Interests:Asian movies and music, napping, anime, ice cream, Pokemon Stadium, Celtics, Red Sox, Harry Potter, Taiwanese boybands, supermarkets, bologna Expertise:Walking, rambling, laughing, humming cartoon theme songs, burning stuff, curling up into a little little ball
Today is my off Saturday and I spent the duration of it watching (a) Crows: Episode 0, this time with English subs; (b) 5 episodes of Code Blue; (c) 5 episodes of Osen; (d) random episode bits of Gokusen 3, Rookies, and Honey and Clover; (e) random bits of Olympic coverage; and (f) the bonus discs of L change the WorLd and Big River. Because of said couch potatoism, I did not vacuum, did not leave my apartment, and (again) fabricated meals out of what's left in my fridge and cabinets.
Yamapi's hair is awful and he's getting more and more expressionless by the day, though it works for this role (the expressionless part, not the perm). Really liking Code Blue so far. I just have a thing for medical dramas.
In other non-news, this month I need to extend my visa again, bringing me to two plus years in Hong Kong at the same job, and apparently sustaining myself solely on Coke and DVDs. I truly believe that watching movies generates calories, because there is no other logical explanation for why I'm still alive. It is also the only way I can justify a certain addiction of mine. I think I might actually save money if I switch to crack.
In the month of July, I purchased:
Movies Bangkok Love Story (gay Thai film ... giggle... ) Boys Love (JP gay film ... giggle ...) CJ7 2-Disc Deluxe Edition Crows Episode 0 (Taiwan Version has English subs yo) Do Over (kinda obscure Taiwan film) God Man Dog (read my editor's pick here) Fishing Luck (kinda obscure Taiwan film) Flaming Brothers Remastered (not a gay film; old Chow Yun Fat movie) Kill Bill 1 + 2 (Korea Version set looks pretty) Kisarazu Cat's Eye Koizora (Malaysia Version has English subs yo) I Don't Want to Sleep Alone (dir. Tsai Ming Liang) L change the WorLd (2-Disc Hong Kong Version) Masked Rider The Next (HK Deluxe Edition comes with Kamen Rider scarf!) Ms. Cupid (kinda obscure/silly Taiwan short film) Reunion (random HK indie destined to gather dust) Shamo Sorry Baby (dir. Feng Xiaogang)
Music Always Open Your Heart (Mayday x 7-11 compilation) at17 - Over the Rainbow Cherry Filter - Orange Road David Huang - The Essential Deli Spice Vol. 1-3 Dou Wei - Best Of Evan Yo - Search GReeeeN - A, Domo, Ohisashiburi desu Hins Cheung - Urban Emotions Hins Cheung 2008 Concert DVD Fan Wei Chi - Faces of FanFan (read my editor's pick here) Khalil Fong - Wonderland Live 2008 Kinki Kids - We are (Phi)' 30 Tokyo Dome Concert DVD Little Fairy OST Live Concert for Beijing 2008 Olympic Games Mayday - Self Titled Mayday - People Life, Ocean Wild Mayday - Ai Qing Wan Shui My Little Airport x Lyfe Music (My Little Airport + Chet Lam crossover) Orange Range - Panic Fancy Peter Ho - I Want to Tell You PIA - Urban Explorer (read my editor's pick here) Pong Nan - Nan Rynn Lim - Homely Life Seo Tai Ji - 8th Atomos Part Moai Show Luo Concert DVD Sodagreen The Moment Concert DVD Southern All Stars - I am Your Singer single (Limited Edition comes with ghetto happi!) Spitz 1991-1997 Complete Single Collection SS501 - Find Super Junior M - Me Deluxe Edition Tang Dynasty - Knight of Romantic Terry Lin - The Essential Xin Le She - Sunrise
TV Detroit Metal City OVA Preview DVD (first 2 episodes) Eagle Shooting Heroes (Hu Ge + Ariel Lin) Royal Tramp (the Huang Xiaoming one) Walk The Lines (TVB program about modern Chinese literature)
In the month of July, I also may or may not have flown especially to Taiwan to see Miyavi in concert
Shelley's goal for August is to spend less on vapid Asian entertainment. So far I'm doing great because I went to the Fama concert, watched the Stephy Tang lingerie movie, and have bought such essentials as the Urusel Yatsura Movie Boxset, Big Bang's 3rd album, Chet Lam's theater play DVD, and Vol. 1 of Aniyoko (I don't even know what this is; I just want to see the box in person). Did I mention the Summer IFF (International Film Festival) starts next week? Festivale!
