Category: Spanish

  • Long Version – Masaki Okada and Yu Aoi for MAIKA’s Kokoro – Raiou MV

    Okay, this is bordering on Spam~

    But Raiou opened on Friday (it’s been more than half the day in Japan already). So there’s been a lot of news naturally, and I hope there are more reviews… super-hoping in English. xD

    You know I’ve been listening to Maika’s album right? That she reminds me of Shakira, and I’ve been pimping some of Maika on YAM [1][never never never give up]. Also OFF-TOPIC, but this made me realize Twitter needs a search your tweets feature.

    Anyway, this is Kokoro… but 2 minutes longer =D So more Yu and Msaki Okada singing. LOL

    [iframe src=”https://player.yinyuetai.com/video/player/88676/v_5501040.swf” width=”480″ height=”334″]

  • The effects of Twitter on my Blogging

    I’ve run out of material to post. I was working on part 1 of a post, that still needs a part 2. While also working on coding for YAM… which I didn’t do today. Haven’t had time to watch anything, listen to anything… or even finish the book I was reading.

    Oh, yeah – I haven’t posted that I’ve been reading Handling the Undead – and finally, the reliving are doing something. Also… have I told you I’ve been going to bed at 6am everyday? Sighs…

    Having said that, I got an email from the Spirit Awards – hope to get screeners early next year, though I would really like to get the screeners now. xD Looking forward to the nominees =D

  • Ga-In – Irreversible

    G asked me about Ga-In — sorry, only in Spanish — and wondered if she was my favorite Brown Eyed Girl member. And yes, yes she is indeed. Though I didn’t love or adored her EP debut, it was very interesting to me in terms of style. It sounded very Argentina. To sum it all up, the music video is also very passionate Tango.

    First of all, Ga-In seems to be enjoying all the body groping. I suspect it started with Abracadabra. LOL Plus she goes all “Music-Vid Turned Short Film” on us with a running time of over 10min. that includes tragic love, tears, face-scratching, dramatic walking away while the girl gropes your leg (very Latin passion, btw), suicide attempts, and some pop version of Tango dancing (Tanging?) in the desert.

    I’m gonna actually show the video to my mom and dad — who also enjoy Kpop, btw. My mom likes to point out that Korean girl groups have better legs than Japanese girl groups. LOL She’s picky with the Asian chicken legs xD or how my friend calls them – the drumsticks. LOL

    Anyway, I’d like to know what they think about this parrilla argentina.

  • Distribution: Chinese Films to Open on Same Day in North America as in China

    Film Business Asia is reporting that China Lion Film Distribution has made a deal with AMC to release Chinese films in the cities with most Chinese demographics in the United States and Canada the same day as the films open in China.

    Now, that’s how you do distribution.

    Sure, Hollywood’s kinda getting good in World Premiere business, but only the big-studio stuff. We actually have to wait a ton for a theater release, or the release of the DVD to catch a film that’s not mainstream. The Chinese film industry lacks distribution — only films that get distributed in the US, get distributed in Latin America. The last Chinese film I saw at the cinema was Curse of the Golden Flower~~~

    So with this deal, China expands that ever-expanding Chinese film market with hopefully more than just Martial Arts Films and/or Arthouse Films. And HOPEFULLY, this will mean more Chinese films down here as well.

    So guys! Get ready for Aftershocks (aka. After Shock) kicking off this new deal on October 29th in the cities of  New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Washington D.C., Houston, Boston, Seattle, Toronto and Ottawa.

  • Hello, Goodbye YAM012~

    Hello to YAM012.

    Goodbye (sorta) to YAM PDF.

    Hello to yam-mag.com~

    Head over, for the last time, to my portfolio to download the latest and last issue.

  • The 65 Foreign Submissions are in + Documentary shorts

    I can feel it in the air. Award season is approaching. I think Indie Spirit Awards are also done with submissions, and their nominations should arrive come early December.

