YeinJee's Asian blog

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American pop culture

Top Gun: Maverick movie trailer is beautiful

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Trailer for American film Top Gun: Maverick, a sequel to 1986’s Top Gun. Beautiful is not the usual word to associate with action movies, but I cannot find a better term to describe this teaser video… because it is really beautiful. In cinemas in June 2020 in Malaysia and the United States etc.

Not much thought about the first movie, it was a long time ago. Regardless, the film made Tom Cruise a superstar, and he is reprising his role after more than three decades. There are actually films with longer gap between sequel, such as the Blade Runner (1982-2017)…

There’s probably no feature film that stars the same main lead with such a huge sequel-gap like Top Gun though. Tom Cruise is THE leading actor in both movies. In other cases, the main cast may return but usually in lesser roles for a sequel that comes 20-30 years after the previous one.

Top Gun: Maverick is directed by Joseph Kosinski. Besides Tom Cruise, the main cast also includes Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Glen Powell, Lewis Pullman and Ed Harris. Val Kilmer, who played a key part in the original movie, also returns but with a small role instead.

Not much info about the plot, it looks like Cruise is becoming a mentor for some new fighter pilots. The film is going to be a hit as long as the story isn’t too bad. The visual effect looks great, and there’s always the nostalgia factor. This trailer certainly gives it a good head start.

[Rewind] Victoria’s Secret catalogue 1998

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Scanned picture of a 1998 cover of the Victoria’s Secret swimwear catalogue. The models are Stephanie Seymour, Daniela Peštová and Tyra Banks – the first generation of the VS Angels.

Stephanie Seymour, Daniela Pestova and Tyra Banks for Victoria Secret 1998

Victoria’s Secret opened its first store in Palo Alto in 1977. The company started using mail order catalogue as a sales method a year later, and it was a huge success. VS sent out 450 million copies a year at its peak in late 1990s. It became a pretty iconic publication in the United States.

Its influence faded in the internet age though. Mail order became a lot less prevalent, and social media took over the exposure role in recent years. And thus, the company stopped sending out these catalogues since 2016 to save cost – up to 150 million USD a year – during a major revamp.

Hat tip to Captain Bob for the image, I saved this from the Bellazon forum years ago if not mistaken.

Meanwhile, Angels is one of VS lingerie lines. It was a massive hit when launched in a commercial in 1997, and the term became synonymous with the brand’s contracted models soon after. Besides the trio above, the original Angels also include Helena Christensen and Karen Mulder.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi movie trailer

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Trailer for Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Directed by Rian Johnson and stars Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Andy Serkis, Lupita Nyong’o, Domhnall Gleeson, Anthony Daniels, Gwendoline Christie and Frank Oz in returning roles, with Kelly Marie Tran, Laura Dern and Benicio del Toro joining the cast.

Paris Hilton shares her favourite 2000’s fashion trends

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American socialite turned businesswoman Paris Hilton shares her favourite fashion trends from early 2000’s in a video with W Magazine.

I almost forgot about her existence as she has been relatively quiet in recent years. Love her or hate her, the 36-year-old has been a trendsetter regardless. At her peak she’s as famous as any top list stars.

Socialite culture, celebrity lifestyle reality shows, over the top fashion, pets as accessories, selfies, phone obsession, BFF etc. She didn’t create these stuff but she popularised these for sure.

Although she finds success as a businesswoman in recent years, I won’t call her a role model. But when you look at youngsters these days you will find them doing many things which Hilton had “pioneered”.

Those kids probably don’t even know who’s Paris Hilton, but she leaves a legacy in global pop culture.

You may say that she’s good at riding the wave instead, that the trends will become so with or without her. It’s probably true, but she still saw those earlier than most others and made it to her advantage.

Kong: Skull Island movie trailer

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Trailer for American monster movie Kong: Skull Island. It’s a reboot of the King Kong franchise and also the second instalment in Legendary’s MonsterVerse – a shared fictional universe centred on a series of monster films featuring Godzilla and King Kong (and perhaps more in the future.)

Directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts and stars Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L Jackson, John Goodman, Brie Larson, Jing Tian, Toby Kebbell, John Ortiz, Corey Hawkins, Jason Mitchell, Shea Whigham, Thomas Mann, Terry Notary and John C Reilly. In cinemas next week in Malaysia and the US etc.

I’m never a fan of King Kong. The fact that he’s always in love with a “tiny” albeit beautiful woman never makes sense to me, and that alone makes it difficult for me to like the franchise. Set that aside, the Kong in the teaser looks pretty badass. There seems to be too much going on in the preview though.

Chinese actress Jing Tian appears as a main cast on movie poster but doesn’t feature in the trailer at all. Guess it’s another pointless character just to please the Chinese market. Perhaps there will be two versions like some other recent Hollywood films, one for China and another for rest of the world.

Update – It’s a stupid but entertaining film. There are so many loopholes in the plot, which is poorly pieced together to begin with. The visual effects look great though, and the fast-paced storytelling makes some of the flaws forgivable. It’s fun for two hours but an easily forgotten movie.