Tag: fandom

  • The Event, Sobytie

    This is one of the last movies I saw with Chulpan Khamatova in — titled The Event or Sobytie (Событие), it’s supposed to be a stage play or something by Vladmir Nabokov, but somehow it’s dramatically shot by Andrey Eshpay, who has directed Khamatova in Deti Arbata (Дети Арбата, aka. Children of the Arbat… or The Children of Arbat Street) as well as Mnogotochie (Многоточие, Ellipsis).

    I haven’t been able to watch all of Deti Arbata because it’s got no subtitles AT ALL, but the first episode seemed kinda good. Mnogotochie is supposed to be good, but it’s also sans-subtitles and I fell asleep. Also, Khamatova doesn’t play such a big role in that film, so maybe my bias made it possible for me to sit through Sobytie and enjoy it A LOT with or without subtitles.

    It’s a really quite gorgeous piece of cinematic theatricality.

    On the split YouTube uploads, it’s not as evident… but you could try to see for yourself. It’s dramatic as Russian theater can only seem to be, and Khamatova sports some very drastic style that actually… suits her really great!

    I have a thing for Khamatova’s hair style changes for roles. It’s crazy, she’s nuts. I’ve never seen anyone sport the hair she’s sport in the history of the worldwide arts EVER. She really REALLY must love her characters. xD

    If any Russian-knowing kind person stumbles upon this post, would anyone care to help me work out subtitles for it? You guys, where do you hang out for subtitles? So many films left without subtitles!

  • Some Things Happen: Kuch Kuch Hota Hai

    Russian be gone! xD I’ve spent the last week watching Bollywood films!

    First official Indian films with musicals, excluding A Wednesday (which didn’t have musical numbers, but does star Anupam Kher), Slumdog Millionair (which isn’t officially Indian), and some random Punjab film that I caught once when I was living in Vancouver and randomly watched the Punjabi channel. LOL

    First thoughts? I’m loving it. It cost me a bit to get accustomed to the 3hr running time of most films, but I think I don’t care… that much any longer. Fluff musical numbers are still fluffs, and that’s what irks me the most… but at least they’re good for exercising.

    It’s been my first week and I’ve already seen a couple of few Shahrukh Khan films, and I’ve already learned Kajol and Rani Mukerji’s names. Already reviewed Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, and this is my second time watching Kuch Kuch Hota Hai. I think I took to the song because it’s one of the few that I can actually pronounce. LOL

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-j5pzoN670

    I love the complicated melodrama they get into. I can totally get why people in Peru are into Bollywood films and numbers.

  • JeA, How’s Junior High?

    I look young. My older cousins, who are just a bit older than JeA is, still see me and still tap me on the head. I still get carded. When traveling or meeting new people in general they always ask me about school… and I don’t mean it like asking about university. They ask me about high school or wonder what I’m choosing to study at university.

    I graduated from high school ten years ago (gosh!).

    I usually look at people on movies or tv shows, watch their music videos, [1] and I think people… look like contemporaries of mine. When I google them, however, I’m surprised some of them are five or ten years younger than me. It’s crazy. So because I tend to look at myself and think of my age, my expectation of how young people look is skewed.

    Strangely enough, JeA still surprises me.

    Starting out, I thought she was older than she is. Mid-thirties instead of early. As the years go by, she seems to be getting younger and younger, though. In this promo photo for the Brown Eyed Girls comeback (YAY! Comeback!), JeA looks like she’s 16. It’s nuts. 14 if you consider the giant teddy ages her down. And the pout makes her maybe a year younger than that.

    It’s crazy that with my skewed view on how ‘old’ people should look, JeA manages to look half my age. And what’s funny~ if we ever meet in person, she’ll probably be able to boss me around. Coz that’s her presence. xD

    brown-eyed-girls-jea-black-box-beg-teddy

    Also, I’m psyched about the new album. I’m lukewarm on the Recipe single, though.

