Archives For dvd

It’s been about a month or so since the first reports of Nicole Kidman’s AFI Lifetime Achievement Award started trickling. I had already read that she was thanking the audience that had stuck by her doing some of her weird little films, but it was still different watching the video and hearing her say it.

the audiences that have stuck by me through everything — I just want to say thank you because there’s so many little weird films I’ve done and I know there’s people out there that go and find them and watch them. You’ve stood by me and stuck up for my weird, weird choices and I’m so grateful for that.”

I was obviously to young to watch To Die For or Portrait of a Lady in the mid-90s, but it is no wonder I’m thought of as one of those odd ones when I had dragged friends from school to watch things like Birthday Girl or Steven Shainberg’s Fur, which I have rewatched this past weekend. Reese’s speech about Kidman’s passion for cinema just reaffirms my love for Nicole and her body of work throughout these past two decades, in which she has been resurrected by the press more than once with so-called “comebacks.”

Here’s to two more decades of amazing films (and series). *Cheers*

On December, I wrote about a couple of my concert music DVDs rotting away.

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.

Happy sort of belated Christmas, everyone!

I’m bummed! I was expecting to spend a quiet Xmas day with my mother, as we had agreed to catch a viewing of Celtic Woman’s A Christmas Celebration, which I happened to own a DVD of. Everything was going smoothly, we were already finishing Green the Whole Year Round when the DVD stopped playing. After checking again on the same player, through the track selection page, and testing a different player. I determined it was a disc issue.

It’s the dreaded disc rot.

I ended up testing my other two Celtic Woman DVDs. When they both had similar issues, the Celtic Woman 2005 release gets stuck at Orinoco Flow and A New Journey gets stuck at Panis Angelicus, I got worried similar DVD releases (that might be even slightly older than these) stored in the same place might have similar issues. However, it doesn’t seem to be a storage issue, as it’s a Manhattan (Now Capitol Music Group) release issue. I don’t even know if I’m allowed to post this on Amazon to try and find someone that might have similar issues, so I decided to post here just in case someone might be searching for this specific issue.

At the moment, both Celtic Woman and A New Journey seem to still be available on Amazon through sellers (wonder if they have similar disc rot issues), and A Christmas Celebration offers copies of upwards $30 from other sellers not the same ‘url product’ where it was originally purchased. A New Journey remains the only release errrr “easier” to back up in case of physical loss.

The fact that other Arista and Sony releases that are slightly older and stored in the same condition as these show no signs of rot tells me that smaller no-label releases are the most in danger of decay and most in danger of becoming lost media.

If you have a good copy of the 2005 Celtic Woman concert or A Christmas Celebration to share, please, let me know through a comment or drop me a line.

I just didn’t want to spam you, even though I have been spamming y’all with Mamamoo continuous posts x’D

First, Tokyo Ghouls came out, I don’t think it made such a big splash as Rurouni Kenshin did [at the Box Office] and Yu-chan’s role is tiny [the Variety review spoils the role and movie, but does mention Yu hasn’t aged since 2006 xD].

The trailer for Birds Without Names [aka. and shortened to “kanotori”], it comes out on Oct.28., which is a week after the release of Mix., which also released its trailer and Yu-chan is hilarious.

Over the Fence and Japanese Girls Never Die came out on DVD/BR sometime in Mar and June. Subtitles may be scarce xD I’m not aware of HK editions with subtitles. I may be trying to catch Over the Fence without subs for all time’s sake. LOL

Yu-chan has also been on TV lately. She was in the recent special for We’re Millennials Got a Problem SP (ゆとりですがなにか 純米吟醸純情編), which will be coming out on DVD/BR in November (late) alongside What a Wonderful Family 2. I’m still debating whether I should watch the show~ She’s also currently on TBS’ drama Hello, Detective Hedgehog (ハロー張りネズミ) with Eita :)

Continue Reading…

April Blessings~

April 17, 2017 — 2 Comments

It’s no longer Whee-in’s birthday in S.Korea, but it still technically is here— so, Happy Birthday Wheepup! You Spongebob-laughing tripe-and-raw-liver-eating laughing machine you. I still haven’t check out the recent Bday Vapp, but bless you, Mamamoo kids.

