Archives For musings

I really really enjoyed many of the performances in this year’s Spring Gala, which included a dance rendition of a Mo Li Hua (茉莉花) instrumental, the suspended dude on a mast on top of a digital display of the ocean (直挂云帆), and the Drum Dance in Prosperity Xi’an Terracotta Army, The Silk Road (丝绸之路), The Beauty of China (山水中国美). Also, my biases Zhao Wei and Sa Dingding (doing the Good Luck Song (吉祥吉祥)) were there! Donnie Yen showed up too! Dude! I even enjoyed the super Red Song, My Homeland (我的祖国), which was performed by Wang Li (王莉), Wang Qing Shuang (王庆爽), You Hong Fei (尤泓婓), Jin Ting Ting (金婷婷) and a special appearance by opera soprano Guo Lanying (郭兰英).

I also enjoyed the Inner Mongolia [1][2][3] and minorities medley In the Great Embrace of your Hometown (在你伟大的怀抱里) numbers xD In turn into a bit of a Red Song somewhere there by the end, but it wasn’t even the Reddest song of the night. LOL But I enjoyed it.

Tan Wei Wei’s (谭维维) number, though, featuring Zhang Ximin (张喜民) and Huayin Lao Qiang performers (“华阴老腔”演员) floored me. So much damn fun and energy. I loved it. The song was presented under the titled “the Huayin old tune in high tone shout” (华阴老腔一声喊, huayin lao qiang yi sheng han). It also teaches us all about Huayin Lao Qiang (Huayin Old Style “Chinese Rock’n’Roll)!

*dies*

It really kills me that this movie is opening a few days after my birthday, and I can’t watch it. WHY DO YOU GUYS DO THIS TO ME?

Sidenote: The Fitoor promotions have brought some interesting interview bits with Tabu- like she wants to be part of Golmaal 4 (I haven’t seen Golmaal, but that’s a Rohit Shetty movie, so… xD), she’s fishing for a comedy, she likes David Dhawan’s type of comedies (which are so 90s comedy style type of not my thing), and wants to do a movie with Govinda… who, if I recall correctly, actually doesn’t like many of the 90s comedy movies he did xD

Comedy is such a particular genre, so difficult to please people.

My type of comedy, I’ve found out, is in the realm of Roxana Avalos, Rosalind Russell, and Sandra Ng. I laugh quite a bit with Hong Kong/Chinese comedies.

Oh, hey! I somehow missed this on my YouTube timeline- Yu Aoi’s 2016 New Year greeting xD

I’ve lost most my Japanese powers in the past two years of no Japanese movies, music and television. LOL I can only make out the greeting xD I feel deflated because -crossing fingers- I may be heading to Japan for the holidays in a couple of months and scares the crap out of me because no one speaks Japanese in this trip~~~

My dream is that I’ll meet Yu-chan and tell her how big a fan I am/was. xD Must also remember to stock up on movies (hopefully with subs) and/or Shiina Ringo concert DVDs and discography.

Merry Christmas, everyone! I spent all day listening to Xmas music xD

During this year’s family dinner, I made a decision on my New Year resolution- I bow to try to not be a moral superior asshole in discussions. And I kowtow to those I had ugly discussions with (if any), if I ever made you scream at your screen- I’m sorry. I had an ugly discussion about food! FOOD! A discussion on food got ugly! LOL It was like being on an internet forum, and I kept feeding the troll. I’m sorry.

Anyway~

Today I decided to not stress over my End of the Year list any longer, so I finally published my list of Favorite Films of 2015~

amys-favorite-2015-films

I managed to get 195, without counting the films that I didn’t rank because I don’t rate certain documentaries. I managed to squeeze in Carol, The Revenant, and Spotlight… which did almost crack my Top10 Films in English. I wonder if I hadn’t post the list, if it would’ve placed differently.

Oh, that also means that, just like my movie collection, I’ve segregated my lists by languages. There’s a general list, but also included lists for films in English, Chinese/Mandarin, Indian, Latino and Miscellaneous languages, which includes all languages that I didn’t watch enough films for a proper Top10.

I’m maybe one of two (or three) people that actually liked Ghaath. Actually, scratch that- IMDb is showing me that, at least, 20 people have voted this movie over 6. So there you go, we’re about 20 people. But maybe I have a strong bias, the film has a political moralistic theme of the late-90s early 00s era but avoids the masala shenanigans for the most part, it also has Anu Malik music — with two great songs that I enjoy — and the chemistry between Tabu and Manoj Bajpayee, who are also getting back together this year (after Salman in Jai Ho, Ajay in the upcoming Drishyam).

When a titillating item song comes on screen, I’m usually the one rolling my eyes at some of the embarrassment… and the Telugu film industry has usually taken the cake when it comes to silly sexism. Not even Tabu can escape it (her number in Pandurangadu gets the crown with that orange juice moment). However, I do remember the first time that I ever gasped seeing a Bollywood movie because *gasp* They kissed! It was the Chup Chup Ke [clip] number in Bunty Aur Babli. It was before I realized I did enjoyed seeing Abhishek and Rani together [1], but they were always married on film!

In the number for Teri Aashiqui Meri Zindagi, Tabu’s character is never married to Manoj’s, they fairly recently met at their family/friend’s wedding and had their moment in Hum Bhi Samajh Rahe Hain [clip] — there sure is a lot of rain and white-wearing caressing and singing, but it’s just playful boy-meets-girl girl-meets-boy, a lot of face-touching… but never EVER an engagement or wedding, yet… yet… there’s this 20-second love-making behind a torn down hellenistic column that results in a baby. LOL

There’s all sort of face and neck action foreplay (I’m like “Omo, omomomomomo I swear she’s licking that neck“) before the hellenistic column action, as well as the obvious after scene.

Of course there was a baby. There’s never a sex scene in these movies that doesn’t end with these consequences… it happens here in Ghaath, as it happens in Raiou.