Thoughts: Finally it’s out! Bolero became one of my most played song on itunes even before the single was officially released. I’m amazed that I actually love all 3 songs on this single. Bolero is sooooo epic.. It’s like Love in the Ice & Forever Love, two of my favorite ballads ever. I listened to Bolero throughout my whole winter break and it really gave the wintery feelings. Apart from being vocally beautiful, the lyrics are really heart-warming as well. Kiss the Baby Sky is upbeat and energetic and the chorus will make you very high. Micky’s laughs & narration throughout the song (“You know what I’m talking about baby?” Um.. no, not really Micky. LOL) creeps me out a bit though… and I couldn’t help but laughed when he went “My Hero, My Max,” giving a shoutout to the DBSK members… LOL.  And geez, their voices are really really high (especially Min). Wasurenaide, composed by Jae, is beautifully heart-wrenching… My favorite line has to Changmin’s saying “message”.. It sounded so heart-wrenching. Highly recommended. ♥♥♥

From Yesasia: All four of Dong Bang Shin Ki’s Japanese single releases in 2008 shot to the top of the Oricon charts, setting a new Oricon record for #1 singles by overseas artists. Not slowing down their productivity, the quintet launches their first release of 2009, a triple A-sided single. The ballad Bolero is based on traditional Spanish dance rhythms and also the theme song for the new movie Subaru. As for the other two singles, Kiss The Baby Sky and Wasurenaide, they were both penned by members of the band.

o1. Bolero
o2. Kiss The Baby Sky
o3. 忘れないで (Wasurenaide; Don’t Forget)
o4. Bolero (Less Vocal)
o5. Kiss The Baby Sky (Less Vocal)
o6. 忘れないで (Wasurenaide; Don’t Forget) (Less Vocal)

Extra: CD only version: 04. どうして君を好きになってしまったんだろう? (Doushite Kimi wo Suki ni Natte Shimattan darou?) -Royal Mirrorball Mix- Download

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Cape No. 7 is currently Taiwan’s highest grossing Chinese-language film ever… And one of the main reasons is due to the awesome soundtrack. Even though I didn’t like the movie as much as I’d like to (It’s still a good movie, but I expected more I guess)… but the soundtrack is pretty good. Enjoy!

Cape No. 7 (traditional Chinese: 海角七號; simplified Chinese: 海角七号; pinyin: Hǎijiǎo qī hào) is a 2008 Taiwanese romance comedic music-drama film written and directed by Wei Te-Sheng, his first full-length motion picture. The film is in Taiwanese and Mandarin Chinese with significant lines in Japanese. Before its commercial release, the film was world premiered on June 20, 2008 at the 2008 Taipei Film Festival as its opening film. The film later won 3 awards in this festival.

Prior to this film, the two leading actors Van Fan (范逸臣) and Chie Tanaka (田中千絵) only had minor acting experience while some of the supporting roles were filled by non-actors. Even without a strong promotional campaign, this movie has become so popular in Taiwan that on November 1, 2008 it became the 2nd top grossing film in the island’s cinematic history, behind Titanic.

The film has won 12 awards to date, including 6 at the 2008 Golden Horse Awards. It will also be Taiwan’s entry to compete in the 81st Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film.
【专辑名称】Album : 海角七号 (Cape 7)
【演唱歌手】Artist : 电影原声带 (OST)
【发行时间】Release : 24 October 2008
【专辑语种】Language : Mandarin (OST)

专辑曲目 (Track List) :

01.第一封信 / 友子 你还在等我吗
02.Don’t Wanna
03.第二封信 / 时代宿命是时代的罪过
04.爱你爱到死
05.第三封信 / 友子 我就是那时爱上你
06.去哪里(丹耐夫之歌)
07.第四封信 / 海风啊 为何总是带来哭声
08.给女儿
09.第五封信 / 友子 我真的很想你 啊！ 彩虹
10.无乐不作 (电影Live版) – 范逸臣
11.第六封信 / 我把愧疚写成最后的一封信
12.国境之南 – 范逸臣
13.野玫瑰 – 范逸臣
14.第七封信 / 情书
15.1945完整演奏版 (Bonus Track)

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I used to never listen to Chinese music before.. The only Chinese music I remember listening to was Vicki Zhao since she was/is my idol… but that changed when I discovered Wang Leehom… and then expanded with JJ Lin.

When I was watching The Return of the Condor Heroes, one of the things I love about it was the soundtrack. It has an amazing soundtrack! It took me a long time to find this OST since most of the links I found were dead or incomplete.

