I’m probably two weeks ahead, compared to my Ballot posting last year, which means my Independent Spirit Awards ballot is still halfway done, but my Academy voting ballot is pretty complete.
I might end up watching The Two Popes, but all I’m really waiting for to open in theaters is Bombshell (which opens this Thursday), Little Women and 1917. Harriet is never going to open down here, but I really got a soft spot for this type of movies.
My most awaited Letterboxd e-mail came yesterday with my 2019 movie-data. Though my writing input has definitely not improved, cutting down on Mamamoo stuff has increased my movie watching habits, for sure.
Compared to 2018, I logged 480 films (though over 50 or even many more could be short films), which represents a 23% increase. In terms of hours, there was an increment of over 100hrs or 16%. This increase still doesn’t match my 2015 levels, when I reached 530 logged films (9.5% short) or clocked 959hrs (14% short)… but it’s getting there. I am still at 2017 New-To-Me level of movies, though.
My most-watched actor was Glenn Close because I went on a marathon of her movies because I really thought that she could win the Oscar, not that I wasn’t pleasantly surprised to see Olivia Colman win for The Favourite. And Francois Ozon was my most-watched director because MUBI programmed many of his films, including Les Amants Criminels, Water Drops on Burning Rocks, Young & Beautiful, and L’Amant Double.
And as my writing output has been so poor, I haven’t written any End of the Year (or Decade) posts. Gomen.
I’m ready to vote! I received the most digital screeners this year so far, so it’s been easier (and it’s made it lazy-proof) to sit through dozens of screeners. Plus, Netflix has a lot of the nominated movies readily available too. This year is possibly my best award season ballot in my history of keeping up with ballots. lol
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.
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.
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!
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].
When I saw that there was a bluray release of The Murder Case of Hana & Alice with Spanish subtitles by Media3 Estudio, and it comes with a freaking disc for Hana & Alice too. I suffered so much when I realized, just a minute later, that the bluray release is Region B for Europe xD
And it looks so pretty too TnT
I had been looking around for an actual region-free bluray player, because I have a bunch of R1-DVD and R4-DVD discs that I’m too lazy to re-watch on my region-free DVD player, which used to be the norm players sold down here. I really don’t look forward to having to import electronics, because I can only imagine the headache it’ll be considering the headaches I get whenever I order my preferred shampoo. LOL
