Well~ that was a LONG process. Buth ere it is, after nearly four months of movie-watching and voting… the YAM Magazine team’s favorite movies of this decade so far~ Hope you find one you like, discover one… and that we included some of your favorites!
Of course I need this in my life~
When I visited China — already nearly a decade ago — I got myself a seal with my name on. It’s made of jade, square, and it’s pretty big, to be honest. I’m also not fond of the font used, so I scanned the print to illustrate it and did a digital seal of my own that I use to sign photographs and whatnot. But ever since, I’ve wanted to get a new proper seal. I’ve only got my grandfather’s old seal.
Though most websites dealing with Japanese seals (hanko) look sketchy, I finally ran into Hankoya.com — I didn’t know they made titanium seals! Woah~ The website is, of course, so chunky and hard to browse if you can’t read Japanese. I doubt they’d do international shipping.
But~ my gosh~~~ they even do silver and gold seals! There’s also wood ones (like maple or sandalwood), but how sketchy is it with ivory and horns? Is it legal to even sell anything remotely done with ivory?
The amber resin and the Satsuma cornus kousa (薩摩本柘) look so good too~
Oh, Happy Chinese New Year! Let’s start my (supposedly) bad-luck Goat Year with the now-mandatory Letterboxd list of my film collection~
I have a really weird history with films– born in the late 80s, you’d think I would’ve grown watching loads of 90s kids stuff, but I actually grew up with a lot of Silly Symphonies (which were released in the 30s) and loads of Disney 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s stuff, plus a lot of more grown up 80s movies. Poltergeist, The Thing, The Fly and The Stuff were particularly scary stuff (and I’m pretty sure I was scared of yogurt or white stuff at some point).
I don’t ever remember buying any original VHS tape, except for the rare birthday gift of a Disney’s Sing-Along Songs chapter or that X-Men tape I have. My first DVDs buys were Coyote Ugly, She’s All That and Loser — you can’t blame me. I was a 15-year-old girl. The collection grew bigger, and possibly exploded during my years abroad. I’m nearing my 500th movie.
I’ve mentioned this before [1], Hula Girls was shot in Iwaki prefecture, so when the tsunami and eventual nuclear meltdown affected the zone, the Hula Girls team as well as the dancers lent their support and/or donated money. Now, Yu-chan is lending her time (maybe there’s money too, though I’d like to think this is from the bottom of her heart) to jump-start visits to Iwaki with the campaign Tadaima Iwaki (ただいま! いわき).
It doesn’t matter, I’d watch 1hr. of Yu eating savory things and visiting places if they’d made a movie about it. LOL As naturally charming as ever~ I’ll watch this 30-sec clip instead.
I said it before and say it again~ the best thing to come out of Angelina Jolie’s Unbroken was to see Miyavi being fabulous on carpet events in the US where so many oblivious in the west got to see him. [My favorite is Lainey who’s gushed over Miyavi twice] And now to see him on Ellen playing his guitar- that’s really more than I could hope for.
And I love that he did a bit of What’s my Name on top of Let Go.
Except for the mandatory appreciation for Boyhood (the Patricia Arquette show) and Whiplash, which had me contorting from all the conflictive feelings, I’m feeling rather lukewarm with this year’s award season as you can see from my 2014 Films Ranked compared to my Academy Award Watchlist.
Hot pink is watched, light blue on to-watched queue, highlighted in green haven’t been found yet. My excuse for lack of documentaries and shorts is because of access. I find them extra difficult to get. Also, any respectable award show needs the presence of Haider. LOL And I could do a LOT LESS from Clint Eastwood. I’m not even one of those complaining for lack of women behind/in front of the camera, the nominees are just so damn BLAH! except for the few couple of surprises- some spice with Marion Cotillard (even though I don’t feel strongly about the movie), Ida and Mr. Turner in cinematography… and The Tale of Princess Kaguya.
Like we always do, the YAM Magazine team got together to vote for their favorite movies in a good ole’ Facebook poll in our secret group. We are so different and live so far away from each other that our choices vary so much, making the list alive. Of course there are movies I wish were lower, and others that were higher… but, all in all, it’s a good varied list for everyone to discover a new title.
A double feature with Lukas Moodysson’s Vi Är Bäst! (We Are the Best!) and Nobuhiro Yamashita’s Linda Linda Linda. Because~ Why not? RIGHT?
I’m the crazy lady of Best Of lists~ so here’s another one.
But if you’re lazy, I’ve set up (almost) complete playlists on Xiami and YouTube.
Honey, I Shrunk the Kids meets Metamorphosis meets Eega.
It’s pretty awesome. You can watch it on AnimatorExpo.com