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Kim Yun-jin, the famous Korean actress from US TV series “Lost”, is making her comeback to Korean big screen with movie “Seven Days”.

Kim will play a successful lawyer who, in order to save her daughter, is pressured into defending a man who faces death penalty. The plot reminded me of Hollywood movie “The Juror” starring Demi Moore and Alec Baldwin… just that Demi Moore was playing as one of the jurors, while Kim as a lawyer.

Kim was already a popular actress in Korea before making her international fame with Lost. Her most successful film prior to Lost is probably “Shiri” (쉬리, Swiri) in 1999, which is her only movie that I have watched. She did very well.

Seven Days will be released on November 17. Below are some sneak peeks of the movie…
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Jolin Tsai is one of the most popular Taiwanese pop star.

Picture of Jolin Tsai

Jolin Tsai Profile

Name: Tsai Yi Lin, Jolin
Chinese name: 蔡依林
DOB: September 15, 1980
Birth place: Hsinchuang, Taipei, Taiwan
Height: 158-161cm (various sources)
Blood type: A
Profession: Singer

(Also known as Tsai I Lin, Cai Yilin)

Jolin Tsai Biography

Jolin Tsai inked a recording deal with Universal Music after winning a singing contest when she was 18. She released her first single in July 1999, and debut album “Jolin 1019″ in September. Her debut was a great success, making her an instant star in Taiwan.

Branded as the Teenage Boy Killer, Jolin released her 2nd album “Don’t Stop” in 2000, also with great success. Her 3rd and 4th album achieved decent sales, but didn’t perform as well as her previous albums. Furthermore, some contract dispute had led to her hiatus for more than a year in 2001-2002.

Jolin didn’t renew her contract with Universal and signed for Sony BMG in 2002. She released her comeback (5th) album “Magic” in 2003, and rose back to fame. Jolin shed her old image and turn into a more mature and sexy lady instead.

Jolin worked with famous pop star Jay Chou in Magic; and soon after both were rumoured to have a romance relationship. The rumoured relationship ‘lasted’ for almost 2 years before Jay was linked to another girl; both Jay and Jolin have never admitted to their relationship though.

Jolin released another 2 best-selling albums “Castle” and “J-Games” in 2004 and 2005 respectively, making her one of the top Chinese female singers.

Jolin signed for a new company, Capitol EMI in 2006. She released album “Dancing Diva” in May 2006, which becomes her best selling album thus far. Besides making breakthroughs in her music style, the album also branded her a dance diva, which she showed that she is worth the title in many occasions from her concerts and shows.

Jolin’s performance in Dancing Diva also landed her the prestigious Best Female Singer awards at the 18th Annual Golden Melody Awards in 2007.

Jolin has just released her latest album, “Agent J” in September 2007.

Jolin Tsai Related Websites

EMI ll Jolin Tsai Forum

Mainland Chinese star Li Xiaoran, Taiwanese celebrity Pace Wu and Hong Kong veteran actress Angie Chiu recently shot a series of photo, half naked, to raise breast cancer awareness.

The photos will feature on the October edition of TrendsHealth magazine in conjunction with the Breast Cancer Awareness Month, an annual international health campaign organized by major breast cancer charities every October to increase awareness of the disease and to raise funds for research into its cause, prevention and cure.

From top to bottom: Pace Wu, Li Xiaoran and Angie Chiu (Image courtesy of Sohu)

Bae Yong-joon is one of the most popular Korean actors, famous for TV dramas like “Hotelier”, “Winter Sonata” and movies like “April Snow” etc.

Picture of Bae Yong-joon

Bae Yong-joon Profile

Name: Bae Yong-joon
Korean name: 배용준
Japanese nickname: Yon-sama (ヨン様)
DOB: August 29, 1972
Birth place: Mapo-gu, Seoul, Korea
Height: 180cm
Blood type: O
Profession: Actor and businessman

(Also known as Bae Yong-jun, Bae Yong-june)

Bae Yong-joon Biography

Bae made his debut in TV drama “Salut D’Amour” (also known as “Greetings of Love”) in 1994. He starred in a few more dramas before making his breakthrough in 1997 with “First Love”. First Love was a huge success in Korea, but is relatively unknown in other countries.

