Category: Television

  • More Juri and Nodame!!

    December 19!!!

    Of course I will have to wait a little for it… with luck, it won’t be too long.

    Nodame Movie 2009

    GYABO!!! xD

    btw, sounds like a very fun European tour…

    Last month on the 16th, they already started filming in Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. They continued in Brno, the Czech Republic and after that they arrived in Vienna, Austria. After Vienna, they went back to Brno also filmed a few scenes Prague. Right now they are in France and about to start filming in Paris.

    More photos and videos via the Juri LJ Comm xD

    Chiaki-sempai!!!! Gyabo~~~ xD
    Oh, man~ I love Nodame-chan xD – Onara Taisou!!


  • Yu’s “My Favorite Book, Japan’s 100 Favorite Books”

    Months ago I blogged this NHK 10 min. segment on Yu’s favorite book. Tabi o Suru ki? – Google translates it as “Tree Travel”? – Well, YouTube user kaurismaki uploaded the 10min. not long ago. It would be AWESOME to get this subbed =D even though you don’t see much of Yu, but the segment seems to have a good feeling. Very serious.

    Once again, a request to get this translated! It would be awesome to hard-sub this. ^^


  • Music Video Director: Nigel Dick

    I was looking back on music videos this past weekend (which, by the way marked amy-wong.com’s 4th anniversary) because I was watching Michael Jackson music videos and thinking “wow, how come I don’t like watching music videos now” – at least I don’t watch videos of most music I listen to in English, though I’m generally impressed with Asian Pop Music Videos.

    When I was little, well… a pre-teen and teenage girl fuzzing about the Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears with my friends at school, I began to notice director’s names. MTV (which I pretty much used to watch almost 24/7) used to show the Name of the Song + Name of the Artist + Name of Album + Name of Director. They did this until the beginning of 2002 or 2003 when the Director’s name suddenly disappeared from the credits. I dunno if it’s back, and I dunno if it was because I just went to Canada. LOL

    One of the first names I noticed was, of course, Nigel Dick.

    If I could describe Nigel Dick’s style of music-video-making when I was a kid, I would say “simply brilliant” – not because I was naive and didn’t really know much about the business, but because his videos were simple, but yet so full of life. Perhaps, the easiest way to show it is with a simple video such as Oasis’ Wonderwall.

    (more…)


  • Ueno Juri and the 5 Bags

    While there’s on-going filming in Europe, there’s more news about Juri’s brand new WOWOW drama titled Ueno Juri and the Five Bags – though I wonder if there will be a title change or addition~~

    Juri Ueno and the Five Bags

    WOWOW is quickly positioning on my to-watch list (now, if only they decided to release their subbed dramas and films) – and on the vein of series like Camouflage, which I still haven’t watched subbed – comes this mini-series (since it’s only 5-episodes long) telling the story of 5 different characters and directed by 5 different directors, including Nobuhiro Yamashita (Linda Linda Linda, Camouflage), Michael Arias (Tekkonkinkreet) and Takuma Takasaki (Honokaa Boy).

    (more…)


  • Dr. Koto – Damn, It Always Comes Down to Harmony~

    Dr. Koto's Clinic

    I began watching Dr. Koto’s Clinic – well, kind of for obvious reasons – Anyhoo~ I decided to begin watching from the very beginning. To tell you the truth, I was about to give up watching the whole show (first season) once or twice… but the little kids and the whole blood donating episode kept me going. Takehiro-kun was sooooo cute. LOL’ (and he was also on Yoshitsune xD)

    I was teary, once or twice… I’m a sap, people should know by now. I love crying, but it’s got to be a good cry~~~ my favorite episode was the one with Aki-ojii – even though the episode titles were… well, a little blunt. It was a great episode dealing with death in a pretty realistic way. I was tired of so many successful operations to be frank.

    Acting was pretty good, though there were times I couldn’t stand some characters (including Dr. Koto/Goto (Hidetaka Yoshioka) himself, lol), but that’s hardly an acting problem, and more of a character thing – I loved Ayaka (Kou Shibasaki), though. Especially when she begins realizing she’s falling for the doctor. She’s pretty hilarious, and at the same time she can break your heart. Like when Rika (Ayumi Ito) comes back, and Ayaka tells Dr. Koto how the both of them used to make boys cry. LOL’

    All characters had their moment though, so I’m looking forward to the Specials… as well as Season 2.

    Anyway, why Harmony, you would wonder? It’s because I can’t seem to get away from my first official ship. No matter what the series is, what the movie is… it always gets a Harmony comparison.
    I love it and hate it.

