#Eunyoung Choi

[ingma]

The name is Warp

[rap-game-moominmamma]

Saw this with my roommates earlier on in the week. Phenomenal screenplay. Yuasa, animation producer Eunyoung Choi and the whole Science Saru crew made a beautiful movie about mortality and the mundane magic of relationships. Will have to revisit this one because I probably missed a lot this first time around.

The Night is Short, Walk on Girl (2017)

[samireads]

Just some Korean literature 🇰🇷✌🏻

[readingtostaysane]

Shoko's Smile by Choi Eunyoung - Review

rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (5)

”I was watching someone who'd had a piece of her mind shattered and found myself basking in an odd sense, of superiority.”

Shoko’s Smile is a short story collection about the lives of women in South Korea. The collection shows the hardships of what is expected of you as a woman single or married, the hard relationships that sometimes exist within family and even if you, as a woman, should speak about crimes the government has committed or if it would be better (and safer) to keep quiet.

It also explores the concept of having friends across different cultures, and how that can be challenging, especially if your countries do not have an amicable past with each other. Those differences can break or make a relationship.

I really enjoyed reading different perspectives of how one’s culture can be damaging in people’s upbringing and how it can shape their way of thinking. 

”Despite my two feet resting on such uncertainty, (…) I had deluded myself into could plan my future.”

One thing shoko’s smile does perfectly is showing a real depiction of a lost and confused person in their twenties. As you read, the characters go through different struggles as they themselves navigate and discover their potential in a nation that is so unequal and that offers little opportunities. All of this while trying to make your family proud by doing what is expected of you as a korean woman.

”I was given constant warnings that women in particular needed to be careful about how they were perceived, that their future as a researcher was doomed once people started disparaging them behind their back.”

To get the full potential of this book and comprehend it you need to know Korea’s history and culture. These stories go in detail about some incidents that affected the lives of South Korean people. The last two stories are about the ferry incident in 2014 where more than 300 people lost their lives, most of them being high school students, and they’re two of the most heartbreaking stories i’ve ever read.

conclusion: This book is beautifully written and each story is deeply touching, you feel connected to each one. A great debut and i can't wait to read Choi Eunyoung's next work.

[scintillulae]

[kep1er-net]

official_kep1er: [Catch the Moment📸]

케플러 선생님들과 함께한

#오은영게임 🐥💜

귀여운 아기들과 있는

케플러 멤버들의 모습은

존재만으로도 힐링 아닌가요?🥺

연휴 마지막 날

케플러와 함께해서

행복했다💕🫶

[hyunjining]

