Earlier this month, Dorkaholics covered the red carpet of J-Screen, an event hosted by the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) Los Angeles. We spoke with guests in attendance, all members of the entertainment industry such as Show Kasamatsu (Tokyo Vice), Masumi (Yakuza Princess), Kore-eda Hirokazu (Monster), Hikari (Beef), Kenny Leu (Yakuza Princess), Christina Higa (From Scratch), and influencer Jeff Yamazaki. Stay tuned for more footage from the red carpet.
Hi, my name is Neil, I’m with Dorkaholics, where we believe that there’s a dork in everyone, and it’s our job to bring that dork out into the world.
Show Kasamatsu: Dangerous, dangerous platform.
What made you a dork growing up?
Show Kasamatsu: Whenever I get into something, I tend to go very, very deep. So take Manga, like One Piece, I’ll take those really famous lines that the characters say, and I was that kid who would say those lines secretly. He was the kind of kid who would always say the famous lines in One Piece and other manga. That’s my dork.
Favorite line?
Show Kasamatsu: In Japanese? What should I say? People’s dreams never end!
Who said that?
Show Kasamatsu: Blackbeard.
Masumi: Oh, I think it’s the fantasy times. I’m very good at escaping into my fantasies and I create all the stories. And it’s always very detailed and so I can’t tell if I’m still living in the fantasy or if I’m in reality. I was the dreamy girl.
Kenny Leu: Just being Asian. But also you know what? It is watching cartoons at 6 o’clock in the morning. And I grew up in a time when anime wasn’t a thing. And so, you know, I saw Dragon Ball at 6 o’clock in the morning when they were showing it bi-weekly. And I was like, oh, what is this? I don’t have access to this. There’s no internet back then. And so, that really converted me into a dork because to this day, I still watch anime.
Jeff Yamazaki: Ooh, ooh, this one. I was into magic. I was trying to be better at magic, but I wasn’t very good. And so I used to be getting into, what do you call it, cardistry. It’s called cardistry, where you kind of shuffle cards with your hand. It’s very dorky, very nerdy, but that’s something I’ve been doing for maybe a year or two during high school. And no one, none of my friends did it. I just did it in secret, just like online forums. That’s like something that’s very nerdy and dorky that I’ve been into, growing up in high school.
What was your best trick?
Jeff Yamazaki: I guess there’s no trick, but it’s literally, you use both hands and six separate deck, six separate piles of cards all in your hand, and then you kind of shuffle, and kind of pretty impressed by myself when I learned that it was all through YouTube, but very fun to do growing up.
HIKARI: Oh my god, I think just being myself. I guess I’m not afraid. I just like to express myself. And then people think I’m a dork cause I just don’t shut up. I just do whatever I want. I mean you’re looking at one right now. And I’m an adult who’s a dork.
Hirokazu Kore-eda: Clay. I love clay very much. Because you can make anything with it. I recall making this kaiju that I saw from Ultraman using clay when I was really, really young. So that’s my dork.
I look forward to seeing clay in more of your movies.
Hirokazu Kore-eda: I’ll do my best.
Christina Higa: So I just shot, um, a feature film that premiered this year in Japan called Iké Boys and it’s like an anime live action film. And I was exposed to so many different kinds of anime and that whole culture. Even though I grew up in Tokyo, through shooting this movie, I got to understand more of my own culture and all of the anime and the kind of like otaku films. And I have a deep love for it now.
Jackson Englund: I mean, when I was a kid, I loved spiking my hair and I was wearing glasses. I was a little dork for a bit there. I’ve always been into a kind of counterculture, you know. I don’t love just hanging out with the cool kids. I think that the dorks are actually the coolest. And always prevail over the cool kids, you know? And that’s the kind of beauty of being a dork, is [that] you’re actually cooler than the cool kids, in my opinion. I also just love to read and love anime too.
