Like a rat/mouse, I want to be beautiful ♫ too, you guys. I love you so much.
The last couple of weeks (?) [about a month and a half ago?], the Linda Linda Linda movie team has been hyping the twentieth anniversary of the movie, which includes a gorgeous 4K restoration which some lucky people might have gotten the chance to watch on a big screen. The re-release, of course, included a very much luckier event with the cast (ALL THE CAST) and director Nobuhiro Yamashita in Japan, where even Kenichi Matsuyama recreated his love confession to Doona.
The class of Actors to Watch [2][2] from almost 15 years ago aged well.
To celebrate even more, because this is a pan-East-Asia geek event, Marie Claire Korea included a photoshoot with the Linda Linda girls.
Celebrating 100 years of broadcast, NHK has decided to dust off some of its educational mascots for this nostalgic photoshoot for the September edition of Brutus magazine. Featuring Latin America and Peru’s favorite Gonta-kun (of Dekirukana fame) alongside GORORI from Tsukutte Asobo (つくってあそぼ).
Gonta-kun hasn’t aged one bit, I must admit. And Ei Takami’s passing back in May 2023 was felt throughout millennial Peruvian twitter who mourned Noppo-san, a key character in our formative years. RIP, Noppo-san.
Also, you guys- one of the most popular posts on the site is the Okaasan to Issho (おかあさんといっしょ) post I did so long ago, I thought I would update you all that NHK (and Japan in general) has decided to finally enter the digital era, and have set up a bunch of NHK content channel, though I have to be honest, I tried looking up all the content I watched during the special events for the 65th anniversary of Okaasan to Issho and couldn’t find the same clips. I’m pretty sure there was a Poyoyon (ぼよよん) special clip with all the available hosts of the show’s history, and I’m sure I saw a good quality clip of the Power Up song.
Now a general search only gives you a non-official clip of Kinra Kira Pon (きんらきらぽん) on TikTok, which feeds you into this version of the SUPURAPPI (スプラッピ スプラッパ) song for the anniversary. Archive accordingly.
They don’t even need to be crowd shots, even. It would be perfectly fine to use concert art. I remember blogging about the concert art and vcrs done for one of Faye Wong’s concerts of the last 15 years. I can’t remember if they were either done by Hi-Organic or Grass Jelly (it was Grass Jelly!), but imagine being surrounded by clouds and mountains while Faye does her electropop sutras.
Bjork’s Cornucopia felt >small< and constrained in comparison. I always enjoy Bjork’s vocals, however. Technically always there, emotionally present. I will always remember that Hunter moment.
Gomen, gomen. I skipped two months of random blogging this time around. I did, however, write my late 2024 Peruvian box office wrap-up, published in late February. And I did a small write up by the end of March about Malayalam cinema that is yet to be publish in case Jude Anthany Joseph’s 2018 is released locally this week. Just in case.
I have also picked up French once again! Officially since mid-January ;D Thanks to Nelly of Français avec Nelly. Everyday French (and slang, especially online slang) has improved, formal usage (has returned), but writing refuses to go back to levels (^=^!) to when I was a formal student and could actually write. It takes me ages to actually write, so it takes triple the ages to get something out in French.
Anyway- in one of the most recent videos where Nelly answers some subs questions, user tomas_valiunas asks about a website where you could watch French films for free, which is -of course- my expertise. I may not focus on writing about French films and festival films, because there are hundreds of others who do, but I do watch a number of French films and co-productions. And even though the French, and Europeans (and first worlders) in particular, are very finnicky about geo-restrictions and copyright, there are ways.
And the first and most obvious legal answer is TV5 Monde Plus.
I still have cable, so I don’t know how people who don’t have cable are supposed to find out about the TV5 Monde app for download or that they have a streaming website. Of course, there are a number of shows (broadcast on TV5 Monde) available to stream for free on YouTube like Echappées Belles or Des Racines et des Ailes.
They let you browse without an account, but you have to create one to actually watch the shows and films, otherwise you hit ‘play’ and just get the TV5 Monde logo and a ‘sad face’ lol
According to current (Mar 4th 2025) FAQ, opening an account and accessing the programs in the platform is free.
Right now they’re offering a bunch of Brigitte Bardot films like Boulevard du Rhum, Viva Maria!, La Bride Sur Le Cou, L’histoire très bonne et très joyeuse de Colinot Trousse-Chemise and En effeuillant la marguerite. Other classics like Peau d’âne by Jacques Demy, Jean Eustache’s La Maman et la Putain, and Truffaut’s Les Quatre Cents Coups are also available. And that rare Marlene Dietrich French film, Martin Roumagnac is also available.
Some of their co-productions are available, like Papicha by Mounia Meddour and Noces by Stephan Streker. However, considering the vast recent production of French animated films, I was a little underwhelmed from the selection of animation available; though Alain Ughetto’s Interdit aux chiens et aux Italiens, Florence Miailhe’s La Traversée and Une Vie de Chat by Jean-Loup Felicioli and Alain Gagnol are available as well.
