So apparently BiBi held a concert in Chengdu recently, and I went on a spazzy search because- Dude, BiBi in dreadlocks. Apparently, some of the wardrobe worn (at least the two more androgynous ones) were Yohji Yamamoto designs, including the one she’s wearing while in dreadlocks. It’s like- too many things are perfect in that combination.
There are loads of other photos and snapshots of the concert in this Weibo hashtag: #周笔畅unlock成都演唱会#
All photo credits too all the people with their watermarks. All you lucky sons of guns.
… or maybe I’m just projecting too much, but I thought 2013 had a lot of Father/Son-Daughter relationship movies. Even when it wasn’t literally a blood-relation, like in the more clear case between Idris Elba and Rinko Kikuchi (et Ashida Mana) in Pacific Rim, or the more blurred relationship between Jiao Xu with Mr. Go in Mr. Go.
I cried in a couple of these ones, but I won’t tell you which. LOL
From left to right, top to bottom: Koreeda’s Like Father, Like Son; Miracle in Cell No. 7; Metro Manila; Pacific Rim; Saving Mr. Banks; Silent Witness; About Time; Police Story 2013; Instructions Not Included; and Mr. Go.
First, about a week or two ago Yuguo announced that they were finally releasing their third full studio album Sunset Strip (日落大道), which seemed like it had been in the planning for ages [1].
It’s the 23rd in China, and it happened!
You can listen to the album (and download the songs) via Xiami.
BiBi’s got a brand new song titled Hello World, the theme for the new Mainland Chinese movie The Breakup Guru (分手大师), which opens… on June 27th. The vibe of the song is very Train’s Hey Soul Sister-y and Jason Mraz-y chill whimsical folksy.
Fun fact: Jason Mraz’s Wordplay [MV] was my jam back in my Vancouverite days. Never liked him as much since then.
Sridevi’s lovely crowd-pleasing English Vinglish is going to Japan [Trailer, if you don’t believe me], and for a moment there I thought they might actually super-dub it [1] but no~ Japan is getting it subbed after 3 Idiots got a nod for Best Foreign Film in the last edition of the Japanese Academy Awards. For promotions of the film, they want to use this image of her 1993 film Roop Ki Rani Choron Ka Raja:
OH~ GODDDDDDDD
And it’s serious too- like, they totally mean to promote EV with Sridevi in yellow-face without a hint of irony. I wonder what Japanese people would think other than “oh, these silly foreigners,” I don’t know who the audience for the film is in Japan, somehow I don’t picture Japanese housewives going to watch a non-Japanese non-Hollywood (ft. Depp or DiCaprio or Pitt or Cruise) flick with subtitles, but maybe I’m underestimating them.
For casual watchers of “this is Chinese/Japanese/Korean” arguments online or real life, Sridevi’s attire though wanting to be Japanese is obviously more Chinese-inspired, like Disney’s Mulan’s match-making attire wanting to be Chinese but obviously Japanese-inspired.
Well, this is a completely unexpected collaboration. I’m not completely feeling the English lyrics added to the EPIK HIGH cover, I think it would’ve made more sense if they had added Mandarin instead. However, I bet I would be complaining about how pedestrian the lyrics in Chinese are. LOL So I’ll settle.
Instead~ look at how awkward the vibe of the Making Of is at the beginning, and how they all sort of become dorks by the end of it. xD It’s even more funny if you’ve EVER been the only person in a room that doesn’t speak a language –in this case Korean– and then sort of blurt out a nodding affirmation in said language.
So… I thought I was wrong [1], but now I’m not so sure.
One of my pet-peeves with Indian cinema (and Chinese… and Russian) is when some sort of dubbing is involved. The Russians, of course, are the worst offenders of that when they just slap some Russian over-dubbed without even caring if it’s a man talking over a female character. It’s not even like it’s properly dubbed, it’s just lazily slapped onto the original track without even lowering the audio.
Then the Chinese mess around with you because you got Hong Kong actors that don’t necessarily speak proper Mandarin working with Mainland actors who wouldn’t necessarily speak proper Cantonese (or at all). The result? You don’t exactly know which one is the original audio track. The way I go about it is to choose always Cantonese when film is set in Hong Kong, and go for Mandarin in most epics. Anything historical epic HK production pre-97 also gets the Cantonese favoritism. xD
India has suchhhhhh an array of languages that I’m not entirely familiar with that it would mean little to choose one language over the other, unless you’re bothered with lips syncing. Though Hindi now sounds familiar, I must admit. What bothers me is that I get accustomed to people’s voices. It seems people in India find certain voices more appealing than others, and could -in a whim- dubbed you over. One of the reasons I can’t stand Ghulam is because it bothers me that Rani’s dubbed voice doesn’t match my idea of Rani.
Tabu has done a bit of non-Hindi films, and though her acting can be epic- Telugu dubbing, man. I know and I like Tabu’s voice, and it freaks me out a little how different the dubbing voice can be. As a general dubbing rule, companies tend to go for voices that are similar to the original audio… or they go for someone with a similar flare. Not generally in Indian cinema.
All this talk is because I found a clip of Vidya Balan from Urumi, for which I complained that they probably dubbed their voices. However, in the clip, it sounds… almost like Vidya. For a very long moment I thought it was her, until I read the comments… now, I’m not sure. LOL
If it’s dubbed, it’s the best dubbed I’ve seen. It’s a Japanese super-dub!
If it’s Vidya’s voice, she apparently speaks perfect Malayalam for the movie.
So this is the reason my Archie post [1] was popular a couple of hours ago. One of my fave Chinese biases is now officially [as per Weibo announcement] dating my teen (and not so teen) crush Archie Kao. I’ve never had such mixed feelings about celebrity couples… I love it and am madly jealous of each of them. LOL
What made it to the list and where it placed? Some of my biggest biases placed lower than expected, and some that I don’t want to be my bias placed high on there~
I was wondering about my rather quick faded interest in Min Hyorin, and just found out she just signed a new contract with JYP [1]. I hope that doesn’t mean less interest in movies and more focus in music, because- Buah~ wasted potential there, because look:
