A taxi, bullet train, bus, plane, shuttle bus, and car ride later, I am home! Proper babble will come later (maybe, after the jetlag), but I wanted to log the movies I watched on this trip before I forget them all.

1. The Four/四大名捕: This is the one movie I watched on the plane to Taiwan, having for once in my life actually slept for most of the flight. The wiki has a fairly un-spoilery summary, and a more coherent one than I can muster at the moment. I generally enjoy watching wuxia movies, and I am always in need of badass ladies, but the jealous love triangle aspect made it kind of meh. It was a fun watch at the time (long plane flights are good for fairly brainless entertainment!), but I wouldn't rewatch it if I had the opportunity.

[Technically The Return of the King should follow here, as I rewatched it with my cousins' kids on New Year's Day, but a) I'm almost positive all of you have seen it, b) all of the LOTR movies still leave me verklempt.]

2. Johnny English Reborn: The wiki says this was a James Bond parody; I'm only surprised it's not called "Mr. Bean Does James Bond." I watched this one at my aunt's as well, though I missed the beginning. There are definitely elements (the Bond-ish and British Imperial elements, now I think of it) that bothered me when I watched it, but upon further reflection, using bumbling Mr. Bean Johnny English as a James Bond substitute is an interesting way to highlight those issues. In any case, Rowan Atkinson and his comedic genius made me cackle myself silly regardless.

3. The Thieves/도둑들 (wiki): Part of the movie marathon I had on the flight home, and also it has replaced Ocean's Eleven as the heist movie OF MY HEART. I loved Ocean's for the teamness of it, but The Thieves has layers and layers of infighting and intriguing as well, which makes things so much more interesting! (And also much more practically self-interested.) All the characters are amazingly developed and flawed, and I especially appreciated that the ladies varied in age and outlook and skill-sets, and that none of them were ever primarily a love interest.

4. Painted Skin: Resurrection/畫皮II (wiki, youtube: trailer, youtube: Korean-subbed): Wiki has a very short summary and the trailer is pretty spoilery, so I will just say that Vicky Zhao + Zhou Xun = FLAILY HANDS OF YAY!! Also, they have more chemistry together than Vicky Zhao does with her actual love interest in this movie, which I think is more awesome than it is a mistake. Heh. Sorry, actor dude.

5. Rurouni Kenshin (live action): I watched this without having consumed the manga or anime versions, and I liked it a lot! Went *____* at the fight scenes, and also Kenshin and Kaoru, who were adorable. Now I'll have to hunt down the rest, dammit. (Maybe before school starts up again? I don't have that much time to be fannish these days!)

6. Clash/Bẫy Rồng (IMDb): Being a mob-type movie, this was distinctly more grim. Fight scenes were much dirtier (which comes with the territory), but also pretty fun to watch. I enjoyed Trinh being a boss, but am not so sure I enjoyed the movie as a whole- there is quite a bit of fridging, including ( spoilers (trigger warnings apply) ) Also, Clash is not nearly as character-driven as the other movies I watched on the flight home, and the plot was a little flat. I think these are flaws in most contemporary action films, though, so it would probably be unfair of me to single out this one.

Finally, just for the record: I want ALL THE FANWORKS for The Thieves and Painted Skin: Resurrection! (Tagging to remind myself to nominate them for Kaleidoscope.)

+ Love meme at dingsi's! Thanks for my thread. ♥

+ Spreading the word re: kuroko_no_basket!

+ I am having Kaleidoscope nomination woes! Things I'm currently considering:

• Who Fears Death - Nnedi Okorafor
  
• Whale Rider - Witi Ihimaera
  
• Lagaan
  
• eta; In the Heights

Feel free to suggest wishlist fandoms or recs, especially for non-East Asian fandoms! :D All strategizing welcome.

+ Shiny zouk video for your time! ( Shani & Yuval: )

Wow, okay, this is the first time in the last 48ish hours that I haven't been frantically doing ALL THE THINGS! I still have a lot more things to do, alas, but while I'm on my mental break, have some shinies:

&hearts eastasianfandomgiftbag! Fandom-stocking-style wishlists! I am SO doing this the second I have free (procrastination) time again, omg. *____*

&hearts wistfuljane made a reclist of Ouran OT7 fic! SO MUCH GLEE.

&hearts Kaleidoscope! I know, I know, I am like THE LAST PERSON ON THE INTERNET to rifle through the collections (& am being terribly slow at that), but seriously, so many gorgeous things! &doers of darkness; Actual recs to come at... some point, I promise. :3

&hearts white_lotus Lunar New Year Exchange is running again this year! Signups have closed, but drop ALL THE TREATS REQUESTS, you guys! ALL OF THEM. :D

My paper is done and so I have finally read my Kaleidoscope stories! EPIC GLEEFACE IS EPIC.