    In the meantime, the Academy Awards has released the list of the 65 countries (or not-countries… Greenland?) that will be competing for 5 spots as “Best Foreign” nominees, as well as their 8 short documentaries.

    Here are some of the reviews of the ones I’ve seen.

    Let’s talk wild guess predictions in here. Which countries will be the 5 chosen ones?

    Mexico’s Biutiful seems like an easy assumption.

    China’s Aftershocks seems to be a good candidate for several reasons besides “film”. Whatever your thoughts on melodrama are, I mean… you really need to be a sour grape not to feel something for the family in that film. Either that, or you’ve never been in a natural disaster. Having said that, it is because it’s a melodrama that it’s perfect for Oscar. Moving family drama that deals with catastrophe with a really powerful and magnificently handled Earthquake scene that was a box office hit in China. It’s just good business.

    Also, China being nominated is controversial. Anything to do with China since 2008 is controversial. Controversial always brings ratings. Also nominating China is just plain good business. If China gets nominated – I dunno, what are the chances of some state channel broadcasting the Oscar? Just imaging 2/3 of China’s internet population watches the Oscar that night. That’s 200 million viewers. Anything in China is big.

    If there’s no China, it must be another cheese movie… like South Korea’s A Barefoot Dream. An underdog story of a kiddie football team and a coach. It shall make you feel happy xD

    Canada’s Incendies?

    and… I dunno what else. Peru’s chances? From what I have seen, and what I’ve heard. It could very well get into the nine before they select the final five. I’ll have a better grasp once the 9 are out xD

  • The Town is Exciting Fun

    … but the Spanish title sucks balls. Atracción Peligrosa – meaning: Dangerous Attraction. Pure cheese. First, a couple of fun pop culture differences. When the credits rolled, and the people began discussing the film. They started talking about “the prostitute” – “the junkie.” Then came another guy that said, “that Rebecca Hall is good, huh. She’s something.” And then we talked politics. LOL

    -note: the paragraph was edited to not spoil the film-

    So anyway, while people refer to Rebecca Hall – who’s only been on Vicky Cristina Barcelona in films here, people talk about Blake Lively’s character as “the prostitute” or “the junkie” while her show Gossip Girl plays on TV every single day of the week. Not even a “the Gossip Girl girl is something.” Just saying. It was interesting to see.

    Adapted from the novel Prince of Thieves by Chuck Hogan, The Town tells the story of a group of bank robbers from the city of Charlestown in Boston. Passed from father to son as if it were traditional work, there’s Doug MacRay (Ben Affleck), and his fellows Jim (Jeremy Renner), “Gloansy” and “Dez” – they’re about to rob a bank, and successfully take the money without leaving any evidence, except for the bank manager Claire Keesey (Rebecca Hall). They take her hostage, only to set her free and to keep an eye for anything she might know.

    As Doug befriends Claire and gets info on what she knows and is or not telling FBI agent Adam Frawley (Jon Hamm), Doug and his “buddies” get going on their next targets, because the money is never enough… not for Fergie (Pete Postlethwaite) anyway.

    Actually, I’m making it sound so very complicated, when it’s not. The Town is a very straightforward film, that gets you going from the minute the film begins. It seems Ben Affleck’s talent for directing wasn’t mere luck when Gone Baby Gone was done. If you had any doubt, The Town just proved he’s good for real. In here, he does it bigger, faster and better – it’s a bigger production, it’s a faster-paced film, and it turns out better. The film’s engaging in terms of action for those who need adrenaline in what they watch, and it terms of performances for those who need “more than a mindless action flick”. It also has drama, romance… and even humor. My mom watches a lot of CSI, too.

