Archives For Television

Mark Ronson featuring QTIP and MNDR.

I really enjoyed Ronson’s last album, and I think he’s a really great producer. However, I think he really dropped the ball with this song… or maybe I just don’t like his type of music any longer. Honestly, it’s been ages since I heard anything from him xD

But the French and Japanese? Sounds so weird.

Does anyone feel the video is so Liveman or Flashman? [why the 90’s ruled]

We have been talking about Mobile Phone Dramas for a while here… a little more than half a year.

Then there’s Mobile Phone Dramas. Sort of a hybrid between a series and commercials.. or other PR material, maybe a mix between short films and commercials that end up becoming a movie…

While Asia is taking product placement and marketing to a whole new level, here… they try to shove ads and other silly commercials on printed media. And more commercial time. And more clicking banners.

It seems BeeTV, which focuses on broadcasting dramas through cellphone carrier DoCoMo, has grown into more than 1 million subscribers paying $3 a month to watch this 5min pieces. Dude, that’s $3M a month for roughly 30min of footage in a cellphone.

Hollywood is jealous.

BeeTV broadcasts more than 20 short programs in eight genres like drama, music and comedy and plans to add shows on cooking, fashion and beauty for a total of more than 50 programs. The two most-popular are drama series “Love Letter in Five Years” and “Death Game Park.”

Some of BeeTV’s more popular shows are later released on DVD. The saucy drama series “Women Have Fun Twice,” starring five well-known actresses, will be screened in late June at the Taipei Film Festival after the number of episodes downloaded hit 900 million, a BeeTV record.

via Japan Now.

Women Have Fun Twice is that Asami Mizukawa mobile phone drama I was telling you about. And, OMG! It’s going to be screened at the Taipei Film Fest? Jealous!

I am eating up all this commercial stuff. Geez, and I don’t even own a cellphone. xD
I am not prepared for this type of marketing~

I thought I would never EVER say this, but this is too much Yu Aoi.

The TBS website for the upcoming drama Unubore Deka (Conceited Detective) just announced guest-stars, and Yu Aoi will be appearing on the 2nd episode. Also guest-starring, actress Kanako Higuchi (ep03), and Kyoko Koizumi.

Mika Nakashima stars on the show alongside Tomoya Nagase, who plays the deluded detective.

A 30-year-old single detective (Nagase Tomoya), who is under the illusion that he is popular with females is called ‘Unubore’ by friends. He is an ultra romantic and susceptible to conceitedness. He has such a strong desire to marry to the extent that he has bought an apartment for his newlywed life. He falls in love with female criminals at first sight each time. While the sheer desire to meet wraps around him, he will get proof that the female is the culprit. And so, he will thrust both the arrest warrant and marriage papers at her, proposing with the words, “If you marry me, I won’t arrest you.” If that still does not work, he will hold out an engagement ring and his handcuffs. In the end, the criminal will choose to be arrested and his heart will be broken. He will cry as he puts the handcuffs on her…

via DramaWiki.

To be honest, the premise sounds BLAH.

But Nagase is funny… at least he was on Tiger & Dragon, but that was a different monster. However, I will probably give it a go… after all, if I don’t like it, it’s only going to be two episodes. [added to the calendar]

Let’s play 6 Degrees… Mika Nakashima starred on Worst by Chance — and Yu Aoi made a short appearance there. Tomoya Nagase was on Tiger & Dragon with Yu. Kanako Higuchi played Aoi Miyazaki’s mother on Atsuhime… Miyazaki is besties with Yu. And Kyoko Koizumi starred on the stage piece Gakuya with Yu.

Early YAM 010!

June 12, 2010 — 5 Comments

MY85 made me realize that tomorrow is the 13th, so I decided to release this today.

Thanks to Julz, who’s always a diligent writer.
and MY85… and well, Maca who keeps tracks of her films.

I just want you to head over here.

Sorry for the lack of comment activity yesterday, there was a weird mixed up with me, my server, and my ISP… which was fixed NOT by Telefonica, but my server providers~~~ They’re the best. You should all work with them.