April started with blessings of Shiina Ringo releasing her concert DVD/Bluray Hyakkiyagyo 2015 (百鬼夜行2015) [which is the term used for onis, yokais, monsters and spirits whatevers doing a conga line through the night (LOL)]; then Gesu Kiwami are finally releasing their Daruma Ringo (達磨林檎) [which was supposed to released last year], which are set to be released in May. There were also announcements of a new BiBi album and a Mamamoo comeback.

Mamamoo, of course, have been blessing us all year— I’ve sorta lost track of the many song releases, but I’m pretty sure it was like this: LOVE for the Goblin OST, Solar’s collab with Luna and Hani for Honey Bee, Solar’s Emotion Part 4, San E’s collab with Hwasa in I Am Me, Jungkey’s son with Whee-in Anymore, Double Trouble Couple for the Strong Woman Do Bong Soon OST, and now eSNa’s collab with Hwasa Love Comes. Bless and poor, yo!

I’ve also just discovered DADARAY, Residente (otherwise known as the voice of Calle 13) released his new album [1]… and so did La Vida Boheme [1], Mary and the Witch’s Flower (メアリと魔女の花) LOOKS FREAKING AMAZING, I’ve been watching Sister’s Slam Dunk Season 2 and loving every minute of it, and Minzy’s made her official comeback with the release of Minzy Work 01 UNO and NINANO, as a main single.

Last night, of course, started with Minzy’s comeback, but got so much better with the announcement that Shiina Ringo did a CM for a Luxury Mall, but the song they did expanded into a digital single called Menukidori (目抜き通り), which is set to be released on the 20th, which is the day of the mall’s inauguration [1]. And then I found out that Jambinai released a new song called Damdamhi Jeogsigona (담담히 적시고나), which translates to “slightly wet,” which features the voice of folk singer Park Min Hee (박민희) [1].

Then I went to bed, and Mamamoo was in it. I talked (and laughed) a lot with Whee-in [this is the first time I interact, in broken English, with Mamamoo]. It was a party, and Shahrukh Khan was also there hahahahaha, so I got to shake his hand xD and then I went to talk to Hwasa, and she was telling me she was planning to come to Peru to visit Machu Picchu, so I was like- giving her tips. Sting was also there (so random!), and he had hair. HAHAHA.

Bless my Wheesa dream, though. Wheesa’s not my bias OTP, but bless them.

I haven’t caught up with Dr. Rintaro since the first episode, but Yu-chan’s name has been going around on Twitter. Apparently — according to Twitter/Google/Bing translation — Yu is one of the actresses/actors who smoke. You know Japanese magazine rags, though, all text no images xD If anyone is shocked/surprised/following this, please do let me know. Otherwise, disregard. If Yu is, in fact, smoking… for years, hats off. Gurl, how do you keep yourself so young? Genes, I tell you, GENES!

In other news… The Case of Hana & Alice is (finally) coming out on DVD/BR disc in August.

There’s also news that Yu-chan will be voicing a character (I suppose the female robot) in an upcoming Disney Channel Lilo & Stitch SP. Complete with Yu & Stitch photo [picture][link].

lilo-stitch-disney-channel-sp-yu-aoi-002

… and finally~

Continue Reading…

Exciting news! Shokuzai will be released on DVD/Blu Ray and VOD (in the US) on October 31st, which only means affordable and subtitled Yu Aoi (et others). Amazon date says November 18th.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ehdRryYEIQ

You know what to do, use those Amazon links~

I don’t think there’s been any significant update since April [1], but since my internal hard disk got busted after a sudden power outage, I lost my last mindmap. Instead of recreating it, I revamped it with some clean-up names and added some others. The clean-up? I got rid off Aishwarya (at least, until I watch other films of her), Nana Patekar (haven’t seen him in a while), same with Arshad Warsi, Sanjay Dutt. Got rid off Kareena, Sonakshi Sinha, Abhishek Bachchan, Anushka Sharma, Ajay Devgn, Salman, and Preity.

