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Archives For japan
I can feel it in the air. Award season is approaching. I think Indie Spirit Awards are also done with submissions, and their nominations should arrive come early December.
In the meantime, the Academy Awards has released the list of the 65 countries (or not-countries… Greenland?) that will be competing for 5 spots as “Best Foreign” nominees, as well as their 8 short documentaries.
Here are some of the reviews of the ones I’ve seen.
- Argentina – Carancho [tambien en Espanol]
- China – Aftershocks
- Colombia – Crab Trap [tambien en Espanol]
- Peru – Undertow [tambien en Espanol]
- Nicaragua – La Yuma [tambien en Espanol]
Let’s talk wild guess predictions in here. Which countries will be the 5 chosen ones?
Mexico’s Biutiful seems like an easy assumption.
China’s Aftershocks seems to be a good candidate for several reasons besides “film”. Whatever your thoughts on melodrama are, I mean… you really need to be a sour grape not to feel something for the family in that film. Either that, or you’ve never been in a natural disaster. Having said that, it is because it’s a melodrama that it’s perfect for Oscar. Moving family drama that deals with catastrophe with a really powerful and magnificently handled Earthquake scene that was a box office hit in China. It’s just good business.
Also, China being nominated is controversial. Anything to do with China since 2008 is controversial. Controversial always brings ratings. Also nominating China is just plain good business. If China gets nominated – I dunno, what are the chances of some state channel broadcasting the Oscar? Just imaging 2/3 of China’s internet population watches the Oscar that night. That’s 200 million viewers. Anything in China is big.
If there’s no China, it must be another cheese movie… like South Korea’s A Barefoot Dream. An underdog story of a kiddie football team and a coach. It shall make you feel happy xD
Canada’s Incendies?
and… I dunno what else. Peru’s chances? From what I have seen, and what I’ve heard. It could very well get into the nine before they select the final five. I’ll have a better grasp once the 9 are out xD
I wish I had known sooner, but I just found out today.
REDLINE will be opening in San Francisco this Friday 8th at 7.15pm at VIZ Cinema – at the same time as in Japan! And will continue showing the film throughout the week. I already added them to the Yu Aoi Events calendar.
Friday 8th – 7.15pm
Saturday 9th, Sunday 10th – 12.30pm , 2.45pm , 5pm , 7.15pm
Monday 11th – Thursday 14th – 5pm , 7.15pm
Admission is $10
If you catch the show, let me know. Would love to hear your thoughts.
Ah… English, such a direct language. I often have discussions with people about the nuances of the different languages. Friends tell me that French and Italian are great for flirting, and my mom keeps telling me that different dialects in Chinese have so many words to describe food flavors, impossible to describe in Spanish or English.
However, what about songs?
My favorite songs, my favorite artists in English — 99% of the time, I try not to find the lyrics any longer. Whenever I have enjoyed the songs, looked for the lyrics, 90% of the time I’ve ended up disappointed.
My first language is Spanish, however, I often find myself thinking in English – so, whenever I listen to music in Spanish, my brain begins translating lyrics into English. The repertoire of songs that I actually like in Spanish tend to be songs that are hard to translate literally into English.
Funny thing, while voting yesterday, I ran into the friend who helped with with the romanization of the lyrics of their Me and your Borderline album. Today I find they’ve come back.
After nearly 2 years and a half, Japanese rock band LAST ALLIANCE will be releasing their new album Keep on Smashing Blue on October 27th. Their new single and video WING is directed by Niwa Takayuki (丹羽貴幸) and features professional boxer Tsuchiyama Naozomi. The band doesn’t even show up in the video, which is unusual in Japanese music videos.
I have a bias against Jrock — but not as bad as against Jpop — It might sound bad for me to say this, but I often find myself saying stuff like “it sounds too much like anime music” which isn’t bad, as some songs are actually quite catchy and/or good enough to add to your iPod. LAST ALLIANCE actually sounds kind of okay… obviously, my friend is a bigger fan.
WING fits that “the song is kinda good”, it certainly has a nice energy to it, and despite the actual concept for the video and trying to do something different and setting LA apart, I think the video’s biggest shortcoming was editing. Believe me, I have the same issues when having upbeat songs – I keep shots for too long, it sucks the energy out of it.
Okay, do other people think of Oldboy when looking at this photo of the awesome Tim Wilkinson?
Just me? xD
So… today it’s voting Sunday. And I’ve also setup my About page… and got rid of my Favorites page because… well, it seemed redundant to have two pages about me. LOL
In case you missed the post in which I talked about my taste in film, this is a similar post that talks about my history… or lack of history with music.
When I was about 7, my dad opened a Karaoke bar (how Asian, non?). But by then, I had already grown up with the likes of the music of La Nueva Ola (the new wave) — you know, the type of Rock n’ Roll from The King… Jailhouse Rock or Houndog but in Spanish. My favorite tunes were probably La Plaga (the plage, the Spanish version of Little Richard’s Good Golly, Miss Molly), and La Mantequilla (the butter, the Spanish version of Cliff Richard and the Shadows’ Move It).
Of course, I was a little kid going to Chinese/Peruvian school, so my repertoire also included the Cantonese Counting Song Yat Yi Sam, as well as the counting Elefantes song… as well as the Sukiyaki song. So from the very beginning… I had a predisposition for all types of music in many different languages.
