Category: Moving Media

  • The Clown Who’s Not Watching TV

    That’s me. People will ask me if I’m watching which and what show, and I would usually say that I really don’t have time to watch much television. However, the past week I’ve been catching up with my “to watch” list and inundated.

    I watched one single episode of Prime India’s Jubilee, which I’m looking forward to finishing. And I just binged through Apple’s Pachinko. I’m usually hit or miss with Kogonada (After Yang was excellent), but my only complaint about Pachinko is that I really wish American series would do their just one off series and not make me wait for two or three seasons.

    I’ve also just started Nicole Kidman’s Nine Perfect Strangers (after going through Hulu’s Tiny Beautiful Things with Kathryn Hahn). Going though Showtime’s The Good Lord Bird, and have been catching Demon Slayer episodes, as well as rewatching shows like Cowboy Bebop and Orange Days (went through Tiger & Dragon, as well as Quartet a while back). Picking up old school Trigun, and planning to finally go through Emily Blunt’s The English and FINALLY trying to get through McQueen’s Small Axe.

    Not even counting that I really wanted to watch that Prime The Underground Railroad series.

  • It exists! It’s alive!

    The original latino dub of my Operación Dragón de Bruce Lee memories. After years searching, several copies acquired (The first thing I did when I bought my Special Edition DVD was check the dub). I even had to go through several copies of Spain’s Spanish, only to find out that the Latino version had a do-over, and that the original Latino dub of Bruce Lee’s Enter the Dragon was probably lost media.

    I even wrote to OG Hector Lee, who was the original Bruce Lee voice in the film.

    It has not been lost. These are my memories. I will cherish them.

  • It’s happening: Disc rot

    Happy sort of belated Christmas, everyone!

    I’m bummed! I was expecting to spend a quiet Xmas day with my mother, as we had agreed to catch a viewing of Celtic Woman’s A Christmas Celebration, which I happened to own a DVD of. Everything was going smoothly, we were already finishing Green the Whole Year Round when the DVD stopped playing. After checking again on the same player, through the track selection page, and testing a different player. I determined it was a disc issue.

    It’s the dreaded disc rot.

    I ended up testing my other two Celtic Woman DVDs. When they both had similar issues, the Celtic Woman 2005 release gets stuck at Orinoco Flow and A New Journey gets stuck at Panis Angelicus, I got worried similar DVD releases (that might be even slightly older than these) stored in the same place might have similar issues. However, it doesn’t seem to be a storage issue, as it’s a Manhattan (Now Capitol Music Group) release issue. I don’t even know if I’m allowed to post this on Amazon to try and find someone that might have similar issues, so I decided to post here just in case someone might be searching for this specific issue.

    At the moment, both Celtic Woman and A New Journey seem to still be available on Amazon through sellers (wonder if they have similar disc rot issues), and A Christmas Celebration offers copies of upwards $30 from other sellers not the same ‘url product’ where it was originally purchased. A New Journey remains the only release errrr “easier” to back up in case of physical loss.

    The fact that other Arista and Sony releases that are slightly older and stored in the same condition as these show no signs of rot tells me that smaller no-label releases are the most in danger of decay and most in danger of becoming lost media.

    If you have a good copy of the 2005 Celtic Woman concert or A Christmas Celebration to share, please, let me know through a comment or drop me a line.

  • Na Hosh Chale (Arijit Signh Version) Lyrics

    So I did this.

    Na hosh chale
    Na junoon chale
    Dil par kiska qanoon chale

    Tu jaan meri
    Meri jaan hai tu
    Chal jaise ragon mein khoon chale

    Tu kya hai
    Kya ehsas hai tu
    Ehsas ka koi wajood nahi

    Main kaise tujhe chhu leta hu
    Jab samne tu maujuud nahi

    Ae jaan meri
    Meri jaan hai tu
    Chal jaise ragon mein khoon chale

    Palko ki chhaon dhundta hu
    Main teri nazar ki dhoop tale
    Uss pyaase ka kya hoga bataa
    Jo sabnam ke paataal pai palin

    Ae jaan meri
    Meri jaan hai tu
    Chal jaise ragon mein khoon chale

    Full version of the audio is available here.

