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The Revenge of Donnie Yen
Donnie Yen is a staple in the world of good quality kung fu movies. His major fight with Jet Li in Once Upon a Time in China II is one of the best fight scenes around. He’s shown off some awesome moves as the father of the celebrated Wong Fei Hung in Iron Monkey. When […]
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‘Tekkonkinkreet’
A new spin on yin-yang
Yin and yang, day and night, the balance of opposites — this idea has been so overused that it has become an eye-rolling cliche in modern media expressions, despite its profound and ancient roots.
However, Michael Arias’ adaptation of Taiyo Matsumoto’s graphic novel Black and White into a feature-length anime film called […] -
Jabbawockeez, Unmasked
MTV’s hot show America’s Best Dance Crew has been raging along, and now only four dance crews are left of the original 12 finalists. Yet most people still don’t know how Asian American-dominated this competition is.
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J-pop Teen Titans
When fans of Japanese anime turned on the tube to check out the Teen Titans, an anime-influenced animated series based on the DC Comics superhero team and produced by Warner Bros. Animation, they raised their fists in protest, calling the series a sad imitation of the genre they loved so
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Read or Die
Wolverine’s got adamantium, Superman’s got strength and the Hulk’s got green, radioactive rage. Yomiko Readman, however, has the power of paper. That’s right. Paper.
As the lovable main character of the manga series and -
Manga: The Complete Guide
Akira is considered a legendary work of comic art, referred to by many as a masterpiece of manga, or Japanese graphic novel. Copies of this creation by Katsuhiro Otomo can be found sitting benignly in the graphic novel section of public libraries, where youth often gather in packs to devour the hot new medium.
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Mr. (Chinese) Vampire
The old story in China goes that people who died far from home and needed to be brought back for burial were sometimes transported as re-animated corpses to save money. They became jiang shi, or what many English speakers refer to as Chinese vampires. Instead of blood, they killed people to feast upon their qi, […]
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Net These Butterflies
The story known as Liang Zhu or The Butterfly Lovers is one of the most popular and well-known legends of China. While often called the Romeo and Juliet of the East, the first record of Liang Zhu is from the ninth century, 700 years before Shakespeare.
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Martial Arts Era Ends
When Jet Li came out on the American silver screen in 1998 as a bad guy on Lethal Weapon 4, we all dutifully went to the theater. I remember feeling odd by the fact that Li wasn’t protecting the weak and saving the day like he did in Asian films like Wong Fei Hong (Once […]
