Category: Films

  • Japanese Cinema Blogathon 2009 – Day1

    and a half~~~

    I just read over NipponCinema that the Japanese Cinema Blogathon has started. (yesterday, really…)

    What is the Japanese Cinema Blogathon?

    Japanese Cinema Blogathon 2009

    Someone over at Wildgrounds.com thought it’d be a cool idea to unite forces in order to promote Japanese Cinema. Write, share ideas… anything goes as long as it’s about Japanese Cinema. Check their list of on-going activities…

    I’ll start off with something simple…

    What I Like about Japanese Cinema

    My history with Japanese Cinema isn’t as broad as other people’s. I don’t watch too many older classics, because they are harder to get~~ I mean, it’s just easier to get contemporary stuff. ;P but there are some really great films that I’ve been able to watch this past year.

    1. They can be about nothing at all, yet hold so much meaning or be so entertaining.
    I saw Kore-eda’s Aruitemo, Aruitemo (Still Walking) a couple of days ago. I think that’s perhaps my favorite Japanese film from last year *laughs* – besides from the fact that I really like Hiroshi Abe *laughs*. That film felt so right to me, from the moment we saw Ryo’s sister and mother discussing and trying to cook in the kitchen, to the very last scene of Ryo’s family walking. There was no big reveal of someone having another kid, or someone getting kidnapped or killed, someone having an affair – none of that. One of the things that just stands out was Ryo and his mom finally remembering the name of the Sumo wrestler… and always being late. Heartbreaking.

    A similar thing I can tell you of Linda Linda Linda, which I saw and liked, but LOVED after repeated viewings. Nobuhiro Yamashita’s story of a group of girls trying to make it on time to play on the school festival. Nothing at all! But add to that Doona Bae as non-Japanese lead singer, and rock!!

    2. They can be bizarrely good.
    From high-on-drug-styled film Survive Style 5+, bike-riding rococo lolita adventures on Shimotsuma Monogatari (Kamikaze Girls), Moulin Rouge!-meets-Amelie-meets-Sin City-esque dramedy musical Kiraware Matsuko no Issho (Memories of Matsuko) – or even high-school-hardcore-Survivor Battle Royale. They are not your typical film, they can only be Japanese. LOL

    3. They don’t treat animation as if it’s only for kids.
    Yes, Japanese Cinema is not only Anime – to the dismay of some of my friends – but they do a pretty darn good job animating films like Paprika, Tekkonkinkreet, Princess Mononoke, Grave of the Fireflies. Since the day I discovered Hotaru no Haka 6 years ago, it’s become my favorite animated film to date. LOL

  • Four is an Unlucky Number – YAM004

    LOL’

    Does that say enough to you? Really, read the editor’s note. Lots of things on this new issue… new problems, new films, new music…

    Reviews of films from the blockbuster season… Star Trek, Wolverine, Terminator Salvation, Up~~~ Brothers Bloom. Short film reviews, concert reviews… of Kiss in Lima. Music reviews of The Sounds, Green Day, Shiina Ringo… a bunch of K-pop courtesy of Julz~~~ off you go to Japan!!! WOOOOO – there’s Life on Mars, House M.D. and my more “professional” review of Yu Aoi’s Portugirl.

    Yam004

    Head over here.

  • Ooh la~ Actress Spotting: Carey Mulligan

    Carey Mulligan

    That is a photo of Carey Mulligan looking a bit different, but a pretty cool photograph. Who’s Carey Mulligan, you say? Well, I first spotted her as Elsie on My Boy Jack (starring Daniel Radcliffe), but truth be told~ I couldn’t pay much attention to it until her scenes came up.

    Where else have you seen her? She was also Kitty on Pride & Prejudice (the one with Keira), and Doctor Who as Sally Sparrow. And she seems to be having a pretty busy 2009~~~ with The Greatest (with Susan Sarandon), Public Enemies (with Johnny Depp, Christian Bale and Marion Cotillard~~~ Ooh la!), Brothers (with Tobey Maguire, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Natalie Portman~~~ another Ooh la!), and An Education (by writer Nick Hornby) – in fact, I was checking out The Awards Circuit, and turns out they have her listed for this film as a Best Actress Nomination until now!

    Now that’s pretty impressive.

    Next-next up for her? Never Let Me Go (by Kazuo Ishiguro… with Keira, and Sally Hawkins) and The Electric Slide (with Ewan McGregor).

    Ooh la~~~

  • You know you’re a cinephile when…

    … you realize you spend all your time watching movies in your room with the lights off, while ignoring any form of communication, including real people.

    You’re tears well up and hear heart jumps into your throat when you walk into a store with more than a hundred dollars ear marked for Criterion.

    90% of your friends haven’t even heard of any of the films on your top ten, aside from you ranting about them. – Except the cool ones, of course ;P

    you realize you like fictional people more than real ones.

    everything in the world is seen as a film to you.

    You spend more time on a certain film site any given day than you do talking to any member of your family.

    you lecture people on what to watch and what not to. –  Of course!

    you tell people about the inner working of film and they look at you like your a circus performer. With awe and confusion… and keep talking of how hot such and such looked.

