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Best Songs of 2000-2009 – Part 3/5

December 29, 2009 — Leave a comment

We are still going backwards with this listing of songs…

I think 2006 and 2007 marked my shift of Asian focus in music. It’s weird, I don’t think it’s about lyrics as I most often than not don’t search for lyric translations. I have just found Asian music to be more “musically” interesting than their Western counterparts.

I once had a throughout conversation with a friend online who lives in Morocco, and is a huge fan of Asian entertainment, and has lost all notion of Western entertainment. I asked him why his interests shifted, and he told me it was because there was a point in his life where everything looked and sounded the same to him.

Others have commented on the topic with regards of idols’ image and the degradation of the business.

With the turn of the new decade, we will see how big the Asian entertainment industry gets. Many will be watching… I will keep an eye on this.

Japanese Films and Other Asian Film Short Takes

December 29, 2009 — Leave a comment

This isn’t a regular Award Season post.

But it’s a lot of postings… I should post one by one, but I am lazy… even if it increases posts number which have decreased a bit this month.

First with the Most Anticipated~~~

Yu gets a mention for Otouto which is about to open in a few days~~~

Then we go to some award nominations~~~

Dear Doctor gets Best Picture and Best Director for Miwa Nishikawa, as well as awards for Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress (Kimiko Yo) at the Nikkan. Mother got some love for Foreign Film, and Masaki Okada earned the New Artist for A Pierrot (what? LOL)

The Hochi awards the film with a Best Director as well, a Best Supporting Actor for Eita, and a Supporting Actress for Kaoru Yachigusa. Michael Jackson got a Special Award, and some more love for Ken Watanabe, Clint Eastwood and Masaki Okada who also won Best New Artist for Honokaa Boy.

Seems like the Japan Academy Award will be fought over The Sun Doesn’t Set, and Dear Doctor~~~

And to close this post, a Top Best Asian Films of the Decade.
Will work on mine later~~~

In Chinese, English, Films, Japanese, Korean, Sharing awards, best of, eita, japan, masaki okada, news, nominations, winners, yu aoi

Best Songs of 2000-2009 – Part 2/5

December 28, 2009 — 2 Comments

To keep things interesting, I’ve decided to switch to the newest songs that made the best 100 songs of the decade. Just the heads up, it turned out to be very Asian. Is it trying to tell you something?

One of those examples was the Welcome to Beijing song, which had a HUGE bunch of Asian (mostly Chinese, Taiwan and Hong Kong) stars. The scale of the project is probably similar to (or even bigger than) Michael Jackson’s We Are the World song… which in its time was epic. To me, and to many Asian (and non-Asian) people who keep track of the Asian music industry it marked an important time. Not only did the Olympics opened China to the world… and the world to China, but it also felt like a huge switch on everything from basic economics, industry… and entertainment.

It’s as if Chinese musicians had been enclosed all those years while the economy started to pick up, and have exploded with a huge fireball of creativity. It’s amazing at the amount of talent coming out from there, especially now that they can upload their music through the many Chinese music websites like douban.com and haoting.com, and the amount of blogs and communities that are reporting on them.

Some really awesome music, which I have already blog in this place. This is the reason, I want to get over these ones first, before I post many other songs from 2002-2006 when I didn’t blog that much (or at all).

Camouflage – Aoi Yu x Yottsu no Uso – Chapter 2

December 27, 2009 — 1 Comment

Finally got the chance to watch the second chapter of Camouflage fully translated. Why? One, because I didn’t have the time, and when I had the time ViiKii wasn’t letting me stream.

So… anyway! I’m pimping subscribers! I want more people to subscribe, and I guess most of the visitors are coming here for their Yu Aoi fix, so please. Add this blog to your Google, or your Yahoo…. or just add the blog’s Feed to any reader you use, that way you can keep up with your Yu Aoi reading. ;P

Okay, pimp time is done.

BARAIRO NO HIBI, or Rose-colored Days is the 2nd 3-episode chapter of Yu Aoi’s Camouflage, which aired a LONG time ago. The title seems to be a play on words on “rose-colored g lasses” (aka. pink-colored glasses) which refers to seeing something nicer than it normally is. A common word that is often used (and I often read about 5 years ago) was delusion. Delusional people aren’t really crazy per se, but they are living in an illusion that they’ve created.

In this case, Yu’s character, Makoto.

In Celebrity, DVD/BR, English, Fun, Japanese, Photoshoots, Screencaps, Sharing, Television actress, fandom, japan, show recs, tv drama / tv series / miniseries, wowow, yu aoi

Best Songs of 2000-2009 – Part 1/5

December 26, 2009 — Leave a comment

Ever since the internet began playing a bigger part on what is music today (with places like MySpace, YouTube and Peer to Peer), I said it… there will never be a fuly 100 Greatest Songs for this past decade. You will watch a VH1 (or MTV) Greatest Songs of 2000-2009, and you will always feel they will be nothing compared to their list of Greatest 90’s songs, or Greatest 80’s songs where you would sit, listen and say “Wow, I remember this song. It brings such memories” – Those days are over, and it’s kind of nostalgic.