Other things Shelley wastes money on:
Hello Kitty dolls from McDonald's
Top: Xiao Gui's 2nd photo/drawing book, Mayday Born to Love photo book, The Glorious Day by Han Han Bottom: Crystal Boys photo book, movie tie-in book for "Attitude" (the Taiwan Beer basketball documentary), Kan Shang Qu Hen Mei by Wang Shuo
Multiple copies of same vapid entertainment magazine so I can get the different free boy band fans. (I actually ended up buying this magazine 3 times; gave 3rd fan to someone else.)
Q: What do you do when it's 4 am and you still can't fall asleep? A: Watch boy band MVs on YouTube. Was there life before YouTube? I think not.
Tell me again why Big Bang is trying to break into the Japan market with English albums. And are those cornrows on TOP?!
Big Bang - With U
Catchy, but don't they realize this is what Japanese boy bands are supposed to look like?
Hey! Say! Jump - Dreams Come True
Oh dear, there's a hula hoop.
See, Fahrenheit knows what they're doing. You can't go wrong with the cringe ballad in bad Japanese I can't believe there's going to be a whole album of this coming soon.
Fahrenheit - Stay With You
Japan boy bands are to pre-fab fuzziness as Korean boy bands are to ill-fitting faux hip-hop fashion. Behold Shinee, the latest group to fall off the SM Entertainment assembly line of decreasing returns:
Shinee - Replay
Just to hedge their sales, SM has also made another Super Junior sub-unit called Super Junior Happy (what the...) with Lee Teuk, Shin Dong, Kang In, Sung Min, Eun Hyuk, and Ye Sung i.e. all the members they didn't send to China minus the two most popular. That makes three Super Junior albums in a month. I know there are 13 members +2 to go around, but give my wallet a break.
If they're calling themselves Super Junior Happy, then this album better be damn happy. I won't accept anything less than Kanjani8 level happy.
2008 is shaping up to be a great concert year. So far I've seen Jacky Cheung, A-yue Chang (special guest: Sandy Lam), Show Luo (special guest: Lollipop!), Chet Lam (special guest: Jonathan Lee!!!), and my fifth concert of the year is...
WU BAI!
Wu Bai, by the way, is #2 on my list of singers I have to see live before I die. Which means I am a giant step closer to dying in peace. I was sad I left Taiwan without seeing Wu Bai but it worked out well because there's no way I would have been able to get tickets so close to the stage for a Wu Bai concert in Taiwan. I was in the seventh row, middle. That's only four rows behind Kenny B. And six rows behind Brigitte Lin. BRIGITTE LIN. *swish hands* BRIGITTE LIN.
Wu Bai and...Luo Da You! The Wu Bai concert just keeps giving...sniffle...
Next two concerts are also this month: David Tao and Khalil Fong, two singers Shelley liketh very very much (squealing and exclamation points are reserved for middle-aged rockers and fluffy boybands).
Also happening this month, this week to be exact: HONG KONG FILM FESTIVAL. I started out with 37 films, but they've been dropping like flies - 2 cancelled, 2 I can't make now because of the above concerts, but barring other happenings, I'm down for 33 films. Shelley is excited about Chang "turns out I didn't disappear from the ends of the earth" Tso-chi's new movie, "I Just Didn't Do It" and "Sad Vacation", new films from Hong Sang-Soo and Yoji Yamada, and the Edward Yang retrospective. Shelley is very tired.
