Must See Japanese Films 2012 日本の映画

Truthfully, its already the last month of 2012. And that means everyone has about 27 days to get up and watch the films that i have lovingly placed on my pedestalled list. But really, don’t feel that this is a time challenge, because Japanese films are timeless harhar. No matter how many years in the future I hope you will look back at this list of 2012 films and feel the gush of appreciation towards me for recommending it to you. Or a pang of urge to watch one of the films because I recommended it. Or maybe just glance at this list and never watch any of them….because I recommended it. I don’t know. Your life is yours.

The 16th Japanese Film Festival recently opened in Australia in November which prompted Eri and I to abandon our blog  watch every film the ticket office would allow us with our dwindling budget in order to genuinely search for interesting films to post here.

The Japanese films that I’ve chosen are perfectly biased and incredibly opinionated because I do filter out horror and tragedy movies (no matter how much I try, I can’t bring myself to like these genres) and I am also pulled towards…you know…good looking species in films. Ahem.

 3. Afro Tanaka アフロ田中

There’s no subbed trailer right now but I think you’ll get the gist of the movie is like from Tanaka’s actions.

Hiroshi Tanaka has an afro. (must I say more) He didn’t ask for it at the hair salon but was in fact born with it. I’m not sure how that happened but I do feel for his mother.
For freedom Tanaka moves to Tokyo and works hard, but even though he has turned 24 he still can’t find a girlfriend. His school friend is getting married soon which just spurs his impatience.
…Then a beautiful woman named Aya Kato moves into the neighbourhood. Dun dun dun.

The movie is pretty much wrapped around in slapstick humour, something very common amongst Japananese films. Its light hearted and stars Shota Matsuda, who is an amazing actor across a range of films. It’s a must watch!

2.Thermae Romae テルマエ・ロマエ

If you are interested in Japanese toilets or Romans or Romans that speak Japanese, I say no more. Watch this movie now!
I must say it was strange seeing ‘ancient Roman’s’ speak Japanese but the movie was so enjoyable that it didn’t matter.

Based of a manga, the movie follows a Roman architect named Lucius who has run out of ideas to create more innovative thermae (facilities for bathing in Ancient Rome). He somehow travels to modern day Japanese bath houses through some portal in the water. From there, his adventures begin!

Truthfully, I felt like an ancient Roman myself when I compared the super-modern-technologised-wash-your-butt-for-you Japanese toilets to you know, the prehistoric ones in my house. The movie is a good laugh as you see comedic situations that Lucius is put through despite his utterly serious nature.

1.Rurouni Kenshin るろうに剣心

I don’t think any one can disagree as to how awesome this movie is. Tickets for the movie was sold out in a week so the film festival had to hold a second screening!

As an avid fan of rurouni kenshin, I’ve been supporting the anime and manga from way back and now that that live action movie is out.. -shiing- life could not be better.

During the Meiji era in Japan, a rurouni (wandering samurai) named Himura Kenshin who has given up his previous title as the assassin ‘Hitokiri Battosai’ and now wanders around the countryside of Japan seeking a peaceful life. However he finds himself constantly confronted by the shadows of his past.

The story is pretty much triggered when Kenshin meets a woman named Kamiya Kaoru. And then stuff happens. i.e. awesome sword fighting scenes, awesome two hour plot with sub-plots, awesome lovey-doveyness for the fangirls

Out of all the films this year, Rurouni Kenshin is a must-watch-or-just-return-to-life-under-rock film. Obviously I chose it because of how well the film was put together and the detailed cinematography etc etc. Not because of the casting or anything…

Not at all. Not at all…

♪Artist of the Week・andymori

おはよう！こんにちは！こんばんわ！

Good morning! Hello! Good evening!

How is everybody this fine Friday/Saturday? ^^ If you’re doing great, that’s awesome! But if you’re down in the dumps and need a pick-me-up, well you’re in luck!

Some of you may have noticed the slight, subtle edit made to this week’s ♪Song of the Week, this is because the band I am going to introduce this week IS TOO MINDBLOWINGLY AWESOME (aka, I can’t really pick a song, so I’m gonna throw a bunch of them at you).

This band is a trio of awesomeness – vocals, guitar, bass and drums. They may look like a group of very skinny, laid-back peoples who play funky indie music, but I can assure those of you who aren’t quite into indie, that this music is indeed very very funky, meaning you should ALL listen to the next few tracks I’m gonna おすすめして (recommend) to you all!

(we’re going from laid-back to upbeat)
Number #1 is: “1984”

Reminds me of The Beatles a little…

Number #2 is: “Blue Sky/Aoisora/青い空”

Very chill song.

Number #3 is: “City Lights”

Picking up some speed with some very speedy lyrics indeed.

Number #4 is: “Bengal Tiger and Whisky”

This song is great, it will get you nodding (at least) every time, I assure you!

Bonus! (Just so we get a nice number) Number #5: “Beautiful Celebrity”

I like this one a lot, it has a really dreamy feel to it..

