tsubaki – 覚醒ワールド

1. 覚めた生活
2. 悲しみの中からはじめよう
3. 亡霊ﾀﾞﾝｽ
4. 青い月
5. さよなら､嘘つきな二人
6. ﾎﾞｰﾀﾞﾚｽ
7. money & honey
8. coffee
9. ﾀﾌﾞﾚｯﾄ
10. 羽の在処

Sigh. I was really looking forward to this album — I really was — but now I’m just sulking in my disappointment. I wouldn’t call it a bad album per say — just that it wasn’t what I was expecting. The band’s sound has changed drastically and I’m just not sure whether I like this new direction. For one, some songs sound less like rock and more like rock-inspired pop. Once again, not necessarily a bad thing, but it’s certainly far removed from their “indie” days.

But moving away from their more obscure roots does have its advantages. For one, the lead singer’s voice has improved drastically. In the beginning, his voice was extremely nasally and bordering on ear-piercing levels. Now it’s become more melodic and soothing as opposed to screeching. Secondly, the album sounds much more refined, as if recorded in an actual studio instead of someone’s basement. But I have to admit, I rather enjoyed their rawer sound. It felt edgier, more emotional, and better suited to my rage blackouts.

That being said, I’d still give the album a whirl. As previously mentioned, it’s by no means a bad album, simply not what I was expecting from the band. I predict I’ll grow to like it in time, much like how I’m growing to like the track, “coffee”, right now. And maybe new listeners will too so give it a chance. Speaking of which, “タブレット” isn’t bad either…

CD Japan
YesAsia
HMV JP

Digital Omnibus R246 Story

Tadanobu Asano? Yes. Shinji Aoyama? Yes. Verbal? Okay, I’m listening…

Tadanobu Asano, one of my favourite actors hands down, and Shinji Aoyama, director of Eureka, one of my favourite films hands down, are once again collaborating for “224466″, a sci-fi short for the digital omnibus R246 Story. The anthology connects comedy, drama, and documentary through the motif of Route 246, the national highway stretching from Tokyo to Shizuoka.

Asano’s contribution as director, with Aoyama as screenwriter, will see him in the role of an alien searching for his lost drum kit. As an extraterrestrial from a rock ‘n roll planet, the set is crucial to his existence.

An old man named Torakichi (Ryo Kase) and a wee girl called Shidomi (Ayane Omori) come to his aid and try to track down the one person who knows where the drum kit is: Osho (Masatoshi Nagase). To get the info out of him, Shidomi has to engage in a guitar battle with a boy axe wizard…

Ryuganji 

And as if the story wasn’t crazy enough and the cast wasn’t already stacked, Hirofumi Arai and Kosuke Toyohara are also set to star. Talk about an orgy of goodness.

Now for those who are scratching their heads, wondering how they got here by searching “m-flo“, let me answer your question. What does this have to do with Verbal? Well, the same thing it has to do with Shido Nakamura, Yusuke Santamaria, Genki Sudo, and Illmari (from Rip Slyme) — all are set to direct a piece. That’s right. m-flo frontman Verbal (aka Mr. V, Johnny Astro) is signed on to direct “Dead Noise”, a “documentary on the future of Japanese hip-hop exploring ideas of Japanese culture and identity through a series of interviews with major figures in the game (Ryuganji)”.

Well, I’ve already linked it twice today, but if you want to find out more about the project and/or J-cinema in general, head on over to Ryuganji.

Namie Amuro – 60s70s80s

1. NEW LOOK
2. ROCK STEADY
3. WHAT A FEELING
4. NEW LOOK (INSTRUMENTAL)
5. ROCK STEADY (INSTRUMENTAL)
6. WHAT A FEELING (INSTRUMENTAL)

I absolutely abhor people banging on my door, but when some knocking came this afternoon — and 2 minutes after I got home, no less! — I knew it had to be the mailman with my copy of Namie Amuro’s 60s70s80s. Even though it got here in 4 days, and only 2 days after the release, the wait felt like an eternity. Because despite being an avid Amuro fan, I’ve yet to buy any of her music — until now. The reason is that I generally dislike buying singles, but I’ve also found her albums to be mixed bags most of the time, where I end up only liking 1/2 the tracks and maybe loving 1/4. But I knew I had to break my stinginess and shell out for 60s70s80s because it just spells AMAZING. So far, so good.

