Just Desert

BOOK REVIEW: Kafka on the Shore

2012-01-22T12:29:00.000+08:00

Finished my reading assignment for myself for this month. Actually I started reading this book some months ago, around September in fact, but only got serious with it late last week, and finished it just now. My head's still spinning. I feel like I can't think properly, but I also feel like I'll forget all my thoughts and feelings about the book now, just like how you forget your dreams minutes after you wake up, unless I write them all down.

SPOILERS AFTER THIS POINT.

Kafka on the Shore has two ongoing plots that seem to parallel, yet seem to have nothing to do, with each other. The odd chapters follow Kafka Tamura, who is described by one of the characters in the book as a "cool, tall, fifteen-year-old, lugging around a backpack and a bunch of obsessions." He starts the story by running away from an unhappy home and his father's Oedipal curse in which it is prophesied that he would kills his father and sleep with his mother and sister. At times, Kafka is accompanied by a spectral alter-ego named Crow, who encourages him by spouting the mantra: "You have to be the world's toughest fifteen-year-old" but often he is alone though he never seems to have any trouble getting help from benevolent strangers. He ends up in a remote city and takes up a room in a private library run by an intelligent, transgender, hemophiliac, named Oshima, and the beautiful but aloof Miss Saeki.

Kafka initially toys with the idea that Miss Saeki might be his mother who had left their home, along with his elder adopted sister, when he was four. Although he never ostensibly searches for these missing parts of his family, Kafka does look for the mother and daughter tandem in most every woman he meets who fit the age. At one point, he encounters a girl, Sakura, who works as a hairdresser and who admits that she has a brother about his age but that she knows her family and that he couldn't be her brother. Even so, that doesn't stop Kafka from thinking of her as his sister and in so doing, allow the hands of fate to weave their inevitable course. Metaphorically or not, I'm not sure, but it happened in a dream. Or did it?

Kafka also develops an attraction to fifty-something Miss Saeki, or at least, to her fifteen-year-old ghost/alter-ego, after listening to the titular song, Kafka on the Shore, whose vague lyrics hold unusual parallelisms in Kafka's life. Is he the boy in the picture? Is the boy his father? At one point in the story, the characters talk about how Kafka is taking over his father's will (by killing him) so that he would desire his mother (and replace him in her life). This is classic Freud. But I was left wondering whether everything happened literally, or is it all just a metaphor? Miss Saeki says, "We're not metaphors," to which Kafka counters, "...But metaphors help eliminate what separates you and me." So even if it's not real in the sense that you and I understand what is "real," it doesn't make it any less real.

The other plot in Kafka on the Shore deals with Nakata, an illiterate sexagenarian who is a little slow on the uptake but has unusual abilities, least amazing of which is he can talk to cats. Nakata spends his life searching for what is lost. Literally, the house cats of his neighbors, but metaphorically, his other half. Nakata is described as a man who only has half of a shadow and no memories, "a library without books." Just like Kafka, and most of the characters in the book, he has lost something and is trying, in his own way, for the most part without realizing it, to get it back.

After he is manipulated into killing a man dressed up as Johnny Walker, the neighborhood cat-killer, Nakata skips town with the help of a straight-talking, aloha shirt-wearing, truck driver, named Hoshino. While searching for the entrance stone, the same one mentioned in the song Kafka on the Shore, Nakata ends up in the very same library that Kafka had been. It seems a long time ago this entrance stone has been opened and things were never what they should have been. Nakata's role in all this is to make everything right again, i.e. to make himself "normal" again. Does this mean finding, and reuniting, with his missing half?

Eventually, the story ends with one of the main characters waking up to a "brand-new world."

The two main characters Kafka and Nakata never meet but their lives intertwine each other through a series of coincidences. Evidence seems to suggest that they may be the same person. Nakata says that when he sleeps, he dreams of being in a library, reading books. Understand that Nakata, at least in his side of the world, is illiterate, but that Kafka spends most of his time in the library, reading books. And whenever Kafka sleeps, he doesn't dream, or doesn't remember them, which, Nakata doesn't have memories and has no real concept of time or the past. This connection would make sense if we were to presume that Kafka becomes Nakata when he sleeps, and Nakata becomes Kafka when he sleeps. (Which reminds me, Kafka says that the middle-aged Miss Saeki becomes her fifteen-year-old self when the other sleeps.) If this is the case, then that would mean that one of the two worlds the characters live in isn't "real." But reality, at least in Kafka on the Shore, isn't a solid object that you can step into and step out of like walking into a literal doorway. Instead, the journey between the two is seamless, the line is blurred, the conscious becomes the subconscious, reality a dream.

"It's like everything around in me's in flux -- like it all has a double meaning," Kafka tells Miss Saeki.

In the two worlds that Murakami has created, reality is just a concept -- like Colonel Sanders and Johnny Walker -- something you can bend and shape according to your will, a metaphorical sandstorm, a labyrinth of the world outside and your own inner world where you either come of it changed or to stay where you are, unchanged.

Some movies I recently watched

2012-01-08T22:21:00.001+08:00

Some good. Some bad. In as few words as possible.

The Lincoln Lawyer
Matthew McConaughey, Marissa Tomei, Ryan Philippe

Matthew McConaughey at his charmingly slimiest as a smooth-operating defense lawyer who experiences a moral dilemma just as he is handling the biggest case in his career. While the story is nothing new -- not even a single twist in sight for the tired old legal drama genre -- the movie does well with strong performances and a solid, if a bit predictable, plot.

Battle Royale: Director's Cut
Fujiwara Tatsuya, Maeda Aki, Shibasaki Kou

I've long heard about this movie but didn't really buy into it. It's basically about violence and moral depravity of people satirized and brutalized into a literal battleground with high school students as the participants. The movie opens strong but loses some of its cohesiveness in the middle portion before fading into a fairly predictable ending. Fujiwara Tatsuya overacts, Maeda Aki underacts, but some strong performances from the villains save the film for me.

Shonen Merikensack
Miyazaki Aoi, Sato Koichi, Kimura Yuichi

A very entertaining dramedy about a punk band composed of 40-year-olds trying to make a comeback with the help of a naive talent scout / music director who is clearly in way over her head. Stellar performances from an ensemble cast. This is a genuinely funny movie with all the usual antics but also surprisingly deep and touching in its quieter moments.

Restless
Mia Wasikowska, Henry Hopper, Ryo Kase

I heart Mia Wasikowska and have loved everything she's done until this movie. Make no mistake, she does well enough with the material she's given but this movie...tries too hard, methinks. Gus Van Sant, I loved your Elephant. Make more films like that. Forget quirky but overly self-conscious romance flicks that cheapen death and lie about cancer. Also, every time Henry Hopper comes on screen (which is pretty much every five minutes or so), I wanted to pick up a hairbrush and throw it at my screen.

Don't Be Afraid of the Dark
Guy Pearce, Katie Holmes, Bailee Madison

The only scary movie I watched turns out to be not scary at all. This is produced by Guillermo del Torro and you can see his hand in the darkly fantastic fairytale that is at the heart of this film. But this is more fantasy than horror. And malevolent tooth fairies? Uhm, can anybody say Hellboy 2?

Shinobi: Heart Under Blade
Odagiri Joe, Nakama Yukie, Shiina Kippei

This is actually a re-watch. I saw this movie a few years back but can't really remember how it was. I know the story. Basically, it's Romeo and Juliet but with ninjas, and because there are ninjas, you can expect the fighting to be more than just swordplay. The movie is adapted from a manga, Basilisk (or was that the anime version? I can't remember anymore). The story is good but for the fact that you have to suspend your disbelief over the love existing between the two main characters as the movie barely spends five seconds explaining it.

Mushishi
Odagiri Joe, Esumi Makiko, Aoi Yuu

A critically-acclaimed adaptation of the manga and anime series of the same name, this film follows the life of Ginko, a mushishi ("bugmaster') who travels the rural countryside, curing the ills caused by the half-spirit, half-matter mushi. While I enjoyed the anime and manga versions, this movie didn't do it for me. As a matter of fact, I found it quite boring, except for the part with Nui. That was just sad.

Mezon do Himiko
Odagiri Joe, Shibasaki Kou, Tanaka Min

Of all the movies I saw last Christmas break, this one satisfied me the most. This is a story about a father and a daughter who can't accept each other, a man and a woman who can't fall in love, and a house that isn't even supposed to be. It's a comedy by the way. It's official: I have a crush on Odagiri Joe.

Save your resolutions for your never new year

2011-12-30T12:23:00.002+08:00

That's a line from Bottle It Up by Sara Bareilles, which, for a while, has been my message tone. Anyhoo, this blog isn't going to be about my resolutions for 2012. Oh, I have resolutions but I won't post them. Instead, I've decided to make lists.

2012 is for 12 Books a Year List:

January - Kafka on the Shore (Haruki Murakami)
February - The Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins)
March - Mockingjay (Suzanne Collins)
April - Catching Fire (Suzanne Collins)
May - A Game of Thrones (George R. R. Martin)
June - Tess of the D'urbevilles (Thomas Hardy)
July - Drive (James Sallis)
August - ~~The Marvelous Land of Oz (L. Frank Baum)~~ The Awakening and Other Stories (Kate Chopin)
September - Norwegian Wood (Haruki Murakami)
October - Animal Farm (George Orwell)
November - ~~Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)~~ Candide (Voltaire)
December - ~~Midnight's Children (Salman Rushdie)~~ The Metamorphosis (Franz Kafka)

UPDATED: 01/21/2012 Replaced The Marvelous Land of Oz with The Awakening and Other Stories, Catch-22 with Candide and Midnight's Children with The Metamorphosis

Movie Review: Immortals 3D

2011-12-29T07:36:00.001+08:00

I love my Greek mythology. Let's see, I first encountered my first Greek god in Grade 5 when I read on my English Reading textbook the story of the seasons, how Hades kidnapped Persephone, the pomegranates, Ceres' despair, and all the stuff that followed. Then movies like Clash of the Titans (the original, not the idiotic, not to mention completely unnecessary remake), The Odyssey, Jason and the Argonauts (to a point) and all that heady stuff came and my love was practically etched in stone.

So despite movies like Troy, which is awesome in its own right (because Brad Pitt in a skirt, yo) but which didn't feature any of the gods or goddesses of the ancient Hellenic culture, I'll always have a soft spot for anything remotely touching mythos. It's no small wonder then that one of my most anticipated action movies of the year would be Immortals, directed by Tarsem Singh and starring Henry Cavill (whom I first discovered in the UK series, The Tudors, playing the sexy Duke of Norfolk) as the heroic Theseus tasked by Zeus (Luke Evans in a golden armor) and the other Olympians to stop the Titans from escaping Tartarus.

Visually, the movie is stunning. It's green-screen technology after all and all in 3D. But while Henry Cavill's muscular abs are very nice indeed, they're not enough to distract you from the insipid script or the ham-fisted action on screen.

The storyline is weak and a dime-a-dozen to begin with, but when character motivations are also suspect, I found myself rolling my eyes in several key scenes. Mickey Rourke's King Hyperion is a generic villain whose wanting to destroy the world is barely explained. His costume's nice though. The scars, not so much. Why does he have scars, exactly? So he'll look more evil? And meanwhile, our heroes are baby-faced, clean shaven men (of steel).

The prominence (I use the word loosely here) of the Olympians are bright spots in an otherwise lackluster movie. I love that Athena was given not just one moment but moments to shine in this movie, as opposed to Clash of the Titans where the character barely clocked in. Sure, she got impaled for her troubles (spoiler!), but no matter.

The trailer for the movie showed a lot of gods in action, which is one of the reasons why I wanted to see this movie. I assumed, from the title Immortals and the trailer, that this would focus more on the, admittedly, unruly gods of Greece than on the humans and their heroics, but I was wrong. It's about Theseus and his rise from lowly peasant to hero. Wait, it's about a prophetic vision about the Titans released onto the world, causing havoc everywhere. Wait, it's about siblings Athena and Ares defying an edict from father Zeus about interfering with human affairs. Wait, it's about Theseus doing the nasty with the virgin oracle, Phaedra, causing her to lose her powers but in exchange giving her a son who inherited her prophetic powers. Wait, it's about how the gods refuse to save humans from their sufferings. Wait, it's about a future war between the real immortals, which means that this entire two-hour movie is just a preview of the real movie which may or may not be made.

Load of crap.

Before I go, let me just leave you with the best part of this movie:

Good luck identifying the gods. I can see why the first two would be Poseidon and Athena, but the others escape me.

THE SCORE

Story - 4
Sound - 5
Cinematography - 6
Picture - 5
Special Effects - 8
Acting - 5

Overall - 5.5/10

Cartoon Me in Black and Red Pen

2011-12-14T21:17:00.000+08:00

Doodles while waiting for the next class.

Holidays: No present for me

2011-12-14T17:25:00.001+08:00

It's the Holidays. I'm looking forward to spending it with the family, which would be my mother, my brother and his wife, and my four nephews. My father would have to stay at our house here in the city because we don't want to leave the house unattended, what with all our dogs. We have four now, did I mention that? There's my baby, of course, Boris, a shi tzu/japanese chin or maybe japanese spitz mutant creature lol. There's Barack, whose breed I'm still trying to figure out. He's our biggest dog and the quietest (although he can be loud when he's in one of his watchdog moods). Then there's Humay, previously called "Judge," who is the basic irong bisaya. And finally, there's Boris' own baby, Crystal, the only girl and so acts like one of the boys. A dyed-in-the-blue tomboy. If Dad lets me drive my car home to Moalboal for the Christmas, maybe I can bring Boris with me, but that's a long shot because the last time I drove down there, I ended up in a ditch.

So anyway, I expect to do a lot of the Christmas cooking. I also pre-ordered some sky lanterns from Liv, who delivered them a couple of weeks ago. I already bought Mom and Dad their presents: two brand-new cellphones for them both, wifi but I think this feature is pretty much useless seeing as how my mother initially pronounced it as "wee-fee."

I also bought myself a simple phone, second-hand, and sold my nicer one because I needed the money. I have my eye on the Samsung P1000 or maybe a Blackberry Bold. But I don't really need or want an android phone. On the other hand, I think a tab would be a nice alternative for my laptop but I don't want to get an iPad, unless it's iPad 2, which I can't afford anyway. Apple has cool products but for some reason I never got on the bandwagon and maybe I never will. I like the idea of the Samsung P1000 because its like having my old phone back but with extra screen real estate. I did love my Samsung B3410w but for its small screen.

A few months ago, I bought the aPad, which is a cheap, China-made android tab. It's pretty okay but it's not a good portable device because it's battery life is too low: barely two hours. Some of the classes I teach can go for four straight hours so I need something that has enough juice to last that long without my needing to plug on to a socket somewhere. It was very cheap. I bought it second-hand and it shows on its appearance but the previous user installed a lot of apps on the device which made me a happy customer for a while, until I decided to really try it as a laptop alternative and it was disappointing. Since then, I don't think I picked up the gadget again.

See, this is the reason I'm a little apprehensive about the Archos 7 home tablet, which is also a cheap tab. It's being promoted as a media device, which, no. I won't be using a tab primarily for media entertainment. I need it for work. What I really need is a tab that would be reliable for surfing the web and editing documents. I need a tab that would sync with my PC and laptop without hitches. And since I'm the sort of person who wants only one device to do many things, then I'd sure like a tab that can triple as a camera and a phone. Way to simplify my cluttered life.

Or, I could just ditch the tab idea and just buy a new windshield and new tires for my car, which I really need. At this rate, I can probably look forward to a tab next year at the soonest and by then a new crop of products would have been launched and I'd be in consumer hell again, confused over what to buy.

Back to the present, my cousin's baby is going to be christened this Sunday and I have the honor of being chosen as a godmother. This means, of course, that I have to buy a gift for the baby. My mother tells me I can get baby clothes, rattles, milk or Gerber. Hm. And speaking of which, I made the unfortunate promise of buying my nephew (who is also my godson) an RC helicopter this Christmas.

Le sigh.

It's on

2011-12-06T20:49:00.000+08:00

Textless cover for Brilliant at 3:00 a.m. We are revamping again. Yay. Here at Aberrant Productions.

Just watched

2011-11-30T17:28:00.000+08:00

The Help

STARRING: Emma Stone, Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer, Bryce Dallas Howard

Funny, entertaining, completely unsentimental but will touch you without seemingly trying. A great performance by Viola Davis and a hilarious turn from Jessica Chastain. Which brings me to

The Debt

STARRING: Helen Mirren, Sam Worthington, Jessica Chastin and Todd Wilkinson

Great thriller, great drama, fascinating characters. Sam Worthington is really a lovely man. I kind of hated him in Avatar and in Clash of the Titans....but his face is ~~secks~~ hot.

Drive
STARRING: Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan

A tense action-thriller that left me at the edge of my seat. This is the kind of action movie that doesn't get made anymore.

How to poach an egg Strip 1

2011-11-25T21:46:00.000+08:00

Moon and Sea

2011-11-11T16:14:00.000+08:00

Read it here.

Paliya

2011-10-30T18:24:00.000+08:00

"Paliya"
Pencil, 190mm x 270mm

Dying of Anticipation

2011-10-16T20:29:00.001+08:00

Season 2 is premiering tomorrow! I can hardly wait. So to tide me over 'til the season's premiere becomes available on piratebay, I got myself the webisodes, which tell the story of the half-zombie that Rick kills out of pity in Season 1.

Plot? Not much there considering the time constraint but I have to say that it's pretty gory -- gorier than even the series, and the quality of the zombie make-up hasn't downgraded one bit. The actors are obviously amateurs, especially the guy. The kids did pretty okay, and Hannah herself (that's the half-zombie's name although the series is sort of an origin story for her so it shows her as a human) does really well portraying the mother caught between a rock and a hard place.

As a kid

2011-10-09T20:55:00.000+08:00

Photo from here.

I had a mean streak. When I was in first grade, there were these two kids that I used to bully all the time. One was a boy and the other a girl. I'll never forget their names until the day I die. God, I was so mean to them. I'd pinch them for no reason at all, and at one point I'd stick them with mahjong and I'd even press hard so it would hurt. I don't know the official name of mahjong but it's a kind of weed that has thorny/spiky flowers/seeds. I think I probably punched the boy, too.

As for the girl, well, she was almost my neighbor and there were so few people living near our place that time and we were the only ones with a TV set, so this girl and her brothers and friends would come to our place to watch TV, and I'd be there watching them. Closely. They'd watch TV from outside our window but we had these flowerbeds right beneath the window and my mother always made sure that they never stepped on these flowerbeds. So taking cue from this, I used to beat their feet with a stick if they even so much as step on a single plant.

After first grade, I stopped bothering these two kids. I guess it also helped that we weren't in the same section. I didn't bully anyone else during my elementary years. Then, high school, there was this one classmate during freshman year that I used to mercilessly tease. I didn't get physical or anything like that but I teased and joked about her so much she'd end up crying. And the jokes weren't even that funny. I was doing it just to be mean.

I saw this high school classmate about a year ago, and I've made my apology and, hopefully, peace.

I have not seen the boy and the girl from my elementary years. I know the girl is probably married now. I know her family and they still live in our neighborhood. The boy...I really don't know what happened to him. His brother is about the same age as my older brother and I've seen him around but we're not friends, so.

Knowing these things about me bothers me. Actually, it more than bothers me. It shows me, in no uncertain terms, the cruelty I'm capable of. Now that I am older, I like to think that I've mellowed down a bit. After much thinking, I realize that my being a bully was my way of reacting (badly) to unfamiliar territory. If you notice the pattern, I was only ever cruel to my peers when I felt insecure and unsure about my surroundings. Now, when faced with more or less the same circumstance, I just withdraw and put my guard up and act like I don't care. It's not the best way of coping. I'm trying.

I still have that mean streak.

I read books!

2011-10-02T21:10:00.000+08:00

So I've been watching a lot of TV and movies on my PC these days. I like the instant accessibility of the media but I also think my brain is turning to mush. I need text. Not only that, I need high-brow text. So, survey my reading list:

O Pioneers! by Willa Cather

Part of my recent horde from Book Sale. Honestly, I love that store -- especially the one at Robinson's. Less crowded, yet more choices, and I always seem to find some literary gem whenever I drop by the place. Last time, it was Ethan Frome. Now, this. One of my favorite books was The Song of the Lark by the same author. Admittedly, reading Cather is...work, but the end result is always satisfying. O Pioneers! seems to be a love story of sorts so, in a way, it's more appealing than Song, which took the realization of an artist as its subject.

A Clash of Kings by George R. R. Martin

The second book of the popular fantasy series of novels, A Song of Ice and Fire. Incidentally, the first book of the series has been turned into the award-winning HBO series, Game of Thrones. The story is really compelling but what I love most about it is the characters -- all of them. This just seems to be a beautifully crafted world.

Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse

Before anything else, let me just say that I am not the sort of person who would read a book more than once. In fact, most of my favorite books have only been read one time. I don't like to go back because nothing compares to that first experience of stepping into the world that a particular author has written for you. To try to recapture that moment is futile because it's never going to happen again. That is why I don't read story books twice. Herman Hesse's opus is one of the few exceptions. There is just something about Steppenwolf. I must have read the book five times already. I was just out of college when I read it the first time. Each time I pick it up, I always find something new to ponder about it. Maybe I see myself in Herman, or I don't know. It's just a book that I like to go back to every so often.

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

The young adult genre is pretty popular and I haven't jumped in the bandwagon yet. Here's to my first foray into the unknown seas otherwise known as YA. If it's good, I'll pick up The Hunger Games next. Incidentally, both are being made into movies, so yeah. If I want to read these, I better start now before I see the movie versions because otherwise I'll never get around to it.

That's the list for now. I should be able to inhale these during sembreak, if I'm not too busy lawyering it up.

The "Pretentious" Book Meme

2011-09-27T12:01:00.000+08:00

From here.

Apparently the BBC reckons most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here.
Instructions:
1) Look at the list and put an ‘x’ after those you have read ENTIRELY
2) Add a ‘+’ to the ones you LOVE.
3) Star (*) those you plan on reading.
4) Tally your total at the bottom.