Anyway, a lot of stuff… besides the World Cup,
whose Opening ceremony I missed, because I couldn’t wake up for them…

Toy Story 3 screening in the morning! So I’m making this short~

First~ as you may (or not) have noticed, I have added a Yu Aoi Event Calendar to the right, below the Ads. That’s to help us all to keep track of what’s going on and when. As you can see, Flowers opened today.
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Hi, Glee Quote of the Week, Glee is over for the season O.o

I think last night’s (real) season finale was a good sappy episode. I had a problem with the whole Quinn giving birth, as she was not sweaty or red enough, in my opinion… but I have never been pregnant, let alone given birth, so I’m just saying. The scene was quite funny though… and after having Puck peeking to the forbidden lands of down there during the birth, I doubt he will be getting laid any time soon. Anyone who’s seen any documentary knows. LOL

My second pet-peeve was the crying during To Sir with Love. I know it’s hard to cry while singing, but even Will had to look away from the line of the camera.

Anyway! The blogosphere is abuzz with this quote~ at least part of it.

Announcer: She is fresh off her fifth consecutive National Cheerleading Title, and author of the soon-to-be-published memoir, I’m a Winner and You’re Fat, Ohio’s home-grown iconoclast, Coach Sue Sylvester!

I dunno if I would buy I’m a Winner, and You’re Fat… but I would totally read it.

As the name suggests, this 2003 drama is about a high school teacher who is dying of an inoperable brain tumor, then one night he meets Hina, a 16-year-old girl who is pretending to be a 20-year-old beautician. They end up in his apartment for the night, even though nothing happens. The next day, she discovers he is her new high school teacher.

Of course, she keeps trying to get with him, and he tries to keep his distance… after all, he is dying. Then, with those crazy Japanese-language misunderstandings, Hina believes she’s about to die. Suddenly, the teacher finds solace in her… and that’s when it just gets creepy and frustrating.

I understand hot-for-teacher.

But I spent 98% of the time watching this [I just finished episode 8] saying how inappropriate.

First, the male lead was just so… ugh, infuriating. I guess it’s not really him, it’s the character that annoys me. I could get it, the way he is for the first 2 episodes. He’s dying, he’s afraid of being forgotten, whatever. However, by episode 7, it just gets tiresome. Man up already! But instead of manning up, and telling Mina that she’s not dying, so she doesn’t need to find physical pleasure to feel alive… because, well… she’s got time.

He goes and diddles the student.

Is that supposed to be romantic?

And then people go on and tell him he looks different, more relaxed. Of course! He’s diddling the student! whom he lied to by saying she’s got an inoperable brain tumor. And the doctor plays along? Lying to her?

Mina should totally sue their asses.

Gosh!

Okay, having said that. Reason why I watched this? Of course, Yu Aoi. I wasn’t gonna watch it because the title is so bland, and I don’t normally do jdramas. However, while looking for the latest Anan photoshoot, I ran into a post that talked about a “rape scene” [on ep08] in the series, so I went all “OMG, I need to check this out.” So I did.

Besides the dragging storyline of the dying teacher who diddles the student who thinks is dying, the series talks about suicide, depression, prostitution, and bullying. The big bad of the series is Yuki, played by Hiroki Narimiya — whom I had already eyed on Tiger & Dragon, and Nana LOL — but his crazy antics get tiring by episode 7 too. I mean, he’s just bad because he’s bad, unlike Koike on Love Exposure who is bad for being bad with a background.
Continue Reading…

Taking the advice of “other Amy“. [ps. you’re welcomed to refer to me as “other Amy” in your blog, LOL]

Funk felt so… SO inappropriate to watch. I wanna say I loved it, but I will need a second view. I mean… I always knew Finn and Will were alike… and that the way for love is PURE HATE. Also, watching pregnant un-wedded mothers shaking their money-makers to It’s a Man’s World, I just kept waiting for a baby to fly towards the camera.

Anyway~~~ next week is the season finale!

Here is my quote of the week~

Sue: You know, for me trophies are like herpes, you can try to get rid off them, but they just keep coming. You know why? Sue Sylvester has hourly flare-ups and burning, itchy, highly-contagious talent.

In an effort to attract more Western musicians and firms, China is building three national music industry parks, serving as performance stages and platforms where musicians from around the world could get together to collaborate, located in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong.

