Category: Japanese

  • More Experiment Awards’ Warm-up

    It’s 35 films this year! Woohoo! Well, not much to celebrate since some of those were really REALLY bad, but they count for the movie countdown~~~
    In the meantime, I’ve decided to put my list of Best 2001 films.

    It was really difficult to choose some, as I seem to not have seen many 2001 films, so many of my nominees are the same as the Oscar, I feel. Remembering the films made me remember about the first time I actively waited for the Oscar. I mean, the event in itself was something I did, but that year was the year I said I’m gonna watch the Oscar to see who will win. American Beauty won that year, as did Kevin Spacey and The Matrix. 1999 Films, wow~~~ I was 13 going on 14.

    Anyway~ without further ado~~~

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  • Pimp the Blog!

    From time to time, I link back to Julz blog, even though most her postings are now locked. What’s up with that, Julz? xD Anyway, I think it’s time to pimp blogs from time to time because, well… some blogs have simply good taste.

    So I’m here to PIMP murmure*

    murmure* is a Japanese blog in Japanese – don’t worry, you can still try to read it with Google translate – that talks about some different things, among those things are 3 mighty fine topics~~~

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  • Google Street View’s Privacy Concern

    What better way to show people that Google cares about your privacy, than with a cute animation on how it’s done. Only from Google Japan, of course~~~

  • Yu Aoi’s Gakuya on NHK

    Crap! And it’s not on NHK World Premium…
    whatever~~~

    If you haven’t missed my past Yu posts, you’ll know that she worked on a play called Gakuya this past May and June. Well, Yu’s site was updated saying that Gakuya will be broadcast on NHK next month.

    October 9th, 2009 at 10.30pm

    get more Japanese info here.

    There’s also some text saying that there will be some more info on Yu’s new 2010 Calendar, which looks kinda Hansel-y and Gretel-y… ja? Do you wanna know my opinion? Yu’s Message page has only been updated twice this year. Once with that cryptic message from Venezuela [part1][part2], and the other announcing Portugirl. Before those posts? There was a 2009 Calendar post. Am I complaining? Yes, I am. LOL

    But damn, I can’t ever stay too mad.

    They’ve also posted photos off-shoots from the So-En shoot.

    Yu Aoi - So-En - Off-shoot

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  • Let’s Pimp some Shugo~

    Shugo Oshinari is freaking 28 years old! WTF, man!
    He’s almost 30, looks in his early 20s still and totally lacks fangirls.
    And I mean like “good” fangirls the ones who work hard
    to get whatever scans, whatever movie, and work on whatever needs subbing. LOL
    You can’t really find many good scans, screencaps…
    etc, etc… everything fandoms love to fuzz about.

    Shugo Oshinari

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  • More Japan at the Oscar?

    Kawaii Joyuu is reporting that Japan has just chosen Dare mo Mamotte Kurenai (Nobody to Watch Over Me) to represent them in the next race for the Academy Awards. If they are successful, Japan would win Best Foreign Film for the 2nd time in a row, which would be awesome. I haven’t seen the film yet, but I’m skeptical…

    They are also reporting a possible Oscar nod for Mirai Shida… which I’m a little even more skeptical.

    First of all, it’s way too early to predict anything considering studios have decided to start late this year, meaning that “most” Academy contenders will be released in November and December. Except for films like Precious (aka. Push) or An Education which premiered at Sundance, it will all be about keeping momentum during new Academy releases season.

    Then, as we all know the Academy lurvs English speaking. It is very rare for a non-English lead role to win… It’s happened twice in the Lead Actress category (and once? in Lead Actor with Benigni) with Sophia Loren for Two Women (which I recently saw, *swoon*) and my dear Marion Cotillard for La Vie en Rose~~~

    I’m getting excited with this future Oscar race~~~

  • La Nueva Yma Sumac by La Casa Azul

    Just ran into this very cute music video – alert! Yma Sumac pop culture reference xD – really, I never thought I would have seen Yma Sumac named alongside Superman, but alas~~~ La Casa Azul (the blue house) has come up with the song (the new Yma Sumac) and this cute Cartoon Network-esque music video.

    And they’ve made the original Spanish version, and a Japanese version! Though sounds wayyyyy cuter in Japanese. It’s the whole electro-cutesy pop vibe, you know? It just fits better with the voice.

    you can check the Spanish version here, and
    visit Cocoe Studios who were in charge of the animation~~~

  • Yu Aoi Film Discussion – Hito no SEKKUSU o Warauna – Don’t Laugh at my Romance

    Well, long time no see, eh?

    It’s been nearly 4 or 5 months since our last discussion, and I really thought there’d be more people discussing Tekkonkinkreet, but alas~ No one has commented on it. If you have just discovered Yu Aoi (either through Osen, or a random watch of either Hana & Alice, One Million Yen Girl or Lily Chou Chou) and have been hit in the face with like a meteor, I invite you to watch Tekkon as well. Any animation fan won’t really regret it.

    Anyway, we’re here to discuss Don’t Laugh at my Romance, or Sex is no Laughing Matter or Hito no SEKKUSU~~~ whatever your pick on names is.

    First a little about the film~
    Don’t Laugh at my Romance is a 2008 film adaptation of the the novel by Naocola Yamazaki, directed and sort of adapted by Nami Iguchi. It is about a 19-year-old student (Matsuyama) who falls in love/lust with his lithography teacher (Hiromi Nagasaku) at university, though he isn’t aware that his friend and classmate (Yu Aoi) is quite fond of him.

    Genre: Dramedy with Romance
    Starring: Kenichi Matsuyama, Hiromi Nagasaku, Yu Aoi, Shugo Oshinari, Yoichi Nukumizu
    Duration: a little over +2hrs

    Beware! Possible film spoilers~~~

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  • Yu Aoi by Keiichi Nitta

    This is a pretty old photoshoot, February 2007 in fact~
    but I care about photographers, and I wanted to know
    who shot it, for who and when xD so I took my time to post.

    Yu Aoi - Eye Scream - Keiichi Nitta

    Shot by Keiichi Nitta, who has photographed Lady Gaga x Koda Kumi, Kylee, Aoi Miyazaki, Justice, Chiaki Kuriyama, M.I.A., Beck, Madonna, Beyonce, The Chemical Brothers, Fergie and even La LiLo xD

    His photographs, more often than not exude sexiness, sex oftentimes with a mix of innocence, playfulness and edgy. So it is no wonder that this is perhaps Yu’s more “Fierce” photoshoot to date. LOL To quote on Tyra xD In here, she plays a little with the Lolita-esque style looking oh-so-innocent… NOT. One of the photos, one of the very first photos I saw online, has that just-got-out-of-bed quality to it. Only I saw it in black and white and cropped on the face, which makes it look so good.

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  • July + August Films~

    Let’s see how the movie count goes~
    shall we?

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