Continue Reading…
Some very exciting news – First, it seems I’ve seen more than TWO of the Foreign submissions this year LOL. Of course that’s without considering the 9 films that will go through the other stage, and the 5 that will be chosen. I’ll probably get a 1/5 ratio at the most.
Second of all… China chose Xiaogang Feng’s earthquake drama Aftershocks to represent them. *jumpy claps* Now, this is my weakness. I love tear-jerking dramas. Anyone who’s lived through an earthquake should and will be affected by the story, anyone who’s lived through a hurricane, typhoon, any catastrophic natural disaster. Aftershocks is for you. But this is not to say that Aftershocks is exploitative of the tragedy, because this “earthquake” film is little about the earthquake and all about the people affected by it.
Considering the technical achievement this is, and how human and audience-friendly this drama is, I think this might have high chances of passing to the “chosen 9”. *crosses fingers*
Here are some of the submissions I’ve seen and reviewed:
- China – Tangshan Dadizhen (Aftershocks)
- Colombia – El Vuelco del Cangrejo (Crab Trap)
- Nicaragua – La Yuma
- Peru – Contracorriente (Undertow)
The updated titles via Indie Wire!
Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac, adaptation of the novel by Gabrielle Zevin of the same name, or Dareka ga Watashi ni KISU o Shita (literally translated to I Kissed Someone) is the Japanese adaptation of said American book starring popular Japanese actors/idols Horikita Maki as the lead Naomi Sukuse (in the book Naomi Porter) who falls down the stairs, hits her head and loses the memories she’s recollected for the past 4 years, including her best friend Mirai Hasegawa (in the book Will) played by idol Yuya Tegoshi from boy band NEWS, and her American boyfriend Ace Zuckerman played by Anton Yelchin.
Gasp! Say what? Americans and Japanese young actors together in a Japanese film of an American book? Yes, that’s right. Because Teenage Amnesiac also includes actor Kenichi Matsuyama (recently seen in Norwegian Wood), and none other than the young Emma Roberts. So yeah, the roles have inverted. And how do American fans of the book feel about their beloved book being made in Japanese? Well, a lot of them aren’t happy about it… or at least, they weren’t happy about it. Talks about how “pointless” it is to change the setting, or how not “into Japanese” they could be. Even though the one involved in the making of this was the book’s author herself, and it was probably done because the book was such a hit in the country.
Sure, it’s just internet talk. However, it reflects the sentiment of *insert nationality* whose film/books of their home country get remade/adapted in America/etc. not-a-language it’s supposed to be. So we do understand your sentiments, and here’s to hoping you guys understand when it happens the other way round again and again… and again.
As for the film… well, suffice to say that I feel too old to be watching this. Kenichi Matsuyama should feel too old for this too. Maybe if I were 10 years younger – OMG, I’m that old – I could have maybe connected more. No scratch that, I felt like the characters were Mary Sue’s or Marty Stus… or whatever the male form of a Mary Sue is. Surprisingly, in a bad way, Anton Yelchin is a bit of a jerk in here. He’s literally your typical American jock… only he plays tennis. LOL Poor Naomi’s lost her memory, and all he can think of is getting laid for Prom?
Naomi’s other suitors are the Martys Stus, one playing the best friend from the yearbook commission. Mirai is dorky, well-natured, cares for Naomi… and well, that’s just telling you straight in your face that he’s the one. Then there’s the dark brooding opponent Yuji (Matsuyama) who rides a motorbike, works at a projection house where he watches foreign art house films, photographs Naomi for a play, and actively pursues her as she ends her relationship with Yelchin’s character. Yuji is what you know it’s bad but you still want to see what’s going on with him. In a dark indie film, Naomi would have pursued Yuji and ended up badly. In a fairly mainstream drama, she’d pursued Yuji and ended up fixing him. This is a romantic drama for teenagers, so you’d do the math.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen Horikita Maki in anything else, but she seems like an average lead in here. And Emma Roberts is terribly underused in this.
2.5/5
Also can you believe Yelchin is the youngest in the cast? Gosh these Asians genes. Wait till we turn 60~
I need someone to discuss this. LOL That ending, I did not expect THAT ending. But I like what I’ve been reading around. I like it a lot, without revealing too much – I like the concept of duality. Even more so considering how it ties with Tokyo Jihen’s theme, which let me tell you – could blow your mind.
[iframe src=”https://player.youku.com/player.php/sid/XMzgxMzIxNTky/v.swf” width=”480″ height=”400″ /]
— EDIT —
All the YouTube uploads are going missing (THANK YOU, SONY >,<), so I’m just going to embed this Youku no-so-sync version because it’s the only one I’ve been able to find. In any case, here’s a Portuguese subtitled version on YT.
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Please, let the explanation of the # mean that there will be a second season~~~
Also, Japan! WHY NO OFFICIAL SUBTITLES? The 8eps DVD collection is priced at over $150USD – considering the Yen’s so high compared to dollars now – and no subs? Oh, really?
Sponsor of Heiwa Fansubs will have to do – google “atami no sousakan” and watch the show – they did a great job at subtitling this… in a time when I was uncertain this show would get picked up by any group, they were our saviors! Thank you Heiwa Fansubs~ Please, don’t stream the groups’ subtitles.
