Tag: korea

  • Why Is Avatar? – 2009 Films in Review

    I enjoyed Avatar. I did. When those flighty things were hovering on screen, I playfully stretched my arm and tried to grab one. I’m sure if it had been my first 3D film, I would have ended with a terrible headache. However, did it need a nomination? And most important, did it need winning?

    I remember on 2008, I was uncertain which film to choose as a favorite. I had loads of fun with Slumdog, and I was one of those that actually liked Benjamin Button. Obviously, there was The Wrestler, Milk, Doubt, Entre les Murs, Il y a Longtemps que Je t’Aime, The Dark Knight, Revolutionary Road, Waltz with Bashir.

    But my favorite of 2008 was Let the Right One in.

    Obviously, LtROi didn’t win anything. But still, 2008 was a great year for films. And it was a pretty good year for acting as well! With Richard Jenkins’ The Visitor (though I think this is technically 2007), and Michael Shannon’s Revolutionary Road — which I totally called for Best Supporting, by the way.

    With 2009, however, I kept waiting and waiting. Kept telling myself that studios wanted to push their films for late releases for award season. After their release, I felt mostly underwhelmed with a vast majority of films. And I have seen nearly 100 films dated 2009, and I haven’t given none of them a 9 rating on IMDb. Merely 12 of them with an 8 rating, which include (500) Days of Summer, Red Cliff Part II, District 9, Inglourious Basterds, Mother, Mary and Max, Precious, Public Enemies, Star Trek, Up, Up in the Air, Where the Wild Things Are.

    Out of 117 films in 2008, with 22 at an 8 rating. That’s double the films! LOL

    So did Avatar win because it’s a weak film year?

    Discuss. LOL

  • If Only… Linda Linda Linda

    Once again… pimp the fandom!
    subscribe! and send your own If Only!

    nill… Bill, you included. xD

    4. Linda Linda Linda

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  • Air Doll Subbed Trailer

    Though I feel the trailer spoils the film a bit too much.
    The only person who can answer this is Julz…
    Does it?

    I love Kore-eda’s work and sensibilities as a director. He always gets to me. And doe-eyed Doona Bae is always so good to see. Perfect to play a blow-up doll. LOL

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RI46dEsDaBM

  • Women and Marriage on Film

    Yes, this is a romantic comedy post.

    Entertainment Weekly has a new post titled What Hollywood Gets Wrong about Women and Marriage, in light of the recent release of Amy Adams’ Leap Year.

    Obviously, Rom-Coms are a branch of Chick Flicks, and Chick Flicks are doomed. Especially in the West, where Chick Flick is a super negative tag on a film. Whip Ip (which I enjoyed a lot) is a Chick Flick, and it’s fun. My dad enjoyed it a lot. We should totally watch Roller Derby together.

    But Rom-Coms, where they specifically want a female character to find love/get together/get married with someone, they are doomed on a different level. American (as a continent) Romantic Comedies forget that it’s not about people getting together or marrying, and completely forget the characters. In the end, we just don’t care enough for the character to care if she is or not getting the guy.

    Do you recall any good romantic comedies of the past 10 years?

    I remember I liked Imagine Me & You, My Sassy Girl (Korean version), Saving Face, Love Actually, Were the World Mine, Love me if You Dare~~~ well, that’s a pretty gay selection. LOL

  • Experiment Awards 2009 Nominations

    Behold!

    Nominations are done!!

    It’s actually kind of exciting, even if not that many people sent nominations. However, it’s actually a really great way to hear about all these many other films that people mentioned so many times, and I knew nothing about.

    Of course, if more people had actually sent nominations, the experiment would’ve worked better. Maybe next time… so watch many more films this 2010, so you can participate next time around.

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  • Best Songs of 2000-2009 – Part 5/5

    Well, it’s last post of the year!!

    I’m off to the family’s big Asian dinner as always.
    Sadly, no fireworks T.T [watch last year’s here]

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  • Last batch of films seen Nov-Dec 2009

    Two months worth of films to close the year,
    let’s hope 2010 brings loads of good ones…

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  • Best Songs of 2000-2009 – Part 2/5

    To keep things interesting, I’ve decided to switch to the newest songs that made the best 100 songs of the decade. Just the heads up, it turned out to be very Asian. Is it trying to tell you something?

    One of those examples was the Welcome to Beijing song, which had a HUGE bunch of Asian (mostly Chinese, Taiwan and Hong Kong) stars. The scale of the project is probably similar to (or even bigger than) Michael Jackson’s We Are the World song… which in its time was epic. To me, and to many Asian (and non-Asian) people who keep track of the Asian music industry it marked an important time. Not only did the Olympics opened China to the world… and the world to China, but it also felt like a huge switch on everything from basic economics, industry… and entertainment.

    It’s as if Chinese musicians had been enclosed all those years while the economy started to pick up, and have exploded with a huge fireball of creativity. It’s amazing at the amount of talent coming out from there, especially now that they can upload their music through the many Chinese music websites like douban.com and haoting.com, and the amount of blogs and communities that are reporting on them.

    Some really awesome music, which I have already blog in this place. This is the reason, I want to get over these ones first, before I post many other songs from 2002-2006 when I didn’t blog that much (or at all).

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  • Best Songs of 2000-2009 – Part 1/5

    Ever since the internet began playing a bigger part on what is music today (with places like MySpace, YouTube and Peer to Peer), I said it… there will never be a fuly 100 Greatest Songs for this past decade. You will watch a VH1 (or MTV) Greatest Songs of 2000-2009, and you will always feel they will be nothing compared to their list of Greatest 90’s songs, or Greatest 80’s songs where you would sit, listen and say “Wow, I remember this song. It brings such memories” – Those days are over, and it’s kind of nostalgic.

    With the internet, the market for music was open in such a way that you do not need to listen to the radios. You are not obliged to listen to what the record companies decide to send the radios… you simply do not need to listen to anything they produce as there’s a market from pretty much any small artist willing to put themselves out there. With the internet, you do not need to restrain yourself from listening to something just because it’s not sold on your region. You can find out about any group around the world, singing in any language, and you can most likely get their albums digitally or through online stores.

    And so my list of 100 Best Songs of the Decade doesn’t reflect what was supposed to be popular in America… or America Latina… or Europe… or China… or Japan, but it reflects the best of everything that was available anywhere in the world. There is most likely you will find something here that will bring memories to you.

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  • Best Albums of 2000-2009

    Well, I’ve found it easier to narrow down the number of albums for this Top100 Albums of the Decade, than to narrow my list of songs to 100. LOL I have around 350 songs at the moment. This is gonna be difficult… and also in every possible language xD

    Anyway, I’m sure that I had to take out some albums to include other albums. It was all a very difficult process to figure out what to include… going from “do I really have to take this song out?” to “OMG, I really love all these songs from this artist!!! Which one should I choose!- So please, bear with me, and comment what to add.

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