Did I tell you? I’m going to Japan next week! It’ll be less than 2 weeks, but I’m going! I’m mad excited and totally nervous. I feel there’s so much to do and so little time, all I’m hoping is that I don’t get lost. xD Anyway~
This just popped up in my searches~ Yu Aoi is doing another rendition of John Ford’s 1600s incest tragedy ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore, under the Japanese name Aware Kanojo ha Shofu (あわれ彼女は娼婦), which had already been presented back in 2006 with Eri Fukatsu, Shosuke Tanihara and Mikami Hiroshi [1][2]. The brother half of this story will be played by stage/voice actor Kenji Urai (浦井健治).
The play was translated by Odajima Yushi (小田島雄志), and is being directed by Kuriyama Tamiya (栗山民也).
The play will begin on June 8th 2016 until the 26th.
You can check the varying schedules available at the New National Theatre Tokyo website.Prices ranges from 8,640円; 5,400円; 3,240円 and 1,620円.
You can check two interviews with both of them over at Spice [1][2].
It’s been just a few months since I seriously started listening to MAMAMOO, and they’ve just won me completely over with the release of Melting, their personalities, talent and just pure swag. Oh gosh, these girls are hilarious, just the fact that they’ve released a sped-up version of one of their singles for the giggles. It’s super cute. AND THOSE VOICES.
Funny fact, I was checking my Facebook post history to see when I started posting about them… and it turns out I did post about their debut back in June 2014 when it first showed up on my YouTube timeline because I used to call my friend (who’s older than me) Mamamoo. LOL
I ran into this video on YouTube from the Off the Great Wall channel, and they got a bit of flack over the fact that a vast majority of their picks (3 picks for each of the four speakers) were East Asians xD — only one South Asian pick, because Aishwarya has to be everywhere xD, and then there were the Asian-American (Lucy Liu, I don’t think she’s mixed… is she? And she makes it twice~), the Euro-Asian (but basically) Asian-Americans (Maggie Q + Olivia Munn), and (off the official list) the Euro-Asian (Thai-Swede Praya Lundberg).
The thing is beauty is such a subjective element- whatever floats your boat depends on who you are, cultural background, upbringing, etc. But I do agree with Dan (though he doesn’t apply his own rule when it comes to Munn) — especially when making lists — Staying Power is important.
So I do agree 100% that Gong Li deserves that spot. She’s fabulous and continues to be even more fabulous… In Bollywood talk, Gong Li basically started her career doing de-glam roles in banned Zhang Yimou movies. She was a villager so often, wife of gangsters; and in her 40s, she became an Empress. That’s the complete opposite of the typical Bollywood heroine. She hasn’t been acting much, but a couple of years ago she romanced Andy Lau in a sick powersuit, and just a year or two ago broke everyone’s heart as the wife of a writer during the Cultural Revolution. This year? She’s the baddie in one of the blockbusters on this season- The Monkey King 2. And yeah~ she still looks as fabulous as ever at 50 years old.
Besides staying power? Talent, especially when it comes to celebrities, you know? Someone that can do their job like no other? Interview (variety show appearace) perception is a big plus, but CV is important.
But sometimes, so it happens, I also break my own rules~ lol
Also~ my Pakistan, South East Asian, Middle East and Russian games are not strong. Neither is my Asian-Latino game. So forgive the lack of names there, and I do take suggestions (especially if they come with great movie recommendations~~~).
So I’m late to the party (as always), and just started watching this year’s season of Sing my Song (中国好歌曲), which has been airing for a couple of weeks. It’s honestly my favorite of these many music contests because it’s new songs. I never ever stay through the actual contest, but… I do enjoy their blind auditions for the surprises!
Episode one, so far, has given me that awkward moment when Laurence Larson 罗艺恒 sings better Mandarin than me… nobody turns for blues singer 黄晓宁 Huang Hsiao Ning which makes David Tao cry (and reminds me of my dad, hence also making me teary), and gives us the meta moment of the night (and probably of the season) when Liu Wei 刘维 sings Because You Are Mavis Fan (因为你是范晓萱), using many Mavis music and lyrics cues, to make Mavis herself cry.
I’m a Mavis fan and I love I Want Us to Be Togetherto bits, so of course I loved it.
The song is available for download over at QQ (apparently, officially), but you gotta download their APP, sign up for an account (maybe pay to get the 320kbps version)… and for sign up, it’s asking for a mobile number to send a verification code, and I don’t use a phone, so I can’t sign up [Hipster First World Problems]~~~ so I only got myself a 128kbps from somewhere murky on the net LOL. If you happen to get the 320kbps one, do share it with me pretty please.