Bae become internationally famous after starring in popular drama Hotelier in 2001. His popularity was further boost by the success of another popular drama “Winter Sonata” in 2002.

Winter Sonata, co-starring Choi Ji-woo (also co-star in First Love), is very popular across Asia especially in Japan. The drama made both stars iconic figures in Japan… they are still often rated the most popular Koreans in Japan these days.

Bae then surprised many with in 2003 with movie “Untold Scandal”, with some sensitive plots and sex scene (culture breaking in Asian sense). The movie didn’t perform well but Bae’s performance won acclaims and also landed his some best actor awards.

Bae then starred in movie “April Snow” (co-starring Son Ye-jin) in 2005. The movie was not a huge box office success in Korea, but was doing well across Asia (Japan in particular).

Bae’s latest project is in high budget epic TV drama “The Legend“, which has just started showing in Korea at the time of writing.

Bae Yong-joon Related Websites

Official Website ll Bae Yong-joon Forum

The Asia Song Festival 2007 was held in Seoul on Saturday (Sep 22). Dozen of pop stars from 9 countries entertained thousands of fans at the Seoul World Cup Stadium.

The show was emceed by TV host Choi Gi-hwan and singer-turn-actress Eugene Kim. The big names that performed in the show include F4 and A-mei (Taiwan), Gigi Leung (Hong Kong), Mai Kuraki (Japan), Vicki Zhao (China), Barbie Almalbis (Philippines), Golf & Mike (Thailand), Lam Truong (Vietnam), Peter Pan (Indonesia) and throng of Korean stars like TVXQ, Lee Hyori, Super Junior etc.

Choi Gi-hwan and Eugene Kim

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Macao gaming tycoon Stanley Ho has bought a rare bronze horse head plundered by British and French troops in the 19th century for HKD69.1 million (USD8.84 million) and donated it to the motherland last Thursday (Sep 20).

The bronze horse head and Mr Stanley Ho (Image courtesy of Xinhuanet)

The sale set a record in the trade of Chinese sculptures from the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), Sotheby’s Hong Kong said in a news release.

The deal stopped the national treasure looted from the Yuanmingyuan (the Old Summer Palace) being auctioned at Sotheby’s autumn auction in October.

“We do not agree with cultural relics which were smuggled, stolen, or looted in wars being auctioned,” Song Xinchao, director of museums department at the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, told a press conference on Thursday in Beijing.

He thanked Ho for his “patriotic act” and said the administration welcomes donations of cultural relics from abroad.

“I feel honored to have played a role in saving lost Chinese cultural relics from overseas,” Ho, 85, said in a statement.

Ho was ranked 104th on Forbes’ list of billionaires this year, with $7 billion in personal wealth. [Crienglish]

Actress Annie Shizuka Inoh poses with Chinese NBA star, Yao Ming, at a recent charity auction in Beijing (Sep 19)… Yao’s Houston Rocket jersey is more like a dress on Annie.

Annie Shizuka Inoh wearing Yao Ming’s jersey (Image courtesy of Xinhuanet)

The charity auction was jointly sponsored by Yao Ming and Phoenix Suns star Steve Nash. It is reported that the auction managed to raise 7 million Yuan (~ USD930,000) to finance kids’ education in China’s poorest regions.

Annie is famous Chinese artist. Also known as Annie Yi, the Taiwanese born star got her Japanese like name from her Japanese stepfather. She is one of the many celebrities that attended the event to support the charity cause.

High budget Korean drama “The Legend” has achieved great success since screening in Korea on September 10. The half fictional epic-sci-fi drama is based on the story of the king of Goguryeo in ancient Korean era, has achieve a decent rating of over 20% since its first episode.

The first 3 episodes shared the story of the king when he was young, and featured some young Korean actors. Bae Yong-joon and other main cast (Moon So-ri and Lee Ji-ah etc.) were introduced in the 4th episode, and the ratings soared up to 31.7%.

Actor Bae Yong-joon in The Legend

With the popularity of Bae, the drama is also highly anticipated in Japan. Japanese TV station NHK has announced that the drama will start showing on its channel from December 3.