My two cents

1 Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen X+
2 The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte X+
4 Harry Potter series – JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee X+
6 The Bible X (yes, that happens when you go to a Catholic school and attend summer catechism classes)
7 Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte X+
8 Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell X+
9 His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations – Charles Dickens *
11 Little Women – Louisa M Alcott X+
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 – Joseph Heller *
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare (Not all but quite a few)
15 Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger X
19 The Time Traveller's Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch – George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell X+
22 The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald X
23 Bleak House – Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams *
26 Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky *
28 Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll X
30 The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy *
32 David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis X
34 Emma – Jane Austen X
35 Persuasion – Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – CS Lewis X
37 The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin – Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden X
40 Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne
41 Animal Farm – George Orwell *
42 The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown X
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving
45 The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery * (started reading it before then stopped)
47 Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid's Tale – Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies – William Golding
50 Atonement – Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi – Yann Martel *
52 Dune – Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen X
55 A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens X
58 Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon X+
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
62 Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History – Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas X
66 On The Road – Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones's Diary – Helen Fielding
69 Midnight's Children – Salman Rushdie *
70 Moby Dick – Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
72 Dracula – Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett X
74 Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses – James Joyce X
76 The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal – Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession – AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens X
82 Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple – Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro *
85 Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web – EB White X
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Alborn X
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (read some of them)
90 The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery X+
93 The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
94 Watership Down – Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas X
98 Hamlet – William Shakespeare X
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables – Victor Hugo

That makes it 25.

Meme!

2011-09-26T16:15:00.001+08:00

MEME

Bold the things that apply, italicize the things that sort of apply and leave the rest as is; you know the drill.

i am
happy. sad. a good friend. adventurous. shy. confident. procrastinating. a male. bored. anxious. clumsy. sociable. always punctual. selfish. intelligent. funny. a female. sarcastic. insecure. sick. beautiful. articulate. loud. kind. even tempered. honest. short. tall. medium height. proud of myself. loving. witty. down to earth. outspoken. determined. high-maintenance. pretty. assertive. organized. selfless. awesome.

i have
brown hair. hazel eyes. brown eyes. blue eyes. curly hair. long fingernails. braces. chipped nail polish. long legs. straight hair. a fringe. long eyelashes. sore feet. freckles. dark skin. medium skin. green eyes. blonde hair. dyed hair. short legs. red hair. big breasts. rosy cheeks. wavy hair. black hair. small-ish waist. tattoos. piercings. big ears. short hair.

i ♥
people. flowers. kisses. summer. coffee. the rain. candles. incense. late night talk shows. insects. hugs. attention. the beach. chocolate. music. beanies. harry potter. twilight. facebook. black and white photos. sleeping in. driving. narrating my pet's thoughts. opening gifts. buying gifts. halloween. cute texts. apples. compliments. country music. hip hop. sushi. sports. art. singing. seeing my loved ones happy. surprises. sunsets and sunrises. skinny dipping. horror movies. simon cowell. family guy. garlic. hearing somebody talk in their sleep. being right. kfc. abstract photography. concerts and festivals. tanning. oversized t-shirts.

i would ♥ to be a
police officer. lawyer. doctor. teacher. fruit picker. mother. greenpeace volunteer. hippie. groupie. rockstar. footballer's wife. therapist. singer. actress. diving instructor. lottery winner. company owner. housewife. nurse. builder. race car driver. website developer. an inspirational talker. music teacher. artist. chef. makeup artist. hairdresser. restaurant owner. homeless shelter volunteer. fitness trainer. vet. radio show host. band manager. all of these jobs are shitty.

i like to eat
fruit. vegetables. fast food. sushi. in bed. rice. sandwiches. subway. chicken. cakes. seafood. a lot. pasta. rice crackers. when i'm bored. cheese. ice cream. garlic bread. peanut butter out of the jar. eggs. lots of ethnic foods. pancakes. honey. lunch. bread crusts. low calorie foods. soy products. gluten free products. only when i'm hungry. toast. breakfast. pizza.

i dislike
cold mornings. baths. people dissing my taste in music. people in front of me walking really slowly. having my personal space invaded. cleaning. going to bed early. wine/beer. religion arguments. coffee. the beach. rain. children. having my photo taken. drama. gossiping. hip hop. cooking shows. drugs. cats. people singing happy birthday to me. selfish people. social networking sites. swimming. snow. eminem. seafood. one word text messages. awkward silences. alarm clocks. hypocrites.

Movie Review: Ha Sodot (The Secrets)

2011-09-25T09:41:00.000+08:00

This is the first Israeli film I've ever seen, and my first movie with lesbian content (though I've seen my fair share of TV lesbians). Also, I'm not Jewish and I know as much as the average Catholic does about Judaism, so if I commit any faux-pas, forgive me. Then again, political correctness has never been my strongest suit.

FYI: I watched this raw (the film is in Hebrew and French), so there's that, too.

THE STORY

The Secrets centers around a pious girl, Noemi (Ania Bokstein) who, being the daughter of a well-respected rabbi, is learned on the orthodox faith. The film begins with the funeral of Noemi's mother and an awkward conversation with Noemi's fiance, but soon moves to an all-girls' seminary school. Noemi shares a room with three other girls -- the fat one, the funny one and the rebel. The latter is named Michelle and is from France and smokes (because she's from France!) and is rather individualistic. In other words, the complete opposite of Noemi. Needless to say, the two girls initially clash, until a serendipitous meeting with a mysterious French woman (who also smokes, because she's from France!) from next door, played by Fanny Ardant, help them see something bigger than themselves and their egos, gain a deeper understanding of their faith, and find an unexpected love that is forbidden in the heavily repressed society they live in.

THE REVIEW

My lack of facility for the language is a real hindrance. If I didn't read the summary beforehand, I don't think I would've even understood the major plot points of the film. Anyhoo, on to the review:

First up is cinematography. The picture looks great. I like many of the choices made for the camera angles and the lighting. Two scenes particularly stand out. One with Noemi and Michelle walking while alternately talking and arguing about their French neighbor and the camera shows only their legs through a small grilled opening on top of the stairway. That was odd, yet strangely interesting. And the other is the dramatic confrontation between Michelle and Noemi after they both came back to the school before the holidays are finished. It's all shadows except for a shaft of light that falls on Michelle's devastated face as she voices out her guilt and doubts about their relationship. There was also this scene with the two meeting clandestinely among the laundry lines. I thought it was a very smart shot but also kind of done before. Although I liked that scene, too, especially the lighting, it was also a little iffy because of the mushy conversation and predictable turn of events.

That said, the script could be a little tighter. Yes, yes, I may not understand the language but scripts also translate visually and in that aspect I don't need Yiddish lessons. There are points in the movie where the two protagonists are talking whatever and the scene suddenly shifts to Ardant emoting over her various bodily and spiritual pains, that serve only to confuse the viewer. I, for one, sure was confused, even if others aren't. All I'm saying is, was it necessary to do it like that? Another is the lesbian relationship portrayed. While very touching and quite believable, my question is the same: was it necessary? Because the movie isn't really about lesbianism but about redemption and forgiveness and how one is supposed to get both through a faith that is bound by tradition, and ultimately it is about love -- the universal kind, not just the sapphic/romantic sort.

The title 'secrets' come from the fact that the girls have to hide their helping the French woman find God because 1) she's a social pariah and has committed a lot of despicable sins; 2) women are not traditionally taught certain Jewish studies and certainly should not perform rituals reserved only for men; 3) the girls are still students even though Noemi is cleverer than most learned men; 4) there are basically no laws that apply particularly to the woman so that Noemi has to invent her own set of rituals for soul-cleansing; and the most important of all, 5) the French woman is not even Jewish. Le gasp!

One could also argue that the other secret here is the blossoming relationship between Noemi and Michelle, but again, I would argue right back: was it necessary? It was nice fodder for drama and gave the otherwise one-note Michelle character a little dimension and an interesting developmental twist in the end, but it wasn't terribly necessary to the entire plot. It didn't even add to the central character's development. In the beginning of the film, Noemi has faith but even as she silently follows the orders of tradition, she isn't entirely blind and she senses something missing. What she lacks is the courage of her conviction and this she eventually gains at the end of the film, certainly not because of Michelle, but because of her deeper understanding of God and of her faith.

The performances from the three main women were top-notch. Apparently, Franny Ardant is a notable in French cinema and a veteran actress so that kind of explains her screen presence. What was wonderful to see was how the younger actresses, Bokstein and Shtamler, were able to hold their own against such a formidable star. They weren't overwhelmed, to say the least. In particular, Bokstein was luminous in her role, and Shtamler, who I'm saddened to find only has this film in her credit according to IMDB, portrayed Michelle's confusion and uncertainty exceptionally well. Also of note is the actor's portrayal of Yanki, the clumsy, bumbling clarinet-player who falls head over heels for the sunny Michelle.

All in all, a good film and I certainly enjoyed it. Although the plot is intricately connected with religion, it isn't heavy-handed and it provides a fascinating glimpse of the Jewish traditions.

THE SCORE

Story - 6
Sound - 7
Cinematography - 9
Picture - 8
Special Effects - 5
Acting - 9

Overall - 7.3/10

All things new (I like me some TV Part 2)

2011-09-21T22:17:00.000+08:00

Is this becoming a TV/movie blog? Uhm...right now? They're my only outlet, so pretty much, most of my blog topics. Though FYI: I watch these on the computer mostly. So, there.

Seen the pilot. Enjoyed it. Hoping this holds up because I don't usually watch sit-coms. (IMDB)

Dystopic future! Time travel! Dinosaurs! What more could I ask for? (IMDB)

I like me some TV

2011-09-18T21:23:00.001+08:00

The Good Wife Season 3

This will start airing on Sept. 25, 2011. Last we saw of the show, Alicia and Will checked into the presidential suite in a hotel together, Peter's the new D.A., Cary's still hating on Alicia and seems to be in cahoots with Peter, Kalinda's doing her thing. I've just seen the trailer and ooh, looks like it's going to be an awesome season.

The Walking Dead Season 2

Coming in October. About a month away, but I've seen the teasers and it. is. scary. In case you forgot, I love zombies. They're awesome. But this show does more than scare the pants off of you. It actually gives you an actual story about humans and what happens to humanity in all this inhumanity. lolz In short, it's truly a survival game, which is the main reason why I even like zombies.

Game of Thrones Season 2

There's no airing date yet but there's all kinds of news about people joining the cast. I'm actually looking forward to this the most.

Sons of Anarchy Season 4

This one's airing now and I've got episodes 1 & 2 in my hard drive. I haven't gotten around to watching them yet but one of these days.

On my screen, big and small

2011-09-18T10:20:00.001+08:00

Not in any particular order...

Kimi ni Todoke (live-action)

STARRING: Tabe Mikako, Miura Haruma

Actually, I've seen this like one million years ago but only kind of remembered it now. Hm. It's a pretty faithful adaptation. The actors/actresses look like their manga/anime counterparts -- except maybe for Kazehaya but the actor exudes the persona so that's fine. My favorite scene was when Sawako made this really constipated face and she says that she's happy. LOLz I love the actors who played Ryu and Yoshida. The actress who played Yano was a dead-ringer, which was really fun to see.

The Kids Are All Right

STARRING: Annette Bening, Julianne Moore, Mia Wasikowska, Josh Hutcherson

I have to admit, I never got interested in this movie. Back when this was buzzed about for the Bening's Oscar-worthy performance, I was too concentrated on Natalie Portman's The Black Swan and didn't really bother with the other shows. And I only watched it now because I wanted to know Mia Wasikowska's performance here after seeing her in Jane Eyre. But I enjoyed it. The Bening and Moore are fantastic actresses but I've always known that.

Jane Eyre

STARRING: Mia Wasikowska, Michael Fassbender, Judi Dench, Jamie Bell

Yes, yes, the movie is called Jane Eyre, not Edward Fairfax Rochester, but look at that man. Michael Fassbender, I don't know what you did but you're entirely too pretty for the role of Rochester and yet, strangely enough, you're perfect. Rochester is described, half-jestingly, half-seriously by Jane, as a gnome of a man, not handsome at all, with a broad chest, and not particularly tall or graceful. He also isn't pleasant. As a matter of fact, he's rude, sarcastic, maybe a little crazy (you have to be half-mad to keep a wife in the attic and cross-dress as a gypsy fortune-teller just to find out how the apple of your eyes feel about you), and a total and complete weirdo. But he's passionate, intelligent, liberated and being in love with Jane brings out all the finest aspects of his character as well as its worst. Michael Fassbender may not look like a Rochester but he played the role like it belonged to him and him alone and I was convinced. Watching him, listening to him speak, it was easy to believe why the sensible and thoroughly unromantic Jane fell victim to his libertine, sometimes off-putting ways. Speaking of which, let's not forget Mia's subtle, restrained, nuanced Jane:

Like Fassbender, Mia Wasikowska is perhaps too pretty for the role. Jane is supposed to be "poor, plain, obscure and little," a woman without wealth or beauty so that no one, except Rochester, would have noticed her, let alone acknowledge her as a person. But Mia does the role justice. Like Rochester, Jane is passionate and any other actress would have played on that just to get more out of the character, never mind if it would've looked out of place, considering the time period, Jane's position and the social restrictions that came with it. No, Mia played Jane perfectly -- posture erect, hands clasped, she will not be goaded by Rochester's deliberate deconstruction but you can see it in the way she swallows and breathes a little too fast, the way her eyes register surprise that she is able to exchange witticisms with the master of the house, the way her entire frame literally trembles when feelings nearly overwhelm her, twice, this is Charlotte Bronte's secretly passionate Jane brought to life on screen and .... AHH, I NEED TO WATCH THE MOVIE AGAIN. shit.

True Blood Season 4

STARRING: Anna Pacquinn, Stephen Moyer, Alexander Skaarsgard, etc.

I enjoyed the first episode with the fairies.... That was awesome. Then, the story went to shit. Ah, but there's one bright spot: the very nice development of the budding love between Jason and Jessica. I've always been a Hoyt x Jessica shipper but this is nice, too. The relationship is treated respectfully, you know, contrary to all of Jason's other love interests, and I really think there's something there. No, I don't like Sookie and Eric although the latter is always yum despite his MPD. lolz Also, Pam is having a shit of a season, isn't she? And it doesn't look like next season's going to be any better for her. Did I mention that I loved Pam's I-dont-take-no-shit-from-anybody attitude? Coz I do and seeing her break down in the season finale was heartbreaking, despite Ginger. Fucking Ginger. She's always fun, but that was a nice moment.

Game of Thrones Season 1

STARRING: Sean Bean, Peter Dinklage, Lena Headey, etc.

If you remember, this was one of the sword-and-sorcery shows I was looking forward to. But unlike Camelot, which was quite disappointing, Game of Thrones delivered and more. My favorite character has got to be the superbly witty Tyrion Lannister, played to absolute perfection by Peter Dinklage. I can't wait for season 2 actually.

The Legend of Condor Heroes (2008)

STARRING: Hu Ge, Ariel Lin, Yuan Hong, Liu Shi Shi

This is not a very good adaptation but it features some pretty good-looking actors, especially the guy who plays Yang Kang. I think, performance-wise, out of the four main characters, the one who really did well was Ariel Lin, who played Huang Rong. Exactly what I imagined Huang Rong to be -- clever, naughty, a little manipulative but with such a disarming charm that you just immediately forgive even her worst transgressions. Actually, I haven't finished watching the show yet. It's a whopping 50-episode series and I kind of lost my interest at episode 25. Yeesh.

Mushishi (live action)

STARRING: Odagiri Joe

I watched this thing raw. It's a very atmospheric film and quite disturbing. Even though I read the manga and seen the anime version, I got a little confused with the story. One thing I can definitely say about this film: it's very beautiful.

Next up, I am blogging about shows I am most looking forward to.

EDIT: 11:18 a.m. 8/18/2011

Run, Lola, Run

STARRING: Franka Potente

How could I have forgotten this? This was such an odd movie. It even had its own animation sequence. Ugly animation sequence. But fun, fun, fun.

3 Idiots

This was fun.

Slacking Off

2011-09-11T08:03:00.002+08:00

It was Intramurals Week at the university I'm teaching at last week, and we had the long weekend. So I had a lot of free time, and I told myself that I would spend it working on lesson plans, hand-outs and petition that needs to be ready by Wednesday. Instead, what I've been doing:

picture from here.

I suck.

The Original Plain Jane

2011-09-06T22:36:00.000+08:00

Yeah, so I just found myself watching this movie today and was so utterly captivated by it, that I was all "what the hell am I supposed to do?" I had to read the novel again.

Which I did. Today. And finished it. Today. (My obsessions are brief and occasional but they are obsessions).

The 2011 adaptation. The intro to the film confused me a little bit. I know the novel to begin with Jane's childhood with the cruel Mrs. Reed, but here we are looking at an adult Jane (actually, she should only be eighteen but played by 19-year-old Mia Wasikowska) running out of a stone house and into the wild moors. She's crying and there's fake rain all over her. It takes me a while to understand that the film has thrown us right in the middle of the story as Jane runs away from Thornfield Hall after a very ignominious discovery about her master. She's running away to heed her conscience, to preserve her principles and self-respect. She ends up, half-frozen and half-starved at the doorstep of a young clergyman St. John Rivers (Jamie Bell) and his two sisters. There, among these kindly people, Jane recovers and through her recuperation we find ourselves back in time to see her journey up to now.

The film is good. I haven't seen any other adaptations of the novel although I am aware of their existence so I cannot compare. Cary Fukunaga's version takes several liberties with the source material but doesn't take from it, instead enhances it. In some parts, the novel was droning and rather austere. For a novel, that's all fine and good, but not for the big screen.

The actors inhabited their roles. Until now, I had no idea who Mia Wasikowska was (and I still can't even spell her name right without consulting Wikipedia). She strikes me a little bit as a younger version of Cate Blanchett (my favorite actress in the world) and something a bit of Gwyneth Paltrow in her looks. And I see that she -- holy bovine -- was Alice in Alice in Wonderland! I don't recognize her. Or rather, I don't remember. I was paying much closer attention to Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter, two of my favorite quirky actors, than all the others. But now that I think about it, I didn't really like that Alice very much. The understated performance went past me.

Michael Fassbender, I know of course, from X-Men: First Class and also from Inglorious Basterds. He's a handsome actor and I couldn't quite believe at first that this guy who is playing the not-handsome, not-ugly-either, brusque, sardonic Rochester to perfection is him. Such transformation is quite a feat. Michael Fassbender. I gotta remember that name. His chemistry with Wasikowska is great to see: the age difference is obvious but also obvious is the connection. Although the romance between Jane and Rochester felt somewhat rushed because of deletion of certain key scenes, I loved the two actors' scenes together, nearly teared up in that penultimate scene, and was thoroughly touched by the last one.

All in all, great movie. Highly recommended. A MUST-SEE.

The source material. I've read an abridged version of Charlotte Bronte's novel when I was in high school. I think it was one of those condensed works that Reader's Digest used to publish. I think it belonged to my aunt. I found it among a pile of magazines and what-nots and picked it up quite randomly. I know what you're thinking. Did I read it out of necessity? To do a home reading report, perhaps? Because my high school, though science and math-oriented, was also infamous for their home reading reports.

To quell your questing mind: no. Granted, I can't quite remember why I read it -- the title isn't that eye-catching and I have little taste for biographies so -- but it had nothing to do with a home reading report. I did not have to read the thing because of some school assignment. No, I read it of my accord.

I remember spending a few days on the book. Despite its abridged version, it was still quite lengthy...and because of the style, I found myself skipping several pages to escape the dreary descriptions. I don't think in pictures, I think in words, so things like descriptions meant to create imagery go past me. I'd sooner read dialogues.

However, for the most part, I liked the book, liked the title character, was suitably afraid and at the same time stimulated by Rochester, and a little chilled by the Gothic elements in the novel. But my mind was not developed enough at the time to appreciate the finer aspects of this seminal work, aspects that I, as I am now, am able to appreciate better: Jane's development, her strength and independence, her strong sense of morality, her frailty, her weaknesses, her passion and love for Rochester. Rochester is an anti-hero, cast from the same mold as Emily Bronte's Heathcliff -- but where one is an unrelenting savage who relishes in savagery, the other is a fallen sinner cowed by remorse. I can't make up my mind which one is better. They're both excellent characters, in any case.

I think Jane Eyre will not replace Wuthering Heights in the top of my list of gothic novels but, thanks to the 2011 film adaptation, it's definitely a story that's close to my heart.

What Happened Over the Weekend

2011-08-30T16:51:00.000+08:00

or HOLY CRAPCAKES, WE COULD'VE DIED!

A slab of concrete that the local residents were using as a mock-bridge saved us from serious injury (and probably our lives) when it got caught by the wheel of my car. When it fell into the hole, it landed upright so that the car just ended up on top of it instead of nose-diving into the hole. It's a pretty big and deep hole.

After the fact

Moview Review: The Lady Shogun and Her Men

2011-08-29T18:11:00.000+08:00

I've heard about this story for sometime now. The Japanese title is Ooku, which refers to the chamber in the shogun's castle where all the women of the shogun's harem are kept. However, Yoshinaga Fumi's manga, on which this movie is adapted, adds a twist: the shogun is a woman and beautiful men fill her harem.

THE STORY

In the year 1716 Japan, most of the men have died from a deadly disease that only affects men, resulting in their population dwindling to as much as 1/4 of the total population of women. Consequently, women fill in the traditional roles of men, performing hard labor, managing businesses and running government while men are pampered, protected and allowed only to indulge in light entertainment.

In this nonexistent Japan lives Mizuno Yunoshin (Kazunari Ninomiya), a teenager from an impoverished samurai class family. He likes fencing and his childhood friend, O-Nobu (Horikita Maki), but because of his family's financial status (O-Nobu is a daughter of a wealthy merchant family and is thus expected to marry well) they cannot presumably be together. In order to relieve his family the burden of caring for him as well as to avoid an unhappy marriage of convenience, Mizuno decides to enter the ooku and became one of the shogun's 800 retainers.

This move proves to be life-changing as Mizuno experiences for himself the political backstabbing, insidious machinations and vicious power struggles behind closed doors amid frivolous, brightly-dressed, gorgeous men who divide their free time between incense games and fencing, and trying on new clothes and engaging in homoerotic relationships with each other. As to the latter part, that is only to be expected for several reasons: (1) the current shogun is only seven years old and is not yet ready to fulfill her duties to her harem; (2) becoming intimate with the higher-ranked ooku members is one way of rising up the ranks; (3) rape (or rather, surprise buttsex lolz) is a form of hazing performed by the seniors to newcomers, not unlike that practiced in prisons; and (4) sexual preference, which cannot be discounted even in the face of male birth dearth.

