I’ve been hearing Ellen Loo’s name very often for the last three years, but I never ever really took the time to sit down and listen to her albums until this weekend… and wow- I’ve just finally gone through her 2nd album You Quietly Hide Away (你安安靜靜地躲起來), which is a tremendous improvement from her debut Ripples (掀起), which isn’t all that bad either. I particularly liked Wait (等等), Hey Boy, Summer of Love, and Satellite Lover (人造衛星情人).
Ni An An Jing Jing De Duo Qi Lai comes as a surprise. I’m also surprised she sings in Mandarin so much, since my Hong Kong friends are the ones talking about her, I expected to listen to a lot more Cantonese.
Feels like I haven’t posted a trailer in ages on here, but since it’s already been like a month- this is more of a personal note to watch this coz it looks so damn funny.
Cast: Vivian Sung (宋芸樺), Darren Wang (王大陸), Dewi Chien (簡廷芮) and Dino Lee (李玉璽).
I’m maybe one of two (or three) people that actually liked Ghaath. Actually, scratch that- IMDb is showing me that, at least, 20 people have voted this movie over 6. So there you go, we’re about 20 people. But maybe I have a strong bias, the film has a political moralistic theme of the late-90s early 00s era but avoids the masala shenanigans for the most part, it also has Anu Malik music — with two great songs that I enjoy — and the chemistry between Tabu and Manoj Bajpayee, who are also getting back together this year (after Salman in Jai Ho, Ajay in the upcoming Drishyam).
When a titillating item song comes on screen, I’m usually the one rolling my eyes at some of the embarrassment… and the Telugu film industry has usually taken the cake when it comes to silly sexism. Not even Tabu can escape it (her number in Pandurangadu gets the crown with that orange juice moment). However, I do remember the first time that I ever gasped seeing a Bollywood movie because *gasp* They kissed! It was the Chup Chup Ke [clip] number in Bunty Aur Babli. It was before I realized I did enjoyed seeing Abhishek and Rani together [1], but they were always married on film!
In the number for Teri Aashiqui Meri Zindagi, Tabu’s character is never married to Manoj’s, they fairly recently met at their family/friend’s wedding and had their moment in Hum Bhi Samajh Rahe Hain [clip] — there sure is a lot of rain and white-wearing caressing and singing, but it’s just playful boy-meets-girl girl-meets-boy, a lot of face-touching… but never EVER an engagement or wedding, yet… yet… there’s this 20-second love-making behind a torn down hellenistic column that results in a baby. LOL
There’s all sort of face and neck action foreplay (I’m like “Omo, omomomomomo I swear she’s licking that neck“) before the hellenistic column action, as well as the obvious after scene.
Of course there was a baby. There’s never a sex scene in these movies that doesn’t end with these consequences… it happens here in Ghaath, as it happens in Raiou.
I like these one-on-one interviews, especially when you have performance-oriented people. Too bad Nawazuddin Siddiqui doesn’t feel comfortable speaking English- 1. Maybe these Meeting Ground interviews are always in English. 2. If they’re not necessarily in English, I wouldn’t understand a thing he says in Hindi. xD
This time Kangana Ranaut and Irrfan Khan are one-on-one after the commercial success of Tanu Weds Manu Returns and Piku, respectively. In the brief 20min interview, they talk about acting nuances with a super brief Acting 101, as well as people’s obsession with Box Office numbers (in this case, making the 100 crore club), the -now- discerning audience (and the massy one), not longer being a working actor who needs to constantly do movies to make a living, being an outsider, PLUS! the strength and vitriol that is social media.
Happy watching!
On the Box Office obsession and audience talks, it’s a general worldwide problem, you guys. Last year headlines declared How to Train your Dragon 2 a box office flop when it made “just” $50M USD. Joining the $1B USD club is big on studio heads, and having the most profitable franchise is a plus for actors.
The audience everywhere is half and half- good movie don’t make money, bad movies that make loads. The audience and press vitriol on review and social media. They’re not solely Bollywood problems ;)
I randomly ran into this amazingness of 2013 that I had never heard a peep from. Why wasn’t this viral? It’s weird for people, it’s super funny, and it’s got dancing Ahyis~
I couldn’t find much info on it, a search for Puffy Peng heeds no results, so I’ll add the Chinese characters in. The song is… I suppose in Taiwanese (?) and has some bits of dialog in Mandarin, and is possibly your dance routine next time you hit the (super)market.
It also spawned this mash-up of Beyonce’s Single Ladies.
I think… in contrast to last year, I might be liking Dum Laga Ke Haisha much better than movies like 2 States or Queen. It’s modern like those two dealing with issues, it’s got as strong acting (though Queen had the disadvantage of foreign acting, which always tends to be the weakest link anywhere in the world), but it’s much fresher in style with its honest 90s Bollywood throwback. And thank you gods that there was no bumping electro-dance disco song.
It’ll need to simmer, but it looks good for YRF at the moment.
I ran into this oldie clip of Chulpan Khamatova reciting an extract of an Andrei Voznesensky (Андрея Вознесенского) poem, shot by Peter Shepotinnik (Петра Шепотинника) titled Lirika (Лирика)- though, I don’t know whether that’s an extract of the Voznesensky’s works of the same title. I couldn’t find a literal extract of the poem online that wasn’t taken from the video.
Ты мне прозвонилась сквозь страшную полночь:
“А ты меня помнишь?”
ну, как позабыть тебя, ангел-звереныш?
“А ты меня помнишь?”
твой голос настаивал, стонущ и тонущ –
“А ты меня помнишь?” “А ты меня помнишь?”
и ухало эхо во тьме телефонищ –
рыдало по-русски, in English, in Polish-
you promise? Astonish…
а ты меня помнишь?
А ты меня помнишь, дорога до Бронниц?
И нос твой, напудренный утренним пончиком?
В ночном самолете отстегнуты помочи –
Вы, кресла, нас помните?
Понять, обмануться, окликнуть по имени:
А ты меня…
Помнишь? Как скорая помощь,
В беспамятном веке запомни одно лишь –
“А ты меня помнишь?”
Jin Chi’s voice was one of my favorites from The Voice of China [1], but as with anyone coming from reality contest shows, her releases had been on the so-so side. This latest song called Hao Hao Guo (好好过, which I’m guessing it’s like saying I’ve Lived Well) gave me a lot of JeA vibes [1]. Those two should collab in the future.