With the internet, the market for music was open in such a way that you do not need to listen to the radios. You are not obliged to listen to what the record companies decide to send the radios… you simply do not need to listen to anything they produce as there’s a market from pretty much any small artist willing to put themselves out there. With the internet, you do not need to restrain yourself from listening to something just because it’s not sold on your region. You can find out about any group around the world, singing in any language, and you can most likely get their albums digitally or through online stores.

And so my list of 100 Best Songs of the Decade doesn’t reflect what was supposed to be popular in America… or America Latina… or Europe… or China… or Japan, but it reflects the best of everything that was available anywhere in the world. There is most likely you will find something here that will bring memories to you.

In Chinese, English, Japanese, Korean, Music, Sharing, Spanish alejandro sanz, alicia keys, best of, bjork, canada, cheer chen, coldplay, eminem, fatboy slim, japan, korea, latin america, nelly furtado, rankings, shiina ringo, spain, taiwan, u2

Yu Aoi on NHK’s Taiga Drama Ryoma den!

December 24, 2009 — 9 Comments

NHK will begin airing their new Taiga (historical) drama on January 3rd 2010, titled Ryoman den (龍馬伝), and Yu has been announced as a cast member.

NHK’s 49h taiga drama centers around Ryoma Sakamoto (January 3, 1836 – December 10, 1867) a leader of the movement to overthrow the feudal regime of Tokugawa shogunate. Ryoma Sakmoto is thought to have been a visionary who helped spur Japan to modernization.

Yu Aoi will be playing Omoto, and we don’t know anything else. So those rumors weren’t so far off~~~ LOL We have no idea how long she will play Omoto… maybe 4 episodes? When? If you can read Jap, please let me know.

Best announcement for Xmas ever~ xD

I just need to wait for subs hahaha

In Celebrity, English, Fun, Japanese, Sharing, Television news, nhk, tv drama / tv series / miniseries, yu aoi

Best Albums of 2000-2009

December 23, 2009 — 7 Comments

Well, I’ve found it easier to narrow down the number of albums for this Top100 Albums of the Decade, than to narrow my list of songs to 100. LOL I have around 350 songs at the moment. This is gonna be difficult… and also in every possible language xD

Anyway, I’m sure that I had to take out some albums to include other albums. It was all a very difficult process to figure out what to include… going from “do I really have to take this song out?” to “OMG, I really love all these songs from this artist!!! Which one should I choose!- So please, bear with me, and comment what to add.

In Chinese, English, French, Japanese, Korean, Misc., Music, Sharing, Spanish, Swedish alejandro sanz, alicia keys, andrea echeverri, best of, bibi chow (zhou bichang), bjork, brad paisley, brokeback mountain, canada, cheer chen, china, coldplay, crowd lu (lu guang zhong), darren hayes, dixie chicks, eminem, fatboy slim, faye wong, france, franz ferdinand, gianmarco, glen hansard, gwen stefani, hanson, independent, japan, jay chou (zhou jielun), juanes, justin timberlake, keith urban, kent, korea, latin america, lee hom wang, les chansons d'amour, marit larsen, marketa irglova, maroon 5, mayday (taiwanese band), medula, miyavi, mtv, nelly furtado, norah jones, olafur arnalds, pink, rankings, red hot chili peppers, regina spektor, salyu, seo taiji, shiina ringo, sigur ros, sodagreen, soundtrack, spain, sweden, taiwan, tegan and sara, the ting tings, white stripes, yeah yeah yeahs, yuguo

Best of 2009: Songs

December 23, 2009 — 1 Comment

Well I don’t think I have listened to much 2009 music, and I know there are a couple of albums that are still on my list of “want to listen” but I figured if I wasn’t rushing to get them, I wasn’t gonna fall madly in love with them.

So here is my provisional list of best 2009 songs. I’m also planning a Best Songs of 2000-2009, but that’s gonna take wayyyyyyyy longer. At the moment I have pre-selected the songs from 2000-2006 which are nearly 500 songs. I need to listen to all of them and begin taking songs out. I’m pushing for a 100 songs list.

Work in Progress: Best Films of 2000-2009

December 20, 2009 — 6 Comments

This is my “work in progress” list of Best of Films 2000-2009. Why a “work in progress”? Because there’s films I haven’t seen, and because there’s films not on the database.

Best of 2000-2009

In Chinese, English, Films, French, Japanese, Korean, Misc., Sharing, Spanish, Swedish best of, by amy wong, theauteurs.com

Best of 2009: Television

December 19, 2009 — 4 Comments

I am most certainly rubbish with this. Mainly because television requires a lot of hours of your time, which just doesn’t help if you need to watch everything. While votes on award shows are only required to watch 2 episodes, I try watching all the episodes on a season (of good shows). The bad ones never make it pass the 2nd week. LOL

So this year, I don’t think I watched too many shows. And I don’t watch reality any longer, maybe an episode a month of things like Iron Chef, or Project Runway, or So You Think You Can Dance, and/or Ramsay’s The F Word. I like Ramsay. He reminds me of my uncle. Hahahaha.

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