71-year-old Japanese Katsusuke Yanagisawa became the oldest person to reach the summit of Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world [via BBC]
The retired teacher was 71 years, two months and two days old when he reached the 8,850 metre peak on May 22nd, beating the previous record set last year by another Japanese climber, Takao Arayama, who was 70 years, seven months and 13 days old.
On the other note… Ken Noguchi, a Japanese mountaineer, has led an expedition team of Japanese and Nepali to retrieve 500kg of rubbish left by previous climbers on the way to the summit.
Noguchi estimates that he has collected some 9,000kg of rubbish from Mount Everest during his five trips to the peak. The peak has been often described as the “world’s highest rubbish site”.
Jeon Do-yeon became the first Korean recipient of Cannes’s best actress award at the 60th Cannes Film Festival for her role in “Secret Sunshine”.
Secret Sunshine (or “Milyang”), starring Jeon Do-yeon and Song Kang-ho
An Indonesian fisherman has caught a coelacanth, a rare fish which was once thought to have extinct since the dinosaur era. Raw video below…
Chinese starlet Isabella Leong is set to feature in “Mummy 3″, co-starring Canadian actor Brendan Fraser, Chinese actor Jet Li, Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh, American actress Maria Bello, Scottish actor John Hannah, and Australian actor Luke Ford etc. What a multi-national cast lol.
The latest sequel of the popular Mummy franchise will start its filming in July 2007 in Montreal, Canada, and Xi’an, China.
Pepsi is planning to release a cucumber-flavoured soda drink in Japan this summer (and only for this summer)…
I wonder how it would taste like… I know, it’s going to taste like cucumber; but will it taste like vegetable juice or like Pepsi + cucumber flavour? I doubt I would fancy it either way, not that I have any chance to taste it though.
Japan’s Fuji TV is filming “Hana Kimi”, a drama series based on popular manga “Hanazakari no Kimitachi e” by Hisaya Nakajo.
Hana Kimi is about a girl who fell in love and decided to transfer into the same school to meet her dream guy. Problem is, the guy is attending an all-boys high school, and the girl would have to disguise as a HE to meet her Mr Right.
The manga was first adapted by the Taiwanese, starring Ella Chen, Wu Chun and Jiro Wang. The drama was a huge hit and prompted Fuji TV to produce the Japanese version, which will star Maki Horikita, Shun Oguri and Toma Ikuta etc.
Winners of the Asian Excellence Awards 2007, an event honouring Asians and Asian-Americans’ contributions to the world of arts and entertainment…
Outstanding film – “Letters From Iwo Jima”
Outstanding actor, film – Kal Penn, “The Namesake”
Outstanding actress, film – Rinko Kikuchi, “Babel”
Outstanding actor, TV – Masi Oka, “Heroes”
Outstanding actress, TV – Parminder Nagra, “ER”
Outstanding supporting actor, film – Dustin Nguyen, “Little Fish”
Outstanding supporting actress, film – Maggie Q, “Mission: Impossible III”
Outstanding supporting actor, TV – Rex Lee, “Entourage”
Outstanding supporting actress, TV – Mindy Kaling, “The Office”
Outstanding comedy performance – Margaret Cho
Favorite reality TV star – Yul Kwon, “Survivor: Cook Islands”
Outstanding independent film – “Journey From the Fall”
Lifetime achievement award – Chow Yun-Fat
Pioneer award – Nobu Matsuhisa, restaurateur
Visionary award – Vivienne Tam, fashion designer
“Sinking of Japan” (日本沈没; Nihon Chinbotsu) was a a 2006 remake of 1973 film “Japan Sinks”, based on a fictional novel by Sakyo Komatsu. The new movie was directed by Shinji Higuchi and starred Tsuyoshi Kusanagi and Kou Shibasaki etc.
The story is about Japan sinking into the sea due to tectonic plates’ motions… and time is running out for the Japanese as volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and tsunamis began to devour the soil.
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