Two Yu Aoi posts one after the other? We truly are living in the new Yu Aoi Era. xD
On the 1000th (!!!!?) issue of Brutus, Yu talks about a skirt I only seem to recognized. MYSTERY SOLVED! Travel Sand is such a vibe, remains one of my favorite Yu Aoi’s photobooks because I loved Yoko Takahashi’s look for it.
Now, if only someone would get her to talk about this beanie, which I’ve been looking for the last twenty years.
Who ended up binge-watching Human Vapor (ガス人間)? Hai! Who’s watching Until the T-shirt Dries (Tシャツが乾くまで) weekly? HAI! Who’s currently obsessed with Southern All Stars’ version of Ellie My Love [1]? HAI.
I still have a few Yu Aoi films to catch up with (I found a copy of 1980!?), but Yu Aoi fans have been fed generously this season with Yu-chan’s open broadcast TV lead since… Osen, perhaps. 2005-2008 seems to have been a Golden Era of Yu-chan workwise. And it feels like we might get a good lead in a slice of life movie soon.
Open broadcast also usually means open promos, Japan is one or two episodes ahead of Netflix’s uploads, but Yu-chan and Kaho did a guest appearance on Bananaman no Sekkaku Gourmet!! (バナナマンのせっかくグルメ!!), where they visited Hokkaido to eat squid, sushi and shio ramen. I haven’t watched the episode yet, but I did find a way to watch it. I haven’t watched a Japanese variety episode, or Yu-chan appearance in one, in what feels like ages.
As pop culture fans, Yu-chan fans and Kaho fans may know, Yu-chan and Kaho (alongside Yamada Yu) played sisters for Canon commercials back in the day. How time flies. Look at those baby faces.
Yu-chan and Kenichi Matsuyama also played non-reciprocated love interests on Don’t Laugh at my Romance, around that same period. Now they get to play husband and wife, in a drama that is turning to be a mystery. Wholesome dorky 40-year-olds look like this. His children are probably in their teens now, but he looks like this. lol
I hope I get to find some of the pictures featured during the credits of Until the T-shirt Dries.
Promotion season has just started for this dream collaboration that all quality J-Film fandom had wished for— a Koreeda series starring Rie Miyazawa, Machiko Ono, Yu Aoi and Suzu Hirose. Loads of crossover fandoms. Even if expectations are too high and are not fully met, it will still be good.
Specially good for Yu-chan and Suzu-chan fans who have been wanting a collaboration since we saw Suzu-chan in Shunji Iwai-verse.
Yu-chan fans are also being fed well with a quick comeback since Yu-chan became a mom and did her quick appearance on NHK’s asadora. Netflix’s Asura (阿修羅のごとく) re-adaptation is also a milestone for Yu-chan because longtime fans know Like Asura is one of Yu-chan’s favorite projects.
The +30min press conference is super fun, and YouTube auto captioning Japanese to English immediate translation is decent enough, even though translate features in browsers don’t seem to be doing well translating Yu’s name for some odd reason.
Netflix only has a 1min clip of the opening (of the show?). I would love love love the name of the song featured, though. I wasn’t able to find any info on that other than it being by Takeshi Yoshida (吉田武史) and Katsura Uehara (上原桂). The show is supposed to be available in early January 2025 (though Netflix has been known to make stuff disappear in different regions).
I’m really really excited about this project.
Buying physical media has been a chore lately, you gotta keep an eye out so you make sure you don’t miss your delivery because, for some reason, people cannot just leave your package any longer.
Plus, distributors are doing physical media less and less. The whole of the Indian Cinema industry has decided to phase out physical media in favor of going all in on OTT and VOD. Even enormous hits like RRR are left with no physical release, even in the West. Even Disney is letting Sony handle its physical media, which seems like the end of an era. Then there’s the whole thing about editing and disappearing media from libraries.
So these are some of the most recent -and not so recent- films that have been added to the physical library. I wish I had more disposable income because there are a bunch of titles (and upgrades) that had been added to the wishlist.
These on top of some Bluray upgrades like Sion Sono’s Love Exposure, Kalatozov’s The Cranes Are Flying, brand new Criterion’s for Los Otros and Laberinto del Fauno. Some random BR UK release for Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?
Also, this post makes it so that this year is the most I’ve blogged since 2020. I’m coming for you 2019. Four posts in Feb’24 is the most continuous blogging since Aug’18.
Having debuted back in 2022 under the name Song Soowoo (송수우) with the edgy-sounding song Love Me or Hate Me [MV], Song is back under the name NINA (니나) [almost impossible to look up without running into other Ninas] with the music video for Love Like This, directed by Jonah George.
Alt link available at Super Sound Bugs!
Which, if you’ve seen the Bugs thumbnail on YouTube, looks Yu Aoi-inspired. I say Yu Aoi-inspired, because it’s mostly Yuki Tanada’s One Million Yen Girl and heavily references Shunji Iwai’s Hana & Alice for obvious shots. However, it also heavily references Iwai’s 1995 Asian hit Love Letter which has inspired a whole generation of filmmakers [1][2] and idols.
… is Amy.
I asked the collective conscious who the biggest Yu Aoi fan was, and it pulled this up.
I’ll take it.
Amy is the biggest Yu Aoi fan.
Hi, guys!
Long time, no see! I found these new photos of Yu-chan the other day, when my computer broke down. I finally managed to get through that hard disk.
These are done by Mana Yamamoto for Lula Magazine [2][3].
It took a while, but
Happy 1000th fan!
If you aren’t following the list yet, you might discover a gem or two!
I haven’t had much time or chance to watch Yuki Tanada’s movies, and I’m still trying to catch up with recent Yu Aoi movies… BUT! Issei Takahashi has really sneaked into my Jdrama catching up. Incredible rise to fame.
No, it’s not a joke either, despite all the people doing double-takes when we all saw her name and her now-husband’s name, comedian Yamasato Ryota (山里亮太), trending worldwide on Twitter.
After apparently two-months of dating, Yu Aoi and Ryota Yamasato submitted their marriage registration on June 3rd. They were apparently introduce by Yu-chan’s Hula Girls co-star Shizuyo Yamazaki (山崎静代), who is also Yamasato’s comedic partner in their comedy duo [1].
Congratulations! Took us all by surprise!
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