Rei Yasuda(安田レイ) - Circle Album Thoughts(J-pop)

 

   Rei Yasuda is a Japanese American singer, model, and voice actress. She's primarily known as a singer. She started a solo career in 2013 and has released four albums. Circle is her newest album to date. The album features songs used for anime and commercials. 

Track Listings

1	Circle
2	through the dark
3	Not the End
4	風の中
5	HOME THERAPY feat.熊木幸丸 from Lucky Kilimanjaro
6	A beautiful world
7	blank sky
8	Sunday Morning feat.VivaOla
9	It’s you
10	us
11	each day each night

     Circle seems more like a debut album for Rei to me. I'll admit that I haven't listened to her other songs that came out before Circles but this album fits everything that checks the boxes of who she is as a vocalist. This record is mostly pop with some rock ballads and cute bouncy tracks. You know how japan likes their female singers to be. Anyways, The push and pull between Rei's vocals that seem more suited for a rock band and the production demand for her to be a pop star works better than I expected. The opening number titled after the album sets the tone for Rei's intro into dance electronic pop as the track's chorus would pump up any club. Home Therapy is another track that also does the same thing: makes you want to dance across the floor with  fun groovy delivery. This is not the end and Through the dark are ballad tracks using a mixture of English and Japanese matched to simple melodies that fit Rei's raspy vocals. I'm not too much a fan of all the track choices. Still, I understand that Japan has a different market for what is in demand musically. When Rei Yasuda is in her dance pop/ rock ballad bag though, is when I love her the most. Circle gives me more of these moments than anything else, so I was impressed overall. 

    Defiantly check out Circle and her First Take performance. She has other performance videos on her Youtube channel as well.  Side Note: Rei Yasuda is bilingual because she was born in North Carolina to a Japanese Mother and American Father. 

The RoundUp(범죄도시2) Korean film Thoughts

 

   My biggest advice would be to believe the negative reviews for this film. Don't let the tons of raving reviews fool you like they did me..... 

  I don't have a lot of things to say about this sequel film starring Don Lee of The Eternals fame. My curiosity caused me to fall into the trap of buying this film on Blu-ray, hopping that the story would be an improvement from the first film. It turns out that it was not. Director Lee Sang Yong gives viewers what Ma Dong Seok is known for and not much else. The script isn't engaging nor is did the jokes really hit in my opinion. You basically watch watch a big guy fight villains for the duration of this film. Some attempts at mixing Comedy and Action shows the effort, however, Most scenes come across like the story/actors don't even take what's going on too seriously. What was the main villain's actually goal anyways? He seemed evil just to be evil. When everything was said and done, I had more fun knowing the the credits had started to roll than anything else I witnessed in The Roundup. 

     I'm not sure how to feel about the fact that there will be another film following this one. I'll probably pass on that one considering, I've been burned twice now thanks to Yoon Kye Sang..... Ma Dong Seok is the bread and butter of this film series. Star power is a hell of a drug when used correctly on fans. 

  

Missing(さがす) Japanese Film Thoughts (2021)

 

   Missing is a a Japanese film that was released in 2021.  Shinzo Katayama directed and wrote for the film's scripts while, Jiro Sato, Aoi Ito, and, Hiroya Shimzu star in the thriller. Aoi Ito won an award for her role. 

   A father in need of money goes missing one day in the wake of a murder running around the town. His daughter then, starts to look for him as she starts to find that he and the killer may be connected....

     Missing is separated into three different perspectives. These different view points come from three characters. What first starts out as a simple, disappearing mystery turns into a deep layered thriller. There's a lot of weird features in this film that deal with humanity's dark nature. Some of the emotion is venerability but when you really think about the characters, it's really just selfishness. Dark themes make strong appearances such as suicide, sexual fetishes, and greed. It's an experience that might make you a bit uncomfortable because the film give a personal gritty feel without actually coming across as a cutthroat film. Well, expect for a scene featuring trash filled beach....  The plot slides back and forth between three perspectives which did confuse me after awhile. The timeline didn't match up until the end of the film. I enjoyed the overall solid satisfying ending. 

  Missing is filmed in a simple way. Nothing was captured in a fancy way. I believe this was what made the film so thrilling when all the horrifying actions happened. Even some of the settle reveals to the mystery feel more in your face when captured in a normal way. 