    Vishal’s version (labeled as “Film Version”) is slightly different after the first chorus, so might share in separate post.

    Translations to English would be appreciated.

    (more…)

  • Happy 1000th Top Flicks Fans

    It took a while, but

    Happy 1000th fan!

    If you aren’t following the list yet, you might discover a gem or two!

  • My 2020 Letterboxd Year in Review + More!

    My only Letterboxd anticipated message came in the other day, but I took a little bit longer to post because the better side of my OCD got to me.

    But here it is!

    I went on a Stephen Chow binge, and got to watch a bunch of Hrishikesh Mukherjee films for MUBI. Not to be the Debbie Downer of the terrible 2020, but I hope 2021 picks up. This is the first time in my movie-watching history that I only have one single 4-star rating in my Year Films Ranked list. Two titles if you consider Marona’s Fantastic Tale.

    This 2021, I have decided to shut off social media and restart blogging once again. It doesn’t matter if it’s into a blackhole of information. I’ve started with this Spanish translation of a review for Zoya Akhtar’s Dil Dhadakne Do, since the film is in rotation at the Indian entertainment channel ZeeMundo. We also have a proper Spanish title for Haider (!).

  • Oscar Ballot 2020

    I’m probably two weeks ahead, compared to my Ballot posting last year, which means my Independent Spirit Awards ballot is still halfway done, but my Academy voting ballot is pretty complete.

    I might end up watching The Two Popes, but all I’m really waiting for to open in theaters is Bombshell (which opens this Thursday), Little Women and 1917. Harriet is never going to open down here, but I really got a soft spot for this type of movies.

    I’m really REALLY surprised Girl in the Hallway didn’t make the cut. You can watch the short on Vimeo.

  • My 2019 Letterboxd Year in Review

    Happy late holidays and New Year, everyone!

    My most awaited Letterboxd e-mail came yesterday with my 2019 movie-data. Though my writing input has definitely not improved, cutting down on Mamamoo stuff has increased my movie watching habits, for sure.

    Compared to 2018, I logged 480 films (though over 50 or even many more could be short films), which represents a 23% increase. In terms of hours, there was an increment of over 100hrs or 16%. This increase still doesn’t match my 2015 levels, when I reached 530 logged films (9.5% short) or clocked 959hrs (14% short)… but it’s getting there. I am still at 2017 New-To-Me level of movies, though.

    My most-watched actor was Glenn Close because I went on a marathon of her movies because I really thought that she could win the Oscar, not that I wasn’t pleasantly surprised to see Olivia Colman win for The Favourite. And Francois Ozon was my most-watched director because MUBI programmed many of his films, including Les Amants Criminels, Water Drops on Burning Rocks, Young & Beautiful, and L’Amant Double.

    And as my writing output has been so poor, I haven’t written any End of the Year (or Decade) posts. Gomen.

  • Yuki Tanada’s Yu Aoi Romance Doll Trailer

    I haven’t had much time or chance to watch Yuki Tanada’s movies, and I’m still trying to catch up with recent Yu Aoi movies… BUT! Issei Takahashi has really sneaked into my Jdrama catching up. Incredible rise to fame.

  • Fin.K.L for Camping Club

    I had no idea that Lee Hyori was doing a brand new variety reuniting with Fin.K.L after all these years! I’m almost offended no one in the timeline talked about it. UNbelievable.

    Now all I have to do is find the time to sit through several episodes, but I’ve already spoiled myself with all the clips posted on the JTBC channel. Of course, feelings were had.

    Also, Lee Hyori, Queen of the Innocent concept xD~

    Bless this concept.