Zico’s Artist isn’t honestly my favorite track in Television, but damn! It’s probably my favorite live of the album, coz- duh! Live band~ I mean, it’s almost impossible to beat any You Hee-yeol’s Sketchbook (유희열의 스케치북) when competing with a live band, but not even the Sketchbook performance of Anti or the MAMA one top it, because that’s the type of song you listen to at home in the middle of the night at 3-4AM.
Category: Moving Media
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Faye Wong’s Dream for PhantaCity
Feelings. Feelings were had. Despite this divide of video/screen, I felt that. Faye’s that good. Imagine being there sitting in the PhantaCity studio watching a video of Faye Wong singing Dreams (梦中人) and, all of a sudden, Faye appears on the stage, right there, in front of your eyes. Woah. Shivers down my spine.
Truly a legend.
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Shangri-la Goosebumps with Leehom and Han Hong
I honestly don’t have the time to keep up with variety shows on a regular basis, but this showed up on my YT recommendations and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to watch Leehom on a duet with Han Hong. It gave me goosebumps. I love Shangri-la (心中的日月) on its own original version, but this arrangement for Come Sing with Me (我想和你唱) just gave me the chills.
Han Hong’s voice goes so well with Leehom’s. ToT
Also, DAMN~ I used to not give much for Hebe’s voice, but girl has continued surprising me all decade. I don’t remember her being much of a vocalist, but I’m shooketh with her performance of Angel Devil (魔鬼中的天使). I wonder if she found Julio Iglesias’ not-so-secret microphone stash.
Leehom also got better. Maybe they’re all getting better sound engineers.
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Mei Nagano on Hanbun, Aoi
I’ve been watching NHK’s asadora, Hanbun Aoi (半分、青い。), intermittently like I always tend to do. At first, Mei Nagano made me think of a grown-up Ashida Mana which made no sense… even though Mana-chan is enormous and the last time I saw her it made me feel like those parents who watch their children turn into teenagers in horror. lol
But now I was watching the most recent episode of Tsurube no Kazoku ni Kanpai (鶴瓶の家族に乾杯) on NHK Premium, and she was featured wearing an up-do samurai bun, white baggy clothes; so relaxed, enjoying her snacks, a dip of her feet in onsen water, greeting fans and playing other young girls. Dorky charisma, yo~ It takes a special ability to have people younger than you to “kawaiiiiiiiiii” you so sincerely. LOL
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Yu-chan’s Japanese Academy Best Actress for KanoTori
I was gushing about it over the weekend, but I thought I should also post about it here.
I think it’s oddly befitting that Yu-chan wins her first ever (unbelievable, right?) Japanese Academy Best Actress trophy the year that I’m celebrating my 10th year as her fan. It’s so moving. I’ve had a moving couple of days [low-ley Mamamoo insert, lol]. It was so satisfying seeing Yu-chan being so overwhelmed and so overcome with emotion that it just made me happy for her.
I haven’t seen KanoTori yet, ‘coz duh~ Japan obviousness xDDDDDDDDD but I’ve heard great things about it and, frankly, Yu-chan rarely disappoints me (I’m looking at you Henshin xDDDDDD). I had totally forgotten that Hula Girls was a supporting role for Yu, and that One Million Yen Girl was her last lead for a very long time… until Azumi Haruko and KanoTori.
Please, Yu-chan, don’t make us wait another 8 years or near-decade for your leading roles. You know it’s been ten years since Osen and since Camouflage?
Here’s to many many many more years of successes, Yu!
Your one and only Spanish-speaking Non-Japanese-speaking fan. xD
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From the Vault: Lee Hyori’s Bad Girls at 20’s Choice with Ahn Young-mi and Kim Seul-gi
You know I’ve been loving Celeb Five‘s variety outing this year. Their Weekly Idol episode has probably extended my life an extra month. My Durian and Jujube face idols~
ANYWAY~ probably because of it, the YouTube algorithm gave me this clip of Lee Hyori performing Bad Girls at the 2013 Mnet 20’s Choice Awards which also features Ahn Young-mi, who -after making her Celeb Five mates do sexy dances – has become my favorite. lol
First of all, this arrangement for Bad Girls make it so much easier to figure out the patch from Monochrome to Black. Also, the performance. Also, Hyori. Blessed. I remember I was so mesmerized with Hyori during this era, I still remember the Comeback Showcase she did fondly. I’m almost mad Hyori went to Jeju to live her hippie life xD lol But bless her.
