personal.amy-wong.com - A Blog by Amy Wong. | Amy's ramblings about films, music, tv, and all things entertainment.

Yu Aoi for Eriko Ogawa’s Spokane’s Left Hand

September 4, 2015 — 1 Comment

You never really know with katakana spelling… is it Spokane’s Left Hand (スポケーンの左手)? If I hadn’t googled スポケーン, I would’ve totally thought it’s “spoken,” but apparently this brand new play is based on the 2004 Academy Award-winning Irish comedy short by Martin McDonagh, which starred Brendan Gleeson — Gleeson’s son, Domhnall Gleeson… now, sorta famous in his own right, also shows up. Watch it here.

yu-aoi-supoken-no-hidarite

The play also stars Nakajima Shu (中嶋しゅう) — in, I suppose, the Brendan Gleeson role, Song Ha (成河) – as Rúaidhrí Conroy, and Okamoto Kenichi (岡本健一) – as the man on the train.

source.

Spokane’s Left Hand will be running from November 14 to Novemeber 29th at the Theatre Tram in Tokyo. Tickets are available at Ticket Pia at Y7,800.

In Celebrity, English, Graphics, Japanese, Sharing actress, fandom, japan, short film, theater / stage, yu aoi

Nicole Kidman for Photograph 51

It doesn’t matter how many people perceived Kidman’s films to be bad, I’ll still watch any of them- I mean, not for nothing she placed #2 in my list of favorite actresses. She and Doona Bae keep crossing paths in my fandom life~

So, Nic is back in London and back on stage. People who get to go to London to actually watch her perform live are mad excited… for the rest of us, we’re just damn jealous.

The Guardian also has a lovely 3min. clip where Nicole talks about who Rosalind Franklin was, the relevance of the story, the female voice, and “the sell” culture.

The Independent also has an interview with director Michael Grandage, who talks about the story, why it attracted Kidman, and attracting a younger audience.

Posted on September 3, 2015 In Celebrity, Clips, English, Sharing actress, comeback, nicole kidman, performance, theater / stage

Doona Bae for Prestige Hong Kong

Here’s a great interview with Doona Bae where she talks about her beginnings as an actress, what her most cherished film project is, what was it like to do Cloud Atlas without knowing how to speak English, her close relation to Lana and how she “gets” her acting, and how she wants to do a Stephen Chow movie.

Oh, and why she doesn’t like to use makeup when acting.

Here’s the link to the Prestige Interview.

I’m a little sad that her presentation at the Shanghai Film Festival got cancelled because of MERS, but I totally understand the measure. Also- Yay! Sense8 got renewed, so I’m getting myself more Doona. We all love Doona Bae.

Posted on September 2, 2015 In Celebrity, Photoshoots actress, bae doona, china, fandom, interview, korea, magazine shoot, yam

1 Comment

More Yu Aoi Bday Shortakes~

August 20, 2015 — Leave a comment

I finally sat through Dr. Rintaro and my Yu Aoi fandom has reignited once again! PB-buying and all [1][2]. Oh, yeah~ I had it bad this week. Yu’s personal life has also -all of a sudden- become public domain (or it’s easier to run into it through social media), so it’s been out there for public consumption and mass-devouring. My street kanji-reading is poor, but Google Translate has been calling her names. Demon-woman, what is this? The Dark Ages?

Also- Miyazaki Aoi’s in a new relationship… it seems. *cough*

yu-aoi-bday-2015

Anyway- Monday was Yu’s 30th Birthday, and she celebrated with a group of people I had no idea were her circle of friends- these are taken from Peter‘s blog, and also feature cross-dressing personality Mitz Mangrove and… I suppose, gravure idol Ruriko Kojima (her kanji name is all funky 小嶋瑠璃子).

More.

And… I found this random ranking where they ask to rank young actresses based on their talent, and for the first time that I’m able to recall, Yu comes on top of Miyazaki Aoi. LOL So, more power to Yu! Though, Masami Nagasawa comes at #3, followed in #5 by Aya Ueto, Satomi Ishihara at #6, Ayase Haruka at #7, Horikita Maki at #9 and Mao Inoue at #10.