Sympathy for Lady Vengeance Remake

Somehow I knew it was bound to happen — after all, it happened with Oldboy (although that remake’s currently stalled) — but it nonetheless came as a huge blow to me when I read that Charlize Theron is planning to produce and star in a remake of Park Chan-Wook’s Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, the finale to his vengeance trilogy.

Now, my particular frustration with this news is perhaps the culmination of previously pent up anger towards Hollywood’s Asian remakes. As a fan who takes their Asian cinema seriously, it pisses me off to no end to see perfectly fine — no, just perfect — films being (poorly) remade just so that an audience who’s too lazy to read subtitles can idle away their time for 2 hours. You can argue that remakes attract attention to the original, but honestly, who, having seen The Lake House or Shall We Dance or some other crappy remake which I’m too pissed off at the moment to remember, actually bothered to check up on the original? In fact, if anyone reading this did, leave me a comment and I’ll give you an e-cookie!

The fact is, the film will likely be marketed as a brutal revenge blockbuster ladened with sadistic violence, completely ignoring Park’s core argument that ultimately, vengeance achieves nothing. No, the whole point of the remake will likely be, “vengeance achieves everything.” So the next time you take the fall for someone else’s murder, you know what you gotta do: bust a cap in his ass.

Twitch Film, JoBlo

Asian Kung Fu-Generation – ワールド ワールド ワールド

1. ワールド ワールド ワールド
2. アフターダーク
3. 旅立つ君へ
4. ネオテニー
5. トラベログ
6. No.9
7. ナイトダイビング
8. ライカ
9. 惑星
10. 転がる岩、君に朝が降る
11. ワールド ワールド
12. 或る街の群青
13. 新しい世界

Ah, Asian Kung-Fu Generation, one of the first Japanese bands I ever heard. Sadly, it’s been a while since I listened to them, but their latest album, ワールド ワールド ワールド (World World World), is exactly what I needed to convince myself to start again. Since having heard them last from Loop & Loop, their sound has grown less frantic and more mellow, more melodic. Not only that, the whole concept of the album revolves around the world, whether changing it or simply offering commentary. Either way, it’s a fantastic idea that’s been executed flawlessly.

I’m currently in the honeymoon stage of the album, so I’m pretty much loving every track, but so far my absolute favourites are “或る街の群青”, “転がる岩、君に朝が降る”, and “ナイトダイビング”. I would suggest reading up on the lyrics, since understanding the songs makes them that much better, but if you’re just in the mood to listen/watch, then some PVs are after the jump.

alan – ひとつ

1. ひとつ (Hitotsu)
2. 君想フ空 (Kimi Omou Sora)
3. 東京未明 (Toukyou Mimei)
4. sign
5. ひとつ (Instrumental)
6. 君想フ空 (Instrumental)
7. 東京未明 (Instrumental)

I pretty much fell out of pop music after all the boybands died off, but I’ve been hearing so much — or rather, seeing so much — of alan lately that my curiosity got the best of me. Apparently she’s a Chinese singer of Tibetean descent who made her Japanese debut under Avex late last year. She’s also got quite an impressive musical history. But, her latest single, ひとつ (Hitotsu), not so impressive.

It’s not that it’s particularly bad — her voice is amazing — but it’s just so goddamn boring. I seriously almost fell asleep listening to the 3 tracks (the 4th one doesn’t count because it’s some kind of outro). There’s just nothing that really makes her stand out among all the other diva hopefuls. And not to bash her further, but the more I look at the cover, the more it reminds me of Sion Sono’s Exte.

SLAM Website & Trailers

I have to admit, I gagged a little when I first saw this — but only because I thought it was in some way related to Jay Chou’s Slam Dunk. I have to say, the guy’s a musical genius (although his latest works have been proving me wrong…), but he should stay the hell away from movies and focus on music instead. Anyway, it turns out that SLAM is the latest from director Jonathan Lim, and is a story of adolescence, rivalry, basketball.

On the last day of school, Mouth, a 16 year-old teenager with a love for the game of basketball, and his best friends, Monkey and Jason, run into Li Wei, the captain of the high school basketball team, and his entourage. Li Wei continuously makes their lives a living hell, and the result of the building conflict ends up taking all parties to the finals of an Adidas 3-on-3 basketball tournament where all differences will be settled.

Now, there’s an even more detailed synopsis written by Jonathan Lim himself, but it’s a bit spoiler-esque so I’ll leave it for after the break. Read on if you want to find out or jump to the official website for trailers, pictures, and other goodies.

Twitch Film