Outrageously Repetitive
As always, this contains spoilers, read at your own risk.

New flick from Kitano, hell yeah! There's a lot to love in Outrage. First, Kitano is back at making yakuza films. How long has it been, you ask? 10 years! Last time Kitano made a yakuza film was back in 2000 when he released Aniki (brother). Why is this important? Well, what Kitano is to the Japanese cinema is like Martin Scorsese to the American cinema. He's most badass at making yakuza (Japanese equivalent of gangster) films. The only difference is, Kitano stars in all his films, because he's so fucking badass himself.

Second thing to love in Outrage: the cast. Starring along side Kitano we see actors like Shiina Kippei, Miura Tomokazu, Kohinata Fumiyo, Kunimura Jun, Sugimoto Tetta, and Ishibashi Renji. All veteran badasses, except for Kohinata, he's mostly been in comedic roles, and he's in Outrage for a little bit of comic relief.

Third thing to love is the violence. Man, there are scenes in this film that made me cringe and look away from the screen. If you are going to learn anything out of this film, it would be the variety of methods the yakuza can use to fucking kill you.

With that said, you could tell I was fucking psyched to watch Outrage. So how was the end product? Well, not so good I'm afraid. My first complain: not enough Kitano!!! I'm not talking about style, the film is very much Kitano-ish. I'm talking about Kitano's role. It just wasn't big enough. I like Kitano as a director but I love him as the actor. He has his own unique acting style and is always a joy to watch, whether he's playing a maniac teacher (Battle Royale) or a quiet blind swordsman (Zatoichi) or a filmmaker parody of himself (Glory to the Filmmaker). I expected him to be the big boss and kicking everybody's ass in Outrage, but he only did a little bit of ass kicking and was killed off in the most un-epic way possible. His character was so one dimensional and had zero development. The same can be said about every character in this film though. I guess it was hard to develop the characters with such a huge cast.

With characters having no depths, naturally there's not much for the actors to work with. So the performance was very average. I expected highly for this group. It was a shame for this cast not to shine in a film like this. There was  a bright spot though. Shiina Kippei's role wasn't big, but he made the most out of it. He was intimidating, scary, and funny at times. His character had different layers and I wish he was in it more.

The biggest downfall of Outrage though, was the paper thin story. It went like this: talk about killing, kill, talk about killing some more, kill again, repeat till all major characters die off, end. After the first hour, the film became so repetitive it was frustrating. It didn't even build up to an epic end fight. Everybody just died, no one put up a fight. And the ending? So predictable even my mom saw it coming and she wasn't paying much attention throughout the film.

Overall, Outrage was a huge disappointment. Even though there was some action, but it wasn't enough to make the film badass. The cast's mediocre performance and the lack of character developments also hurt this film a lot. Well, I guess great filmmakers have their off days once in a while.

Here's a trailer for Outrage

A lot of yelling in there, typical yakuza.

i just finished watching the live adaptation of crows zero, good stuff from miike takashi. watching these two films reminds me of my junior high school days back in china: gang fights between my school and the rival. i was never involved in the gangs but i heard stories and saw people i knew getting badly injured and missing school. yup, my academic standing was not good and i got into a ghetto school. good times.

anyway, back to the films. the action is pretty good and the two films are very stylish (great cinematography), that's expected of miike takashi. on top of that there's a great theme song. the cast turn in fine performances and i like the two lead actors very much. especially yamada takayuki, i think he's quite versatile. his other memorable role was the anime nerd from densha otaku. but in crows zero he plays a badass/kickass young gangster. two extreme opposite characters and he mastered them.

the two films are very badass from start to finish, but there are some funny moments squeezed in there. i love the character makise. he's a tough and scary guy but whenever around girls he's extremely goofy and nervous. the two scenes involving him trying to make a move on the girl he likes are laugh-out-loud funny.

even though i love takashi miike's work, i do have some complains. the story is quite paper thin and predictable. new guy comes to the school, he wants to be on top. so he fights, fights, and fights one tough guy after another. and then the fights expand to the rival school, enemies become comrades and unite to fight a bigger enemy. and then, the end. the first film works pretty well as we were introduced to all these awesome characters but the second film becomes extremely uninteresting because there is nothing new to offer. the biggest fault is the non-existence of character development in the second film.

so overall, great fights, great visuals, and a good introduction, but the finish is just mediocre. miike, you can do better.

