YeinJee's Asian Blog

Asian Culture, Lifestyle and Entertainment


You are here: Home / Archives for General

Discovery archives - General news, society, culture, science and knowledge

Haruo Nakajima – The man in Godzilla suit

Short English documentary about Haruo Nakajima, the man who portrayed Godzilla in the first 12 movies of the popular Japanese media franchise.

The costume was made of concrete in the first Godzilla film in 1954, that alone deserves respect LoL. Check the rest about his early career from the video.

Nakajima also played other giant creatures in various movies and in the Ultraman TV series. Hence, in some ways he’s the real king of monsters in Japan.

He retired from his suit acting roles in 1972. Fans still remember him fondly, and many people credited him as the greatest suit actor of all time.

Rest in peace

[Update] The legend passed away in August 2017, aged 88.

“In the end, the Godzilla I played remains on the film forever. It remains in people’s memory, and for that I feel really grateful.” ~ Haruo Nakajima

Daily life in North Korea as a foreign tourist

Video by travel blogger Jacob Laukaitis who visited North Korea with a tour group earlier this year. He revealed the basic do’s and don’ts at the beginning of the film, and he didn’t hide the fact that most of the things he seen were staged.

Set politics (and atom bombs) aside, an interesting tourism video for the “mysterious” country. It reminds me of my trip to China in late 90’s, in other words North Korea seems to be 15-20 years behind some parts of the world.

Nepal Earthquake

The death toll following the earthquake in Nepal has risen to over 4300 and still rising. United Nations says that eight million people have been affected, and over a million need food aid. I’m not a religious person, pray if you wish (no sarcasm meant) but it’s more practical to send donation via relevant bodies.

Korea to ban young celebs in alcohol ads

South Korea has passed a bill to restrict people who are younger than 25-years-old from appearing in advertisements for alcoholic beverages.

The bill was proposed when figure skating star Kim Yu-na advertised for a beer in 2012, which created debates on how popular idols could influence young people into drinking, which is becoming a huge concern in Korea.

Koreans do drink a lot. Surprisingly they are not even in the top 20 when it comes to alcohol consumption per capita (data by OECD and WHO)… either the stats are crooked or those countries on top are in serious shit.

The biggest name affected by the news is popular singer IU who’s 21. There used to be more young idols involved (in alcohol commercials) but seems like most beverage companies are self-restraining in this matter for the past couple of years.

Not sure how much this bill could help regardless. Drinking culture in Korea is deeply rooted, youngsters have way too many channels (when they grow up, if not sooner) to get into the habit beside celebrity endorsements.