Category: Japanese

  • It’s December Already!!

    Forgive for not posting sooner… I got sick. Is it foreboding of the year to come? After all the dude didn’t fall of the Mikoshi, and the sake was opened not on the count of three. AND, next year is an odd number year… my family always gets screwed some way or the other on odd number years…

    Anyway… at the Matsuri, I saw Daikon-san.

    Daikon-san

    And I thought of Osen, and I laughed… and took the picture. LOL – Then I had lunch, which wasn’t all that good (I think it also did me some wrong), saw the music performances… and stuff, and it was windy, so I got a fever, which did me more wrong. I was kinda screwed yesterday, so I couldn’t even sit in front of the computer… at least not until 10pm, when I began working on the photos.

    I’m okay now, only a sore neck…

  • Vogue Nippon: Women of the Year 2008

    Weeee! Juri Ueno and Aoi MIyazaki (among others) have been named Women of the Year! Read more about it on Juri’s LiveJournal Community…

    Vogue Nippon - Women of the Year 2008
    From left to right – Edo Harumi, Yukari Ichijo, Yukiko Ueno, Aoi Miyazaki, Kanako Higuchi, Juri Ueno, Mieko Kawakami, Suzanne, and missing Jakucho Setouchi.

    Cute kimonos xD I especially love Aoi Miyazaki’s one just because I’m not a very colourful person, despite my colorful blog.

  • Yu Aoi Film Discussion – HURA GARU – Hula Girls

    This film discussion doesn’t come until after the Honey & Clover live action movie, but I thought it will be good to post this now since Cinemax Latin America is showing the film this December and January (and perhaps scattered February, check times here).

    This was probably the third film I saw of Yu, I was most impressed with the fact that Asians could move their booties like that… call it my Latin American gene that told me that the Asian gene makes you unfit to dancing. xD

    Here’s the 12-part video on YouTube. Or just wait for it on cable…

    A little about the film:
    (from Wikipedia)
    It’s a 2006 Japanese-award-winning film based on true events of a small coal mining town facing the shut down of the mine, and looking at the loss of +2000 jobs. While all the grownups seemed to be fuzzing about the future of their coal-legacy, a young group of girls see a gleam of hope in the opening of The Hawaiian Center, and hula dancing.

    Genre: Drama, Comedy and dancing!
    Starring: Yasuko Matsuyuki, Etsushi Toyokawa, Yu Aoi, Eri Tokunaga, Shoko Ikezu & Shizuyo Yamazaki
    Duration: 2hrs

    Spoilers ahead, you’ve been warned.

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  • What to Watch this December…

    So coming month… what to watch?? Forgive if times are funky, blame the cable mag for that…

    Yu Aoi will be on cable this month!!! With a showing of Hana & Alice, as well as Hula Girls!!!

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  • Camouflage – Aoi Yu x Yottsu no Uso – Chapter 1

    Jinseitte Uso Mitai, or Life is like a Lie, is the first 3-episode-chapter of the Yu Aoi WOWOW drama Camouflage (previously known as Aoi Yu x 4 Lies) which aired at the beginning of the year, and it’s already on DVD. Finally saw! WEEEE – I waited… what, 6 months??? And still haven’t finished ‘coz no one is translating, and my translator bailed on me… dunno where he is.

    So I re-watched the three episodes last night, though the 3rd episode only had subs in the story and not on the introductions (in which the director and writer explain a bit), and the ending (where the photographer shows and explains the photos taken), so kinda missed some of the episode.

    Anyway…

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  • La Bailarina de Izu (The Dancing Girl of Izu) by Yasunari Kawabata

    la-bailarina-de-izu-kawabata

    Also known as Izu no Odoriko, or The Izu Dancer is the first published work (1926) to achieve popularity and acclaimed by Yasunari Kawabata. The book, very much like Kyoto, is about nothing at all… in fact, this is just a compilation of stories put together.