  • Khamatova Has Two Speaking Voices

    A lot of people describe Chulpan Khamatova having a deep raspy voice, and I usually disagreed with them because I find her acting voice quite high-pitched… except on The Event, which no one has watched, and I think that’s a play. So maybe… she used her voice differently when she acts on stage and when she’s on set?

    She definitely has two voices, as you can see from this video. Khamatova had recently received some award from the Russian government for her work as an actress, alongside another actor and a whole bunch of other people. Sorry I’m not helpful looking for links or exact words, but I want to be quick about it.

    You know who else has different speaking voices depending on whether she’s giving a sponsor interview, making a commercial, regular talking in a serious talk show or just talking about acting? Yu Aoi.

  • The Sword of Omens is Real Yo!

    I still haven’t been able to locate a photo of me as a child in my family’s house garden waving the yellow and lime green plastic Sword of Omens I had as a child. However, these guys are designing weapons or designing pretty awesome real props, and have made my dorky childhood dreams come true.

    Its amazingness is beyond words.

    And YES. Even though Thundercats aired in the mid-80s, I saw them in the early 90s in their dub version, and it was still pretty goddamn awesome.

  • Yu Aoi Films Ranked *Fancy Edition*

    A long long LONG time ago (actually, about three years ago), I made a rough list of Yu Aoi films I had watched and ranked them on MUBI (then TheAuteurs). Since I’m way too lazy to bother adding films to their database, unless I really REALLY wanted the films to be on their database, I’m just gonna work on the ranking here, like I started with my Russian fandom love Chulpan Khamatova.

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  • Khamatova’s Films Ranked

    Well, I think it’s time, no? This has been my Chulpan Khamatova’s journey so far. Surprisingly, most of the films that remain hard to find (and hence are not subtitled in other language) have been my least favorite. It could be a case of lost in not-translation, but I’m confident in my non-subtitled watch experience to trust my instinct.

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  • To Crazy People and the Losers Who Love Them

    When Hannibal started airing, I gave the show a watch (the first two episodes seemed like a lot) but since it seemed to stressed me a lot, I decided to stop watching and not be waiting for the latest episode, like I used to do for some of my now-not-so-current television watching. And though I had decided to not watch the show, I found myself catching the episodes on the weekend showings on AXN Latin America.

    Two episodes a sitting- it doesn’t even matter if you skip a week, since you can catch up the next week! And it’s perfectly timed with my dinner on Sundays, so I don’t get eerily hungry whenever they show Hannibal cooking.

    hannibal-feel-unstable

    During the commercial for tonight’s episode, Dr. Alana Bloom talks to Will about her decision to not pursue him as a love interest… because he’s unstable. And obviously, as a Wonderfalls fan [1], I immediately though of Jaye as a crazy person. It’s like a perfect conversation!

    wonderfalls-clinically-insane

  • This is Still my Fandom

    DSC_0099

    I know that except from my 5th Year Anniversary Wiki Update [1], things have been usually pretty quiet on the Yu front. It usually is pretty slow during these months, as Yu’s activities tend to pick up by August all the way into December, January and February.

    Though my fandomess (that’s not even a word) has diminished, Yu still has a special place in my fangirly heart. I would totally be giddy with a new movie, and specially with starring on a new jdrama (as a lead, not guest). I’m not as an ardent fan of Yu’s passion for shaved ice, so those books are missing from my collection, as well as her first few photobooks. But as you can see, I’ve kept on supporting her any way I could.

    I’m still waiting to catch Vampire. The Shunji Iwai Festival team on Weibo told me it would be “soon” when I get to catch it on a proper online channel, so I’m crossing my fingers.

    I do miss that doki doki feeling I used to get when this fandom started. Maybe I’ll re-watch Osen to recapture that feeling. LOL

  • Yu Aoi Updated Wiki Entry #2

    It’s a five-year fandom anniversary!

    and I’ve just gotten EXTRA lazy now. These are the links to Yu’s previous Wiki entries [1][2].

    I know that over the years (especially the last two), I have been lazying around not stalking enough news and being always late. Though some fans have disappeared from the internet, I still appreciate some of you lurkers.

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