Category: Japanese

  • The Ultimate Fan Activity

    *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.

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  • Maps of the Sounds of Tokyo Trailer!

    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″]

  • Tokyo! on Blu-ray and DVD~

    Though trailer seems to refer to the UK release, Amazon.com has it listed as June 30th, and while the Canadian DVD is set for the same date, the Blu-ray release has a July 7th release. The film is already out through Amazon France
    , and Amazon Japan.

    check more stuff below the break
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  • Jounetsu: Yu Aoi

    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.

    Yu Aoi - Jounetsu Profile

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  • Yu Aoi – Fan First Year!!!

    WOOOOOO!! A freakin’ year~~~~

    Yu Aoi - Year One

    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.

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  • Yu Aoi Film Discussion – Tekkonkinkreet

    Let’s start with what the film is about:
    Tekkon Kinkreet is an animated film adaptation of the Black and White manga series by Taiyou Matsumoto, directed by Michael Arias (Animatrix). The name of the film is a pun on “Tekkin Concrete”, the Japanese term for reinforced concrete. It tells the story of two street kids, tough Kuro (Black) and innocent Shiro (White) living in a fictional city known as Treasure Town, a city that is filled with crooks and the yakuza.

    Genre: Animation, Drama, Comedy, Action with violence.
    With the voices of: Kazunari Ninomiya, Yu Aoi, Yusuke Iseya, Kankuro Kudo
    Duration: nearly 2hrs

    Spoilers ahead! Of the film and manga~~~

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  • Woohoo! Passed the 6-Month-Mark!

    Hey, people!! For those of you just beginning to read this blog, the 6-Month-Mark refers to how long my interest seems to last.

    I’m sooooo happy to say that it’s almost a year since I first saw All About Lily Chou Chou, and Rainbow Song. In fact, I’ve got my timeline all figured out (thank you, FB hahaha) – It will be a year on the 16th… since I got Asian (Japanese) cinemaphiled… a year of complete Yu Aoi also.

    I’m preparing a ‘special’ post for that day, hahaha ‘coz it’s been a long time since I had found a subject to last this long… 3 years, give or take of fluttering fandoms. And because Yu Aoi fandom seems scattered, or very idol-craze sometimes… I have taken as my ‘job’ to create a place where we focus a lot on projects, and work less on icons, banners and graphic making. A place to discuss films, the seldom ‘crazy good’ photoshoots and NOT focus on personal life. LOL

    As much as I love reading Lainey every weekday… I will not be blogging about Yu’s personal life. I have decided~~~ Now, you can blame that on two websites I visit (two actresses… one I’m a frequent visitor, and the other I’m even ghost staff almost hahaha). I’ve been taught to respect their privacy, and so I will. *sighs*

    I will not be re-branding my site… this will still be my blog, and I will post about any other subjects that I want (specially during Award Season)… but hopefully I will have a good amount of Yu Aoi postings monthly. You may have also noticed that some links to Yu Aoi films are not working anymore, and I doubt I will be posting any film on my own… they are quite easy to find through Google.

    I’m not against downloading stuff for distribution sake, I’m also in favor of fansubs… but if you love one of the films, and a release with the subtitles of your liking is officially available, go ahead and buy it. Buy photobooks… and other merchandise you feel like getting as long as it is to support an actor and their work. Don’t go around saying you support someone if you haven’t ever bought one of their films (in any region), or haven’t even gone to the theater to watch their films (in case the film is distribute theatrically), or even spent $20 to buy their ‘official’ calendar.

    Yes, I know. Photobooks are pricey, so are Japanese region DVDs (and some don’t even have subtitles!!), but there are other ways you can support someone. American fans can go watch Tokyo! in theaters… they can buy Hana & Alice, or All About Lily Chou Chou, they can also buy Hula Girls. They can also support Yu projects by buying TekkonKinkreet on DVD and Blu-ray… or buying Honey & Clover which seems a pretty popular Yu Aoi film, or the Tetsujin 28 which I haven’t even dared to watch.

    As a final note, you can pre-order Tokyo! (if you liked it, I’m not making anyone buy anything against their will) on DVD and Blu-ray discs, which will be released on June 30th.

  • Get Hana & Alice on Region 1 DVD Now!

    Decided to post this (to make my daily post a day quota) and because I think it’s important people buying Hana & Alice on Region 1 DVD… if you haven’t got it on DVD (original copy, people) to NOT only support Yu and her projects in the region (non-Asian releases), but also support Viz Pictures who have been releasing films like Linda Linda Linda, Shimotsuma Monogatari (Kamikaze Girls), and Cha no Aji (Taste of Tea). All very great films~~~

    Also… more people will be interested in perhaps subtitling Yu Aoi films (*hints* Hyakuman-en), and perhaps we could get proper DVD released of Hito no SEKKUSU, and other future projects.

    PLUS!! Hana & Alice is 50% the price I bought it for!!! The DVD is quite cheap… only $10USD!!! And if you live in the States, you even get free shipping~~ 10 bucks!!! To own a Shunji Iwai film like Hana & Alice subbed, and with a great (and quite lenghty) Making Of featuring the cast working hard and goofing around. Plus, you can’t miss Yu snoring. LOL~ There! I said it!!

    Wait!! There’s more~~~ All About Lily Chou Chou is also quite cheap, 2USD! So if you buy it with Hana & Alice, you get both films at $22 bucks with possible free shipping within the States.

  • Yu Aoi Film Discussion – Ashita e no Yuigon – Best Wishes for Tomorrow

    Hmm… I actually saw this a long while ago, and I couldn’t re-watch this because I lost my copy, silly me probably didn’t back up. And I couldn’t take any screencaps of Yu in it. I might… someday, take the time to do it, but if you have the film at hand (because you are about to watch it, or plan to)… would you do some captures of Yu and shared them here? Just a few captures would be nice since there aren’t many images online~

    Anyway! Let’s start, shall we?

    Something about the film:
    (From AsianMediaWiki)
    Best Wishes for Tomorrow reenacts the war crimes trials against Lieutenant General Tasuku Okada, commander of the 13th Area Army in the Tokai region, and the general’s 19 subordinates who were accused for executing 38 American soldiers who had landed in the region after bombing it with high-explosives and napalm, killing thousands of civilians.

    Genre: Drama, with depictions of war.
    Starring: Makoto Fujita, Robert Lesser, Fred McQueen, Richard Neil
    Appearances by: Sumiko Fuji, Masahiko Nishimura, Yoshiko Tanaka, Yu Aoi
    Duration: Almost 2hr

    Below, the spoilers~

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  • If There Was a Place Called Aoi Yuland…

    ~~ it’d be like this map I’m about to show you.

    The nifty people at NOTCOT had a blast creating NOTLand with Kidlandia, so I wanted to play too~~~ LOL. Truth, I was supposed to use names of people Yu is related to, instead I decided to use names/last names or even name projects~~ The result, below the break.

    And yes, it’s kids stuff… but still, kinda interesting. LOL

    Can you spot the character or project? 3P

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