6 hot guys, 1 phone call.

From a (slightly abbreviated) conversation I had last night - with my mum. Leave it to me to find a way to weave 6 uncommonly attractive men into one phone call.

"Mom, I'm crazy about a Korean singer."
"Your brother told me. I told him that's not possible because you were just obsessing over Soler last night."
"Don't worry, I'm still crazy about Soler. In fact, when I went out today, I was looking for their studio again." (It's hidden somewhere in my neighborhood.)
"So who is this new guy?"
"He's from a Korean boy band. You said Korean guys are cute so you should be happy with my choice. He can sing, he can dance, he's quiet, sweet. His English is okay too. Much better than Hong Kong pop stars these days. They're not like the older generation. Tony Leung has good English."
"Really?"
"Yeah! I'll send you a YouTube clip. I wanted to buy Duke of Mount Deer today when I went past the bookstore."
"What is that?"
"It's a wuxia novel."
"I don't read."
"I know, Mom. I'm not sure how you have a double English major daughter. Anyway, it's been made into a tv show many times. Tony Leung was in a TVB version in the 1980s. Even Huang Xiaoming was in the most recent one. Did you know he's also going to be in a new movie with my other crush, Donnie Yen."
"Who?"
"I didn't tell you about my crush on Donnie Yen?"
"Who's Donnie Yen? I've never even heard of him."
"Oh my goodness. Don't you watch Hong Kong movies? He's the top martial artist right now. Among Hong Kong martial arts legends, there's Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Donnie Yen."
"I've never heard of him."
"Ai! His mom's a wushu sifu who helped bring martial arts to America. They moved to Boston when he was young. Then he started getting into trouble -"
"Like Bruce Lee."
"- so his mom sent him to Beijing. After his studies, he took a detour in Hong Kong on his way back to America and ended up working with Yuen Woo-Ping."
"Who?"
"Mom! He's one of the most famous action directors in Hong Kong!"
"Oh, wasn't he in a Danny Chan movie?"
"Yes! He played the goofy suitor to Paula Tsui in Merry Christmas. Anyway, they started working together and the rest is history. I'll send you a link so you can see who Donnie Yen is."
"Okay, whatever."
"Do you want me to send you the link to a music video of this Korean guy?"
"No."

Your loss, Mum, your loss. But credit to her for listening to me spout nonsense, which I've been doing since I first laid eyes on Joey McIntyre. My birthday's coming up, a reminder I need to grow up. But I'll do what I'm best at and procrastinate.

'Ip Man 2' peek.

Wait, Donnie Yen and Huang Xiao Ming together, in one movie (and not some sprawling cinematic excuse to throw every Mainland and Hong Kong actor together for the purposes of buffeting Party popularity - I'm talking to you, Founding of a Republic (建國大業))? Yes, it is true, even though I'm late to the news. Ip Man 2 (葉問2:宗師傳奇) will star 2 of my now favorite people. This should be a decided step up for Mr. Huang whose last foray into the Hong Kong film industry was a little doozy called The Sniper (神鎗手), or more popularly 'Edison Chen's last (proper) movie'. Unfortunately, much of the press surrounding the release focused on Mr. Chen's sex scandal fallout, and the subsequent slicing and dicing of the film to minimize the budding photographer's screen time reduced it to a skeletal shoot em up number. Mr. Huang, however, seems to have a knack for prime roles, or he has a top agent. Aside from scoring substantial television parts that helped establish him as an upcoming star (particularly Return of the Condor Heroes (神鵰俠侶) and Shanghai Bund (新上海灘)), he also landed in Feng Xiaogang's sparse retelling of Hamlet. The Banquet (夜宴) featured international and art house favorites Zhang Ziyi and Ge You and L'Oreal Men spokeperson Daniel Wu. Not too shabby. So expect Ip Man 2 to rocket Huang further up the star ladder. Not only is it a much anticipated sequel to a popular and well-received movie, a young Bruce Lee will also feature in the story. Fans are already having wet dreams about this one.