    Ayaka is a balancing force to Dr. Koto, while Saki knows who Goto is as a doctor, he has to prove himself with Ayaka to show her the real him, and she gets to see this of him. She’s not fuzzing over the Dr. who’s come to the island, but she’s flustered for the caring and kind man he is. Ayaka is always by Goto’s side, even when everyone believed the news article, Ayaka stood by him (alongside Wada-san) – can’t get more Trio than that. LOL

    She takes a hit when Saki comes to visit, and all the guys fuzz about this doctor with short hair that looks like a model or an air-hostess… and even a bigger blow when people start saying Dr. Koto might marry Saki because they have a kid together. LOL’ Oh the rumors! xD Poor Ayaka, people think she stands no chance against Saki, she is after all just a plain island nurse, but she hangs in there. And that one scene almost by the end, when Ayaka realizes Goto is in the boat, and then he sees her – UGH, it’s exactly like that walking down the stairs and all I see is you thing. *sighs* but Koto’s totally daft, and she’s just content he’s back.


  • NHK’s Songs of our Generation – Shiina Ringo

    Did you know? Because I didn’t…

    I caught the repeat of Part 1 yesterday night – actually, I almost lost it (so you can imagine how my friend Julz felt when she actually saw Yossy live by chance) – ANYHOO~

    Back on topic~

    NHK (World Premium) is airing Part 2 this coming week:
    Wed. July 1st @ 9am-9.29am (Japan Standard Time. -14hrs)
    Fri. Jul 3rd @ 9.30pm-9.59pm (JST -14hrs)


  • Lucky Thirteen – Watch Over Me

    Fan-made video! And new video posting testing!! LOL

    First, a little about the video.

    I began this… when this episode (Lucky Thirteen) aired back in Oct. 2008 – so it’s been sitting on my computer forever. I worked on it one weekend, and sort of left it there – until this weekend. I’ve begun working on another music video (on a less fan-made side) and thought I should at least finish this one.

    I found Thirteen (I refuse to call her Dr. Hadley or Remy LOL) interesting from the beginning. It was a certain spark, and well… Olivia Wilde is pretty hot – which my friend Mob would be glad to agree on. And I also have to say that I’ve always found Foreman boring, so Foreteen makes me roll my eyes.

    That aside… the song is by Hanson from The Walk, and it immediately brought images of Thirteen and her out-of-control behavior, so I just had to do it.

    On a rant side… YouTube has removed already 2 of my fan-made videos, and I’m expecting them to remove the ones that are left, so I’m now forced to not use it. So please help out by linking back to this site =D


  • Monkey Majik!

    Just saw them on J-Melo! My first thought… what are these two white guys doing on NHK? I was pretty impressed, actually. They are fun to listen to… almost like having fun while listening to the Barenaked Ladies, only better. So I did a quick search, and found a list…

    Monkey Majik is a group of two Canadians and two Japanese dudes singing in Japan-glish xD
    give it a listen~~~ check out the song Fly, and their song Aishiteru (I Love You)
    actually… both those videos are pretty good. I liked Aishiteru quite a bit~


  • We are getting some Yu Aoi clips subbed~

    Thanks to visitor, kitty!!

    Leave a message in this post, and thank kitty for her hard work!

    Let’s also leave a big shout out to aoinohoho for the information and clips he brings.

    So far, kitty has been kind enough to leave translations for the following posts…
    Club Keiba Quiz CM – and…
    MTV: Yu Aoi + Yoko Takahashi

    I love Yoko-san’s personality, LOL – You know some classic Hollywood stars worked really well with certain cinematographers or photographers?? Yu works so well with Yoko-san. Yoko-san and Shunji Iwai.

    If you wanna beg and grovel for anything else you think would need translation, grovel in this post too. – I mentioned the Jounetsu interview from 2006, since it seems to be a popular interview for her Asian fanbase. I’m willing to test my luck at timing.


  • Four is an Unlucky Number – YAM004

    LOL’

    Does that say enough to you? Really, read the editor’s note. Lots of things on this new issue… new problems, new films, new music…

    Reviews of films from the blockbuster season… Star Trek, Wolverine, Terminator Salvation, Up~~~ Brothers Bloom. Short film reviews, concert reviews… of Kiss in Lima. Music reviews of The Sounds, Green Day, Shiina Ringo… a bunch of K-pop courtesy of Julz~~~ off you go to Japan!!! WOOOOO – there’s Life on Mars, House M.D. and my more “professional” review of Yu Aoi’s Portugirl.

    Yam004

    Head over here.