Archives For Rants

Mandatory Oscar Watchlist

Except for the mandatory appreciation for Boyhood (the Patricia Arquette show) and Whiplash, which had me contorting from all the conflictive feelings, I’m feeling rather lukewarm with this year’s award season as you can see from my 2014 Films Ranked compared to my Academy Award Watchlist.

oscars-2014-2015-nominations-watchlist

Hot pink is watched, light blue on to-watched queue, highlighted in green haven’t been found yet. My excuse for lack of documentaries and shorts is because of access. I find them extra difficult to get. Also, any respectable award show needs the presence of Haider. LOL And I could do a LOT LESS from Clint Eastwood. I’m not even one of those complaining for lack of women behind/in front of the camera, the nominees are just so damn BLAH! except for the few couple of surprises- some spice with Marion Cotillard (even though I don’t feel strongly about the movie), Ida and Mr. Turner in cinematography… and The Tale of Princess Kaguya.

Posted on January 15, 2015 In DVD/BR, English, Films, Rants, Russian, Screencaps, Sharing, Spanish , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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Adelina Sotnikova Still Deserved Gold~

ESPN has been re-broadcasting the best bits of the Sochi Olympics, and in true Winter Olympics nature, la creme de la creme of winter sports is usually women’s skating. It’s hard to pin-point what the most popular event at the Summer Olympics is (is it football? volleyball?), but the women who skate are the queens of the gala.

This year, there was a rather nasty controversy between eventual Gold-medalist Adelina Sotnikova (back then only 17) and eventual Silver-medalist and retiring Kim Yuna. The name-calling online got ugly and tiring, proving once again that -as a general rule- fans can suck so much. I can imagine what a cesspool YouTube commenting would be like if it didn’t require Gmail account linkups.

As far as the skating goes, I was dazzled when Kim Yuna won Gold at the Vancouver Olympics, where she skate for her life with such delicacy and grace. In Sochi, though, as much as she could have been pitch perfect in technique (we all do admit skating looks effortlessly when she does it), I was a bit bored. Then again, I’m just a fan who’s never picked up a pair of ice-skates in her life. I’ve never seen a frozen lake or ever stepped on an ice rink before. I’m just mostly disappointed of her fans.

Sotnikova’s choreography, however, surprised me the first time I saw it, and still manages to thrill me to no end. During my second time watching, I thought I might have been influenced by the ESPN Latino commentator who was pretty darn excited with her program, so I decided to look it up-

Still gives me the chills.

Posted on December 30, 2014 In Clips, English, Rants, Russian, Sharing, Television , , , , , , ,
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Oh, God, Sri~ This is some kind of wrong~

May 24, 2014 — 2 Comments

Sridevi’s lovely crowd-pleasing English Vinglish is going to Japan [Trailer, if you don’t believe me], and for a moment there I thought they might actually super-dub it [1] but no~ Japan is getting it subbed after 3 Idiots got a nod for Best Foreign Film in the last edition of the Japanese Academy Awards. For promotions of the film, they want to use this image of her 1993 film Roop Ki Rani Choron Ka Raja:

sridevi-roop-ki-rani-choron-ka-raja-japanese

OH~ GODDDDDDDD

And it’s serious too- like, they totally mean to promote EV with Sridevi in yellow-face without a hint of irony. I wonder what Japanese people would think other than “oh, these silly foreigners,” I don’t know who the audience for the film is in Japan, somehow I don’t picture Japanese housewives going to watch a non-Japanese non-Hollywood (ft. Depp or DiCaprio or Pitt or Cruise) flick with subtitles, but maybe I’m underestimating them.

For casual watchers of “this is Chinese/Japanese/Korean” arguments online or real life, Sridevi’s attire though wanting to be Japanese is obviously more Chinese-inspired, like Disney’s Mulan’s match-making attire wanting to be Chinese but obviously Japanese-inspired.

Continue Reading…

In Celebrity, Clips, DVD/BR, English, Films, Music, Rants, Sharing, Stills , , , , , , ,
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BiBi Bounces Back

BiBi did a rendition of Mavis Fan & 100%’s Who Gives a Damn What Song Is On (管他什麼音樂) [MV] in a mash-up with ABBA’s Thank You for the Music that everyone loved landing her in the #2 position behind GEM.

Frankly, I wasn’t completely feeling her version of the Mavis Fan song, because- DUH! Mavis Fan sings it best. It’s an attitude, nothing about the voice. But I’m sick and tired of people complaining about BiBi- when I love her arrangement to highlight her voice, they say it’s boring. When she delivers this type of performance, they say she can’t sing. Worse yet! They complain her voice is nasal. WTF, BiBi’s voice is the complete opposite of nasal, people generally confuse it with a male’s voice!

Get a grip and take a chill pill.

Posted on March 16, 2014 In Celebrity, Chinese, English, Music, Rants, Sharing, Television , , , , , ,
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BiBi Brings Back the Black Tangerine

BiBi placed last this episode. WHATEVER. I’ve already explained my opinion on people’s voting and how faulty the democratic system can be (specially on reality television and competitions). All that matters is that BiBi sang a GREAT arrangement of David Tao’s Black Tangerine (黑色柳丁).

It was around 9 years ago when my friend introduced me to David Tao via Ghost (鬼) and Black Tangerine, and I’ve never regretted it since. Then I discovered BiBi via the Beijing Olympics, learned about the Chinese music scene and the rest has been history. My relationship to Black Tangerine is a very strong one, and I’m usually not one for covers of great songs, but that was a great fresh arrangement. It was the song and it wasn’t — both at the same time. It was like listening to it once again and discovering it all over again.

That’s a great feeling to have.

It doesn’t matter if you placed last in this show, BiBi. You can very well go home knowing you did an amazing arrangement of a great song.

Posted on February 24, 2014 In Celebrity, Chinese, Clips, English, Music, Rants, Sharing, Television , , , , , , ,
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