AUGUST IS...CONTROVERSY MONTH!

Today people aren't just getting pissy, they're getting controversial. Again: is it the heat? The humidity? The stress of geopolitical tension? Dunno. But suddenly everyone seems to have a problem with everyone else.

If you're the Korean Broadcasting Commission you've got a big problem with two shows: MUSIC CAMP and OLD MISS DIARY. On MUSIC CAMP two rockers dropped trou and showed the audience what they were packing during a broadcast. The musicians were arrested, the show was canceled, and KBC is still coming up with more punishments for the employees who let this horror happen. OLD MISS DIARY is a sitcom about life with the elderly, and they crossed the line when they aired an episode with an aged mother-in-law getting slapped across the face. They have to issue an official apology before their next episode and they can never, ever, ever show the slapping episode again. But, hey, we've all lived with the elderly and sometimes they do need a good slap, just to let them know what's what. Am I right, or am I right?

Stephen Chow is finally talking about his own little bowl of controversy, the scandal with KUNG FU HUSTLE leading lady, Huang Shengyi, suing to leave his company, Star Overseas. His comment? "It's the company's business." Yeah, but it's your company. And, by the way, what is fuggy?

In Japan, the people are getting nervous about the new movie, AEGIS OF A DOOMED COUNTRY (Bokoku no Aegis, in Japanese), about a hijacked warship with a chemical weapon that North Korean agents are trying to use to destroy Tokyo. It features immortal bits of philosophy, like: "A self-defense force that can't strike first isn't a real self-defense force," and "A country that doesn't recognize that is a failure as a country." But wouldn't it automatically not be self defense if you struck first? I'm confused. Anyways, Japanese people aren't confused. They say the movie, and the book it's based on, are calls for Japan to re-militarize. And the movie's been seen by almost a million people so far. (Read a review of the movie and the book by a big fan of both) (And look how young the author is)

And those reports of Vicky Zhao Wei getting drunk and ticking off triads in a Beijing bar? Fake, fans say. Just fake. And here I was just starting to like Vicky.

And although it hasn't caused controversy yet, I bet Hong Kong Councillor Lam Kit-sing's suggestion that HK open up a suicide theme park, will. Councillor Lam suggested that Cheung Chau, one of Hong Kong's out-lying islands, turn a beach house that's hosted 20 suicides and 5 attempts in the past 8 years be turned into a spoooky theme park. He thinks that the millions of folks visiting HK Disneyland would be willing to stop off afterwards and visit KillYourselfLand. He's got a point.