Toda Erika ranks at #4, and I don’t know who Yui Aragaki at #8 is. LOL And there’s no Hikari Mitsushima nor Sakura Ando, so this list is of idols. xD

nandemo-ranking-young-actress

In Celebrity, English, Japanese, Screencaps, Sharing, Snapshots actress, fandom, japan, online shopping, tv drama / tv series / miniseries, yam, yu aoi

Yu Aoi’s Yu-chan Bday Shortakes~

August 17, 2015 — 2 Comments

Yu’s officially three-decades-old… but still is as cute as ever, even though she’s trying to be all grown-up and stuff. Just sit her in front of a nice matcha shaved-ice with red beans (or a velvety choco-purin), and you’ll get her all giddy.

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That’s exactly what happened when promoting Dr. Rintaro on the Japanese variety Pon! with co-star on-screen mom Atsuko Takahata, who -I must say- is hilarious, too. These are obviously via the Yu Aoi Chinese fans. Watch the video. It’s 10min. long and it takes a while to load (for me).

She also did the Lilo & Stitch voice-over event [1], and apparently got back together with someone from her Oha-girl days, so they did an Oha greeting! lol

Oh, man. I remember how much I used to love Yu-chan. xD I think I’m going to watch Climbing to Spring without subs, and hope to watch The Case of Hana & Alice now that it’s out on DVD.

In Celebrity, Clips, DVD/BR, English, Fun, Graphics, Japanese, Screencaps, Sharing, Television actress, animation, cute, disney, fandom, food, funny, japan, lilo & stitch, reality tv/variety, shunji iwai, yu aoi

Aaron Kwok and Chang Chen for Monk Comes Down the Mountain

– Master, I wanted to see someone, but couldn’t.
– Have you not seen him in your heart?

Posted on August 14, 2015 In Celebrity, Chinese, English, Films, Graphics, Screencaps, Sharing aaron kwok, actor, by amy wong, chang chen, china, fanart, quotes

1 Comment

Humming for Buddha Jump – GO!

So I finally gave myself time to listen to both Buddha Jump (佛跳牆) albums. Their 2014 one, Let You See (給你看), is pretty good. Fell in love with this tune at first listen~ also, surprised to learn it’s a project by Penny Tai.

The clip below is from a small show they did in China.

You can get the album on iTunes.

Posted on August 12, 2015 In Celebrity, Chinese, Clips, English, Music, Sharing china, new music, new talent, performance, taiwan

Liza’s Petrushka’s Syndrome

Okay, I’m slightly impressed.

While posting the trailer of The Puppet Syndrome, I found it a little bit difficult to distinguish between gorwn-up Liza (Khamatova) and the actress that was playing her younger self. Khamatova’s face is peculiar — to me, it’s like trying to cast a young version of Bjork — but Young Liza, played by Alina Gvasaliya (born 1992) comes close.

Posted on August 8, 2015 In Celebrity, English, Films, Photographs, Russian, Sharing actress, chulpan khamatova, discovering new actors, fandom, russia, wow that was good casting

Yu Aoi’s The First and Last Time of Love Talk for MEKURU

August 8, 2015 — 3 Comments

For the latest volume of MEKURU Magazine [Facebook][Official Website], they are holding a special on Yu Aoi who will be turning 30! I’m not sure what’s gonna be in there (Japanese being rusty and all), but there’s gonna be an interview and (maybe?) photos by Kawashima Kotori (川島小鳥) [Portfolio], who apparently is an Ihei Kimura (木村伊兵) awarded photographer for his book Star (明星) [Amazon JP].

It’s titled Aoi Yu, Saisho de Saigo ni Ren’ai o Kataru (蒼井優、最初で最後に恋愛を語る) — you’ll have to forgive my des and nis translations.

They’re totally selling it like a direct sequel to Travel Sand. xD

There will also be a poem by Shuntaro Kanikawa (谷川俊太郎) titled Aoi Yu (あおいゆう). Among other stuff I can’t make out, it’ll include 128 pages and will be listed at Y907 Yen. It’s available on Amazon JP and HMV JP.