But of course, in order to attract Western musicians and firms, they need to tackle piracy.

With programs like the ones 88TC88.com [musicdish.com] are offering for Western acts to get packages translated into Chinese to enter the market, the government is trying to develop a system that will not only help artists get their royalties, but also protect Chinese arts.

Until relatively recently, copyright in China was illegal. All intellectual property belonged to the people, ie. government. If you wrote a book for example, the government would ‘own’ it and reap any ‘profits,’ while providing the author with a salary, housing, medical and education. So when some rant on about piracy or the lack of enforcement, this should be put in context. The Copyright Law of the People’s Republic of China was adopted in 1990 – we in the US on the other hand have had a Copyright Act on the books since 1790 and we still can’t seem to get it right!

On the other hand, the government does often seem capricious in its enforcement of copyright. They like to point to last year’s shutdown of 200 pirate movie sites, including the largest video BitTorrent site. It just so happens though that the crackdown coincided oh so nicely with the launch of CCTV’s major online video initiative. Nor is it clears whether the shutdown didn’t have more to do with fighting pornography – a much bigger taboo for the government – rather than piracy. Having said that though, the fact is that for both economic and diplomatic/political reasons, the Chinese government will increasingly get serious, get tough and tackle the IP issue in the broad sense, not just piracy.

What’s gonna be their system?

The Chinese government will use watermarking technology to embed a unique code into every creative works released – music, film, graphic,… – allowing the government to easily identify, fine and shut down websites peddling pirated material as well as track all plays for royalty collection and disbursement.

all via MusicDish.

Which is already happening when you upload things on YouTube or some file sharing website. Things get deleted, and accounts get shut down. However, coming from China. This is huge.

Look, I am all for China protecting its artists, as long as me as a user NOT in China, is able to have access to their content. I listen to a lot of music in Chinese, which I wouldn’t be doing if it weren’t for illegal downloads in the first place. I wouldn’t own albums by LeeHom Wang, or all of Bibi’s discography if I hadn’t downloaded their albums.

I wouldn’t know about Yuguo or Chang Shilei or Milk @ Coffee.

You know, I use Haoting to stream music now, but some of the artists I just named don’t even show up there. Also, you guys… it would be really awesome if there was an option for language. LOL

Okay, having said that~ I know I support downloads, but I also support paying for the stuff YOU consider to be good. I am not telling you what you should pay for, but I want you to make a conscious decision about paying for the content you deem good enough for your money. If you think such star or group is the best, and that they/he/she deserves your money, make an effort to buy anything by them. It doesn’t have to be the $30 USD import album, it can be the $15 USD poster.

Please, do not tell me this album by this artist is the best of all time, if you haven’t paid for it. If you love it that much, you should buy it… unless it’s already out of print, of course. Don’t tell me this movie is a film that changed your life, if you have it as a pirated copy. You don’t have to have a 100 disc collection, but if you really think that piece of art… being anything from music, to movies or photographs or sculptures… if they made a difference to you, please buy it.

Entertainment Weekly has finally put up their list of Greatest Characters online.

Excuse me as I What? – Bernie Mac over The Bride from Kill Bill, or Lisbeth Salander from Millennium Trilogy? Will Smith’s Hancock over Whilhelmina from Ugly Betty? With no traces of Wolverine? Seriously? Hancock over Wolverine? And don’t tell me it’s because Wolverine is an old character, because Tony Stark (Iron Man) made it to the list… and he’s not what we would exactly call from the “last 20 years” either.

The list is questionable… not only for the inclusions and omissions, also for placing. tsk tsk.

As much as I love Sue Sylvester (and Jane Lynch), I think she should be lower than characters like House or Dexter. Also… Rachel Green on the Top10? Over guys like Jack Bauer from 24? And Edward Cullen from Twilight over freaking Don Draper from Mad Men???? Really? Or even Miranda Priestly from Devils Wears Prada?

But gotta give it to you for at least including some of the names. You know like Starbuck. Or Stewie from Family Guy… Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean, and Edward Scissorhands — if you didn’t count, that’s TWO Johnny Depps right there~~~ Then there’s Hannibal Lecter, The Joker, and Buffy.

But… Continue Reading…