If you don’t know already, The Banana Times and I have worked frequently with the Heroic Melon Collective. The HMC’s history is a new one, and as of April 2010 it would be one year old! I am truly proud to be part of Heroic Melon for many reasons, most recently because of THIS. It’s like raising a child that breastfeeds from 5 heterosexual (for the most part) fathers. Quite an image (:

On to the main point. Even though the HMC is still in its infant stages, we managed to garner a following so numerous it can trample over the Derek Zoolander Center For Kids Who Can’t Read Good And Who Wanna Learn To Do Other Stuff Good Too‘s model.. To that effect we present to you this amazing piece of fan art from xlithiumflowerx aka Kei-chan (that’s what I call her)!!

On behalf of the HMC, we are truly honored and ecstatic to receive this awesome token of appreciation. Go check out her deviatart site HERE! She has other amazing artwork like this Kamen Rider!! How crazy is that?! Also follow her on Twitter KOCHI!

To end off, here’s a little bit of “art” that I did, dedicated to the Heroic Melon Collective (:

(Hiroiku Meron Korekuchibu)

I ran out of magnets to make double consonants or innovative Katakana characters, but it still works! (the tail of ‘チ’ could bend a little more..)

-phibz.

Even though we are at the 19th day of the new decade, the Decading Bananas series shall continue until the end of January, as it still marks the events and cultures of the past 10 years. In Part III of Decading Bananas, we are going to open a time capsule of sorts and reveal what kind of influences, interests and fads I was into, as an unknowing young Banana, a short decade ago.

Every time I visit Hong Kong, I always experience several attacks of nostalgia during the journey home from the airport. Even just sitting in my room (which has evolved over the years) and panning my eyes across the short buildings of the neighbourhood, history, my history, naturally unfolds in my mind. This time around I wanted to look for objects that would help me pinpoint what I kind of culture, media and fads I was into around 10 years ago. To my surprise, it was sitting on my shelf the whole time. And this is what I found:

Ten years ago I was an avid collector of CoCo, a bi-weekly comic magazine printed in Hong Kong that regularly featured Japanese manga, local comics as well as gaming news. It was first released in 1997 around the time British rule was handed back to China. Whether the Handover had significance in the birth of this magazine is unknown, but I will look into it. I actually own several issues from 1997 but shall only highlight the ’99 and ’00 issues as it marks what happened a decade ago. The snapshots that follow are the popular trends, manga and culture I, and many other teens, were into at the brink of the millennium.

Like many 10-12 year olds back in late 1999 and early 2000s, I was very much immersed in the global Digimon fad. Ten years ago in Hong Kong, you would be hard pressed to find a kid who did not own Digimon product. Many had 7 or more Digimon Virtual Pets attached to a single key chain, myself included. CoCo followed this trend religiously, to the point where they printed Digimon fan-fiction created by local Hong Kong artists:

In this fan-fiction, Tai has Gomamon and an overweight ExVeemon as his partners

Decapitated DarkTyrannomon versus Etemon

Puppetmon on CoCo cover

*Nerd Alert!* Digimon Adventure was in the midst of airing in Japan at this point, and I don’t think they reached the Dark Masters arc yet. The Puppetmon on this cover of CoCo was to promote the latest Digimon Virtual Pet device that was released, Digimon Pendulum IV: Wind Guardians.

Another major trend in Hong Kong were fighting games such as Street Fighter and King of Fighters. At around the turn of the millenium SNK versus Capcom was released and CoCo followed suit, releasing fan-fictions along the way:

The Match Of The Millenium, well titled

Kyo and Ryu powering up

SNK VS Capcom Fanfiction opening

Noticed how they covered up Mai’s cleavage? Censoring at its best (:

Continuing with another trend in CoCo at the time was Bomberman, but not in the regular sense. These are Bombermen who have marbles at their core, who can either shoot energy blasts out of them, or are used as toys used by teens at tournaments. Both types of these marble-Bombermen have spawned into manga and anime series:

Marble-Bomberman Toys

Marble-Bomberman Toys

Marble-Bomberman Manga

From 1999 to 2000, the world was in between the 1998 France FIFA World Cup and the upcoming 2002 Korea/Japan FIFA World Cup. Even though we were in between the two events, local Hong Kong artists and CoCo kept the football (soccer, for you North Americans) spirit alive through parodies and fan-fiction comics:

