Archives For shunji iwai

Found these ;P I think most of us know that Hana & Alice was expanded from the Kit Kat Anniversary CMs. xD Some cute moments here and there… if you haven’t seen the film, what are you waiting for?

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I haven’t used a cellphone since someone stole mine nearly 3 years ago, but I’ve seen it moving towards it. I mean, I still think it’s gonna be tricky watching the show on my phone while making sure no one is following me to mug me.

Stories on forums that became premises for films, blogs that became books, etc. After all, everyone’s got something to say. Then came the days when Marketing caught up with technology, and we began with viral videos. We love viral videos, you’ve probably received thousands of emails from different people all sending you the same goddamn video.

Then there’s Mobile Phone Dramas. Sort of a hybrid between a series and commercials.. or other PR material, maybe a mix between short films and commercials that end up becoming a movie… like the Kit Kat short films by Shunji Iwai starring Yu Aoi and Anne Suzuki that became the film Hana & Alice. And so came Shunji Iwai again, this time with LISMO Channel and their nine 5-minute episodes titled Koibana ~ SUIKA to Bansoukou ~ (恋ばな ~スイカと絆創膏~) directed by Kodomo no Kodomo director Koji Hagiuda.

Iwai, who is producing, has mentioned the high quality of this drama, and seems to be interested in turning this idea into a feature film. In reality, anyone can say whatever they want to say, but if anyone can make a Phone Drama and turn it into a film is Iwai. I mean, after turning Kit Kat into Hana & Alice, I believe anything can be possible.

But how far have we gone… 45 minutes of Koibana may turn into a feature film, short stories become nearly-three-hour films… Facebook becomes a movie, episode recaps as if they were on Facebook. What’s next? Twitter movies? After all, there are Twitter accounts for television characters already. Yes, definitely… a Twitter movie in the future. Anyone wants to discuss a story idea?

There’s already people on LiveJournal doing roleplay (though with real people), we can make one work, right? Anyone want to pitch in? It’s casting time! LOL Just gathering people who have the time to pretend they’re a character, and see where we go. xD

While Asia is taking product placement and marketing to a whole new level, here… they try to shove ads and other silly commercials on printed media. And more commercial time. And more clicking banners.

Also, I might need to add a new category besides Television. xD

A regular person would have 8 or 9 films, on this video you’ll get to see clips for 27 films (though a few of those are just blink and miss them, or just a still). I’ve seen most but 6 films, I think. I’m still looking for 1980, and JUKAI.

Plus, this is the best way to choose what Yu film you wanna watch~ xD

[iframe src=”https://www.tudou.com/v/ozVm6oSk6p8/v.swf” width=”480″ height=”400″]

check post tags for movie info. some missing because they’re not on this blog.
by the way, Ikechan looks sooooo weird. I wonder if the movie is any good.

Well, I don’t seem to have seen many films this time.
Hmm… I wonder why. I still haven’t made a countdown
of the music I’ve been listening to, so maybe I’ve been
busy with that. xD You know me, if I listen to much music,
I don’t have the time to watch many films, and if I read too
much, I don’t have the time to do either. LOL

So let’s begin… Continue Reading…

xD

I just bought the whole McDull collection over at YesAsia xD, complete with a pre-order for the latest McDull film – Kung Fu Kindergarten… or McDull Ding Ding Dong <- buahahaha.

my mom will approve of that, though. She loved McDull.

And because YesAsia was offering extra special offers, I bought (finally) Battle Royale and Kim Ki Duk’s Breath, I just wished they had marked 3-Iron as well xD hahaha

crap, and then I wonder why I’m always pissed ass broke, eh?

And still, wanna buy more stuff xD – Wanna complete my Shunji Iwai stuff with Swallowtail Butterfly, which you should totally watch, because it’s oh so awesome.

3 a.m. online shopping it’s oh so dangerous~~~

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.

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~~~

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It’s YAM Time #5!

August 15, 2009 — 8 Comments

LOL
Cheap Mambo #5 mention xD

Anyway~~ Here it is!!!
After much liver disease~~~
YAM005

with Yu on the cover!
Happy early Bday, Yu~
Omedetou!!

