Hani Does It Again

  Remember a couple of years back when I linked a fan-shot concert video of EXID’s “I Feel Good” because I was so impressed and blown away by how cute, energetic and passionate member HANI’s performance was? Well, looks like the dazzling Hani has done it again with EXID’s latest song “Up and Down”!
  The girls’ single came out in August and they’d already long since wrapped up promotions for it, but an amazing thing happened- a stunning Hani-focused fancam live performance from October began circulating, and it became such a wildy viewed clip that the video surpassed an incredible ONE MILLION (and counting) views…and, unbelievably, sent EXID’s Up and Down single BACK into the charts!

 As of today, the song is number 9 in the top ten, simply AMAZING for a song that has already wrapped promotions! So surprising, but once you check out the clip for yourself, you can easily see why, with such stellar dance moves and such a solid, catchy song! Recently, the girls have taken to performing the song “guerilla” style, out on the streets to show the fans their appreciation for the re-ignition of interest in the song, so you can expect a whole new slew of fancam videos soon!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

A Han YeSeul Sighting

 I was just watching an episode of Running Man from a couple of weeks back, and found myself completely smitten with actress Han YeSeul. Seeing her for the first time I was stunned by her beautiful looks, and once the show got started, I fell in love with her adorably manic-pixie-ish ways as well!

This particular episode, the theme was White Knights vs Black Knights, where you won "clues" as to who is really a White or Black agent. YeSeul was appointed Queen of the White Knights and it was so much fun watching her wrestle and wrangle key members into her team so as to end the race with completely White Agents on her team- Each time she got new clues as to each Running Man's secret status, it sent her systematically switching people back and forth, and she was so animated and cute spazzing aboutthe details as she worked on the problem!

I've heard Han YeSeul's name in passing many, many times, but after this Running Man episode I'm curious about finally seeing some of the dramas she's been in, and it looks like "Birth Of A Beauty" (the drama that the guests had come on to promote) might be the way to go! I only hope she's half as charming as she was on this RM Episode!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Life With the Ohtas in "Judge!"

Kitagawa Keiko and Satoshi Tsumabuki in "Judge!"

  Have to say that after watching the morose and meandering Kitagawa Keiko/Fukada Kyoko psychological thriller “Roommate,” the other week, I’ve been dying to see Keiko in a more fun role, and here we have her in the wacky comedy “Judge!” along with Saoshi Tsumabuki as two CM agency employees playing husband and wife while attending the prestigious Santa Monica CM Grand Prix in America. 

 Appearing as "Mr and Mrs. Ohta"

Their agency has sent them to push a commercial their company made hawking chikuwa. Only problem is, the chikuwa commercial is just about the worst CM ever made, and though chances are less than zero that it stands a chance at the top spot, Ohta Kiichiro (Tsumabuki) has been ordered by his superiors to make the CM win…or come home without a job!

Ordered by his Boss (Etsushi Toyokawa) to go to the Grand Prix...

...Even though Kiichiro doesn't have a clue what to do!

Don't worry, Hikari has the situation in hand!

 Thankfully for him, Keiko has agreed to come along with him, and as the smart and capable Ohta Hikari, is in full strategic mode (just the cool and savvy kind of character that I love when she plays), and with her guidance, she’ll get him to snap out of his normal “goodhearted”  persona and teach him to use every trick in the book to get their chikuwa commercial in the final selection!

Beautiful Schemer

An irritated Associate

“Judge!” is clearly Satoshi Tsumabuki’s movie and Keiko has an admittedly lesser role in it, but every scene she’s in, she just lights up with that sassy energy of hers! Whenever a scene would play, I’d find myself delightfully rewinding her parts over and over- Man, I do love this girl so much!

For Love and Chikuwa

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Girls Generation Notes

I’ve been watching clips of Girls Generation’s Japan Tour from back in August of this year, and though the girls are in stellar form and look and sound terrific, it is with obvious regret and bittersweetness that I watch this, knowing that one month after this concert, Jessica would be out of the group.

Even so, I am so, so grateful that this footage was shot before my beloved Sica left, and that I was able to see just about every song performed from their last great album LOVE AND PEACE with her in it. That was the tragic thing about Sulli leaving f(x) when she did (if, in fact, she HAS left) because I never got to see many of the RED LIGHT album songs performed. At least I can see Jessica singing all these great songs with all her might with her 8 sisters once more!