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Faye Wong & Na Ying – Years
I’m not crying, you are.
Did you get to see Faye Wong and Na Ying’s CCTV Spring Festival Gala collaboration? It’s been 20 years since it happened, and this year’s Years (岁月) was probably the most popular segment [like Tang Weiwei’s two years ago]. I do wonder why CCTV hasn’t uploaded the performance on its own (yet).
As far as I know, it’s only available for high quality download on QQ (though, geoblocked), unless… you know, you do your thing.
And now, someone was awesome enough to provide English translations~
Bless them~
(more…)
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Kuno Yoko’s GARAPIKOPu~ Animation OP
You know I’m a big fan of NHK’s Okaasan to Issho, right? Like, I’ve been watching it for years, I don’t have children, and my Japanese isn’t improving anymore… but I still watch it. LOL I’m still super shocked that Yoshihisa Kobayashi (小林よしひさ) – the guy that does the gymnastics – is still around since my original post a decade ago. He’s survived like two or three puppet changes, and this is like his third round of hosts— Takumi Mitani left a few years ago, and Daisuke Yokoyama officially left last year, giving way to Atsuko Ono subbing for Takumi, and Yuichiro Hanada taking over Daisuke.
I still miss Itou Mayu, tho xD
Anyway, I digress~ during the many changes in themes and puppets, they started showing the Galapico Poo (ガラピコぷ〜 , GARAPIKOPu) segment that begins with an animated intro that I’ve always been a fan of. It’s been years on air, and there’s no official clips (only poor TV-to-CAM captures, because LOL NHK), but I finally found Kuno Yoko (久野遥子) [Tumblr][Twitter] was in charge of the animation. FINALLY.
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Oscar 2017-2018 Watched List
You know, for a year when I didn’t watch that many movies, I’m doing pretty good. LOL Confession! I haven’t been following award season, it does feel like it’s my second or third year already. I do know that people have been freaking out because all critic guilds and industry guilds have been awarding all different movies. As the saying goes~ todos parecen más perdidos que cuy en tómbola!
Here’s my Spirit Award one.
Light blue highlights mean watched, hot pink are pending, and green on the queue already.
My favorite competing film this year (so far) is Lady Bird coz it got me in the feels. I wouldn’t mind The Shape of Water winning, though. Considering BAFTA nominations (Producers’ Guild win and Directors’ Guild nom), The Shape of Water does seem to have a love more momentum than actors-backed Three Billboards, and this one also has a strong BAFTA showing.
Fun fact, yo! Darkest Hour, Phantom Thread and Victoria & Abdul are [most likely] the first Chinese-backed films that make it to Oscar. All backed by Perfect World Pictures (北京完美影视传媒) [1].
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My 2017 Letterboxd Year in Review
Interesting! I figured I watched less movies this 2017 than I did in 2016, but turns out I got a couple more films/hours logged. And there were a couple more titles that I didn’t log because they’re not on Letterboxd. They just happened to be not current movies, I suppose.
I’m still, currently, very much obsessed with Mamamoo, though. LOL That’s 30% of my movie-watching time doing Mamamoo-related stuff.
2018 doesn’t look to be an improvement to 2015 levels xD
I’m also not sure whether Ryo Kase is my Most Watched Actor this year, considering I went on a non-logged marathon of Shweta Menon movies— like 4 or 5. But, once again, latest highest-rated movies reflect some of my movie-watching; a little American indie, a little Indian and a little Chinese.
I did find enough for my usual Top30 Favorite Film Discovery post :)
And a super lengthy post on my favorite films this year, which has already changed xDDDDDD