Lyrics and download links are below the cut

Tian Xia Wu Shuang (A Love Unparalleled Under the Sky) – This is the beginning theme song for the series. As the title suggest, this is a love song.. I love the high voice at the beginning of the song. It sounds so ethereal.

Jiang Hu Xiao – This is the ending theme song… At first I didn’t like it at all.. but the lyric is really nice.

Download: The Return of the Condor Heroes OST

Jiang Hu Xiao

江湖笑 恩怨了
jiang hu xiao en yuan liao
The pugilistic world smiles, all debts and grudges are ended.

人过招 笑藏刀
ren guo zhao xiao cang dao
People fight, their smiles hiding blades.

红尘笑 笑寂寥
hong chen xiao xiao ji liao
Humanity smiles; the smile is quiet and empty.

心太高 到不了
xin tai gao dao bu liao
The heart is set too high, where it cannot be achieved.

明月照 路迢迢
ming yue zhao lu tiao tiao
The moon shines, the road stretches far.

人会老 心不老
ren hui lao xin bu lao
Man will grow old, but the heart never ages.

爱不到 放不掉
ai bu dao fang bu diao
Cannot love, yet cannot let go.

忘不了 你的好
wang bu liao ni de hao
Cannot forget how good you are.

看似花非花雾非雾
kan si hua fei hua wu fei wu
What seems like a flower is not, what seems like fog is not.

滔滔江水留不住
tao tao jiang shui liu bu zhu
The raging river cannot be halted.

一身豪情壮志铁傲骨
yi shen hao qing zhuang zhi tie ao gu
Full of drive, noble aspiration and steely pride.

原来英雄是孤独
yuan lai ying xiong shi gu du
Actually, a hero is lonely.

江湖笑 爱逍遥
jiang hu xiao ai xiao yao
The pugilistic world smiles, love is unrestricted.

琴和箫 酒来倒
qin he xiao jiu lai dao
Zither and flute, pour the wine.

仰天笑 全忘了
yang tian xiao quan wang liao
Smile at the sky, all is forgotten.

潇洒如风轻飘飘
xiao sa ru feng qing piao piao
Free** as the wind, lightly drifting.

江湖笑 爱逍遥
jiang hu xiao ai xiao yao
The pugilistic world smiles, love is unrestricted.

爱或恨 都不要
ai huo hen dou bu yao
Love or hatred, (I) want neither.

仰天笑 全忘了
yang tian xiao quan wang liao
Smile at the sky, all is forgotten.

潇洒如风轻飘飘
xiao sa ru feng qing piao piao
Free as the wind, lightly drifting.

I know I haven’t update or blog here for the longest time. But I will start to do it more often now. Because we all need good music in our life, right?

Anyway, since Christmas is near, I thought I would upload a few Christmas-y/wintery songs to get everyone in the mood.

Last Christmas – EXILE - As the name suggested, this is another rendition of the classic “Last Christmas, I gave you my heart, but the very next day, you gave it away.” Even though I’m used to hearing the English version, I was pleasantly surprise to find this version endearing as well. Really recommend to those of you who (like me) hardly listen to English music anymore.

Evergreen – DBSK – This is one of my most played song on my ipod as well as my iTunes. Firstly, Yoochun composed the song and Changmin wrote the lyrics.. so how can I not love it? The song is so touching and moving.. and like any of Changmin’s lyrics, it’s quite poetic.

We Wish You a Merry Christmas – CSJH – First of all, CSJH deserves so much more love.. so I jump at every chance to advertise them. Their vocals are excellent. I thought the girls did a wonderful job with this song. Their accent wasn’t even very noticable.

Magic Castle – DBSK – Another DBSK. This song is from their earlier days.. oh now nostalgic. Even though I’ve tried very hard to erase the images of clothes they wore for their MV, I couldn’t… but the song is another the thing… It’s a very lovely song.. I just found out that it’s actually a cover, but I think the boys did a wonderful job (even though I haven’t heard the original yet – biased much? ^_^)

Snow Dream – SM Town – This song makes me happy. ^_^ The MV is really really cute too (check out that part when DBSK threw styrofoam balls at Junsu’s butt.. LOL).. I think I love almost all of SM Town’s songs but this is one of the favorites.

Shine – DBSK – Oke, this song probably doesn’t fall under the Christmas or the wintery group… but it was released during the fall last year when I was in Hawaii.. so listening to this song was probably the most wintery thing I did in Hawaii. LOL. But yea, this song get me into the holiday spirit… I don’t know why.

(And I’m sorry if my post seems… bland at the moment. I currently have about 8 firefox tabs open… another 8 Windows tabs.. my laptop screen is splits into half – one playing the Chinese drama Patriotic Knights and another is this blog. LOL.)

