Category: Japanese

  • High School Teacher 2003 – Koukou Kyoushi

    As the name suggests, this 2003 drama is about a high school teacher who is dying of an inoperable brain tumor, then one night he meets Hina, a 16-year-old girl who is pretending to be a 20-year-old beautician. They end up in his apartment for the night, even though nothing happens. The next day, she discovers he is her new high school teacher.

    Of course, she keeps trying to get with him, and he tries to keep his distance… after all, he is dying. Then, with those crazy Japanese-language misunderstandings, Hina believes she’s about to die. Suddenly, the teacher finds solace in her… and that’s when it just gets creepy and frustrating.

    I understand hot-for-teacher.

    But I spent 98% of the time watching this [I just finished episode 8] saying how inappropriate.

    First, the male lead was just so… ugh, infuriating. I guess it’s not really him, it’s the character that annoys me. I could get it, the way he is for the first 2 episodes. He’s dying, he’s afraid of being forgotten, whatever. However, by episode 7, it just gets tiresome. Man up already! But instead of manning up, and telling Mina that she’s not dying, so she doesn’t need to find physical pleasure to feel alive… because, well… she’s got time.

    He goes and diddles the student.

    Is that supposed to be romantic?

    And then people go on and tell him he looks different, more relaxed. Of course! He’s diddling the student! whom he lied to by saying she’s got an inoperable brain tumor. And the doctor plays along? Lying to her?

    Mina should totally sue their asses.

    Gosh!

    Okay, having said that. Reason why I watched this? Of course, Yu Aoi. I wasn’t gonna watch it because the title is so bland, and I don’t normally do jdramas. However, while looking for the latest Anan photoshoot, I ran into a post that talked about a “rape scene” [on ep08] in the series, so I went all “OMG, I need to check this out.” So I did.

    Besides the dragging storyline of the dying teacher who diddles the student who thinks is dying, the series talks about suicide, depression, prostitution, and bullying. The big bad of the series is Yuki, played by Hiroki Narimiya — whom I had already eyed on Tiger & Dragon, and Nana LOL — but his crazy antics get tiring by episode 7 too. I mean, he’s just bad because he’s bad, unlike Koike on Love Exposure who is bad for being bad with a background.
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  • To Watch Until They’re 35 – Doona Bae

    Holler if you just said “What?”!

    You might be asking me why I would put Natalie Portman as #3, who is virtually known by everyone, and is the role model of  virtually 95% of late teens/early 20s young actresses around. We admitedly find Kristen Stewart’s fangirl-y-ness kind of cute and amusing [1][2]. However, if we decided to put Natalie Portman as our #1, then that would be a little bit boring, right?

    Plus, this time we are choosing quality over quantity. ;P

    So~~~ on our list of 20 Actors to Watch, here it is: Doona Bae on #2.

    Born in Seoul, South Korea on October 11th 1979, this 30-year-old actress is best known as archer Park Nam-Joo in the monster film The Host (Gwoemul) by Bong Joon-ho, as well as playing activist Cha Yeong-mi in Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance by Park Chan-wook.

    Born to famous stage Korean actress, Kim Hwa-young, it seemed that Bae was born with acting in her veins. However, she always felt that acting was only for people of extraordinary talent, so she kept away. One day in 1998, after graduating from university, Bae was scouted by a model agency, and one year later she was already debuting on the KBS TV drama School — which earned her the KBS Drama Award for Best New Actress, while making her big screen appearance with a brief role on The Ring Virus, the Korean remake of the Japanese horror RINGU.

    In year 2000, she was cast as Hyeon-nam in Barking Dogs Never Bite, directed by Bong Joon-ho due to her willingness to appear without makeup, which many other South Korean actresses refused to do. This earned her another award as Best New Actress, at the Blue Dragon Awards. She followed it with two films that were received positively by critics, first in 2001 with Take Care of my Cat by Jeong Jae-eun, for which she earned Best Actress by the Korean Critics Association, the Korean Film Directors’ Society (Chunsa Film Art Award), and the whole South Korean entertainment industry with a PaekSang Arts Award. And in 2002 with Park Chan-wook’s Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, for which she earned a Best Actress at the Director’s Cut Awards, chosen by Korean Film Directors, and would lead to a future collaboration.

    After two weak films in 2003, Bae decided to take some time off from acting, in which she took up photography, and participated in the stage production of Sunday Seoul, co-written by Park Chan-wook.

    In 2005, she went across the sea, and starred in the Japanese cult hit Linda Linda Linda, playing a South Korean exchange student in a Japanese girl rock band trying to play at the school’s festival — for which she recorded an EP titled We Are Paranmaum under the name Paranmaum — by Nobuhiro Yamashita, which also became a favorite of the film festival circuit. The year after it, she had a supporting role in Bong Joon-ho’s South Korean biggest box office success The Host.

