Ganesh will always bring me memories of Asami Mizukawa [1].
Here’s a clip of the show featuring Black Ganesha. xD
Archives For September 2013
I subscribed to the KhamatovaInfo YouTube channel not long ago and they uploaded this clip of what seems to be the latest season of Lednikoviy Period (Ледниковый период) — or Ice Age, if you must. An “ice-skating with the stars” kind of TV contest. In the clip linked above, there’s a tiny appearance by Khamatova as guest (or maybe guest judge??), so I went quick-digging… and found this~
Scottish ice-skating turned ice-skating Riverdance with a totally focused Khamatova.
Apparently Chulpan was part of the first series of the show that aired back in 2007, in which she was paired with ice-skater (ice-dancer???) Roman Kostomarov, and pushed ahead to become the winner of the season. This is the moment that I grin knowing Chulpan is multi-talented — and actually remember that she used to ice-skate before an injury.
Plus, it’s really an advantage that the guy leads.
Here are the list of her performances I could find:
- Hip Hop (I suppose? or Urban?) – Performance 1 – Give it to Me by Timbaland ft. Nelly Furtado and Justin Timberlake
- Performance 2 is listed above. (Perfect Score)
- 50s Rock n Roll? – Performance 3 – I Put a Spell on You by Screamin’ Jay Hawkins
- Classic ? – Performance 4 – (Perfect Score)
- Samba? (Maybe Latin?) – Performance 5 – Mas que Nada by Sergio Mendes
- French? – Performance 6 [alt. link with audio] – Padam Padam by Edith Piaf
- Full-on Russian – Performance 7 – Love and Poverty (Любовь и бедность) from Hello, I’m your Aunt! (Здравствуйте, я ваша тётя!) [1]
- Contemporary ? – Performance 8 – it’s supposed to be a piece from O Clone, the Brazilian soap unless there’s something else that’s called Clone. However, I haven’t been able to identify the name of the track.
- Classic (or Broadway??) – Performance 9 – Jesus Christ Superstar
- X – missing clip??
- Classic Russian – Performance 11 – The Woman Who Sings (Женщина, которая поёт) by Alla Pugacheva
- Russian Alt Rock (or Rock n Roll Twist??) – Performance 12 – What Do You (Что ты имела) by Neschastny Sluchai (Несчастный случай)
- Full-on Russian – Final Performance – Music Unknown
If I spoke fluent Russian, I would’ve taken a plane to watch her doing theater. xD
Korean girl idol group Piggy Dolls was making a comeback — after the quite catchy and makeover-ish The Girl that I Know (아는여자) [MV], which gave a terrific hair style to singer Lee Ji Yeon — only to run into the video for Ordinary Girl (보통여자) [MV] and see that I didn’t freaking RECOGNIZE ANYONE! At first I chugged it to maybe having actors not on the MV, but apparently- yes, they’ve changed all members.
I don’t even know why bother keeping the name of the group. It’s just lazy management and creates an even bigger image problem. And here I was looking forward to Ji Yeon’s latest makeover. Though I must admit, her hair color and shape was perfect the last time.
I remember the first time I got to watch Swallowtail Butterfly and found it interesting that Ayumi Ito spoke a couple of lines in Mandarin. Later I was surprised she was in the cast of The Go Master; it just seemed like Ayumi Ito had maybe some interest in working outside Japan. Interestingly, she’s also the one Japanese actress working in Kpop music videos [1], and I know for certain she speaks pretty good English.
Then again, Japan doesn’t seem to like its actresses trying to work in other markets [eg. Rinko Kikuchi, Koyuki xD]. I wonder if she hasn’t considered working in the US or Europe, or maybe they don’t consider her Japanese enough or hot enough. After all, US and European casting seems to be so random at times.
Anyway, while googling a photo of Ito for the previous post, I ended up running into this short film she did back in 2005 directed by someone called Nomura Yasuo (野村泰夫) titled Shanghai Lian Xiang (上海恋香) or translated to Shanghai Love Fragrance… or possibly referring to the smell of incense. The short that lasts 50ish minutes sees a Japanese young woman (I don’t think they mention her name) that arrives to Shanghai to deliver her grandmother’s ashes to the bay because she had spent the 1930s in the Japanese concession of the city. In there she met a young Chinese man and fell in love… and it’s all melancholy and sadness due to the events of the time.
[iframe height=380 width=580 src=”https://player.youku.com/embed/XNzkyMjg4NTY=” ]
There’s no much info except for this page.
Ito plays both characters of the woman and the young version of her grandmother, with dialog in different levels of Mandarin and Japanese. It gets a little confusing when you have to read Japanese for big chunks of Mandarin, and Chinese characters for most chunks of Japanese dialog xD But I think you get the point across.
You gotta get your Ayumi Ito fix any way you can.
There’s also a song that plays throughout~
春天来了树发芽
冬天来了飘雪花
你等的人等来了吗
我还在等我还在等
我还在等他
千山越过到你家
万水越过到我的家
你找的人找到了吗
我在寻找我在寻找
我在寻找他
夏天来了花儿美
秋天到了云追月
你等的人等来了吗
我还在等我还在等
我还在等他
I finally re-watched my BR copy of Kuch Kuch Hota Hai — Kajol’s eye makeup close-up in THAT scene on a big screen is stunning — my third time overall since I began watching Bollywood films and the best 9 hours of my life.
While watching KKHH last night, right after catching the trailer for Japan’s remake of Love Actually, it made me think what the world of Kuch Kuch Hota Hai would be like through the eyes of Shunji Iwai. Of course that would mean several cultural changes and cuts for length. I’m uncertain on whether I would place the main characters as college students or last years of high school… or even whether the school years should be taking place in the late 90s.
What I was more focused on is the characteristics of the actors and their characters. For Kajol’s Anjali, I knew I needed someone who could be one of the boys but at the same time should be physically interesting, and I immediately thought of Ayumi Ito. Her boyish aura is best shown by her character in SOLANIN — her squishing the beer can is burnt in my mind — while having a sort of rough exterior. I know a lot of people who don’t mind Ayumi Ito, but I also know of some of these people who… given the time… were taken by her. So I don’t have any doubt in her talent.
Next up — I know SRK’s role is pivotal because Rahul is the epitome of the Bollywood heartthrob dufus, but I’m taking it down a notch. I’m not very knowledgeable about Japan’s heartthrobs, but I don’t want someone who would be too pretty to make guys nervous nor a guy that’s more of a guys’ guy. I thought Shugo Oshinari would be a nice middle point.
Continue Reading…
This year’s season of The Voice of China is a bit on the meh side compared to last year’s. Some good talents, but not as awing as some of last year’s. This battle for Wang Feng’s team, though, from Simon Chung (鐘偉強) of Hong Kong singing it out with Beijing-based Bi Xia (毕夏) with the classic Hey Jude was pretty emotional.
The whole father/daughter interaction going on, because Simon took the time to guide Bi Xia through the song and Bi Xia’s knowing what he’d done for her makes the whole elimination process all the more painful.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzTgyORzEAA
Other battle highlights~
From Na Ying’s team:
Yi Guang Nian (毅光年) Vs. Sheng Yin Yue Tuan (声音乐团) – I Surrender (没离开过)
From Amei’s team:
Zhang Xin (张新) Vs. Liu Zi Chen (刘籽辰) – What’s the Trouble in your Mind (你在煩惱什麼) + We Are Young
