Archives For musings

I’m starting to feel… as a Yu Aoi fan, that I’m out of a job. Though I’d like to believe that the information I add to the Yu Aoi posts I publish have a little something extra. I mean, I really don’t have any other reason as to why I wasn’t aware of these photos (et more) from two years back. Plus, there are tons and tons of Yu Aoi related Tumblr pages [tag][1][2][3].

However, the craziest one I found was sorekara’s aoi-yu-tagged stuff. There are tons of photos of Yu with her shorter hair in shoots and ads, there’s older photos that I had only seen in tiny version, there’s old photos that I wasn’t aware of. I’m old, and I don’t have the will to get a Tumblr account to follow.

You can’t even subscribe by tags! Anyway~

I couldn’t find the photographer, but this Chanel product placement on the Special section of Vogue’s Dec’12 issue is called 『True White 白という名のモダニティ。』 promoting the J12 White Chanel watch series that costs a fraction of your car (if you use one) — priced between 3.3k pounds to 10k.

Hahaha. I mean, seriously, who would’ve thought 100 years ago that needle watches would become a status symbol.

The concept was that Yu Aoi personifies the concept of the (truthful) pure, modern woman image. And the website is still active, though I had some trouble getting the actual link. And you know what it is with them Flash-based websites, it will eventually go offline- so people took screencaps~

Plus! No one like Vogue to style your fresh short hair.

yu-aoi-true-white-shiro-toiu-chanel-dec12-003

I don’t think there’s been any significant update since April [1], but since my internal hard disk got busted after a sudden power outage, I lost my last mindmap. Instead of recreating it, I revamped it with some clean-up names and added some others. The clean-up? I got rid off Aishwarya (at least, until I watch other films of her), Nana Patekar (haven’t seen him in a while), same with Arshad Warsi, Sanjay Dutt. Got rid off Kareena, Sonakshi Sinha, Abhishek Bachchan, Anushka Sharma, Ajay Devgn, Salman, and Preity.

Only filmmaker to go is M.F. Husain, because- well, no more films. Also, there’s more order, because I’m lumping all Karan Johar directed or backed projects on his hub.

indian-film-journey-aug1014

It’s been a year yo! [1]

Objectively speaking, though I love Tabu with all my fandom heart, I gotta admit that Rani Mukerji is the best movie hub to start out. The only thing she’s missing, really, is films with these other directors like Vishal or Vikramadytia Motwane. I doubt Imtiaz Ali would ever cast her in anything- besides, most his movies… though decent, are quite overvalued. Especially RockStar. And she was >THIS< close to getting to The Namesake, that really…

Rani’s got Bhansali, Hassan, Balan, Konkona and Nawazuddin Siddiqui. That’s of course on top of Shahrukh Khan, Aamir (and the other two Khans), Mani Ratnam, Juhi, and family connections aside, Kajol. And look at the times she’s worked with Amitabh Bachchan… and even son. That’s basically the whole contemporary commercial Indian film spectrum.

Tabu, on the other hand, has Vishal Bhardwaj and Gulzar, sure. She would also get Hassan (though not at his best), and Konkona… as well as Mani Ratnam, Amitabh, and Juhi (in her leading lady days) — probably more crossovers like Govinda and Salman. She also has Mira Nair and Ang Lee in her bag (though not strictly Indian-verse), and a whole bunch of regional films… but they’re more Telugu than anything else. Then there’s Nagarjuna. She had that symbiotic film-relationship to Madhur Bhandakar, whose career isn’t very good at the moment, though I thought Heroine improved in the horrible story treatment he had in Fashion.

I haven’t dared to watch Juhi’s earlier filmography because there’s so much early Aamir, and I’m not a fan of him in those days or Indian commercial films in general. Confession: Hum Aapke Hain Koun…! and Hum Saath-Saath Hain are pretty bad. Both the same director, a director Tabu wants to make a new comedy with. Not a comedy with Rajkumar Hirani, or a Motwane-backed project like Queen or Hasse Toh Phasee. She wants the dude that gave you Salman.

I’m becoming one of those fans that question her film choices. xD Having said that, I am still looking for Idee Sangati (or however you romanize it). I know Telugu films aren’t my thing, and not even Manam is changing my position, but I need to watch that movie.

This is the first time in my movie-counting life that I’ve seen over 50 movies by the middle of the year. As a general number, I picked 48 a year, to make sure I -at least- watched one film a week for my end of the year list.

amys-2014-film-count

There’s a LOT of bad and meh movies so far, but there’s also a decent Top10. Not unbelievable, but decent. It’s a working one that would do for a Dec.31 or Jan.01 publishing date. LOL

… or maybe I’m just projecting too much, but I thought 2013 had a lot of Father/Son-Daughter relationship movies. Even when it wasn’t literally a blood-relation, like in the more clear case between Idris Elba and Rinko Kikuchi (et Ashida Mana) in Pacific Rim, or the more blurred relationship between Jiao Xu with Mr. Go in Mr. Go.

movies-dads-of-2013

I cried in a couple of these ones, but I won’t tell you which. LOL

From left to right, top to bottom: Koreeda’s Like Father, Like Son; Miracle in Cell No. 7; Metro Manila; Pacific Rim; Saving Mr. Banks; Silent Witness; About Time; Police Story 2013; Instructions Not Included; and Mr. Go.

This YouTube thing telling me I should maybe “watch” some videos that I had already watched had me clicking on the BackStreet Boys’ I Want It That Way,because… WHY NOT? — turning me into a 15-year-old all over again.

Actually, I was a lot younger. I was probably closer to 13, but you can’t really tell considering distribution wasn’t instant back then. My English skills weren’t consistent back then, and I remember we’d all share the lyrics to the song from an ex-classmate that was visiting when she’d left for the US. Printed out emails to share lyrics. xD

Up until these days, whenever I listen to songs of the 90s, it’s likely I have to stop what I’m doing and sing at the top of my lungs… even though I can’t reach the notes any longer. LOL I also can’t sing along while doing choreography either. xD I also don’t bother to learn lyrics of songs either. It’s not only because 80% of the music I listen to now it’s in a language I can’t converse in, there’s also the amount of music that needs to be heard.

It’s not because I’m old or anything xD

No~~~ ;P