Relaxed, coiffed and dressed stylishly in a skinny tie and patent shoes, Hideki Saijo does not look the least bit jetlagged from a 10-hour plane ride. Speaking fondly of his career, band members and memories of San Francisco, he is completely at ease, which would make sense, given that he has entertained and performed in […]
ENTERTAINMENT RE-ORIENTED: TWO STEPS FORWARD, ONE STEP BACK: People of Color Dancing at the Box Office This Winter
December 10, 2009 by Leave a Comment
This holiday season’s top box office earners include a surprisingly large number of films about people of color. The controversial “Precious,” a gritty story about an obese, pregnant black teen, cracked the top 10 and “The Blind Side,” an “inspirational” story about a rich white lady who takes in a troubled, black teen, and turns […]
‘Ukulele Strikes a Chord with San Jose Japantown Music Instructor
November 26, 2009 by Leave a Comment
Originally trained as a computer hardware programmer, Rodney Takahashi has turned his passion for the ‘ukulele into a successful career as a music instructor. Takahashi teaches lessons at his store, Ukulele Jams, at 565 North Sixth Street in San Jose’s Japantown. The classes cover ‘ukulele picking, strumming and music theory. Takahashi, who originally operated his […]
‘Astro Boy’ Falls Short of Tezuka’s Trademark Storytelling Style
November 5, 2009 by Leave a Comment
This past month, Astro Boy, one of Japan’s greatest icons, made his debut in U.S. movie theaters. The new film, appropriately titled “Astro Boy,” is directed by British animator David Bowers (“Flushed Away”) and produced by Hong Kong’s Imagi Studios’ (the CGI-animated “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”) — with some oversight by Tezuka Productions, the company […]
ENTERTAINMENT RE-ORIENTED: Stereotypes Can Save the Balloon Boy’s Japanese Mom
October 29, 2009 by Leave a Comment
In last week’s column, I wrote about the refreshing lack of a racial angle in the media coverage of the so-called “balloon boy” incident. Just as we were going to press though, I came across an article on the ABC News Website that places a large amount of the blame for the incident on Japanese […]
ENTERTAINMENT RE-ORIENTED: Race and Reality: The ‘Balloon Boy,’ Jon & Kate
October 22, 2009 by Leave a Comment
On Wednesday last week, a six-year-old hapa boy captured the attention of the world when it was reported that he was trapped in a homemade helium balloon floating 15,000 feet in the air. Falcon Heene, dubbed “the balloon boy,” replaced President Obama’s New Orleans town hall meeting as the day’s big story on cable news. […]
SFMOMA’s First Postwar Japanese Photography Exhibit Charts the Evolution of Japanese Art and Society
October 1, 2009 by Leave a Comment
A young woman sitting in a garden, her kimono pulled back defiantly to reveal a single naked breast. A stray dog, glaring menacingly, teeth bared. A woman’s head, eyes gaping, jammed beneath the armpit of a muscular man, seemingly detached from her body but very much alive. These are images from postwar Japan as seen […]
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