Archives For Life

Oh, I’m so looking forward to Isabella Leong’s comeback.

isabella-leong-murmur-of-hearts

Oh, Happy Chinese New Year! Let’s start my (supposedly) bad-luck Goat Year with the now-mandatory Letterboxd list of my film collection~

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I have a really weird history with films– born in the late 80s, you’d think I would’ve grown watching loads of 90s kids stuff, but I actually grew up with a lot of Silly Symphonies (which were released in the 30s) and loads of Disney 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s stuff, plus a lot of more grown up 80s movies. Poltergeist, The Thing, The Fly and The Stuff were particularly scary stuff (and I’m pretty sure I was scared of yogurt or white stuff at some point).

I don’t ever remember buying any original VHS tape, except for the rare birthday gift of a Disney’s Sing-Along Songs chapter or that X-Men tape I have. My first DVDs buys were Coyote Ugly, She’s All That and Loser — you can’t blame me. I was a 15-year-old girl. The collection grew bigger, and possibly exploded during my years abroad. I’m nearing my 500th movie.

Is anybody out there? *HELLO-HEllo-hello*

kinopoisk.ru

OH, man~ the things one has to do to get Marit Larsen albums. Spark wasn’t that hard, since it somehow made its way to Amazon, but it seemed so unlikely that When the Morning Comes would show up there again, so I went hunting. It was not a fruitful web-hunt with everyone telling me they did not do international shipping.

More power to friends! Way to go, Julz~

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Marit’s 4th album has finally joined its siblings. It also means Marit’s the only 2014 album I had actively physically purchased so far, beating my 2013 record when I only got BiBi’s Unlock as a present (more yay friends!). However, I did just recently physically purchased Calle 13’s Multiviral considering it was my album of 2014. I’m surprised myself.

I’m a little sad that most (if not all) my purchases are digital.

The end of another era [1][2][3], I suppose~ xD

rapidshare-2008-2015-rip

I had never really been a RapidShare user, though had encountered the site several times over in many of my movie/TV journeys, but they’ve always been a pain for me. It doesn’t surprise me that bandwidth caps (for both free users AND PREMIUM), limited speeds and incredibly annoying waiting times that got longer and longer with captchas decreased users and traffic to finally put it out of business.

The relationship with cloud and file-sharing services with the DMCA or MPAA is a strange one. No matter what these services do to please them, it’ll never be enough.

source.

You tell them, Janeane.

I’m totally not the demographic for Bravo, but here goes Janeane Garofalo telling it like it is- like my mom told my school 20 years ago when they “required’ her to do parenting lessons for my catechesis. I’m totally bummed she’s no longer on the show.

gg2d-janeane-garofalo-1x03-apologize

I apologize for having a job. I’m sorry I make a substantial income to pay for your green-grocer small-batched locally-sourced farm-to-table ethically-butchered hormone-free gluten-intolerant bills, but- here’s the thing; I don’t work, my kids don’t go to school. So if you wanna call and tell me tuition is free, I’d be happy to be here for Story Time, and Arbor Day, and kids court, and snack bar, and talent night, and the Nose-Picking Olympics, and every other bullshit holiday that costs me a fortune. But if you’re not gonna tell me it’s free, then I gotta work, ‘coz I’m a working mother… with a boatload of mouths to feed.

Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce 1×03 – Rule #47: Always Take Advantage of “Me” Time

I just posted my 350th review, Jigarthanda [also in Español], which happens to be my 30th (sorta) Indian film review. So~ commemorating! Here’s a list of my first 30 Indian film reviews. You can actually see how my journey [1][2][3][4][5] has shaped up from DDLJ, KKHH and K3G YRF, SRK (and Kajol, though I posted her reviews later on) and Karan Johar-centric to Bhansali, Rani, Vidya, Madhuri, alternative Hindi cinema to regional stuff.

my-30-indian-film-reviews

Here we go (in order of posting date):

