Category: Japanese

  • The 65 Foreign Submissions are in + Documentary shorts

    I can feel it in the air. Award season is approaching. I think Indie Spirit Awards are also done with submissions, and their nominations should arrive come early December.

    In the meantime, the Academy Awards has released the list of the 65 countries (or not-countries… Greenland?) that will be competing for 5 spots as “Best Foreign” nominees, as well as their 8 short documentaries.

    Here are some of the reviews of the ones I’ve seen.

    Let’s talk wild guess predictions in here. Which countries will be the 5 chosen ones?

    Mexico’s Biutiful seems like an easy assumption.

    China’s Aftershocks seems to be a good candidate for several reasons besides “film”. Whatever your thoughts on melodrama are, I mean… you really need to be a sour grape not to feel something for the family in that film. Either that, or you’ve never been in a natural disaster. Having said that, it is because it’s a melodrama that it’s perfect for Oscar. Moving family drama that deals with catastrophe with a really powerful and magnificently handled Earthquake scene that was a box office hit in China. It’s just good business.

    Also, China being nominated is controversial. Anything to do with China since 2008 is controversial. Controversial always brings ratings. Also nominating China is just plain good business. If China gets nominated – I dunno, what are the chances of some state channel broadcasting the Oscar? Just imaging 2/3 of China’s internet population watches the Oscar that night. That’s 200 million viewers. Anything in China is big.

    If there’s no China, it must be another cheese movie… like South Korea’s A Barefoot Dream. An underdog story of a kiddie football team and a coach. It shall make you feel happy xD

    Canada’s Incendies?

    and… I dunno what else. Peru’s chances? From what I have seen, and what I’ve heard. It could very well get into the nine before they select the final five. I’ll have a better grasp once the 9 are out xD

  • Yogashiten Coin de Rue Trailer

    Okay, too much Yu-overload this week. My fan-brain can’t handle all this information. Plus, the new film opens nearly one week after my 25th bday –oh, Grilled Cheesus! I’m so old!

    [iframe src=”https://www.nipponcinema.com/v2/play.swf?config=https://www.nipponcinema.com/cfg/yogashiten-coin-de-rue-trailer” width=”560″ height=”315″]

    Highlights from the trailer? Hello, tasty pastries? It wasn’t long ago that I was trying to think of nice Foodie films. I think Coin de Rue could be a good candidate. That mousse looked potentially-mouthwatering-inducing.

    Second, I love that Yu-chan gets to work with pastries. And this one’s even more about the pastries.

    Third, Yu-chan cheek-pulling. I literally burst out laughing when I saw that. Does that happen a lot? I know that in America is considered very “aunt-y” for a woman to pull her nephew or niece’s cheek. I think it happens a lot in Asia. All my Korean roommates (and some friends), we used to pull each other’s cheeks all the time. But then again, there was also some un-wanted Korean spanking.

    via Nippon Cinema.

  • Raiou at the Pusan Film Fest

    Yu-chan’s been busy! Or it’s actually been busy for us…

    REDLINE opened in Japan, as well as some dates in San Francisco – jealous! There was also the re-run of last-last week’s episode of Ryomaden on Friday night. On Saturday, there was a re-run of Hana & Alice on i-Sat. Plus, Yu-chan’s also been in Korea for the Pusan Film Festival to promote Raiou!

    G-Dragon must be there stalking. He really should visit the site and comment, we could really be friends.

    Anyway! As you know, Yu-chan’s pretty popular in Korea. Hana & Alice opened there as well, and even her film Letters from Nirai Kanai (with no subs yet) was released there under the name “Aoi Yu’s Letters” Snap!

    Yu-chan looks so pretty xD

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  • SF Yu Aoi and Animation fans: Redline Opens this Week in your City

    I wish I had known sooner, but I just found out today.

    REDLINE will be opening in San Francisco this Friday 8th at 7.15pm at VIZ Cinema – at the same time as in Japan! And will continue showing the film throughout the week. I already added them to the Yu Aoi Events calendar.