Only filmmaker to go is M.F. Husain, because- well, no more films. Also, there’s more order, because I’m lumping all Karan Johar directed or backed projects on his hub.

indian-film-journey-aug1014

It’s been a year yo! [1]

Objectively speaking, though I love Tabu with all my fandom heart, I gotta admit that Rani Mukerji is the best movie hub to start out. The only thing she’s missing, really, is films with these other directors like Vishal or Vikramadytia Motwane. I doubt Imtiaz Ali would ever cast her in anything- besides, most his movies… though decent, are quite overvalued. Especially RockStar. And she was >THIS< close to getting to The Namesake, that really…

Rani’s got Bhansali, Hassan, Balan, Konkona and Nawazuddin Siddiqui. That’s of course on top of Shahrukh Khan, Aamir (and the other two Khans), Mani Ratnam, Juhi, and family connections aside, Kajol. And look at the times she’s worked with Amitabh Bachchan… and even son. That’s basically the whole contemporary commercial Indian film spectrum.

Tabu, on the other hand, has Vishal Bhardwaj and Gulzar, sure. She would also get Hassan (though not at his best), and Konkona… as well as Mani Ratnam, Amitabh, and Juhi (in her leading lady days) — probably more crossovers like Govinda and Salman. She also has Mira Nair and Ang Lee in her bag (though not strictly Indian-verse), and a whole bunch of regional films… but they’re more Telugu than anything else. Then there’s Nagarjuna. She had that symbiotic film-relationship to Madhur Bhandakar, whose career isn’t very good at the moment, though I thought Heroine improved in the horrible story treatment he had in Fashion.

I haven’t dared to watch Juhi’s earlier filmography because there’s so much early Aamir, and I’m not a fan of him in those days or Indian commercial films in general. Confession: Hum Aapke Hain Koun…! and Hum Saath-Saath Hain are pretty bad. Both the same director, a director Tabu wants to make a new comedy with. Not a comedy with Rajkumar Hirani, or a Motwane-backed project like Queen or Hasse Toh Phasee. She wants the dude that gave you Salman.

I’m becoming one of those fans that question her film choices. xD Having said that, I am still looking for Idee Sangati (or however you romanize it). I know Telugu films aren’t my thing, and not even Manam is changing my position, but I need to watch that movie.

I’ve been binging on Madhuri Dixit clips once again because it’s her birthday! I’ve been watching her clips from Devdas multiple times just tonight- I think this is the first time I decided to search for the clips in the best resolution possible. This is the first time I catch the EROSNOW 1080 clips, so I just noticed how cleaned up the image is- like, this is the first time I’m seeing the Devdas print without the orange tint. LOL

So… if EROS has the cleaned up print in high resolution~~~ why the heck aren’t they’re releasing it on Bluray already? I’ve only seen the film once, but it looks odd without the weird coloring… like they cleaned it up and color corrected it wrong. xD Anyway, I’ve settled for a lot of Hindi DVDs already — the YRF DVDs are particularly decent — but I won’t settle for less from Sanjay Leela Bhansali. Being able to just stream the movie is not enough either!

Because look at her! She owns it, and you sorta wish SRK wasn’t overacting so much in it because he’s ruining my mood in here. And I’ve learned to love SRK, but come on!

With that song~ Maar Dala~

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AX1ro0AJk_I

How can I not add the pretty of that to my collection? PLEASE!

Don’t make me do questionable things for high resolution video!

You know how we love to put stars on pedestals? Often reserved and measured in interviews — except for the fact that Ang Lee told her she laughs like a school girl [1] — it was totally worth the buy of the Meenaxi DVD for the Making Of. Now we have these~

tabu-meenaxi-making-of-funny-001
My reaction when I saw that?

Continue Reading…