I swear, for a while now South Korea has been trying to clone Aoi Yu. [1] Thank gods, Yu-chan’s switched styles and has been sporting different hair, and has sorta moved on from her Mori Girl vibe.
Archives For Art
I started watching Comedy Nights with Kapil a couple of months ago, despite the language barrier and the lack of subtitles. I gotta admit that the funniest thing has to be Kiku Sharda’s Palak despite (or maybe because of) the language barrier. It doesn’t matter what’s going on, he generally makes me laugh. Okay, Palak and Ghutthi.
I cackle when I see Madhuri teaching Palak dancing. Laughed so much when doing the acting demonstration for Tabu, KK and Shahid, and even made me NOT hate Kareena Kapoor (oh, look! She actually HAS a sense of humor!). Plus! They’re improving my hindi xD Win-win!
The only thing that pisses me off is that Colors isn’t uploading the episodes on YouTube as quickly anymore, the episodes on their website are region-restricted (FML), and some of the episodes have been having the music edited out, which ruins the mood/joke completely.
… or dusting off my lacking Chinese skills xP, so I ask anyone reading this to 1. Take these with a big grain of salt… and 2. If you’ve got a better translation/tips/corrections/etc. let me know. But… in the age of the internet, where fandoms translate songs en masse, I felt a little “left hanging” with Faye Wong lyrics.
So here are my tries. My mother tried to help, but she gave up. LOL
After much deliberation, I think I like Cong Cong Na Nian (匆匆那年) a bit more, though I didn’t like Ai Bu Ke Ji (爱不可及) on the first go, it’s really grown on me as a song.
Common courtesy for credits and/or link-ups, please.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcVZ4jVile8
Continue Reading…
Yu Aoi has a brand new book release simply titled 8740 DIARY 2011-2014, which is (from whatI was able to get) a collection of text and photos gathered between those years from different directors, screenwriters and co-stars. I am pretty sure there were texts from Shunji Iwai, Yuki Tanada and photographer Yoko Takahashi among many others.
The book is fairly priced… and the yen is down, so I think I might get it. We’ll see. In the meantime, Yu’s been promoting it with this cute little video for MORE Magazine, as well as the customary press event.
You can get the book on HMV Japan, which is my usual choice for Japanese items, even though YesAsia also delivers (but I find it extra pricey for them).
Wait, what? Are you telling me Faye Wong smiles in pictures? [1]
Faye Wong graced the October cover (in three versions) of Elle China for the 26th Anniversary, with a photoshoot by Chen Man. She’s always glorious when shot by Chen Man.
You can check more of the photos and a brief (Chinese) interview with Faye at the Polysh. I tried the Elle website, but it’s not happening for me.
She also has two new songs out this year [1][2].
Only ONE of them can make it to my list. I need translations of the songs for that. At the moment, Fleet of Time is winning… mainly because I liked translating the title with such nostalgia feelings. lol
— EDIT Nov 7 —
Better quality photos at Fashnberry.
I’m terrible with timing, aren’t I?
I’m always dissatisfied with my end of the year lists, but I supposed a WHOLE year of catching up is good enough for me to have a proper idea of what I like, right? I managed to squeeze in 227 movies, the rest is history. I hope you like it, that you don’t hate on me for not including some of your faves, that you celebrate that we loved some of others, and that you love me for introducing you to one title you missed.
After the Razia Sultan movie starring Hema Malini back in 1983, the story needs a modern international-money-backed re-vamp… and Tabu should play her, am I right or am I RIGHT?
Tabu is practically aching to do heavy action on a film (she just wants an action film really… I would put her as Wonder Woman if I could), and though ideally you’d pick an Indian director (Ashutosh Gowariker and Santosh Sivan come close to grand-scale production without the Sanjay Leela Bhansali masala), I’d like to see a full-on international production maybe at the hands of John Woo (enormous scale and grand battles a la Red Cliff are of his fancy nowadays) or have Tabu back with Ang Lee, or go the Korean route with Kim Han-min (War of the Arrows), Kang Je-Gyu (Tae Guk Gi) or Kim Sung-su (The Warrior).
I know Tabu chooses projects at times with set comfort in mind, and I don’t know how the others are on set (you don’t want one that’s as extreme as Von Trier… or such an asshole as David O. Russell LOL), so Lee would be a safe bet. Or… we could go the American-Indian, British-Indian or Indo-Canadian way. Asif Kapadia is looking like a good choice.
Historical political action drama sounds good, avoiding to outright do a dancing sequence unless it’s a court sequence and it’s not Tabu doing it. LOL
Ever since she said she wants to do an action film, I’ve been trying to think of a project for her to do… even though she wouldn’t be my first choice of an action star. But if she wants to put in the work for it, who are we to deny her wishes, right?
They got you, didn’t they? You thought, woah~ Ayumi Ito is playing a spy. But no~
Ayumi Ito items in English are often hard to come by because her (mostly) English fandom is non-existent. However, I did ran into this photo of her for the Mata Hari collection that Annie Lee did four or five years ago alongside Josie Ho and Hilary Tsui. I don’t know much about fashion… but all in the name of Ayumi Ito xD
… the phrase “korea’s Aoi Yu” or its actual 韓国の蒼井優, kankoku no aoi yuu. And, no- just no. If there has to be a Korean version of Yu-chan, it has to be this one only. xD Just saying. I mean, come on~
Yu-chan’s all fresh-faced one and only xD
I do love her hair at that length. She was also sporting it in a recent appearance on Kuwazugirai [1], where she mustered once again that she’d be probably rubbish playing poker because she can’t even keep a straight face when eating a hard-boiled egg, which she is literally suffering to do. It’s quite hilarious.
OMO~ OMG xD
According to the site formerly known as Nippon Cinema, Eigapedia, Shunji Iwai is working on an animated prequel of Hana & Alice, because- WHY NOT? It’s always good to have Yu Aoi back together with Iwai, despite the lack of Noboru Shinoda and Iwai’s uncertain background in animation. xD But I have a weakness for Yu Aoi voice-over acting. Both Aoi and Anne Suzuki were back in their respective roles, and apparently are done with their recording, telling us the story of how their friendship became what it was.
The production teased already with brief stills of the movie, and rough vignettes of the animated frames. The movie is set to open some time in February next year.
User Plano Piloto has translated the audio and on-screen text:
Hana: By the way, what’s your name?
Alice: Arisugawa Tetsuko
[Alice, the most powerful transfer student in history.]
Hana: I am-
Alice: Arai Hana-san.
[Hana, the most powerful hikikomori in history.]
Hana: Why do you ask knowing it?
Alice: Eh? You asked my name, you hikikomori.
[The world’s smallest murder case happened when the two met.]
Hana: I don’t enjoy being one.[The first animated feature film by Shunji Iwai.]
Alice: A murder case?
Hana: Want to know what happened?
[Voice Actors / Yu Aoi as Alice / Anne Suzuki as Hana]
Alice: Well… I’m not sure.
