I really REALLY REALLY am loving Chochukmo, and not because I interviewed them. I actually accepted to interview them because I really liked their first album, which you can listen to on Xiami or Bandcamp ;O
Don’t forget to check out my interview with Mike Orange from the band.
I don’t know what is it about Hayato Ichihara (or Christopher Gorham) that I find so irresistible. Must be the kind of boyish charm, huh? I suddenly ran into Hayato Ichihara on NHK (so lucky I changed the channel!) where he talked about his new NHK project, A Tree in the Sun (陽だまりの樹) — adaptation of an Osamu Tezuka manga, and the interviewers asked him about All About Lily Chou Chou, for its recent 10th anniversary.
I don’t remember seeing him in the anniversary pictures [1], but I’m so glad they asked him about it because Yu-chan got a mention by name as well as a very long clip. Natsukashii na~~~
Anyway, I didn’t get much about the interview (of course!), except that he likes tako nigiri sushi (octopus). LOL — Also, Hiroki Narimiya stars in the new show, and he’s another one of my weaknesses~ I find Narimiya attractive when I see him acting on screen (crazy and all), though, not on photos.
I was watching CCTV a couple of few days ago, when I saw the most awesome performance of the song Legend (传奇), which is sung by Faye Wong (I’m pretty sure she’s the original singer) in a beautiful way as well [1][2].
But this performance by Henan Opera singer Xiao Xiangyu (小香玉) literally brought tears to my eyes. I wasn’t able to get her name the first time I watched the show, but they repeated it last night and I wrote it down.
I managed to find a video with English subtitles. [CCTV looks better but it goes wrong after minute 15 or something – stuck on the freeze frame even when the audio continues]
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There’s even a bit of a funny part when they mention Jay Chou’s singing style. LOL They talk about the importance of Mulan in their national history, and discuss how Disney’s Mulan fell in love and there was a happy ending.
If you really want to skip all the show [Legend is about 20min. into the show], you can watch Xiao Xiangyu’s performance of Legend, but it doesn’t have subs and the quality is not the best.
I haven’t watched CNN… for at least a month, since I’ve been focusing my news-watching on local news for politics, so I didn’t know A-Mei was going to be on Talk Asia… or I would have been flipping before.
I totally despise Anjali Rao, though.
Her face, her voice, the way she speaks irks me so much, it makes me want to punch her sometimes. Sorry, I had to get that off my chest. LOL It’s one of those things when the aura of people rub you the wrong way.
Anyway!
A-Mei on Talk Asia~~~
The 40min. segment from FujiTV’s Tunnels Thanks to Everybody that aired the day before the opening of Raiou… is actually pretty fun. Plus, Yu Aoi talking about food.
A popular segment in which Tunnels and guests take turns trying to guess the food the opponent hates the most.
We need translation for this one xD
Loads of interesting facts, it seems… like Yu owning a shaved-ice machine.
And Yu tearing up when laughing. Does anyone get that when they laugh?
Can we agree that Hanna looks like she could be on our list of Top5 Little Girls on Film?
You can head over here to read the interview.
By the way, first time doing an interview via email. Interesting experience.
I told you there were a few posts…
Anyway, did any of you watched Ryomaden last season? I did try to watch it at the beginning but wasn’t that into it, so it was really troublesome to gather the energy to find a subtitled version of it. Plus, there weren’t any small files, and I didn’t feel like download HD versions.
So I watched on TV with no subs.
Until the very last episode that Yu was on… and then till the very last of the year.
I remember that when I saw the preview of episode 44 with Yu’s character Omoto saying goodbye, I thought to myself — well, what bad number of episode to leave the show xD and it ended up being her 13th guest appearance — pretty sure about that.
Anyway, for those who didn’t watch the show — Yu played Omoto, a geisha who’s a closeted Christian (oh, the irony!). She plays the shamisen, does some traditional dancing and performing, and has some non-explored sexual tension with Ryoma. She was good in it, but I understand that Taiga dramas are a long-term commitment.
Here’s the capture of the interview with photos for those of you who won’t touch a Taiga with a stick xD
Ahhh, there’s no better way to feel old than having kids say or do things to make you feel old. Yesterday, in fact, I was hanging out with my cousin and a kid asked him whether in “his days” there was Wii.
LOL
This clip also reminds me of The Past Decade According to Kids.
Sorry, no subs… but pretty self-explanatory.
So… you don’t live in Tokyo? Or you live in Tokyo but don’t have the time or money to spend a couple of hours in the theater? Well, tough luck!
Yu-chan’s at the theater in her brand new play with Satoshi Tsumabuki, as previously reported.
Tsumabuki portrays a seismologist named Minami who is station at the foot of the fictional Mt. Buji, a volcano that is getting ready to erupt. Aoi portrays Amane, a woman found wandering the slopes of Mt. Buji. The only thing is she may not be Amane at all. Aoi’s character keeps changing the story of who she is, where she comes from and even what her real name is.
via J-Film Pow-Wow (Chris MaGee’s awesome, non?)
Check J-Film Pow-Wow for more information and a photo where Yu’s on the side looking different. Then there’s a video of Yu-chan commenting on the play, and inviting all of us (who can’t go) to see the play.
But it’s not embeddable, so head over here for the video.
But really, even if I were in Tokyo… and I had the time and money to go watch Yu on stage, it’d be for nothing! Because I’m not fluent in Japanese. It’d be like a wasted seat on someone who would just stare O_O and that’d be creepy.
So… is anyone going? And does anyone want to share their thoughts on it?
I think this is the only video of Bibi with English subtitles. It’s short, barely three minutes of it… but makes me miss BiBi circa her NOW/WOW albums… which reminds me, gotta review those.
[iframe src=”https://www.tudou.com/v/_H6cID-4vsU/v.swf” width=”480″ height=”400″]
Her last bit singing gives me the shivers.
From the last few performances she’s done, something is amiss. Her voice is quite not right, and I think it might be due to the production of her last album.
*sighs*
Forgive the lack of updates, but then again… you do know there’s YAM, right?