    The first one, which gives the name to the book is one of the few interesting ones, as well as Diario de mi Decimosexto Año that tells some of the moments of Kawabata’s dying grandfather. Some other stories I liked were La Princesa del Palacio Dragón, El Camino de Monedas, and Una Oración en Lengua Materna.

    Despite that, the just over 200-page book seemed to be a very long and slow book, compared to the reading time it took me to finish Kyoto. If you are a fan of Yasunari Kawabata’s writing about a time and a place and the people, you might enjoy this compilation of stories. If you’re looking for an introduction to him, or an epic tale about Japan… you might want to skip this one.

  • Dango San Kyou Dai

    When I watched Memories of Matsuko, there was one scene when Matsuko’s life was already going to the gutters, she was lying on the garbage bags, and she was watching TV. I immediately recognized the song as an Okaasan to Issho song… today I decided to look for it, and found it!

    Okaasan to Issho 1999 song, at first I thought it was a Takoyaki Mambo song, but I was lucky enough to find it on a website listing all the songs. Video and Romaji after the break!
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  • Yu Aoi Film Discussion – Nanako to Nanao – TV Movie

    I was gonna apologize for not getting the time to write a new review, luckily I found that this reviewed followed next. Yay! xD

    Nanako to Nanao – Ane to Otouto ni Nareru Hi

    I have no idea where to put this since it’s not a film, but it’s also not a series. Sure it is, for some reason, labeled as a TV show or series… but no. It’s a TV movie, people. What is the difference between a film/movie and a TV movie, you say? Well, first it’s medium… then it’s budget and resources. In the end, you can almost always tell the difference between one and the other.

    What’s this TV movie about?
    Well… let’s see~ It’s a 2004 NHK Made-for-TV-Film about a high school girl named Nanako (Yu Aoi), who is often labeled as weird and anti-social due to trust issues with people caused by the betrayal she feels her dad committed. Seven years after his death, Nanako is thrown into the unusual situation to cohabit with her half-brother, Nanao (Yuri Chinen).

    Genre: Drama… kinda cute, but drama.
    Starring: Yu Aoi, Yuri Chinen
    Duration: 1:15hr

    Spoilers ahead, you’ve been warned.

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  • Please, scanlate Osen!!

    Over this past weekend, I decided to look for the Osen manga again… I had tried times before, but ended up in nothing. However, this past weekend… THIS PAST WEEKEND! I found a group that are scanlating Osen!

    Thank you Kotonoha!

    Osen is a 12 volume (and ongoing) manga series, which gave way to Yu Aoi’s Osen NTV adaptation this year. And I liked the series, so I wanted to read the manga… Kotonoha has only uploaded the first two chapters of the first volume, but I am already liking it. MangaOsen is different to JDramaOsen… at first I had an issue with how skanky MangaOsen looked on the cover, but she already has me after the 2nd chapter xD

    So I am hoping they continue releasing scanlations for this one, because I wanna continue reading.

  • Top Runner: Yu Aoi

    Ok… YouTube sucks. The video I was looking for says “deleleted by user” – it is most likely YouTube told the user to remove the video. Though, there is a slight possibility that the user removed it himself… less likely, but still possible~

    Anyway, in the case anyone was wondering. It was a 3-part-video of Yu Aoi being followed around for some time (a month maybe?), and they showed two photos of when Yu Aoi was little (one in a tutu, and the other sitting in a classroom), they also showed her in a video store (renting or buying?) looking for dvds, and they showed a whole bit on the making of Hula Girls… even showing the part when Yu re-shot her solo dancing sequence. Other bits of footage showed Yu studying, something about driving, and something related to the death of her grandmother (or another relative?), which made her a bit emotional on camera.

    You have any ideas on what show it is? and the link??? Please, leave a message. For the time being, I will leave you with this interview from the NHK talk show, Top Runner from when Yu was 19 years old (2004?) after the break.

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