ayumi hamasaki COUNTDOWN LIVE 2014-2015 A Cirque de Minuit

To Ayu's Cirque de Minuit!! The show starts before the red curtain even moves with some early acrobatic acts which all meld perfectly into the curtain rising up revealing the rest of the full frontal force of a show you're about to witness, which is an exceptionally impressive sight to see, and that's just getting it started. After this get ready for something even more and more INCREDIBLE with one performance after another full of outstanding acts all fitting the theme of the show itself. For GAME, Ayu even gets herself up on some wire ropes performing some just AMAZING midair acrobatics herself. Then a couple sexy yet forceful performances of "my name's WOMEN" & "1 LOVE". Then after a beautiful piano performance of End Roll by one of the guests in the show, get ready to cry. I cried watching all the way from "Zutto..." 'til "forgiveness". The first of those being performed in mid-air on a large moon with a gorgeous night sky backdrop on screen. Then both "Last Minute" & "Walk" are performed very intimately on the ground without too much props, but with plenty of emotion that will leave you in tears. With "forgiveness" by the 3/4 point you'll be hitting a semi-interruption of the song as they countdown to the New Year's with some beautiful messages put up on the giant screen in a very impressive performance display from both Ayu & her dancers. The "SURREAL~evolution~SURREAL" medley performances are always energy pumping between both on stage and the audience and this one is no exception. An even more fun surprise was during "evolution" when she suddenly included a small snippet of Beethoven's 9th Symphony blending it all perfectly into the performance. For the encore, Ayu starts it off with a fun pumping cover of Hikaru Utada's famous single "Movin' on without you". While I still prefer the original myself, it's a great cover and performance. The Documentary videos are also mostly in Japanese except for a few bits where she's talking to people that don't speak the language, so if you're not fluent in the language then you might not pick up on everything. None-the-less, this is a great fun to watch. Ayu keeps a wonderfully fun & entertaining environment even when they're preparing for the show. It's also just amazing watching this woman's wonderful dedication to everything she does. I HIGHLY HIGHLY RECOMMEND YOU PICK THIS UP & ADD IT TO YOUR COLLECTION!!