Sukida

I’ve had this movie in my laptop for a month now… and I finally managed to finish it. And I must say, I <3 “Sukida”.

A black screen and a female voice narrating: “Yosuke, do you remember? I remember..” starts “Sukida” with the youthful days of the two main characters Yu & Yosuke. Yu, played by Miyazaki Aoi, has a crush on her classmate Yosuke, played by Eita. However, Yosuke seems to have taken an interest in Yu’s older sister, who just recently lost someone whom she loves dearly. Here is where our conflict begins.

“Yosuke worried about my sister. My sister, who smiled more often than before.” Don’t you just love the subtleness of that line? Anyway, the synopsis can be quite misleading.. because the story is much more than a love triangle.. actually it is not really. The scenes of Yu & Yosuke sitting by the floodgate as Yu sits idling by while Yosuke picks on his guitar, are my favorites. The guitar tune is quite lovely by itself.. and I’m disappointed that it wasn’t released into an OST or something similar.

The movie doesn’t have much dialogue and even when it does, it’s quite subtle. But I think there’s where the beauty of this movie lies in… the cinematography is exquisitely beautiful and the actors/actresses performances are superb. I don’t think Sukida is meant for everyone.. Some will find it dull, slow, and meaningless… But some, like me, will remember this movie for a long time…

Trailer:

Watch Online: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

Download: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 SUBS (credit: bittersweet_bun)

SS501 new Korean single – Deja Vu sure is a hit. There are three songs on this single… and I think they’re all equally as good. Deja Vu’s “dibidibidipdip” melody is additively catchy… the “lalala” chorus in A Song Calling For You is fresh and fun. My Destiny is good also. The boys all look good here.. Welcome back to Korean, SS501!

Deja Vu

1. Deja Vu
2. A Song Calling For You
3. My Destiny
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Bara no Nai Hanaya is a Jdrama starring Katori Shingo (SMAP) and Takeuchi Yuko (Pride).

Synopsis:

Shiomi Eiji is forced to become a single father when his girlfriend passes away while giving birth to their daughter, Shizuku. Desolate after the loss of the woman he loved, Eiji has little time or desire to even consider remarrying, working part-time jobs just to make ends meet. The one thing that gives meaning and joy to his life is Shizuku, but even that begins to trouble him when Shizuku begins acting strange, hiding her face by putting a cloth over her head when around other people.

One day after opening his flower shop, Eiji comes across a blind woman standing by the door, taking shelter from the rain. When he invites her to come inside the shop, she at first refuses, but later gives in to Eiji’s kindness. They become intimate friends and she slowly grows to depend on Eiji’s sincerity and goodheartedness. After rescuing her a following evening when she walks into the street and is nearly struck by traffic, Eiji himself inexplicably discovers the cold of winter that has saddled his heart all these years slowly melting away…

I’ve always found Jdrama’s synopsis to be quite boring, and sometimes misleading. At first the drama sounds really boring to me… and the lack of a handsome male lead is another reason to be troubled over. But I gave this drama and chance anyway and surprisingly, it’s good.

Katori Shingo is not particularly handsome and he doesn’t carry a certain aura of attractiveness like Kimura Takuya. But, I love love love him in this drama as the almost-too-gentle Eiji aka hanaya-san. His smooth, deep voice is to die for… I think it’s his biggest attraction.

And plus, there’s Matsuda Shota.. what can you hate about him? The guy always has such weird roles that I’ve stopped being surprised.  This time he’s a private-detective… but he’s almost playing something like Kurosagi. Everytime I think of Matsuda Shota.. it’s always that mystery… “is he a good person? is he a bad person?” His characters are always like that.. very mysterious… you can’t clearly say that he’s good or bad.. because he’s both. And I like those type of characters so much more than the one-sided “goody-two shoes” or the “beyond-bad-and-evil”..

The new boyband Ast1 recently released their promotional video with the message “overthrow” Super Junior. I find it kind of funny and interesting why their company used this tactic to promote the boys. Why SuJu, though? I wonder what it would be like if it were against DBSK.. hehehe. My friends and I joked that everyone would just laughed. But yea, size-wise, SuJu is doubled Ast1’s… so I wonder how they can “overthrown” them. LOLZ.

So I finally decided to open a new blog reserved only for blogging about the insanity of fandom. Which fandom, you ask? Too many to count. Anything from jpop, kpop, jdrama, kdrama… you can find it here. Most of the posts here are for personal purposes – relieving stress, rantings, and fangirling – but I’ll try to be helpful and upload stuff in case people need it. Anyway, I hope I’ll have a good time here. ^_^