Ronaldo caricature on CoCo cover

World Cup manga in CoCo

The once hugely popular Mini-4WD trend was going downhill at this point in time, but CoCo continued to feature them in their issues going into the millennium:

Bakusō Kyōdai Let's & Go MAX promotion

Let's & Go manga in CoCo

Here are some remaining trends, manga and anime that were highlighted by CoCo 10 years ago:

So there you have it. What one of the creators of TheBananaTimes was into 10 years ago. Needless to say my love and passion for anime and manga remains unchanged, but of course I have become more selective to which ones I watch and read. For example, no matter how sexually desperate I was as a young pubescent boy, I would never find the weird-looking big-breasted women in the snapshot above, attractive in any sense. The same goes for now…

Manga and Anime will always be a big part of my creative life and personal life, and it seemed that way back in the year 1999 and 2000 (:

-phibz.

A couple of months ago, I had a conversation with a good friend about my future and how The Banana Times is going to progress. One option for my future was to work for a few years then return to school for a masters degree in possibly Journalism. She asked why not Film Studies, and travel the world for my thesis. I responded “but I wouldn’t know what to write about”. With a brief hesitation I said “…Banana Cinema?”. In retrospect it was an obvious answer, but it never crossed my mind. Naturally, my friend knew this would be the answer all along.

It makes perfect sense since the national cinemas around the world have already been deeply covered and analyzed. Looking further, we live in such a globalized, information-dependent, and international society that language is becoming less and less of a requirement. With that said, national cinemas are evolving beyond the restrictions of their geography and race, thus Banana Cinema is possible.

Banana Cinema will not be contained within a country or a specific culture. It will encompass many Asian cultures and the traces they leave in broadening their horizons past their borders and into other identities. This is definitely something new that can be explored, where a national cinema requires not a nation, but a unified globalized ideology of sorts.

Looking back in the last 10 years, were there any potential young representatives of Banana Cinema that came about? Here are a three people I thought of who have made strides in culture, art and media, as well as influenced myself and The Banana Times (alphabetical order):

John Cho (Actor):

We know John Cho from the American Pie films, Harold & Kumar, and now in ABC’s new drama, Flashforward. Cho has made his mark with the Asian community by by portraying the stereotypical yellowman in Harold & Kumar (soon to be) trilogy, but has graciously advanced into deeper roles such as the revamped Hikaru Sulu in JJ Abrams’ Star Trek and even a guest spot on How I Met Your Mother as the Caucasian-named Jeff Coatsworth. In my opinion his most significant “Banana” role was in Justin Lin’s Better Luck Tomorrow where he played the cunning spoiled Asian high-school student, Steve Choe. More on the film later.

Utada Hikaru (Singer/Songwriter):

Utada Hikaru has very little to do with cinema, let alone Banana Cinema, but she has made huge strides in bringing together Asian and Western audiences. Utada’s body of work speaks for itself, with 5 Japanese and 3 English studio albums selling well over 70 million copies. Although her English work is not as powerful or influential as her native tongue, her global reach is undeniable. You’d be hard pressed to find an Anime lover or a gamer who has not heard of Utada Hikaru (Kingdom Hearts, Rebuild of Evangelion). Personally, if Easy Breezy was not selected as her American debut single, Exodus would have been way more popular and recognized (an underrated album methinks).

Justin Lin (Director):

Born in Taiwan and grew up in LA, Justin Lin made one of the most relatable film to Banana Cinema. Better Luck Tomorrow revolved around a group of Asian-American high school students who became bored of school life and resorted to crime and violence. It was made with a very low budget ($250,000) but made it to the Official Selection of Sundance and the Toronto International Film Festival. The stereotypical Asian student who excels in school is portrayed relevantly, with a splash of crime and drama reminiscent of many Hong Kong films. Lin went on to direct Annapolis and Fast & Furious, but he will forever be remembered, at least in our eyes, by the man who possibly kickstarted Banana Cinema.

Please note that the aforementioned three people are not in any way better or more significant than any other possible representatives of Banana Cinema or any topic regarding the blending of Asian and Western cultures. They were elaborated on because of their emergence in the last decade more or less.

Honorable Mentions (alphabetical):
Jackie Chan, Chow Yun Fat, Ang Lee, Bruce Lee, Jet Li, Lucy Liu, Masi Oka, Ken Watanabe, John Woo, Michelle Yeoh, Zhang Ziyi

-phibz.