    Friday 8th – 7.15pm
    Saturday 9th, Sunday 10th – 12.30pm , 2.45pm , 5pm , 7.15pm
    Monday 11th – Thursday 14th – 5pm , 7.15pm

    Admission is $10

    If you catch the show, let me know. Would love to hear your thoughts.

  • What Are Good Lyrics?

    Ah… English, such a direct language. I often have discussions with people about the nuances of the different languages. Friends tell me that French and Italian are great for flirting, and my mom keeps telling me that different dialects in Chinese have so many words to describe food flavors, impossible to describe in Spanish or English.

    The Beautiful Language.

    However, what about songs?

    My favorite songs, my favorite artists in English — 99% of the time, I try not to find the lyrics any longer. Whenever I have enjoyed the songs, looked for the lyrics, 90% of the time I’ve ended up disappointed.

    My first language is Spanish, however, I often find myself thinking in English – so, whenever I listen to music in Spanish, my brain begins translating lyrics into English. The repertoire of songs that I actually like in Spanish tend to be songs that are hard to translate literally into English.

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  • LAST ALLIANCE – WING

    Funny thing, while voting yesterday, I ran into the friend who helped with with the romanization of the lyrics of their Me and your Borderline album. Today I find they’ve come back.

    After nearly 2 years and a half, Japanese rock band LAST ALLIANCE will be releasing their new album Keep on Smashing Blue on October 27th. Their new single and video WING is directed by Niwa Takayuki (丹羽貴幸) and features professional boxer Tsuchiyama Naozomi. The band doesn’t even show up in the video, which is unusual in Japanese music videos.

    I have a bias against Jrock — but not as bad as against Jpop — It might sound bad for me to say this, but I often find myself saying stuff like “it sounds too much like anime music” which isn’t bad, as some songs are actually quite catchy and/or good enough to add to your iPod. LAST ALLIANCE actually sounds kind of okay… obviously, my friend is a bigger fan.

    WING fits that “the song is kinda good”, it certainly has a nice energy to it, and despite the actual concept for the video and trying to do something different and setting LA apart, I think the video’s biggest shortcoming was editing. Believe me, I have the same issues when having upbeat songs – I keep shots for too long, it sucks the energy out of it.

  • Omoideoyokocho by Tim Wilkinson

    Okay, do other people think of Oldboy when looking at this photo of the awesome Tim Wilkinson?

    Omoideoyokocho

    Just me? xD

  • Moi et le funky musique~~~

    So… today it’s voting Sunday. And I’ve also setup my About page… and got rid of my Favorites page because… well, it seemed redundant to have two pages about me. LOL

    In case you missed the post in which I talked about my taste in film, this is a similar post that talks about my history… or lack of history with music.

    When I was about 7, my dad opened a Karaoke bar (how Asian, non?). But by then, I had already grown up with the likes of the music of La Nueva Ola (the new wave) — you know, the type of Rock n’ Roll from The King… Jailhouse Rock or Houndog but in Spanish. My favorite tunes were probably La Plaga (the plage, the Spanish version of Little Richard’s Good Golly, Miss Molly), and La Mantequilla (the butter, the Spanish version of Cliff Richard and the Shadows’ Move It).

    Of course, I was a little kid going to Chinese/Peruvian school, so my repertoire also included the Cantonese Counting Song Yat Yi Sam, as well as the counting Elefantes song… as well as the Sukiyaki song. So from the very beginning… I had a predisposition for all types of music in many different languages.
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  • A little about moi

    Other than not having anything to post, I thought I could write a little about me (maybe add an “about page”) – who knows… I mean, other than having the seldom post with an anecdote related to the post, what do most people who visit know about me other than the fact that I like to post about Yu Aoi, I post weekly on Glee, what I watch or what I listen to.

    What about me?

