I stumbled across a vinyl version of Meenaxi – A Tale of Three Cities, and I’m almost disappointed it’s just a generic pressing of one of A.R. Rahman’s most underrated soundtracks and, of course, one of Tabu’s most underrated gems.
For a while now, I’ve been lamenting the death of physical media in India. The movie collection is really really suffering from it.
The world is also suffering from lack of high definition promo materials and HD transfers for M.F. Hussain’s Meenaxi. The world deserves multiple color vinyl editions to play on the Yeh Rishta [MV]/Rang Hai [MV] color palette themes of the movie. Blue, yellow, orange, purple, besides the red one.
Isabella Leong has been on and off since she made her official film comeback back in 2015 with Murmur of the Hearts, which is an amazing film. Se also had small roles or almost cameos on 12 Golden Ducks that same year, and got back together with Pang Ho-Cheung for a small role in Missbehavior in 2019.
From her recent interview on A Date with Luyu (鲁豫有约), you can tell that she enjoyed or had fond memories of her debut film Isabella, which Pang directed almost 20 years ago— which also amazes Leong when she realizes how fast/much time has passed. I was also amazed at how she remembered the tracking of the shot, all the more amusing when both clips were put together for contrast.
In 2020, she appeared on Ann Hui’s Love After Love, which was available to watch on MUBI in some territories, and might be available on places like Netflix or Prime, depending on your territory. Now, she’s part of the most recent Dante Lam HK film starring William Chan and Nick Cheung, titled Bursting Point (爆裂點) [Trailer], which I’ve mostly heard positive things about.
Since her teenaged (!!!) sons already give her enough time to move about life, she’s been a lot more active at events and, if you follow her on Instagram, photoshoots. Which finally gets me the reason I was writing this post- she’s the first cover of 2024 for the Condé Nast Traveler China edition, which is a luxury travel magazine based in New York.
I checked their website to see who was the photographer of the shoot, but it looks like they haven’t updated that since their May 2023 issue was published (relatable). Editorial director Shawn Ong only mentions their collaboration with Eastern & Oriental Express Southeast Asia in prep for the launch of their luxury train in two different seasonal routes. The train interiors look (and photograph) amazing. They’re elegant, colorful and textured without looking overwhelming [1][2][3].
However, this is not a travel blog. I took these bad screencaps of some of my favorite shots.
Oh, wow. Look at this ridiculously good-looking photo of Dita Von Teese. What a face. What a shot. Bless Beau Nelson for this shot.
credits to Dita Von Teese’s FB, who -by the way- won’t let me access her Linktree because it says it goes against community standards. Facebook has become insane. It was bad before, now it’s worse. It’s almost nearly unusable now.
I just finished watching Wukong, and was dazzled by Ni Ni and had many feels. You know I’m a sucker for these supernatural doomed romances. So I was catching up on news and stumbled upon the fact that Ni Ni and Chen Kun are gonna be on a historical drama together. Seems like there’s tons of Chinese actors heading back to TV for dramas, but have you seen the gorgeous – and I mean GORGEOUS – stills for The Rise of Phoenixes (凰权·弈天下)?
It’s so f*cking good-looking, yo! I may have tears in my eyes.
All the info on the show, plus more stills, available on CFensi. A short explanation is available on Aiya xD
It’s like bright highlighter marker color xD I love it. There’s been a couple of other Chinese posters [the series for Song of the Phoenix (百鸟朝凤), and Big Fish & Begonia (大鱼海棠)].
So I was browsing album covers on Xiami when I ran into the one for Ivana Wong’s latest single, Goi Sei Dik Faai Lok (該死的快樂, translated to Damn Happy)… which turns out has a brand new video. And I was like- where have you been all my life when I started going down her discography~
Jyu Jat (如一, As One) is great. Siu Sau Seot (小手術, Minor Surgery) is amazing with the Lyrics Video. It’s also helping me practice my Cantonese xD My jyutping game is totally poor. I also hate that sometimes I’m fixing my music library and it’s not Cantonese but Mandarin, so I gotta fix my romanization. But I’m totally digging her music. More her less popular songs that are not straight up sappy ballads. Her piano skills seem to be on point.
I haven’t been stanning BiBi like I used to (I did listen to her new song, and I do know she’s on the latest Cold War 2 movie), but look at that face and flawless make-up! I don’t even know what the image is for. I was only able to find this black and white version on BiBi’s Weibo, so I’ll just call it a snapshot~
There’s a really really REALLY good looking photoshoot of Tabu for this upcoming month’s issue of Femina’s Wedding Times that was shot by Jatin Kampani [Instagram][Facebook]. Clothing credits are going to Sandeep Khosla and AJSK (which I’m also supposing is clothing, though I couldn’t find anything on it). I really really love this shot. Would love actual scans of it.
You probably know I’m excited for Abhishek Kapoor’s Fitoor, of course, mainly because of Tabu xD but also because of the whole tortured emo broken-heart soul of the story. Plus, it’s Amit Trivedi’s music. I was (and usually always am) less excited about the leads… even less with Katrina “I can’ts but I tries” Kaif. Like- I don’t even know why I sat down to watch Phantom, because that’s hilarious.
But I’m always surprise to hear people saying that Katrina sucks at dancing… because I’ve never seen that. I think the first time I saw her was in YRF’s Jab Tak Hai Jaan, and — okay, I was mostly in love with Saans [clip] because that’s a damn good sexy song. LOL — but I don’t remember her sucking in the Ishq Shava [clip] number at all. In fact, I remember I actually said she wasn’t a bad dancer.
And I know everyone EVERYONE loves to hate and hates to love Sheila Ki Jawani [clip], but it appears on so many movies I’ve come to accept its catchy qualities despite movie and content. And even then when it appears people say she’s not a good dancer, she dances alright.My Kaif knowledge ain’t extensive, but even in Dhoom 3 [Kamli][Dhoom Machale Dhoom], she does totally fine. I can’t picture her at all doing Indian dance, but she totally nails modern and contemporary.
They looked pretty good doing this. Who choreographed it?