Shortly after entering ooku, Mizuno catches the attention of his seniors due to his martial prowess. At about the same time, the shogun suddenly dies and is replaced by a new one, a headstrong woman who is more concerned about running a country than acceding to requests for her to visit ooku. Eventually, however, she does grant her harem an audience and as expected, Mizuno, who has been prepped to be her first bed partner, catches her eye. But what Mizuno and the shogun don't know is that the choice may carry with it a death sentence.

THE REVIEW

Gender reversal is not really a new twist, and matriarchal societies are nothing new. What is new, however, is the fact that this woman-dominated societal structure is set in ancient times in a country that is decidedly patriarchal, when most stories with this element are often futuristic and of the science fiction variety. In that aspect, The Lady Shogun and Her Men sets itself apart. But revolutionary? I recognize how this movie (and the original manga) could be fascinating from the feminist or gender studies perspective, but I'm not really schooled in either so I can't really say. Here's a much better presentation of the cultural aspects of Ooku, which helped me appreciate this side of the movie better.

Intellectual discussions aside, The Lady Shogun and Her Men is, from a visual aspect, a picturesque film. The cinematography is a little static for the big screen but what few scenes we do get are sufficient for world-building. The part I loved best was the first scenes of the movie, showing this one street in Edo bustling with women workers. The second part I loved was the overhead shot of the shogun's castle in the middle of this vast garden, impeccably maintained, complete with a bridge arching over a man-made lake. Just beautiful. I imagine that was a live set.

The period costumes are also a marvel to behold. The first time I saw the men's kimonos, I found it a little funny. Can you imagine a samurai warrior in lavender and instead of a sword, he's carrying a fan? Erm. There is this one scene where all the men of ooku are preparing to meet the new shogun for the first time and all of them are dressed to the nines in these elaborate kimonos of varying shades from pink to yellow and other light, pastel colors. The impression is that of peacocks strutting about, desperate to attract their mate. But Shogun Yoshimune doesn't even spare them a second glance and even calls them up for their frivolousness. Heh.

Speaking of which, the women's costumes are also eye-candy. They're not as bright as the men's but they're still pretty and girly enough that it makes you question the gender reversal objective of the movie. Hmm. On second thought, maybe it's not really gender reversal in the sense that women become more like men and men more like women, but more "what would happen if there were very few men to perform the tasks of men and women were forced to step in and fill in the gaps?" If so, then The Lady Shogun and Her Men has set its foot firmly on reality. Gender, after all, is not just confined to sex. Also of interest is the oft-repeated assertion that women are stronger and men are weaker.

The acting in The Lady Shogun and Her Men is surprisingly good. What I've noticed about Japanese actors and actresses is that they are, for the most part, understated but tend to overact when portraying key dramatic moments. That's the general impression I get when I watch Japanese shows. It all feels a little forced, a little unbelievable, and I can't get rid of the feeling that they're all just acting out, instead of inhabiting a character. So, The Lady Shogun and Her Men was a nice experience, especially because I loved both Mizuno and Yoshimune and they were played out well by their respective actors. The latter only came halfway into the movie but her impact is so big, I kind of think in retrospect that the movie doesn't really become interesting until she makes her appearance.

As for the rest of the cast, they are all good despite their cliched roles. I rather enjoyed the scheming of Fujinami (Sasaki Kuranosuke) and Matsushima (Tamaki Hiroshi) and the beautiful tragedy that is Tsuroka (Okura Tadayoshi). Of course, it helps that all these men are handsome, especially Okura who is apparently a newcomer in film.

Ah, this movie was really good. I really enjoyed it and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in history, period dramas, beautiful men and strong women. Of course, you can watch it for thoroughly different reasons, too.

THE SCORE

Story - 7
Sound - 7
Cinematography - 7
Picture - 6
Special Effects - 5
Acting - 7

Overall - 6.5/10

Houpin Xiao Shiyi Lang Chapter 29 Translation

2011-08-28T19:17:00.001+08:00

There was a time when I was really into wuxia. My interest bore fruit: one website dedicated to the anime adaptation of Jin Yong's popular novel, Shen Diao Xia Lu and a few piecemeal translations of other wuxia novels. One of these novels is Xiao Shiyi Lang, a two-part series of novels by Gu Long. In particular, I've been sporadically translating the second installment in the series, simply called Houpin Xiao Shiyi Lang. Below is the completed translation of Chapter 4 of the same book (Chapter 29 if you count the chapters in the first book):

Chapter 29: To Follow Somebody Closely

When a woman has no choice but to accept her own destiny, then she has to let destiny take its course.

However, who knew that Hua Ruyu would suddenly sigh, and say, "No need to wait for later. At present, I am already regretting this."

Feng Siniang could not help asking, "You regret what?"

Hua Ruyu said, "I regret I'm not a man."

Feng Siniang could only stare at him blankly.

Sighing softly, Hua Ruyu gently touched her, saying, "If I were a man, wouldn't I be very happy now?"

Feng Siniang could not help shouting as she sat up. "You...you're also a woman?"

Hua Ruyu said, "Do you want me to strip naked to prove it?"

Feng Siniang's face turned red with anger. "You...you...you cad."

There was a "pu" sound as Hua Ruyu let out a laugh, saying, "I am a woman. Why are you angry? Are you disappointed?"

Her hand was still moving.

Feng Siniang blushed, saying, "Take your hand off me."

Hua Ruyu asked, "If I were a man, would you tell me to take my hand off?"

Feng Siniang bit her lip and said, "If you weren't a cad."

Hua Ruyu laughed.

Feng Siniang said bitterly, "I ask you, since you are a woman, why do such a thing?"

Smiling, Hua Ruyu replied, "Because I like you."

As her hand continued what it was doing, her smile turned into giggles. She said, "It seems that your powers of seduction do not discriminate between man or woman. They work on both."

Feng Siniang said, "Are you going to take your hand off?"

"No," Hua Ruyu answered. "Don't forget you are my wife. In this lifetime, it's your fate to be my wife. No matter how much you want to deny it, there's nothing you can do."

Feng Siniang let out a sigh as she suddenly realized something.

No matter what kind of man a woman married, it would at least be better than being married to another woman -- much better: if a woman married a woman, it would be truly annoying.

Now even this wedding chamber does not seem like a wedding chamber.

Suddenly,Feng Siniang asked, "You really want to marry me?"

"Of course," Hua Ruyu said with a smile.

"But why?" Feng Sininang inquired.

Hua Ruyu's eyes were serious as she said, "If I tell you the truth, will you be good?"

"Of course," Feng Siniang answered.

Hua Ruyu said, "If you were my wife you cannot marry him."

Feng Siniang asked, "Who?"

"Xiao Shiyi Lang! Who else but Xiao Shiyi Lang!" Hua Ruyu spoke.

Feng Siniang's face sank as she said, "You don't want me to marry Xiao Shiyi Lang?"

"Hmm," Hua Ruyu said.

"Is it because you want to marry him?" Feng Siniang persisted.

Hua Ruyu smiled and said, "If I were your husband, of course, I could no longer marry him."

"Is there another?" Feng Siniang asked.

"Hmm."

"Who?"

"You should know," Hua Ruyu told her.

"Shen Bijun?" Feng Siniang suggested.

Hua Ruyu sighed, speaking, "She is already in a pitiful situation. If Xiao Shiyi Lang married you, that would drive her crazy."

Feng Siniang sneered. "In fact, you don't have to worry about it. Even if all the men in the world died, I would never marry him."

Hua Ruyu asked, "Do you mean it?"

Feng Siniang did not speak. She knew that a woman lied only to fool men.

In front of Hua Ruyu, a woman, no matter what she said, it would be of no use.

Hua Ruyu sighed, saying, "No matter what, you know that if Xiao Shiyi Lang was asked to come here, you'd also come."

"Then did you ask him to come?" Feng Siniang said coldly.

Hua Ruyu replied, "This Chaos Rock Mountain could have been a desolate place, even the Chief of the Guanzhong bandits, at most only made this their lair, yet today this place has attracted many great personages."

Feng siniang wondered, "That monster who sits on top of another, don't tell me he is also a great personage?"

Hua Ruyu said, "No matter how ruthless the heart is, if somebody chopped off both arms and both legs, how can he not be regarded as a great personage?"

Feng Siniang had to admit, that Ren Shangren is indeed courageous.

A courageous man is a powerful man.

"Li Qingfeng followed him here in order to find Xiao Shiyi Lang," Hua Ruyu continued.

"What does he have against Xiao Shiyi Lang?" Feng Siniang asked.

"Li Qingfeng is the father of Li Gang, who died at the hands of Xiao Shiyi Lang," Hua Ruyu replied.

Feng Siniang was startled. "No wonder Li Gang refused to speak of his family background. His father is actually a lone bandit."

Hua Ruyu snorted. "But the father is much stronger than the son."

Feng Siniang agreed, "Li Qingfeng is at least not a hypocrite."

"Jin Pusa as well, naturally has no good intentions," Hua Ruyu said, "and besides them, there are still many others harboring evil designs. Only I am different."

Feng Siniang sneeringly said, "Are you saying you are a good person?"

"I've always been a good person," Hua Ruyu stated.

"Then what is a good person like you doing here?" Feng Siniang challenged.

"A good person of course wants to do good things," Hua Ruyu said.

"And what good thing is that?" Feng Siniang asked.

Instead of answering directly, Hua Ruyu said, "What are you doing here?"

"You know I'm obviously here to find Xiao Shiyi Lang," Feng Siniang said.

"Wasn't it him who asked you to come?" Hua Ruyu inquired.

"No," Feng Siniang said.

Ever since that day, until now, she had not seen Xiao Shiyi Lang's face.

"When you heard rumors that he was roaming around in Jianghu, you came here just to meet him," Hua Ruyu said.

"Because I couldn't find him. These past two years, we've simply lost contact," Feng Siniang spoke.

"So," Hua Ruyu said, "how do you know the rumors are true?"

Feng Siniang sighed. She actually did not know.

She only came here just to try her luck.

Hua Ruyu said, "Perhaps these people deliberately spread the rumor, lure you here, use you as bait to catch Xiao Shiyi Lang."

Feng Siniang forced a smile, saying, "Now that I think about it, that seems to be the case."

Sighing, Hua Ruyu said, "Everyone can hardly avoid being fooled. You weren't the only one."

"Apart from me, who else?" Feng Siniang asked.

"Shen Bijun," Hua Ruyu answered.

"She's also here?" Feng Siniang wondered.

Hua Ruyu said, "She's sure to come."

"Isn't she together with Xiao Shiyi Lang?" Feng Siniang questioned.

"No," Hua Ruyu replied. "Like you, she's been looking for Xiao Shiyi Lang these past two years."

Feng Siniang frowned, saying, "Is it possible the heavens blessed her with more than two eyes because she's actually blind?"

"The heavens bless women with sight, but not Shen Bijun," Hua Ruyu said.

"No?" Feng Siniang asked.

Hua Ruyu said, "In a perfect world, there is only one Shen Bijun but the beautiful woman who is with Xiao Shiyi Lang is not Shen Bijun."

Feng Siniang bit her lip and said sneeringly, "This man seems lucky in love."

"But sooner or later, he'll run out of luck," Hua Ruyu predicted.

Feng Siniang could not help but exclaim, "He's still alive, isn't he."

"But this time, he is more unlucky than Shen Bijun," Hua Ruyu said.

"Oh?" Feng Siniang sounded.

"To catch a big fish," Hua Ruyu said, "using Shen Bijun as bait is the best way."

"Indeed," Feng Siniang had to agree, "the fish is more unlucky than the bait."

"Good thing the fish hasn't taken the bait," Hua Ruyu said, "even though the bait is already on the hook."

Feng Siniang asked, "She's already on the hook?"

"Not just one but two hooks," Hua Ruyu replied.

"Two hooks?" Feng Siniang repeated.

"Two big hooks," Hua Ruyu emphasized.

Feng Siniang thought about it, then said, "A big hook to catch a big fish."

Hua Ruyu let out a sigh as she said, "Although Shen Bijun is unaware she's firmly hooked."

Feng Siniang glanced at her, saying, "Are you concerned about her?"

"I am a good person," Hua Ruyu said.

"A good person sometimes harbors evil designs," Feng Siniang stated.

Hua Ruyu laughingly asked, "Are you jealous?"

Feng Siniang did not laugh. "I'm just wondering, that's all."

"In fact, I'm not just concerned about her, I'm also concerned about Xiao Shiyi Lang," Hua Ruyu revealed.

"Oh?" Feng Siniang sounded.

"So I hope you'll help me take Shen Bijun off the hook," Hua Ruyu said. "If the hook has no bait, the fish will not bite."

"Why should I help you?" Feng Siniang retorted. "How should I know it wasn't you who put the hook?"

"You should believe me," Hua Ruyu told her.

"Why?" Feng Siniang asked.

"Because I am your husband," Hua Ruyu answered. "If the wife doesn't believe her own husband, who would believe him?"

Feng Siniang looked at her. Finally, she sighed and said, "Fortunately, you are a woman. Otherwise, I'd fall for you."

"I have already fallen for you," Hua Ruyu said.

She moved her fingers again, her hand was truly terrible.

Feng Siniang felt as if all the bones in her whole body went limp. She could not help but shout, "If you don't take your crafty hands off me, I'll...I'll..."

Hua Ruyu let out a laugh. "You'll what?"

Feng Siniang bit her lip hard, then said, "I'm going to cheat on you."

At present, Hua Ruyu was putting on clothes so gorgeous they looked like royal garments. It made her face look more radiant, her elegance coming out like the unfolding of a peacock's tail feathers.

She stood in front of the dressing mirror, turning left, then right, clearly satisfied with her own appearance.

Feng Siniang could not help laughing. "No wonder people say that women like to look in the mirror, especially if she's wearing pretty clothes."

Hua Ruyu also laughed. "This has always been my weakness. Rice, I can stand not eating. But pretty clothes, I can't help but wear."

She added, "Because most people look at the clothes first before they look at the person."

"Other people are so preoccupied with your clothes, they often can't tell whether the person is a man or a woman," Feng Siniang said.

Smiling, Hua Ruyu said, "It's good. So even if there are many who think I look a bit like a woman, they also can't help but think I'm a man, when I really am a woman."

"But why do you pretend to be a man?" Feng Siniang questioned.

"Because like women, I like men," Hua Ruyu replied.

Feng Siniang laughed, saying, "Do you always sleep in such nice clothes?"

"I always sleep naked," Hua Ruyu said. "But now I'm not at all sleepy."

"You don't want to sleep?" Feng Siniang asked.

"No," Hua Ruyu said.

Feng Siniang looked at her. "What do you want to do?"

Hua Ruyu answered, "Attend a party."

"It's the middle of the night," Feng Siniang said. "Are any guests coming to such a party?"

"In this place," Hua Ruyu explained, "we sleep in the daytime."

"Don't tell me everyone here is a nightowl," Feng Siniang said.

"You can't see anyone during the day," Hua Ruyu told her.

Feng Siniang rolled her eyes. "Do I have to go with you?"

"As a newlywed couple, of course, we must go together," Hua Ruyu said. "Especially since the one who invited all the guests is an old friend of yours."

"Which friend?" Feng Siniang wondered. "Jin Pusa?"

"Wrong," Hua Ruyu said.

"If it's not him, then who?" Feng Siniang pressed.

Hua Ruyu said, "Who else would invite all these people but the chief of the thirteen villages of Guanzhong himself."

"'Fast Knife' Hua Ping?" Feng Siniang guessed.

"Correct!" Hua Ruyu said.

"But his arms seemed to have been cut off," Feng Siniang pointed out.

Hua Ruyu giggled, saying, "It's not as if an armless man can't host a party."

"Will he be in a partying mood?" Feng Siniang asked.

"Anyway, the important thing is that he sent out the invitations to all these people," Hua Ruyu said.

Feng Siniang said, "He thinks it's his own decision to send out these invitations, but there's someone manipulating things from behind the scenes."

"You really are clever!" Hua Ruyu exclaimed.

Feng Siniang stared at her. "Who is it?"

"Me," Hua Ruyu answered.

Feng Siniang smiled. "I've long thought it was you. Who else but you can come up with this?"

Hua Ruyu sighed, saying, "The flattery of a woman makes a foolish man glad."

Feng Siniang said sweetly, "Besides you, who else?"

"Everyone who is here is invited," Hua Ruyu stated.

"Ren Shangren, Li Qingfeng, Jin Pusa, they're all coming?" Feng Siniang questioned.

"Certainly," Hua Ruyu answered.

"Why?' Feng Siniang asked.

Hua Ruyu said, "Because tonight there is a special guest."

"Who?" Feng Siniang inquired.

"Shen Bijun," Hua Ruyu replied.

Feng Siniang stared at her, stunned. Then she let out a strong exhale, saying, "It seems tonight's banquet would surely be bustling with noise and excitement."

Hua Ruyu's eyes twinkled as she gave a peculiar smile. She said slowly, "Definitely very exciting..."

Quick gathering in the main hall, brilliant light.

'Fast Knife' Hua Ping, wearing a scarlet cloak draped over his shoulders, sat on the tiger arm chair, but his complexion was terribly pale.

He sat motionless, like he was in another world, pale face, no expression, and even though people came and went in front of him, it seemed as if he did not see them.

If he did not seem like a hospitable host, the people equally did not seem like cheerful guests.

Besides Jin Pusa, everyone looked dour, Ren Shangren who sat on the head of that giant Han, Li Qingfeng holding his golden bow so tight it looked like he was ready to draw.

Not one person opened his mouth to send a polite greeting to the host.

They did not come here for the host and they did not bother to hide this fact.

The hall which should have been bustling with noise and excitement was as cold and somber as a grave.

After a while, Feng Siniang and Hua Ruyu suddenly appeared, and it was as if two peacocks suddenly joined a flock of chickens.

No matter what kind of party, Feng Siniang always stood out and made the guests turn their heads.

Tonight, she looked even more radiant, who could tell that not only was she a thirty-five year-old woman but also someone who was already dead.

When they saw her, everyone's eyebrows seemed to go up two inches, their eyes growing big.

After all, seeing with one's own eyes a dead person walk among the living was not something that happened often.

Feng Siniang swept her gaze over them, her eyes settling on someone. She said sweetly, "It's only been half a day since I last saw you, yet you don't recognize me?"

Jin Pusa started coughing, as though he had a sudden bout of the cold.

"Are you sick?" Feng Siniang inquired.

Jin Pusa smiled with difficulty as he said, "If I am sick, then it must be lovesickness. Every time I see you, I must suffer this kind of sickness."

Feng Siniang smiled, saying, "You must never have this kind of sickness again. Otherwise, my mister would be jealous."

Jin Pusa looked stunned. "Your mister?"

"Don't you know 'mister' means husband?" Feng Siniang said.

"You..." Jin Pusa started. "You got married?"

"Sooner or later, a woman must get married," Feng Siniang confirmed.

Jin Pusa could not stop from asking, "Who did you marry?"

"Me," said Hua Ruyu.

Jin Pusa looked startled.

Everyone looked startled.

Turning to Ren Shangren, Feng Siniang said sweetly, "Now we're even."

"What are you talking about?" Ren Shangren asked.

"I've already died once," Feng Siniang replied.

Ren Shangren looked like he was about to start coughing.

"I died and got married," Feng Siniang said, smirking. "These two occurrences do not happen very often, but I unexpectedly experienced both in just one day. Don't you think that's unusual?"

Indeed, not every person could go through the same experiences in only one day.

Feng Siniang then walked up to Hua Ping, facing him. With a small smile, she said, "It's been two years since I last saw you."

Hua Ping nodded slowly. "Two years," he said. "Exactly two years."

"That means," Feng Siniang said, "we've been friends for more than ten years already."

"I am not your friend," Hua Ping said coldly. "I don't have friends."

"Just because you don't have hands doesn't mean you don't have friends," Feng Siniang said. "One can live without the use of hands. But can a person live without friends?"

Hua Ping's pale face twitched. All of a sudden, he stood up and left, never to return.

He had never been able to stand other people's pity.

Feng Siniang let out a dejected sigh. Then, turning her head, she tried to search for the cripple whom she thought she saw earlier sitting behind Ren Shangren. He, after all, was the person she wanted to see.

But unexpectedly, he was nowhere to be seen.

"Why does he always want to hide from me? Why does he never dare to see my face?"

Feng Siniang just did not know what to think.

As she sat down with Hua Ruyu, she suddenly saw Shen Bijun.

The first time she saw Shen Bijun, she thought that Shen Bijun was the most elegant, beautiful and graceful woman in the world.

Now, she still thought the same.

But Shen Bijun had actually changed. She'd become more sullen, her face paler, her complexion sallow, but all these changes only seemed to make her even more beautiful -- breathtakingly beautiful.

Her soft and clear eyes showed the barest ripple as if a spring breeze skimmed on water. Her hair was soft and shiny, her waist graceful like a willow's branches in the breeze.

She was not the kind of woman an impulsive man should see, because no matter what kind of man saw her, they could not help but be drawn in by her charms and forget everything.

She walked slowly.

She was artless, but every move she made revealed elegance, beauty and charm.

She was not wearing particularly beautiful clothes, nor was she wearing any jewelry, because these things on her would only be superfluous.

No matter how precious the jewelry and accessories, they could do nothing to enhance her charms.

And no matter how gorgeous the clothes were, they could not make her any more beautiful.

Why was a lovely woman like her born so unlucky?

Suddenly, all the people in the hall seemed to have stopped breathing.

This was the most beautiful woman in the martial arts world, Shen Bijun.

They finally laid their eyes on Shen Bijun.

They could not count the times they heard the sad and beautiful story about her and Xiao Shiyi Lang.

Now she was standing in front of them in person.

They really wanted to stare but they did not dare do so.

Not because they were afraid of being rude, but because behind her were two pairs of blade-like eyes.

Shen Bijun did not come alone.

There were two people behind her.

Both were slim and lanky, like two bamboo stilts, and were rather old.

