Misc. | personal.amy-wong.com - A Blog by Amy Wong.

The Shortest Trip from Peru to India

April 23, 2024 — Leave a comment

I took some time to plan an imaginary trip to India to truly realize we really live in opposite sides of the world. lol I’d figured these are the most possible routes.

[click to expand a bit]

Most comfortable route seems to be Lima via Sao Paulo to Johannesburg and Mumbai. Peruvians who want to travel for regular tourism and chill activities for less than six months can apply for an e-Tourist visa. Peruvians do not need visas to enter Brazil (shorter than 90s days) nor South Africa (visits shorter than 30 days).

Peruvians don’t need visa to transit through Amsterdam.

Peruvians do need one to enter the US, even for transit. Long gone are the days of free transit in the US. However, traveling through San Francisco seems the least practical, even though San Francisco is a great hub to enter into East Asia. My preferable spot for point of exit.

As a reverse practice— Indians DO need visas to enter South Africa and Brazil (only diplomatic passport holders are exempt.) But it looks like they might not need a visa to transit through Amsterdam.

Regular Indians do seem to need a visa to enter Peru, though citizens who hold valid US, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia or Schengen visas seem to be exempt. So if you already travel, it seems pretty straight forward.

In English, Graphics, Misc., Sharing, Spanish india, latin america, peru, travel/tourism

Finding Riches: Tabu vs. Tabu

Not gonna lie and say I haven’t been obsessing over the trailer for Crew since it dropped, and looking at the clips for Ghagra [1] and kinda giddy at the cover remix of Choli Ke Peeche [1].

I even finally re-watched Idhi Sangathi (with synced subs!) because of it.

Tabu finding riches in highly unusual places!

My only grip with the film, currently, is that my suspense of disbelief is dropped when I see them carrying kilos of gold. Autistic.

Other than that, I’m a super fan of potty-mouthed Tabu (I hope the announcement that theatrical was edited only means we get the potty-mouthed version on Netflix), and I want someone to ask them how much of the funny bits were ad-lib and improv, because that scene where they tell Kriti to sell her assets and the reaction to it was hilarious.

Posted on March 26, 2024 In Celebrity, English, Films, Fun, Misc., Music, Screencaps, Sharing, Trailers actress, fandom, funny, india, tabu (actress), vs fight

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The Film Library Is Shaping Up~

Buying physical media has been a chore lately, you gotta keep an eye out so you make sure you don’t miss your delivery because, for some reason, people cannot just leave your package any longer.

Plus, distributors are doing physical media less and less. The whole of the Indian Cinema industry has decided to phase out physical media in favor of going all in on OTT and VOD. Even enormous hits like RRR are left with no physical release, even in the West. Even Disney is letting Sony handle its physical media, which seems like the end of an era. Then there’s the whole thing about editing and disappearing media from libraries.

So these are some of the most recent -and not so recent- films that have been added to the physical library. I wish I had more disposable income because there are a bunch of titles (and upgrades) that had been added to the wishlist.

These on top of some Bluray upgrades like Sion Sono’s Love Exposure, Kalatozov’s The Cranes Are Flying, brand new Criterion’s for Los Otros and Laberinto del Fauno. Some random BR UK release for Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?

Also, this post makes it so that this year is the most I’ve blogged since 2020. I’m coming for you 2019. Four posts in Feb’24 is the most continuous blogging since Aug’18.

Posted on February 21, 2024 In Chinese, DVD/BR, English, Films, French, Japanese, Misc., Rants, Screencaps, Sharing animation, brad pitt, cate blanchett, china, christopher nolan, criterion, emily blunt, france, guillermo del toro, hugh jackman, india, japan, joan crawford, latin america, mia wasikowska, movie classics, nicole kidman, online shopping, pricey hobbies, russia, shipping (online ordering), silent films, taiwan, yu aoi

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The Clown Who’s Not Watching TV

February 13, 2024 — Leave a comment

That’s me. People will ask me if I’m watching which and what show, and I would usually say that I really don’t have time to watch much television. However, the past week I’ve been catching up with my “to watch” list and inundated.

I watched one single episode of Prime India’s Jubilee, which I’m looking forward to finishing. And I just binged through Apple’s Pachinko. I’m usually hit or miss with Kogonada (After Yang was excellent), but my only complaint about Pachinko is that I really wish American series would do their just one off series and not make me wait for two or three seasons.

I’ve also just started Nicole Kidman’s Nine Perfect Strangers (after going through Hulu’s Tiny Beautiful Things with Kathryn Hahn). Going though Showtime’s The Good Lord Bird, and have been catching Demon Slayer episodes, as well as rewatching shows like Cowboy Bebop and Orange Days (went through Tiger & Dragon, as well as Quartet a while back). Picking up old school Trigun, and planning to finally go through Emily Blunt’s The English and FINALLY trying to get through McQueen’s Small Axe.

