Category: Moving Media

  • Ohmahgosh~ Nounen Rena

    nounen-rena-amachan-001

    I remember how it was. The introduction to NHK’s newest morning drama played and I wondered what happened to Jun to Ai, I thought Asadoras lasted all year — I guess not. Anyway, the intro to Amachan seemed pretty funny, and of course it was. Apparently, it was written by Kankuro Kudo, so I stuck around for an episode. Aki (Nounen Rena) had forcefully decided — against her mother’s (Kyoko Koizumi) wishes — to become an Amasan. A photographer had been shooting pictures, and Kyoko Koizumi was running off to Koike Teppei’s lighthouse screaming “HENTAI!!!!” and he apologized for it LOL. I was laughing too much already.

    Then, of course, I saw Nounen Rena’s funny face when falling into the water, and her funny expression when she was not-so-much as deep-sea-diving, but she was stranded in the middle of the ocean. I wasn’t hooked, but I was peeking my interest. Damn, Nounen Rena is so charismatic… at least in the role of Aki.

    I want to see some of her other roles to figure out whether or not this charisma is hers or if it’s the role, and if it’s the role… then maybe she’s one hell of an actress. She seems super dorky too, and she has an aura that you kinda just can’t help but to root for her.

  • Ingrid Bolsø Berdal is Badass

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    I have a feeling I’m never writing that “ø” in Bolsø ever again. I’m not even typing it. But damn, I was impressed with Ingrid Bolso Berdal while watching Flukt. She really made the film for me. You remember how many chills I got from Charlize Theron in Huntsman? Watching Berdal as Dagmar was downright chilling. She’s like a total badass Theron.

  • The Voice of China 2

    Oh, man~ Liu Huan is gone from The Voice of China, and I thought he was the one elevating the show to a more professional level. Have no idea why he’s not there, but I hope he’s back later on.

    And my prediction of Wang Feng being on the show [1] kinda became a reality, except not replacing who I thought he should be replacing. LOL

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LE3Tkvg2-8A

    Happy to see A-Mei, though I would prefer her releasing new music instead.

    I have nothing to say about Harlem Yu xD We are just not compatible. LOL

  • American Transgender

    National Geographic programming usually shifts from interesting to completely eye-roll worthy, but this particular special on these three particular transgender people — simply titled American Transgender — is something I’ve seen a couple of times. I think that when it first aired, I saw it twice in a row. I think it might have been because LGBT media, especially in regards of transgender people, is just really downright depressing, so it was surprising to see something quite uplifting. I mean, Claire, Jim and Eli are damn lucky and it’s so good to see.

    How many times do you get to see a wedding? A boy became a woman, and the girl became a man. They met, fell in love, and got married. How perfect is that? Overcoming struggle, and the importance of the support of family. Fiction will never be as good as that.

  • The Sword of Omens is Real Yo!

    I still haven’t been able to locate a photo of me as a child in my family’s house garden waving the yellow and lime green plastic Sword of Omens I had as a child. However, these guys are designing weapons or designing pretty awesome real props, and have made my dorky childhood dreams come true.

    Its amazingness is beyond words.

    And YES. Even though Thundercats aired in the mid-80s, I saw them in the early 90s in their dub version, and it was still pretty goddamn awesome.

  • Yu Aoi Films Ranked *Fancy Edition*

    A long long LONG time ago (actually, about three years ago), I made a rough list of Yu Aoi films I had watched and ranked them on MUBI (then TheAuteurs). Since I’m way too lazy to bother adding films to their database, unless I really REALLY wanted the films to be on their database, I’m just gonna work on the ranking here, like I started with my Russian fandom love Chulpan Khamatova.

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  • Yu Aoi is Acting for Galileo

    You know, since Yu’s Itoh website re-vamp, the site sucks. They haven’t updated since forever, and they took out the section where Yu sometimes did short postings. However, the biggest drawback has been the lack of updates, and this is why I found out that Yu was on one of the episodes of Galileo 2 through tweets mentioning it (on June 3rd). So… nobody knew, I suppose?

    So I had to catch up with Galileo 2 episodes, since I wasn’t watching the show due to the lack of much Shibasaki Kou, and was conveniently waiting for the subtitles (and a blank space in my schedule) to actually watch Episode 8.

    I had missed Yu-chan so much.

    yu-aoi-galileo2-ep08-048
    Busted!

    As you know, or maybe don’t, Yu’s been improving her cold-heart crime-committing girl persona. She did pretty great in her guest in Unubore Deka, and was great in Shokuzai. She’s actually been doing her bad girl characters a lot more interesting that her good girls (Double Face, Mottomo Toi Ginga). In Galileo 2 she’s playing an actress who’s obsessed with- hmm… let’s call it ” hardcore method acting,” so she’s obsessed with recording every bit of conversation she has in every day life, as well as her experiences, including how it feels to get away with 1st degree murder.

    Though the episode seems to play straight-forward with a locked-room case and Yu’s character having the motive and access to commit the crime, there’s a twist- which is pretty obvious when you re-watch the show haha (the framing shots give it away), but with Yu’s acting going from calm to elated (for getting away with it), from elated to poker-face, to poker-face to complete hysterical satisfaction and landing in cruel reality… I don’t think I’ve ever seen Yu go through so much in one single sequence.

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  • Mike Wazowski is Precious in Japanese Dub

    I wasn’t too enamored by Pixar’s Monsters University even though Monsters Inc. is one of my favorites (or maybe BECAUSE I liked that one so much?), but this clip of the Japanese-dubbed version popped up in my YouTube feed, and it’s just tenfold the cuteness that the original audio track was because- well, because Japan is so damn hardcore about their dubbing [2].

    Plus, Disney (and as an extension, Pixar) are the kings of international dubs [1][2].

    And they also do worldwide releases pretty okay. Except when Japan has to wait AGES to get some stuff — but serves them right, when they make us wait for everything they do for ages as well.

  • Ooh, Danila Kozlovsky — Why So Incredibly Sexy?

    New beautiful actor alert!

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    I was deciding if he looked a little bit like Josh Hartnett mixed in with a little Chris O’Donnell but immensely more attractive. And luckily, age-appropriate as well!

  • Welcome to YouTube, Japan~

    Or, at least, you got your first steps into the door.

    Yes, Shiina Ringo music videos are being uploaded on VEVO accounts, as well as Tokyo Jihen ones, at 360p or 480p- BUT, baby steps. They’re pretty good 360p videos, though. They look better than some HD versions unofficially uploaded and ripped from the net. I’m not picky as long as Japan lets me watch the music videos of the artists I like and stops me from worrying whether the video I’m posting is gonna disappear in the next few days.

    Speaking of the devil.

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