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Recap_of_my_favorite_April_Foo.zip (2.99 MB)

1. Bieber or Die - Justin Bieber buys Funny or Die.
2. MOO - Limited edition business cards, back on the front, front on the back.
3. Ben and Jerry's - First virtual ice cream, or Ice Screen™.
4. Tuts Plus - Launching GIFtuts+.
5. Google App - Translate animals.
6. Groupoupon - An exclusive, invitation-only premium marketplace designed to enhance your status.
7. Youtube - View all videos in texts.
8. Hulu - For Internal Use Only.
9. College Humor - The website you were trying to access, www.collegehumor.com, is currently under investigation for harboring un-American sentiment and will remain offline until an official review can be conducted.
10. Emcee Hao - Um, yes. That single was fake. It's actually a demo song from "my little airport" called When the Party is Over, I Miss My Pornstar.

There you have it, my favs from AFD. Hope you caught them all.

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top_15_andy_lau_songs_of_the_d.zip (1.6 MB)

a decade has passed us by and now i must slowly give out the "best of the decade" lists. first up, andy lau, the best singer in the world. i will give my thoughts on his best 15 songs of decade (i'd do 10 but he just had too many hits, 10 won't do him justice). here's the list

15. 當我遇上你
"When I Met You" from the album "Blue Heart" and the theme song for one of Andy's best movies "A Fighter's Blue". 2000. It's an epic slow rock song. Perfect for the movie. Andy's performance was great in both the song and the movie. Very expressive. Brings out the sorrow of the story.

14. 我不夠愛你
"I Don't Love You Enough" from the album "A Man's Love". 2000. A typical Andy Lau love song, also a duet with Kelly Chen. This song has reached legendary status. A must for any karaoke occasions, no matter if you are an Andy fan or not.

13. 無間道
"Infernal Affairs" from the second best movie of the decade...you guessed it, "Infernal Affairs". 2002. A duet with Tony Leung, Andy's co-star in the movie. A great song fits a great movie with great actors.

12. 練習
"Getting Used to It" from the album "Beautiful Day". 2002. Another Andy Lau love song. Touching lyrics and great melody. "Getting used to a world without you, slowly" is probably the best line in the lyrics.

11. 只想抱抱
"Wanna Hug" from the album "Wonderful World". 2007. Also the theme song for Daodi Green Tea's commercials. Light and easy to the ears. Very soothing melody.

DUN DUN DUN...drum rolls..."Here come top 10!"

10. 未到傷心處
"Not Yet Heartbroken" from the album "Love, Hope". 2009. After a couple Cantonese albums without much love songs, Andy returns to his old formula for success, but without the cheese. This song is very well written lyrics-wise and melody-wise. Andy's aged voice also adds to it, giving the song more feelings.

9. 牧笛
"Shepherd's Flute" from the album "Wonderful World". 2007. It talks about the tragic Chinese folklore about a goddess and a shepherd separated by a milky way. A love between a mortal and an immortal. Such a great song. The animation for the music video is very cool, too!

8. 天比高
"Higher than the Sky" from the album "Best of My Love". 2005. No, this is not a love song. It's a high energy rock song that's about living strong. This song opened the 2007 Wonderful World Concert. Andy sang while playing with electric shockwave. It was quite a sight.

7. 將自己給你
"For You" from the album "Just For You". 2000. The first ever theme song for Daodi Green Tea. A simple song with very nice accoustic. I'd drink those green tea too, after hearing this.

6. 月老
"Match Maker" from the album "If There's a Day...". 2003. Another great love song here.

5. 如果我有事
"If Something Happens to Me" from the album "Coffee or Tea" and movie "Yesterday Once More". 2004. This tragic love song fits perfectly with a movie about...well, something tragic. I wouldn't spoil the movie for you. It's pretty good. Go check it out. When the credits rolled and this song played, it brought tears to my eyes.

