Category: Japanese

  • 20 Actors Between 25-30 to Watch until They’re 35

    I’m starting out my list this week… with lack of visitor’s response.

    No complaining from you then~~~

    I’m gonna start out with 5 of the guys, followed by 5 of the girls like last time. Only properly.

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  • Rie Miyazawa and Asami Mizukawa Join NHK’s Gou

    Thanks Julz for the heads up~

    Ueno plays the role of Gou (also known as Oeyo), the third daughter of the 16th century daimyo Azai Nagamasa (who married Oda Nobunaga’s sister Oichi-no-kata). Gou and her two older sisters are famous historical figures. The eldest, Yodo (also known as Chacha), will be played by Miyazawa, while the second sister, Hatsu, will be played by Mizukawa.

    Tokyograph~

    Adding from the announcement~~~
    strong females + Atsu-hime writer, Juri Ueno, Rie Miyazawa + Asami Mizukawa?

    Only getting better…

  • Ask Your Questions to Yu Aoi

    Dude, there’s still time! One week!

    For more info, read this post.

  • NHK ni Youkoso!

    Based from the novel, and the manga series by the same same, Welcome to the NHK [which stands for most part of the series for Nihon Hikikomori Kyoukai or The Japanese Hikikomori Association] tells the story of a Hikikomori himself called Satou Tatsuhiro, a 20-something-year-old University drop-out who’s been living like a Hikikomori for almost 4 years of his life until an 18-year-old (?) girl named Misaki decides to take him on as a project and make Satou better of his social condition… as well as helping herself.

    During the 24 episodes lasting 20 minutes [without opening and closing credits], we deal with a lot of what we’ve come to known as inherently Japanese odd behavior[though it’s really a global issue], including what we’ve learned to call the Japanese sub-culture of Otakus… Lolicon, video game culture, etc etc. However, we also deal with serious issues such as isolation, suicide and abuse – the last two often being such taboo topics in Asia or Latin America.

    This animated series is what makes Japanese animation so avant-garde, in my opinion. Televised animation has hardly anything in its favor. They can’t ever boast on how great their graphics are, because they need to restrict their resources so they fit the budget… ultimately, animation as a medium is seen by many in America and, to a lesser extent, in Europe as a kiddies hobby. If the people often putting animated films and series down just because of  being animated could give Welcome to the NHK a chance, they’ll understand it better.

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  • Update on My Favorite Films

    A few hours ago, I got back from watching Let the Right One In at the cinema. This is the 7th time I’ve watched the film in what… 2 years? [Twice as a screener, twice at the theater and three time on my DVD] And I still can’t seem to get enough of it. So thinking about whether or not I should add the film to my Top10 Favorite Films of all Time, made me remember that I have updated my Top10 Faves slightly already.

    Considering I saw Memories of Matsuko less than 2 years ago (1.7 years according to Flixster), and I’ve also seen it 7 times. It’s quickly climbed up from spot #8 to #3~ While Grave of the Fireflies climbed up from #10 to #5.

    What film in my Top10 should I displace? Jurassic Park is still in a special place in my heart, and Donnie Darko… hmm… or will Moulin Rouge! make a disappearing act? I need to watch these three films again and re-evaluate my Bottom5. I’m conflicted~~~ xD

  • Japanese Actors Who Can Actually Act

    Excuse me as I’m totally biased.

    Where’s Yu Aoi? xD

    CNN Go [new brand?] has an article about 7 not-so-known Japanese actors outside of Japan. Obviously there’s the mention of everyone’s favorites like Ken Watanabe [who is like the go-to Japanese guy in Hollywood now], Rinko Kikuchi, Tadanobu Asano, Rie Miyazawa, and Koji Yakusho.

    Of course, don’t forget Hiroyuki Sanada ;P

    Some not so surprising choices, some… or I mean, I got surprised by one xD

    The best choice? A mention for Ryo Kase…
    and a cool mention of Sakura Ando. =D

    Also… why 7? 7 is a weird number for a TopList. It’s like the writer couldn’t come up with 10 names, so he did 7. So… I wonder what 10 Japanese Actors not so known outside of Japan… or I mean, outside Asia would you choose?

