Tag: japan

  • Guillermo del Toro is Hobbled by Mana-chan

    I just imagined Mana-chan (who is not so little any longer) jumping and latching herself onto the huggable Guillermo del Toro. I imagine a world where Del Toro found a tiny muse and made a movie with her. NOW! GIMME ME.

    ashida-mana-guillermo-del-toro

  • Nepia for Tissue Animals

    What’s more awesome than just animation? And origami? How about origami-animation? Japanese tissue manufacturer Nepia has a short commercial/PSA/short showcasing origami animals and some stop-motion.

    Creative director: Jin Sato (佐藤仁)
    Copyrighter: Ochi Kazuyoshi (越智一仁)
    Producer: Takuo Ozawa (小澤卓男), Yasuhiro Kawasaki (川崎泰広)
    Director: Arai Fuyu (新井風愉)
    Production manager: Takasugi Makoto (高杉誠)
    Stop-motion animation: Ohno Motoki (おーのもとき)
    Camera: Chiyoe Sugita (杉田知洋江)
    Camera assistant: Mahiro Shintani (新谷真博)
    Lights: HIGASIX
    Lights assistant: Tomoya Yoshimura (吉村知弥)
    Art: Kiyomi Tokita (鴇田清美), Takanori Saito (斉藤貴教), Shizuka Masaki (正木静香)
    Editor: Maho Inamoto (稲本真帆)
    Music: Mituru Samejima (鮫島充)
    Sound effects: Yoshiaki Tokunaga (徳永義明)

  • Ore Ore – Eri Fuse – Hadoken + Yoga Fire

    I couldn’t resist myself because it’s likely I’ll never see an animated GIF of this golden nugget from Satoshi Miki’s Ore Ore. Especially because there’s not enough Eri Fuse love on the net.

    eri-fuse-ore-ore-hadoken

    Animated GIFs and bonus after the break.
    (more…)

  • Best of the Foreign 2000s

    experiment-awards-foreign-best-of-2000s

    I also made a [nomination] list of all my favorite foreign things of the last decade. If I had included all movies, general suspects would have applied (eg. Children of Men, Dancer in the Dark), but still remains a very ME list. I hope you like the selection, and don’t hesitate in suggesting films to watch.

    Check all nominees and comment here.

  • Yu Aoi for Zipang Punk Trailer

    A film cut of the Zipang Punk play [1] they did last year is being released on March 29th, so we -unlucky ones- will get to see Yu Aoi singing and dancing in a wacky period punk musical. It looks super funny, but I doubt it’ll ever get subtitled or er… shared.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bc5L6WGqUCk

    We’ll always have this trailer, though.

  • The Pressure of Marriage, No Tension~

    Fandom funny crossover~

    I was watching (finally) Tokyo Kazoku — which I liked more than I thought I would — and just felt this incredible marriage pressure during the the scene in which Yu’s character is accepted by the father with that terribly heavy “There may be some hard times ahead, but if you’ll consent to be his wife, I’ll be able to die in peace.”

    My mind immediately went to Arshad Warsi’s Circuit; “No tension, bhai.”

    tokyo-kazoku-marriage-pressure-no-tension-mbbs

  • Five YAM Magazine Posts for 2014!

    Happy new year, everyone!

    Sorry for the lack of posts last month. To make up for it, here are five posts so you can catch up to my 2013 and to get you going this 2014.

    amys-top50-songs-2013

  • Is It Yuuuuuuu?

    I noticed a few people popping by searching for Yu Aoi, so I went looking for news on her tonight and I ran into this photo tagged with her name on Pinterest.

    is-it-yu

    If it is, in fact, Yu Aoi. This is the first time I haven’t recognized her in a photo. Not like I’m like an expert or anything (though I do daydream someone calls me for a documentary on her life LOL).

    First- the hair throws me off. So it may be one of those rare instances. The themes and styles seem to fit, and the whole shoot gives you strong Dandelion vibes for some reason. But one of the reasons, I don’t think it is Yu-chan is because I don’t see her freckles. She has three particular spots that always show up on her photos: the two marks on the right side of her right eye (the ones that looked like Shiro), and the mark on her left cheek near her nose.

    Top suspect? One of them Korean look-alikes [see also and this]. At first, I thought it could be Hwang Seung Un [1][CM], but after a quick read, I decided it’s more likely Son Soo Hyun [1]. Seriously, some of their similarities [check the Busker Busker MV] are uncanny.

    I wouldn’t mind one of those crazy comedy projects in which the two of them play sisters but speak completely different languages when speaking to each other. Specially directed by Satoshi Miki.

  • Yahoo! JP: Hands On Search

    3D printers keep popping up in news. This time around with Yahoo! Japan developing a fancy module that includes a 3D printer that fuses the visual experience of searching for information with the tactile results of 3D printing for children who have sight impediments.

    It’s called Hands on Search (さわれる検索), also read as Sawareru Kensaku.

    More info on the Sawareru website.

  • Oh, Miki~ I Had No Idea~

    Or maybe it did ping [1][2], or maybe it’s just that rumor.

    But if it really is, I’m really surprised. I found some very old scattered posts talking about it going as far back as 2007. But then again, Miki keeps a relatively private life or fandom just doesn’t care.