Revisiting Old Favourites

So, watching the first two eps of Painter (zomm so good people, go watch it) reminded me of 青花瓷, or Blue Vase, which kinda sorta has painting and artistry in general as a theme. The vase and paintings he talks about are anthropomorphic – the beautiful woman who forever charms and beckons but is never possessed by the artisan.

Anyhoo, first impressions of Painter. It has pluses on plot (interesting setting and beginning), acting (Moon and Park do a greeeeat job), atmosphere (the right mixture of levity and a sense of impeding disaster), and the most vibrant palette I’ve seen in a while. Everything is just so lush – not sure if it’s because this series is visually oriented to begin with, or my inner eye for greenery has withered of disuse from living in a city, but dudes, this show is gorgeous.

The only thing I find a bit weird is the relationship portents in this show. Something tells me that the brother is feeling incestuous and Park is just old. (Ack, the Severus Snape and Hermione Granger kind of age difference.) But let’s not dwell on that.

But don’t take my word for it! Go watch it yourself!

Download the song here.

Original lyrics and translation below:

18 Springs OST

18 Springs (aka 半生缘)

Complete OST: [Megaupload]

1. 半生缘/Half Life Fate
2. 擦身而过/Passing You By
3. 过去/The Past
4. 想着你/Missing You
5. 爱再靠近一点/I Want to Come Closer
6. 投怀送抱/Embrace
7. 情深深雨濛濛/Romance in the Rain
8. 新浪漫/A New Romance
9. 爱情小说/Romance Novel
10. 你这样爱我/This is How You Love Me
11. 半生缘 (弦乐版)/Half Life Fate (strings version)
12. 半生缘 (笛子版)/Half Life Fate (flute version)
13. 爱再靠近一点 (弦乐版)/I Want to Come Closer (strings version)
14. 擦身而过 (弦乐版)/Passing You By (strings version)
15. 爱再靠近一点 (钢琴深情版)/I Want to Come Closer (piano version)
16. 过去 (弦乐版)/The Past (strings version)
17. 爱再靠近一点 (音乐盒)/I Want to Come Closer (music box version)
18. 过去 (钢琴版)/The Past (piano version)

Hana Yori Dango Finale Raw

Well, the long-awaited final installment of Hana Yori Dango in movie form has arrived on the intarwebs!

Download the raw here. It’s split in 8 parts and you’ll need a .rar decompressor to open them. Use HJSplit to join the parts together, and then watch!

As for me, I’m holding out for the csubs, which should be out soon…

Expect a recap sometime in the next few weeks.

Love,

Sevenses

Younha Album 1 and 2

Younha

Vol 1: A Perfect Day For Loving You [Megaupload]

1. Delete
2. Child – I Cry (꼬마 – I Cry)
3. Password 486 (비밀번호 486) [Mediafire]
4. A Perfect Day to Say I Love You (고백하기 좋은 날)
5. Hello beautiful day
6. Just Today (오늘만)
7. Love Condition (연애조건)
8. Fly
9. Innermost Feelings (속마음)
10. Young Greed feat. Wheesung (어린욕심 feat. 휘성)
11. Alice (앨리스)
12. Child – I Cry (Instrumental)
13. Secret Number 486 (Instrumental)

- Password 486 with Epik High, live [Mediafire]

Vol 1.5: Comet [Megaupload]

1. 혜성/Hyeseong/Comet [Mediafire]
2. 좀 더 둘이서/Jom Deo Duriseo
3. 첫눈에/Cheonnune
4. Touch
5. 한 우산 아래/Han Usan Arae
6. 손을 잡고서/Soneul Jabgoseo
7. If
8. 내일도 맑은 하늘처럼/Naeildo Malgeun Haneulcheoreom
9. 약속/Yaksok
10. 해바라기/Haebaragi
11. 파란빛 레몬/Paranbit Lemon
12. 오렌지 첫사랑/Orange Cheossarang
13. 추억은 아름다운 기억/Chueogeun Areumdaun Gieok
14. 혜성 (Instrumental)/Hyeseong (Instrumental)
15. 첫눈에 (Instrumental)/Cheonnune (Instrumental)

Most remiss of me not to have posted them.

Love,

Sevenses

Painted Heart, 画心

Painted Heart, or 画心, is the theme song for the long-awaited comeback movie for Vicki Zhao, Painted Skin. Well, here’s a version without all the ‘lalala’, because I love you all. This one is the official movie version, being only 4min29sec or so. The real one is 7min02sec, dl it here.

Official MV:

More of that ghost + human = tragedy thing. I would be overjoyed, but I have had it up to here with tragedies.

Original Chinese lyrics and translation below:

Lost in Austen

Alright, I’m a Pride and Prejudice nut, mock me. And I love the idea of book travel (popularized by author Jasper Fforde in his Thursday Next novels) – so it’s no wonder that this show about a girl whose apartment shares a door with one of the Bennets’ attic rooms is so exciting to me.

Anyway, the gist of it is, she gets trapped in P&P, with astonishingly hillarible results. (Looks kind of soapy, but then P&P is one giant chick flick.)

Trailer here:

Well, the trailer was taken off the nets, so here you go.

It’s currently airing, by the way, so check your local channel listing to see if you can watch it. There are four episodes in total.

Tralalalaaaa,

Sevenses

Beethoven Virus Soundtrack Download

Hey folks! Am recapping this series over at dramabeans, but I thought I’d share the OST with you.

Download it via [Megaupload]. Romanized song titles in the comments – credit to the ever-amazing flyingcrispi.