4. 心照
"Deep in my Heart" from the album "Voice". 2006. A song about friendship. Nicely composed with piano and guitar. Andy's singing was superb for this song.

3. 鴿子情緣
"Love Doves" from the album "Summer Fiesta". 2001. This song was composed with traditional Chinese musical instruments. It's quite a treat to listen to.

2. 按摩女郎
"Massage Girl" from the album "Coffee or Tea". 2004. Ha, this is my favorite song to sing. It's about a guy's affection for a massage girl, hehe. It's not meant to be dirty but I like it for the wrong reason. :P

And now, for the greatest Andy Lau song EVER...this decade. You probably guessed it. YES, it's this one!

1. 繼續談情
"Continue to Love" from the album "Best of My Love". 2005. This is such a beautiful song! And yes, again, this song is about a tragic love story. A Romeo and Juliet kind of story from ancient China. The chorus of the song uses the lines from a famous poem about the legendary tale. So touching, so beautiful. Andy captured it perfectly.

And there you have it. Andy Lau's best 15 of the decade. I'll leave you with the music video for the NO.1 song:

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yatterman_kyoko_fukada_tags_tv.zip (2.17 MB)

Yatterman

so i watched takashi miike's adaptation of yatterman today. is it good? hmm, hard to say. is it bad? well, that depends on your tolerance for wackiness. for me, i had a lot of fun watching it. the story goes like any other japanese super hero tv shows, the main character is an ordinary dude that transforms into a super hero by means of a ridiculous leather/latex suit. he also has a giant robot as a backup/sidekick. and the same idiotic villains will show up again and again after the hero beats them time after time. yup, sounds quite similar to power rangers.

so is this movie for the kiddies? well, i just hope the parents didn't bring their kids to the theater thinking that. there are so many perveted jokes in this movie. takashi miike must be poppin so much viagra when he directed this. it's not "kevin smith" kinda raunchy but for something like this it's a bit too much. there's a scene where one giant robot gets turned on by another and they started making out. it's just sooooooooooooooo wrong but funny that i couldn't look away. it's all good tho because ridiculousness is what made this movie enjoyable. takashi miike pays big tribute to the original series (an anime from the 70s) and also manages to make fun of the super hero genre. fans will be happy and non-fans will giggle at the parodies.

another awesome thing about the movie is the casting of the ever lovely kyoko fukada as the villain doronjo. and holyshit, this is the most gorgeous and sexy she's ever been. i drooled at every scene she's in. her villain outfit is just amazing (see above pic).

i had great fun watching yatterman and you should check it out, but your enjoyment will depend on your tolerance for wacky perverted japanese comedy. :P

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Murderer

OMG OMG OMG, i can't believe how funny this movie was! BUT it wasn't supposed to be funny. this movie really had potential, award winning actor, award winning crew, can't go wrong, right? well, let me start by saying that it has the most shocking opening scene in a movie this year. it seriously gave me a jump and made me cringe. also the production is good, the cinematography is great, the soundtrack is beautiful, and the main guy aaron kwok probably deserves another nomination in any film awards if the movie didn't SUCK!

seriously though, the first half of this movie is really good. it is suspenseful with some decent jump scenes and aaron's crazy acting (in a good way). then the second half just throws everything away. it reveals the plot twist and THAT is 1000x more shocking than the opening scene, just not in a good way. it was soooo terrible! the writers of this movie must think whoever watches it are fucking retards. how could they write something so ridiculous, so unbelievable, so unrealistic? it's like they are saying to the audience "hey the first half got you thinking this is a serious movie, right? well, you just got punk'd!" see the above picture with the little kid? ****SPOILERS****what's his deal? he's supposed to be 40 years old. he has a disease that causes him to never grow up/old. he disguises as a little kid and somehow gets himself adopted by aaron. he has a grudge against aaron so he frames him for a series of murders. the movie seriously lost any credibility after this shocking reveal. and for a good 10 minutes, the audience has to listen to this kid talk about how he laid out his perfect revenge. i mean, the kid can't even pronounce half of the the words correctly. how can anyone take him seriously? it was so painful to watch.****SPOILERS****