The first decade of our second millennia is coming to a close in 6 days, and it seems a little anti-climactic. But to highlight this landmark event, we here at TheBananaTimes are going to countdown to 2010 with a series of posts called “Decading Bananas: Hong Kong”. As I am now in Hong Kong and will be dissolving into the new year here as well, I will comment and enlighten some cultural, historical and social topics in the past 10 years, mostly relating to the my own experiences and more importantly, the big picture – The Banana.

PART I – THE COMMERCIAL HARBOUR

Being an international student growing up in Hong Kong, the pop culture we absorbed was mainly from the television (Note: International students in HK attended schools where English was the primary language being taught, local students were taught in Cantonese). Those of my generation experienced their childhood and adolescence in a Hong Kong still under British rule with the looming and inevitable handover on the horizon. This meant that the media that we were surrounded by were not necessarily national, and as our schools implied, but were mixed in Eastern and Western cultures.

Post-handover and into the 2000s, Hong Kong TV still retained its bilingual tendencies and its international reputation even increased. Due to the dip in the economy after the 1997 handover from British rule, tourism was a financial savior, and thus the international, consumerist and packaged Hong Kong was more apparent than ever. Spawning from this tourist dependency was a flurry of intricate, touching, narratively rich television commercials and advertisements.

My first day back in town, I had the privilege to check out a Cathay Pacific commercial shoot. I got to Cathay City, the main headquarters of the corporate airliner. They had a half a floor filled with interior sets of airplanes, from models of the 80s up until the latest “fishbone” model today. Walking around the sets was nostalgic and almost dreamlike.

The director was an Englishman, Laurence Dunmore (directed The Libertine), whose fast-pace efficient style controlled the flow of the set intricately. His direction was voiced in a firm and demanding tone but was not intended to be forceful or even rude, just efficient. This attitude suits Hong Kong’s work ethic perfectly, where unnecessary work and roundabout methods are frowned upon. Any thing or time that is wasted is a hindrance to success. It is a dream for any Hong Kong artist in charge of a multilingual set to operate like this.

Another CX commercial directed by Laurance Dunmore

Other than the director and 4 or 5 other people, the rest of the crew were Cantonese speakers. Even with the majority of the cast and crew being Chinese, Dunmore’s fast-pace efficiency still held out. This goes to show the potential of international collaboration in a place like Hong Kong. After realizing this, I discovered where my inter-disciplinary mindset and attraction to cross-cultural creativity originates. This way of thinking was how The Banana Times came about.

The commercials that I have been drawn to, and that have inspired me in the last decade was a clear foundation behind The Banana Times and what we aim to do here. I only hope that even after 12 years after the handover from British rule that this collaborative and unified ideology will not fade, and that Hong Kong is not the only post-colonial region that has adopted this creative practice.

One of my favourite CX commercials

I shall conclude Part I of Decading Bananas here, and ask why not encourage cross-cultural understanding and integration under the common goal of creativity and art? Even if it is for commercial purposes. Until Part II, I bid you all a very happy Christmas!

-phibz.

For those of you who don’t know, The Banana Times Productions, our film and video producing affiliate, is part of a creative hub called the Heroic Melon Collective. This includes Lemon Meringue Productions who created the Awkward Compilation and others such as Bujumed Music.

We have worked with each other as separate entities before but only formed the HMC recently. Even so, we have had many enjoyable and productive experiences.

And so, here is a video retrospect of what we have been doing thus far:

We hope you enjoy it!

Join our The Banana Times Facebook group here!

And our HMC group here!

-phibz

The Banana Times Productions presents,
The Banana Times Productions Highlight Reel

This video is a reel of The Banana Times Productions’ existing and upcoming work. Hope you enjoy it!

The reel was shown at the Awkward Night Out screening event, which showcased Awkward 5, Awkward Orgins and Awkward 6 by Lemon Meringue productions (join us at The Awkward Compilation Facebook group). You can watch the final episodes in links below:

Awkward 5
Awkward Origins
Awkward 6

The Banana Times Productions is also part of a creative hub of aspiring artists from various media called the Heroic Melon Collective. The HMC consists of film, video, music, art and entertainment that will provide a diverse and constant stream of work for our online and offline audiences.

Join our HMC group here!
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=136806583547&ref=ts

-phibz.

At the Awkward Night Out

The Banana Times reporting from Hong Kong!

I have decided to continue the nerdiness and write another post about Anime and Manga because.. Well. Why the hell not?