Tracklist:
01. 운명/Fate (is it just me, or does every OST have a song named Fate?)
02. 무대위로/Comfort Stage
03. 내사람 – 환희/My Person – Hwan Hee
04. 천방지축 두루미/Rash Du Ru Mi
05. 베토벤을 생각하며/Beethoven’s Thoughts
06. 도전/Fight
07. 들리나요… – 소녀시대 태연/Like a Fool – Tae Yeon (SNSD)
08. 기다림/Waiting
09. Maestro
10. 한 사람 때문에.. – 이진성 (by Monday Kiz)/Because of One Person – Lee Jin Sung of Monday Kiz
11. Passion
12. 그렇게 바라만 보며/Looking From Above
13. 사랑은 선율을 타고(Day by Day) – 소녀시대/Love Burning Melody (Day by Day) – SNSD
14. 내일을 향해/Towards Tomorrow
15. 설레임/Shaking Love
16. My Humming – 임지현/Im Ji Hyun
17. 달려라 강건우/Run, Kang Gun Woo
18. 열정의 팀/Team of Passion
19. 미래의 꿈 – 문지성/Dream of Future – Mun Ji Sung
20. 사랑할 수 있어요/You Can Love
21. 행복을 꿈꾸다/Dreams of Happiness
22. 마지막 콘서/Last Concert (not in .rar file) download here (Thanks, flyingcrispi!)

Love you all,

Sevenses

Quick News Update

To all and sundry who have loved Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker series, this is either going to be great, or horrible:

Book 6 is due to be written by Eoin Colfer, he of Artemis Fowl fame.

Permission was granted by Adams’ widow, and the new book will continue the adventures of Arthur, Zaphod, and Marvin. (I thought – spoiler spoiler – they all died?) Tentative publish date set at October 2009.

Hmm. I’m not sure Colfer’s style is altogether similar to the delicious satire we all know and love.

—

Also, in other news, this article has people talking (and capslocking, and swearing, and being bad debaters).

Title? I had sex with my brother but I don’t feel guilty.

Uh. Yeah. What she said. If it works for her, I guess – it could also be denial or Stockholm or the simple fact that it’s her normal?

—

Also, Nicholas Sparks, who has given us such gems as The Notebook and A Walk to Remember.

He is going to write a book that will be used for a movie for Miley Cyrus.

*Shudder* *Runs away screaming*

—

Interesting day for the press,

Sevenses

Painted Skin, source and summary

irugnotmis posted the trailer, which got me thinking that I’d seen the premise somewhere, and voila!

Cast (so far confirmed):

Vicki Zhao – as 佩容/Pei Rong
Donnie Yen
Zhou Xun – as 小唯/Xiao Wei
Sun Li
Chen Kun

Genre: Fantasy/Action

Release date: September 28, 2008 (in China)

Approximate budget: $10 million (USD, which is modest for a fantasy movie these days).

What the movie is about:

In the time between Qin and Han dynasties (oh man, the succession got messy), a regional warlord, Wang Sheng marshalled his troops to fight off invaders from the West, and incidentally rescued a stunning beauty called Xiao Wei (little Wei). He brings her home. Of course, he doesn’t know that Xiao Wei is a fox demoness whose strength and beauty come from her covering of human skin.

Unfortunately for the residents of the city, Xiao Wei’s painted skin requires constant upkeep with human hearts. These hearts are procured for her by a desert lizard demon, Xiao Yi, who is in love with her (isn’t everyone?). Gradually Xiao Wei falls in love with the dashing, gallant and handsome Wang Sheng, and wants to replace Pei Rong as his proper wife.

It doesn’t seem like Wang Sheng returns Xiao Wei’s feelings (though he does succumb to her seduction). Pei Rong senses something wrong with this unusual houseguest and seeks help from Long Yong, a martial arts expert, and Xia Bing, an expert shaman exorcist.

The conflict between demons and humans begin, with Wang Sheng caught in the middle, by two women who love him…

Basically the movie ends when everyone dies, or when all emotions have been scrambled beyond possible recognition, or, you know. Both.

What the actual folktale, passed down from the centuries, says:

The folktale actually comes from a book on strange phenomena called ‘Strange Tales’ (original titling ftw). Meaning, there are many more stories where this came from, and if this movie does well we will be deluged with fantasy/horror action films for many more years to come.

(I read this thing in ancient Chinese form, so aside from the headache, I may have missed something. Yay for grade 3 Chinese! And now, for a translation…)

Vienna Teng Giveaway

Okay, the download link is going to be offline after 24 hours, because I do love Vienna’s music ever so much and want her to sell lots of albums so she can continue to make awesomely good music. She has three albums out right now, Waking Hour, Warm Strangers and Dreaming Through the Noise.

Vienna can compose, write lyrics as well as sing, so you know, awesomeness quotient up there already – there is also the fact that she abandoned a career in computer science to pursue her love for music. (Plus I have respect for people who start a musical instrument at the age of five and keep going, dudes.) There’s not much more I can tell you that wikipedia can’t do better, so I will leave you here with some live performances of hers.

I love how varied her style is, I love the way she makes the instruments just as important as her voice (especially 1Br/1Ba – come on, have you ever heard of a violin having an orgasm before? I didn’t think so). I love how her songs are so livable, that they sound beautiful and don’t wear out with successive listening.

Gravity and Unwritten Letter #1, two favourites of mine, both from Waking Hour

Homecoming (Walter’s Song), this song always makes me want to cry, in a good way. From Warm Strangers

Blue Caravan, from Dreaming Through the Noise

Lullaby for a Stormy Night, from Waking Hour

Recessional, also from Dreaming Through the Noise

Judge the quality for yourselves,

Sevenses