Videos

  • Kangana and Irrfan for The Film Companion’s Meeting Ground

    I like these one-on-one interviews, especially when you have performance-oriented people. Too bad Nawazuddin Siddiqui doesn’t feel comfortable speaking English- 1. Maybe these Meeting Ground interviews are always in English. 2. If they’re not necessarily in English, I wouldn’t understand a thing he says in Hindi. xD

    This time Kangana Ranaut and Irrfan Khan are one-on-one after the commercial success of Tanu Weds Manu Returns and Piku, respectively. In the brief 20min interview, they talk about acting nuances with a super brief Acting 101, as well as people’s obsession with Box Office numbers (in this case, making the 100 crore club), the -now- discerning audience (and the massy one), not longer being a working actor who needs to constantly do movies to make a living, being an outsider, PLUS! the strength and vitriol that is social media.

    Happy watching!

    On the Box Office obsession and audience talks, it’s a general worldwide problem, you guys. Last year headlines declared How to Train your Dragon 2 a box office flop when it made “just” $50M USD. Joining the $1B USD club is big on studio heads, and having the most profitable franchise is a plus for actors.

    The audience everywhere is half and half- good movie don’t make money, bad movies that make loads. The audience and press vitriol on review and social media. They’re not solely Bollywood problems ;)

  • Most Girl Crushes and Pink Hair Aspirations

    Weren’t all slightly rebellious girls into Pink’s hair? Also, old school Pink is so much more awesome than adult Pink, though we must all grow up.

    I can’t ever grow my hair that way, so dyed into different colors- it all looked a lot more like Joey Fatone’s than Pink’s xD

  • From the Vault: Puffy 膨風嫂 – Have No Husband

    I randomly ran into this amazingness of 2013 that I had never heard a peep from. Why wasn’t this viral? It’s weird for people, it’s super funny, and it’s got dancing Ahyis~

    I couldn’t find much info on it, a search for Puffy Peng heeds no results, so I’ll add the Chinese characters in. The song is… I suppose in Taiwanese (?) and has some bits of dialog in Mandarin, and is possibly your dance routine next time you hit the (super)market.

    It also spawned this mash-up of Beyonce’s Single Ladies.

  • Bollywood’s Modern 90s Throwback with Dum Laga Ke Haisha

    I think… in contrast to last year, I might be liking Dum Laga Ke Haisha much better than movies like 2 States or Queen. It’s modern like those two dealing with issues, it’s got as strong acting (though Queen had the disadvantage of foreign acting, which always tends to be the weakest link anywhere in the world), but it’s much fresher in style with its honest 90s Bollywood throwback. And thank you gods that there was no bumping electro-dance disco song.

    It’ll need to simmer, but it looks good for YRF at the moment.

  • Zhao Wei’s My Fair Princess

    I didn’t know My Fair Princess (aka. Return of the Pearl Princess, 还珠格格) was a scoundrel/robin-hood type of princess! I’d would’ve watched much sooner otherwise~ Haven’t made it that far yet, though, I was greatly entertained by the first episode. Action and feel looks 90s China outdated, but I don’t feel like Mainland Cdrama has improved dramatically.

    I’m hoping someone fansubs (or at least uploads) Zhao Wei’s newest Cdrama Tiger Mom (虎妈猫爸) [Trailer].

    I made a playlist with all the listed episodes.

  • From the Vault: Khamatova for Andrei Voznesensky

    I ran into this oldie clip of Chulpan Khamatova reciting an extract of an Andrei Voznesensky (Андрея Вознесенского) poem, shot by Peter Shepotinnik (Петра Шепотинника) titled Lirika (Лирика)- though, I don’t know whether that’s an extract of the Voznesensky’s works of the same title. I couldn’t find a literal extract of the poem online that wasn’t taken from the video.

    I did find a transcript of the video.

    Ты мне прозвонилась сквозь страшную полночь:
    “А ты меня помнишь?”

    ну, как позабыть тебя, ангел-звереныш?
    “А ты меня помнишь?”

    твой голос настаивал, стонущ и тонущ –
    “А ты меня помнишь?” “А ты меня помнишь?”
    и ухало эхо во тьме телефонищ –
    рыдало по-русски, in English, in Polish-
    you promise? Astonish…

    а ты меня помнишь?

    А ты меня помнишь, дорога до Бронниц?
    И нос твой, напудренный утренним пончиком?
    В ночном самолете отстегнуты помочи –
    Вы, кресла, нас помните?

    Понять, обмануться, окликнуть по имени:
    А ты меня…

    Помнишь? Как скорая помощь,
    В беспамятном веке запомни одно лишь –
    “А ты меня помнишь?”

    (more…)

  • Jin Chi for Hao Hao Guo

    Jin Chi’s voice was one of my favorites from The Voice of China [1], but as with anyone coming from reality contest shows, her releases had been on the so-so side. This latest song called Hao Hao Guo (好好过, which I’m guessing it’s like saying I’ve Lived Well) gave me a lot of JeA vibes [1]. Those two should collab in the future.

    Jin Chi’s voice, though, it’s a breaking point. I love it.

  • Oh, wow~ Isabella Leong is Really Back!

    It’s only a couple of days more, and the movie will finally open [1], but here’s the Rene Liu song that’s promoting the film full of feels~

  • GaIn + Amber for Apple @ Inkigayo

    This is probably the most gender-bending I’ll ever see from Korea xD Though I do feel Amber’s rapping isn’t as fluid as Jay Park’s here, I can’t help it seeing biases working together.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1FGuQYachA

    Also, Amber has earned her tag.

  • Han Hong’s THE Singer with Heavenly Road

    Han Hong brought out the big guns with the most perfect rendition of Heavenly Road (天路) [1] I’ve seen her do. You know she means business when she pulls that song out, so she -of course- was crowned the winner of this season of I Am a Singer. Well, it was about time! LOL

    I still wish she and Meav could collaborate in a song together.