You can also check my post on propaganda films — Propaganda: Movies and their Message ~ and you are more than welcomed to flame me for liking “rubbish” films or liking China, whatever. LOL
I honestly liked The Flowers of War, it had its faults of course… as any and many a film does, but I totally think that the shameful 29% in RottenTomatoes is undeserved. It’s… with all my honesty and my unbiased, a solid 70%. All of that aside, wow– these are beautiful. If only the film could have been promoted with these pictures~
See, this would be a mega-talent post if NHK would only let me embed Shiina Ringo’s performance at the latest Kouhaku, but no~~~ they gotta make things difficult.
Anyway, I think I may have died a little and gone to heaven. One of my wishes from last year may be coming true or something. Faye Wong singing new material — for New Year nonetheless — it’s like the creative muses got together and made Shiina Ringo and Faye Wong perform so close to one another, some babies may have been born with no talent at all because the concentration of it might be too much. LOL
as per usual with Faye Wong stuff, I have no idea what this song may be call except for Yuan (愿) which can mean “desire, wish, hope, willing, ready” — take your pick. You can listen to the studio version here.
The live version is… off, apparently Faye — diva and all – recognized she messed up a bit. I’m really blaming her time off stage, but it doesn’t matter… I can just LOOT AT HER. THAT STAGE. That stage is stunning beyond words. I can salivate looking at that stage and love that I can see it in high definition… there are just no proper words to describe it.
Most importantly~ did you catch adorable Mana-chan performing? If you didn’t, the Maru Maru Mori Mori performance blended with the Arashi/Disney performance and anything with Disney is full of win for me. I found you this link on Nate.com of the Disney performance.
Mana-chan also had the most graceful fall on stage, that I swear it’s going to last all year and be name Most Graceful On-Stage Fall of 2012~~~ which wasn’t even 2012, but just for the sake of upload times, it was.
Oh, I guess I gotta watch NHK all day to get fed all their upcoming series — at least for January. We all knew that Kenichi Matsuyama would be doing this year’s Taiga (Time really does fly!), but who knew Hikari Mitsushima (Love Exposure [1], Sawako Decides, Villain) is ending up on NHK?
The Pioneers, which is wayyyy easier to type than Kaitakushatachi (開拓者たち), showed a small clip while I was watching and seemed pretty good. According to Tokyograph:
A special “documentary drama” mini-series to commemorate the launch of its BS Premium channel and the 40th anniversary of the restoration of diplomatic ties between Japan and China. […]
The story is set in the region formerly known as Manchuria and is based on the groups trying to resettle there in the years after the Manchurian Incident. The central characters are a family of four siblings who live there, but who are forced to flee due to the Soviet invasion of the region and Japan’s defeat in World War II. As a result, they return to Japan and attempt to forge a new life on a farm in the Tochigi prefecture.
The clip looked really good. We all know Hikari Mitsushima is a pretty good actress and this seems to be one of those projects. But as anything Japanese, no clips online to embed so I stole these: Continue Reading…
Kenichi Matsuyama looks so grown-up now… promoting his upcoming NHK Taiga, Taira no Kiyomori — all I know about Kiyomori I learned in Yoshitsune [1] haha. Anyway, as you know I was pretty pumped [1][2][3] for Gou and I defended Juri through it all [1], but I knew Gou’s fault.
Anyway, I’m pretty pumped for Taira no Kiyomori, and this promo for it with a manly Kenichi Matsuyama is kinda… really inspiring haha. I kinda really love that photo.
Any Peruvian of my generation has to have grown up with, at least, one Los Nosequien y los Nosecuantos song. Maybe not Cuando tu Me Pegas [1], but certainly Magdalena [1], Los Patos y Las Patas [MV] — and obviously Las Torres.
Part political satire, part serious social commentary, part anthem, part pop hit, part party flare and full Peruvian rock — Las Torres, meaning The Towers (as in transmission towers), was a huge hit in its time and its the musical staple of the… maybe not defunct but definitely stale Los NSQ y Los NSC (for short).
Long gone are the days of the constant nights without lights due to the blowing up of transmission towers, the curfews, being a kid then was… not the bomb. Cable, internet were non-existent and any form of entertainment was limited to just the couple of channels… and you were lucky to have a working TV.
Have we ever asked ourselves what good were computers without internet?? LOL
Anyway, I digress — the wordplay in Las Torres is an obvious play on the famous Un Elefante se Balanceaba (An Elephant Swinging) [here’s a clip] which I guess you don’t have in English version of… but a close version would be the Ninety-nine Bottles of Beer on the Wall song? In the Elephant Song, you would sing that “an elephant is swinging on top of a spider’s web, seeing as it lasted, it calls one elephant more” which makes the song endless.
I kinda like that this it backwards to the rap songs with the female vocals xD Going Crazy is a female vocal song with backing rap, which goes opposite to Eminem feat. Rihanna’s Love the Way You Lie [MV], or Vico C’s Me Acuerdo [1].
I don’t think it’s a secret that I’ve watched Sunny a lot of times since I first saw it. However, besides catching me singing to Boney M’s Sunny [1] — which both my parents are also doing just because they caught it on the background and got stuck with the song.
Actually, I’m lying – my dad has seen Sunny three times already. He loves it.
Anyway, besides singing that… and Tuck & Patti’s Time After Time and all the other songs, I’ve gotten a knack for singing NaMi’s Round and Round (빙글 빙글) just because of that infectious “bingeul bingeul” in the song. LOL
Even better! There’s a wonderful old-school vs. Sunny version mash-up!
She’s like… the cutest thing EVER. She was even cuter in this 30sec commercial when she was super tiny. OMG, I just wanna squish her little face on that hahahaha.
And she’s SUCH a great actress. You just gotta watch her break YOU down on Mother. At a drop of a dime, she’ll break your heart and make you cry. She is, obviously, since then the biggest (child) actor/idol EVER. She’s done tons of commercials, sponsors, small roles on films, headed her own television dramas, guested on several talk shows, headed her own talk show or whatever…
