Also, just wanted to make this clear~
I’ve moved most my blog activity over to YAM Magazine.
You can subscribe to all my posts there with this RSS Feed, or you know, you can just subscribe to all of the YAM Magazine Feed, but I understand if you only love me ;P
Yo, guys! I just finished a watching of Raj Rachakonda’s 8 A.M. Metro, which stars Saiyami Kher and Gulshan Devaiah, and featured poems by Gulzar, as the film centers on the friendship of two lonesome souls who have a chance ephemeral encounter… and who happened to love reading books and poetry.
Seems like I have been in a movie positive mood lately, so it floored me.
For the last few months, though, I’ve been thinking about how Sai Pallavi and Saiyami Kher, since I saw the trailer for this film, both strongly reminded me of my Tabu-movie journey.
I had seen Sai Pallavi’s films since 2015’s Premam and 2017’s Fidaa, but she really just floored me with Shyam Singha Roy, which I wouldn’t have really loved without her part of the story. Then came Gargi, last year’s Amaran and then the promos for Thandel began. Besides the fact that she’s a wonderful dancer, Pallavi’s got one of the most wonderful expressive eyes.
In between, of course, Saiyami Kher made her Hindi debut with Mirzya in 2016, which I enjoyed a lot. It seems like I’m one of the very few people that actually kinda liked that movie. Since then that OST has been a constant on my music-playing habits. Then came Anurag Kashyap’s Choked and ran into her on Wild Dog. In between films, Kher had focused at lot of her output on long-form shows, so I was so thrilled to see her doing 8 A.M. Metro, and doing well with Agni and Ghoomer, which put her together in a project with Shabana Azmi, who is a sorta x-degree aunt of sorts. lol
It has to be concert films, no?
Like- I totally understand these shots.
They don’t even need to be crowd shots, even. It would be perfectly fine to use concert art. I remember blogging about the concert art and vcrs done for one of Faye Wong’s concerts of the last 15 years. I can’t remember if they were either done by Hi-Organic or Grass Jelly (it was Grass Jelly!), but imagine being surrounded by clouds and mountains while Faye does her electropop sutras.
Bjork’s Cornucopia felt >small< and constrained in comparison. I always enjoy Bjork’s vocals, however. Technically always there, emotionally present. I will always remember that Hunter moment.
Gomen, gomen. I skipped two months of random blogging this time around. I did, however, write my late 2024 Peruvian box office wrap-up, published in late February. And I did a small write up by the end of March about Malayalam cinema that is yet to be publish in case Jude Anthany Joseph’s 2018 is released locally this week. Just in case.
I have also picked up French once again! Officially since mid-January ;D Thanks to Nelly of Français avec Nelly. Everyday French (and slang, especially online slang) has improved, formal usage (has returned), but writing refuses to go back to levels (^=^!) to when I was a formal student and could actually write. It takes me ages to actually write, so it takes triple the ages to get something out in French.
Anyway- in one of the most recent videos where Nelly answers some subs questions, user tomas_valiunas asks about a website where you could watch French films for free, which is -of course- my expertise. I may not focus on writing about French films and festival films, because there are hundreds of others who do, but I do watch a number of French films and co-productions. And even though the French, and Europeans (and first worlders) in particular, are very finnicky about geo-restrictions and copyright, there are ways.
And the first and most obvious legal answer is TV5 Monde Plus.
I still have cable, so I don’t know how people who don’t have cable are supposed to find out about the TV5 Monde app for download or that they have a streaming website. Of course, there are a number of shows (broadcast on TV5 Monde) available to stream for free on YouTube like Echappées Belles or Des Racines et des Ailes.
They let you browse without an account, but you have to create one to actually watch the shows and films, otherwise you hit ‘play’ and just get the TV5 Monde logo and a ‘sad face’ lol
According to current (Mar 4th 2025) FAQ, opening an account and accessing the programs in the platform is free.
Right now they’re offering a bunch of Brigitte Bardot films like Boulevard du Rhum, Viva Maria!, La Bride Sur Le Cou, L’histoire très bonne et très joyeuse de Colinot Trousse-Chemise and En effeuillant la marguerite. Other classics like Peau d’âne by Jacques Demy, Jean Eustache’s La Maman et la Putain, and Truffaut’s Les Quatre Cents Coups are also available. And that rare Marlene Dietrich French film, Martin Roumagnac is also available.
Some of their co-productions are available, like Papicha by Mounia Meddour and Noces by Stephan Streker. However, considering the vast recent production of French animated films, I was a little underwhelmed from the selection of animation available; though Alain Ughetto’s Interdit aux chiens et aux Italiens, Florence Miailhe’s La Traversée and Une Vie de Chat by Jean-Loup Felicioli and Alain Gagnol are available as well.
But my favorite discovery available is Adrien Beau’s Le Vourdalak [Trailer] which I had been looking forward to watching. Sadly, it’s the only film labeled a fantasy. ^^’
Subtitles seem to vary, most (if not all) content seems subbed in English and French, there are also options for German (?), Arabic, Romanian and Spanish, though these two vary depending on the film you’re watching.
So I thought you should all know, even though no one reads blogs any longer, maybe someone will find this information on the vast nothingness of modern-day internet.