If I was holding an awesome party in a loft in Tokyo, these five songs would be top of my list. (And in saying that, if anyone  here reading this  owns such an awesome loft and is planning a party and decides to play these songs ;).. let me know how it goes!).

So what did you think of them? I would love to hear how you  liked them, so please drop a comment down belong!

P.S. You may have been thinking as I had, what are these lyrics about?! And so you might have hopped onto google, as I had, to do a little 検索（けんさく, research) but alas there is no translation to be found! Disappointed!!! That is exactly how I felt! So I hope to be working on some translations in the coming weeks/months ( some big exams coming up 😦 )…

じゃまた~ Everyone!

ジッパー・Zipper July 2012

It’s all about fashionable summer clothing plans~

ta ta ta~!

Street coordination snaps.

Ayumi-chan says: choose vibrant colours for short pants!

From upper left to bottom right:

1. Choose neon colour
2. Accessorise with vibrant suspenders
3. Low-tech sneakers are super sporty!
4. Wear American T-shirts mischieviously…

This looks pretty interesting. Summer clothing swap-coordination. Basically, you switch and coordinate different styles with the fifteen articles of clothing in the box inset above. The total price comes down to 9509yen which is roughly $95 – less than $100 which will last you for 30 days of smart coordination!

Well, I hope you enjoyed that!

Oh hai. I think the magazine is celebrating 8 years of this comic Buutan..perhaps. I just thought it was cute.

Word of the Day
豚・buta
pig

豚のように食べた。(buta no you ni tabeta) I ate like a pig.

♪Song of the Week・CANDY CANDY + PONPONPON by Kyary Pamyu Pamyu♪

For a while there, you thought that ‘song of the week’ had disappeared forever. Well, I’m glad to say, it’s back! Sometimes, music just brightens your day that much more, so I am super-extra- happy to welcome two songs in one week to make up for all the lost songs in the past.. month or so.

The singer’s name きゃりーぱみゅぱみゅ・Kyary Pamyu Pamyu does not sound like a name at all, I must admit. Nevertheless, her songs are very addicting to watch, and they do, as by my all-music-must-do-rule, brighten up your day.

Some quick background info on the singer – her real name is actually Kiriko Takemura (I am very humbly sorry to shock many people that ‘kyary pamyu pamyu’ is not her real birth name. Imagine writing that during Kindergarten.) She is also a model and blogger, often featuring in the Harajuku fashion magazine ‘Kera’.

Oh, and she is 19 this year.

Here is a lovely picture of our singer with some ketchup on her face.

PonPonPon – Kyary’s first single. Please do enjoy this psychedelically challenging ride of a MV. It’s amazing how you don’t get bored while watching, and at the same time, the music is so catchy♪ It actually topped the music charts internationally so I’m so proud of her!

Candy Candy – Kyary’s second physical single.

la la la~ Hope you love Kyary Pamyu Pamyu’s bright and bubbly music as much as I do!

Word of the Day

まごまご・mago mago

confusing

Popteen・ポップティーン July 2012

Popteen is a monthly fashion magazine published by Kadokawa Haruki Corporation in Japan. It is now one of Asia’s top fashion magazines, also distributed to Taiwan, Thailand and recently, the United States as well (in English of course). It features gyaru fashion, especially trends amongst high school students.

The magazine is mainly known for its gyaru icons, such as Ayumi Hamasaki, previously Tsubasa Masuwaka (graduated 2007 after marrying model Naoki Umeda), and now Funayama Kumiko (Kumicky♪).

Other artists who have appeared on the cover include Kumi Koda, Namie Amuro, Avril Lavigne, Britney Spears, Fergie and Gwen Stefani.

The magazine is well known for ‘doku-moderu’ (読者モデル), where readers have the opportunity to become models in the magazine through Popteen’s model search each year.

See the top right corner? That’s right, Big Bang was featured in this issue of Popteen!

Japanese Mobile Phones ケータイ電話 ：Emoji エモジ

Welcome to the next installation of Japanese Keitai!

I would like to introduce to those who don’t know yet, emoji (also known as kaomoji)! The wonder of ’emotional characters’/EMOJI is prevalent in Japan and referred to outside of Japan as ‘smileys’ or ’emoticons’ (you know, those familiar yellow circles with various faces on it).

Now  if I think back, waay back, to my MSN messenger days I can recall collecting endless lists of emoticons that jigged around my screen and did what not. But that was just on msn, definitely not on my brick phone. Only recently did i notice iPhones start popping out their new feature of including ’emoji’ in the keyboards. But sadly they do not move. Still, Awesome! Now I can add that extra cherry on top of my txts with these tiny faces and objects, because we all know how lame and unexciting plain old txts are.

Anyhow if we glance over now to Japan we may discover, oh but hang on, it appears they had this going before iPhones were even born!
Amongst the big three companies AU by KDDI, Docomo NTT and Softbank, each has their own special list of emoji. Complicating matters further, this means that if an AU user sent a ♪ emoji to their Softbank friend, it may turn out in a different color or something. Thus, this creates a big dilemma for many Japanese high school students choosing their new keitai. Anyhow. Not important.

