As always, I think I’m a little off with the guys. O.o
I feel the list is a bit uninspiring, LOL
check it out yourself~~~
Archives For Japanese
So this month I bought a whole (and I mean like half a dozen) books because I felt like I had been spending all my money on music and movies, and had stopped reading. To be honest, I was beginning to feel like I was being a little ignorant on everything that had to do with books xD
So I grabbed everything Asian I could find on the shelf, including this Alfaguara Spanish translation of Crying Out Love, In the Center of the World (aka Socrates in Love, aka SEKACHU in short Katakana xD) by Kyoichi Katayama. The book sprang a manga series, as well as a film (starring Masami Nagasawa, Mirai Moriyama and Kou Shibasaki), and a TV drama… as well as other Asian remakes, namely Korean. xD
The book is about the tragic young love of Sakutaro and Aki, and it was apparently very well-received by the public in Japan because of its theme. The Spanish translation is a bit idiotic, some of the words used are very Mexican in use, so I didn’t really know what it meant. The story is super short, but it expands a long period of time so the story feels rushed and characters are barely examined.
For example, I’m not really sure why should I care much for Aki, other than Sakutaro having a crush (or being in love with her), I am led to believe she is good nature, a good student, shy, and a regular kawaii girl, but I’ve no idea what makes her tick, what are her passions. I don’t relate to her… or him. I know he cares for her, I also know he contemplated getting under her panties or wanted to touch her. I know they are supposed to have developed a deep friendship, but it’s not on the book. I know people begin to see them as one, and I’m a sucker for this type of relationships, but it’s not on the book.
If I want to see sweet tragic love, I’ll get Sweet November (though, I haven’t read the book), but the movie starring Charlize Theron and Keanu Reeves (though badly received by critics) made me so sad.
2/5
We are actually making it half our list of Actresses now! On #6, Aoi Miyazaki.
Always, all the time, all I hear is “Miyazaki Aoi is so kawaii (cute) and how awesome she is,” and well~ she is also so very popular in Japan topping every list there could be. However, scratch all of that, and what have you got? You’ve got an actress.
I’ve seen her in a few couple of films, some of them are pretty great like Gaichu (Harmful Insect), or are very deeply sentimental like Sukida. Her films often have to deal with human emotions, though I’ve also seen her doing comedy~ but what truly makes me think she can pull it off if she decides to stay away from this love-interests type of films was her decision to play the lead on NHK’s historical drama, Atsuhime.
This role that lasted a whole year let Miyazaki play Atsuhime from her tender kid age, throughout her teens, her 20s, her30 up until her death in her late 40s. She played innocent, clueless but at the same time idealist. She matured and began learning how things in life and politics work, and stood by her ideas trying to make everything better for everyone. Miyazaki truly nailed it on this one.
This is why I’m putting her here.
Shameless Jay Chou plug here. I know Jay Chou has a very divisive, shall we call it fan front? There’s those who LURV him, and then there’s those who hate him, but let’s not talk about that.
I really dig his most Chinese-styled songs, and Fa Ru Xue seems to be one of my favorite Jay songs, the La Er La part at the end is my favorite hahaha. Anyway!
I found this most fascinating post on Yu’s hair. I mean, how can you begin to look away when the post begins with these words.
This is perhaps the most important blog entry you will read all year. With today’s entry, things really come to a head. No, it’s not about fictitious capital and its role in the current financial meltdown. It’s bigger than that. It’s about Aoi Yu’s hairline.
It is the most fascinating post on hair I’ve ever read, and it had to be courtesy of click opera.
Since I liked working on the BOUND magazine post, I decided to do one on the Revista Integracion issue, which I saw this past weekend. I’ve always been a little pissed at this magazine ever since that cover with Zhang Ziyi with the info “cover: Gong Li” or was is it the other way around? Can’t even remember now, it was so long ago. The thing was it felt like “all Chinese are the same, even for the Chinese working on this magazine.” LOL Plus, who the FUCK confuses Zhang Ziyi with Gong Li????
Integración is the local magazine, formerly known as Revista Oriental, done by the Peruvian/Chinese association… obviously to integrate the Asian community.
Only, there couldn’t be more ass-licking in a magazine like there is on this one. Trust me, the magazine is 98% photos of them and their events, than actual articles talking about Asian issues in economics, cultural or even entertainment. I’m sure as hell I haven’t ever read a review of The Curse of the Golden Flower when it opened in the city. I’m sure as hell that they didn’t mentioned that the Lima Film Festival was showing Wong Kar-Wai films in some of their events.
The bigger your stake in the magazine, the bigger the ass-lick you’ll get. Meaning, the bigger your photo will be. Trust me.
And maybe one or two pages on Korean and Japanese? Integration, my yellow ass.
Well, now that I’ve rant about content quality of the magazine, let’s talk design, shall we?
Well… I’m not sure about the albums I’ve heard either.
Hahahaha. I really don’t think I heard enough albums to
excuse the amount of films I watched this past month.
Hmm… weird. I wonder~~~ Continue Reading…
Well, I don’t seem to have seen many films this time.
Hmm… I wonder why. I still haven’t made a countdown
of the music I’ve been listening to, so maybe I’ve been
busy with that. xD You know me, if I listen to much music,
I don’t have the time to watch many films, and if I read too
much, I don’t have the time to do either. LOL
So let’s begin… Continue Reading…
So I wanted to make some time to work on those subtitles I was supposed to work on, and today is October 8th! So it’s perfect to release YAMM006, even if we are a little ahead.
Thanks to Julz for working so hard on the cover story, and all those reviews. ^^
On this issue we review a lot of stuff, including Inglourious Basterds, Honokaa Boy, Mother, Treeless Mountain, Big Bang, G-Dragon, Arashi, BackStreet Boys, Imogen Heap, Olafur Arnalds, Chang Shilei, Juri Ueno and the Five Bags, Mad Men… Cusco Bizarro – and we even talk a bit about Glee, Dexter and House~~~
Seriously, like I commented over at Nippon Cinema — this looks like the teaser for a teaser because it leaves me with so very little to chew on until passed January 30 next year. And I probably need to wait nearly a year to watch it.
But I’m looking for scraps here. Yu’s film fans can’t get satisfied with pretty photoshoots, though sometimes they get a little bit distracted, film fans still know that there’s nothing announced after Otouto, so this teaser will have to do.
not tagging this as “trailer” because I’m not satisfied. haha.
Explanation of the trailer, over at Nippon Cinema.
Continuing with the guys’ countdown – on #9, Hayato Ichihara!
Again, he is not known outside the Japanese film/drama watchers, but if you really wanna get cracking just watch All About Lily Chou Chou to see why you need to keep on watching what roles he is willing to choose.
Now, I haven’t seen Hayato in much as of lately, other than that Jounetsu interview they did this year. However, I know how well that program worked for #2 The 20 to Watch fellow actress Yu Aoi. So the fact that they are doing one on him now should probably tells us something~~~
He’s won Best Newcomer in 2004 for his role on Worst by Chance, playing a guy that must learn how to deal with the stigma of being half Japanese and half Korean. The fact that he chose to work on this film, and All About Lily Chou Chou should already make you curious what other stuff he would like to choose given the opportunity. Of course, it also helps that he has that aura that exudes boyish charm (even if his character is a total klutz) like in the film Rainbow Song. So be sure to watch his films!