    My favorite genre is tear-jerking dramas… of the art house foreign kind. The more I cry, the more I feel satisfied with a film. For two hours of my life – or how many films or shows I get to watch in a day – I like high-tension dramas that will get my heart beating faster, and feel so much pain for the characters. I often like to put myself in the position of the main character, and pretend I can be them — making me cry even more. So as I grow older, the movies I tend to watch have less to do with the younger crowd. LOL Sometimes I think I could be an actress. LOL

    Anyway, in real life? I’m the complete opposite. I like my life tension-free. I hate drama, and I live a simple life enjoying art and eating. I avoid high-tension situations, I avoid big crowds, and avoid meeting too many people at once. I prefer a dinner for two on a weekend at home with a good film to watch, than partying in a room full of people I see less than twice a year.

    So while I love super dramatic dramas xD my life is more like an artsy fartsy film in which nothing happens. xD

    In my life, a lot of people speak Spanish… then someone mixes in Cantonese. We also speak English… and sometimes… only sometimes, we end up a bit snobbish with some French. See, very artsy fartsy.

    Symphony of Lights, Hong Kong

    My home life was very much like some quirky Asian film – queue Hong Kong film – maybe a reason why I have a soft spot for them despite some of their lacking points. My grandfather was a character, out of World War II, telling me how in China he was relatives with someone of Royal blood. LOL I never really believed THAT but it’s one of those things that’s funny to remember.

    I have a weak heart for films that deal with Alzheimer disease – I literally spent half of Away from Her crying every time she didn’t remember a thing. And I cried my heart out watching Ken Watanabe on Memories of Tomorrow struggling with living with the disease as he begun forgetting his own wife. Another reason why The Notebook affected me as it did… LOL

    I also have a soft spot for Family dramas… less prominent in America or Europe, but oh so popular in Asia. I wonder why? LOL Asian and Latin Americans are similar that way. Despite all the arguments I may have with my family — not only parents, but extended family as well… uncles, aunts, cousins~~~ we poke fun at each other in good spirits. We actually do love each other.

    wyk4p-2-c318

    In light entertainment? I literally haven’t enjoyed a silly comedy since I saw Zoolander at the cinemas, though The Sweetest Thing is a good one. My humor tends to be either silly — as in Asian gag-related — or really bizarre… which I only use with members of my family, because we all get each other. That’s political humor, religious humor, race humor… and so on. We sometimes poke fun of dead people on the news LOL

    I love musicals – sometimes I think I’m a gay man trapped in a little girl’s body? LOL – I love hipster films, I like romantic comedies… but I tend to avoid Jennifer Aniston. I like animation (can you imagine how much I enjoyed Happy Feet? LOL), and I think female comedians are funnier than male ones. Romantic comedy Dan in Real Life with gorgeous Juliette Binoche… and a surprisingly good Steve Carell (and zing! Emily Blunt) was great… except for the annoying experience to see Dane Cook on screen. I despise Cook. It’s something I can’t explain. xD

  • Foreign Submissions Update

    Some very exciting news – First, it seems I’ve seen more than TWO of the Foreign submissions this year LOL. Of course that’s without considering the 9 films that will go through the other stage, and the 5 that will be chosen. I’ll probably get a 1/5 ratio at the most.

    Second of all… China chose Xiaogang Feng’s earthquake drama Aftershocks to represent them. *jumpy claps* Now, this is my weakness. I love tear-jerking dramas. Anyone who’s lived through an earthquake should and will be affected by the story, anyone who’s lived through a hurricane, typhoon, any catastrophic natural disaster. Aftershocks is for you. But this is not to say that Aftershocks is exploitative of the tragedy, because this “earthquake” film is little about the earthquake and all about the people affected by it.

    Considering the technical achievement this is, and how human and audience-friendly this drama is, I think this might have high chances of passing to the “chosen 9”. *crosses fingers*

    Here are some of the submissions I’ve seen and reviewed:

    The updated titles via Indie Wire!