Wild things happened at this year’s Spring Gala. Faye Wong awoke from her hibernation for a performance of What the World Gifted Me (世界赠予我的), which CCTV only has in this pre-recorded video presentation. [Edit: CCTV did eventually post the clip.]
Ni Ni showed up in this segment on Wuxi Scenery and National Feelings (无锡景 家国情), showcasing Jiangsu as a province. Ni Ni, and I suppose everyone involved in the segment, were born in Nanjing or other Jiangsu province cities.
However, most shocking and most improved was the unexpected collaboration between Chinese vocalist Zhou Shen (周深), Peruvian opera singer Juan Diego Flores and Peruvian multi-instrumentalist Lucho Quequezana for a remix of Lan Hua Hua (兰花花) and the lyric version of El Condor Pasa for The Condor and the Orchid Flower (山鹰和兰花花).
Many would remember Zhou Shen breaking through pop culture in the 2014 season of The Voice of China (中國好聲音), which led to different hits and numerous inclusions in soundtracks like his first ever Big Fish (大鱼) for the Big Fish & Begonia (大鱼海棠) animated film, which is one of my favorite Chinese animation projects.
A while back I was able to catch a viewing of Tom Volf’s Maria by Callas documentary, which I adored. Some time last year (near my birthday?), I got to catch a special screening of Callas – Paris, 1958, which we got to see alongside a very very very tiny group of people ^^’
And, of course, I made sure to watch Pablo Larrain’s Maria before the year was over, because why not.
It’s the perfect Maria Callas triple feature-
My absolute favorite sequence in Larrain’s depiction is probably the whole segment at JFK’s birthday party. Though Maria’s scene with her sister is devastating.
This is likely the last post of 2024, breaking a dry spell of the last few years with a record 20 posts since 2018 when I posted 38 times.
This last post of 2024 is dedicated to Kenji Nakamura’s Mononoke the Movie: Phantom in the Rain (劇場版「モノノ怪 唐傘」), which crowfunded a while ago and has recently fulfilled orders. What an adventurous journey! We got a special credit for YAM Magazine!
It is an honor that we get to put our name in one of the team’s favorite series.
Let’s all look forward to what 2025 may bring!
I hope you all had an incredible 2024, and that you all were able to achieve what you set out to do (or close to achievement, anyway).
Promotion season has just started for this dream collaboration that all quality J-Film fandom had wished for— a Koreeda series starring Rie Miyazawa, Machiko Ono, Yu Aoi and Suzu Hirose. Loads of crossover fandoms. Even if expectations are too high and are not fully met, it will still be good.
Specially good for Yu-chan and Suzu-chan fans who have been wanting a collaboration since we saw Suzu-chan in Shunji Iwai-verse.
Yu-chan fans are also being fed well with a quick comeback since Yu-chan became a mom and did her quick appearance on NHK’s asadora. Netflix’s Asura (阿修羅のごとく) re-adaptation is also a milestone for Yu-chan because longtime fans know Like Asura is one of Yu-chan’s favorite projects.
The +30min press conference is super fun, and YouTube auto captioning Japanese to English immediate translation is decent enough, even though translate features in browsers don’t seem to be doing well translating Yu’s name for some odd reason.
Netflix only has a 1min clip of the opening (of the show?). I would love love love the name of the song featured, though. I wasn’t able to find any info on that other than it being by Takeshi Yoshida (吉田武史) and Katsura Uehara (上原桂). The show is supposed to be available in early January 2025 (though Netflix has been known to make stuff disappear in different regions).
I’m really really excited about this project.
I stumbled across a vinyl version of Meenaxi – A Tale of Three Cities, and I’m almost disappointed it’s just a generic pressing of one of A.R. Rahman’s most underrated soundtracks and, of course, one of Tabu’s most underrated gems.
For a while now, I’ve been lamenting the death of physical media in India. The movie collection is really really suffering from it.
The world is also suffering from lack of high definition promo materials and HD transfers for M.F. Hussain’s Meenaxi. The world deserves multiple color vinyl editions to play on the Yeh Rishta [MV]/Rang Hai [MV] color palette themes of the movie. Blue, yellow, orange, purple, besides the red one.
*Insert meme of “It’s been 84 years”*
After much mysterious drama, Marit and Marion have decided to come back together to make M2M a thing once again. You have no idea about the adrenaline rush I got when I saw Marit’s post, after missing the original posting on- “September 22nd, Sunday, twenty-five after nine.“
I love them. I hope they saw A*Teens performing together for their reunion at Melodifestivalen back in February this year and were washed by a feeling of nostalgia that they couldn’t resist. In fact, M2M has already announced The Better Endings Tour (to change the ending of The Day You Went Away, dorks), visiting a number of places in South East Asia were much of their fandom was concentrated, especially in Manila where they are already selling tickets.
My hope is that maybe, if they would like to increase touring chances in Latin America, they could get together with A*Teens and make it a Scandinavian thing. [Jokes on you! Who’s the dork now?] Thought I wouldn’t mind at all getting the chance to see Marit and Marion up close in more intimate venues, which are my preferred form of performances to witness live, anyway.
In the meantime, M2M have set up a website where you can join their mailing list, and follow them on their main socials Facebook and Instagram, Tik Tok, and a kinda left over YouTube channel.
I forgot to post this a while back, but this is a total feeling when you’re listening to music and the song comes up.
