Archives For April 2014

Let’s give a warm welcome to child actress Hamada Kokone (濱田ここね, with English transliteration of her name “Cocone”) — I wonder if I can call her Coco-chan xD~ ANYWAY, debuting in film Oshin, she just rode the film like a pro.

cocone-hamada-kokone-oshin

According to her profile, Coco likes sea grapes (haha, with Latin name “Coccoloba uvifera,” get it?), plums, dried herring roe, Chicken nanban and Thai food. She also likes 2NE1, Lady Gaga, Cyndi Lauper, Carly Rae Jepsen and Big Bang. Like a boss~

She can also pull at your heart strings and make you cry when she’s trying to make it through her character’s life.

Flawless Doona Bae is flawless always. All the time. Whatever the onslaught of heavily enhanced new actresses in Korea and across Asia may be, whenever you see Doona Bae’s face, you’ll always know it’s her.

doona-bae-vogue-nov2013

Let’s tag this NSFW on the basis that is a condom commercial, alright? Otherwise, you’re really safe watching it considering some music videos are way WAYYY more risky than this I-don’t-know-if-I-should-be-embarrassed-or-do-the-rex commercial.

I have sooooo many conflicting feelings on Ranveer Singh. I look at him, see him act on movies, look at his photos, be a dork in short spans of time… and I find him oddly attractive. Then I see him behaving in a rather lengthy interview, and my logic wants it to continue- but it’s off. Totally OFF. The Koffee with Karan episode he did with Arjun Kapoor, it grossed me out.

As a general reaction, I get all Madhuri Dixit and laugh my butt off saying “he’s hilarious.”

The commercial starts off pretty cringe-worthy until you reach the 10-sec mark, and a goofy loose-pant Ranveer does a funny dance. The music (or at least the beat) is a bit generic, you can think of a dozen songs that are catchy and might sound similar to it (Psy, LMFAO, I felt all of you guys — and i don’t even like you), and he certainly shouldn’t quite his job as an actor.

BUT! He’s such a dufus. I can’t help it~

I haven’t been able to find anything on it, but rumor has it that DigitasLbi was in charge of the ad, which seems to target women as their demographic. Why should condoms be solely a guy’s responsibility, no?

I can’t believe there’s still people who don’t practice safe sex.

I’m still not sold on Netflix- never to this date I’ve ran into a film that I wanted to watch on it. At least in terms of this region, which doesn’t count with as much content as the US or Canada one. Similar issues with iTunes… and Amazon is out of the question.

I used to subscribe to MUBI for a long while (at least for a bit over a year), but eventually turned off my subscription because I wasn’t watching anything, while things I had added to my watchlist stopped being available, and the selection of their films eventually was reduced to their now curated content. I’m only subscribed to EROSNOW now, and have seen a few couple of films there, but had to turn to other mediums when found links that were region-restricted or surprisingly without subtitles.

My experience with streaming has been decent- and for as cheap as $5-9 bucks you can watch a lot in a month, and it just makes your life quite easy. Similar flawless experience with my first Vimeo On Demand watch. Thanks Joss Whedon for the heads up, and actually putting the film up there right after its premiere. To top it all off, subtitles in Spanish, German, French, Portuguese and Japanese (plus English CC) were available making it the smoothest watch if you decided to watch it with any bunch of people.

Paying $5 to stream a new movie can seem like the best way possible to make it look as if you’re going to the cinema. It takes me back to those days where I would watch 2 or 3 new movies a weekend. If studios ever decided to really go off their way to online distribute their new movies almost simultaneously, I’d be willing.

Here’s In Your Eyes.

Apparently Vimeo streaming is not as smooth (or at all) if you don’t have a Vimeo account, though. Take it as a good chance to get one, or don’t complain. I really don’t know any other streaming (paying) website that would let you use their content without an account. You need one in iTunes, in Amazon, in Netflix, HBO, et all. So please, people, stop complaining about THAT.

Spanish (more serious) related note.

Interesting interview that I think I had read back when Jai Ho premiered, but now that I’m more knowledgeable makes much more sense and it’s much more interesting.

Since you’ve played such diverse and memorable roles I’m curious to know if you could invite any five characters to dinner, who would you choose?

Nimmi (Maqbool), Mumtaz (Chandni Bar), Aditi (Astitva), Panna (Hu Tu Tu), and Veeran (Maachis).

Source.

tabu-dinner

From left to right .– Veeran, Panna, Aditi, Mumtaz, Nimmi.

I would surely agree that those are her best characters, but I’m not sure I would like to sit in a room with Nimmi, Panna or Veeran (unless that’s pre-Maachis events). I would certainly feel uneasy with Nimmi. LOL And Nimmi would definitely not get along with Panna, so the whole dinner party would end up being blown up to pieces ;P that is if Nimmi doesn’t get someone to get her first~ ha!