&hearts Patience, love, courage, tea is the RED CLIFF STORY OF MY HEART, omg. Sun Shangxiang being awesome on and off the battlefield! Friendship with Xiao Qiao! All the banter and snark and needling Zhuge Liang that anybody could wish for! Favorite non-explicitly OT4 is FAVORITE. *draws sparkly hearts forever* (Contains graphic violence.)

&hearts Feminine Wiles, a Red Cliff treat that is also entertainingly snarky! My fondness for terrible innuendo, it is great. xD

&hearts Somewhere Different Now, which is TUMBLING! My brand new sparkly fandom of glee! And also features Kiyama, who is my favoritest favorite character omg, and deals with canon homophobia in a way that I find very satisfying. &hearts &hearts &hearts Also: the appearances by Ryosuke and Wataru are PERFECT. :D

Last ~5 hours for Kaleidoscope treats, guys! (Or you can check out the countdown clock if you want to be precise.)

And, for those of you not biting your nails over Kaleidoscope:
&hearts starlady's put up a delicious looking port balsamic cranberry sauce recipe that I want to try. *_____*
&hearts SIGNUPS FOR THE white_lotus LUNAR NEW YEAR EXCHANGE ARE OPEN!! *\o/* which I will properly flail about later, I promise!

And now I am going back to writing my paper - okay, ogling the request list to see if there's anything my brain will wake up to. >.>

+ Via marina, glass walkway of AMAZEMENT OR TERROR! (Or, you know, amazement and terror, these things do not exist in binary only. :P)

+ Have been rewatching this video over and over again:


LOOK, GQMF POWER WALKS, I NEED THEM IN MY LIFE OKAY.

+ KALEIDOSCOPE! omg omg omg I am SO EXCITED, YOU GUYS, I CANNOT EVEN DEAL. As usual scheduling has run away with me, but I have plenty of writing time today so am not screwed yet! Will have to block out time to see if I can manage any treats, despite it being midterm season forever and ever.

&hearts!!

Hello! First of all, YOU ARE AWESOME FOR SHARING THESE FANDOMS WITH ME and I'm already looking forward to squeeing with you!! Second of all, I am a magpie; I like all sorts of shiny things, so please don't feel that you have to limit yourself or pay attention to the prompts I suggested if you don't want to!

Some general notes: I love awesome people being awesome, awesome women being awesome, and pretty much anything involving teams, communities, families, friendships, and the building of them. I am incredibly un-picky about genre, though these days I enjoy romance-type stuff more as a side flavor than a main dish, and I like fluff more when it is mixed in with other things rather than pure tooth-aching sweet. Er, in case that didn't give it away, I also really love it when people write about food, ahaha. Not that this is necessarily relevant to the fandoms I chose!

On a less fluffy note, I tend to make googly eyes when people go the critical/meta-commentary route, but I'm pretty sure this is only relevant to one of my requests? I mention it on the off chance that it is fun fandom-times for you, so if you don't want to go there definitely don't feel obligated! The real point of this is fandom-happiness, after all. :D

( requests! & some extra notes )

I hope some of this helps, and if it doesn't, feel free to ignore and make what interests you! &hearts

Guys, Kaleidoscope's current nominations list gives me a bigger grinny face every time I look at it! I am SO EXCITED, thanks so much to everyone who's nominated/promoted/volunteered/helped spread the word thus far. Also, &hearts to dharmavati, troisroyaumes, and wistfuljane! &Team Darkness;;;

On a personal note, though: dear circle, please rec me some more non-East-Asian fandoms! Of course I am all excite about the East Asian movies/shows/dramas/anime/manga series/etc. that people have already nominated, but I am uncomfortable with spending my nomination slots on East Asian sources that someone else will probably come up with anyway and would instead prefer to boost some underrepresented groups that deserve love.

So, revamping from my previous ideas, my current consideration list looks like this:
- Janelle Monae's albums (NEED MOAR CINDI MAYWEATHER FIC!)
- Karen Lord, Redemption in Indigo
- Witi Ihimaera, Whale Rider
- Louise Erdrich, The Birchbark House

I haven't decided whether or not I want to reserve a slot for Sarai-ya Goyou (or perhaps Hiromi Goto's Half World? or Samurai 7?), but either way, I have at least two definite openings for non-East-Asian stuff! Anything you'd particularly like to see? Anything short-ish that you think I should watch or read (since I'd prefer to nominate things I can, you know, actually offer)?

Addendum to last post: Kaleidoscope nominations are currently open! If, like me, you are having trouble deciding on your picks, you can check out the list of currently nominated fandoms here; littlebutfierce also has a nomination strategizing post. ;)