They were wearing gowns, but these were gorgeous and of unusual quality, one was red, the other green, red like cherry, green like plantain.

They looked tired, their hair gray, but when they walked into the hall, everyone suddenly felt a sharp murderous presence.

The unusual force of a sharp weapon, certainly the qi of a double-edged sword.

When one disregarded human lives in order to reach the ultimate level of martial arts, there grows also a murderous spirit.

No matter what anyone thought, these two men must be multiple murderers.

Upon seeing these two men, Li Qingfeng's expression changed.

These two people belonged to his time, of course Li Qingfeng would know their backgrounds.

Feng Siniang knew as well.

She could not help but whisper harshly, "Hook."

Hua Ruyu said, "Two big hooks."

"I've seen them," Feng Siniang disclosed.

"At Xiaoyao Hu's Puppet Villa?" Hua Ruyu asked.

Feng Siniang nodded.

When Xiao Shiyi Lang and Xiaoyao Hu dueled that day, these two old men met them at the road.

"Since you already know, then I don't have to explain, right?" Hua Ruyu said.

Feng Siniang nodded.

She did not at all know what their relationship was with Xiaoyao Hu, only that they were Xiaoyao Hu's hangers-on.

As Xiaoyao Hu's hangers-on, it was very likely they did not have any good intentions with Xiao Shiyi Lang.

"So you have to find ways to let Shen Bijun know," Hua Ruyu told her.

"I don't see how," Feng Siniang muttered.

"See that door behind us?" Hua Ruyu pointed out.

Feng siniang saw the narrow door.

"Outside that door, you can see a small log cabin," Hua Ruyu said.

Feng Siniang listened.

"It's a women's bathroom. If you can think of a way to take Shen Bijun there, you can speak with her freely," Hua Ruyu said.

Considering the status of the men here, of course they would never go to such a place to eavesdrop.

Feng Siniang whispered, "Good idea. I'll think of a way."

They were whispering as newly married couples often did.

But when the two old men noticed, their gazes swept over them like lightning.

Feng Siniang knew that they could not hear them, still she could not help feeling alarmed.

Fortunately, she saw that Shen Bijun was smiling gently.

Of course, Shen Bijun recognized the "Ghostly Bride," and was smiling at her.

Feng Siniang returned the smile.

The red-gowned old man suddenly said, "I did not expect 'Golden bow silver pellet tiger-beheading saber, chasing the clouds, capturing the moon, floating on water' Li Qingfeng would be here."

The green-gowned old man said, "He probably did not expect us here, too."

Li Qingfeng's face went ashen as he said coldly, "So you two are not dead yet, how unexpected."

"Yet you seem angry," the red-gowned old man said.

The green-gowned old man said, "Seems like you can't let us off easy. You were also angry thirty years ago."

"Indeed," Li Qingfeng sneered. "I was angry before. I was alone, I didn't have a lackey."

The red-gowned old man's face sank as he said, "I challenged you but you did not accept."

"Even alone, I could deal with you at any time," the green-gowned old man said.

"If I had a lackey, I will not call upon him to fight two against one, but just let him cheer from the sidelines," Li Qingfeng retorted.

The red-gowned old man said, "Well."

"Very well," the green-gowned old man intoned.

"Will you do it, or shall I?" The red-gowned old man asked.

The green-gowned old man replied, "It's my turn."

Li Qingfeng laughed heartily, saying, "Good. Very good. We'll settle this thirty-year-old score once and for all."

Although these three men were already advanced in years, yet like ginger, the older they were, the stronger they got.

Thirty years ago, they got into a little squabble which until now they could not forget.

Li Qingfeng stood up abruptly, followed by the green-gowned old man.

Shen Bijun, who had been calmly watching from the side, suddenly let out a light sigh, saying softly, "If seniors want to kill each other here, they ought to ask permission from the host first."

Her voice retained its former elegance and gentleness but her words were barbed.

From these two years of roaming about, she had learned a lot of things.

The green-gowned old man looked at Li Qingfeng and said coldly, "Since you and I are not dead yet, there's no hurry."

Li Qingfeng sneered, but at last he slowly sat down.

Feng Siniang laughed.

She stepped forward, pulled Shen Bijun's hand, and said affectionately, "I, too, was not expecting you. I'm sure you weren't expecting me as well."

Shen Bijun smiled, and nodded.

Still smiling, Feng Siniang added, "Fortunately, between us, there is no old score to settle."

"You haven't changed," Shen Bijun said sweetly.

"But you seemed to have changed," Feng Siniang commented.

Shen Bijun's eyes clouded over, head bowed in sadness, silent.

Feng Siniang continued to smile. "But I am still a ghostly bride while every time I see you, you look like a bride."

Shen Bijun was very surprised but did not ask her how she was made a bride.

Her family background and fine upbringing was the same as before, she never tried to pry into other people's personal affairs.

Feng Siniang blinked, then glancing at her, she said, "You must have traveled far and just arrived here."

"Ah," Shen Bijun sounded.

Feng Siniang said, "So you must have..."

She suddenly leaned towards Shen Bijun and whispered in a low voice.

Shen Bijun blushed, face red, and nodded.

Feng Siniang laughed, saying, "This is not something to be ashamed of. I'll show you."

She really started pulling Shen Bijun's hand, leading her to the side towards that narrow door.

Shen Bijun's face became redder, but she kept her head low and followed her.

The two men followed them with their gazes but their eyes were smiling, they knew of course what Feng Siniang and Shen Bijun were going to do.

They thought that Feng Siniang was a really clever woman for handling such an extremely delicate matter.

Other invited guests were still coming in through that door but she actually managed to make it to the bathroom.

Other than Feng Siniang, who could resolve this kind of matter?

Also, only Feng Siniang could have thought of such a thing at that moment. If it were other people, it would just be too shocking.

--------------------
End of Chapter 29

Kasugiran: a light novel

2011-06-12T20:57:00.002+08:00

That day, it seemed the only sound in the forest was the soft trickle of river water. Even the wind did not dare blow. The trees stood still.

The young man standing knee-deep in the middle of the stream made a small movement. In his hand was a spear tipped with sharpened stone.

A whole second passed.

There was a splash. The young man swung.

In the next instant, the spear reappeared in his hand. Stuck to its tip was a large, brown goby. The fish wriggled, struggling to escape, but after only a short time, it stopped moving. The young man removed it and casually placed it inside the wicker basket tied around his waist. Before closing, he inspected his catch.

One, two, three goby. One big catfish and three or four smaller variety fishes. Enough for the day.

He gazed up but the foliage was so thick, he could only see glimpses of the clear blue sky. It looked like the sky itself was in pieces. He gave a sigh and prepared to wade his way back to the banks.

Someone was watching him.

The young man rolled his eyes to the right and saw a girl partly hidden behind the trunk of a huge balete tree. She was a tiny slip of a thing, dressed poorly (she appeared to be wearing clothes weaved from barks and leaves), her feet bare – a wildling but different from any wildling he’d ever seen. Everything about her was pale: her skin, her hair, her eyes. If he didn’t know better, he’d think she was colorless. Quite possibly, dead. But she wasn’t dead though.

She moved.

“Hello.” Almost as soon as the word was out of his mouth, he realized what she was – what she must be.

But that one word was all it took.

The colorless girl drew in a sharp intake of breath, took a step back and ran deep into the woods.

He had raised a hand, mouth half-open as though to shout a name he did not know. The gesture was unconsciously done. He was not even aware he had done such until the said arm was lowered to his side. He should be afraid. His hands formed fists as he stared at the spot where he saw her disappear.

Somewhere in the distance, a twig broke and the noise echoed all over the forest.

The girl did not return.

The young man stared a moment longer, then he looked down. He saw that the droplets of water that clung to his feet and to his legs were starting to dry. He hoisted the half-full wicker basket up and over his shoulders and, with one hand gripping his spear tightly, he started walking back to his village.

Prologue

Girl Without Color

2011-06-09T21:27:00.000+08:00

So I just found out today that I'll have about ten teaching loads this semester. That's a lot and it scares me a little bit. Am I up for that much work? Last semester, I only had three. I do take teaching seriously and I'm not about to turn in a half-assed job, but am I ready for this kind of commitment? I feel that I am but I am afraid...of putting in that much effort for something which can be quite frustrating. Teaching college students how to think for themselves and take initiative? Not easy, I've learned the hard away, and I could just as easily get frustrated and disillusioned by it all, if I let my emotions get in the way. As always and in every aspect of my life, the question I face is: How do I get involved without getting attached? Emphasis on the involved bit because detaching myself from situations is what I do best.

Detachment. While we're on the topic, let me say, with probable traces of ego, that I am the most detached person I know. There are only two things in the world that I know of: the idea of a thing and the actual thing itself. Although I am frequently exposed to the actual, to the existent, I am seldom moved by them. All my actions, reactions, most of the major decisions in life that I made, the things that I say are propelled by the idea. To put it simply: I don't like you for you. I like you for my idea of you. And this is how I remain detached because most of the time I don't see you actual but just the idea, and as long as there is no great contradiction between the two, I am content and I can tolerate almost anything from you.

Now, speaking of tolerance, there's another thing I'm good at. I've had people telling me to my face, and telling other people right in front of me, that I am kind. Or more specifically, good. The term actually used is "buotan" which is Bisaya for "good" or "kind." I think they meant that I am tolerant. I am not quick to judge. I am critical, yes, but I don't get personal about it. So they think I am kind and good and tolerant because no matter what they do, no matter what they think, I don't blame them for it. But it's not tolerance, for tolerance's sake, see, because the attitude springs from my general detachment. It's not that I approve or disapprove of your actions, it's just that I don't care. That is the unadulterated truth, folks.

And then here's another truth: I care about some things. Or rather, my ideas of them.

This has been a pretty eventful week. Aside from the above-mentioned piece, two of my extended families have each received shocking news from their respective family members. I won't get into any specifics because that would be telling, but here's the thing: I love my parents and I think they raised all of us siblings well. My mother says the most inane things and can get irritatingly preachy but I've recently discovered that she knows more than she lets on. My father is a self-righteous bastard but he is right in almost everything so, after all, he has every right to be. And they are the best parents one can ever hope for and aspire to.

Playing Catch Up

2011-05-19T10:17:00.000+08:00

Say it with me: KETCHUP!

It's going to be June soon. God, time sure flies. And I've decided over the summer that I'm going to be a full-time teacher at the university I taught in last semester. Everything's been set and I've been given two loads (subjects) already but I've asked for only afternoon classes as I need my mornings free for court hearings.

By June, I should have more subjects assigned to me. I'll need to start preparing my lesson plans again. The great thing about law subjects is that there is really only one effective approach: Socratic. My only problem now is how to arrange the various topics into one logical, coherent structure that's simple enough to grasp easily but complex enough to encompass the nuances of the law. Not an easy task.

That said, in these last few weeks of freedom (lolwut), I'm playing catch up with all my unnecessary shit. Pardon the French. I call all my non-work related stuff by the collective term of shit. Last night, I just finished watching The Good Wife Season 2. Never a more satisfying show. It was for the most part an excellent season. Perhaps not as solid as Season 1 but still pretty great. I can hardly wait for Season 3.

HBO's Game of Thrones is still underway and it's getting to be very interesting. Camelot, as it turns out, is a bit of a disappointment. I don't know how long I can stick to it. It's really falling short of expectations. The series' tagline is this: Forget all that you know. That sort of makes you expect something totally different and untried. But, no. Apart from some clever twists on Excalibur and the sword-pulling scene and the fact that Merlin is now a skinhead with a political agenda, it's same ol' same ol' For quality fantasy television, I'm much better off with Game of Thrones, which, despite its setting and title, is really the least magical fantasy stories ever. That makes it even better.

In the meantime, I'll be celebrating my birthday next week. Well, perhaps celebrate is not an apt word because that connotes some kind of party or whatever. I keep my personal events simple, nothing flashy, and I prefer to spend them with my family. Yes, I am that boring.

Moving on. I'm thinking of buying a car. I've had my eye on a chevy for some time now but I've been asking friends to help me look for good alternatives, too. In any case, I'm definitely buying one this June. I'm also going to take formal driving lessons because the last time I was behind the wheel I was thirteen and I'm pretty sure it isn't like "riding a bicycle" where somehow it'll just come back to you. I need lessons and I need it quick because just the other day I had to attend a hearing in a court located more than a hundred kilometers away. I had to wake up really early to make it to the 8:30 hearing and take the bus (3 hours ride). Let's just say, it was not ideal. I need a car, dammit.

In other news, last week was our town fiesta and I went home, bringing with me tons of movies, thinking that I'll have the entire long weekend to myself just movie-binging. Only to discover that my mother intended to make a kitchen slave out of me. And the funny thing is that I'm not even a particularly good cook. So there I was, cooking stuff and getting occasionally interrupted by clients, and thinking, "why, god, why?"

And then my brother brings me this dude who rents one of our apartment units and this dude turns out to be a complete anime otaku. I must admit, I do like my anime (it saved my sanity more than once while I was in law school and while I was reviewing for the bar exam) but it's just something that I watch, not something I would want to talk about endlessly and comprehensively. What's the point? I like anime and you like anime. Good. Consider that settled until further notice. Let's not waste time affirming and re-affirming the same point over and over. If there's one thing I hate in the entire world, it's redundancy.

Today, I open my eyes a little wider

2011-05-05T20:09:00.002+08:00

I have a confession to make: I haven't had a hard life. I don't mean, I haven't gone through any difficulties whatsoever. I just mean that, whatever difficulties that came my way, they must all pale in comparison to what others go through everyday in this country. What I mean is....

Think about it this way. I remember my first day of my first year in law school, my law professor called me for oral recitation and I, who didn't really expect to be called that day and didn't really care either way, gave a brief, over-generalized answer, and she said to the entire class (I'll never forget): "And they say you can't sail your way through law school." She was being witty and sarcastic at the time but, in retrospect, I realized she was right in more ways than one. No, I did not sail my way through law school. I went freaking white-water rafting through it. Regardless, that pretty much describes my entire life: I sail through it. And because I haven't had any serious snags, I go through life with the entirely wrong assumption that this must be what others are experiencing as well. No hardship. Everybody taking things easy. If life was just so, would there even be crime?

My psychology is projection. I try to be fair and believe that others do so, too. I try to be honest and assume that others are, too. This is probably not the right mindset to have, considering my profession, but.... I really do want to believe the best in people, because in my mind fairness and honesty and trustworthiness are characteristics that everyone would naturally strive for. But I'm not looking at the big picture, am I? Because I'm looking at the world through mirrored glasses, I fail to see the other side.

So today, I learned a hard lesson, and now my eyes are open a little wider.

The Boss is Back

2011-04-25T23:04:00.000+08:00

Before anything else, understand something: I don't speak Japanese. And another thing: I watched this episode raw. That means, no subtitles. But you know what? I didn't need a translation. I understood pretty much what was going on and even some of the humor. That's how good this episode was written and directed.

Boss 2 is a direct sequel of the first season. It features the same core cast of characters, the same hi-jinx and antics, the same OP theme (performed by Superfly) and even the same story formula. Implausible plot twists and holes the size of Texas and all. But you know, this isn't a show that's to be taken seriously so I'm willing to suspend my belief for more than the required time if I'm entertained in the end. It takes place two years after the end of Boss Season One. A flashback in the beginning of the episode shows that in the ending scene of Season One, Osawa Eriko (Amami Yuki) got an urgent call about an assassination attempt against a prominent government figure. Her special crimes unit is dispatched to handle the case but the assignment is a failure as the official gets shot. As a consequence, the unit is disbanded. Two years later, Nodate Shinjirou (Takenouchi Yutaka) reorganizes the unit and calls back Eriko, who has been in the U.S. this whole time. The reorganization results in new members being added and/or replacing old ones. Fans of Toda Erika's Kimoto Mami need not despair too much though as the character makes an appearance towards the end of the episode. As for Reiko, I don't know if she's going to be around much for this season as the character has apparently gotten engaged and will likely go domestic.

Meet the characters of Boss 2. If they look a bit weird, that's 'coz they're beating up bad guys.

Oh well, that's it for now. This episode was really funny. Here's to hoping this doesn't change.

Movie Review: Solanin

2011-04-16T17:51:00.000+08:00

This is a manga turned into a live-action film. I don't really trust adaptations like this. There is always something lost along the way. It could be the expressions of the characters. Manga characters are frequently entertaining because of their exaggerated expressions, something which not many Japanese actor/actress can pull out.

But despite all these initial misgivings, I decided to give Solanin a go because I loved the manga version that much and I'm kind of a fan of Miyazaki Aoi.

THE STORY

Meiko, played by Miyazaki Aoi (Nana, Tada Kimi wo Aoshiteru, Eureka) is a young office lady who, unable to bear the mundane reality of a desk job, quits and settles into a year of lazy unemployment. Her spur-of-the-moment decision creates a domino effect as her live-in boyfriend, Taneda, begins to feel that it is now up to him to bear the burden of responsibility. He sees that his part-time job as a graphic designer doesn't pay enough to support both of them and his band, composed of friends from his university days, is far from ready to cut an album. He has a choice to make and it's not easy because taking one route means closing up the other.

THE REVIEW

Plot-wise, the movie isn't impressive. It's about just-out-of-college kids who are trying to make a living in the world beyond the four walls of the academe. In short, a coming-of-age story. We've had a lot of those, haven't we? Most of all, for a movie that supposed to be, at least partially about young people in a band, there's a blatant lack of music. I understand that the actors of Solanin aren't singers or musicians but NANA, also a movie about rock bands, only had one actress (Nakashima Mika) who is also a singer yet they were able to integrate music into the work. I can't understand why they didn't do this with Solanin. A shame, really. I would have loved to know what rotti sounded like.

Now, having read the manga, I can't help but compare it with the live-action version. And as I expected, many of the entertainment value in the manga was lost on screen. The actors looked the part but lacking in expression. Miyazaki Aoi has absolutely no chemistry with the actor who plays Taneda and this is never more apparent than in that one make-out scene. The whole thing was about as fascinating as watching cow chew grass for forty-five minutes.

Another gripe I have about the movie (and this applies to the manga as well) is the sudden turn it takes halfway through the story. It's so sudden, it can literally make you go, "wtf?" and "was that necessary?" I have a feeling it wasn't but it certainly upped the ante for drama, because what follows next is a whole lot of wallowing and characters being in a rut.

Fortunately, it doesn't last long and the movie actually gets better towards the end as it closes with the highlight scene of the entire film: Miyazaki Aoi singing the title song. She's not a singer, this girl, but she can really act so that when she sings, even though the vocals are not really good, you believe her and the overall performance is powerful.

In conclusion, Solanin doesn't necessarily break barriers. What it does do -- and it does so pretty well -- is capture that time in our lives when we just finished college and were coming to the horrible realization that there are two million other people like us in the world, all with their college degrees and diplomas like we do, and we have absolutely nothing, no talent or skill, that sufficiently delineates us from the rest of the world and gives us the advantage edge-wise. Zero. The first time I learned this, my first reaction was to scream inside my own head for a couple of weeks before making the sudden decision of going to law school, all just to postpone reality for four more years at the most.

THE SCORE

Story - 6
Sound - 6
Cinematography - 7
Picture - 7
Special Effects - 5
Acting - 6

Overall - 6.2/10

Lawyer Stuff, the TV kind

2011-04-11T21:52:00.000+08:00

I just finished Season One of The Good Wife and...it's good. Better than that. It's GREAT. I've been watching the show intermittently whenever I happen to catch it on but finally I got around to watching the entire first season which I have on DVD. It's one of the more compelling TV shows I've ever seen, and that in itself is amazing because if you look at the other titles on my watchlist (Sons of Anarchy, The Walking Dead, Camelot, True Blood, The Tudors), this show is subdued. No over-the-top violence or sex, no magic or post-apocalyptic worlds....just good old politicking and grounded, organically developed characters. Also, courtroom drama, but that's like the frilly stuff, not the meat of the show.

Anyway, the show is on its second season and I can hardly wait.

Moving

2011-03-25T17:59:00.000+08:00

By this time next week I should officially be a resident of...well, some other city besides my current zip code. I'm a bit excited about the whole living in a spanking new house in an, I suppose, okay neighborhood (although it's also a bit out of ways) but moving...isn't fun. It really isn't. Especially if you're a hoarder, like me. I'm a rat see. That means, I was born in the year of the rat (heh, did you think that...? never mind) and we're hoarders -- you know, in addition to being supposedly brilliant business minds or whatev. Being a hoarder, I have a lot of stuff. Pretty useless stuff, it turns out. Would you believe me if I tell you that I still have all my exam booklets from frickin' college? Yep. I'm a walking fire hazard, I tell you. Anyway, I used to like enjoy leafing through them on those rare occasions I enjoyed leafing through them. Not anymore. Gotta stop. I can't haul all these crap (admittedly) to the new house. Nu-uh. But even the whole process of sorting through everything is difficult because it's hard to let go. I mean, these things may be crap but they're my crap. These are moments of my life encapsulated in squiggly handwriting on cheap lined paper. Also, a ten-year-old potato chip that's probably seen better days. Ah, junk food. Where would I be without you? Anyway, my point is...it's hard, and some things I just can't get rid of.

Swords and Sorcery

2011-03-22T20:58:00.000+08:00

This April it seems my TV's gonna be filled with swords and sorcery and...I am liking it.

April 1, we've got the series premiere of Camelot (wiki | OFFICIAL). Now, I've always loved the Arthurian legends and have read a number of books and watched dozens of movies about the eponymous king and his court so I'm probably biased. But based on what I've seen of the trailer and what people are saying about the streamed promotional episode, it looks promising.

Another show that I'm looking forward to is HBO's Game of Thrones (wiki | OFFICIAL). People are calling it as the magical version of The Sopranos with dynastic power struggles as the main theme. Should be interesting. Also, Sean Bean is in it. I like that actor.

Movie Review: Red Riding Hood

2011-03-19T21:30:00.000+08:00

The moment I saw the trailer for this movie, I was all up for it. A novel retelling of a Grimm fairytale? And ohmigod, werewolves? (Hate vampires, btw.) HELL, YES! Also, the trailer looked really good with the depiction of a secluded village surrounded by ominous-looking trees and Gary Oldman on a horse, espousing couldn't-care-less-what-he-was-yapping-about-it's-frickin'-gary-oldman-for-crissakes. In short, I was sold. Embarrassingly so.

