We haven’t seen Yu Aoi fanart in quite some time, and I ended up seeing this doing the rounds on Twitter~
You know these eyes, you know those freckles~
It’s lovely captured by laistakanashi on Instagram.
Tag: fandom
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Girly Zhou Xun, Kwai Lun Mei + Tang Wei for Rene Liu’s Wish You Well
My limit for sap is through the roof, as I got all warm and fuzzy when I found this song Rene Liu recorded with mah gurls Zhou Xun, Kwai Lun Mei and Tang Wei (whom I’ve just recently warmed up). They’re all super cute and super dork and super sappy together. I love it.
The song is called Wish You Well (我要你好好的), a single of Rene’s latest album of the same name, but it’s one of the last songs to get a video. The song Murmur of the Hearts (念念) [MV] is also on this album. I thought maybe it was for a movie, but doesn’t seem likely.
Happy listening~ DORK AWAY!
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Yu Aoi for Daigo Matsui’s Azumi Haruko wa Yukuefumei
7 years — SEVEN FREAKING YEARS! — after starring on Yuki Tanada’s One Million Yen Girl, Yu Aoi is finally going to star in a new movie as a lead. The lucky production? An live-action adaptation of Yamauchi Mariko’s (山内 マリコ) book AZUMI HARUKO wa Yukuefumei (アズミ・ハルコは行方不明), which translates to Azumi Haruko Is Missing, which will be directed (and most likely adapted) by Daigo Matsui (松居大悟).
My Japanese is going to the gutter. lol
BUT! The internet (meaning me) is all excited about it! Actually, I see a lot of tweets on it, but I’m too lazy to read or google-translate them, so I will just pretend we’re all excited about this.
YesAsia has an “English title,” and lists it as Lonely Girl Has Gone.
I don’t know what the book is about, if you do- tell me. Other essential info? Apparently it started shooting in mid-September, and it’s set for a 2016 release.
Sources: Natalie, Yahoo JP. Big version of this photo on Eiga.
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Yu Aoi & Odagiri Joe for Nobuhiro Yamashita’s Over Fence
Tell me the truth- did you miss this enthusiastic me? All these up to date project announcements take me back years into fandom when we all used to talk about all things Yu! Anyway, the latest in one of the few project announcements in Yu Aoi’s repertoire [1][2] is that she’s set for Nobuhiro Yamashita’s latest film titled Over Fence (オーバー・フェンス), which is an adaptation of a story in the anthology Kogane no Fuku (黄金の服) by Sato Yasushi.
The film also stars Odagiri Joe and Shota Matsuda.
Over Fence completes a trilogy based on Sato’s stories, beginning with Sketches of Kaitan City (海炭市叙景) and The Light Shines Only There (そこのみにて光輝く).
Sources: Eiga.com, Film Business Asia
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Yu Aoi for Eriko Ogawa’s Spokane’s Left Hand
You never really know with katakana spelling… is it Spokane’s Left Hand (スポケーンの左手)? If I hadn’t googled スポケーン, I would’ve totally thought it’s “spoken,” but apparently this brand new play is based on the 2004 Academy Award-winning Irish comedy short by Martin McDonagh, which starred Brendan Gleeson — Gleeson’s son, Domhnall Gleeson… now, sorta famous in his own right, also shows up. Watch it here.
The play also stars Nakajima Shu (中嶋しゅう) — in, I suppose, the Brendan Gleeson role, Song Ha (成河) – as Rúaidhrí Conroy, and Okamoto Kenichi (岡本健一) – as the man on the train.
Spokane’s Left Hand will be running from November 14 to Novemeber 29th at the Theatre Tram in Tokyo. Tickets are available at Ticket Pia at Y7,800.
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Doona Bae for Prestige Hong Kong
Here’s a great interview with Doona Bae where she talks about her beginnings as an actress, what her most cherished film project is, what was it like to do Cloud Atlas without knowing how to speak English, her close relation to Lana and how she “gets” her acting, and how she wants to do a Stephen Chow movie.
Oh, and why she doesn’t like to use makeup when acting.