  1. Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge [tmb en Español]
  2. Kuch Kuch Hota Hai
  3. Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham
  4. Chennai Express [tmb en Español]
  5. Black
  6. Khamoshi: The Musical
  7. Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam
  8. Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani
  9. Kahaani
  10. U Me Aur Hum
  11. Bombay Talkies [tmb en Español]
  12. Hey Ram
  13. Fanaa
    But honestly~ these photo recaps are best [Part 1][Part 2]
  14. Hasee Toh Phasee
  15. Gulaab Gang
  16. Moondram Pirai/Sadma
  17. Shaadi Ke Side Effects
  18. Aiyyaa
  19. Dedh Ishqiya [tmb en Español]
  20. Siddharth
  21. Goynar Baksho [tmb en Español]
  22. CityLights
  23. Kadal
  24. Bangalore Days [tmb en Español]
  25. The Hundred-Foot Journey [tmb en Español]
    (I know, I know. Not strictly Indian but was produced by Reliance~)
  26. Mardaani [tmb en Español]
  27. Lucia [tmb en Español]
  28. Happy New Year [tmb en Español]
  29. Haider [tmb en Español]
  30. Jigarthanda

And if you want to keep track of my reviewed Indian films, go here: English, Español.

I’ve mentioned this before [1], Hula Girls was shot in Iwaki prefecture, so when the tsunami and eventual nuclear meltdown affected the zone, the Hula Girls team as well as the dancers lent their support and/or donated money. Now, Yu-chan is lending her time (maybe there’s money too, though I’d like to think this is from the bottom of her heart) to jump-start visits to Iwaki with the campaign Tadaima Iwaki (ただいま! いわき).

It doesn’t matter, I’d watch 1hr. of Yu eating savory things and visiting places if they’d made a movie about it. LOL As naturally charming as ever~ I’ll watch this 30-sec clip instead.

yu-aoi-tadaima-iwaki

Oldie song, but new performance at… what seems, the Bird Nest Stadium in Beijing.

Mayday has just released the Nowhere Concert Movie in four editions: 3D BR + Live in Live Making-Of the concert DVD, Simple BR, Free Region DVD, and the DVD with the Making-Of.

They’ve also re-released their albums in Chinese versions, and I’ve seen (super expensive) Vinyls, as well.

I still can’t believe Asian Blurays are so expensive compared to their US counterparts. Now we all gotta way for Asian movies to be released in America.

If you read this blog and/or have stumbled upon a post on the subject or -somehow- seen my comments on social media or… maybe a review or feature I’ve written, you’d know I’m not very fond of Sonam Kapoor [1]. Or I wasn’t. At the moment, I’m not sure anymore. A while ago, I saw her on Khoobsurat, which in normal circumstances I wouldn’t have picked, but it was Disney (!) so I couldn’t help myself.

It’s perfectly fine light entertainment, though I think this is the first time I’ve seen a Disney movie where our female protagonist gets (though admitedly quite endearingly funny) pissed drunk, who then later accepts a bottle of soda with ruffies to end up kidnapped (don’t worry, it’s still Disney so nothing happens), and finally ends up with a (hot) prince that was engaged to some other woman. Anyway~ since then, I found myself not hating Sonam as it seems like she’s TRYING. Like- you can sense a change of pace/vibe.

Dolly ki Doli doesn’t look awful.

And in this segment for Anupama Chopra’s The Meeting Ground, Rajkummar Rao (who is also in DkD) makes her palatable. It gets a bit awkward when they keep going on their talk on star children and their upper hand in the industry. Sonam tries to make a point, but Angelina Jolie didn’t make her starring debut in a studio picture with a brand director. Angelina’s credits went from a small role in one of her dad’s films, to straight-to-video releases and shorts until Without Evidence.

Gwyneth and all her Gwynethness is a bit more lucky, but not as lucky as star children in India. TV Movie debut directed by her dad, small role on a movie until she cameo’d on godfather Steven Spielberg’s Hook. It wasn’t until a few years later when she landed Se7en with Fincher and PTA’s Hard Eight.

Nobody goes to Eva Amurri or Rumer Willis and tells their parents Susan Sarandon, Demi Moore or Bruce Willis, “I want to launch your daughter with this banner.

LOL, this seemingly harmless post turned into a rant. But honestly, no one would care if a star child would begin with small roles in movies, working their way up. Instead, they are given starring roles in medium-big budget films to launch them.

Rant over.