I want to get over with this issue. If you visit the site, you already knew that I was going to add Yu Aoi to my list of Actors to Watch Until They’re 30, right? The issue here was which position I would place her… well, you’d be surprised to know that I didn’t place her on my #1, but she’s closed to it. She’s in fact #2 on my list based on the fact that not many people know about her outside the J-film watchers… but you (non Japanese film watcher) totally should.
I blame my cousin for this, because she watched Love Happens. Yes, she actually paid to watch Love Happens, which currently has a 16% freshness rate over at Rotten Tomatoes, and OMG I just checked a 0% from Top Critics hahahaha.
Buahahaha. Sorry, I’m still laughing.
Anyway… it reminded me about an Inside the Gold post, in which K was having trouble writing a review for Made of Honor.
Mostly, I was just getting angry about it for reasons I couldn’t understand… then it hit me. There was nothing original about the film. There was so little effort or originality that went into it, that I started to get upset that the film was even made.
That was followed by a request of Chick Flicks – of course, I added a bunch. Good and Bad, and the Guilty Pleasures, because that’s what was asked… which brings me back to now. I just got to see (500) Days of Summer, which you could say it’s one of those “hipster” films, but in reality it’s a romantic comedy. The movie is good, I liked it a lot… in fact, I can’t wait to get it on DVD xD It’s a not-a-love-story, and it’s sort of a chick flick, I think – and it’s good. So I don’t think it’s a doomed genre, there’s just a lot of crap around the genre for you to take seriously the really good ones.
In reality, Action films should suffer from the same. There’s a lot of crap action films out there that outnumber the really good action films. You can just say “oh, it’s another mindless action film.” but it still has a better tone to it than saying “it’s a chick flick.” – that simply sounds negative, without having the intention to.
I made a list of films by themes, and one of them was the “chick-centric” theme – it contained some really good films with female protagonists as mothers, daughters, granddaughters, friends, neighbors, girls, young women and women… etc, etc. – and from the 3 different themes I put together, “chick-centric” was the only one with no votes at all. So we do have a trigger that makes us think the word “chick” immediately means bad PMS mood swings, put your panties up in a bunch, and make your ovaries ache for that brooding-but-charming or geeky-but-charming hunk.
With female-centric films such as Linda, Linda, Linda – or Rachel Getting Married, One Million Yen Girl, The Guitar, Il y a Longtemps que Je t’Aime, Whale Rider, Hana & Alice… Hula Girls, Swing Girls, Kamikaze Girls~~~ or Romantic Dramas and Romantic Comedies like Shunji Iwai’s Love Letter. Perhaps American Chick Flicks should think of moving away from the frivolous girl meets boy, boy meets girl and they fall in love forever and always stories that they love to tell over and over again, and actually focus on another aspect of their protagonists lives.
A group of friends trying to make it to the school rock festival, a young woman trying to get one million Yen, a woman who just found out she’s about to die, a mother that comes out of jail, a girl trying to follow tradition in the opposite direction. Two friends who are growing up and perhaps growing apart, a group of girls trying to save their town, another group of girls who find something special in their lives, and two girls who find friendship in each other… etc, etc etc.
Woah! I just had a surprise adrenaline rush. xD
Like the title states (and hopefully my begging and grovelling helped),
I just found out that ViiKii is subbing the remaining episodes of
WOWOW’s Camouflage, starring… if you didn’t know by now, Yu-chan~
I’ve only discussed Chapter 1, so I’m looking forward to discussing the rest.
If someone tells me how to work around the subs so we can used them with the RAWs,
let me know~
It’s hard to believe it’s almost the end of the year… only 3 proper months left!
Anyway! I was checking YesAsia stuffs and turns out Ikechan to Boku will be released this coming December 4th… sadly, no English subtitles listed. TuT So I’d figure we’d list what’s left of upcoming Yu related stuff (without counting magazine and CMs appearances because frankly those are hard to keep track of).
October 9th, 2009
NHK – Gakuya Presentation
October 15th, 2009
2009 Calendar Launch [Amazon.co.jp
eh… Nov? xD
December 4th, 2009
Ikechan and Me DVD [R2, no subs] [YesAsia][Amazon.co.jp
It’s 35 films this year! Woohoo! Well, not much to celebrate since some of those were really REALLY bad, but they count for the movie countdown~~~
In the meantime, I’ve decided to put my list of Best 2001 films.
It was really difficult to choose some, as I seem to not have seen many 2001 films, so many of my nominees are the same as the Oscar, I feel. Remembering the films made me remember about the first time I actively waited for the Oscar. I mean, the event in itself was something I did, but that year was the year I said I’m gonna watch the Oscar to see who will win. American Beauty won that year, as did Kevin Spacey and The Matrix. 1999 Films, wow~~~ I was 13 going on 14.
Anyway~ without further ado~~~
What better way to show people that Google cares about your privacy, than with a cute animation on how it’s done. Only from Google Japan, of course~~~
Crap! And it’s not on NHK World Premium…
whatever~~~
If you haven’t missed my past Yu posts, you’ll know that she worked on a play called Gakuya this past May and June. Well, Yu’s site was updated saying that Gakuya will be broadcast on NHK next month.
October 9th, 2009 at 10.30pm
get more Japanese info here.
There’s also some text saying that there will be some more info on Yu’s new 2010 Calendar, which looks kinda Hansel-y and Gretel-y… ja? Do you wanna know my opinion? Yu’s Message page has only been updated twice this year. Once with that cryptic message from Venezuela [part1][part2], and the other announcing Portugirl. Before those posts? There was a 2009 Calendar post. Am I complaining? Yes, I am. LOL
But damn, I can’t ever stay too mad.
They’ve also posted photos off-shoots from the So-En shoot.
Shugo Oshinari is freaking 28 years old! WTF, man!
He’s almost 30, looks in his early 20s still and totally lacks fangirls.
And I mean like “good” fangirls the ones who work hard
to get whatever scans, whatever movie, and work on whatever needs subbing. LOL
You can’t really find many good scans, screencaps…
etc, etc… everything fandoms love to fuzz about.
This week I was thinking about making a compilation of 20 actors (women and men) between the ages of 20-25 to keep track until they’re 30. I tried writing the post today, but it turns out I don’t have many names. Ha! First, some of the people I was considering adding to the list are 26, or not even 20… or are already in their 30s, which is great for them since I thought they were in their 20s… not so good for my list.
At the moment though, I have 8 actresses already picked out. However, I’m missing 2 more actresses. And I’m missing all of the guys (10). HAHAHAHA. So I need help. Leave a comment with some names of young actors/actresses.
Just some things to keep in mind…
As I add the people in single posts, I’ll be adding their names here and linking. :)
Just ran into this very cute music video – alert! Yma Sumac pop culture reference xD – really, I never thought I would have seen Yma Sumac named alongside Superman, but alas~~~ La Casa Azul (the blue house) has come up with the song (the new Yma Sumac) and this cute Cartoon Network-esque music video.
And they’ve made the original Spanish version, and a Japanese version! Though sounds wayyyyy cuter in Japanese. It’s the whole electro-cutesy pop vibe, you know? It just fits better with the voice.
you can check the Spanish version here, and
visit Cocoe Studios who were in charge of the animation~~~