the manhunt a bit too seriously… regardless, the search ended hours later when it was found out that Hirano was already back to Japan when the search party was started… lol, an epic fail which provides the final bit of 2008 entertainment for Malaysian netizens.
On side note, that’s a really cute picture of Aya Hirano in a traditional Malay costume. Forget about bikinis… do more traditional stuff instead :)
Fukubukuro (福袋; lucky bag) is a grab bag filled with random items and traditionally on sale for a substantially discounted price on New Year’s Day in Japan. Thousands of Japanese shoppers would line-up early morning on January 1st to hunt for the goodies at department stores and various shopping outlets.
According to Wiki, Fukubukuro was originated from Ginza’s Matsuya Department Store in late Meiji period (1868-1912) and has since become a widespread custom in Japan. The practise was probably first used to offload excess merchandises, but has now evolved into marketing and branding campaigns.
The items in the Fukubukuro is not quite as random compared to early days… lots of the lucky bags these days are themed accordingly (gadgets, apparels, toys etc) and sometimes offered by a particular brand. The shoppers have a good chance of getting what they want, or at least not totally unwanted items.
“Moonlight Resonance” is Hong Kong’s most popular drama series in 2008 according to a compilation by Mingpao news. The TVB production has an average rating of 34.8, with its finale reaching the peak of 50 points.
With TVB’s dominance in Hong Kong, its highest rating series are literally the most popular drama series in HK. Below are the top 10 most popular series for 2008…
1. Moonlight Resonance (34.6)
2. D.I.E (33.7)
3. Wars of In-Laws II (32.6)
4. Forensic Heroes II (32.1)
5. Catch Me Now (31.60)
6. The Silver Chamber of Sorrows (30.5)
7. Love Exchange (30.3)
8. A Journey Called Life (29.7)
9. Survivor’s Law II (29.7)
10. When a Dog Loves a Cat (29.5)