Here’s the link to the Prestige Interview.
I’m a little sad that her presentation at the Shanghai Film Festival got cancelled because of MERS, but I totally understand the measure. Also- Yay! Sense8 got renewed, so I’m getting myself more Doona. We all love Doona Bae.
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More Yu Aoi Bday Shortakes~
I finally sat through Dr. Rintaro and my Yu Aoi fandom has reignited once again! PB-buying and all [1][2]. Oh, yeah~ I had it bad this week. Yu’s personal life has also -all of a sudden- become public domain (or it’s easier to run into it through social media), so it’s been out there for public consumption and mass-devouring. My street kanji-reading is poor, but Google Translate has been calling her names. Demon-woman, what is this? The Dark Ages?
Also- Miyazaki Aoi’s in a new relationship… it seems. *cough*
Anyway- Monday was Yu’s 30th Birthday, and she celebrated with a group of people I had no idea were her circle of friends- these are taken from Peter‘s blog, and also feature cross-dressing personality Mitz Mangrove and… I suppose, gravure idol Ruriko Kojima (her kanji name is all funky 小嶋瑠璃子).
And… I found this random ranking where they ask to rank young actresses based on their talent, and for the first time that I’m able to recall, Yu comes on top of Miyazaki Aoi. LOL So, more power to Yu! Though, Masami Nagasawa comes at #3, followed in #5 by Aya Ueto, Satomi Ishihara at #6, Ayase Haruka at #7, Horikita Maki at #9 and Mao Inoue at #10.
Toda Erika ranks at #4, and I don’t know who Yui Aragaki at #8 is. LOL And there’s no Hikari Mitsushima nor Sakura Ando, so this list is of idols. xD
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Yu Aoi’s Yu-chan Bday Shortakes~
Yu’s officially three-decades-old… but still is as cute as ever, even though she’s trying to be all grown-up and stuff. Just sit her in front of a nice matcha shaved-ice with red beans (or a velvety choco-purin), and you’ll get her all giddy.
That’s exactly what happened when promoting Dr. Rintaro on the Japanese variety Pon! with co-star on-screen mom Atsuko Takahata, who -I must say- is hilarious, too. These are obviously via the Yu Aoi Chinese fans. Watch the video. It’s 10min. long and it takes a while to load (for me).
She also did the Lilo & Stitch voice-over event [1], and apparently got back together with someone from her Oha-girl days, so they did an Oha greeting! lol
Oh, man. I remember how much I used to love Yu-chan. xD I think I’m going to watch Climbing to Spring without subs, and hope to watch The Case of Hana & Alice now that it’s out on DVD.
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Liza’s Petrushka’s Syndrome
Okay, I’m slightly impressed.
While posting the trailer of The Puppet Syndrome, I found it a little bit difficult to distinguish between gorwn-up Liza (Khamatova) and the actress that was playing her younger self. Khamatova’s face is peculiar — to me, it’s like trying to cast a young version of Bjork — but Young Liza, played by Alina Gvasaliya (born 1992) comes close.
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Yu Aoi’s The First and Last Time of Love Talk for MEKURU
For the latest volume of MEKURU Magazine [Facebook][Official Website], they are holding a special on Yu Aoi who will be turning 30! I’m not sure what’s gonna be in there (Japanese being rusty and all), but there’s gonna be an interview and (maybe?) photos by Kawashima Kotori (川島小鳥) [Portfolio], who apparently is an Ihei Kimura (木村伊兵) awarded photographer for his book Star (明星) [Amazon JP].
It’s titled Aoi Yu, Saisho de Saigo ni Ren’ai o Kataru (蒼井優、最初で最後に恋愛を語る) — you’ll have to forgive my des and nis translations.
They’re totally selling it like a direct sequel to Travel Sand. xD
There will also be a poem by Shuntaro Kanikawa (谷川俊太郎) titled Aoi Yu (あおいゆう). Among other stuff I can’t make out, it’ll include 128 pages and will be listed at Y907 Yen. It’s available on Amazon JP and HMV JP.