With my current watches, I would keep Aditi and Mumtaz, and add~~~ Sowmya (Kandukondain, Kandukondain), Kavita (Ghaath) and- I can’t pick between Ashima (The Namesake), Nina (Cheeni Kum) or Meenaxi. xD Or maybe I’ll go thematic and pick Dr. Malini (Fanaa) or Neetu (Khuda Kasam), with whom we will talk about laws, the justice and defense system.

Aditi and Mumtaz will probably enjoy the company of Ashima, Meena (Aamdani Atthanni Kharcha Rupaiya) and… Janki (Chachi 420) or Gehna (Virasat).

Also, I went on a binge Amazon purchase and got myself a bunch of Tabu movies (and other movies) as the good fan that I am with my fandoms.

 

I broke MindMeister a while back. Around early March actually, so I went back to FreeMind. It doesn’t look as slick, and you gotta install it… but the interface works in the most straightforward of ways. And their PNG export works really good.

Since March, there’s been a bunch of changes in the list, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra got his own hub after a watch of Delhi 6 — which is the change that broke MindMeister. Mani Ratman also got his own hub, and a watch of Fire sprung a Deepa Meetha hub.

I’ve watched a bunch of Sridevi movies, but not a big fan of the movies themselves except for Sadma / Moondram Pirai. Also added random single titles, catching up with films as varied as Udaan (which sprung a Vikramaditya Motwane hub), Stalin, Highway, and Student of the Year (Alia Bhatt is YUCK in there), and single film additions for Aamir Khan, Shahrukh, Juhi, Madhuri, Rekha, Shabana Azmi, Seema Biswas and Tabu.

According to IMDb, it’s nearly 200 movies already.

indian-film-journey-apr2014

I also bought a bunch of Indian movies. The first batch arrived yesterday with Rani Mukherji (2 titles), Vidya Balan (1), Tabu (2), Mani Ratman (1) and Sanjay Leela Bhansali (1) titles. I still wish and hope for SLB Bluray releases for everything pres-Saawariya.

It’s been a long time, Yu-chan~

Just ran into this new photo of Yu, still with her shorter hair and looking very relaxed. I wasn’t so into her shortest shorter hair style, but I think this length is perfect if she’s interested in keeping it shorter than what was her usual. I’ve always been jealous of her bare-face gift. She really does look her best with minimum makeup, familiar freckles on sight and all chillaxed.

I’m not sure about the source of the image, but it could be a shot in the May issue of Soup Magazine. Ever since her website redesign, I’ve lost track of her magazine appearances.

yu-aoi-2014-magazine

Lajja has got to have to longest and best emotionally-biting monologue in pseudo parallel-would-be-commercial film in the history of Indian cinema. Pseudo parallel because subtlety isn’t exactly the film’s strongest point; it’s got some over the top drama, comedic moments, big stars, musical numbers [1], chopping of the limbs, and a super evil baddie that gets a la chancla [1] payback. Plus, a big BIG social message.

Are you kidding me? I love it. This is my second time watching, and I moaned, denounced, clapped, sang, shouted at the screen, called people names, and cheered.

I was so into Manisha Koirala’s ‘shame on you‘ monologue, I tried to make an image sequence of it. It’s impossible. It’s so long, but here’s part of it. Considering, the not so recent events in Delhi and Mumbai, Lajja is more relevant now than ever. It freaking needs a re-release, and more freaking women need to get off their bums and watch it.

manisha-koirala-lajja-quote

Continue Reading…

I ran into this interview Tabu did for the promotion of Toh Baat Pakki! for Hungama — or as I’ve labeled ’15 minutes in heaven’ — where they speak about her roles and experience in films like Maachis, Astitva, Chandni Bar, Cheeni Kum, Maqbool, and The Namesake.

Here’s Part 2 of that interview.

Then my procrastination got ridiculous when I found this really old interview of her, and things got out of control from then on~

  • A really young Tabu talks about who forms her family unit and mentions how Mumbai is not home [1].
  • A fairly early interview talking about how Prem and Vijaypath are her babies [1].
  • A brief clip talking about Ghaath [1].
  • A short interview on her role in Astitva [1].
  • Tabu wins Best Actress at Zee Cine Awards for Astitva, and Shabana Azmi receives it in her behalf [1].
  • Tabu wins Best Actress at Zee Cine Awards for Chandni Bar [1].
  • Rekha gives Tabu the Critics Best Actress Filmfare Award for Hu Tu Tu [1].

I find interesting the last clip, because (I think) she thanks her dad, but in previous interviews (like in the first link) completely ignores his existence. Or maybe I’m mishearing, and she’s thanking Gulzar as if he were her dad. As a side note, I love that her mind just drifts off after the announcement coz she’s just too damn excited, and totally ignores the question.

Talk about experiences. Keeping an eye out for Korea’s Jambinai x)