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The Film Library Is Shaping Up~

Buying physical media has been a chore lately, you gotta keep an eye out so you make sure you don’t miss your delivery because, for some reason, people cannot just leave your package any longer.

Plus, distributors are doing physical media less and less. The whole of the Indian Cinema industry has decided to phase out physical media in favor of going all in on OTT and VOD. Even enormous hits like RRR are left with no physical release, even in the West. Even Disney is letting Sony handle its physical media, which seems like the end of an era. Then there’s the whole thing about editing and disappearing media from libraries.

So these are some of the most recent -and not so recent- films that have been added to the physical library. I wish I had more disposable income because there are a bunch of titles (and upgrades) that had been added to the wishlist.

These on top of some Bluray upgrades like Sion Sono’s Love Exposure, Kalatozov’s The Cranes Are Flying, brand new Criterion’s for Los Otros and Laberinto del Fauno. Some random BR UK release for Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?

Also, this post makes it so that this year is the most I’ve blogged since 2020. I’m coming for you 2019. Four posts in Feb’24 is the most continuous blogging since Aug’18.

Posted on February 21, 2024 In Chinese, DVD/BR, English, Films, French, Japanese, Misc., Rants, Screencaps, Sharing animation, brad pitt, cate blanchett, china, christopher nolan, criterion, emily blunt, france, guillermo del toro, hugh jackman, india, japan, joan crawford, latin america, mia wasikowska, movie classics, nicole kidman, online shopping, pricey hobbies, russia, shipping (online ordering), silent films, taiwan, yu aoi

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My 2020 Letterboxd Year in Review + More!

January 16, 2021 — 4 Comments

My only Letterboxd anticipated message came in the other day, but I took a little bit longer to post because the better side of my OCD got to me.

But here it is!

I went on a Stephen Chow binge, and got to watch a bunch of Hrishikesh Mukherjee films for MUBI. Not to be the Debbie Downer of the terrible 2020, but I hope 2021 picks up. This is the first time in my movie-watching history that I only have one single 4-star rating in my Year Films Ranked list. Two titles if you consider Marona’s Fantastic Tale.

This 2021, I have decided to shut off social media and restart blogging once again. It doesn’t matter if it’s into a blackhole of information. I’ve started with this Spanish translation of a review for Zoya Akhtar’s Dil Dhadakne Do, since the film is in rotation at the Indian entertainment channel ZeeMundo. We also have a proper Spanish title for Haider (!).

Oscar 2017-2018 Watched List

January 27, 2018 — Leave a comment

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!

Here’s my Spirit Award one.

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].

Best 100 Films of this Decade so Far

Well~ that was a LONG process. Buth ere it is, after nearly four months of movie-watching and voting… the YAM Magazine team’s favorite movies of this decade so far~ Hope you find one you like, discover one… and that we included some of your favorites!

yammag-best-decade-so-far

Do your thing~

Posted on April 15, 2015 In Sharing 2d classical animation, 3d animation, aftershocks (tangshan dadizheng), alfonso cuaron, amy adams, ang lee, animation, annette bening, ashida mana, ben affleck, best of, brad pitt, canada, charlize theron, charlotte gainsbourg, christopher nolan, contemporary classics, darren aronofsky, david fincher, diablo cody, disney, documentary/making-of, ewan mcgregor, food, france, guillermo del toro, india, jake gyllenhaal, japan, joe odagiri, joseph chang, joseph gordon-levitt, joss whedon, julianne moore, juliette binoche, kore-eda, korea, lars von trier, latin america, lgbt, madhuri dixit, marion cotillard, martin scorsese, mayday (taiwanese band), mia wasikowska, musical/choreography, natalie portman, olivia williams, pixar, rachel mcadams, rankings, rinko kikuchi, roman polanski, russia, ryan gosling, scarlett johansson, silent films, spain, spike jonze, studio ghibli, sweden, tabu (actress), taiwan, tetsuya nakashima, tilda swinton, vidya balan, vishal bhardwaj, yam

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The Show-Off Film Collection List~

Oh, Happy Chinese New Year! Let’s start my (supposedly) bad-luck Goat Year with the now-mandatory Letterboxd list of my film collection~

I have a really weird history with films– born in the late 80s, you’d think I would’ve grown watching loads of 90s kids stuff, but I actually grew up with a lot of Silly Symphonies (which were released in the 30s) and loads of Disney 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s stuff, plus a lot of more grown up 80s movies. Poltergeist, The Thing, The Fly and The Stuff were particularly scary stuff (and I’m pretty sure I was scared of yogurt or white stuff at some point).

I don’t ever remember buying any original VHS tape, except for the rare birthday gift of a Disney’s Sing-Along Songs chapter or that X-Men tape I have. My first DVDs buys were Coyote Ugly, She’s All That and Loser — you can’t blame me. I was a 15-year-old girl. The collection grew bigger, and possibly exploded during my years abroad. I’m nearing my 500th movie.

