Archives For Films

I’m ready to vote! I received the most digital screeners this year so far, so it’s been easier (and it’s made it lazy-proof) to sit through dozens of screeners. Plus, Netflix has a lot of the nominated movies readily available too. This year is possibly my best award season ballot in my history of keeping up with ballots. lol

It’s not only my Spirit Awards ballot~

I also have a pretty complete Oscar ballot. lol

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After years [1][2][3] of data; Yes, it’s Mamamoo’s fault. The positives, though, I have registered 31 more hours than I did last year with an extra 18 movies. My movie-watching in general got better because I managed to watch 132 brand new 2018 movies (compared to the 103 in 2017).

This year, I didn’t make any particular movie goal. Though, some of my favorite movies this year were Indian, as reflected by my latest highest ratings. No one has been able to surpass my love for Rene Liu’s Us and Them so far, though. It’s been an incredible year for… not movies made by Netflix, but they have expanded their distribution library enough to make it interesting.

My goal for this year is to increase the titles I watch; seeing that from this interview at Film Independent, the guy from IMDb states that “You should feel disappointed if you haven’t seen 700 movies in a particular year [laughs].” O.o I don’t feel half bad about registering half the amount of movies the guy from IMDb watches. Just saying.

Verve Magazine has a wonderful cover this month featuring Tabu — shot by Bikramjit Bose [Website][Instagram], because the promotions for Andhadhun [Trailer][1][2] are on full steam. I hope someone gets to scan it, ‘coz lol where to get a single issue.

Why Tabu Prefers Flying Solo.

Rajeev Masand also just posted a +40min. interview with Tabu, and has her overview her 10 favorite roles in her +80-film filmography. Her long-time favorite roles make it, of course. It makes for a great Beginner’s Guide to Tabu, except I’m not a big fan of Biwi No. 2 lol — Don’t judge me, I laughed so much more to Saajan Chale Sasural xD, and I was quite lukewarm with Cheeni Kum.

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I was gushing about it over the weekend, but I thought I should also post about it here.

I think it’s oddly befitting that Yu-chan wins her first ever (unbelievable, right?) Japanese Academy Best Actress trophy the year that I’m celebrating my 10th year as her fan. It’s so moving. I’ve had a moving couple of days [low-ley Mamamoo insert, lol]. It was so satisfying seeing Yu-chan being so overwhelmed and so overcome with emotion that it just made me happy for her.

I haven’t seen KanoTori yet, ‘coz duh~ Japan obviousness xDDDDDDDDD but I’ve heard great things about it and, frankly, Yu-chan rarely disappoints me (I’m looking at you Henshin xDDDDDD). I had totally forgotten that Hula Girls was a supporting role for Yu, and that One Million Yen Girl was her last lead for a very long time… until Azumi Haruko and KanoTori.

Please, Yu-chan, don’t make us wait another 8 years or near-decade for your leading roles. You know it’s been ten years since Osen and since Camouflage?

Here’s to many many many more years of successes, Yu!

Your one and only Spanish-speaking Non-Japanese-speaking fan. xD

You know I’m a big fan of NHK’s Okaasan to Issho, right? Like, I’ve been watching it for years, I don’t have children, and my Japanese isn’t improving anymore… but I still watch it. LOL I’m still super shocked that Yoshihisa Kobayashi (小林よしひさ) – the guy that does the gymnastics – is still around since my original post a decade ago. He’s survived like two or three puppet changes, and this is like his third round of hosts— Takumi Mitani left a few years ago, and Daisuke Yokoyama officially left last year, giving way to Atsuko Ono subbing for Takumi, and Yuichiro Hanada taking over Daisuke.

I still miss Itou Mayu, tho xD

Anyway, I digress~ during the many changes in themes and puppets, they started showing the Galapico Poo (ガラピコぷ〜 , GARAPIKOPu) segment that begins with an animated intro that I’ve always been a fan of. It’s been years on air, and there’s no official clips (only poor TV-to-CAM captures, because LOL NHK), but I finally found Kuno Yoko (久野遥子) [Tumblr][Twitter] was in charge of the animation. FINALLY.

