Mini-Movie-Marathon

I'm quite speechless how Ming Wei can continually liken this pic of Miyazaki Aoi to Ee Wei. Somehow or rather he managed to psycho Wee Kim to think so too but thankfully Wee Kim turned to the light after watching Aoi in "Nana". The most obvious difference is of course, Aoi is outrageously cute while to describe Ee Wei as 'cute' is like hacking a flea with a chainsaw...pure overkill. Unless Ming Wei somehow thinks that Ee Wei is kind of cute, then it would make some sort of sense..in a very brokeback kind of way. Brrr.. i think i better not board my mind on that train on thought for the sake of my sanity in branch.

Went on a mini movie marathon this past 2 days (as in half-a-half-marathon). First show i watched was Forbidden Siren 2 nights ago (VCD from VideoEZY). Wouldn't mind collecting this movie if i find it on DVD.

Movie Pros: Short movie (87mins), good pacing, made me jump more than Ju-On, nice plot twist at the end, Ichikawa Yui in a starring role, no noisy children like in Ju-on (cause the kid is dumb)
Movie Cons: Lots of Siren 2 references that are not explored/explained further, almost nothing to do with the game in fact except the island name and the siren, Ichikawa Yui tying back her hair to reveal her elfen ears, poor CG (see last scene)
Rating: 7.5/10

Watched 2 movies with Alex and my dad yesterday at West Mall and then Lot 1. Eng Wah tickets on PH cost $9.50 while Shaw cost $8.50. But i did find the screens at EW to be slightly clearer. First of yesterday double header was Ghost Rider.

Movie Pros: Movie started on time at 1710hrs.
Movie Cons: Plot (or lack of it), climax (lack of it), insanely pathetic villains (full of them); the demons most potent power is to darken/brighten up lamps and candles (i'm not kidding), draggy pacing, ridiculously overpowered protagonist (Pennace Stare -> GAME OVER), lame dialogue, the longest boss battle probably lasted as long as you took to read this paragraph, Blackheart not transforming to his winged form, Mephisto being threatened and cowering away from his own creation, Eva Mendes.

Rating: 1/10

Even the Ghost Rider game on my PSP has better plot than this show. And cooler boss battles. This just overtook 'Daredevil' on the bottom of my Marvel movie adaptations.

Last show of the day was "Just Follow Law", a Jack Neo film. Seems that every new year we get one movie from Mr Neo. The worst i've seen was "I do, I do" because of Sharon Au (note to Miss Au, asking for your autograph doesn't make me a 'fan') but generally i enjoy our local comedies. This was no exception. Singapore (Movie) Boleh!

Movie Pros: Fann Wong gropes her own breasts many times, satirical accurate potrait of office life (CC: Cover Ca-chng, BCC: Better Cover Ca-chng), made me laugh out loud more than a couple of times (esp. the chinese exorcist scene, "You want to up-size?")

Movie Cons: Fann Wong has not much breast to speak of (or to grope for that matter), Fann still needs to improve on her English (but still a fantastic improvement from last time), Jack Neo in another unfunny cameo (this time as a Doctor), the accident CG was so fake, not a show i would rewatch again (but enjoyable 1 time through)

Rating: 7/10

And concluding my movie marathon i watched 'Siren' and 'Nana' again today in camp while doing (unproductive) office work. I think everyone found Siren to be quite interesting as well. But i don't know why people keep asking me to tell them what is going to happen in the movie. Just watch the show finish first then discuss later la! Just because you want to know what is going to happen doesn't mean that those around want their movie to be spoiled as well, especially if they are not asking any questions. And it's not like the movie is going to stop playing half-way before the plot is revealed. For the record, i can't stand having any movie that i plan to watch/am watching to be spoiled. I think that rules out watching Saw III for me cause i overheard most of the plot (twist) already. But the worst case of spoilers was when we were watching "Shutter" on a LST, Kiat kept telling us "eh, the next part is very scary" and Matthew was like, "ooh, i can't watch this next scene!". Really, thanks for nothing... But 'Shutter' still managed to be quite scary even with the 2 spoileroos.

Saw this Death Note 1 and 2 movie box-set on YesAsia.com. Really hope they have a local release with English subtitles as well cause i would love to buy this DVD (Erika Toda as MisaMisa!). Some interesting Erika Sawajiri movies as well, .this and .this and .this movie starring Takeuchi Yuko that i wouldn't mind collecting as well.

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.