    I’ll comment on this later…

  • Yu Aoi Fandom: If You Could…

    Ask Yu-chan 5 questions, what would they be?

    Since the If Only picks are already done [but you can still send your 5 picks, if you haven’t], I was thinking on how to keep you engaged… alongside Acerk we discussed a couple of ideas regarding more film work. But I thought this would be more approachable for everyone… since every fan has at least one question they want to ask their idol.

    Imagine you win a contest where you get to interview Yu-chan, this will help you get questions ready! LOL Or… imagine some reporter is interviewing Yu-chan, they should totally use this post xD

    A couple of rules~

    – Send me 1 to 10 questions
    – No questions about her private life. [eg. dating]
    – Send the questions in English

    If you’re interested leave a comment on this post by April 15th the end of April. Your comment must have a valid email address, otherwise I won’t be able to contact you. Or you know, if you have my amy-wong.com email you can send your questions up-front.

    After everyone sends in their questions, I will put the most asked questions in a list while also picking the most interesting ones [even if they’re asked only once], so make’em good, people!

    I would tell you I have something special for the fan with the most original/interesting (set of) question(s), but sadly I don’t have anything. I don’t have a budget to give away anything. D= So you only get the chance to fandom participate… and hopefully some nice journalist will get this and get to ask Yu interesting question on our behalf. xD Because I support the Creative Commons hahaha.

  • Love Exposure – Ai no Mukidashi: Psychotic Young Women

    I saw Love Exposure (愛のむきだし) last night, and despite the nearly 4-hr running time — yes, the film is EPIC — it did never seem uninteresting. Yes, it actually felt like 2 or 3 films into 1, yet somehow… it didn’t bother me. It was highly entertaining… in a very dark and sick kind of way.

    I mean, it can only be Japanese.

    Ai no Mukidashi tells the story of Yu Tsunoda, a boy growing up in a very Christian family. Suddenly his mother dies, but before she does… he promises to introduce his Maria to his mom when he meets her. With the death of his mother, his father decides to become a priest, until he meets with a woman in church who has decided to become a Christian herself. She is baptized, and when she does her first session at the confessional, she tells Father Tsunoda that she is in love with him.

    At first, Father Tsunoda refuses but in the end gives into this woman, and begins having an affair with her while still giving sermons at church. Three months later, the woman in question seems bored of him, and is tired of sneaking around as the priest doesn’t show signs of quitting priesthood, so she leaves him which turns Father Tsunoda into a pessimist who gives sermons about doom and destruction.

    This also makes his relationship with his son Yu difficult, as Father Tsunoda gets a sick satisfaction from hearing his son confessing his daily sins, whom in turns has been looking for better and scandalous sins to commit in order to please his dad. His major sin-accomplishment is becoming a panties-photo-snapping-on-the-street perv.

    That’s a whole movie all on itself, then there’s the part where he meets the most perfect panties, falls in love/lust, there’s a lot of killing, girl-on-girl action, girl-on-drag fantasy… etc, etc and… then there’s crazy women.

    Or… I mean, crazy girl.

    Psychotic women… sociopaths~~ it’s all about the crazy… and not only because they’re unstable. They are scary because they coolly kill people or get people killed, and they show no remorse.

    It is so sick… but highly entertaining.
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  • Watched on Feb and this March~

    I think… it feels like I watched a lot of films.
    Mainly because I don’t think I listened to too much music…
    or watched much TV xD

    … or read. LOL

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  • Raiou Un-official Snap?

    Well, I was expecting Masaki Okada with that hairstyle… but wasn’t expecting to see Yu so normal… How she manages to look good in rags still surprises me. I mean, she does look adorable in this snap. Her face is going to be flawless on screen…

    And… I’m to lazy to try to figure out what this article is talking about.

    All I wanna do is see Yu horseback riding =D