 Do The Catwalk, Galaxy Supernova, All My Love is For You, My Oh My, LIPS, Karma Butterfly, these songs are so freaking good, and as usual with ANY Girls Generation live performance, the choreography and vocals blew me away! But damn, it kept reminding me how awesome this group is as a 9 member unit and how it will never be the same for me again... I know the rest of SNSD will continue to release great music in the future (and I’ll continue to purchase and support them), but they can never fill the hole Sica has left. She was just too important for me, not only in Girls’ Generation, but in K-Pop as a whole!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

A Yamaguchi Momoe Gift To Myself

 As a modern fan of Momoe Yamaguchi, my catalog of Momoe albums exists totally in Boxed CD Collections like Momoe Premium, Momoe Premium Live and the Momoe Update collection. Though I can boast that I have all of her released albums and singles on CD, the artistic side of me has always lamented not owning any “real” Momoe records: i.e.: Vinyl Albums and Vinyl 45” Singles.

 Though it would be crazy to try and get ALL of her back albums in vinyl (especially since I already have them in CD), I’ve always wanted to get at least my favorite albums from her... Sometimes I’d see favorite Momoe albums or single go up for auction online, and feel a tug of longing on my heart…"someday, someday...."

When Sony Music originally released MOMOE PREMIUM, they’d left out her singles and b-sides, an oversight corrected with the MOMOE PREMIUM UPDATE. Having been listening to the first box set’s albums incessantly for quite awhile before I could get my hands on the Premium Update, by the time I got it, these singles, B-sides and unreleased tracks were like manna from Heaven for a starving Momoe fan like me!

  Like most J-pop releases, the b-sides (or, as they call them, coupling tracks) are true collectable gems as they are songs that are not only not on any album, but are usually just as good as the lead single and sometimes even better! So many of these songs have become HUGE faves of mine, tunes like INTRODUCTION: HARU, CYNICAL and probably my all-time fave B-Side of hers, the pop masterpiece “Shinsenjou No ARIA”, the flipside of her equally stunning “Otomezakyu”. This was ONE single I just HAD to have!

Going on ebay recently, I was excited when I found a Japan dealer who not only had Otomezakyu, but a handful of her OTHER singles as well, among them the stellar CARNIVAL, (with its the aforementioned b-side Introduction Haru) Zettai Zetsume, Imitation Gold, Be Silent, and my favorite A-Side of hers, “Yumesaki Annainin”! 

They even had Momoe’s “Rock N Roll Widow”, which, though the B-side “Apocalypse Love” WAS on an album, (the excellent MOEBIUS GAME) was such an iconic 45 that I HAD to have it anyway! Needless to say, I bought them ALL up and HALLELUJAH, just today, my package came in, and as you can see, THEY’RE FREAKING BEAUTIFUL!

An OBVIOUS plus about having these singles is how cool the sleeves are! Picture sleeves as a rule are nice to look at (seeing as they’re there to promote purchasing), but Momoe’s are a step up because she is so freaking pretty on them, I mean my GOSH, look at how she looks on the cover of Yumesaki Annainin, she is so, so, damn BEAUTIFUL! I could just eat her up.

Another thing that’s so interesting is how DIFFERENT she looks in each of these 45’s. Like the Beatles(yes, I’m going there), Momoe was active for only about 7 years (Beatles 1962-70, Momoe 1972-80), but just like them, managed to musically advance from album to album in giant strides, so much that her early sunshiney, bubble-gummy output barely resembles her later work which was more serious, melancholy and hard-rock edged… and this is evident just by how she LOOKS on the sleeves! From bright wide eyed cutie to dark, smouldering siren , Momoe is the TOTAL package!

Sure, for a person like me whose phonograph has long ceased to function in any proper sense, you could say that these 7” platters are a fairly useless commodity, but as a COLLECTOR, these seven inch gems are a priceless addition to my Momoe Yamaguchi collection! I don’t know, maybe only someone who grew up in the 70’s can know the real thrill of getting a new 45 inch single of a song you’ve just fell in love with off the radio, holding the sleeve in your hands and poring over the credits as you spun the disc over and over and OVER again on the phonograph…that’s how I felt unpacking these treasures this morning!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Revisiting "The Road Home"

  It’s been years and years since I’ve watched the incredible 1999 Zhang Yimou movie “The Road Home”…I suppose part of the reason I’ve been putting it off so long is because I’m always such a tearful WRECK after seeing it! But on this cloudy, rainy afternoon, I just couldn’t get it out of my head and knew it was time to dust it off and take it in all over again!