THE STORY

I think it's safe to say that all of us are familiar with the story of red riding hood. You know, the good girl who braves the threatening woods populated by fierce wild animals, one of which happens to be the big bad wolf, in order to visit her sickly grandmother, "what big ears you have" and all that, and then the cross-dressing wolf pounces in and red riding hood, well, classic damsel in distress, until the woodcutter comes and saves the day. Yeah, I never really liked this particular fairytale, come to think of it.

Anyhoo, Red Riding Hood the movie puts a slight spin on the traditional fairytale. The girl who wears the titular piece of clothing is called Valerie (Amanda Seyfried, Jennifer's Body, Letters to Juliet), a good girl with a rather wild side. Childhood friend who works as a woodcutter by day Peter (Shiloh Fernandez) cultivates and encourages this wild side of hers by teaching her how to catch rabbits and sneaking around the woods with her. Not to state the obvious but the two are in love. However, Valerie's mother doesn't approve of the match and instead pushes Valerie into an arranged betrothal with the blacksmith, Henry (Max Irons). This love triangle poses an obvious conflict but the film meanders between that and the dark legend that surrounds Valerie's home village. For many years, an evil, mystical wolf has been preying on the villagers at night and now it seems to be back just in time for the rise of the blood moon. When Valerie's sister dies after being attacked by the wolf, the village priest calls on Father Solomon (Gary Oldman) to save them from the monster, only to be told that their "wolf" lives among them.

REVIEW

It's not all that bad. The movie actually looks good. I especially liked the backdrop of scraggly trees, the village huts, the costumes, all of which looked authentic, the "starkness" which served only to emphasize the red of Valerie's hood as she walked on snow. It was all very pleasing and tension-filled. Visually, as opposed to intellectually. But I'm not saying the movie is stupid. No, actually, the whole time I was watching it, I could see where they were trying to go with it and what they were trying to accomplish. There was just something lacking in it, execution-wise.

Maybe it's the script, which was quite weak -- I mean, extremely weak, especially when contrasted to what is actually going on on-screen.

Or maybe it was the weak-ass action sequences. They were muddled, unclear and full of shitty camera tricks that give the appearance of dynamism to an otherwise boring sequence.

Maybe it was the BGM. I don't know about you but I kinda find it weird watching a movie that's supposed to be set in some medieval village in the middle of some godforsaken forest and hearing loud rock music in the background whenever something remotely exciting happens. It's just jarring and totally inappropriate.

Maybe it was the acting. Except for Gary Oldman, the cast was lackluster. Shiloh Fernandez? Handsome and looks the part but can't act if his life depended on it. Max Irons had a better time playing the nice blond kid who inevitably loses the girl to the dark-haired, totally-wrong-for-her bad boy. Amanda Seyfried, I get the big-eyed, blond fairytale leading lady looks but I don't get what the fuss is all about. What's more, I keep confusing her with that other chick who played Isolde in Tristan+Isolde.

That said, the ultimate question is, did I enjoy the movie? No. I enjoyed the idea of it more than the actual thing. In other words, I was better off watching the trailer, which had everything going for it, than watching the entire length of the film in all its horrendous glory. In a nutshell? Red Riding Hood is Twilight but with werewolves. Tweens will love it, but not my cup of tea.

THE SCORE

Story - 6
Sound - 3
Cinematography - 7
Picture - 5
Special Effects - 5
Acting - 5

Overall - 5.2/10

Until we find you, please be safe

2011-03-15T21:49:00.000+08:00

composed by Yoko Kanno (wikipedia)

Sitting in my Hard Drive

2011-02-24T08:45:00.000+08:00

I'm teaching now, part-timing teaching college students about the simple intricacies of the law, as well as practicing my profession. More on that later. It goes without saying that I've been busy and have little time to blog or pursue any creative and/or leisure projects at the moment. In fact, I have these...shows that I'm excited about watching, just sitting in my hard drive. But tomorrow's a holiday -- EDSA, the original. I don't have a recollection about the event. I was an EDSA baby but the operative word is "baby." I wasn't yet...err, sentient when the history of the Filipinos wrote itself. All I really know about this great historical happening is what I've read from books and what my brothers and sister tell me about their memories. Second-hand information and I am already so detached. So tomorrow....TV will be so full of P.Noy and Cory and EDSA tributes. Eh. I'll be on my computer, watching my shows.

Black Lagoon OVA: Roberta's Blood Trail 1-3

Boss Season 2

2011-02-14T08:12:00.000+08:00

It's back! BOSS is back! That ridiculously simplistic, ham-fisted but ultra fun show with the awesome cast is so back for another season! The original cast are also returning with Amami Yuki still on the lead, and of course, Takenouchi Yutaka ♥ ~

Anyhoo, the show'll start airing in April, so yeah.

In the mood for a little steampunk and British humor

2011-01-17T18:49:00.000+08:00

www.freakangels.com

Trust me. So freaking awesome.

Sincerity

2010-11-04T12:59:00.000+08:00

I wonder if it's just another way of bullshitting someone in earnest.

Zombies on my TV

2010-10-22T15:41:00.000+08:00

Is it alive? Is it dead? Or is just lonely?

Not a Bomberman

2010-09-30T15:59:00.000+08:00

*PHOTO CREDIT: Got this from Facebook friends. I don't know who originally made this. If this photo is yours and you want it taken down or your name to be credited, please leave a comment.

Movie Review: Let The Right One In

2010-09-20T22:05:00.316+08:00

I've said it before. I'm not a huge fan of vampires. This is not to say that I don't watch or read any film or literature about them. My recent fascination with True Blood should be proof of that. However, while I may not be a fang-lover, I do like my horror movies, and there hasn't been a lot of good ones recently. At least, not from Hollywood.

To get my fix of scary, I had to turn to less than traditional sources like Spain with Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth and now, surprise, surprise, Sweden.

I stumbled upon Let the Right One In, a Swedish film based on a 2004 vampire fiction novel called Låt den rätte komma in (lit. "Let Me In"), quite by accident during my many random forays in the internet.

The film's title Let The Right One In is a reference both to the traditional vampire lore of vampires needing to be invited to a human home before they can enter and to the title of a Morrissey song, Let The Right One Slip In. I don't care about the latter because I don't know who Morissey is (if he's/she's/they're famous, then I must have heard one of his songs at some point). As for the former, suffice to state that I have enough familiarity with vampire myths to get the allusion.

However, titles aside, I have to say, between this and The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, I am beginning to wonder if I should always keep an eye out for Swedish movies from now on.

THE STORY

Let The Right One In is a film that focuses on the relationship that develops between a boy, Oskar (Kare Hedebrant) and a girl, Eli (Lina Leandersson), who live next door to each other. Oskar is regularly bullied by his classmates and is often shipped back and forth between his divorced parents. Considered an outsider, he keeps himself company by engaging in morbid hobbies like collecting newspaper clippings of the bizarre killings occurring near his town and fantasizing about murdering his bullies for revenge.

Eli, on the other hand, is a 200-year-old vampire who has no use for hobbies nor fantasies but does have a taste for blood. What Oskar only fantasizes about, Eli does, not for her own pleasure, but for survival. Different and yet the same, the two are drawn to each other almost at the first instant and over time become very close. But does acceptance necessarily follow?

REVIEW

Let The Right One In is set in the 1980s in a cold, dreary town of Stockholm. The coldness is a major thematic element, so important and integral to the movie in fact that the filming crew had to go to the extent of shooting most of the scenes in a different town simply because there's more snow there. The coldness and bleakness of the landscape serve to emphasize the sort of cold drought existing within the souls of these children. This, combined with the slow-burning narrative heightens the relationship drama that unfolds and the hidden terror that lurks just beyond the spots where light touches.

However, if you think this movie is meant to terrify, you are wrong. This movie is less about scaring the wits out of you and more about disturbing your moral state so much that you begin to question your own preconceived notions of what reality is. There is darkness here. Of men, regular-looking men, who calmly tie people upside down and drain them of their blood. Of kids who shove their classmate's pants into urinals and threaten to throw them into an ice hole. Of monster with a child's helpless body who perhaps prostitutes herself and snap people's necks without a second's hesitation.

Let The Right One In does not romanticize vampirism. That is what strikes me the most about this ultimately vampire film. It is treated more as some kind of medical condition, highly contagious, physically limiting and psychologically debilitating. At one point, the film shows the gruesome consequence of a vampire stepping into a home uninvited. That's always been an important, though never really fleshed out (until now), vampire lore.

Yet, for all its vulnerabilities, they don't make the vampire any less a killer. She kills to survive, uses others for basically the same purpose. She does it because she needs to and if she has any remaining moral compunctions about this, it's all buried beneath layers and layers of all her dead victims' bones and the dust of the ages. Bottomline: Eli has accepted her nature, and has learned to live with it without complaint.

This makes her the complete opposite of Oskar, whose life is all about discontent. In his quest to break free from the bonds of his own limitations, Oskar discovers his destiny. Eli in all her awesome and terrible beauty is everything he isn't -- dark, strong, brave. This element of being "mirror opposites" is even carried over to the casting choice for the child actors whose looks couldn't be farther from each other.

While the film touches upon dark and supernatural themes, at its very core, Let The Right One In concerns itself with the question of acceptance. In the film, Eli says to Oskar over and over: "Be me a little, be me a little."

When you see yourself as the other person, that's the moment acceptance sets in. You don't even have to understand the reasoning or the motivation behind the action. All you need to do is to know that there is such reasoning, that there is such motivation, and that is enough.

THE SCORE:

Story - 10
Sound - 7
Cinematography - 10
Picture - 10
Special Effects - 4
Acting - 8

Overall - 8.2/10

New Webcomic: Diwata is up

2010-09-18T09:56:00.000+08:00

Read here.

Movie Review: Resident Evil Afterlife

2010-09-18T09:37:00.002+08:00

And here comes the fourth installment of the games-turned-film series Resident Evil. This time, it's subtitled Afterlife 3D (because everything has to be in 3D these days). Always been a fan of the games ever since I played RE3 way back when, not to mention I'm a total zombie freak. So yes, it totally makes sense.

THE STORY

The film takes us right where Extinction left off -- that is, Alice (Milla Jovovich) and her clones are in Tokyo, Japan to assault the underground hive of Umbrella Corporation's Japan branch. The film's evil overlord, Albert Wesker (Shawn Roberts), manages to survive the mayhem and gore and exits the hive just before he blows it up, killing all of the Alice clones inside the facility. The original Alice, however, proves too smart for that as she is already inside Wesker's getaway plane, waiting. Wesker, however, proves even smarter and injects Alice with a T-virus neutralizer. The serum's ultimate effect is to strip Alice of all her awesome powers, leaving her human once more. Alice escapes and heads off on a plane to Alaska, where the fabled Arcadia -- safe haven -- is supposed to be located. But once there, she discovers that the town is deserted, except for a crazed, amnesiac (and dirty) Claire Redfield (Ali Larter). With Claire in tow, Alice continues to look for other signs of human life and finds one in the ruins of former Los Angeles. A group of survivors, headed by de facto leader, Luther West (Boris Kodjoe), have taken refuge in a prison facility and are trying to communicate with an offshore ship, not-serendipitously called Arcadia. Eventually, the zombies manage to tunnel under the building and attack the survivors, leaving them no choice but to turn to a lone soldier locked up in the prison basement for help. The soldier turns out to be none other than Chris Redfield (Wentworth Miller), Claire's brother. But breaking out of prison is a lot more complicated and a lot more dangerous when the undead are swarming all over the place.

REVIEW

There's lots of gunfights, bullets and flying shuriken (because, you know, Japan) and even katana like woah. The effects look awesome and crisp and steely but nothing that you can't expect in a movie like this. There's lots of zombies being blown up and hacked to bits (in 3D!!). Mostly, the film borrows elements from Resident Evil 5, with zombies not really looking like zombies. For starters, they move faster and are a lot smarter. They also have these tentacle things coming out of their mouths. They're less zombies, more mutants, which disappoints me a little bit. The Executioner, however, was a nice touch and I loved that Claire got some nice action sequences out of it. Alice, despite being without her T-virus powers at this point, is still fierce, which...I'm confused, but can't really think about that when humongous axes are flying out of the screen and at you. 3D is wooohhhhh!

The story is a little all over the place but the direction did the best it could. It could have gone every which way but everything was kept tight enough to maintain a straightforward, cohesive storyline. The movie gets a little slow after the Tokyo assault but it's all to give viewers breathing space for the next bout of action scenes.

Better to stay until the end of the credits because fans are in for a treat. A surprise guest appearance (overacted), strongly hinting at another possible sequel. LOL

THE SCORE

Story - 5
Sound - 6
Cinematography - 6
Picture - 6
Special Effects - 7
Acting - 5

Overall - 5.8/10

Diwata

2010-09-02T11:44:00.000+08:00

Another webcomic launched!

2010-08-30T21:09:00.000+08:00

@ Smackjeeves

Oh snap!

2010-08-22T20:08:00.004+08:00

Okay, so I'm still not over my recent obsession over So You Think You Can Dance's Season 5 dancers. Now I hear that Mia Michaels, an internationally-known choreographer who does work for the show won an Emmy for Outstanding Choreography. It's actually her second Emmy Award and I think maybe her fourth nomination. But really, that's not the point of this post. The point is, one of the routines that Mia won an Emmy for is "Gravity/Addiction" danced by SYTYCD S5's Kayla Radomski and Kupono Aweau, and somehow, that makes me extremely happy. :)

Congrats, Mia! Congrats Kayla and Kupono! Although Mia's piece was very powerful, I think it could have easily been ruined if K2 weren't able to deliver. Below are screencaps from the finale show of SYTYCD S5 where the routine was picked as one of Nigel Lithgoe's favorites of the season. Kayla danced the routine after she learned that she got eliminated. That must have been particularly hard but it didn't show. I mean, she was crying at the end but the piece itself is extremely emotional. Many of the judges cried.

Once again, CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Newest TV Guilty Pleasure: So You Think You Can Dance?

2010-08-18T17:39:00.002+08:00

Monday night, AXN aired the finale replay show of So You Think You Can Dance Season 5. Now, I don't follow the show. I lean more towards its elder sibling which is the singing reality contest show, American Idol, but then one random night I was channel surfing and I saw this one episode of SYTYCD on AXN. I think it was the hip-hop routine done by Philip and Jeanine with all the chains and stuff and I was just....WOW. From then on, I was hooked.

The strangest thing is that I'm only hooked to this particular season of SYTYCD. I don't care much for the other seasons or even the latest one (Season 7), which I understand is also airing on AXN Beyond. I've seen one episode of the latter and it was meh. Season 5, however. I only got into it like in the middle of the season, like the Top 10 or something, so by then, most of the not-so-good dancers were already eliminated, leaving the very best ones fighting for the top spot.

I immediately liked Jeanine because of that aforementioned routine. Then later on, when she got paired up with Jason to do the "If It Kills Me" dance together, I got blown away. I never thought dance could move me as a person like that. I never thought I could ever get emotionally invested in a couple of people flailing and leaping and kicking around on stage, but that's what happened and it was magical.

The judges are great, too. They're real professionals. Like choreographers and real dancers, not just celebrities, so they really know their stuff. They have these terms like dance jargons that I previously do not know the meaning of but am now getting the hang of. Comments like "your lines are amazing" get thrown around often and on any other day I would not know what that means but I look back on the performance and it absolutely makes sense.

So You Think You Can Dance? Season 5 Finalists (L-R):

Kayla Radomski, Brandon Bryant, Jeanine Mason, and Evan Kasprzak

Anyhoo, the Top 4 ended up being the very best dancers of the season: Jeanine, Brandon, Evan and Kayla. Before the finale aired, I already knew that Jeanine won, which is awesome because I really thought Brandon would go all the way to the top spot and I was kind of rooting for Jeanine right from the first time I saw this show. Now, I also like Kayla. In fact, I love her which, lucky for me, I only realized after the show ended. Less heartbreak that way. She ended up fourth place after Evan, who isn't that good a dancer but is really adorable. When he's in his element, he can be fantastic, too, so I understand why he won the hearts of millions of Americans. But Kayla, I think, won the hearts of the judges right from the beginning. She's a pretty girl, I give her that, in that spacey, blonde way, but when she's on stage dancing, she's like a completely different person.

I said that I've been rooting for Jeanine so, as might be expected, I was paying attention mostly to her. But that doesn't mean that I didn't notice Kayla. I think the nickname "white lightning" really suits her. She's got pale skin that turns luminous under the stage lights and she's got limbs that stretch for days. So if I were to describe my feelings while watching the show, it'd be like: "Oh, it's Jeanine, god she's awesome," and then "what's that white thing flashing across the screen?"

It wasn't until the last two episodes that I figured out that her name is Kayla. I didn't like her. I thought she was a bit of a jerk when she talked and made those cutesy, fan-pandering faces after her performance. Add to that the fact that the judges seemed to salivate after her "lines, her RIDIKULOOS lines" and, no it wasn't hate, but it was close to it. I only started seeing Kayla as a dancer when she got paired up with Brandon for the "All I Want" routine. Brandon is a god. He can make any partner look good but when he gets paired up with someone who is equally good, magic happens. And that's what happened with him and Kayla. It was just beautiful.

So long story short, I became a fan. I love her. Actually, I love all top four from Season 5 and I wish them all the best in their careers. I hope I can get to see them perform again, not necessarily as dancers. :)

Still Life #2

2010-08-12T07:44:00.000+08:00

"Dry Seal, Rubber Stamps, Stamp Pad, Pencil Sharpener & Eraser (Still Life #2)"
Graphite on Oslo
190mm x 270 mm (original size)
Edited with GIMP 2.6.10

Self-Portrait #1

2010-08-12T07:41:00.001+08:00

"Self-Portrait on a Broken Mirror (Self-Portrait #1)"Graphite on Oslo
190mm x 270 mm (original size)
Edited with GIMP 2.6.10

Meet Boris Skarkovsky

2010-08-05T20:56:00.000+08:00

His mother is shi tzu and his father is Japanese spitz. He's about two months old and extremely anemic. His gums were very pale and he was always drowsy. The vet had to give him an iron and B-complex shot and advised extensive de-ticking, a job which kinda fell onto me. The vet also gave him some kind of anti-tick drops down his back. Also, vitamins. After a couple of days, Boris seems to be doing fine. He still sleeps most of the day but he's quite active and playful at night. His gums are also a bit more orange now. I'm bringing him back to the vet this Saturday for his deworming. He's also due for his vaccination.

Boris is probably the most high-maintenance puppy I've ever had.

Brilliant at 3:00 a.m. (Revised)

2010-07-25T22:01:00.002+08:00

Updates every Sunday. Click here.

Grieving

2010-07-13T17:19:00.005+08:00

The dog is chasing its tail. Half an hour ago, it suddenly decided that this is a worthy activity. I thought it was amusing at first. Now, I'm just confused. I want to yell, "Stop! What's the point?" But 1) it can't understand me; and 2) people might think I'm crazy for ~~talking to~~yelling at an animal. So I sit here at a little window table in a little coffee shop just around the corner, staring at this little shi tzu half-breed, chasing after the elusive.

The waitress is someone new. I've never seen her before and her inexperience in the service industry shows in the way she messes up my order. I think, "Hey, moron, I ordered Fro-Reo. What the fuck is this?" But I don't actually say that and the manager comes over and personally apologizes. I feel cheap, appeased by a mere apology, but I'm not particular like that. Most of the time, I don't mind. It's just today.

There was a pile of ash inside the red-lacquer wooden box surrounded by lilies. That used to be my uncle. Cancer, it's called. Everybody who saw him go say that it was like he just fell asleep, his first deep, non drug-induced sleep in a very long time. Liars, all of them. And that includes the priests. I was there. Imagine trying to catch your breath and not being able to. Imagine someone parking their cars on your chest. It was like that.

Death is horrible. It happens. And new waitresses mess up your order. And dogs chase their tails. And I --

I drink my cold cup of Fro-Reo. I glance around for the dog. It is now lying on its stomach, its nose pointing towards the door, tail wagging. Just beyond that door is someone familiar and it prefers to wait.

It matters not

2010-07-06T22:05:00.005+08:00

Knowing the kind of things others only wonder about is unimportant. It matters not how much or how little you know, nor how deeply you think. That is immaterial, if it does nothing to improve your character and merely adds to your conceit.

Being able to distinguish between what is right and what is wrong is unimportant. It matters not your sense of morality or of propriety. That is immaterial, if it does nothing to improve your character and merely adds to your conceit.

Having genius for what you do is unimportant. It matters not how talented you are or how you are enjoying your success. That is immaterial, if it does nothing to improve your character and merely adds to your conceit.

What people think of you is unimportant. It matters not what people say about what you ought or what you ought not to or whether or not you are liked. That is immaterial, if it does nothing to improve your character and merely adds to your conceit.

Intelligence, good intentions, success, even love. That is immaterial. If it does nothing to improve your character and merely adds to your conceit, then it is not a worthwhile endeavor. Because what you have and what you achieve in this life are unimportant. It is what you do with all these and ultimately, what they do to you, that defines your existence.

The only true great men are those who have knelt in front of great art and sought not to change it but to be changed by it. The greatest men are those who bettered themselves not for the sake of being better but because it is the only thing that matters.

Word for the Day: Acquiescence

2010-07-01T21:26:00.000+08:00

I made my first court appearance today. A pretty simple case and it was a hearing on a motion. The funny thing is, I wasn't in the least bit nervous even though I ought to have been. Maybe because today wasn't a particularly busy court day in that sala. Fewer people, lesser spectators to any bloopers I might have committed.

I was trying hard not to look too neophyte but it's impossible when there's only so many litigation lawyers in Cebu. According to one experienced lawyer acquaintance, you're bound to know, if not their names, then their faces in the long run.

Our case was the first one called and I think that from the first few words out of my mouth ("Good morning, Your Honor. I am Atty. Bleep in collaboration with Atty. Bleep and Atty. Bleep, appearing for the defendants, Your Honor."), they already figured out I was new. Old-timers no longer feel the need to introduce themselves to the court since court personnel and the judge already know them. Compound that when our case was called for the second time, since the opposing counsel was not around the first time, and I turned to my collaborating counsel and asked if I have to manifest my appearance again. Apparently, yes. XD

Anyhoo, long story short, the judge, as soon as he figured out that I was new, pretty much quizzed me on the Rules and I, who was not expecting an oral examination about defaults and judgment on the pleadings when my case was about breach of contract and compromise, pretty much alternated between making sense and making no sense at all. But, although I could've slapped myself for minor mistakes committed, I think I passed muster and learned my lesson: don't stop reading the law.

:)

Can A Fish Drown?

2010-06-25T20:44:00.002+08:00

YES!

My little cousin asked me that question once and I laughed at first but then later found out that fishes can drown...though not technically of course.

Fish, like people, need oxygen to live.

A fish out of water, is a fish out of its element. A fish comes fully equipped with a pair of gills, which it uses to breathe under water. The gills extract life-sustaining oxygen from the hydrogen in the water molecules, in order to regulate the amount of oxygen intake. This maintains the necessary balance of the two components of water for the fish to survive.

When a fish is taken out of water, and exposed only to air, not to oxygen and hydrogen containing water, its gills are unable to control the oxygen intake, the delicate balance cannot be maintained, and the gills inhale a lethal overdose of oxygen. The fish essentially experiences death by "drowning."

A Rose by Any Other Name

2010-06-16T22:49:00.000+08:00

is still a rose. But let's not get horticultural all of a sudden here. Speaking of names, I've changed the name of this blog. From the awkwardly phrased, nostalgic but highly derivative "Mind the Twit," I've turned it to "Just Desert." But that's not all. Oh no, it's really not all.

Because "just desert" is really a clever way of saying "Jute's scarcity." Even better, the title fits the "desert" theme of this blog perfectly. Scarcity, of course, pretty much explains itself. But "Jute's," well, if you jumble it up and take out one letter, it really spells "just."

ROFLMAO See? Smart and funny and most importantly, BRIEF. Or at least, it's one word shorter than the previous title.

Bible reading assignments

2010-05-22T19:53:00.000+08:00

1 Kings 19
Psalm 16
Daniel 3, 5, 6
Luke 11

I'm beginning to understand that I am the sort of person who is fascinated by the idea of something more than the actual thing.

Boracay, Election 2010...all in one go

2010-05-12T16:38:00.003+08:00

I woke up way too early today to make much sense. I have never been so tired in my life. Elections 2010 is over...almost over? I have no idea. I have no TV. Internet tells me it's a Noybi victory. As for the local provincial arena, reelectionists Gwen Garcia and Greg Sanchez say hello to their august offices once more.

Except for Sanchez, I wouldn't vote any of these candidates. However, it's beside the point now as I never got to vote. WHAT?! Yes, yes. Sue me. I failed to exercise my right and privilege. Not that I don't have a valid reason. I served as part of the legal panel for the Liberal Party and election lawyer for a local municipal candidate. You read me right. Liberal Party. This was a professional engagement. Nothing to do with personal choices at all.

Anyway, I didn't register for local Absentee Voting because I thought I could vote, considering that the town I was assigned to was only about fifteen minutes away. As it turned out, not an hour passed without some issue or other that needed to be followed up and confirmed. Ah, but it was an experience.

Speaking of experiences, before I reported for my assignment, I was in Boracay for a few days with my family. My sister just came back from the US for the first time in six years and we were celebrating. Actually, they're in Camiguin right now, enjoying the sun and water. I couldn't go, because work. In Bora, I got to try helmet diving, which was a hilarious experience. At least, for my companions, who found all the humor at my expense. See. This is why I'll never try scuba diving. I'd rather go bungee jumping than expose myself to underwater pressure.

Some pictures....

I'm a Visual

2010-05-05T08:11:00.003+08:00

I took this test to find out my learning style. The result was predictable. I always knew I was a visual.

Visual Characteristics

need an overall view and purpose and are cautious until mentally clear about an issue or project
- True. Big picture first before details.

are appearance-oriented in both dress and presentation
- uhh I'm not a fashion plate but I do try to be neat. I generally don't want to make a spectacle of myself.

are neat and orderly
- generally

speak quickly
- lol yes. This is probably why I repeat myself to people all the time. A lot of them don't catch what I'm saying at first, something which I need to correct if I don't want to frustrate myself each time I talk to someone. I HATE (read that as "loathe") repeating myself and it easily shows in my tone of voice.

are good long-range planners and organisers
- Although I'm not one to follow up all my plans, I do make vague plans, one for every possible option. Organizing is kind of a secret, occasional hobby.

are observant of environmental detail
- that is not true. I am often very blind to details. It's why I never know my way back to a new place I just visited like an hour ago.

are good spellers and can actually see the words in their minds
- YES to both. Sometimes, when I'm not sure about how a certain word is spelled, I have to write it down to see if it's "right" the way it is. Visualizing the word helps me how to pronounce it.

remember what was seen, rather than heard
- lectures and speeches bore me. Unless there's something else going on (like a powerpoint presentation, etc.), I try to avoid them as much as possible.

memorize by visual association
- I can remember words from textbooks by the color of the highlighter ink used. I make flowcharts and simplified outlines and make pictures out of the words. I make my own mnemonics, organized into complete sentences so I can visualize it.

usually are not distracted by noise
- this probably explains why I have no problem listening to music while studying or reading or why I can concentrate on what I'm doing even when it's noisy. Half of the time -- make that, most of the time, I don't hear any of it.

often know what to say but can't think of the right words
- I am hopelessly inarticulate sometimes

have trouble remembering verbal instructions unless they are written down and often ask people to repeat themselves
- only to gain some time to formulate an answer but it's true about verbal instructions.

are strong, fast readers
- I am.

doodle during phone conversations and meetings
- yes and why I can't live without a pen or a pencil

forget to relay verbal messages to others
- true but not always. it depends on how important I perceive the message to be.

often answer questions with a simple yes or no
- yes because most questions are formed in such a way that a simple yes or no would do. I'm direct. I don't like to filibuster. And if you need clarification or additional info, you have to ask for it because I'm not likely to volunteer any unless I feel that you need to get the entire picture.

would rather do a demonstration than make a speech
- public speaking still scares the crap out of me.

like art more than music
- uhhh, maybe. Music takes much more effort to understand while art is undemanding.

sometimes tune out when they mean to pay attention
- hahahahah, so true during class lectures. Also, I tune out of a conversation without warning.

And she's gone

2010-04-30T23:19:00.000+08:00

...and there's goes my only reason for following the show. To look on the bright side, I'm a little glad she went when she did. I really don't have time to waste on escapisms like American Idol any more. Anyhoo, I'll keep an eye out for her post-Idol CD or some other curious stuff she comes up with. I just wish that she sang "Wicked Games" or even "House of the Rising Sun" in her last performance. I understand that "Think" made her a front-runner and it's only logical for her to remind America of that before they finally close the curtain on her, but IMHO the song is not her best performance. Not even the second time around. Tsk-tsk. Disappointed. But oh well. At least, there's YouTube to remind me of better days.

Siobhan Magnus - When You Believe (studio version)

2010-04-23T22:00:00.000+08:00

Oh, crud. And I mean, CRUD. I eat my words.

I want to cry. This is beautiful. It's like the older, better-looking sister of the version sang by Michelle Pfeiffer and what's-her-face from the actual cartoon movie and not the soundtrack version. Siobhan, if you continue to sound this way in studio, then I believe.

Mad Men: Back in the Days When Men were Men

2010-04-22T15:34:00.002+08:00

Period drama. The 60s. Cigarettes and booze. Mad Men is all about that and more. The brainchild of Matthew Weiner, this American TV series just ended its third season with a coming fourth season slated for a July airing date. And this when I'm only starting on Season 1. Ugh. But better late than never right?

Mad Men follows the comings and goings of the men and women of the fictional ad agency, Sterling Cooper. Mostly, the series is centered around one man Sterling Cooper's creative director, Don Draper, played to enigmatic perfection by Jon Hammer, his dealings with the ad agency's clients, which include hard sells like Lucky Strike and Richard Nixon, his superficially perfect family life with wife Betty (January Jones) and his many women on the side. Don Draper seems to be the embodiment of that period: on the surface, a successful and dapper man, but go deeper and you'll finds all kinds of emotional and psychological trauma and maybe remnants of the physical excesses indulged in back in the day.

This is what I'm talking about. TV! About characters and a period setting that is integral to the story and not just there to tell audiences how different it was back then. Of course, it was different. That's what made it so interesting. Now, give us a show about people living in that time. And voila, Mad Men.

The characters are rich and dynamic. They have both charm and flaws, which can make you either hate them or love them on principle but nothing per se. Kind of like how you feel about real strangers in your life.

I love the visuals. The suits are gorgeous. The dresses, too. The hairdo -- oiled and nicely slicked back for the men, neatly coiffured for the women. And even cigarettes, which everybody seems to do on the show, both men and women alike, looks good. I don't smoke and I don't understand the habit but even I can appreciate its appeal when it's being shown this way.

This show is about a time when corporate America is on a boom, when moral compasses of CEOs and junior executives all seem to be missing a needle, when sexual harassment is rampant and commonplace in the office, when nothing is done about the environment and cigarette smoke causing cancer is dismissed as a myth, it's the Bonfire of Vanities except we're not dealing with stockbrokers but ad guys. Yet, there is not a single wagging finger. All of this happened, see, and rather than moralizing us about the mistakes of that time, we're just seeing them as facts and history.

I'm not finished watching the first season yet but so far so good. I haven't found any major thing that I disliked about Mad Men. Well, I don't like Pete (Vincent Kartheiser) but that just goes to show how effective his character is.

AI9: I haven't forgotten the show

2010-04-21T22:11:00.003+08:00

So uhm, I've been pretty quiet about the show lately. It's got less to do with the fact that my favorite this season, Siobhan Magnus, is taking heat from the judges and audiences than with the fact that my Dad has been hogging the television lately so I have to resort to YouTube for my weekly AI fix. Actually, just Siobhan fix. Right now, she's the only Idol contestant I look forward to. Although I like Crystal Bowersox, too, and hate her at the same time simply because she is so good she makes everybody else sound so bad.

My early bet, Andrew Garcia is off the show. I'm relieved. I've kinda taken his prolonged presence in American Idol as a personal embarrassment. The same goes for Casey James. He is still very cute but his performances are just not memorable. For the record, I did not see "Jealous Guy" and, strangely, not interested in hearing it.

Lee Dewyze is Lee Deewyze. Maybe not as cute as Casey but his voice is just the sort of guy voice that I like to hear. My problem mainly with Lee is oddly the same problem I have with Crystal. I can't understand the lyrics of the songs they're singing. Lee growls the words, Crystal mumbles them. It's a shame really considering that their songs have meaningful lyrics which you can't appreciate because of the lack of proper articulation.

Tim Urban.... I hate him. I mean, not as a person. I just hate him for what he represents. He's not a good enough singer to make it this far. He's only on the show because of his rabid fan base. Or at least, that's what I believe. I just hate him on principle.

Michael Lynche. I used to like him as a contestant, not really for his singing but for his attitude. Big guy, big heart, and all that. But he strikes me as the R&B/Soul kind and that's just not my cup of tea. Buy his album? Hell, I wouldn't even download him. But I still like him though. Likeable guy, which is what I think of Aaron Kelly, too. But Aaron is one of those contestants, like David Archuleta, that I just don't see. I mean, every time they perform, I'm like, wow, what a great voice for such a small body, but then I kind of forget about them. These young boys just don't come under my radar.

And now the last but not the least, Siobhan Magnus. Le sigh. But I like her so much that I'm going to give her an entire section in this post just to rant and rave about her recent performances.

"Through the Fire" by Chaka Khan

I liked the idea of it more than I did the actual performance. A problem with the execution. She lost confidence somewhere in the middle. It was a very painful experience for me listening through that whole thing. I never want to have a repeat of that again. Good thing she followed it up with

"Across the Universe" by The Beatles

IMHO, it was the perfect song choice for her. I loved the Fiona Apple version of it, not so much the version from the soundtrack of the movie of the same title, and I thought Siobhan did the song justice. It was a very mellow, and as Kara DioGuardi said, "restrained" performance. I don't understand why she (Kara) was confused by it. Siobhan has done something like it during her heydays (i.e. "House of the Rising Sun" by The Animals). I also liked her outfit for that week, an improvement from the other week's odd wraparound skirt and military boots (what the hell?).

"Suspicious Minds" by Elvis Presley

Out of all the contestants, I thought Siobhan would benefit most from having Idol alum, Adam Lambert (also my old favorite) as celebrity mentor. But he gave her bad advice about upping the tempo in the first part of the song. It kind of left people in a difficult place. The change of tempo from fast to slow was disarming, and not in a very nice way. However, I liked the performance overall and thought that Kara and Simon Cowell were harder with her than they should have been. It was a technically good performance, just not very moving.

This week, it's inspirational songs, and I was really anxious over Siobhan's song choice more than usual. She's picked a duet by Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston. Whaaaat? A diva song! Make that two divas. It's the Prince of Egypt one.

"When You Believe" by Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston

Oh shi -

One of my favorite Disney movie songs ever (next to "A Whole New World" and "Part of That World" and "Reflections" and "Circle of Life" and "You'll be in my Heart" and "Colors of the Wind" and -- okay, I practically liked every single Disney cartoon theme songs but I'm just saying). Siobhan, no, no, no, no, no. That's basically my reaction. Big song. BIG SONG. Plus, Mariah Carey? Randy Jackson, Siobhan's only remaining judge-ally I feel, is never going to dig a cover of his Mariah Carey. But I carefully reminded myself that this is the same girl who fearlessly sang Aretha Franklin's "Think." True, "Think" wasn't my favorite performance by her (and she turned out to be pitchy after a couple of listens) but that was the performance that made her an Idol frontrunner after all. "Wicked Games" is actually my favorite performance, followed up by a tie between "Across the Universe" and "House of the Rising Sun." "Paint It Black," considered her best by most people, comes at a distant fourth. Are you sensing a pattern? I like it when she's all dark and moody and bloody ~~murderou~~s marvelous but I digress.

So Siobhan's "When You Believe" had some really sweet soprano moments and I don't have to say that I adore her lower register (nasally and all), the problem is the in-between notes. They're just not remarkable at a time when Siobhan needed to have every single note ring. With this less-than stellar performance, I'm afraid Siobhan is going to see the bottom three for the first time this week. I think Tim's gonna go but if Siobhan ends up at the bottom three, I don't think she can recover from that slide. She seems fragile (low self-esteem? her quirkiness seems to be a cover for an undecided nature) and is young enough to react to this challenge the wrong way. My only advice? Don't whine. Stick to your guns. If you must go, go spectacularly with fireworks and explosions. STAY FEARLESS.

p.s. Woodland nymph!!!! lolz Normally, I hate butterfly designs on anything and this outfit just came out of nowhere but it's just so...Siobhan that I just had to laugh, not in a derogatory way. Last week, she wore construction materials. She is awesome XD

Movie Review: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

2010-04-11T22:25:00.002+08:00

This movie is based on an international bestselling and award-winning novel by the late Swedish author and journalist, Steig Larrson. The book, Män som hatar kvinnor (lit. "Men Who Hate Women") is the first of what was supposedly a ten-novel series but turned out to be only three, the series henceforth called, Millennium Trilogy. After watching this movie, I am very, very interested in reading these much talked-about books.

THE STORY

The film opens with courtroom drama: scenes showing the disgrace and downfall of financial journalist, Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist). Before he is to serve prison sentence for libel, he accepts a job investigating the disappearance of one Harriet Vanger, favorite niece of an elderly industrialist, Henrik Vanger (Sven-Bertil Taube). Vanger believes that any one of his secretive, Nazi-loyalist family could be the culprit but with fifty years to bury all traces of the crime, Mikael has his work cut out for him. Enter Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace), a tattooed, abrasive but talented computer hacker, hiding demons of her own, who herself was initially hired by Vanger to check Mikael's background. As with all unusual partnerships of this kind, personalities initially clash before each character gradually learns to trust one another as their work drives them both deeper and further into the well of perversity and misogyny that surrounds the case.

REVIEW

On the surface, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is an investigative thriller. We have male protagonist Mikael traveling to Sweden's icy-cold and forbidding Norrland to uncover a five-decade mystery that directly involves the aristocratic Vanger family on their island compound. In the classic whodunit approach, Mikael has to face the obstacle of zeroing in on his suspect from a particularly large list of possibles, all of whom are family members and all of whom harboring secrets they'd rather be left hidden.

The film proceeds through this series of uncovering clues in a strict, no-nonsense, business-like manner, not even bothering with red herrings, relying instead on the awkward relationship that develops between Mikael and Lisbeth to momentarily divert attention, long enough for relevant plot elements to fall into place. In this regard, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo fails a little, falling into the cliche of forcing the two main characters to pair up no matter how uncomfortable and (one particular scene comes to mind) hilarious the coupling looks like on screen. Then again, by stretching the imagination, I suppose the relationship makes some sense. As powerful as Noomi Rapace played Lisbeth, she's the real star of the film and Nyqvist's Mikael Blomkvist has no choice but to acknowledge that and translate it into sexual attraction.

That said, the real meat of this film is not the mystery or the thrilling aspects, although those work quite sufficiently, but what's going on with the film's titular tattooed girl, Lisbeth Salander. She's a child for the most part -- she even has a state-appointed guardian to take care of her finances for her -- both fierce and brittle, a misanthrope even among her peers, a victim who fights back, a survivor. At once different from and at once a virtual mirror of all the women who suffer at the hands of men, Lisbeth stands for justice in this morally correct, conscience-driven movie.

THE SCORE

Story - 8
Sound - 7
Cinematography - 8
Picture - 9
Special Effects - 5
Acting - 10

Overall - 7.8/10

UK Bill on Downloading Sanctions

2010-04-09T10:22:00.005+08:00

Internet piracy is a serious problem. All over the world, industries are losing billions to illegal downloads. There seems to be no solution. For as long as music, movies, software programs and the like are made illegally available and for as long as people have internet connection, then it seems inevitable.

Personally, I think applications like iTunes and Kindle partly solve the problem. The popularity of the application has shown that people are perfectly willing to pay a minimal fee to download music or books LEGALLY if -- and that's the operative word -- the whole mechanics is made easy and convenient for consumers. After all, that's the biggest sell of illegal downloads. It's not really because they're free. But because of easy access and convenience.

However, people in the industry don't think it's enough or that it's working fast enough to overturn all their losses. After all, there are more people who illegally download stuff everyday than there are people who get the same stuff via legal means. WHAT SHOULD THEY DO THEN?

In the UK, they have the answer. A bill was recently passed that could spell the end for illegal downloads. Or at the very least, make Internet users seriously think before clicking that DOWNLOAD button. The Digital Economy Bill is aimed at stopping people illegally downloading copyrighted material from the internet. Illegal downloaders could face life internet ban.

The bill is not yet a law as it still has to pass through the House of Lords. Even so, controversy has surrounded the bill from its inception. You can read about the arguments against the bill from the link above. But personally, what I find alarming about it is that it basically proposes to achieve its purpose by monitoring internet usage. Internet Service Providers (ISPs) would be obliged to submit reports of their subscribers' bandwidth usage to the government agency tasked to implement the law. It raises the issue of whether or not this constitutes violation of privacy and the people's right to free access to information via channels like the internet.

Happy Easter

2010-04-04T19:05:00.001+08:00

Lent ends today. I did not see the Sugat in our local parish. I actually woke up when the church bell rang for the mate at around 2:30a.m. but didn't get up to get ready. I was waiting for my mom to come to my room and verbally abuse me into getting up and about at that freakishly early hour. Surprisingly, she didn't so I spent the next four hours in insomnia land. I think God was punishing me in a roundabout way.

Anyhoo, I'm back in the city...to find that my inbox is filled with the usual spam and Facebook messages. No, D1ck 101, I do not want penis enlargement pills. I was born without that appendage, thankyouverymuch. And no, Abjit from India, I do not want to kindly accept your deposit of one million U.S. dollars in my name to some offshore bank in Papua New Guinea. Honestly. Facebook is...facebook. I do not know half of my friends, and haven't seen the other half in years. Oh, innernet!

Now, for some plans. The reason I don't like going back to my home province is that I get so out of the loop. No internet. No cable TV. And if I want to read a newspaper, I have to trek to my grandmother's place to read it. It's ridiculous. So I get back today and I finally find out that the oath-taking will be on the 28th and that I have to be in Manila earlier than that to get my clearance from the OBC. Crud. Plane tickets and accommodations. And what to wear, what to wear! LOL The good news is that things are only going to get more exciting from here on. Squee.

2010-03-27T08:33:00.002+08:00

Congratulations to all my fellow successful 2009 Bar Examinees!

The results came out last night at around 10:00 p.m. View the complete list at the SC Website.

AI9: Billboard 100 Night

2010-03-24T20:26:00.000+08:00

Bad. Bad. Bad. Really bad. Celebrity mentor is Miley Cirus. LOL The only other ray of sunshine, surprisingly, was Crystal Bowersox. She sang Janis Joplin's Me and Bobby McGee and I think it's only tonight that I finally get what the fuss is all about.

I'm guessing it has something to do with the carpet.

Seriously now, Crystal. is. freakin' good.

Now, on the other side of the fence comes quirky. Oh, Siobhan, you are such a...dork. But then again, when she's on-stage, she's like this whole different person. "Born for the stage" would probably describe her best. As usual, tonight, she's the one contestant I was looking forward to. She came in last with Stevie Wonder's Superstition. The performance was good, naturally. But I have to agree with Kara that it's not her best. Plus, I had a problem with her outfit. I keep recalling one of those stock characters from The Sims for some reason. XD Simon thought the performance is a bit of a split. With Siobhan, it's always a split. You either have to like her or don't like her. She's just precious like that. But yeah, I think she does need to change her game up a little bit. Less on the big notes, more on the tone.

Huhm

2010-03-24T07:05:00.001+08:00

Okay, so have you ever had an experience where you're sleepy and you spend hours in bed trying to fall asleep but you can't even though you're so sleepy you can barely keep your eyes open but you still can't sleep and it's been hours and you can actually hear the clock ticking and what's the name of that Greek dude with the sword hanging over his head? And then you get a headache from keeping your eyes closed for so long?

No?

Me neither.

Driving Myself to Distraction

2010-03-23T08:40:00.004+08:00

So it should come out next week. Or at least, that's what my dad heard over Bobby Nalzarro's morning radio show. The Manila Times actually posted an online story about it yesterday, saying that less than 20% passed but that the Office of the Bar Confidant has yet to finish tallying the scores. Way to compound the stress. The way it's going, the fingernail on my right thumb isn't going to survive the week.

Now, if you will excuse me, I have to go shoot the zombies of Resident Evil 5.

UPDATE 8:34 p.m.: It's Friday, March 26. Nachura said it on TV.

The Magnus is a ninja!

2010-03-17T22:04:00.000+08:00

Well, maybe a ninja in a gothic lolita outfit tonight. And sings Rolling Stones with dramatic flair and panache. Either way, it all boils down to: I love her. I really, really want Siobhan Magnus to win American Idol this season. Don't fail me, America!

Actually, when you look at the Top 12 (Lilly Scott! I wanna make a sad face), the competition is down to only two contestants: Siobhan and Crystal Bowersox....and between them, Siobhan is the more exciting performer. Also before Kara pointed it out tonight, people have actually been calling Siobhan the female Adam Lambert. I get the comparison but I like to think that the Magnus is less outrageous than Adam. Plus, Adam didn't win Idol last year. I want the Magnus to bring it this year.

p.s. Thank god for make-overs. XD

Reading: Confessor by Terry Goodkind

2010-03-15T08:00:00.004+08:00

I'm reading this book right now. I bought this book at random. By random, I mean I didn't find anything more interesting at National Bookstore that day. I would have greatly preferred a novel by a Filipino author...but I don't like reading Tagalog and the English-language short story anthology by Filipino authors that I did find were printed on poor-quality paper. I used to be not at all fastidious about the quality of the print, but lately I am. It's strange.

Anyway, I think I've mentioned before that I really don't read high fantasy. I am fascinated by it but for some odd reason I don't like to read books about them. I once tried reading Tolkien's Silmarillion and The Two Towers (from The Lord of the Rings) but couldn't even get past the second chapter of both books. I was only able to finish The Magician's Nephew from C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia by some herculean effort. I really don't know why since I'm fine with watching the movies (The Lord of the Rings trilogy is some of my favorite movies of all time).

And then here comes Terry Goodkind.

I first heard about this author through the tv series, The Legend of the Seeker, which is based on Goodkind's The Sword of Truth series. FYI, I don't watch the show. Sometimes I catch it on TV when I'm flipping channels but I don't follow the story and only have a very basic grasp of what's it's all about. Obviously, the way all high fantasy usually is, it's good vs. evil with some unlikely hero rising up from the ranks to vanquish the great evil overlord of something or other. My sister is a fan of the show. I think that must have registered unconsciously in my brain so that when I did go to National Bookstore last week and saw this book, Confessor, supposedly the last book of the series, I just went and bought it without thinking about it too deeply, like "am I going to regret this?" It costs P315.00. I could buy two paperbacks at Booksale for less than that.

Yet, even more oddly, I have no regrets. It's a fascinating read right from the get-go. I don't know if it's Terry Goodkind's writing. The first line of the book goes like this:

"For the second time that day, a woman stabbed Richard."

Quite simple but it does very well in drawing the reader in. Understand that I don't have any sort of previous background on the series, and yet the story is not hard to follow at all. I had initial trouble orienting myself with the setting or who's working for who and who's on whose side, but the book is very plain-speaking. No overly manipulative characters or deceptive ones. Sure, there are evil characters who manipulate people but the book actually tells you that this character is so-and-so and he has this kind of power and he's bad but now you know, so no problem trying to decipher any hidden meanings between the lines. lol

I haven't finished reading the novel yet. I'm in the middle-part. But so far so good. I'm not sure if I want to read the entire series now or if I'm now entirely sold on the high fantasy genre, but this one book is doing a great job of entertaining me.

American Idol Weekly Round-Up: Searching for the Top 12

2010-03-12T09:16:00.004+08:00

Is this going to be a weekly thing? God I hope not. But I am pretty excited to see who are going to be the Top 12 and perform on theme nights.

After three weeks, my preferences have changed. Where I used to tremendously like Casey James (for his looks and his "Heaven" performance), I am now gravitating more towards Lee Dewyze, a rocker, grunge dude with an apparently interesting past.

As for Andrew Garcia, he did such a terrible, terrible thing last night with Christina Aguilera's "Genie in a Bottle" that I am seriously worried he won't make the cut. But if he makes it, I am willing to give him another chance. He's probably having an off-night. Well, two off-nights in a row. But he will bounce back, given time. Problem is, time is a luxury he simply doesn't have. Eliminations is tonight. Yikes!

If Andrew doesn't make it, I'll root for Michael Lynche. I really like this guy. Great attitude, great sense of humor and great performances two nights in a row. I admit I was all WTF? when Kara DioGuardi cried in his last performance because "as a woman with no children" she was so moved. I admit Big Mike really worked the stage with that song and it was an emotional delivery, but tears? Uh, no, uhm, no.

My personal favorite is now Siobhan Magnus. I used to find her unpredictable turns fascinating but since last night, in which Simon criticized her as "weird" and thus made her an underdog in my eyes, I have become a complete fan. It's true though that Siobhan is on the side of odd. She talks as if she's in a daze, dresses in weird outfits (she once wore sneakers with a polka dot dress onstage), has quirky habits (lip drills XD) and seems to choose random, out-of-nowhere songs. But I think it's unfair for a judge to base his opinions on all of these aspects of her person when American Idol is a singing competition (or at least, it's supposed to be).

On a side note, I'm not much of a fan of the early front-runner, Crystal Bowersox. I admit, she's hella good but there's no excitement. Every night, you know what kind of music she's going to perform and you know that it's going to be good. It makes me wonder how she's going to do on theme nights. With Siobhan, it's not a serious source of worry. Girl has range. But Crystal strikes me as a niche, bluesy-jazz artist. How would she do when she is forced to get out of her comfort zone?

That said, the only Idol I really don't want to get eliminated tonight is the Magnus. She needs to stay or there will be no more point for me to watch the show.

New Layouts

2010-03-10T10:59:00.003+08:00

So aside from finally updating Brilliant at 3:00 a.m. (now on Chapter 2!!), I've been busying myself these past couple of days with new layouts for my blogs. I like these new ones. They're XML and compatible with the new Blogger's widgets. Also, tweaking the themes gave me a sort of crash course in CSS coding. heh XD Of course, that means obsessing over the whole thing to the point where I have dreams of them.

Also, while I'm at it, I discovered Google Chrome. I'm still testing it out but so far so good. It definitely provides faster browsing. The only tiff I have with Google Chrome is that it doesn't have the Delicious toolbar and also the multiple search engine bar that Firefox has. But its delightful extensions might make for it. For instance, the screenshots of my blogs below are accomplished through this nifty extension called Webpage Screenshot. Really cool. If you haven't tried Google Chrome yet, you should give it a try.

Oscars 2010: And the Best Picture Goes To

2010-03-08T21:33:00.004+08:00

Yes!!! The Hurt Locker won!!! I was rooting for it right from the start.

Sorry, my man Jim but Avatar is a dime-a-dozen story. You should leave the eco-films to much more proficient storytelling masters like Hayao Miyazaki. I mean, I'd rather watch Princess Mononoke a hundred times than watch Avatar a second time.

Don't get me wrong. I did like Avatar when I watched it. It is a highly enjoyable film with a collective wow factor that really leaves you, well, WOWed. But, after the excitement and all the brain spasms I got while watching the movie -- after my eyes had some time to rest, I did a little thinking (yes, just a little) and I realized that the story does not hold a lot of water.

As far as the forbidden, interracial romance was concerned, Pocahontas did a better job. As far as the man sticking it out in a wild, wild world, Tarzan did a better job. As far as the environmental message it's trying to get across, Studio Ghibli has a bunch of anime that all did a better job.

So yeah, The Hurt Locker FTW!

Also, if you haven't seen The Hurt Locker yet, I recommend you do. It's a war movie, very relevant, not quite epic but what it lacks in grandeur, it makes up for its grit.

R.I.P. Assunta

2010-03-05T16:41:00.010+08:00

At 4:10 p.m. today, Assunta, our dog of almost nine years, passed away. She was the best dog anyone could ask for. She was more than a pet. She was part of the family. I hope dogs have souls.

This was her when she was still a baby. She was so small when she first came to us that she couldn't eat solid foods yet. We had to feed her from a feeding bottle, like a real human child.

This is her waiting at the gate for her daily morning walk.

She likes to sleep on my father's chair for some reason.

And sometimes, she likes to sleep on her back.

If you disturb her while she's sleeping, she'll give you this look.

Or she'll just ignore you, like you deserve.

But she's gone now.

My Secret Vice

2010-03-04T20:54:00.011+08:00

Starting tomorrow, March 5 until Sunday March 7, Crunchyroll is going to STREAM FOR FREE the world-renowned works of Makoto Shinkai to celebrate Global Shinkai Day 2010. Catch the free streaming of 5cm Per Second, The Place Promised in Our Early Days and Voices of A Distant Star on said dates at Crunchyroll. Click on the image below for official details of this special promo.
For those who haven't heard of Makoto Shinkai, he is a fast-rising director/creator and is currently being hailed as the next Hayao Miyazaki. IMHO, he might not have Miyazaki's masterful storytelling, but he does have excellent vision that he is able to translate into gorgeous animation with emphasis on lighting and details and fantastic editing.

In other news, Claymore Chapter 101 is finally out. Chapter 100, which came out last month, gave us Priscilla facing Clare once again with the latter being unable to awaken for some unknown reason. Fans were all a furor over what that reason could be. Some came up with plausible theories, like the fact that Clare is only a quarter youkai because instead of absorbing a full youkai, she absorbed the Claymore Teresa who is, of course, only half-youkai. Others said that Rafaela's consciousness must have stopped her. Well, now that Chapter 101 is here, all those questions can now be put to rest but the real reason does not quite satisfy.
There is something wrong with the chapter if I keep reading "wedgie" instead of wedge. A psychological wedge? WTF?

In still another news, American Idol...
Michael Lynche (Big Mike to some) has a really great attitude and performed really well last Wednesday. Also, Lee Dewyze is kinda cute so I'm keeping my eyes on him, too. He strikes me as a little too similar to David Cook though so there's a little problem there. I mean, I'm a huge fan of David but do we want another Idol winner with similar style? I think this year, I want to see something different.

Speaking of different, Siobhan Magnus does it again, this time with Aretha Franklin's "Think." Simon called her strange ("I meant that as a compliment"), interesting and very talented. I think the video helped give the "strange" impression. Seriously, a mohawk and lip vibrations? lol Still, I wasn't really wowed by her overall performance tonight. The beginning was so-so until she started singing "freedom, freedom" and then hit that last high note. She's definitely got a good tone, an insane range and really amazing ability to belt out impossibly high notes and make it look easy, but if we're talking vocal ability here, I'd go for smooth-voiced Michelle Delamore (though her performance tonight was really bad) or the indie girl Lily Scott.

New one

2010-03-03T16:50:00.001+08:00

textless cover @ DA | the webcomic @ SmackJeeves

The Lovely Bones: Oddly lovely and oddly odd

2010-03-02T19:16:00.003+08:00

In a few weeks, it's going to be Oscar night. A lot of interesting movies are on the line-up. Pretty sure Avatar is going to win the mother of it all: Best Picture. If you ask me, that movie was just eye candy. Story-wise, it was lackluster. I say Hurt Locker is a far better movie. And if we're talking CGI, Up was infinitely better.

But I digress. This post is not really about my passive-aggressive disdain for the Bandwagon Culture (TM), but about this movie by Peter Jackson (yes, that Peter Jackson), oddly called The Lovely Bones. It's based on the novel of the same title by Alice Sebold and is about this kid, 14-year-old Susie Salmon (like the fish!) who was raped and brutally murdered by her pedophile neighbor, and the story of how "the lovely bones" grew around her absence.

That's about as stark as I can write it. Naturally, the story is quite dark and quite intense. However, novelist Sebold makes it bearable by making Susie, the victim, it's narrator. The twist in the perspective makes the story click and what we get is a movie that exudes so much positivity (also, 60s dresses, butterflies and candy-colored heaven) that the minute family drama seems almost overwhelmed.

So. Peter Jackson does heaven.

WHY I LIKE IT

The movie has a lot of shining moments. Stanley Tucci who is up for an Oscar as Best Supporting Actor for this role plays creepy, dollhouse-freak pedophile convincingly. The fact that he has a mustache and hair that seemed to have landed on his head at an opportune time makes his image even more convincing. Also, Susie reveals her murderer's identity like five minutes into the movie. So yeah, big clue there.

Incidentally, even though this movie proceeds from the premise of a child's murder, it isn't about catching the bad guy. I mean, yes, the movie does vindicate that matter but rather than making it the focus of the entire story, it's only there to provide some closure (mainly for the benefit of the audience). Of course, we want to see poetic justice. The bad guy needs to get what he deserves, and Peter Jackson delivers, without, however, plunging into another cop procedural.

Speaking of cops, I just recalled something which has nothing to do at all with cops and everything to do with suspense. The Lovely Bones isn't big on it. In fact, there is only one really suspenseful moment throughout the entire movie and I nearly shat my pants when I saw it. It was that...hair-raising, for lack of a better word.

This story's strength really comes from its unusual take on POV. That said, we can all fully expect that the movie is going to be littered with the mental expositions of a teenager. That means, hormones, angst, and oh -- did I mention hormones? But amazingly, it's not annoying. I think part of the credit should go to Saoirse Ronan, the actress who plays Susie. Some of us may remember her from Atonement, a movie which I did not particularly take to nor find Ronan's performance in it particularly remarkable. However, if I was unsure about Ronan's capabilities as an actress in that movie, there is no doubt in my mind now that she is someone to look out for.

A lot of people seem to take issue on the fact that Peter Jackson has "toned down" the story in order to fit a younger audience. For instance, the movie barely even implies the real circumstances of Susie's death: the rape was definitely flossed over while the murder was only heavily implied (no actual scene of violence is depicted). Personally, I think that's a relief rather than a flaw. I don't think I would have been able to stand it if the movie was more "true to the novel." I mean, I am interested in reading the novel but I don't think I would be able to watch a movie that would be absolutely true to it, especially if the novel is really that graphic and dark.

WHY I DON'T LIKE IT

But for all the good things about this movie, there is one bad thing about it which I suspect is the reason this isn't a great movie.

We all know Peter Jackson for The Lord of the Rings trilogy. We all know about his ability to make the camera practically drip with otherwordly eye-candy from sweeping grand vistas of grassy slopes to woodlands of wonderfully intricate and mangly trees. Well, he puts that magic touch to good use here. Too much good use as he imagines and creates and ultimately luxuriates in his imaginary heaven. While I don't mind getting a little look-see on what his idea of "heaven" is, I'd really much prefer seeing what's going on in the world down below. But no, Jackson is far too in love with the whole idea that we miss on a golden opportunity: the family drama that subtly unfolds after Susie dies.

We only get glimpses of it and we can't help but wonder: Why are we spending so much time bouncing around in heaven when the whole point of this movie is what happens to the people left behind after a loved one dies? I mean, are we supposed to buy into the idea that after little children get raped and murdered, life is just butterflies and lollipops?

The choice that Jackson made in spending more reels depicting this surreal heaven instead of focusing on the human element of the story is a fatal mistake. As a result the story loses its momentum in key moments as it seems to weave in and out of heaven and back again to the real world.

THE VERDICT

The Lovely Bones is an absorbing film that intrigues the mind and pleases the eyes but might leave you a little hanging for some more if you like your drama.

Idol Fever: My Bets

2010-02-26T12:06:00.010+08:00

I have no life. I am a stay-at-home gal who earns a little living from blogging and the awesomeness that is google adsense. All that while I wait for the results of the Bar Exam, which is taking fantastically slowly. So to take my mind off worrisome things, I spend some of my time fantasizing about celebrities and men that I only see on my TV screen.

One show I like to watch is American Idol Season 9. I've been following this show pretty much consistently since David Cook's time. Most of my bets end up in the top 3. This time around, I got my eyes on two guys and a girl.

1. Casey James
He is 27 and is the lead singer of his band, aptly called The Casey James Band. He's from Texas but his drawl isn't very thick. I think he's hot. Judges Victoria Beckham and Kara DiGuardi also agree. He has this whole grunge-y, outdoors-y, Kurt Cobain look to him, only prettier. But most importantly, he can really sing. Last night, he sang Bryan Adam's Heaven and it was HOT. The title was just right. Heaven's exactly how I felt watching him. lol It's official: I am in love with this guy. XD

2. Andrew Garcia
A really talented, creative guy. He's 24 from California, a stay-at-home dad who does music on occasion...but I strongly suspect that he's got Filipino blood in him. I know everybody's talking about his acoustic rendition of Paula Abdul's Straight Up but his version of Fall Out Boy's Sugar, We're Going Down last night was also just as awesome. I think he's going places, this one.

3. Siobhan Magnus
I principally like her story, not that there's much of it. The show hasn't really given her background a lot of airtime, so she comes off as mysterious and dark, which incidentally is what Simon Cowell calls her: the dark horse. I just like her because of her name (so cool) and because she's this kinda, sorta weird girl (she is a glass blowing apprentice, whatever that is) and her version of Wicked Game was only appropriate. That picture, by the way, is from her Facebook profile. There's very little about her you can find online, too. So mysterious.

Anyhoo, these are my bets. What about you? Who's the next American Idol?

Departures: On Life and Living in the Midst of Death

2010-02-23T06:47:00.003+08:00

This film won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2009. It beat out Ploning, the Philippines' official entry for the same category in the 2009 Oscars (read vatski's review of Ploning here). While I am not about to compare the two (and I can't anyway since I never watched Ploning properly), I can honestly say that Departures more than deserves its spot at the Oscars.

THE STORY

Daigo Kobayashi is a cellist for an orchestra in Tokyo with dreams about making it big in the industry. Unfortunately, the orchestra gets disbanded, leaving Daigo without a job and 18 million yen in debt. At his wit's end, he and his incredibly agreeable wife return to his mother's old home in the countryside and start again. Eventually, he finds a new job that has something to do with "assisting departures" and gets hired on the spot. Of course, it's too good to be true as the job turns out to be that of an "encoffiner" and his task is not to assist in departures but to "assist the departed." Ostracized by friends and even his wife, Daigo begins to take a certain kind of pride in his work, mastering the role of the gentle gatekeeper between life and death and between the souls of the dead and the family they leave behind.

REVIEW

Before anything else, there is something you need to understand about this film. Daigo's work as an encoffiner is not a socially accepted occupation, at least, not to the Japanese. The encoffiner's closeness to death connotes "ritual impurity" -- i.e. the person is "unclean" because his occupation is considered "tainted" with death. The closest Japanese term for it is burakumin, and even though it is not entirely correct, it does explain a little of the social stigma that Daigo experiences in the movie.

That said, this film is BEAUTIFUL. I know, it seems like an odd thing to say for a movie that is about death and dying. But watch the film and you'll know exactly what I mean.

To begin in the middle: Departures opens with Daigo performing his first "encoffinment" under his boss' watchful eyes. We look at what he does with the eyes of a stranger. The work is precise and flawless. There is no wasted movement, no stray gestures. There is something almost mechanical about the whole thing. Each motion is ceremonial; each movement, an expression of reverence and respect. And then, as our main character washes the dead girl's entire body, he discovers something. The flow is disrupted. He draws his boss aside.

"It has the thing," he says.

"What thing?" The boss asks. It takes him about three seconds to figure it out just as Daigo, with the usual flourish, offers him the washcloth. After the boss checks the corpse for himself, then comes an unusual dilemma for our encoffiners.

The boss quietly approaches one of the watching family members and very politely explains that after the cleansing they will apply make-up to the deceased. "We have different make-ups for male and female...." And just like that, the solemn proceeding turns into an amusing microcosmic family squabble.

Departures is comprised of many great, encapsulated scenes like that littered all throughout. A strange mixture of great solemnity and humor that borders on irreverence but without, however, throwing disrespect on the material. If you are familiar at all with Japanese films or television, you'll know that this combination is not exactly unusual. But what puts Departures a cut above the rest is its ability to make flawless transitions from seriousness to comedy, making you go from crying buckets to giving wry smirks. Make no mistake. This is a serious film that deals with a loaded subject, but that does not mean it can't draw a smile or a laugh from its audience.

And when the drama hits, it will hit you hard, even as you can see it coming from a mile away. It helps that the film explores many contemporary and timeless themes. It deals with unemployment (you can't be more timely than that in this hour of the recession), personal dreams and destiny. But most of all, it deals with relationships, not only the ones we have with the persons closest to us, but even to those we meet along the way without even realizing the impact we have on that other person's life. Like a metaphor for its title, the movie will take you for a ride through life and its eventual end, with all its hardships and joys, adventures and mishaps, meetings and partings.

But Departures, for all its beautiful story, would not have quite the impact without Joe Hisashi's delightful score. From rich orchestrations (there's a fantastic performance by the Tokyo symphony orchestra of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, watch for it) to sustained string passages and back to sprightly waltz-like themes, the film score delights and subdues and touches the deepest part of the soul. You can always tell a good soundtrack from its ability to set the tone for a piece of film without taking center stage and with Departures, Joe Hisashi's undeniable elegance and mastery in that aspect shines through.

Much of Departures is filmed with the Japanese countryside as a backdrop. This serves only to enhance that "quiet" quality of this film. The scenes are beautiful and this beauty is never more effectively utilized than in that one particular scene of heartbreaking parting where a woman stands amid falling cherryblossoms. No words. Just stunning visuals. On that note, dialogue is sparse in Departures. Much like the funeral ritual of cleansing, dressing and putting make-up, every word spoken is loaded with meaning, and entire conversations can happen in the silences in between.

