Archives For August 2011

Yu-chan, why do you do these? I mean, release stuff on the same day. It makes me do multiple posts, and makes this blog look hugely disproportionate. xD

Having said that, what are these? Because they’re hilariously cute.

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Is any of you Yu-chan fans a fan of Rurouni Kenshin?

I gotta admit that I’ve never read the manga — but I hardly read any manga or comic, so… — and I seldom watched the anime series they just to show regularly on Cartoon Network. But I did watch (and own) that OVA movie… Samuari X: Truth and Betrayal. I kinda loved it.

But I don’t know much about the Rurouni Kenshin universe, so I can’t tell you much.

Yu Aoi has been confirmed as Takani Megumi, which according to Wikipedia:

Megumi is the youngest daughter of Takani RyÅ«sei, a well-known doctor in Aizu which was an important province supporting the Tokugawa Shogunate. During the Boshin Wars, Megumi’s father died and the rest of her family went missing, leaving her as the sole survivor.

[…]

Watsuki’s describes his standalone Megumi as bearing a “lighter quality” as she had a small role in that story. In the final series Watsuki decided to give her an “earthy quality” so she could make an impression on the reader.

The description on Wikipedia makes it sound like an interesting role involving Megumi knowing Western and Eastern medicine… and the tragic disappearance of her family, as well as an opium storyline. But alas, I doubt they will deal with that in the film, considering she’s not a main character xD

Yu-chan is joined by Munetaka Aoki, who was on Nihonjin Shiranai no Nihongo and also shared credits with Yu-chan on NHK’s Taiga drama last year. Both actors will be back together with their Ryomaden director, Keishi Otomo.

Am I starting a series? Nah… I don’t think I can come up with a Jpop list xD

Unlike the Kpop list which it focused 99% of the time on dance pop friendly tracks that went beyond American commercial pop, this “Cpop” list is… not really pop.

Popular music in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Mainland China (but mostly Taiwan) tends to be pop/rockish flare. Sure there are dance pop friendly, but even they have moved or are moving more towards pop/rock. They also love indie flavor, and accept not particularly attractiveness in their idols… even though there are some very good looking people who are immensely popular.

To be completely honest, compared to Korea’s pop music charts, Chinese music charts have a broad variety. But then again, compared to Japan’s pop music charts (which is comprised of AKB48 and Arashi xD), even Kpop charts (mostly 2NE1 and Big Bang now that DBSK is gone) seem to have some variety. xD

So this list of great Chinese music includes varying genres from R&B, pop/rock… more rockish, ballads (regular and of the indie type), etc. once again listed by year of release.

Again, it’s a bit weak on the earlier years… but you are welcome to make suggestions (for any year). A few guidelines would be that they cannot be too indie (I couldn’t fit Cheer Cheen or Mavis Fan in the list because they don’t feel completely pop, if you know what I mean), must include MVs (so songs released as singles), not older than late 90s.

Also… song must work as MV too. So no awesome songs but tacky videos. Sorry.

[iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/videoseries?list=PL0C06C35FA9FC1C64&hl=en_US”]

YouTube link.

What do you like about the Cpop industry?

Who are your fave artists?

Yu Aoi for Tamatama Movie

August 25, 2011 — 5 Comments

I don’t… even know how she does it.

Or in general. How does Japan do it to not let anyone outside the production know that they’re making any type of movie? Because when they want you to, they make sure you know.

How is it possible that we find out Yu Aoi was shooting a movie in location in Ireland a little over a month before the movie is set to open? Yes, Yu Aoi’s new movie is called Tamatama (translated to “by chance”) and is set to open on October 15th.

Little details are known from this Tokyograph report:

The film’s main concept is “tamatama,” which means “by chance.” Aoi plays a young woman who travels to Ireland, and the fantasy story depicts her life there as she encounters different people and places, resulting in occasional “miracles.”

Except for the miracle part, it sounds a lot like One Million Yen Girl… sans the Bitter-bug. xD

The film marks the debut for CM and MV director Komatsu Mayumi (小松真弓).

I finally bought the 2-disc Back to Basics concert DVD. I’ve become cheap because I buy other expensive stuff from Asia — I just spent $30 for a Bluray concert of Eason Chan because Exaggerate looked so freaking awesome. But I couldn’t spend more than 10$ for Back to Basics, even though I really liked the album.

I had… a like/don’t care relationship with Christina Aguilera since her debut alongside Britney — I was always a Britney fan because she had ‘something’ which we can call ‘it’ and I always felt Christina didn’t have that thing that make you want to root for her… but I was often blown away with her voice anyway. I knew the few steps to Genie in a Bottle, What a Girl Wants and Come on Over… almost to heart. I also dug that she had spent some time singing in Spanish with some good quality ballads and that infectious Falsas Esperanzas. She was the prettiest during those days — do you remember how amazing she looked in the MV for Pero me Acuerdo de Ti [MV]?

Her skin complexion then, non-sun-tanned and platinum blond, made a perfect match with the pinks which were highlights among all those grays.

Then she went all Dirrty. I did have an issue with her Dirrty days, even though Beautiful and Fighter are a couple of her strongest songs and I appreciate the change to more grundgy or gothy looks, but her literally dirty look and the sexual nature of the concept just reminds me of Tara Reid in her Wild On days. It’s just really disgusting. In the end, I never bought that album and I sorta forgot about Aguilera (or Britney). In fact, during that transition, I was becoming a Pink fan — you can tell from this post.

I have a point, bare with me.

Alongisde my Back to Basics concert DVD, I bought the Pink: Live from Wembley Arena — which would be her I’m Not Dead tour, and I watched them back to back.

It struck me that I could get a better sense of Christina watching the concert than I did with Pink. As I sat watching the second DVD, I thought to myself “wow, Back to Basics has a more cohesive theme than Pink’s concert.” To someone that considers herself a Pink fan, I felt a renew respect for Aguilera then.

It was then that I got it.
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