My Film Festival Schedule 3/18 - Candy Rain 7:15pm, Drifting Flowers 9pm (TW lesbian movie night) 3/19 - Mongol 7pm (Asano Tadanobu as Genghis Khan!) 3/20 - I Just Didn't Do It 6:45pm (Suo Masayuki) 3/21 - Night and Day 3pm (Hong Sang-Soo's new film) 3/22 - Help Me Eros 12:30pm (Lee Kang Sheng...zzzzz), Wrestling with a Memory 3pm (JP), City Without Baseball 6pm (HK), Beseiged City 9pm (HK) 3/23 - Home Song Stories 12:30pm (AUS), Run Papa Run 6pm (HK) 3/24 - Kabei 3pm (Yoji Yamada's new film); DAVID TAO CONCERT 8:15pm 3/26 - In Love We Trust 7:15pm (Wang Xiaoshuai's new film) 3/27 - The Way We Are 7:15pm (Ann Hui's new film) 3/28 - Winds of September: Taiwan 7:15pm 3/29 - Sad Vacation 12:30pm (Aoyama Shinji's latest), God Man Dog 6pm (TW) 3/30 - Soul of a Demon 12:30pm (Chang Tso-chi's new film!!), Sex is No Laughing Matter 6pm (L!) 3/31 - KHALIL FONG CONCERT 8pm 4/1 - Lost, Indulgence 10pm (Zhang Yibai's new film) 4/2 - Winds of September: Hong Kong 7:15pm 4/3 - Crossroads (CH) 4/4 - Xiao Jia Goes Home 12:15pm (documentary on Jia Zhangke), Love is Elsewhere 6pm (HK) 4/5 - Season of Snow 10:30am (JP), Lovers on the Road 3pm (HK/CH) 4/6- Coffee or Tea 6pm (HK) 4/12 - Taipei Story 2pm, Brighter Summer's Day 7pm (Edward Yang retrospective) 4/19 - In Our Time 8:15pm 4/27 - A Confucian Confusion 1:30pm; That Day, On The Beach 6pm, The Winter of 1905 9pm
Er, somewhere in there, I work a full-time job. And freelance. And I commute 3-4 hours a day because I live on a mountain on a fishing island with no cars.
Based on DVD release, so includes late 2006 films and excludes films not released on DVD or released theatrically after October 2007. Shelley doesn't watch horror, so those are also MIA.
Im Kwon-Taek's 100th film came and went with under-the-radar fanfare, which is unfortunate because it's an aching, lyrical piece with some truly beautiful photography. It doesn't surpass its predecessor, Sopyonje, but it's an accomplished follow-up.
A remarkably watchable film from Korea's perennially peeved auteur Kim Ki-Duk. I don't think that people in Korea lined up for this one either. Breath leaves behind the darkness and violence (for the most part) for a quirky film that's at times almost disturbingly bright and cheerful. Arthouse darling (plus incredibly hot) Chang Chen plays a mute, suicidal death row inmate who strikes up an odd romance with an odder housewife, played by Park Ji-Ah. Priceless moment: Chang Chen in giant sunglasses staring blankly at camera.
Femme Fatale Hilarious black comedy about a prima donna actress who accidentally kills her many boyfriends in ridiculous manners. Ye Ji-Won is quickly becoming my new favorite person.
Korea's best romantic comedy in a good long while. Park Chan-Wook is as good at being happy and whimsical as he is angry and violent. Good acting, cute story, great art direction, completely entertaining.
I must admit I have a thing for dysfunctional family films. Not sure what that says about me. Anyway, this lovely little film stars dewy-eyed veteran Lee Dae-Geun as a father seeking reconciliation with his estranged children. They meet for the mother's death memorial, quarrel, quarrel more, and spill bitterness. Most of the film goes something like that, with the appropriate flashbacks and makeups, while the end yields a very from-left-field reveal.