And it’s not like EVERYTHING is available on iTunes. On time.
It really kills me that this movie is opening a few days after my birthday, and I can’t watch it. WHY DO YOU GUYS DO THIS TO ME?
Sidenote: The Fitoor promotions have brought some interesting interview bits with Tabu- like she wants to be part of Golmaal 4 (I haven’t seen Golmaal, but that’s a Rohit Shetty movie, so… xD), she’s fishing for a comedy, she likes David Dhawan’s type of comedies (which are so 90s comedy style type of not my thing), and wants to do a movie with Govinda… who, if I recall correctly, actually doesn’t like many of the 90s comedy movies he did xD
Comedy is such a particular genre, so difficult to please people.
Ice-skaters Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov did a rendition of Nagada Sang Dhol [clip] in their ice-skating routine (which, apparently, won them a gold medal) that made me want to watch Devdas on Ice~~~ or specifically Dola Re Dola on Ice because I’m like that!
As you know~ Russia is big on the ice-skating events, even more so than the Koreans (who had the reality Kim Yu-na’s Kiss & Cry[1]), the Japanese who broadcast ice-skating competitions quite regularly throughout the year, and the Americans (the other day I caught a broadcast of Musselman’s Apple Sauce Family Skating Tribute on ESPN).
Though Fitoor might get trapped by remaking Alfonso Cuaron’s version of Great Expectations… I’m still looking forward to Tabu as Begum. I’m also looking forward to see Haminasto (aka. also romanized as Haminastu) [YouTube] because it’s my favorite track in the whole soundtrack, even though I’ve been butchering some of the other songs out loud late at night. xD I like the song so much that I ended up looking for Zeb Bangash, found Pakistani duo Zeb and Haniya, discovered Coke Studio [1][2][3][4][5 non-Zeb related], and downloaded the compilations on iTunes [S2][S6].
It messed up my language library because there’s so much Punjabi, Urdu and Pashtu, and Turkish… I don’t know which is which xD
ANWYAY~ OCD frustrations aside~
Fitoor promotions are at full throttle~ and it includes the release of this micro clips of dialog, which I don’t understand at all… but Tabu’s just saying “Firdaus, Firdaus, Firdaus” gives me the chills.
Though I’m still kinda mad that they reset my movie-view count a few couple of hours before midnight, I do kinda appreciate their stats~
Being the obsessive compulsive person that I am, I was kinda disappointed that I didn’t reach my 1000hrs of movie-watching, but was also glad because it turns out I’ve spent like 11% of my year watching movies. That’s like more than a whole month during a year. I’m so glad I’ve taken up exercise while watching movies xD
According to this, my bias Zhao Wei was my Most Watched Actor –though I’m missing actual numbers, I think I saw 8 films with her (including cameos) — and about 6 Anurag Kashyap movies (without the ones he’s produced). That doesn’t match the 23 movies I watched of Tabu in 2014 (LOL), and the 13 movies prior to that.
But overall, these skin-deep newsletter shows a good reflection of my movie-watching~ a little bit Chinese, a little bit Indian, a little bit European, a little bit of animation, and some Taiwanese melancholic rom-com.
I’ve lost most my Japanese powers in the past two years of no Japanese movies, music and television. LOL I can only make out the greeting xD I feel deflated because -crossing fingers- I may be heading to Japan for the holidays in a couple of months and scares the crap out of me because no one speaks Japanese in this trip~~~
My dream is that I’ll meet Yu-chan and tell her how big a fan I am/was. xD Must also remember to stock up on movies (hopefully with subs) and/or Shiina Ringo concert DVDs and discography.
They’ve also just released the trailer for Aleksandr Proshkin’s Garden of Eden (Райские Кущи), but while they’re promoting The Puppet Syndrome, Khamatova gave an interview for Gazeta.ru about the film, women on Russian film, as well as being a film actress… and talked briefly about playing a teenage boy in Aleksei German Jr.’s Under Electric Clouds.
Apparently, they really did build a Chulpan Khamatova real-life-sized doll, full-body plaster cast, straws in her nostrils and the whole thing.
I can’t wait to watch that~~~
On Pixar’s Inside Out Russian movie pitch~ “Let’s make this big beautiful expensive animated film… about emotions in the mind of a little girl!- This is ridiculous.” Even in the European/Hollywood environment, it seems like a crazy idea.
Interesting bits about that line alone~ the Russian title of Inside Out, Головоломки (Holovolomky) — means “game puzzle.” and an animated film is called a мультфильм (mul’tfil’m).
And if she had been given the chance to play Furiosa (or Milla Jovovich’s role in Resident Evil), she bluntly said no. LOL