Though Japan’s emoji may not have as much minuscule detail as that of iPhone’s, they have a remarkably extensive variety to choose from, despite being quite quite simple.  Check out below, Japan’s top 10 most used emoji in txt msgs!

I find it hilarious that the cat beat beer in the top 10. Do cats seriously turn up more than beer in Japanese conversations? After all Japan seems to love their beer, indicated by the mass of beer CMs…

Apparently this is how to enjoy beer (if you’re of age!)

Oh and I love these ‘All-free Suntory’ beer CMs, 0% alcohol! (I know it can get a bit repetitive after two)

More!!

and yet there’s still more!!!!

…oh but then again I guess there’s nyancat..

But I digress. Back to emoji. Now if you’re sad that you don’t have an iPhone, or that your friends can’t receive your iPhone emoji, then you can always resort to the good old manual smileys: Exhibit A ” 🙂 ”
But of course, the Japanese wakamono have taken it one step further to:
(●´∀｀●) or even ヾ(●´□｀●)ﾉ【ﾟ+｡･oこんにちはo･｡+ﾟ】ヾ(○´■｀○)ﾉ\\
(These may or may not turn up fully on your screens, depending on the level of awesomeness that your laptop/computer can accommodate. )
For more extreme kaomoji to share with your friends via emails or txt msgs, please make your way to KAOMOJIYA-SAN! (and credit to them for the above faces)

I guess I should close with a cat…~(=^･ω･^)/｡･:*:･ﾟ★，｡･:*:･ﾟ☆ ありがとニャ!

Japanese School Uniform・学校制服

The seifuku is an item of wonder and transformation.
…at least to me it is.

Originally, the Japanese seifuku was modelled on European-style naval uniforms in the late 19th century. Traditionally, the boys uniform was military style and the girls uniform was a sailor outfit.

Das right. The sailor outfit replaced the hakama in the Meiji Era i.e. this wonderfully stylish piece↓

I wish I was given the chance to wear this to school everyday. At least when the wind blows, the skirt won’t fly up like a parachute.

All schools have a summer version of the uniform (white dress shirt and uniform slacks for boys and traditional uniform/blouse and tartan skirt for girls)  and a sports activity uniform. The sailor uniform is like a symbol of youth. Some fashionista individuals, if you’re being stereotypical – Tokyo girls, will subvert the uniform by adding loose socks, decorations, badges, shortening their skirts, etc. And in a way, that is how the gyaru fashion was brought about. (Will blog about later)

Jiro Dreams of Sushi・寿司の次郎の夢

Now Showing in Theatres!

When I first heard the name of this documentary I literally imagined a story about an old man, er, dreaming about sushi? It didn’t sound like the normal action-packed-kung-fu-samurai-ninja-blood-splatting-rainbow-jelly-bean-unicorn movies that I normally watched. So, you know, I wasn’t too sure about how long I would last in the theatre before I started nodding off to sleep.

Tokyo Girls Collection Spring/Summer 2012・東京ガールズコレクション

Tokyo Girls Collection is the biggest and most famous fashion event in Japan that showcases the season’s fashionable street wears with domestic brands, combined and jam packed with concerts from popular music groups. It is the first and original fashion and music event that started and is held twice a year, said to be one of the most influential events in Asian countries. The most recent TCG event, 2012 Spring/Summer edition drew over 250, 000 excited fashionistas to Yokohama Area in early March. Attending this event is one of the best ways to keep in line with the latest seasonal street fashion trends in Japan.

Unfortunately, if you do not have the liberty to hitch a plane and fly to Japan this moment, the second best thing to do is look at second-hand photos on the internet. (i.e. the sad and lonely me) Perhaps one day I will join the mass of 250k excited teenage girls (and a few guys) in Tokyo but for now I am satisfied with gazing at this dream from afar…

If you do decide to attend Tokyo Girls Collection, make sure you order tickets on the dot because the event is so popular that tickets usually sell out within hours.What I like about the event is that, for once, it showcases fashion styles that you CAN wear on the street. Normally, other fashion shows will just leave me speechless…

Without further ado, I will share with you my top ten styles that were showcased this year:

Tokyo Girls Collection #1 Special Collection (doesn’t count as a brand but nevermind)

Japanese Mobile Phones ケータイ電話 (and their CMs)

I remember back in the pre-iPhone days when I had a brick phone, I would notice that Japan had all these awesome phones. These days (even when my brick phone is now only used for one purpose: throwing at people – it is a brick after all) Japan is still popping out these amazing phones that we, in the West, have probably not even dreamt of yet.

Exhibit A: Sharp’s Solar Waterproof Phone

And that was back in 2009!

Big brands including AU, Softbank, Docomo NTT dominate the ケータイmarket today. And like with any other marketable product in Japan, many of the CMs they broadcast are complemented by the presence of idols, actors/actresses, singers, celebrities, sports stars. Here are some of my personal favourites: