Archives For fandom

I didn’t know Doona spoke English this great, but I’m more delighted to see how expressive she is when she talks. xD

No wonder she placed on #2 on my list three years ago, and I lvoe her even more so than I did then. If I were making that list again, she would be my #1.

I just began listening (truly listen) to Mayday’s discography pre the Born to Love days, finishing off titles/pinyin/title translations, when I ran into this song titled Masquerade (Male, Female, One Body) from their 2003 album, Time Machine (時光機). The thing is, the title of the song is Ci Xiong Tong Ti (雌雄同體), which is the term used to refer to “hermaphrodites” (which, by the way, isn’t longer a term accepted for people, who are now referred to as “intersex”). Perplexed, thinking that Google Translate was giving me a wonky translation, I checked the dictionary to double check.

On a quick google search, I found a pretty terrific (singable) translation of the song.

Rather than you understand me—I’d rather be a mystery
A puzzle you just cannot solve, of what’s false and real, it’ll play at your heartstrings
I’ll play you, or play your opposite form; partake in this game of love that you’ve borne.

via NoStarWords @ LJ + starriheavens

My mind was melted. I mean, it’s not VERY often you get playful duality in music, playing on gender-role conventions and completely avoiding the titillation that seethes from… well, everywhere now.

Continue Reading…

I remember when I was in fifth grade I saw my grandfather die. There he was, lying motionless on the bed. I was close to my grandfather. He taught me how to write. I remember thinking, “If this is the end of life, that means we don’t have to take everything too seriously.” Children who grow up without seeing death don’t have that realization.

Zhou Xun Looks Beyond Borders

Zhou Xun on Life, Death, and its Impact on Children

Some outstanding animated fanart from Derek Henriques and Victor Hugo from Brazil and their love for Street Fighter.

https://youtu.be/BEz0mYMPbjU

Derek Henriques
Direction, Screenplay, Animation, Project Management, Smoke and Fire FX and Editing

Lá no Estúdio
Music, Sound Design, Foley and Mixing

Lou Schmidt
Music, Mixing, Hugo’s Voice

Felipe Alves
Source Material Consulting

Victor Hugo Queiroz
Producer, Co-direction, Screenplay, Art Direction, Character Design, Modeling, Rigging, Texturing, Lookdev, Grooming, Lighting, Rendering, FX, Post-production and Compositing)

YouTube recommendations worked for once! I ran into this pretty complete compilation of Brown Eyed Girls throughout the years, since their beginnings in 2006. As you may know or not, I discovered BEG from Abracadabra [1] and didn’t appreciate their first two albums completely — I liked them, but just liked them — until my trip to Taiwan when I spent most of my highway time listening to them.

However, I haven’t actually bothered to look for Brown Eyed Girls performances throughout the years, so I was astonished to actually SEE how much they’ve changed physically. I knew that JeA, Miryo… and specially Narsha had talked about the things they got done, as they often point out the struggle GaIn had to go through for not accepting to undergo whatever their label wanted her to go through. I had seen the photos and some of the old music videos, but to actually see them perform and SEE — it’s shocking.

I also respect their honesty on the subject.

I’m also SHOCKED at the part where Miryo kinda reminded me of Bibi, with the hair and the geeky getup, included geeky glasses and all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8mmM6JJ4LE

I’ve been on a Chulpan Khamatova movie hunt for the past week or two. xD

chulpan-khamatova-002

I had been trying to watch her filmography since… Goodbye Lenin! in 2004, but I never got to it. I, then, chose to watch Luna Papa. I realized I couldn’t call myself a fan if I hadn’t watch more of her movies, so I went finally hunting. I’ve already seen The Land of the Deaf, 72 Meters, Doctor Zhivago, The Sword Bearer, and Domovoy.

I also got The Dancer’s Time (but it’s got no subtitles), Tuvalu is on its way, and I’ve got Paper Soldier ready to go.

I hope that in a few months I have enough information to write a YAM Loves post about her :) Coz her face is perfection personified and from the little information I was able to find, she’s also a fascinating person.

I don’t really hunt down anything Twilight and I’ve been a lousy Buffy fan since my re-watch in 2006, but Joss has just posted this video of Buffy vs. Edward in which they overlap the different ideas presented by both materials to hilarious contrast that comes in an assortment of subtitles that include Portuguese (Brazilian or Portuguese), English captioning, Chinese Simplified, Arabic, Russian, Japanese, French, Spanish, etc — all brought to you by fans.

My re-imagined story was specifically constructed as a response to Edward, and what his behavior represents in our larger social context for both men and women. More than just a showdown between The Slayer and the Sparkly Vampire, it’s also a humorous visualization of the metaphorical battle between two opposing visions of gender roles in the 21ist century.

Read the whole thing here.

Also the author’s YouTube/Lionsgate copyright battle.

I was browsing some photoshoots and doing some research, when I ran into this photoshoot for Madame Figaro China featuring Zhao Wei on the December issue of last year. Photographer unknown by me. However, when I saw Zhao Wei, I got a striking shivering reminder of Joan Crawford.

It’s the EYEBROWS.

And possibly the stern expression. Also, Zhao Wei has really big popping eyes (you can’t tell on the photoshoot), but it’s quite impressive on movies.

madame-figaro-china-zhao-wei-dec2012-004

I’ve finally fallen for Kwai Lun-Mei’s charms.

kwai-lunmei-flying-swords-dragon-gate-promo-001

I first saw her in the not-so-bad, Taipei Exchanges, but it wasn’t until promotion for Flying Swords of Dragon Gate had started that I had begun sorta having a lady-boner for her because she gave me such rocking vibes a-la-Tilda-Swinton. Then, of course, I saw the movie and it seemed like a done deal. She was fun, rough, rocking and quite the show-stealer with the way she talked, her dreadlocks… that look in her eyes.

She was an insolent fothermucker. I loved it.

Then during my trip to Taiwan, I kept seeing her on some cellphone commercial being all giggly sending funny SMS and using cute emoticons. But nothing much came of this half-lady-boner until watching Gf*Bf. After that, I was done for. Maybe it’s because the movie is actually damn good, but her performance in there actually sealed the deal for me.

I think… I might have become a fan for life.

sunny-hill

As the years have gone by, especially the last two years considering my interest in music from Asia, I had noticed the age of my fandoms have been considerably dropping. However, it wasn’t until tonight — the world hasn’t ended, yo! But my world is crumbling! — that I keep realizing I don’t look my age and probably don’t act my age. I feel like a 40-year-old person when I talk, and I tend to get along with older people better than my own age group, but I look like I just got out of high school. LOL

I’m not really bothered by it, I vast in it. I’m just rather shocked at how this changes my perception of other people’s age.

From all the members on SunnyHill, only Janghyun is barely older than me. I’m super shocked Jubi (and Misung, if I may add) is a few months younger than me and that Kota is my cousin’s age; especially considering her look on Midnight Circus [1]. Also, Seung Ah. — Can you tell I’m just practicing their names so that I can finally learn them??? LOL

I honestly thought that Jubi (and all of them really) were well into their early 30s.

Then again, I also thought JeA was in her mid-30s and that Ga-In was the same age as her, Miryo and Narsha. Then I realized I have near 40-year-old friends and became just rather astonished and super depressed. LOL