Category: Japanese

  • Yu-chan for 8740 DIARY 2011-2014

    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).

  • Experiment Awards: Best of 2013

    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.

    experiment-awards-2013

    Do your thing.

  • From the Vault: Ayumi Ito for Annie Lee’s Mata Hari

    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

    annie-lee-mata-hari-ayumi-ito

  • I keep seeing~

    … 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-aoi-oct2014-profile

    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.

  • Shokuzai is Coming to Affordable DVD/BR

    Exciting news! Shokuzai will be released on DVD/Blu Ray and VOD (in the US) on October 31st, which only means affordable and subtitled Yu Aoi (et others). Amazon date says November 18th.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ehdRryYEIQ

    You know what to do, use those Amazon links~

  • All My Male Biases Ranked

    Now it’s time for the boys~

    amys-100-favorite-actors

    Who made it and who didn’t? I was surprised myself. LOL Don’t forget to comment and share ;)

  • Miyavi Slapping the Tour

    I’m still not so sure about Miyavi’s lyrics in English, but I do appreciate the fact that he tries and works the field for non-Japanese fans. Very much appreciated~ I will always remember his concert, and attending it with my father.

    But Miyavi and his guitar, man. That goes beyond language.

  • How Languages Evolve

    It’s always interesting to see educational (short) clips about different languages; did you guys ever see the one about the guy that could speak like 20 languages? At that time, my niece (6) and nephew (5) were struggling with picking up Italian and English at school, while they spoke Spanish and Swedish at home. That was, of course, on top of their other school subjects like math, because schooling is just incredibly ridiculous nowadays.

    The only bad thing about the clip is the incredibly boring tone of the voice over. In any case, I thought it was funny they lumped Mandarin, Cantonese, etc into one big chunk of Chinese language. I thought the formal label was “Sino-Tibetan language,” even though Tibetan feels more like it would be more like Indo-Aryan, no? Isn’t Sanskrit both part of Tibetan and Indo-Aryan languages? Sighs.

    I don’t exactly understand how branching works with languages, how does Indo-European come about? Isn’t that like stretching things out? What would languages like Spanish, German and Hindi have in common with each other? And how does Japonic or Koreanic come about? And how do they have more in common with Mongolian than with Chinese?

  • Yu Aoi for Chanel J12 White

    I’m starting to feel… as a Yu Aoi fan, that I’m out of a job. Though I’d like to believe that the information I add to the Yu Aoi posts I publish have a little something extra. I mean, I really don’t have any other reason as to why I wasn’t aware of these photos (et more) from two years back. Plus, there are tons and tons of Yu Aoi related Tumblr pages [tag][1][2][3].

    However, the craziest one I found was sorekara’s aoi-yu-tagged stuff. There are tons of photos of Yu with her shorter hair in shoots and ads, there’s older photos that I had only seen in tiny version, there’s old photos that I wasn’t aware of. I’m old, and I don’t have the will to get a Tumblr account to follow.

    You can’t even subscribe by tags! Anyway~

    I couldn’t find the photographer, but this Chanel product placement on the Special section of Vogue’s Dec’12 issue is called 『True White 白という名のモダニティ。』 promoting the J12 White Chanel watch series that costs a fraction of your car (if you use one) — priced between 3.3k pounds to 10k.

    Hahaha. I mean, seriously, who would’ve thought 100 years ago that needle watches would become a status symbol.

    The concept was that Yu Aoi personifies the concept of the (truthful) pure, modern woman image. And the website is still active, though I had some trouble getting the actual link. And you know what it is with them Flash-based websites, it will eventually go offline- so people took screencaps~

    Plus! No one like Vogue to style your fresh short hair.

    yu-aoi-true-white-shiro-toiu-chanel-dec12-003

  • Yu Aoi and Satoshi Tsumabuki for Wakamonotachi

    Ugh, I love these guys together.

    wakamonotachi-2014-ep01-yu-aoi-satoshi-tsumabuki

    Soooooo much.