YAM005

In it, you’ll read more about Harry Potter 6 (against much of anyone’s Harmonian hearts, lol), Transformers 2, Moon (yeah, that last line kills me), and Public Enemies~ Snap! There’s also DBSK concert review, SNSD (which I always get a typo), Bibi, Seo Taiji, Clazziquai, Popular and more~~~

Head over here to download~~~

It feels like FOREVER.
Just like Paris, Je t’Aime.
When did I first blog the trailer??
Nearly a year ago~~~

New York I Love You Poster

How do you feel about the poster? Better than the first image, I think. But Paris, Je t’Aime pawns.

Just like before, the collection of shorts has loads of people. Natalie Portman has two shorts in it, one as an actress on Mira Nair’s short, and one directing (exciting!) – most exciting? Shunji Iwai’s short!! Though it’s with Orlando Bloom, Shunji Iwai makes movie magic oftentimes~ And I’ve been waiting new Shunji Iwai films since… since… since Hana & Alice which was released in 2004.

Not like I waited since 2004, since I just discovered him. LOL

I’ve hated #4 this past weeks. That number is an unlucky number…

Anyway, this is my 4th contribution to the Japanese Cinema Blogathon, if you haven’t been reading… which I hope you have had~~~ because that’s the whole point of this blogathon, right? To promote J-Films…

Which brings me to today’s topic.

First, Your Friends~ Then the World!

How to Make People Watch Japanese Cinema

It’s all about compromise. God knows I’ve tried so hard to get my friends interested in it, because sometimes it can get boring talking to people about it just online… *sighs* I’m sure I come off as pushy, etc~ and many of them won’t budge. I even offer them films to watch for free… they only need to come over, and that’s that.

Last year I had a Foreign Film gathering (they chose the foreign theme, anyway), two of the nine films scheduled that day were Tetsuya Nakashima’s Memories of Matsuko – mainly because I’m crazy about that film, and I had just watched it a few weeks prior – and Shunji Iwai’s Hana & Alice, because Iwai-san and Yu Aoi is lurv. Sadly, no one came on time to watch Matsuko (only one friend arrived… halfway through the film), and I highly doubt they made any connection with Hana & Alice.

Needless to say, I’m setting up another film gathering, though I haven’t made them choose themes yet. I have a few lists I’ve made and they contain a couple of Japanese films. Let’s hope one of them stays this year! *crosses fingers*

Anyway… you don’t want to come off as pushy – and like I said above… it’s all about compromise.

  • You have a friend who wants to make you watch something of his own?? Maybe he wants to get you into Lost, Heroes… or Battlestar Gallactica? Give in, tell him you will watch a season (or maybe a few episodes, depending on your willingness to compromise) in exchange he should watch a film or two.

This will make your friend feel like you are not pushing him to watch something, instead you’re just exchanging interests… and who knows, you might end up enjoying both those hobbies.

  • When you blog about it, mix things up a little. We blog about Japanese Cinema, but in the end people who already like Japanese Cinema read your posts.

The point of this blogathon is to promote Japanese Cinema, but we are the ones dealing and discussing. I mentioned this blogathon to a friend, and she had no idea why she should care. *doh!* – combine the idols with your favorite Japanese Directors, and get them at least skimming through your posts. Make a western comparison… got something to write about vampire films? psych ward films? I mean Clive Owen has said that he wants to work with Wong Kar Wai and Ang Lee again… that means some teenage Owen fans would be at least be interested in checking out some more work by both directors.

How about a crazy collaboration between Johnny Depp and Tetsuya Nakashima? Or Juliette Binoche and Shunji Iwai?

  • Make a fuzz about collaborations. No matter how good or bad you may think they are.

I made a fuzz about Tokyo! – I kind of really worship Michel Gondry’s visual style… then there was Ryo Kase, and Yu Aoi. – I’ve also been making a fuzz over New York, I Love You because it’s got Shunji Iwai’s short with Orlando Bloom. Now, I don’t like Orlando Bloom (I’ve only ever liked him as Legolas LOL), but if there are people who enjoy the short… there is a small chance that a teenage Bloom fan might check out Iwai’s past work.

  • Introduced them with what they like.

My dad likes comedies… and action films, but well~ he also happens to like Asian culture, LOL’ so maybe I’m being a little unfair here. Anyway, I’ve made him watch films like Linda Linda Linda, Matsuko, Swing Girls, Tekkon, Kamikaze Girls… then one day he brought me Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams. *laughs* I was surprised myself, but my dad had a newly-found interest in Japanese films (mostly the epic kind though… xD)

and to just not have FOUR bullet points here…

  • … just keep pushing~

Keep bugging people. Someone will need to budge, right? LOL