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You know, for a year when I didn’t watch that many movies, I’m doing pretty good. LOL Confession! I haven’t been following award season, it does feel like it’s my second or third year already. I do know that people have been freaking out because all critic guilds and industry guilds have been awarding all different movies.  As the saying goes~ todos parecen más perdidos que cuy en tómbola!

Here’s my Spirit Award one.

Light blue highlights mean watched, hot pink are pending, and green on the queue already.

My favorite competing film this year (so far) is Lady Bird coz it got me in the feels. I wouldn’t mind The Shape of Water winning, though. Considering BAFTA nominations (Producers’ Guild win and Directors’ Guild nom), The Shape of Water does seem to have a love more momentum than actors-backed Three Billboards, and this one also has a strong BAFTA showing.

Fun fact, yo! Darkest Hour, Phantom Thread and Victoria & Abdul are [most likely] the first Chinese-backed films that make it to Oscar. All backed by Perfect World Pictures (北京完美影视传媒) [1].

Interesting! I figured I watched less movies this 2017 than I did in 2016, but turns out I got a couple more films/hours logged. And there were a couple more titles that I didn’t log because they’re not on Letterboxd. They just happened to be not current movies, I suppose.

I’m still, currently, very much obsessed with Mamamoo, though. LOL That’s 30% of my movie-watching time doing Mamamoo-related stuff.

2018 doesn’t look to be an improvement to 2015 levels xD

I’m also not sure whether Ryo Kase is my Most Watched Actor this year, considering I went on a non-logged marathon of Shweta Menon movies— like 4 or 5. But, once again, latest highest-rated movies reflect some of my movie-watching; a little American indie, a little Indian and a little Chinese.

I did find enough for my usual Top30 Favorite Film Discovery post :)

And a super lengthy post on my favorite films this year, which has already changed xDDDDDD

Woah <3 but, man, licensing issues~

I. Got. So. Excited…

When I saw that there was a bluray release of The Murder Case of Hana & Alice with Spanish subtitles by Media3 Estudio, and it comes with a freaking disc for Hana & Alice too. I suffered so much when I realized, just a minute later, that the bluray release is Region B for Europe xD

And it looks so pretty too TnT

I had been looking around for an actual region-free bluray player, because I have a bunch of R1-DVD and R4-DVD discs that I’m too lazy to re-watch on my region-free DVD player, which used to be the norm players sold down here. I really don’t look forward to having to import electronics, because I can only imagine the headache it’ll be considering the headaches I get whenever I order my preferred shampoo. LOL

I don’t know what is it about Laika, but Kubo was the second Laika film that I enjoyed the Spanish Latino dubbing more than the original English track. Not that the original Boxtrolls dialog lacked anything, but the Spanish Latino is funnier to me. When re-watching on Bluray, I would choose the dubs over the original audios in both. In Kubo, it had a lot more to do with the fact that Charlize Theron’s voice as the mother and Monkey spoiled the bit of the story, which I suppose was a huge reveal.

With dubbed voices, the identity of the voice is a lot foggier, so it comes as a greater surprise (unless the dubbing had chosen a recognizable voice to sell the project).

I was eagerly waiting for Kubo to open in Japan (just like I watched Los Fantasmas de Goya in Castillian Spanish xDDDD), and since it was taking so long, I was wondering if it was ever going to be released there since Laika hasn’t been making much money there and Boxtrolls didn’t even open.

I was super disappointed when the first trailer for KUBO クボ 二本の弦の秘密 dropped, but it was subtitled. LOL It’s about three weeks to opening date on Nov.18, and this first clip of the dubbing came out. It features Pierre Taki in McConaughey’s place (the Bettle), alongside Rina Kawaei in Mara’s role of the Sisters, Akiko Yajima (whom I think is doing the voice of Kubo xD), Atsuko Tanaka (as, I suppose, Monkey), and Michio Hazama (as, I suppose, the Moon King).

Laika could totally release a collector’s edition with this audio track included.