   

   The performances and story carried Missing to the a great conclusion. This film won't be for everyone. There's themes that might make you want to turn away.        

Our Not So lonely Planet Travel Guide(僕らの地球の歩き方) Manga(Vol 1-3) Thoughts Part 1?

 

   This series is a BL manga that was created by Mone Sorai. I don't know much else about what had to be done to create the story. I would imagine that she traveled a lot in order to draw all those different places around the world. The story also seemed like it ended after volume three however, there is news that another volume was released in Japan. 

    A gay couple decides to travel around the world with the plan to be wed, if they're still together at the end of their journey. 

   Let's do a little bit of comparing. I couldn't help but to compare Lonely Planet to another series called "What did you eat Yesterday" only thing is that the latter series doesn't have travel included. The couple goes to each place where they try the local food, meet new people, and take pictures of the sights. When they try the food in each new place, they go through this whole spill of the ingredients. Sometimes it's a little annoying, sometimes it's interesting to learn about food that you don't know about. Information about certain places are a bit too much at times as well. Do keep in mind that "travel guide" is a key word here. Lonely Planet's main conflict at the core of the story is a lack of confidence in who the couple wants to be. A lot of the times during the trip, one half of the couple is very uncertain about being an out gay man. While the other guy is willing to be open because he loves this man so much. There's a difference in personality that bounces off of each other as the two meet new people and have little misunderstandings. What kept me reading was wanting to witness the change in attitude of the shy character as they meet more people in other countries who were similar to them. Each chance encounter gave the couple new reasons to love being who they are. I enjoyed this couple's journey of self discovery a lot. I'm not sure if it's over or not. 

     The art for each place has such fine details. The creator took care to make sure that each place she drew actually did the real country justice. I wasn't always a fan of the character models. They very much looked like beginner sketches in some panels. The noses kind of bothered me a bit too. Still, the character's looked amazing when being captured in emotional moments. No mater if these panels were happy or sad.. The couple always looked good in the countries that they visited. 

    Our not so lonely Planet Travel Guide is an easy enough read. There's three volumes that can be devoured quickly if you have the time. Be aware that you will experience big information dumps in some parts of the story. 

The Witch Part 2 : The Other One(마녀(魔女) 2) Korean Film Thoughts

 

 

   

   It took forever for this sequel to be released. I'm not sure if the film was shot all in one go and just cut into parts or if this film was shot with all new footage. Still, The Witch 2 went on the be a big hit at the Korean box office just like the first film. Shin Shi-A, Park Eun Bin, Seo Eun Su, Jin Goo, Sung Yoo Bin and, Jo Min Soo star with special appearances from Lee Jung Suk and Kim Da Mi. This is Shin's debut film. 

    There is said to be more human experiments out there outside of the girl who is to be the strongest one.... Here is the story of the "other one".

   The Witch 2 tries to correct the passing issues of the first film by starting things out with a bang as an introduction to a new main character.  I enjoyed the corrections of mistakes made by the first film because after that you get a bucket load of information about new characters that live in this universe. The plot still strives on who is the strongest of the experiments, with one girl being more scary than the others running around. Witch 2's plot then dives back into old tricks of trying to humanize these mutant like characters in human emotional relationships. One reason these scenes don't feel so some much like an extreme slow burn similar  to the first film is due to this world already being formed in the opening scenes as well as the first film. Nothing can compare to the action pack sequences that happen during the last hour to half an hour of this film. What still makes me scratch my head is that it takes so long for a film that doesn't have much really going on under the surface to get to what everyone wants to see: the action. If you watched the post ending credits scene, then you know that another film is coming. I'm kinda tired deep down in my heart but I'll probably still watch since Witch 2 was a fun time overall. 

   Kim Da Mi is somewhat of what make's these film have a horror feeling to them. I hope they let her character really run wild in the next installment. She wasn't in this film for long however, her acting stole the show even for a short time. Making the second film more multilingual was a good idea too. I'm sure it made the film more attractive. Especially to Koreans. 

   Witch 2 is what it is: a glorified cash cow that uses flashy effects and mystery to keep people coming back for more. We all will want to see how everything ends. I hope that the third film is the last one.