Category: Art

  • Yu Aoi Film Discussion – HURA GARU – Hula Girls

    This film discussion doesn’t come until after the Honey & Clover live action movie, but I thought it will be good to post this now since Cinemax Latin America is showing the film this December and January (and perhaps scattered February, check times here).

    This was probably the third film I saw of Yu, I was most impressed with the fact that Asians could move their booties like that… call it my Latin American gene that told me that the Asian gene makes you unfit to dancing. xD

    Here’s the 12-part video on YouTube. Or just wait for it on cable…

    A little about the film:
    (from Wikipedia)
    It’s a 2006 Japanese-award-winning film based on true events of a small coal mining town facing the shut down of the mine, and looking at the loss of +2000 jobs. While all the grownups seemed to be fuzzing about the future of their coal-legacy, a young group of girls see a gleam of hope in the opening of The Hawaiian Center, and hula dancing.

    Genre: Drama, Comedy and dancing!
    Starring: Yasuko Matsuyuki, Etsushi Toyokawa, Yu Aoi, Eri Tokunaga, Shoko Ikezu & Shizuyo Yamazaki
    Duration: 2hrs

    Spoilers ahead, you’ve been warned.

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  • Camouflage – Aoi Yu x Yottsu no Uso – Chapter 1

    Jinseitte Uso Mitai, or Life is like a Lie, is the first 3-episode-chapter of the Yu Aoi WOWOW drama Camouflage (previously known as Aoi Yu x 4 Lies) which aired at the beginning of the year, and it’s already on DVD. Finally saw! WEEEE – I waited… what, 6 months??? And still haven’t finished ‘coz no one is translating, and my translator bailed on me… dunno where he is.

    So I re-watched the three episodes last night, though the 3rd episode only had subs in the story and not on the introductions (in which the director and writer explain a bit), and the ending (where the photographer shows and explains the photos taken), so kinda missed some of the episode.

    Anyway…

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  • La Bailarina de Izu (The Dancing Girl of Izu) by Yasunari Kawabata

    la-bailarina-de-izu-kawabata

    Also known as Izu no Odoriko, or The Izu Dancer is the first published work (1926) to achieve popularity and acclaimed by Yasunari Kawabata. The book, very much like Kyoto, is about nothing at all… in fact, this is just a compilation of stories put together.

    The first one, which gives the name to the book is one of the few interesting ones, as well as Diario de mi Decimosexto Año that tells some of the moments of Kawabata’s dying grandfather. Some other stories I liked were La Princesa del Palacio Dragón, El Camino de Monedas, and Una Oración en Lengua Materna.

    Despite that, the just over 200-page book seemed to be a very long and slow book, compared to the reading time it took me to finish Kyoto. If you are a fan of Yasunari Kawabata’s writing about a time and a place and the people, you might enjoy this compilation of stories. If you’re looking for an introduction to him, or an epic tale about Japan… you might want to skip this one.

  • Dango San Kyou Dai

    When I watched Memories of Matsuko, there was one scene when Matsuko’s life was already going to the gutters, she was lying on the garbage bags, and she was watching TV. I immediately recognized the song as an Okaasan to Issho song… today I decided to look for it, and found it!

    Okaasan to Issho 1999 song, at first I thought it was a Takoyaki Mambo song, but I was lucky enough to find it on a website listing all the songs. Video and Romaji after the break!
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  • The L Word – S6 – Last Season Promo

    Let’s try some Sling.com embedding…

    As some of you know, The L Word is making its final showing this coming January (woo! exciting!) – Promo looks good, as in it looks pretty. Not sure about the “killer’s look” – I wonder… will they give me Sholly? I saw the poster, and Shane was licking Jenny… are they trying to throw me an anvil? ARGH, I hate anvils… they bring bad memories to my shipping heart.
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  • Preview Britney’s Circus on IMEEM

    Yay for no “this content is not available in your country” messages. Britney and IMEEM team up and have released Circus for preview one week ahead of it’s official release on December 2. I was actually kinda worried that I might not be able to listen to it (like I can’t see some official video releases on YouTube), but thank you IMEEM for letting me sample.

    — EDIT 2012 —

    IMEEM doesn’t exist any longer, so here’s a photo of Britney!

    —

    Don’t have an opinion yet… I’m on track two. Anyway, you too… listen to this.

  • Yu Aoi Film Discussion – Nanako to Nanao – TV Movie

    I was gonna apologize for not getting the time to write a new review, luckily I found that this reviewed followed next. Yay! xD

    Nanako to Nanao – Ane to Otouto ni Nareru Hi

    I have no idea where to put this since it’s not a film, but it’s also not a series. Sure it is, for some reason, labeled as a TV show or series… but no. It’s a TV movie, people. What is the difference between a film/movie and a TV movie, you say? Well, first it’s medium… then it’s budget and resources. In the end, you can almost always tell the difference between one and the other.

    What’s this TV movie about?
    Well… let’s see~ It’s a 2004 NHK Made-for-TV-Film about a high school girl named Nanako (Yu Aoi), who is often labeled as weird and anti-social due to trust issues with people caused by the betrayal she feels her dad committed. Seven years after his death, Nanako is thrown into the unusual situation to cohabit with her half-brother, Nanao (Yuri Chinen).

    Genre: Drama… kinda cute, but drama.
    Starring: Yu Aoi, Yuri Chinen
    Duration: 1:15hr

    Spoilers ahead, you’ve been warned.

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  • Toda Mafalda by Quino

    Toda Mafalda by QuinoWell, just finished reading Toda Mafalda by Quino, which my mom owned but we never bother to finish reading. I only ever read Mafalda on the single strips that are featured on the newspaper, so it was a fun delight to read it all in one go! ^^

    Some of the strips are far more fun than others, but nonetheless I enjoyed reading the whole thing as a sequence. I love that while going from vignette to vignette, I could picture friends and members of my family being a little Mafalda inside, as well as a little Manolito, a Susanita, little Felipe… we all have a little Mafalda character inside xD

    Though… a big THOUGH – I found the paragraphed text on the history of Mafalda, and other extra info VERY hard to read because of layout, and size of font and amount of info displayed in one page… that’s perhaps the biggest NO in the book. However, doesn’t make it unreadable… if you enjoy Mafalda on your newspaper, you’ll probably enjoy it here as well.

  • Message in a Post-it!

    Look what I found. ^^

    Messages in Post-its

    I love post-its~ I ran out of them two weeks ago, and bought another brand coz they didn’t have 3M ones, but they don’t stick. So post-its MUST BE 3M. When I was at school I used to leave post-its in my friends’ computers, and they left them on mine too. ^^

    Amy wants a post-it project now! Would you write/send/leave a post-it message for her? xD

  • We’re Smart, We’re Witty~

    … , and we’ve got asses that rock! – as Mary Cherry would say.

    What else rocks? This new theme… me likey, so it’s staying. Staying just in time for the painting of the apartment, so house’s a mess. Really… REALLY a mess~

    Bedroom Mess xD
    Okay… not much difference to the regular thing, ha! But it is a mess…

    Same thing goes for the living room… I think you can tell more with that one. xP

    Living Room Mess
    All the little things have been not-neatly stuffed on the tables and sofas…