Pepsi is prepping for the upcoming year of the Monkey in the Lunar calendar and Chinese horoscope with a commercial on the legendary Monkey King full of nostalgia and tradition. The recount of the generational Monkey King is a bit choppy, but it gets to its point.
Archives For short film
I’m enjoying all these liquor short films [1] that are coming up. I don’t even drink. This time around Indian actresses Konkona Sen Sharma and Tillotama Shome are two neighbor friends despite their seemingly different personalities for a short sponsored by Seagram’s Royal Stag.
Directed by Jaydeep Sarkar, the short seems to come as… sort of a clash with the image of a whisky brand. But I’ll take it.
The struggle of concealing one’s self.
Really hard-hitting ending.
Always good to keep an eye on Gobelin students. Really nice animation on this short~
Making Of Reel available on Charles Badiller’s Vimeo.
You never really know with katakana spelling… is it Spokane’s Left Hand (スポケーンの左手)? If I hadn’t googled スポケーン, I would’ve totally thought it’s “spoken,” but apparently this brand new play is based on the 2004 Academy Award-winning Irish comedy short by Martin McDonagh, which starred Brendan Gleeson — Gleeson’s son, Domhnall Gleeson… now, sorta famous in his own right, also shows up. Watch it here.
The play also stars Nakajima Shu (中嶋しゅう) — in, I suppose, the Brendan Gleeson role, Song Ha (成河) – as Rúaidhrí Conroy, and Okamoto Kenichi (岡本健一) – as the man on the train.
Spokane’s Left Hand will be running from November 14 to Novemeber 29th at the Theatre Tram in Tokyo. Tickets are available at Ticket Pia at Y7,800.
Oh, Happy Chinese New Year! Let’s start my (supposedly) bad-luck Goat Year with the now-mandatory Letterboxd list of my film collection~
I have a really weird history with films– born in the late 80s, you’d think I would’ve grown watching loads of 90s kids stuff, but I actually grew up with a lot of Silly Symphonies (which were released in the 30s) and loads of Disney 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s stuff, plus a lot of more grown up 80s movies. Poltergeist, The Thing, The Fly and The Stuff were particularly scary stuff (and I’m pretty sure I was scared of yogurt or white stuff at some point).
I don’t ever remember buying any original VHS tape, except for the rare birthday gift of a Disney’s Sing-Along Songs chapter or that X-Men tape I have. My first DVDs buys were Coyote Ugly, She’s All That and Loser — you can’t blame me. I was a 15-year-old girl. The collection grew bigger, and possibly exploded during my years abroad. I’m nearing my 500th movie.
I just posted my 350th review, Jigarthanda [also in Español], which happens to be my 30th (sorta) Indian film review. So~ commemorating! Here’s a list of my first 30 Indian film reviews. You can actually see how my journey [1][2][3][4][5] has shaped up from DDLJ, KKHH and K3G YRF, SRK (and Kajol, though I posted her reviews later on) and Karan Johar-centric to Bhansali, Rani, Vidya, Madhuri, alternative Hindi cinema to regional stuff.
Here we go (in order of posting date):
- Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge [tmb en Español]
- Kuch Kuch Hota Hai
- Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham
- Chennai Express [tmb en Español]
- Black
- Khamoshi: The Musical
- Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam
- Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani
- Kahaani
- U Me Aur Hum
- Bombay Talkies [tmb en Español]
- Hey Ram
- Fanaa
But honestly~ these photo recaps are best [Part 1][Part 2] - Hasee Toh Phasee
- Gulaab Gang
- Moondram Pirai/Sadma
- Shaadi Ke Side Effects
- Aiyyaa
- Dedh Ishqiya [tmb en Español]
- Siddharth
- Goynar Baksho [tmb en Español]
- CityLights
- Kadal
- Bangalore Days [tmb en Español]
- The Hundred-Foot Journey [tmb en Español]
(I know, I know. Not strictly Indian but was produced by Reliance~) - Mardaani [tmb en Español]
- Lucia [tmb en Español]
- Happy New Year [tmb en Español]
- Haider [tmb en Español]
- Jigarthanda
And if you want to keep track of my reviewed Indian films, go here: English, Español.
Honey, I Shrunk the Kids meets Metamorphosis meets Eega.
It’s pretty awesome. You can watch it on AnimatorExpo.com
Last night I got the chance to watch a really great Irish animated short called Coda by Alan Holly, which basically unfolds after a man who dies, and whose soul gets picked up by Death. However, before he leaves, he gets to revisit a lot of what this world holds.
You can check the trailer on Vimeo.
As of lately, India has had a er… quite “dynamic” back and forth in terms of LGBT standings. Though not long ago, Hijras won the right to be legally recognized as a third gender in the country, there’s still this bit of problem when the Supreme Court went back to criminalizing homosexual relationships. But people have been fighting for their right to love~
Writer and filmmaker brothers Satyanshu and Devanshu Singh (who wrote the beautiful poems in Udaan) put together a beautiful (film) poem titled Ishq Ki Ijaazat – Let Love Be my Right, which features a voice-over by actress Huma Qureshi. Brownie points for Huma!
For this and Dedh Ishqiya ;)
Transcript of the English subtitles after the break~
Admittedly, I haven’t been hunting enough Chulpan Khamatova news, but I ran into this photoshoot she did for the current issue of SNC Magazine. Apparently there’s an interview to go with the photos (that feature kids from this agency), but I haven’t been able to find a translatable (or scanned) transcript of it.
I also found out them Khamatova fans are really active on VK.
Interestingly enough, I couldn’t find a photographer credit even though I did find the “assistant photographer” Pavel Vedenkin (Павел Веденькин).
Also, I ran into this kinda awesome (except for all the clips of The Sword Bearer) Chulpan Khamatova’s scattered filmography clip that’s not on YouTube. Nothing beats Khamatova dancing… specially in that veggie suit. PLUS! This animated short titled Anya by Damien O’Connor to support Irish charity To Russia With Love, which features -albeit for just a line or two- Khamatova’s voice. Both voices, if you know what I mean [1].
Here’s the rest of the pictures I found:
