The Sore Feet Post

Both movies (see post below) i watched today sucked. Tenacious D was amusing for the first 15mins before it started to get really really lame and unfunny. And watching Kyle Gass and Jack Black baring their bottoms wasn't exactly a pretty sight. The songs were shitty as well. "Greatest Movie Of All Time" my ass.

Ju-On 2 was as bad as part 1. Even D.Law was wondering why no one wanted to run away from Kayako instead of just backing into a corner and crying/screaming. And please learn to turn on the lights when entering a spooky house or room. The scriptwriter has got to come up with more believeable human reactions to the scenario. As such the only thing that's scary is how dumb everyone in the movie is. And Ju-On's poster child Toshio irritates the shit. I wonder what's supposed to be scary about a over-powdered kid who makes irritating sounds for no rhyme or reason. He sounds like any young children i know. At least float around or do a 360 head rotation so that people will know you are supposed to be a ghost.

You can tell how much Toshio's mother loves him by the amount of baby powder she applies before he goes out haunting.

Dinner at Cafe Cartel with Alex (finished a Crispy Combo meant for 3 people) and we went for a walk around BP to digest the food and talked about our favourite Mushishi episodes (among other things). I'm surprised i forgot to tell him about the live action Mushishi movie that's coming out in March. However from comments that i've read about the initial screening at a film festival i think i shouldn't get my hopes up for the movie.

Joe Odagiri as Ginko.

Aoi Yuu as Tanyuu(from episode 20).

Anyway the stories that look to be covered (from the pictures) in the movie are Episode 3 "Tender Horns", Episode 7 "The Rain Falls, A Rainbow Forms" , Episode 12 "The One-Eyed Fish" and Episode 20 "A Sea of Brushes" from the anime. There might be more that are not revealed. I passed the entire anime series to Ee Wei and Gavin last time but i wonder if they have watched any of the episodes. I think i wasted 2 DVD-Rs.

Bought/borrowed the following shows in preparation for next week at work: "Way of Blue Sky", "Yamato", "About Love", "Umizaru" and "Umizaru 2: Test Of Trust (or Limit of Love)".

As Good As It Gets

Rode to camp today (new record of 36mins to camp!), took a bath and spent half an hour cleaning my bicycle. Opened up my PSP and dusted the insides as well. Went to the waiting area and watched 'Fearless' before going for lunch (Western thursday!) and then took a 45min nap before wiping my bicycle again. Movie for the afternoon slot was 'There's something about Mary'. I have never felt so ORDish till today. And of course the best part is the guilt of doing nothing at work is starting to fade away! I can hear SAF singing, "Na-na-na-na, Na-na-na-na, Hey Hey, Good bye!" already.

(Tomorrow, Movies@DMS will be screening, "Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny" and "Ju-On 2". Have to get more movies to entertain myself next week over the weekend.)

The CNY post that has almost nothing to do with CNY

As previously posted i went to rent 3 movies 'starring' Ichikawa Yui. I added ' ' because after watching the first of the 3, Ju-On: The Grudge, i have to say that she's more of an extra than a star of the show (a very hot extra if i might add). Not to be acting brave or anything, but i didn't find Ju-on scary at all. I like how my heart would jump when i got scared while playing the Fatal Frame (my favourite being FF 2) games but i didn't have any of that feeling throughout the show. As for the plot..well, what plot? To sum it in an equation, CURSE => DEATH. The movie just tells how everyone eventually kicks the bucket after being involved with the curse and being spooked by Kayako (woman with long dry hair, presumably drier than mine) and that irritating powdery kid. I was scratching my head at the end sequence wondering whether i missed some important twist or plot point somwhere but then i read online that that's all there it is to it. There's no point cracking my brain trying to find a deeper meaning into the show. The intention is just to entertain (good looking female cast) and frighten (failed miserably) the viewer. So plot wise and scares wise this movie was really disappointing. The only thing that made it interesting was how each character's mini-story intertwined with each other, with the chronological sequence of their meetings also jumbled up (a la Pulp Fiction). Interesting to follow the links between each chapter but ultimately pointless. Read that Ichikawa Yui has a bigger role in Ju-On 2 so i 'm hoping that will keep me entertained tomorrow night.

More like a 5 minute cameo than a real role.

Saw this picture (see below) of Zhang Ziyi from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (which i'm going to rent after i return this batch of movies) and the first thing that came to mind was that she looks perfect to play the part of Ling Xiaoyu if ever a Tekken Liveaction movie is to be filmed. Granted that she's 28 years old while Xiaoyu is supposed to be an 18 years old schoolgirl, but Ziyi probably has the martial art background to pull the role off as well. All this is SUPPOSING a Tekken movie is to be shot. Just thought i'd offer my 5 cents on casting so that a Tekken Liveaction movie doesn't end up like the DOA movie. Movies like Fearless had fighters of different nationalities (speaking in their own language) coming together so why can't a fighting game to movie do the same?

Zhang Ziyi prepares to go into the Rain Dance Stance.

Since we're on the subject of movies, just want to highlight this article here, stating that Kojima will be producing a Metal Gear Solid movie! Can't help but be excited about this cause MGS is my all-time favourite video game series. Just hope that the essense of MGS won't be lost in the leap to the big screen, but with Kojima involved i doubt fans will be disappointed with the outcome. And to quote another source, "Sony Pictures' vice chairman Yair Landau announced the company is working on a movie version of Konami's Metal Gear Solid. In addition, Sony Pictures is also looking into a possible movie version of EverQuest." Glad to see that there will be more MGS even after this year's MGS4 which will conclude the series.

Went through the formality of house visiting today and i have to say i feel bad taking Hong Baos from people i don't know or remember. What can you expect if i only see some people once a year? I doubt most of them know who i am as well. The comment going around was that Brandon looks like Takeshi Kaneshiro (as you can see i have alot of blind relatives) with his long hair and i look very si wen (a polite way of saying i look bland or just bleah). Whatever. Anyway i'm already thinking which of the items on my wishlist i will be getting with my CNY money. Probably the Wii since i already pre-ordered it from Funz Centre. (~$400+). Oh, and Happy Chinese New Year to all! May the money we collect this CNY be more than our NSF monthly allowance!

Futureal

Just returned from a leisure ride with Alex. Lent Alex my MTB with a gel pad overlaid on the most comfortable seat in my house, but he still complained of groin (and back) pain. Can't blame him. Used to get that when i started riding after a long lay-off. Travelled through Mandai Road down to Upper Thomson Road and had supper (2 kosong, 1 kopi cino for me) at the Roti Prata House before heading down through Macritchie Reservoir and back down to Upper Bukit Timah Road to my house. Distance (as estimated by Brandon) was about 40+km. Quite impressed that he managed to cover such distance on a first ride. But he still can't beat Sufian's legendary cycling journey from Marsiling to my house to Changi Village..on a BMX.

I felt the pace that we did tonight was the sort of speed i would probably aim for when bike-touring Japan. 1 day cycling to a youth hostel, 1 day sight-seeing and vice-versa (something like guard-duty rotation). Ya i decided to plan a cycling trip through the whole of Japan instead of backpacking. Why? Cause i think it will be more meaningful and fun to do something like this before i start my working life. It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that i don't want to miss while i'm still young. Been looking through this site to see some of the routes that i can take through the middle of Japan. Plan A would be to cycle through the middle, sent my bike back to Singapore and then backpack all the way back to my starting point down the coast this time. Plan B would be for me to chiong for my driving license, convert it to an international license, bring my bike over and rent a car and cycle around while driving from point to point. Easier said than done cause i haven't even taken my Basic Theory.

Anyway at this point i'm still very early in the planning stage. Will probably find some detailed maps, hostel information on the route, modify my MTB for touring and pick up my PSP GPS attachment (arrived 2 days ago!) and test it out etc. Have to really plan as i get closer to ORD if i want to make this trip possible. For the time being all i've bought is a bicycle rack attachment (centre and 2 side panels) to mount my luggage. Alex suggested that i blog on the way through Japan via my PSP (built-in Internet Browser) and take pictures via my PSP camera as i cycle through for a day by day update progress as i cycle. Oh yes, if anyone is interested (and available) to go through this tour with me please let me know. Plan to leave after July and be back before or during November (wintertime). Would love to see snow before i return.

Found this mini-series that Erika Toda also acts in titled "Division 1 Stage 8". Only 4 episodes in the series but too bad that there's no subtitles available. Airing date was 2004 so Erika was only 16 in the show. Have to say that she looks better as she gets older but she is still uber cute nonetheless in the show (after i skimmed through all 4 eps). Also starring with her are Horikita Maki (Nobuta in "Nobuta wo Produce"), Nakamura Ruria (some extra in "Attack No. 1" and the ugliest of the four) and Tokunaga Eri (same talent agency as Erika, never seen any of her other shows before). Hope someone releases some subs soon (though i doubt it cause it's a 2004 series) cause i can't understand shit on what the show is about, or maybe i'm just too distracted by Erika in a high school uniform.

Pretty. And cute. Or just pretty cute.

(L to R): Eri, Erika, Ruria and Maki.

PS: Ee Wei probably didn't realise this but Ichikawa Yui's birthday passed last Saturday. I noticed it last week but forgot to remind him about it. Saw "Siren" the movie in VideoEzy the other day. Will borrow it during the weekend to see how she acted in it. (Quote from Geek.com, "Its main star is the lead actress Ichikawa Yui, who is most noted for her roles in two of the "Ju-on: The Grudge" films.") Haven't seen either Ju-on so will try to find it as well.