The story of a young and dour seminarian's (mostly internal) struggle with faith. Leading man Seo Jang-Won (see left) looks like the Korean Tsui Tin Yau. How's that for a ringing endorsement? But good film. Conveys clergy wavering in their commitment to the calling but doesn't waver in its discourse on faith.
I didn't particularly like Secret Sunshine, perhaps because it's too long, perhaps because it's great but in a rather manipulative way. But it is undeniably a great film. Jeon Do-Yeon acts up a storm as a woman who loses her husband, son, and then mind, and her performance alone already warrants a watch.
Quiet drama about an elephant zookeeper and the internal and external conflicts he faces because of his disability. Korea's been shooting blanks on previous winners like gangster films and romantic comedies, but they're doing a good job on these small indie dramas.
Photogenically graying Ji Jin-Hee plays a political activist released after 17 years of imprisonment, only to find himself in a very different world. Informed that his lover (Yeum Jung-Ah) has passed away, he returns to the countryside where they spent time together, and he discovers her diary. The events of the past slowly unveil on screen in a mix of quiet romance and screaming protests.
True story about kidnapping doesn't make an effort to do more than convey the case, but it does a very good job at it. An effectively emotionally grueling affair.
Also Worth Your Time May 18 - Should be top 10 just by force of its powerful historical memory, but broadly written melodrama and unrealistic characters renders the film too obvious. Ad Lib Night (2006) - See review here. No Regret (2006) - Kind of cliched, affecting, and sometimes cute gay love story. Paradise Murdered - Serial murder thriller on a remote island. Yay. The Railroad - Slow, but effective film about two troubled strangers who end up stranded together at the last train station on a blizzard's night and help each other heal. Some interesting border commentary thrown in. Happiness - Hur Jin Ho revisits One Fine Spring Day, only with more melodrama and less likable characters portrayed by very likable actors (Lim Soo-Jung, Hwang Jung-Min). Wonder Years - The unexcitingly realistic life of a dour teenage girl. Jaurim's Kim Yoon-Ah cameos as a singer. Pleasantly boring indie film. Driving with My Wife's Lover - The best of last year's cheating spouse movies. Mission Possible: Kidnapping Granny - Yes, I was skeptical as well but this caper comedy about a couple doofy guys who kidnap a spunky granny is legitimately funny. Boys of Tomorrow - Flawed, but engaging and affecting enough story of wayward youth from My Generation director Noh Dong Seok Yobi The Five Tailed Fox - Not as good as My Beautiful Girl Mari due to overdone story. But it's animated, it's pretty. I'm there. The Ghost Theater - Not The Rocky Horror Picture Show as promised, and musical sequences are a bit disappointing. But still a bizarre sight to behold. Big Bang - Tag team of grumpy Gam Woo-Sung and wacky Kim Su-Ro plus unpredictable escalating story Operation Makeover - Also known as the film Ko So-Young did instead of 200 Pounds Beauty. Ouch. But really this one's better. Time travel. Lee Beom-Soo dancing to Deux. What else could one ask for? See my review here.
Underwhelming The Show Must Go On - Song Kang-Ho kicks ass, but this overblown gangster melodrama disappoints, despite occasional flashes of brilliance. A Love - Kwak Kyung-Taek dips back into the cookie jar for gangster drama. Busan accents and Kim Min-Joon acting insane not enough to save film from its ridiculous melodrama designs. Hwang Jin Yi - An arbitrary, glossy commercial cinema take on the life of Korea's most famous gisaeng. Song Hye-Kyo and Yoo Ji-Tae not enough to save film from utter lack of meaning. My Son- Jang Jin makes a rare stumble with overtalky father-son drama whose prolific voiceovers detract rather than contribute. Ditto on unnecessary twist. Ryu Deok-Hwan still promising. Soo - Sai Yoichi's ballyhooed ode to violence not as violent or thrilling or interesting as expected. 200 Pounds Beauty (2006) - Amusing? Sure. Worthy of accolade? Er, no.