As for the cast, all of them are credited for making their characters as believable as they ever could be. It's not hard to sympathize with Motoki Masahiro's Daigo, a cellist forced to orchestrate a new life for himself in the funeral business when his dreams of being a musician collapses. At first, I found Daigo's wife, Mika (portrayed by Hirosue Ryoko), a bit unbelievable -- sweet (in that sickeningly genki way) but UNBELIEVABLE in her being so agreeable even in the face of her husband's losing his job, his borrowing 18 million yen without telling her, and their moving to the countryside from their relatively posh life in the city. But this is the ideal Japanese wife: she will follow her husband from two steps behind, stopping only when he stops. So when the mask shows a crack, we see a glimpse of Mika's true personality and it is human, and it is brave. Another striking character is Daigo's father figure, the boss (Yamazaki Tsutomu), who embodies the wise old sensei stereotype but expands it a bit by adding personal quirks that makes him a standout.

I could go on and on about the movie's positive sides, but Departures is not a perfect piece of film. Indeed, it is a moving story and I can't quite remember the last time I was touched by and in awe of a movie like this; what Departures lack, ironically enough, is a nice, tight and clean ending. Instead, it ends twice, and because of that, it feels prolonged and a little bit forced. But other than that, Departures is a beautiful movie about enduring, and occasionally funny, life lessons on death and living in spite of it.

THE SCORE

Story - 7
Sound - 10
Cinematography - 8
Picture - 10
Special Effects - 8
Acting - 8

Overall - 8.5/10

Milestone Moment

2010-02-19T09:26:00.001+08:00

We reached a milestone moment in our webcomic.

Valuable Consideration

2010-02-14T09:11:00.001+08:00

Review class in Negotiable Instruments Law…

PROFESSOR: What constitutes valuable consideration? Can anybody here tell me? You, Mr. —, if for instance you execute a promissory note, saying that because of love and affection, you promise to pay P10,000 or order to Ms. ___ who then negotiates to Mr. X. When the note becomes due and demandable, will you pay Mr. X?<

STUDENT: No, sir.

PROFESSOR: Why not?

STUDENT: Because love and affection is not a valuable consideration.

PROFESSOR: You mean to say that your love has no value at all?

Movie Review: In The Mood for Love

2010-02-14T06:00:00.003+08:00

So I finally got around to watching this movie. I’ve always wanted to ever since I saw 2046, which got its hype from the fact that it starred both Zhang Ziyi and Gong Li, two of China‘s hottest international stars. But ultimately for me, it was Tony Leung’s performance that pulled the movie through. His and Wong Kar-wai’s genius for film-making.

Indeed, where else can you find an entire reel of film devoted to wisps of swirling cigarette smoke? Or of five seconds of the camera gazing at a hand splayed on the banister of a hotel stairway?

I’ve seen movies that use the camera as an effective tool to create mood or dynamism but I have never seen it used as part of the senses quite like in Wong’s movies. To Wong Kar-wai, the camera is his eye, nose, ears and hands, and by extension, ours. Imagine yourself coming upon a room for the first time and finding yourself noticing, not the room in perspective, but the details, the tiny everyday things that seem mundane and insignificant, except that they aren't. They are there; they assault the senses.

THE STORY

Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan move into neighboring apartments on the same day. In the beginning, their encounters are polite and formal, until a discovery about their respective spouses sparks an intimate bond. A story about the devastating ambiguity of feelings and the triumph of moral restraint.

REVIEW

In the Mood for Love is set in prosperous but crowded Hong Kong in the 1960s. This “crowdedness” is a dominant feature of the film and Wong emphasizes this claustrophobic quality by insisting on shots of the characters brushing against each other as they make their way through the narrow hallway connecting one cramped apartment with another. Beyond the physical, this sense of confinement is carried over to the psyche of our main characters, played to gut-wrenching perfection by Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung, two jilted spouses who are in the mood for love but simply cannot be lovers, not physically nor mentally.

Trapped is the feeling you get when watching this film. It’s more than just the physical and visual part of it -- dark mahjong dens and rain-soaked alleys seen through camera shots taken from behind something, giving off the feeling that you are not supposed to be noticing these things. You are not supposed to be watching. All this is forbidden. And that is exactly how our characters are feeling.

In the beginning, Mr. Chow (Tony Leung) and Mrs. Chan (Maggie Cheung) try to understand their respective spouses, try to grasp what drove them to lie, cheat and eventually abandon their apparently happy marriage to indulge in an adulterous affair. They do this by replaying what must have happened, re-imagining conversations, even to the extent of ordering what each other’s spouse might have ordered at the restaurant that they supposed was where it must have started. But when it came to that moment which now defined their present circumstance, they found that they could not bear it. As Leung’s character aptly said, “What does it matter? It has already happened.”

Yet they continue to see each other, driven by some invisible bond, trapped by a common pain. Sometimes, often without warning, they would lapse into dialogue that is out-of-character and it is then that the audience realizes that they are not playing themselves now but their adulterous halves. It is as if by inflicting this surface pain they hope to numb the other pain inside.

The adulterers remain faceless throughout the movie and that is just as well because what they have is common and crass and deserves scant attention. It is the ones left behind, the damage caused, that carries the story through. One especially long-range shot that struck me is that of two people caught in a sudden downpour, standing apart from each other even as they are taking shelter under the eaves of the same house. If you have been paying attention, you will recognize immediately the blatant symbolism of that one scene. These two conflicting senses of closeness and isolation is repeated over and over in the film -- one in particular shows the camera swinging back and forth between two rooms, not necessarily to show the audience that there is only a thin wall separating the two but to emphasize that there are, in fact, two rooms.

But “feelings have a strange way of creeping up on you” and as each of our main character realizes that what begun as a gesture of self-preservation, a mutual gratification of the need to have each other as an emotional crutch, has evolved into something else, the story takes on a different tone. The change is not perceivable even as they, as well as the audience, are aware all along that they’ve been blurring the lines.

“We will not be like them,” says Mrs. Chan, a phrase spoken, perhaps thoughtlessly, in the beginning, but which has become yet another link in the unbreakable chain that binds our characters to their self-appointed roles in this ghastly play of emotional entanglements. I say “ghastly” because our characters are not pure-hearted souls. They can’t be, after all that they’ve been through and all that they’re doing. Because they can’t be lovers in the physical and mental sense, they indulge in this twisted fantasy of role-play. Are they having an affair? Are they in love? Did they sleep together? We don't really know. The camera doesn't tell you and you are left to form your own conclusions about what really happened.

Yet, despite the ambiguity of most everything about In the Mood for Love, there is one certainty in the movie -- that of moral restraint. And this is why there is no happy ending here, at least not the traditional kind we're used to. That is the whole point of the story -- that of two people trapped in their roles, in a cramped apartment, in a packed Hong Kong in the 1960s where money is easy to find and love just as unavoidable, where everything is within the grasp of one’s hand and at the same time unreachable. It must be the apotheosis of restraint to have all that opulence right before your eyes, all the justification in the world to love the wrong person, and then turn and walk away.

The film’s last scene is that of Tony Leung’s character whispering the secrets of his heart to a hole he found on an ancient stone ruin in Cambodia and then stuffing it with grass and mud as though to ensure that they stay there.

Even in this last moment, the sense of confinement remains. You see it in the shots of narrow doorways, one after the other. That is, until you remember to focus not on the narrowness of the opening but on the fact that it is, after all, still an opening and there’s light outside.

THE SCORE

Story - 10
Sound - 7
Cinematography - 10
Picture - 10
Special Effects - 7
Acting - 10

Overall - 9/10

TV Review: The Queen's Classroom

2010-02-12T07:24:00.002+08:00

Imagine a person with the emotional range of a terminator, the aura of Darth Vader and the Machiavellian mindset of Hitler.

Now put her in a classroom.

What you get is an unusual Japanese drama series that debunks the "heroic" teacher stereotype, presents searing commentaries about the state of the public school system, and gives you a character so evil and negative that the makers of the series had to show a clip at the ending transforming her back into just an actress. The show is called The Queen's Classroom and not for no reason.

THE STORY

Sixth grader Kanda Kazumi (Shida Mirai) is looking forward to spending her last year in grade school having fun and creating lasting memories with her friends. But problems arise when a strict new teacher, Akutsu Maya (Amami Yuki) is assigned as their homeroom adviser. Maya ranks her class strictly according to merit, punishing harshly those with the lowest grades while lavishly awarding those with the highest marks. Soon, her high-handed ways lead to class dissension as the children are manipulated into spying on their own classmates, lying and bullying. Exactly, what lesson is Maya trying to teach?

REVIEW

I watched this show purely on a whim. While I've seen quite a number of Asian movies, I haven't been paying much attention to their television counterparts. The Queen's Classroom is only my second foray into Japanese drama. The first was Engine, starring Takuya Kimura. Interestingly enough, both shows are primarily family-targeted dramas, although they are polar opposites of each other when approaching their respective storylines.

The premise of The Queen's Classroom is nothing new. I have seen and read my fair share of 'strict adult vs. rebellious school kids' stories, growing up as I did on movies like Matilda and A Little Princess. So what makes "the Queen" different from the villainous grownups of all those other shows? Maybe it's the fact that Akutsu Maya, despite her name (aku is Japanese for "evil" and if you contract her name, you'll come up with akuma which means "devil"), is not what she appears to be.

On the surface, she is truly frightening. She dresses up in entirely black clothes with a high-necked shirt and high-heeled shoes the sounds of which echo eerily in the hallways. Her hair is pulled back tight to show a face that is seemingly incapable of emotion. She never speaks louder than the normal speaking voice but she can CUT with her words. From the first moment you see her, the only conclusion you can draw is: DEMON. And the only worse thing about it is that she is probably the most intelligent, knowledgeable and talented person you have ever encountered and you are completely under her mercy. For Akutsu Maya excels in everything, whether they be academics, sports, music or martial arts and she expects you to do just as well.

The character is probably one of the most fascinating anti-heroes I have ever seen on television in a long time. Right off the bat, there are only two other similar character types that I think would come up to par and one of them is an anime character. Not only that, the character is also one of the most effective in all her perceived purposes. Much may have something to do with how the character is written. The writers made no compromises whatsoever with Akutsu Maya. Even at the finale, when the melodrama reaches its peak, she remains absolutely in character. In fact, the only two times she sheds that mask happens in a dream sequence and at the final scene of The Queen's Classroom.

However, no matter how good a character is written, it would all come to naught if the person portraying it can't deliver. Thankfully, we don't have that problem in The Queen's Classroom. Amami Yuki plays the character so well that when watching her I have no doubt in my mind that she is Akutsu Maya, with all her perceived faults and hidden sub-layers. By a less capable actress, the character would have been ridiculous. Indeed, there are plenty of moments in the series where the character is ungenerously treated as to make her an object of scorn rather than of a kind of deferential fear. They even went to the trouble of darkening the screen filters or flickering the hallway lights every time the character appears. That along with an unforgettable, flute-based operatic score almost always achieves the same reaction from me: hysteria. I always have this urge to laugh myself silly or run away in terror. The one saving grace is the actress' performance. You look at Amami Yuki's face and you know -- you just know -- that there's more going on there, like she's capable of great feats of self-sacrifice even at her most cruel, thus, achieving the writers' goal all along: that of creating a deep, multi-layered character whose intentions and aspirations won't be revealed until the very end.

Aside from Amami Yuki (who is apparently no stranger to playing strong, manly characters), the actors and actresses in The Queen's Classroom, most of them under 15 at the time the series was made, display notable acting potential. The expressions may be a bit exaggerated at times. Shida Mirai (Kazumi) especially overacts in the beginning but as the series progress the actress is able to hold her own against the veteran Amami. In fact, the exaggerated expressions are an essential counterpoint to Maya's more or less blank wall. However when it's time to deliver the goods, the children prove to be more than capable. In fact, most of the emotionally-ridden situations in the show involve the kids while the adults are mostly there for comic relief.

Believable performances of believable characters is a mark of a good show. But when you use this as a tool to deliver a relevant message, then you don't just have a good show but an excellent one. The Queen's Classroom comes very close by tackling highly controversial issues about the public school system. The series isn't just a story about kids trying to fight against the harsh system that their teacher imposes upon them but a bold commentary about the state of education today, bearing great relevance not only in Japan but in most other countries as well, not least of which is my own, the Philippines. Through Akutsu Maya, the show paints a harsh picture of reality and at the same time asks a question that fosters both initiative and critical thinking, as if to say: Those are the breaks. Now, what are you going to do about it?

As the kids try to figure out the answer, we see the different faces of humanity throughout the show: there's the self-centered, the bully, the slanderer, the thief, the escape artist, the indifferent, the insecure, the smart, the mediocre, the optimist, the pragmatist, the dreamer, the advocate, and finally the admirable. At times, the series can reach so low that it makes you wonder about the message it's getting across, but that only makes you look forward to the bright little pockets of humor and cheer that come in equal abundance. Yes, The Queen's Classroom can be unrelenting in its portrait of the dire world but if you "open your eyes" you will see that nothing is set in stone and that regardless of anything you have a choice.

Truly one of the finest television dramas I have ever seen in a while, The Queen's Classroom can be highly predictable with its simple plot, but what it excels in is its delivery.

THE SCORE

Story - 8
Sound - 8
Cinematography - 10
Picture - 8
Special Effects - 8
Acting - 10

Overall - 8.7/10

SIDE NOTE: I wish local television would pick this up, either buy the rights to air the series or adapt it in a Philippine setting. It's a really interesting show and it delivers a relevant message. It's not a love story so it doesn't have a lot of mass appeal but it's a family show and I think ABS-CBN has proved through May Bukas Pa that family shows can be crowd-pleasers, too. And if they do pick up this show, I can suggest only one actress to play the part of Akutsu Maya: Maricel Soriano. I know she's known for her "bungangera" roles. She can extend her range by playing a character who hardly makes any outward display of emotion without, however, appearing wooden. With Soriano's talent, I'm sure she can more than manage.

Leather Jacket (Graphite)

2010-02-11T07:36:00.000+08:00

Like a Hamster on a Wheel

2010-02-10T12:10:00.005+08:00

So yesterday, I tried my first 25-minute jog. In place. Talk about a hamster on a wheel. -_-

Why? Brown-out. So? So I had nothing better to do, nobody to talk to (I had a fight with my dog so we weren't on speaking terms....XD), nothing to watch and didn't feel like music. Oh and I'm bored with the javagames on my cellphone.

So I jogged.

It took me fifteen minutes to get my breathing right. Took me five more minutes to get my rhythm. And then at the last five minutes, I wanted to give up. You know how it feels when you're so close to your goal you can taste it but your muscles are giving up? It's always the last five minutes. Always. And always before, I'd give in and call it quits.

I've never had a lot of stamina for any manner of physical exertion. Give me a book espousing complicated psychological theories any time. I'd happily prefer pouring over it to playing sports or exercising. But last night was different. I don't know. It might have something to do with the fact that this time I set an actual goal for myself: run for 25 minutes. I don't care about the distance just yet. Even if I did, I couldn't because, as I said, I was running in place. All I wanted was to find out if I have the stamina to last that long. I did, and afterwards, I felt like I could do anything.

Also, now I AM IN PAIN.

Drabble-Matic!

2010-02-09T09:04:00.002+08:00

Was surfing through the internet just now and found this little hilarious gem http://www.prillalar.com/drabbles/. All you gotta do is input random adjectives, adverbs, some verbs and nouns, and voila! Instant drabble.... LMAO

A White Occurrence

Kiko paced up and down, jiggling his mouth. His very good friend, Mary Sue Swagger, had arranged to meet him here at the parking lot. "I have something wicked to tell you," she had said.

Mary Sue Swagger was late, which was very unlike her. Any moment now, Kiko expected to see her bounce up, her nonchalant hair streaming behind her and her arrogant eyes aglow.

Kiko heard footsteps, but they seemed rather nonplussed for a delicate and miscreant girl like Mary Sue Swagger, whose tread was silly. He turned around and found Takya staring at him.

"What are you doing here?" Takya said slowly. "I thought you said you didn't want to see me again."

Kiko had said that, but now he was beginning to wish he hadn't acted so innocently. "Mary Sue Swagger asked to meet me here." As he gazed at Takya, his legs began to throb leeringly.

"Oh," Takya said, easily. "I'll just go then."

"Wait," Kiko said and caught Takya by her eyes. "I was wrong. I still love you. Can you ever forgive me?"

"Yes," Takya said, smiling. They wrapped their arms around each other and kissed, like a drowning metropolis caught in a flood tide of gray mist.

From behind an eyes, Mary Sue Swagger watched with a casual light in her tall eyes. She took a list out of her pocket, and checked off "Kiko/Takya". Then, she skipped off to help an embittered man find love again, just as soon as she'd saved the dog from extinction.

oi

2010-02-09T08:34:00.004+08:00

Since my teamblog with Vatski is, well, dead, I've decided to transfer all my posts from that blog to here. They're mostly movie reviews in which I try to sound like a movie critic. Nothing dramatic. I have nothing new to post anyway. I haven't been writing much these days. After I'm done with the transfer, I might make a post on Battlestar Galactica and some recent movies/series I've seen and books I've read. But that's a big MIGHT.

Pretty

2010-02-07T09:14:00.001+08:00

Discussing the questions in the Mock Bar Exam in Taxation…

PROFESSOR: …well, from this, you can tell that the examiner is a practitioner and probably a CPA. I have a few names in mind.

STUDENT 1: Atty. A?

STUDENT 2: Probably Atty. B.

PROFESSOR: Yes, could be. They’re both CPAs. You know, they were my students before.

STUDENT 2: Who was brighter, sir?

PROFESSOR: Well, you can’t really compare these things. They were both bright students.

STUDENT 1: Okay, then who is prettier?

Appeal

2010-02-06T09:13:00.000+08:00

“An interlocutory order is like an ugly woman. It has no appeal.”
~ Remedial Law Professor

Tips

2010-02-05T09:12:00.001+08:00

The Mock Bar Exam is one of the toughest exams every law student ever has to take, not counting the actual Bar Exam. In the morning before the Mock Bar Exam in Remedial Law (the toughest bar subject for most people because it deals with the Rules of Court and other procedural aspects of the law)…

PROFESSOR: (calling out to a couple of nervous-looking students) Naa ko’y tips.

STUDENTS: Unsa man, sir?

PROFESSOR: Rules of Court.

Power Windows

2010-02-04T09:10:00.002+08:00

Art. 157, Family Code:
“The actual value of the family home shall not exceed, at the time of its constitution, the amount of Three hundred thousand pesos in urban areas, and Two hundred thousand pesos in rural areas, or such amounts as may hereafter be fixed by law.

PROFESSOR: So I guess this refers to a kariton….with power windows.

Feng Shui

2010-02-03T09:09:00.002+08:00

Chinese New Year and Midterms exam in Problem Areas in Legal Ethics. Professor walks in and looks quite surprised to see the front row seats virtually unoccupied.

PROFESSOR: Why are you all sitting at the back? Is that for unethical purposes?

CLASS: (indignant) Mam! Feng shui!

9 Hours of Study

2010-02-02T09:09:00.000+08:00

PROFESSOR: All right, Mr. ____. What’s your take on the question? You said you studied.
STUDENT: Yes, Ma’am. I studied for three hours.
PROFESSOR: You know when taking the bar, you have to study for at least 12 hours everyday.
STUDENT: Ma’am, I studied for six hours last night.
PROFESSOR: Okay. So what’s your answer?
STUDENT: Ma’am, I agree with Mr. ___.
PROFESSOR: And this is the result of nine hours of study.

TV

2010-02-01T09:33:00.001+08:00

Last night, I watched this Japanese-language drama on cable, called Ryomaden (official site in Japanese). It's based on the life of Sakamoto Ryoma, an historical figure who played a key role in toppling the Tokugawa Shogunate from power and paving the way for the Meiji Restoration and Japan's modernization. I don't understand the language but I could pretty much follow what was going on. It's interesting, in the way that swords and samurai are always interesting. It also helps that the actor who plays the title character is not bad on the eyes.

This type of drama is called jidaigeki, a period drama that deals with real events, figures and way of life from Japan's history. And apparently, NHK airs one just like it every year, ensuring that Japanese people never forget where they come from.

I wish we had one like it on Philippine television. I know a period drama series would require a considerable budget for the costumes and set alone, but with the amount of nonsensical, derivative crap we see on Filipino TV and the cinemas these days, I think our studios can well afford at least one drama dealing with Philippine history once a year.

We have a lot of interesting figures from our history. Andres Bonifacio is one. We are so fond of Cinderella stories, well, this man's story exemplifies it. They could treat the story in such a way that academics will have a rowdy time going through the ever-present debate over whether or not Bonifacio should be revered as the true national hero of the Philippines, instead of Rizal.

Feminists will rejoice a drama series following the life of an authentic Filipina, Gabriela Silang, and not some rip-off of an American comic book heroine (yes, I'm talking to you, Darna). Or maybe, the series could be about some obscure historical heroine, like Marcella Agoncillo.

Or, because originality on TV these days is hard to come by, we could make a TV adaptation of Rizal's celebrated novels, Noli Me Tangere (I have zero memories about the 1992 TV series adaptation) and El Filibusterismo. Why make a TV show about Zorro when we have our own home-grown heroes right in our student's everyday reading material? Making a TV adaptation of these very materials would be like hitting two birds with one stone: we would be encouraging nationalistic awareness in our youth as well as fostering their learning by increasing academic interest in Philippine history as an area of study.

We also seem to have developed a huge appetite for fantasies. It's not surprising; fantasies are an escape from the realities of our hard life as a country. But even that can be exploited in order to strengthen our sense of nationalism and promote our ancient culture. We have folklores, myths and epics -- far more interesting than TV's current fodder.

We have a lot to offer, when we think about it. Why are we always looking out when we can look in? I present this as a challenge to our TV industry: make a drama series that would make me proud of being a Filipino. It's not so hard. Jose Rizal did it not too long ago.

Scatter Shot

2010-02-01T09:08:00.003+08:00

PROFESSOR: …What is meant by the “Neighborhood Rule?” Is it that you write only the first name of two candidates sharing the same name in the ballot and because you are neighbors with one then your vote is counted in his favor? I have this student who said that a “scatter-shot” warrant is one where the person is everywhere and you shoot him. Next time I’m going to photocopy answers like this. Is it a violation of his intellectual property rights? I know it’s not an intelligent right.

CLASS: (laughs)

PROFESSOR: Why are you laughing? Do you know what a “scatter-shot” is?

Grey Area

2010-01-31T09:07:00.000+08:00

PROFESSOR: Any questions? (long pause) Class, do you understand??
CLASS: Sir, it’s a grey area.