Dong Yi

I have seen two episodes of this, but if you believe the rumours and Chosun Police and Jeong Yak-yong are the CSI and Sherlock Holmes of Chosun era historicals, then I think this serial about the woman who grew up to become Queen Inhyeon's confidant and mother of the future king Yeongjo, is Chosun's Veronica Mars. Class conflict, murder mysteries, corruption and intrigue, detection and the skill of a principled and loving father in it, and a sure little girl who makes cute with them all. Plus, it's a show worth showcasing. I'll take anything, although I favour the tiny protagonist, her father and the military man so far.

Music:
Sandal Wood, Byungki Hwang
Fuyu no Sakura, Yoshida Brothers (which is Japanese, of course, but it has exactly the right sound)


Lawrence of Arabia

Regardless of whether you'd like to celebrate or criticize this film (or both? -- I'm fine with all of that), I'd just like to make two points:

1) somewhere on the internet, there's a mention of an interview David Lean did with The Guardian in 1992, where he said that all the homoeroticism between Lawrence and Ali, Farraj and Daud, and the two of them and Lawrence was all intentional and they thought they were being very daring at the time. If he were still alive, I'd like to shake his hand.  
 
2) this is a very long film, especially if you're on prescription drugs, and it is very easy to convince someone who slept through the last hour and wants to know what's happening that Lawrence and Ali fled to Australia, changed their names to Bruce Shaw and Ali ibn el Bruce (the camels were both known as Bruce Camel) and spent the rest of their lives debating whether they should throw another one on the barbie.

One of these points is a lie. I'll let you decide which one.


Mushishi

I think there's really nowhere to go with this but to make a diffuse, lyrical vid set to traditional Japanese folk music, which is precisely what I'd like. Feel free to focus on just one or a few episodes, if you like ("A Sea of Writings" can pass as my favourite). 


My Beautiful Launderette

The balance scale and the lead weights of conflict and power are just one of this film's major appeals, but if you could fit as much of that aspect in as you can, that would be swell. In terms of music, I'd prefer something that existed but was not necessarily of the 80's, given that everybody who was born in the 80's moved away and left no forwarding address for a reason.


A Prophet

Basically, what I would like is an extended version of this trailer (which I have watched more times than I've watched most vids; this is the kind of world I live in now -- where trailers look like this triumph of vidding sensibility and not like the MTV hayrides to which I have become accustomed. Help.) First piece of music from the trailer is here (the second piece is spare change that never made it to the soundtrack). All further enquires: Fresh Dubs.


ROD - The TV

There's a lot of material here to work with -- for one thing, it's a show where all the people are women and the men are either villains or supporting -- and I don't really favour any of it over the rest, and as a source it's equally good for a sweeping overview or a thematic essay or a character study. Nenene and Anita are my favourites, if you need someone to pin the vid on.  
 

So Close

I've made a vid for this and I was irritated by how much I had to cut short or leave out, so I'm just going to say: Karen Mok's mannerisms and Wei Zhao's facial expressions make this film -- their characters' relationship is my favourite aspect of the film, naturally -- but anything else you might want to make of this film will not go unappreciated.


Swing Girls

I think this is self-explanatory.

Music:
Lonely Bottles, Quincy Jones
The Jazz Police, Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band