If You Have Time to Kill Bravo My Life - Midlife crisis salarymen form band. Amusing and well-meaning without going overboard. Three Kims - I was amused. Hotel M Gangster's Last Draw - Last year's best gangster comedy. I think because there were no subtitles. Solace - Good relationship drama. Just a bit boring. My Wife is a Gangster 3 - Shu Qi + Lee Beom-Soo = hotness. Hyun Young & Oh Ji-Ho equals goodness. Ti Lung & Shek Sau = Yay. Unfortunately, everything else bites. A Day For an Affair - Kim Hye-Su acting crazy is hot. Lee Min-Ki is hot. Too bad there are other people. Attack on the Pin-Up Boys - Super Junior! Not that bad. But definitely not good either.
If You REALLY Have Time to Kill Unstoppable Marriage - Harmless romantic comedy with understated pairing of Eugene and Ha Suk-Jin and overstated pairing of vets Lim Chae-Moo and Kim Soo-Mi. Love Now - Glossy, unengaging cheating spouse film about very beautiful A-list people making out. If you want to see Lee Dong-Gun and Uhm Jung-Hwa (what the hell?) going at it, this is your movie. Cheaters - Another cheating spouse film with less beautiful and famous people but more nudity. storytelling device that's interesting in concept but repetitive and confusing in execution. Highway Star - Amusing enough film about aspiring rocker who ends up in trot. Flashy costumes are fun, but overall story not fun enough. Meet Mr. Daddy - The other prolific movie theme of 2006 was the "love thy father" film. This one has Park Shin-Yang, Ye Ji-Won, and cute kid Seo Shin-Ae, but it's too cloying. Herb - Better than expected considering it's a well-meaning movie about a mentally slow girl. Then again, it's a well-meaning movie about a mentally slow girl. Gang Hye-Jung looks like she's 12. Perfect Couple - Lee Dong-Wook looking tired. Hyun Young acting spastic. Sigh, what a movie. Mapado 2: Back to the Island - More annoying granny action. Sometimes amusing, often not. Once in a Summer (2006) - Unconvincing glossy pure love movie. Lee Byung-Hun deserves better. Mother - I know it's wrong to hate on a film dedicated to the mothers of the world. But the film is just too overwrought. And the mother wasn't that likable. Or the son. Shadows in the Palace - Technically competent film, but the whole palace intrigue investigative murder mystery feels too much like a good small screen story squeezed onto big screen. Hard to tell all the palace girls apart. Suggest watching Damo instead.
Don't Do It The Restless (2006) - Kim Tae-Hee plus CGI means at any given time, there's no acting going on. The Two Faces of My Girlfriend - The closest thing to My Sassy Girl since My Sassy Girl except it totally totally bites. My Tutor Friend II - Limp rom-com starring B-listers that would be harmless except it unforgivably sullies the name of My Tutor Friend. It's better than 2 Faces of My Girlfriend - that's the only nice thing I can say about this. The Mafia, The Salesman - Mafia in school is funny. Mafia salesman not so much. Makes Marrying the Mafia 3 look good. Please let the franchise die here. Small Town Rivals - Comedy that annoys more than it amuses despite good leading men. The Worst Guy Ever - Cheating spouse movie. This is the one without hot people or nudity. I like Tak Jae-Hoon, but apparently not enough. Swindler in My Mom's House - Nothing like remaking a classic Korean film into a annoying spastic comedy. I like Kim Won-Hee, but apparently not enough. Miracle on 1st Street - Technically doesn't deserve to be grouped with the above films, but it's just so ill-conceived, it's ridiculous. Make up your mind: you can be an inspirational Ha Ji-Won boxing movie, a stupid Lim Chang-Jung comedy, or an evil corporation-preying-on-small-town gangster drama. You cannot be all three.
Every preconception that The Host smashed about the quality of monster movies, D-War nobly brought them back. Spectacularly bad, occasionally so bad it's good.
I know there are 13 members +2 to go around, but give my wallet a break. 