Stray Kids Hyunjin & His Love of Queer Media 🏳️‍🌈

This is just a little self-indulgent post to show appreciation for Hyunjin’s consistent support for queer artists and their work because it makes my heart happy. If you would like to give this post some love on Twitter too, I would really appreciate it!

~~~

During an interview in 2018, Hyunjin revealed the items in his school bag, one of which was the feminist short story collection Someone Harmless to Me by Choi Eunyoung (title translation may vary), which features a lesbian love story.

Book Description:

Hyunjin also recommended To The Warm Horizon by Choi Jinyoung, a post-apocalyptic novel featuring a love story between two women (May 2024).

Book Summary:

An interview with Choi Jinyoung about the queer/lesbian themes in the book:

In an interview with Bugs, Hyunjin recommended the song “1-800-273-8255” by Logic and its music video, which features a gay man struggling with and then ultimately accepting his sexuality. He remarked that the video was hopeful and could make viewers cry (March 2018).

Music Video Description:

Hyunjin is a fan of Troye Sivan, whose songs (such as “Youth” and “for him.”) he has sung on live and at concerts, as well as during monthly evaluations as a trainee. They met in May 2023 and Hyunjin ended up as a feat. on the remix of “Rush,” a song about gay party culture and intimacy.

Hyunjin is a fan of Frank Ocean, a bisexual man. He has been heard on live whistling “Thinkin’ Bout You,” a song Frank wrote about another man (February 2024).

Hyunjin recommended “Sweet” by Bren Joy, a queer man, and met him after attending his concert soon after (April - August 2024).

About Bren Joy:

When asked what artist he’s been listening to lately (August 2024), Hyunjin replied with a line from Green Day’s song “Bobby Sox,” written by bisexual lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong. The lyrics say both “Do you want to be my girlfriend?” and “Do you want to be my boyfriend?”

About Billie Joe Armstrong and Bobby Sox:

If you got this far, thank you so much for reading!!!

[alexzalben]

SCOTT PILGRIM ANIME GETS A TITLE, PREMIERE DATE, FIRST LOOK TRAILER

The Scott Pilgrim anime series from Netflix has a new title:

SCOTT PILGRIM TAKES OFF

...and there's a ton of new photos, a trailer, and more info, below!

Format / Episodes: Animation / 8 Episodes

Cast: Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Satya Bhabha, Kieran Culkin, Chris Evans, Anna Kendrick, Brie Larson, Alison Pill, Aubrey Plaza, Brandon Routh, Jason Schwartzman, Johnny Simmons, Mark Webber, Mae Whitman, Ellen Wong

Executive Producers/Writers/Co-Showrunners: Bryan Lee O'Malley and BenDavid Grabinski

Executive Producers: Marc Platt (Marc Platt Productions), Jared LeBoff (Marc Platt Productions), Adam Siegel (Marc Platt Productions); Michael Bacall; Edgar Wright (Complete Fiction), Nira Park (Complete Fiction); Eunyoung Choi (Science SARU)

Director: Abel Gongora (Science SARU)

Music: Original Songs by Anamanaguchi (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game); Score by Anamanaguchi (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game) and Joseph Trapanese (Straight Outta Compton)

Animation Studio: Science SARU (DEVILMAN crybaby, Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!, The Heike Story, Inu-Oh)

Studio: UCP, a division of Universal Studio Group

[iheart-nana]

｡˚ ִ⋆｡ i've got a lot to pine about ;

.˳⁺ i've got a lot to live without . . .

like the moodboard? it's for my lovely runner oc: choi eunyoung! click here to read @the-one-and-only-delphi and my lovely runner fanfic. make sure u follow me and stay tuned! thank you, bye!! <3

[canmom]

l'aventure de canmom à annecy - épisode deux: jeudi 1 - kimi no iro

kimi no iro/the colours within: for real great movie. naoko yamada once again the goat. if you like stories about girls making a band (one of them is supposed to be a boy but like. so fucking eggy lmao). if you want emotions. or gorgeous character animation. or even if you like a catholic school setting (i won't judge). or if you want to see a movie in which a theremin player has a major role. go watch this movie.

but let's say a little more. since i recall people wondering, is it more Liz and the Blue Bird or Koe no Katachi?

hmm. the musical focus and like, focus on vibes over plot is definitely more Liz. not that there isn't thematic or emotional conflict but it's deliberately a little understated. likewise, it's got that theme of kids facing an uncertain future where they'll have to part. and like Liz, it's quite gay. despite the title and marketing, the visual metaphors are less on the nose than koe too. but it's also not as tragic a movie as Liz. it is ultimately pretty hopeful. it's a story about finding connections, and releasing secrets, so in that regard it is like Koe.

the religion element probably deserves some comment! it's set at a catholic school, and besides the main trio the other major character is a nun - but a kind and forgiving nun with a rather open interpretation of the religion, who covers for the girls. to her mind, just about any honest expression is in a sense a hymn. the main character is herself quite sincerely religious. but it feels more like an element of characterisation - of both girl and setting - than religious propaganda. often it seems that characters are kind despite, rather than because of the rules of the school, which punishes Totsuko for faking illness to cover for Kimi.

the other two face their own conflicts, and one is a dropout from the school - a choice that is never questioned or explained, though she has conflict over disclosing it to her grandmother who looks after her. it is kind of interesting in a way - Kimi is the character with the biggest emotional conflicts, but it's not her eyes we see the movie through, but the much more upbeat Totsuko.

i never managed to be in a band at school, but now I'm coming back to music, and playing in a band with people, it does feel strangely relevant lol. of course it's got that classic anime thing where the technical skill of these high school students is waaaay higher than is actually plausible but the music slaps so so cares lol. it's kind of a fantasy of what being in a band could mean - yamada 'admitted' on stage that she 'secretly' used to be in a band herself, and this is what she wanted it to have been.

it is technically excellent - science saru really went off with Inu-oh before and here they're showing they can stand up alongside Kyoani pretty damn well.

I was so glad to get to go to the showing where Yamada herself was present, and be part of the crowd applauding her. She really is such a special director. This film is full of Yamada-isms of course - the physical camera emulations, acting shots of feet, the wash of colours and symbolic cuts.

Of course I bet Eunyoung Choi is really happy too to have her on board as a new star director as Yuasa steps down - I heard things were bad at science saru work wise a few years back during Heike, and I don't know if they've improved. With Kyoani you have the assurance that nobody was overworked half to death to make the movie, and I feel much less confident saying that of modern Saru. Still. They did good on this one.

