Courageous dancing is no anomaly in Japan, but the particular kind of bravada that H*Art*Chaos brings to the Western dance world is definitely a new import. Sakiko Oshima formed her all-woman dance company in 1989 with the intention to overturn traditional concepts of female bodies and their modes of
Fuse "Blade Runner" with a Playboy cartoon and the result points in the direction of Masamune Shirow's animation. Imagine a dystopian sci-fi world, in which a strong female character both kicks ass and busts juicily out of her hi-tech body suit. Muscled sexuality flies everywhere as she defeats all t
When people look at Joan Chen, an irresistible urge to see her as the perfect china doll overcomes them, whether they are Chinese themselves or hail from the West. Chen's lifelong battle has been to act her way out of that porcelain persona, and to wrest the director's chair from the hands of those w
Yohji Yamamoto's 1999 spring fashion show is said to have made hardened fashion editors cry. The so-called King of Japanese Deconstructivism takes a poetic stance with his angular and hard-edged designs, emphasizing simplicity of both line and function. His work is filled with dark, sharp, vivid line