Since I returned to Hong Kong from Beijing, I made sure I had my Canon Digital IXUS 75 in my pocket ready to capture some interesting images for myself and for the blog at any given moment. Ever since Hong Kong allowed unlimited customization on license plates, its been a lot easier to not only catch Anime/Manga references, but also easier to make fun of the locals and their English (I guess I used to be one? Not anymore? I’ve been Bananaized).

Helo Kity? So its hee-low kai-tee. Looks like something from Engrish.com

D…Gary-Man?! Another lost child of Engrish. Satoshi Tajiri is gonna be piiissed. Or rather, whoever came up with the English names for the Pokemon characters is gonna be pissed. How the fuck does Satoshi become Ash Ketchum? (ZOMG EVA REBUILD 1.0 DVD!!!)

Okay, this isn’t Anime or Manga related (a Winnie The Pooh manga would be kinda cool?) but its pretty post-worthy. Look how he judges us with his ignorant smile..

Okay. WSJ means Wall Street Journal, but it can also stand for Weekly Shonen Jump! The most popular manga magazine in the WORLD? Duh. I know its a stretch, but hey, it works. And what’s the deal of releasing the Wall Street Journal on September 11th..

Yamada! Hermes is EVERYWHERE in Hong Kong!
I know its a popular luxury fashion brand and its in a lot of places,  but the train man inside of me just had to take picture. And to end it off:

Suneo from Doraemon says FOK!

I have a few more days left in Hong Kong, so the search for more Anime/Manga references continues! Until next time.

Yes. This is where I am, where I grew up, where The Dark Knight was filmed (and yes, I did take this photo).

-phibz.

Also known as ACGHK, it is Hong Kong’s annual comic, animation, games and book fair held every summer. The games and comics fair were separate but merged in 2008. The day before we flew to Beijing, The Banana Times took the opportunity to catch the last day of the fair with hopes of seeing what was left of manga and anime awesomeness. First things first, I had to find the Alchemist.

I was watching some Hong Kong television and I managed to catch an episode of FMA:B in Cantonese, and they were only ONE episode behind the Japanese release schedule. But they translated the new series as “Fullmetal Alchemist FA”, which is just saying the title twice..

The Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood stall:

The Hong Kong Convention crowd:

Hey, that’s a pretty cool-looking action figure. It kinda looks like a – no way…

Your eyes are not deceiving you. That is some sort of manga character made out of a shoe. Remember that great South Park episode with the Chinpokomon? Someone took it way too seriously (0:34 mark).

One Piece x Dragonball Z Cross Epoch! Son Luffy! Awesomeness! And my nerdiness would not be complete without wearing a t-shirt that had “manga” written printed on it (or man hua/man hwa if you’re Chinese or Korean).

I wish I could compare the atmosphere, structure and fandom of Asian conventions and North American conventions but unfortunately, due to my ignorance and inexperience, I have yet to attend an Anime or Manga convention in the West. But I can say one thing for sure. Geeks, nerds and Otaku are everywhere, and we’re only growing. Hell, the term “Densha Otoko” has crept its way into contemporary Hong Kong culture already.

Anime North 2010, I’ll see you soon.

-phibz.

We’re in Hong Kong!!

Actually, as of right now, I’m in Beijing doing some volunteer camera and editing work for the International Nature-Loving Association‘s Fifth International Youth Dance Festival. We did two shows, one on August 10th and the other on August 11th, and overall it was an unexpectedly awesome experience.

Before I started working, I had the mentality of just getting it done and over with as I was in Hong Kong for only two days before I flew to the North City of China. But once I started working, getting more responsibilities and meeting new people, not only did I start to like being in the Communist Capital (no Facebook, YouTube or Twitter – it sucks, I know) but it renewed my passion for film, television and media productions.

I’ll post more about my Beijing trip once I return to Hong Kong and get actual rest. For now, turn your attention to a great photo I took during the two days I was in Hong Kong:

What is he holding? What is he doing looking down the drain? This was taken after an Anime and Manga convention, more on that later as well.

-phibz.

The Banana Time Productions presents,
Craft Tempura: Prologue

Craft Tempura is a short stop-motion piece that is set in a world where fruits and vegetables are the dominant species of the planet. The story revolves around a teenage boy of Banana descent setting off on a journey to discover his past and himself. This a prologue to a much wider story that will come to fruition during the course of the coming year. Each episode would require a lot of fruits so we’ll take this project a little slower.

Without further ado – Craft Tempura: Prologue:

Enjoy!

-phibz.