    You start to notice the names of directors… – You are lost. xD – *sighs* ever since I was a kid, even with music videos. what can you do, eh?

    you come off like a pretentious jackass, even though you aren’t. when the subject of favorite films comes up.

    You use your lunch break to buy movies instead of actually eating. – Oh man, I used to be that person when I began living alone hahaha.

    you go to browse DVDs on a weekend night, and spent over 1hr just browsing through them even though you’re only picking three or four… a week. LOL – BAWWW I miss my friends.

    the numbers of movies you own equals or surpasses the number of movies your entire other five family members own (combined). – SNAP! Guilty! I probably can put my whole family and friends “collections” and I would still have more.

    you want to shoot yourself because you accidentally purchased a “full screen” version. DOH!

    you would rather spend the evening sitting in front of the big screen with a good DVD than go out dancing with the significant other.

    someone asks you what would you do if you had a million dollars, and you say “Buy every Criterion DVD” and an old drive-in theater to fix up and show nothing but the great films. – though I also want this sweet bike, but it turns out the bike is from a film… so~~~

    your DVD collection suddenly has become too large for your set of shelves… – seriously~~~

    everything on your Birthday list is a movie, or movie soundtracks~~~

    LOL, many more reasons over at TheAuteurs.com! Come and join me =D

  • Watched this May’09! and some June~

    Didn’t watch too many films either… I did re-watch some though, with subs or just plain re-watching. I still haven’t made it to 20 films released in 2009 though… I’m getting worried how my Experiment Awards will do, if I can’t even made it to my own voting rules. LOL

    (more…)

  • Ooh la~ Actor Spotting: Anton Yelchin

    Well, he is hardly a spotting… more of a re-spotting, since I first saw him on 2001’s Heart in Atlantis with Anthony Hopkins, and later I recognized him on Along Came a Spider (with Morgan Freeman and Monica Potter). He later showed up in my radar starring in 2007’s Charlie Bartlett.

    Well, look where he is now~~~

    Anton Yelchin

    Where you will see him now? Well, he was on the latest Star Trek (as Chekov) and is now competing against himself at the Box Office with the recent Terminator Salvation where he plays Kyle Reese. All grown up. Who would’ve thought?

    He does look a bit dorkish (in a funny… you can probably say he can rock the dorkability), but this photo I thought was pretty decent. And let us all forget that he was ever involved in that god-awful You and I movie (aka. Finding t.A.T.u) with Mischa Barton.

  • I “Kick like a Girl” Too!

    LOL’

    Kick like a Girl is a 30-min HBO documentary of a team of girls that play (NOT soccer) football that totally creamed the boys in a match… or something.

    Back in my school days… I played football. I think I rocked it~~~ as a hobby of course. Back then, girls didn’t rock like this. I wish I had a girls football team T.T

    When I was 10-ish, there was a school match… between girls, but I’m pretty sure I was the only one taking it ‘seriously’. I even had my friends over for a practice. You know, I used to play with my cousins… one of those things you do when all your cousins are guys you see~~~

    Best in the trailer? The boy admitting getting creamed (in the field) by a girl. And the girl saying “I’m not going to be one of the girly girls, who put on lipgloss everyday, dresses in tutus and goes to ballet.”

    Yu Aoi - Kid
    What’s wrong with tutus and ballet?

    You know… you can still end up like this~

    Yu Aoi - Travel Sand
    Just in case you don’t know, that’s the same person. ;)

  • Multilanguage Dubbing~

    I know I’m often unkind to dubbing – right?? – but I particularly think Disney does a decent job at doing multilanguage version of their musically-animated films… perhaps not actual full films, but their musical sequences. I was watching a Russian animated short that linked me to the Russian-dubbed version of the Halloween song on The Nightmare Before Christmas.

    I particularly think the Russian dub has a lot of personality, and kinda scarier vibe~~~ and, what do you think of the Japanese dub of Halloween? Kore wa HAROUIN~~~ xD

    (more…)

  • New Buffy Movie?

    Say what?!

    with not the original cast, or Joss Whedon??? WHAT?

    shoot me now.

    I know vamps are all the craze now *coughtwi-hardscough* – right~~~ but, no – as much as I lurvvvvvv Buffy, I’d rather not see, actually… not see THIS MADE unless Whedon gets involved.

    I know there’s little to no chance of Sarah Michelle Gellar to join, I don’t have an issue with a new slayer… or many (if you read the comic ;)) BUT Joss and all the original writers need to be involved with this, or is NOT Buffy.

  • Romance on Taiwan Edition with English Subs

    Behold!

    I don’t know about YOU, but I just found out that YesAsia is listing Don’t Laugh at my Romance on a Taiwan DVD release with English subtitles.

    Don't Laugh at my Romance - Taiwan DVD

    Title is Bu Yao Chao Xiao Wo Men de – Xin? – after all, there’s a heart there. In that  case, it would translate to Don’t Mock our Hearts… which is pretty close to Don’t Laugh at my Romance. Why is this important? Because it has English subtitles… and it’s a good film.

    English fansubs were released a while ago… so it’d be interesting to see how wel those stand up to these.

    Also, it might be the only official release with English subtitles~~~ so who knows?! Maybe with luck, I could get away with buying an American release with subtitles. *fingers crossed*