To make up for the lame previous post, I found this Yu Aoi cover for L Magazine for January 2009.
Crap, she does look young there. I hate her. *laughs*
Archives For Japanese
The most basic 101 you’ll read of Japanese. Why? Well, because I’m writing it, and I am pretty sure I don’t cover the basics… but I try my best to, so if I can do it – you all can. The basic stuff that is~~~
My background? Let’s see… when I was little (maybe 5 years old) I heard Sukiyaki. Hahaha – that’s my only memory of Japanese then. Then… because of some friends I did my venture with JPop without much success. However, I always sort of liked Japanese… after all TNP (Television Nacional del Peru) always showed NHK educational-dubbed programs.
In 2006 I did a crash course (is that how it’s called?) of Japanese. That means, I studied a month of Japanese and basic grammar… then stopped. And came back to it after getting all Japanese cinema crazy, haven’t stopped since then.
I know I’m often unkind to dubbing – right?? – but I particularly think Disney does a decent job at doing multilanguage version of their musically-animated films… perhaps not actual full films, but their musical sequences. I was watching a Russian animated short that linked me to the Russian-dubbed version of the Halloween song on The Nightmare Before Christmas.
I particularly think the Russian dub has a lot of personality, and kinda scarier vibe~~~ and, what do you think of the Japanese dub of Halloween? Kore wa HAROUIN~~~ xD
Two days ago I found an interesting post on Chinese Celebrities When They Were Young~~~
Cutest thing~~ like EVER. Here’s Bibi!! Almost exactly as she is now, isn’t she??
On that post, you’ll see some familiar faces like Zhang Ziyi (who hasn’t changed a bit), Jolin Tsai, Bridgette Lin, Vivian Hsu… is that Ella Chen (???), Jet Li, Tony Leung, Andy Lau, Nicholas Tse… and even Yao Ming!
But check after the break for some of the photos for Faye Wong, Jay Chou, Leehom, and Maggie Cheung – with a Japanese bonus… *tsk tsk*
A couple of days ago, I posted a random post as a quickie. I had found a photo (pictured on the right) that I hadn’t seen before, and that led me to one of the most interesting quasi-pseudo-intellectual post on any Japanese idol I had ever read.
Some might differ… Yu, an idol? Give or take~~~
I hope you do find that post as interesting as I did.
Here’s an excerpt:
“If you follow Yu Aoi through Japanese popular culture, you find that, over and over again, she’s cast as an advanced, soft being, a quirky, childlike, expressive, kind-hearted fairy, modestly unaware of her own beauty and unwilling to use it in power games.
…”
Now, if you haven’t found that post in your quest for more Yu Aoi, and are not interested by that statement. What’s wrong with you?? Ha!
What’s fascinating about it is the reference to Gutai, which got me asking what Gutai is and what it’s all about. Sure, that Wiki article just simplifies it all… so if you want to get into it, head over here to read The Gutai Manifesto.
*sighs* I am truly tired.
I just spent all afternoon, and apparently… night, so~~~ I spent all day writing Yu’s Wikipedia entry. Unless you’re reading this at the proper time, the entry might have gotten edited or deleted by now. Man~ writing a bio is tough, and worse of all is that Wikipedia markup language. It sucks, SUCKS! I tell you! It actually took hours because of that Wikipedia format~~~
I also had to search for references… and try to read Japanese. LOL’
Also, that damn table… I still need to work on it, at least for the TV work and Awards.
So~~~ in case it gets deleted. Yu’s complete bio by Amy below the break ;P
Also, planning a Spanish version *laughs*
Aoi Yu (born Natsui Yu August 17, 1985) is a Japanese actress and model from Kasuga, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. She made her film debut as Shiori Tsuda in Shunji Iwai’s 2001 film All About Lily Chou Chou. She became widely known for playing Tetsuko Arisugawa in Hana & Alice (2004) – also directed by Shunji Iwai, as well as Kimiko Tanikawa in the hula-dancing film Hula Girls, and Hagu in the 2006 live action adaptation of the popular Honey & Clover manga series.
In 2009, Aoi was named Rookie of the Year in the field of Films in Media and Fine Arts by The Ministry of Education , Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan.
Continue Reading…
In original audio!!!! LOL
Because I hate dubbing in general, but I have something against Spain’s Spanish dubbing… You can probably say it’s because of those “black market” Dragon Ball Spanish-dubbed videos my cousin used to buy. Ha!
Anyway, trailer is not okay for work or public places… *TV announcer’s voice* Viewer discretion is advised.
Map of the Sounds of Tokyo is directed by Isabel Coixet, who also worked on My Life without Me (with Sarah Polley), and you can read all about it LOL over at Nippon Cinema which has an article translated by me.
Of course, I’m a fan of Rinko Kikuchi (or check out my comments (comment #2) on how she was snubbed), so this pretty much goes to my list of ‘want to watch’ ~~~ hopefully this year. Also, Rinko Kikuchi has a bunch of new projects… including that horribly-delayed Brothers Bloom picture with Rachel Weisz, and Mark Ruffalo… and a Japanese remake for Sideways *legasp!* I don’t want to have bad feelings about it… and the fairly-recent announced Norwegian Wood with Kenichi Matsuyama.
[iframe width=”560″ height=”349″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/Epbvqqisads?rel=0″]
Though trailer seems to refer to the UK release
, and Amazon Japan
check more stuff below the break
Continue Reading…
Who rocks? Well, commenter aoinohoho~~
He found the interview I was looking for… almost half a year ago. O.o
Only it’s divided into two, and has Chinese subtitles instead. Video embeds after the break!
Show is called Jounetsu (Passion) and they followed Yu around when shooting some Hula Girls, promoting Honey & Clover, getting her driving license, renting/buying films to watch, kid Yu, etc etc… the segment aired on September 2006.
WOOOOOO!! A freakin’ year~~~~
Today a year ago, I was introduced to Yu Aoi’s work on Shunji Iwai’s All About Lily Chou Chou, and the Shunji Iwai-related Rainbow Song. Little did I know that the characters that interested me the most in the films were played by the same actress. Nine days later, I watched Hula Girls, and a month later I was completely hooked with Yu Aoi, and yet another Shunji Iwai film… Hana & Alice.
