04 Sunday Nov 2012
Posted in Film, New Zealand
The Hobbit countdown is on… it’s 24 days to go until the world premiere in New Zealand. While you wait and prepare to travel to Middle Earth, watch this latest video, courtesy of Air New Zealand. Although I always watch air safety videos/demonstrations (it’s like a personal ritual when I fly), for most people this will probably be the only safety video they’ll watch beginning to end…
So, what’s your favourite part?
P.S. Adore the accents!
P.P.S. I’ll take an elf steward any time!
30 Sunday Sep 2012
Posted in Events, Film, Japanese, New Zealand, Taiwanese
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For once I turned down a last-minute request to cover at work and thought I had a perfect plan for Sunday. Then things didn’t quite go as planned and I am hanging out in the SOAS Postgraduate Common Room (taking a nap, nibbling on sushi & drinking matcha soy milk) instead of being at the cinema to watch 赤い季節 (Akai Kisetsu/A Road Stained Crimson, Japan, 2012 – fingers crossed I’ll manage to see it tomorrow).
Oh well. At least it means I can fit in a couple hours of PhD work. And write the Trailer Weekly, which this week is the result of randomicity – mostly browsing asianwiki.com and arbitrarily clicking on various actors’ profiles.
23 Sunday Sep 2012
Posted in Anime / Animated Film, Events, Film, Korean, New Zealand
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Yes, double Trailer Weekly attack today!
If you follow me on Twitter, you will have probably noticed that this week I was (re)tweeting a lot about UWC, which stands for United World Colleges, a movement (?) that celebrated 50 years this week. It’s kind of hard to sum up what UWC is and the mission statement “to deliver a challenging and transformational educational experience to a diverse cross section of students, inspiring them to create a more peaceful and sustainable future” sounds as posh and empty-worded as any, except that in reality it isn’t. Basically, the United World Colleges are a connected group of schools (currently twelve institutions spread over five continents) that believes that sticking some 200 kids aged 16-19 from as many different countries as possible (usually around 75) into a boarding school for two years can somehow make the world a better place. (Full scholarships provided by the way.) Continue reading »
06 Wednesday Jun 2012
Posted in Film, New Zealand
On the set of The Hobbit: Peter Jackson and Martin Freeman (as Bilbo)
Over the weekend I went to visit a friend in Birmingham and somehow, in between φαβα (fava), Μελιτζανοσαλατα (Melitzanosalata) and Ratatouille (the Pixar movie, not the dish in this case) we ended up on the topic of The Hobbit, browsing the official blog and watching one of the production videos. This morning another one of those vlogs popped up (via the Guardian), giving us a tour around the studios where a lot of the filming has been taking place.
17 Saturday Mar 2012
Posted in Events, Film, Japanese, Korean, New Zealand
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A very timely Trailer Weekly today (though I should have gone to bed long time ago, given I have to get up for work in 3 hours).
We’ve (almost) got a theme this week: Asia goes elsewhere, or elsewhere goes to Asia. In other words: biracial relationships, second generation immigrants, multiple language films and co-productions. Why “almost”? Because there are two that don’t fit the description but that simply couldn’t wait another week… Continue reading »
11 Saturday Feb 2012
Posted in Film, Indie, Japanese, Korean, New Zealand
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24 Saturday Dec 2011
Posted in Film, Japanese, Korean, New Zealand
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A little on the gloomy side this time – I will try to ring out the year with some cheerier trailers next week:
21 Wednesday Dec 2011
Posted in Film, New Zealand
Normally I would be including this as part of the Trailer Weekly series, but this is a trailer that can’t wait until Saturday: the first teaser trailer for The Hobbit! Continue reading »
09 Wednesday Nov 2011
Posted in Film, New Zealand
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Look at the image below with 3-D glasses.
3-D Concept Sketch for The Hobbit
Peter Jackson recently released Production Video #4 on the official The Hobbit Blog. It includes details on the technical aspects of filming in 3-D – and I love that Jackson names his cameras after real people (and animals too!). But the most interesting part of the video is the section on the 3-D drawings done by The Hobbit’s conceptual artists Alan Lee and John Howe.
04 Tuesday Oct 2011
Posted in Japanese, Literature, New Zealand
The publication date of the English translations of Murakami Haruki’s 2009 magnum opus 1Q84 is soon approaching. Books 1 and 2 will be published on October 18, with Book 3 following on October 25 on both sides of the Atlantic. All are translated by Jay Rubin and Philip Gabriel and can be preordered (on Amazon or elsewhere). Continue reading »
