Asian cinema refers to the film industries and films produced in the continent of Asia, and is also sometimes known as Eastern cinema. More commonly however, it is most often used to refer to the cinema of Eastern, Southeastern and Southern Asia. West Asian cinema is sometimes classified as part of Middle Eastern cinema, along with the cinema of Egypt. The cinema of Central Asia is often grouped with the Middle East, or in the past the cinema of the Soviet Union during the Soviet Central Asia era. North Asia is dominated by Siberian Russian cinema, and is thus considered part of European cinema.
East Asian cinema is typified by the Cinema of Japan, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea, including the Japanese anime industry and action films of Hong Kong. Southeast Asian cinema is typified by the cinema of the Philippines, Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries. The cinema of Central Asia and the southern Caucasus is typified by Iranian cinema and Tajikistan. West Asian cinema is typified by Arab cinema, Turkish cinema, and the cinema of Israel. Finally, South Asian cinema is typified by the cinema of India, which includes the Bollywood, South Indian and Bengali film industries, the latter also grouped together with the cinema of Bangladesh as Bengali cinema.
Cheng Pei-pei (simplified Chinese: 郑佩佩; traditional Chinese: 鄭佩佩; Mandarin Pinyin: Zhèng Pèipèi; Jyutping: Cheng6 Pui3 Pui3; born 4 December 1946 in Shanghai) is an actress best known for her performance in the seminal 1966 King Hu wuxia film Come Drink with Me. She continued to play expert swordswomen in a number of films throughout the 1960s. In 2000, she returned to international attention with her role as Jade Fox in Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (which also marked the first time that she had been cast in a villain role in a martial arts film). She followed this up with her portrayal of Long Po in the 2004 television miniseries Watery Moon, Hollow Sky, which was shown on Asian-American television as Paradise. She continues to work for Zhouyi Media in mainland China.
Suresh Babu (Malayalam: സുരേഷ് ബാബു) (10 February 1953 – 19 February 2011) was an Indian long jumper from Kerala who had held the national titles in the long, triple, and high jump events, in addition to the decathlon. He was one of the athletes to win medals in two events in successive Asian Games, the bronze in the decathlon in the Tehran Asian Games in 1974 and a gold in the long jump in the Bangkok Asian Games, 1978.
Suresh Babu dominated the scene between 1972 and 1979, winning national titles in the jumps and decathlon and at the same time picking his event for laurels on the international arena.
Babu died on 19 February 2011 in Ranchi while attending the 2011 National Games of India.
Born in Kollam in Kerala on 10 February 1953, Suresh Babu was a science graduate who was good in athletics. He excelled as an athlete in Infant Jesus High School and the Fatima Mata College in Kollam. His first appearance at the national level -was as a junior at Jalandhar in 1969. Three years later he won the national championship in high jump, a title he was to claim for six more years. Switching from one pit to another, he won the national championship in long jump during the years 1974, 1977 and 1979 and the triple jump in 1974, 1976 and 1978. In between he strayed over to the ten card event of decathlon and imposed himself on the national scene in the championships held in 1974, 1975 and 1978.
Bruce Lee (born Lee Jun-fan; 27 November 1940 – 20 July 1973) was a Chinese AmericanHong Kong actor,martial arts instructor, philosopher, film director, film producer, screenwriter, and founder of the Jeet Kune Do martial arts movement. He is widely considered by many commentators, critics, media and other martial artists to be the most influential martial artist and pop culture icon of the 20th Century. He is often credited with changing the way Asians were presented in American films.
Lee was born in San Francisco to parents of Hong Kong heritage but was raised in Hong Kong until his late teens. Lee returned to the United States at the age of 18 to claim his U.S. citizenship and receive his higher education. It was during this time that he began teaching martial arts, which soon led to film and television roles.
His Hong Kong and Hollywood-produced films elevated the traditional Hong Kong martial arts film to a new level of popularity and acclaim, and sparked a major surge of interest in Chinese martial arts in the West in the 1970s. The direction and tone of his films changed and influenced martial arts and martial arts films in Hong Kong and the rest of the world, as well. He is noted for his roles in five feature-length films: Lo Wei's The Big Boss (1971) and Fist of Fury (1972); Way of the Dragon (1972), directed and written by Lee; Warner Brothers' Enter the Dragon (1973) and The Game of Death (1978), both directed by Robert Clouse.
Yukari Ōshima (大島由加里 Ōshima Yukari, Pinyin: Dàidǎo Yóujiālǐ, born December 31, 1963) is a Japanese actress and martial artist. Born Tsumura Yukari (津村ゆかり) in Nishi-ku, Fukuoka, Japan, to a successful Japanese businessman and fashion designer and to a Chinese woman. Yukari began studying Gōjū-ryū in junior high.
She was one of Japan's brightest female martial artists during the 1980s and one of the leading ladies of the babes and bullets fad of Hong Kong action cinema. She's known as the role "Farrah Cat" in Bioman, which aired not only in Japan originally but also worldwide. She is best known to Western audiences as Yomi in Riki-Oh. After her Hong Kong career dried up, she left for the Philippines in the 1990s and used the stage name Cynthia Luster.
Oshima resides in Fukuoka, Japan, where she's promoted tourism in the city. She is commonly known to Western audiences as the actress in the Marlboro Lite commercials (in the late 1990s).[citation needed]