But my favorite discovery available is Adrien Beau’s Le Vourdalak [Trailer] which I had been looking forward to watching. Sadly, it’s the only film labeled a fantasy. ^^’
Subtitles seem to vary, most (if not all) content seems subbed in English and French, there are also options for German (?), Arabic, Romanian and Spanish, though these two vary depending on the film you’re watching.
So I thought you should all know, even though no one reads blogs any longer, maybe someone will find this information on the vast nothingness of modern-day internet.
This is likely the last post of 2024, breaking a dry spell of the last few years with a record 20 posts since 2018 when I posted 38 times.
This last post of 2024 is dedicated to Kenji Nakamura’s Mononoke the Movie: Phantom in the Rain (劇場版「モノノ怪 唐傘」), which crowfunded a while ago and has recently fulfilled orders. What an adventurous journey! We got a special credit for YAM Magazine!
It is an honor that we get to put our name in one of the team’s favorite series.
Let’s all look forward to what 2025 may bring!
I hope you all had an incredible 2024, and that you all were able to achieve what you set out to do (or close to achievement, anyway).
I was doing one of those random searches I do (every other year now) in search of an old show from early to mid-90s, which featured Canadian actress Lani Billard, who later starred on 1993’s Ready or Not alongside Laura Bertram. It was called F.R.O.G and it aired on Discovery Kids Latin America. The show, which apparently was produced by Toronto’s OWL TV (maybe PBS in the US?), was a shown now commonly known as “edutainment” -entertainment with an educational take- about a group of children that used to get together to discover or solve a physics/mechanical/nature/science issue of the day.
I clearly remember two episodes of the show— one featured electromagnetics, which were used to power racing toy cars. The other one featured hydronic heating systems, which were built with a water hose installed on the roof of a shed to “warm up” with the sun. Apparently, the show only featured 13 episodes, to the surprise of everyone’s brains who feels like shows used to last forever, but they were all miniseries (eg. The Storyteller, Mr. Bean, old Shogun, etc.).
My old scattered cable magazines must be somewhere around, but that’s basically the only hard copy I have of the show’s existence. I have never been able to find digital proof of the show ever existing, except for this low resolution picture I just found on one of the few videos that talk about old Discovery Kids Latino.
I barely recognized it, mainly because that’s Billard in the pink sweater. I suppose the kid in blueish green could be Gideon Arthurs, while the kid in red could be Ivana Shein.
I also found this Reddit thread saying it’s “Fully lost” and learned (finally?) that F.R.O.G stands for “Friends of Research and Odd Gadgets,” ha! I had no idea.
According to one of the links above, and the info on WorldCat, the show’s distribution is or was done by Bullfrog Films. For educational purposes, Bullfrog Films used to offer a VHS tape per 30min episode at $50 on a dedicated F.R.O.G page that is no longer available. I tried browsing through their catalogue and doing a search to see if I could find more info on the show, but no luck. I even went through all their YouTube archive to no avail, even though they are still releasing material. In theory, you should be able to order these from them.
And the YT algo just popped this on the feed, talking about a number of Warner Bros titles that are apparently being affected.
Somebody on forums (!!! They still exist!) posted a list of probable affected titles, and to my dismay, the Greta Garbo and (both) Joan Crawford collections are affected. I just popped Mata Hari and Possessed on the player and seem to be playing fine.
Another one of the fears with (new) media and products that developed in types of plastic is that they’re decaying faster than people expected. I’ve had older (retired) players that were kept on storage that have a general sticky texture after a while. However, this doesn’t seem to happen to players that are in general exposure, not directly with sunlight, but in a generally airy room that’s in use, unlike a display room. I also happen to live in the mildest of climates, though high in humidity, temperatures never go above 30C (above 90F) or lower than 14C (lower than 55F). So maybe these conditions are affecting the storage of physical media.
I did the vast majority of my library collection before 2007, though. I did buy a number of things in between the mid-2000s to late-2000s, so if disc rot is affecting a general batch produced in between 2007-2009, it is a concern. I’m generally more worried with collections I keep in drawers instead of a regular shelf display.
Greetings, my fellow lurkers, if you are lurking still. Knowing that I haven’t updated anywhere and I’m hardly active on social media, I just wanted to say that I haven’t died and haven’t been swallowed by the Earth. I hope 2020 didn’t wreck you, and that 2021 finds you in a more… calm path.
I took a screencap for posterity! My Xiami account was supposed to last until the end of the year, and then an extra 4 months.
So it is with great sadness, but hardly any surprise, that I report that Xiami will be no more… on February 5th this year, to mark my 35ths birthday, nonetheless. End of an era for my music streaming, end of the era… of my youth, I suppose. With my only consolation prize that a lot of Chinese music is already available on not only iTunes and Spotify, but also on YouTube. I just need to re-find them and subscribe to whatever their channels are. It will be, of course, a lot more difficult to discover brand new Chinese music.
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.
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