We are truly so back.

[ingma]

[animehouse-moe]

The (Present and) Future of Science Saru

As a bit of a preface, it was announced in this article that the animation studio Science Saru would be purchased outright from CEO Eun-young Choi on June 19th of this year.

It's big news, and definitely has been eliciting quite a few knee-jerk reactions to it, so I wanted to throw my 2 cents out there in a bit of a more casual format.

First of all, Science Saru was not bought because of financial struggles. Just in 2023- largely thanks to the success of the Scott Pilgrim anime- Science Saru recorded nearly a doubling (90%) in terms of their operating revenue as a studio.

It's a massive number, and helps to prove that the studio is not strapped for cash in any sense. By the same token though, it doesn't necessarily mean that the purchase was made in 110% good faith from both parties- but I do want to make a case that it is the most probable reasoning.

After all, Eunyoung Choi hasn't yet announced that they'll step down after the purchase, and Toho is allowing Science Saru to remain as a subsidiary of their growing animation division.

Similarly, look at what Toho Animation is doing as of late. They made massive waves with their work in The Apothecary Diaries, and are angling to place webgen wonderchild China (yes, that's their full name) as a cornerstone of their studio. From there, you just have to consider the trailer for the Godzilla-centered original anime First Line, as well as China's long time partnership/friendship with Moa Ang (who's the character designer for Naoko Yamada's Garden of Remembrance), and you realize that between the two entities there is a strong creative bond.

Piecing it all together, it really just feels like there's a strong backing from creatives on both sides of the field. With that in mind, it really feels like this buyout is about Science Saru having access to more funds, a greater talent pool, and more opportunity.

In a sense, it's hard not to. As of right now, Science Saru has four announced anime projects- two movies (both from Naoko Yamada), and two very big TV anime series. Considering the sheer popularity of Dandadan, and the mythic history of Ghost in The Shell, and you come to the natural conclusion that you really need every tool at your disposal to find success.

All of this is really just some rambling to put my thoughts together on the move, and Saru's future, but the more I continue to look closer and closer, the harder it is to explicitly pin ill intent on either party in this transaction. Toho is breaking into the animation market with the anime boom, and Science Saru wants to take themselves to the next level. It's a natural conclusion in this industry (almost). So rather than being overly pessimistic, I'm more so looking forward to what Toho is able to provide for Science Saru, and what kind of work we'll be seeing down the road.

[samireads]

Some good reads in February 😚

[slightlybiasedbookreviews]

TLDR, the recommendations:

The Player of Games by Iain M Banks

Use of Weapons by Iain M Banks

Excession by Iain M Banks

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

The Aleph and other stories by Jorge Luis Borges

Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn

Today A Woman Went Mad in the Supermarket by Hilma Wolitzer

Shoko's Smile by Choi Eunyoung

I really enjoy Hello Future Me's videos and how he talks about different forms of media.

[mydaylight]

I just finished reading Choi Eunyoung's Shoko's Smile, a collection of short stories so deliciously heartbreaking, I was tearing up at points. If you want to read something that'll stomp on your heart, I can't recommend this book enough. (the stories focus around human relationships, most of them with women in the center, and they're pretty great)

[pseudofujo]

The Summer (2021) (MOVIE)

(No poster this time, sorry, for some reason Tumblr doesn't like high res images, and I love this movie too much to use a low quality poster :( )

Summary;

That summer, a tiny bud of love bloomed between two 18-year-old girls. That moment, “one was a flower petal brushing against the other, a flow of water”. Bestselling author Eunyoung Choi’s short story ‘That Summer’ is being retold through animation, taking us inside the love story of two girls, Leekyoung and Suey, and the gentle changes their feelings go through. (SOURCE: Red Dog Culture House)

(NOTE: Red Dog Culture House calls the two mains Leekyoung and Suey, but for my review I will be calling them Li-Kyung and Sui, since that's what the subtitles on the rip I watched called them, and it feels more correct.)

Alright, this is the first ever shoujo-ai media I've ever reviewed, and what a choice it is! I'm writing this right after finishing the movie, so I'm sorry if my thoughts are disorganized, I'm just so excited to talk about this film that I couldn't even wait to let the feelings stew!

For starters, this film is amazing, I just need to get that out there right now. It's so, so very realistic, and every character in it feels *real*, like they could be a person you could meet in real life. Their emotions jump through the screen, and hit you right in the chest.

Both Li-Kyung and Sui are extremely complicated people, full of their own tragedies and faults, flaws and hopes, dreams, pure personality!

Li-Kyung is not a sympathetic protagonist, she lies, she cheats, and she fucks up. She, at least in my opinion, is the 'bad guy' in her situation. She tends to acknowledge it, but she doesn't make many strides to better herself, only digging herself further into a self-hating hole which eventually causes her to lose someone who truly, deeply, loved her, and hurt that person in the process.

Now, this may seem like a critique, but frankly I think its amazing. I think it's a good thing that Li-Kyung fucks up. It makes for an incredible story, and feels very human.

Sui, quite frankly, deserves better. And I think that's awesome.

Sui is a wonderful character as well. She has her own flaws as well, being withdrawn and seemingly uncaring, though it's later found that she just struggles with being open to people. She's hardworking, she's honest when she has something to say, and she seems to be bettering her life, all the while wanting to support Li-Kyung and cultivate a successful relationship with her.

It's quite clear that Li-Kyung struggles with seeing things from other's perspectives. She acts as though Sui doesn't care about her, and to be fair to Li-Kyung, Sui doesn't often say that she cares about Li-Kyung with words, but Sui works hard to show her care through actions. Li-Kyung never asks Sui "Do you care about me?" Because she's already made up her mind that Sui doesn't.

It's beautiful, in every sense of the word, and it's the first thing I've reviewed to genuinely, wholeheartedly, make me cry. There's a scene where Sui breaks down crying, and I nearly cried as hard as she did. The voice acting, while the audio quality could be a bit... okay, the audio quality is shitty sometimes, but I can forgive it, the voice acting is still awesome, despite their sometimes-horrible microphones.

All in all, watch this movie. Now.

Overall Score:

5/5