A film cut of the Zipang Punk play [1] they did last year is being released on March 29th, so we -unlucky ones- will get to see Yu Aoi singing and dancing in a wacky period punk musical. It looks super funny, but I doubt it’ll ever get subtitled or er… shared.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bc5L6WGqUCk
We’ll always have this trailer, though.
One of the many reasons I love BiBi is because she introduced me to Mavis Fan when she sang a bit of You Don’t Trust Me at All [MV] in one of those talk shows where the hosts (all women) asked her to sing snippets of different songs. I remember she also did a bit of Leehom’s Julia, but I was struck by her bit on Mavis and ended up discovering her.
Now she’s introducing me to Shino (林曉培)- of course, not a guarantee that I’ll fall in love with her music as I did with Mavis’ but you gotta start somewhere. Bibi’s performance of Shino’s Annoyed (煩) was pretty awesome. The song was also composed by Sandee Chan. Suddenly, she’s overpopulated my music library.
A little bit more than ten years ago, Anita Mui passed away leaving a legacy of music and movies that will be remembered. Even my dad knew Anita Mui (besides from Jackie Chan movies), he told me he knew her from her singing the Song of Sunset (夕陽之歌) [1][2], which he loved both in this version and its Japanese original.
Ten years after her passing, her (very famous) friends got together to put something really special… a super performance to remember her by. Titled Anita Mui. 10. Longing. Music. Concert (梅艷芳。10。思念。音樂。會), the event garnered an array of Hong Kong (and overall Chinese) best — of the best for a night of music and memories.
Jacky Cheng, A-Mei, HOCC was there, Miriam Yeung, Sammi Cheng. Eric Tsang being melancholic, Jackie Chan throwing a joke… Eason Chan with his hair~ Maggie Cheung was freaking there, Aaron Kwok swung his hips, and Carina Lau introduced her hubby Tony Leung, and Tony SANG! People cheered. At a point in the concert, I told my mom “the only one missing here is Andy Lau.” Lo and behold, who turns up for one of the last numbers~
The only one I missed was Faye Wong. Just coz.
Anyway, my dad would’ve been happy with this show. I hope he and Anita are sharing a drink together up above.
In my Indian Movie Journey, I haven’t exactly found fist-pumping fighting sequences. In fact, more often than not I found Indian fight foley to be quite funny with thuds and thumps. When I saw some snaps of Madhuri Dixit being violent, I was afraid she was gonna look a bit silly. But… she’s proven me wrong. At least the cut of the first trailer makes it very Fist-Pump Girl Power.
I’ve already watched it about a dozen times.
I’m so pumped, I’m gonna send it to MUBI right away.
Also… big big rush with Juhi Chawla here.
Fandom funny crossover~
I was watching (finally) Tokyo Kazoku — which I liked more than I thought I would — and just felt this incredible marriage pressure during the the scene in which Yu’s character is accepted by the father with that terribly heavy “There may be some hard times ahead, but if you’ll consent to be his wife, I’ll be able to die in peace.”
My mind immediately went to Arshad Warsi’s Circuit; “No tension, bhai.”
BiBi, Papa would’ve been proud of that performance. It brought so many feelings.
BiBi’s participating in the Chinese version of the Korean contest I Am a Singer, now in its second season. Last time, Laure Shang was in it and was eliminated fairly early on.
Let’s hope BiBi makes it through.
Happy new year, everyone!
Sorry for the lack of posts last month. To make up for it, here are five posts so you can catch up to my 2013 and to get you going this 2014.
What is this lady-boner that I got watching Frozen? I really liked The Princess and the Frog (despite Prince Naveen) and wasn’t much of a fan of Tangled (despite Mother Gothel)- Frozen, instead, achieves the perfect balance. And I love love love LOVE Elsa. AND I DIDN’T EVEN SEE the original audio, and I loved it.
Idina Menzel, though, wow. Vocal boner. I do kinda liked the Spanish latino version of the song, Libre Soy [1] performed by Carmen Sarahi, a little bit better in lyrics and meaning, but Menzel’s vocals take the song to unparalleled heights. Can’t wait to get to watch the original audio track.
Elsa… Elsa swings her hips when she walks! And she has a smirk! She feels and is in turmoil and doesn’t seek a man to fix her life. She wants to be left alone, but of course- all she needs is open up her heart to her sister! Of course I love it.
For the past week or so, I got into my Tabu movie journey and while watching Hawa, there was a particular shot that just struck me like a lightning bolt (pun!) and reminded me of Joan Crawford.
It’s a strong eyebrow thing (I have going on). Plus, Tabu’s got a nose with character (and the character to back it up). With her acting chops, she could totally pull off- let’s just skip The Women, coz I can’t picture a catty Indian version of that and just go straight into Crawford’s 40s- A Woman’s Face (or its En Kvinnas Ansikte version), Mildred Pierce (of course, I would love that), Humoresque, Possessed (1947), Daisy Kenyon, Flamingo Road, and The Damned Don’t Cry. Tabu is also at the perfect age.
The only thing about her that’s off is that… she doesn’t have the hunger for fame and power that I sense from Crawford.
Possessed and Mildred Pierce in contemporary Indian are topping my list.
I ran into this clip of Chulpan Khamatova, which I thought was a Behind the Scene voice-over session for some animation, but turns out to be a music video with Khamatova (alongside Andrei Makarevich, Vyacheslav Butusov and Sergei Makovetsky) singing. Multi-talented, I tell you [1].
The song is called My Letin (Мы летим) — which translates to We Fly — and is a song included in the series Flying Animals (Летающие звери, Letayushtie Zveri), an animated charity series that aims to aid children with their treatments with the show’s profits. They don’t ask for money, they generate it by selling their products.
You can check them out on Facebook, VK, LiveJournal, Soundcloud, Twitter, Instagram, their official site at FlyAni.ru, and -of course- YouTube.