Not even counting that I really wanted to watch that Prime The Underground Railroad series.

Na Hosh Chale (Arijit Signh Version) Lyrics

So I did this.

Na hosh chale
Na junoon chale
Dil par kiska qanoon chale

Tu jaan meri
Meri jaan hai tu
Chal jaise ragon mein khoon chale

Tu kya hai
Kya ehsas hai tu
Ehsas ka koi wajood nahi

Main kaise tujhe chhu leta hu
Jab samne tu maujuud nahi

Ae jaan meri
Meri jaan hai tu
Chal jaise ragon mein khoon chale

Palko ki chhaon dhundta hu
Main teri nazar ki dhoop tale
Uss pyaase ka kya hoga bataa
Jo sabnam ke paataal pai palin

Ae jaan meri
Meri jaan hai tu
Chal jaise ragon mein khoon chale

Full version of the audio is available here.

Vishal’s version (labeled as “Film Version”) is slightly different after the first chorus, so might share in separate post.

Translations to English would be appreciated.

Posted on October 26, 2023 In English, Films, Lyrics, Misc., Music, Music Videos, Sharing big vocal chops, india, lgbt, soundtrack, super hard to find lyrics, tabu (actress), translation, vishal bhardwaj

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Happy 1000th Top Flicks Fans

It took a while, but

Happy 1000th fan!

If you aren’t following the list yet, you might discover a gem or two!

Posted on June 27, 2021 In Chinese, English, Films, French, Fun, Japanese, Korean, Misc., Russian, Screencaps, Sharing, Spanish, Swedish actress, alfonso cuaron, amy adams, animation, anne hathaway, aoi miyazaki, audrey tautou, ayumi ito, bae doona, best of, bjork, blog, by amy wong, canada, china, chris lee (li yuchun), chulpan khamatova, contemporary classics, disney, elle fanning, ellen page, emily blunt, eva green, evan rachel wood, france, gaichu (harmful insect), gong li, greta garbo, guillermo del toro, hayao miyazaki, his dark materials, huzzah, independent, india, internet, japan, joan crawford, julianne moore, juliette binoche, kate winslet, korea, kwai lun-mei, lars von trier, latin america, laura linney, madhuri dixit, marion cotillard, meryl streep, mia wasikowska, miki nakatani, movie classics, musical/choreography, naomi watts, natalie portman, nicole kidman, nobuhiro yamashita, noomi rapace, olivia williams, pan's labyrinth, penelope cruz, peru, philip pullman, quiet room ni youkoso, rachel mcadams, rani mukerji, rankings, russia, saoirse ronan, sarah polley, shinobu yaguchi, shunji iwai, spain, studio ghibli, sweden, swing girls, tabu (actress), taiwan, tetsuya nakashima, theauteurs.com, ueno juri, vidya balan, whale rider, yu aoi, zhang yimou, zhao wei (vicky zhao), zhou xun

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My 2020 Letterboxd Year in Review + More!

January 16, 2021 — 4 Comments

My only Letterboxd anticipated message came in the other day, but I took a little bit longer to post because the better side of my OCD got to me.

But here it is!

I went on a Stephen Chow binge, and got to watch a bunch of Hrishikesh Mukherjee films for MUBI. Not to be the Debbie Downer of the terrible 2020, but I hope 2021 picks up. This is the first time in my movie-watching history that I only have one single 4-star rating in my Year Films Ranked list. Two titles if you consider Marona’s Fantastic Tale.

This 2021, I have decided to shut off social media and restart blogging once again. It doesn’t matter if it’s into a blackhole of information. I’ve started with this Spanish translation of a review for Zoya Akhtar’s Dil Dhadakne Do, since the film is in rotation at the Indian entertainment channel ZeeMundo. We also have a proper Spanish title for Haider (!).

Exodus Artistry – Khalibali x Malhari

Well, it’s been a long time. But I’m not letting October be the month of no posts, so here’s a little something~

Since my return to Kpop, I’ve become a lot more lethargic (plus, working overnight), so I’ve been trying to find that time again to run and exercise. Ranveer Singh, been the Master of Hype, has the two best songs to get ya pumping; and the crew at Exodus Artistry have a mix of both songs that’s the perfect workout!

Posted on October 30, 2018 In Clips, English, Misc., Sharing fanart, india, musical/choreography, ranveer singh, sanjay leela bhansali

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Amrita Bagchi by Shivaji Storm Sen

I’m about to finish watching Stories By Rabindranath Tagore, which has some episodes directed by Anurag Basu— an anthology of some of Tagore’s short stories. One of my favorite episodes has been Mrinal ki Chitthi (ep19), which stars Amrita Bagchi. I’m usually really good with faces that I see in other movies, but I honestly just vaguely remember her face in Phobia and Meri Pyaari Bindu. I must be getting old.

There’s a series of photos by Shivaji Storm Sen. This is my favorite, tho~