Category: Films

  • Japanese Films and Other Asian Film Short Takes

    This isn’t a regular Award Season post.

    But it’s a lot of postings… I should post one by one, but I am lazy… even if it increases posts number which have decreased a bit this month.

    First with the Most Anticipated~~~

    Yu gets a mention for Otouto which is about to open in a few days~~~

    Then we go to some award nominations~~~

    Dear Doctor gets Best Picture and Best Director for Miwa Nishikawa, as well as awards for Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress (Kimiko Yo) at the Nikkan. Mother got some love for Foreign Film, and Masaki Okada earned the New Artist for A Pierrot (what? LOL)

    The Hochi awards the film with a Best Director as well, a Best Supporting Actor for Eita, and a Supporting Actress for Kaoru Yachigusa. Michael Jackson got a Special Award, and some more love for Ken Watanabe, Clint Eastwood and Masaki Okada who also won Best New Artist for Honokaa Boy.

    Seems like the Japan Academy Award will be fought over The Sun Doesn’t Set, and Dear Doctor~~~

    And to close this post, a Top Best Asian Films of the Decade.
    Will work on mine later~~~

  • Memories of a Decade in Films

    at Cinencuentro again!

    This time around pointing out some experiences while watching those films, which doesn’t necessarily reflect what I consider the best… keyword, necessary.

    Sorry, only in Spanish.

    check it out here.

  • Happy Holidays~

    Hi, everyone~

    I doubt there will be any significant posting today.

    how did you spend the holiday? Mine was spent over-eating with the family. I also had to work on some photographs to give away… and I also manage to reduce my list of Best Songs of the Decade to 150. However, I don’t like the number 150… so I’m gonna make myself erase 50 songs from there, or resign myself to accept 150 as a good number… whichever comes first.

    I also wanted to watch The Princess and the Frog, and since my mother is a fan of Disney I asked her if she wanted to go, but she said there’ll be too many people… which is kinda true, and we DO hate being in the same place as loads of people… and we tend to hate children. Perhaps on Monday.

    I’m also still trying to get through Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol — his previous books weren’t that difficult to read, why can’t I finish this one??? I just find it kinda boring.

    I’ll also try to watch Invictus, and An Education over the weekend.

  • Chicago LUVS Hurt Locker

    Yup, we’re back with some more, and people are still loving Hurt Locker.

    Awkward with James Cameron, because every is spazzing about Avatar, but his ex-wife is getting all the glory for something completely on the movie spectrum of Avatar. Funny thing that Golden Globe Director category will be…

    Christoph Waltz pretty much has Supporting Actor in the bag for Inglourious Basterds, just like MoNique has Supporting Actress in the bag… even if she’s pissing on campaign. I think an actor’s job is also to promote their films, and not ask for crazy amounts of money to attend an event where they would be probably honoring your work. If it’s like that, you will probably win anyway… but filmmakers will not hire her for future work.

    And double love for Carey. xD

    (more…)

  • Work in Progress: Best Films of 2000-2009

    This is my “work in progress” list of Best of Films 2000-2009. Why a “work in progress”? Because there’s films I haven’t seen, and because there’s films not on the database.

    Best of 2000-2009

  • SAG 2010 Nominations!

    Yes, more nominations! More awards… get a grip. This is the Screen Actors Guild Awards~

    The round up? Very few surprises… Up in the Air, Precious, and Inglourious Basterds got 3 nods… the most between movies. The one nod that’s a bit weird is Nine, which got only a nod for acting to then get the Best Ensemble? Since it’s an acting award… the Best Ensemble IS Best Film. Get it?

    On the TV categories… 30 Rock, The Closer and Dexter *jumpy bloody claps* got 3 nods each too. Also! Jumpy claps for Glee who got a nod on the Comedy Ensemble!!! Yay!

    And YAY! Toni Collette!!!

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  • Avatar is Sweet 3D Eye Candy

    When the first Avatar trailer went up, I asked myself what was that rubbish. Yes, it looked that bad to me. However, I must admit that seeing it on 3D was an experience very close to that of The Terminator show at Universal… after all, both are James Cameron.

    This is the first time that I’ve felt that a 3D projection does justice to its 3D medium, and doesn’t just make objects pop out of the screen just because it can. Instead, Avatar pulls you in – in some scenes more than others – and lets you become almost part of it. There’s a scene in particular, in which the antagonist (Colonel Quaritch, played by Stephen Lang) looks through the rear-view mirror and sees himself. The way it was shot makes it seem like WE are there until Quaritch’s reflection hits us back. Is Cameron telling us something?

    (more…)

  • Where the Wild Things Are Gets Some Chicago Love~

    And the nominations and winners continue, this time with the Chicago Critics’ nominations (and tomorrow with the SAG nominations). It is a busy time.

    Leading the nominees with six is one of the many awards favorites, Jason Reitman’s Up In The Air. But hold on just a moment. It has a co-pilot. Also riding a wave of six nominations is Spike Jonze’s adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are,

    …

    Joining both films in the Best Picture race from Chicago are Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker, Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds (each with five nominations) and Joel & Ethan Coen’s A Serious Man with 4.

    some nice changes and surprises!
    check the nominees!

    (more…)

  • Burton’s Alice in Wonderland Trailer

    *tingles* The newest look at Burton’s version of Alice.
    Does it give you the chills?

    By the way, have you checked SyFy’s miniseries version of Alice?
    You will fall in love with Hatter. So… hawt. He will ask you to go
    back to your world with him, and you just gotta say yes.

    [iframe width=”560″ height=”349″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/pMiCJefpn9Q?rel=0″]

  • Yu Aoi for Period Drama Raiou with Masaki Okada

    Julz sent this to my email, and then saw it on Nippon Cinema.

    Thank you, Yu. Just what I asked for!
    And before I get to see Ike-chan! LOL

    Also, gonna quote NC coz it seems more precise. Yu and Masaki Okada have worked together on Honokaa Boy, but Yu was in such a small portion of the first 10 minutes of the film, that it shouldn’ t really count as working together. LOL

    But here goes~

    Yu Aoi and Masaki Okada are set to star in an upcoming jidaigeki film called Raiou, which is based on a best-selling novel by Mari Ueza inspired by Shakespeare’s classic tale of star-crossed lovers, Romeo and Juliet.

    …

    Okada will play Narimichi, a young man born into the family of the shogunate, and thus bound by the shackles of his own bloodline and the expectations of Edo period society. Aoi will play Yu, a girl who has been living deep in the mountains since being kidnapped at a young age. Under normal circumstances, these two would never cross paths, but a chance encounter in front of a strange tree called “Raiou” sparks an unlikely romance.

    The project will be directed by Ryuichi Hiroki who previously worked on Eita’s movie April Bride, which I dunno… gives me some doubts. I didn’t really think much of April Bride, and I do love Eita a lot. However, the idea of Aoi playing a “savage” [insert shameless Savage Yejin plug here] makes it interesting.