Posted on February 19, 2015 In Chinese, DVD/BR, English, Films, French, Japanese, Korean, Misc., Russian, Screencaps, Sharing, Spanish, Swedish 2d classical animation, 3d animation, adele, alfonso cuaron, amy adams, amy poehler, amy wong, ang lee, animation, anna kendrick, aoi miyazaki, audrey tautou, ayumi ito, bae doona, baz lurhman, ben affleck, bibi chow (zhou bichang), bjork, brad pitt, brendan fletcher, bruce lee, bryan fuller, canada, carly pope, cate blanchett, celtic woman, charlize theron, chiaki kuriyama, china, christian bale, christina aguilera, christina applegate, christopher nolan, chulpan khamatova, concert, contemporary classics, daniel radcliffe, danny boyle, darren aronofsky, david fincher, dead like me, diablo cody, disney, documentary/making-of, dr. horrible's sing-along blog, eason chan, eita, ellen degeneres, ellen page, emma watson, eric bana, eva green, evan rachel wood, ewan mcgregor, fandom, faye wong, firefly, france, gael garcia bernal, gong li, greta garbo, guillermo del toro, gwyneth paltrow, harry potter, hayao miyazaki, heath ledger, helena bonham carter, his dark materials, hugh jackman, independent, india, jake gyllenhaal, japan, javier bardem, jean pierre jeunet, jena malone, joan crawford, joe odagiri, joseph gordon-levitt, joss whedon, juhi chawla, julianne moore, juliette binoche, jurassic park, kate winslet, kenichi matsuyama, kore-eda, korea, kou shibasaki, kwai lun-mei, lars von trier, latin america, madhuri dixit, maggie cheung, maggie gyllenhaal, marion cotillard, martin scorsese, mary-louise parker, matt damon, mcdull, meryl streep, michael arias, michel gondry, michelle williams, mikako ichikawa, miki nakatani, movie classics, mtv, musical/choreography, naomi watts, natalie portman, neil patrick harris, nicole kidman, nobuhiro yamashita, olivia williams, performance, peru, philip pullman, pink, pixar, quentin tarantino, rachel weisz, rani mukerji, ranveer singh, rie miyazawa, roman polanski, russia, ryan gosling, ryo kase, salyu, sanjay leela bhansali, saoirse ronan, sarah michelle gellar, sarah polley, scarlett johansson, shahrukh khan, shakespeare, shinobu yaguchi, short film, shu qi, shunji iwai, silent films, spain, spike jonze, steve carell, studio ghibli, sweden, tabu (actress), taiwan, tetsuya nakashima, tim burton, toni collette, tony leung, ueno juri, vh1, vidya balan, vishal bhardwaj, wong kar-wai, yu aoi, zhang yimou, zhao wei (vicky zhao)

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Mandatory Oscar Watchlist

Except for the mandatory appreciation for Boyhood (the Patricia Arquette show) and Whiplash, which had me contorting from all the conflictive feelings, I’m feeling rather lukewarm with this year’s award season as you can see from my 2014 Films Ranked compared to my Academy Award Watchlist.

Hot pink is watched, light blue on to-watched queue, highlighted in green haven’t been found yet. My excuse for lack of documentaries and shorts is because of access. I find them extra difficult to get. Also, any respectable award show needs the presence of Haider. LOL And I could do a LOT LESS from Clint Eastwood. I’m not even one of those complaining for lack of women behind/in front of the camera, the nominees are just so damn BLAH! except for the few couple of surprises- some spice with Marion Cotillard (even though I don’t feel strongly about the movie), Ida and Mr. Turner in cinematography… and The Tale of Princess Kaguya.

Posted on January 15, 2015 In DVD/BR, English, Films, Rants, Russian, Screencaps, Sharing, Spanish 2d classical animation, 3d animation, academy awards, animation, awards, christopher nolan, disney, documentary/making-of, japan, julianne moore, marion cotillard, mark ruffalo, meryl streep, nominations, steve carell

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YAM’s Film Choices of 2014

yammag-top-films-2014

Like we always do, the YAM Magazine team got together to vote for their favorite movies in a good ole’ Facebook poll in our secret group. We are so different and live so far away from each other that our choices vary so much, making the list alive. Of course there are movies I wish were lower, and others that were higher… but, all in all, it’s a good varied list for everyone to discover a new title.

So~ do your thing.

Posted on December 30, 2014 In English, Graphics, Japanese, Jobs, Misc., Sharing 3d animation, animation, ben affleck, best of, blog, canada, christopher nolan, david fincher, disney, ellen page, emily blunt, hugh jackman, independent, india, jake gyllenhaal, james mcavoy, japan, julianne moore, lgbt, madhuri dixit, mia wasikowska, miki nakatani, naomi watts, new talent, olivia williams, satoshi tsumabuki, scarlett johansson, shakespeare, tabu (actress), tetsuya nakashima, vishal bhardwaj, yam, yu aoi

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Going Down the Van Movie-going Memories~

August 30, 2013 — 1 Comment

I was finally doing some room cleaning, and ran into this plastic bag that had a whole bunch of the tickets of movies I caught while living/staying in Van. The results? Of course, I spent over two hours trying to make out some of the fade tickets, arranged them and put them in order of attendance.

The first movie that I caught there was Hulk at what used to be Tinseltown Cinemark. The first two columns cover my first year of studies. My maximum number of movies a month was 9 flicks in January 2004 (Cold Mountain, Big Fish, Peter Pan, 21 Grams, Along Came Polly, Monster, Butterfly Effect, The Cooler and Ginger Snaps 2), April 2004 (Hellboy, The Delicate Art of Parking, Kill Bill, Connie and Carla, Home on the Range, The Punisher, Dogville (twice) and Man on Fire), followed by July 2006 (Devil Wears Prada, The Omen,The Lake House, The King, PotC 2, Lady in the Water, Strangers with Candy, and an unidentified movie that’s already faded) with 8 flicks.