    Bae also appears on a few music videos, and has released Photo essays for London, Tokyo and Seoul. Finally, in 2009 she played an air sex-doll in the Japanese drama Air Doll by acclaimed director Hirokazu Koreeda. For the role, she earned Best Actress wins in festival circuits, as well as nominations at the Asian Film Awards, and the Japanese Academy Awards.

    What’s next for Doona Bae? We have no idea. But if she’s making us wait another 3 years for a new movie on the big screen, and it’s as GOOD as Air Doll was when we waited those 3 years after The Host. Well, it’s all worth it.

  • Hayaku by Brad Kremer

    I think it’s time for a “time-lapse” tag, don’t you?

    I think it’s amazing how some shots look like a scale model.

  • Yu Aoi for Anan

    Trivia bit?

    This issue came out on March 2010. Yu also appears on the Anan covers for March 2009 and March 2008. And she’s got at least 5 Anan covers in total, though I dunno their dates.

    How I noticed? I name my photoshoot files with name of magazine and date of publication, and if possible… photographer, though that usually happens with publications in English.

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  • First Look at Vampire and Set Visit

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  • Japanese and Chinese Readers/Translators for Chrome

    I have been using Rikaichan and Perapera-kun for about 2 years know, and it’s really improved my reading skills. Though, I am still lazy to remember how to actually read the kanji out-loud. LOL

    But now I have been using Google Chrome a bit more than when it first came out, because it’s faster and it’s just there. However, since I browse so many Japanese and Chinese sites, I always end up browsing through them with Firefox because of my add-ons. LUCKILY! Google Chrome has add-ons now!

    Rikaikun is like a lighter version of Rikaichan, works just like it.

    and Zhong Wen, which is pretty much a light version of Perapera.
    thank you, Chinese Hacks~

    All I’m missing is a Koren one, which Perapera said they were working on. I wonder what happened to that business… haven’t seen updates since then.

  • Television Meme

    His Eyes Were Watching Movies with a Television Meme… Hmmmkay~

    Day 01 – A show that should have never been canceled
    Firefly

    Day 02 – A show that you wish more people were watching
    Dexter

    Day 03 – Your favorite new show ( aired this t.v season)
    Glee – I don’t think people get why I watch it.

    Day 04 – Your favorite show ever
    Buffy the Vampire Slayer

    Day 05 – A show you hate
    CSI Miami – I was gonna say some reality tv, but it seemed unfair.

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  • Mori Girl: Fashion and Lifestyle Blog

    Obviously, this is a pimp post.

    Fashion (as in clothing) is not my forte — I could fight you on photography, though — but Yu Aoi is the crowned Mori Girl, it seems. And Mori Girl: fashion and lifestyle of girls in the forest is just dedicated to it, I knew about it… but I’m not necessarily what you call Mori~~~ Hmmkay. But Yu is on the site’s header, and she’s been featured on the site a number of times, so I think it’s nice to feature it here for the Yu-chan fans interested in her fashion.

    These are some of the posts:

    – Yu Aoi on Spoon Magazine Oct.2009
    – Featured Mori Nov.2009
    – Yu Aoi in Pretty Style May.2010 <- check the last 3 photos. LOVE. Want bigger scans.
    – Yu Aoi in Anan May.2010

    =D Happy pic spam~

  • Remembering Jinseitte Uso Mitai – Life is like a Lie~

    From WOWOW’s experimental 2008 drama, Camouflage.

    Ryo Kase and Yu Aoi = LOVE.

    I think this one was the BEST chapter of the series. [here for the recap]

    have a good not-suffering end of the weekend, but an overall relaxing Sunday.
    or you know, have a good new week if you’re on the other side of the world~~~

  • New So-En Mag Issue with Yu Aoi

    The newest issue of So-En Magazine (yes, the famous one with Yu as a boy) has recently hit the stands with Yu on the cover once again. As you can see, the cover is sporting the look for Yu’s newest Photo Exhibit and upcoming Photobook Uso. (Lie.). So she’s pushing hard to promote this.

    Maybe it is because I didn’t know my sources well, but if I recall correctly when Portugirl came out, there wasn’t much promotion for it, at least not that I recall people blogging about it.

    Anyway, I found this info on Japanese Streets, where they guide on how to get issues of So-En magazine, which by the way is a renowned fashion magazine that started in 1936. 1936!!! Otherwise, you can get it on Amazon Japan, or somehow get it from Bunka Publishing ~~~ and… you can pre-order Uso. over at HMV Japan.

    by the way… anyone attend the event on the 29th? or anyone attending the exhibit?
    would love to hear from you.