    Best, and craziest, performance goes to Jeremy Renner who, after this and The Hurt Locker, might be turning into an adrenaline junkie for real. The highest moment of tension, for me, it’s possibly the scene in which Renner’s Jim runs into Affleck’s Doug while he’s having a lunch date with Hall’s Claire. You don’t really know what’s going to happen, but it grips you in a way none of the car chasing and shooting got to you. Maybe it’s because we’re Claire… or we’re Doug. We think she knows, but we don’t want her to know?

    The frailty of Claire’s character – she’s new in town… a yuppie? No friends in town, no family. She was just kidnapped, it’s easy to understand why she might have befriended Doug – her friends said so, kidnap rebound. Did I want the bad guys to succeed? I think many in the theater did. Maybe that’s why no one liked Blake Lively’s character. She’s a junkie prostitute with a kid… in the end, she’s still a junkie prostitute with a kid. Did not love or hate her.

    Anyway, film’s good fun. Very exciting, and very recommended. Women and men, FYI. xD

    4/5

  • Peruvians are so very Chinese

    Ahh… Peruvians and Chinese, Peru and China – countries so far away, but with so many links. Almost a year ago I read a book called 1434 by some guy Menzies. He also wrote 1421 where he says China arrived to America first. It’s an interesting thought considering how similar our cultures can be.

    I mean, sure – Peru has the biggest Chinese colony in Latin America. Many of us may not speak Mandarin or Cantonese, but it sure has caught on everyday life. I mean, not only do we have a dish called Lomo Saltado (Sautee Sirloin?) that’s made with soy sauce, and that’s now a landmark dish.

    lomo saltado

    Obviously, we don’t call soy sauce “soy sauce,” Peruvians call it “sillao” [si yau in Cantonese]. Everyone in Latin America doesn’t — just saw some Colombian “chef” doing some ceviche with lime and “soy sauce” and “ginger”. As well as an Argentinean doing “Chinese noodles” with “soy sauce”.

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  • Music Video Director: Joseph Kahn

    Whenever I think about Joseph Kahn, I… well, now I think about stupid Torque, while my friend complained that he paid to watch the film and fell asleep. Yup, Torque’s one of those film I try to block for the sake of the Kahn – because the Kahn is a pretty kick-ass music video director.

    Before I ever EVER turned into the teenage girl that knew (and still knows) the lyrics to the Backstreet Boys songs, and before the Kahn blew me away with Everybody (Backstreet’s Back) — which remains my dad’s fave BSB song and  video. MY DAD who rocks xD — before all of that, I was blown away by Brandy and Monica’s The Boy is Mine. Not because I knew the lyrics… I didn’t. I didn’t know English then~ I just looked at them and doing the sing-off which I didn’t understand, and watched the clips of the video on Frecuencia Latina’s Ayer y Hoy. I found it fascinating.

    Of course, then I got cable… and I got MTV, and I became a BSB fan and learned English. And Everybody (Backstreet’s Back) is a bloody good pop music video. Of course it’s got tinges of Michael Jackson, that’s why it’s so good. Mind you, Nick’s mummy , Brian’s werewolf, Howie’s vamp and AJ’s Phantom are kinda lame, but Kevin’s Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde more than make up for anything. And that group sync dance, ahh… they don’t make them like that no more.

    Watch the HD version (only US), or the regular version.

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  • What Are Good Lyrics?

    Ah… English, such a direct language. I often have discussions with people about the nuances of the different languages. Friends tell me that French and Italian are great for flirting, and my mom keeps telling me that different dialects in Chinese have so many words to describe food flavors, impossible to describe in Spanish or English.

    The Beautiful Language.

    However, what about songs?

    My favorite songs, my favorite artists in English — 99% of the time, I try not to find the lyrics any longer. Whenever I have enjoyed the songs, looked for the lyrics, 90% of the time I’ve ended up disappointed.

    My first language is Spanish, however, I often find myself thinking in English – so, whenever I listen to music in Spanish, my brain begins translating lyrics into English. The repertoire of songs that I actually like in Spanish tend to be songs that are hard to translate literally into English.

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