On paper, The Road Home seems like a very basic story: Small town girl falls for big- city man, romance ensues, but that is just its starting point. The tale of Zhao Di, a small country girl who become smitten with a young man who arrives in the late 1950’s to teach IS filled with love and romance, but more than that, this movie is simply STEEPED with old-time Chinese customs and “how things used to be” nostalgia, and all set up against a backdrop of the beautiful China countryside in all its glorious seasons, rustic orange autumns and chilly grey winters.

The Road Home begins in present day with a middle-aged man named Yusheng making his way back to his old hometown. His father, Luo Changyu, the town schoolteacher for years, has passed away, and the townsfolk need to talk to him about funeral arrangements. It seems that he died far away from home trying to get funding for a new school, and needs to be brought back to town. Only thing is, Yusheng’s mother wants him to be brought back on foot, his coffin carried by bearers across the fields and roads.

They urge Yusheng to convince his mother that this old, superstitious way is impossible for the elders who are still in town to undertake, and ask him to get her to agree with  following alongside a driven car. She is adamant that the only way for her husband to find his way home is to return by foot. As he talks to her, the story of how his mother and his father met unfolds…
As the flashback tale starts, we are treated to a humble lifestyle of yesteryear, where women were primarily in charge of the food, and because of superstition, were not even allowed to come near the construction of a new building for fear of bad luck. 

A school is being constructed for the new arrival, Luo Changyu, a teacher from the city who is going to be the town's very first educator. There is excitement about the town and all have gathered to watch, among them the bright eyed and innocent Zhao Di...

It’s here that Di falls for Changyu and as one of the women given the task of cooking,  begins putting her heart into every meal she makes for him. Every day she sets out her homecooked dish amongst all the other women's plates, and each time she is nervous with hope that he will pick her dish out of the rest! Slaving away each morning to cook, it is just fascinating watching her prepare her meals in such an old fashioned way!

 It’s a joy watching how things were done on a day-to-day basis back then- From fetching water from a well to knitting clothing and banners using a loom, the old fashioned way of getting and making things is such a quaint thing to"experience"!

There’s this one scene concerning a Ceramic Bowl that is the perfect example of this film’s wonderful blending of love, tradition and culture… Di is saddened because Changyu has suddenly been called out of town. 

 There was a ceramic bowl she loved (simply because it was the one he ate out of), but she accidentally broke it when she was chasing after him with dumplings for his journey. She is devastated, but one day her kind mother calls in a pottery repairman to mend the bowl.

 I can’t TELL you how FASCINATING this scene was to watch as the expert craftsman used his ancient tools to fix the dish. “The nails I use will be more expensive than a brand new bowl” he tells the mother, but she knows it is important for Di’s heart. And sure enough, when she opens the cupboard days later and sees the mended bowl, she sheds tears of gratitude for her mother’s kind act. 

Another extremely powerful aspect of The Road home is the MUSIC, so haunting and mesmerizing, Sometimes when I’d think about certain scenes, I’d think to myself, “gee, that person was simply walking down the road, I wonder why that was so emotional to watch?”, then when I’d actually sit down to see it, I’d realize that in a lot of the scenes, it was the emotionally uplifting and winsome music that just grabbed my heart and made me fall apart!

And of course, I cannot go without mentioning the most important part of the movie, actress Zhang Ziyi herself as the main character Di. Oh my GOSH, how much warmth and emotion can someone project through only a gaze, a smile or a simple tilt of the head! 

She does it all, without saying anything in most of the scenes, you are with her through every step and feeling the same feeling she is- as she sits impatiently waiting for her dish to be chosen, or shuffles nervously outside of the school, your heart is just melting watching her! And the scenes of her waiting on the side of the road each day just to get a glimpse of the “new teacher” in town is some of the most ADORABLE and HEART-ACHINGINGLY SWEET  cinematic moments of all time!!!

One other thing I should mention is that, unlike other movies, it is the PRESENT DAY which is shot in grainy black-and-white, and it is the PAST that is shot in glorious, lush color. I remember movie critic Roger Ebert noting that that makes sense, because as we get older, the present seems humdrum and grey, while the cherished memories of our youth gets more magical, vibrant, and beautiful with each day!

PS: I remember after just seeing the movie for the first (and second) time, my sister was asking for some “good movies to watch”. I immediately suggested The Road Home, thinking she was sure to appreciate the things this movie had to offer. I was shocked when she handed the movie back to me the following week, saying “Meh, I couldn’t get into it, I’m not a fan of these Harlequin Romance Novel Movies.” Wow, was that ALL she got out if it? She admitted to only watching the first half hour or so, but boy, I really have a hard time getting how someone could watch such a beautifully crafted tale like this and only come away with that summation...she should really take another look!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com