after the twist is revealed, aaron's acting goes into overdrive, his character goes insane. but everything at this point just becomes comical. too bad for him. i have to say though, that scene of him running through a tunnel with a electric screwdriver in his hand is pretty awesome (see the above pic). similar to christian bale running down the hallway with a chainsaw in american psycho. i predict this movie will become a cult classic somehow, just for all the wrong reasons. this movie defines unintentional humor.

ah, what rare gem this film is! the main cast is made up of some well known actors from japan and china. i love collaboration like this. this is the second rom-com i watched this weekend, i'm a sucker for good rom-coms. the story involves a famous japanese makeup artist mizushima getting lost in shanghai and meeting up with a pretty taxi driver by chance. of course, the taxi driver cannot recognize this famous person even though she knows of such celebrity. the two don't understand each other because of the language barrier. she doesn't want to leave him on the street and he seems to be amused by her behaviors, the two are stuck with each other for the night. as the night goes on, they learn more about each other and start to enjoy each other's company. meanwhile, mizushima's people were looking for him the whole night.

the two leads motoki masahiro and zhao wei turned in decent performance and had quite good chemistry together. the supporting cast is also good, rounding up the side stories nicely. namely sam lee and takenaka naoto. it cracked me up whenever sam lee spoke japanese. his mandarin is pretty bad and i can't imagine his japanese being any better. the way he talked and his expressions were quite comical. takenaka naoto is the other comic relief. it was funny to see him imitate bruce lee and try to impress a pretty police woman all night. the ending is pretty unusual, it does not show the characters getting together, it doesn't even hint in one direction or the other. the last line of the film said by the female lead is very vague. it's interesting and it keeps me wondering.

another good thing about the film is the soundtrack. it's mucho beautiful! here is a song from it for your enjoyment:

My Fair Gentleman 窈窕绅士

just finished watch this film today. i have heard of sun hong lei 孙红雷, knowing he's one of the best actors from mainland china. this is the first time i've seen his movie. it looks like an average rom-com standard commercial film, probably not the best film to start if i was to know what talents this guy has. BUT i was wrong! sure it's got all the standard rom-com storyline and cliches but his performance really saved it. sun was very effective at carrying comic reliefs throughout the whole film. his line delivery was great and his expressions/emotions were perfect in every scene. he single handedly elevated this formulaic rom-com to something quite special and entertaining to watch. i laughed so much from beginning to end.

the story goes like this, sun plays a really rich guy in shanghai but he has terrible manners. he wanted to pursue the girl of his dreams, a famous super model. even with so much money, there's no way he'll get the girl because of his manners. he's loud, rude, and very ignorant. he knows he has no chance after an incident with the super model at a party. he met an advertising guru one day who was trying to pitch her ideas to rebrand his business. he gets hooked on the idea of "style over substance", if the products are packaged and advertised well enough, they'll sell no matter of quality. so he accepted the deal but under one condition: he wants to be rebranded FIRST. the transformation begins and hilarity ensures.

the advertising guru is played by the gorgeous (surprise surprise) kelly lin and her performance is up to par with sun. the two makes the cutest pairing in chinese films this year. i'm sure everyone knows how the film would end but the acting really made this one of the better chinese films this year. here's the trailer for your viewing pleasure:

it's sunday and i had a marathon of japanese movies, three of which has Ayase Haruka and two of which has Abe Hiroshi!!! :)

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Hero
Kimura Takuya and the gang (featuring Abe Hiroshi) are back for a featured length movie! It has all the good stuff that the tv series possessed. Fun at times and touching at times. And finally, a kiss between Kimura Takuya and Takako Matsu's characters!!! Such a sweeeeet ending. It holds up as a movie on its own but extra enjoyment will be had if you watched the tv series and the special beforehand.

Cyborg Girl
Hero had a small cameo by Ayase Haruka, but Cyborg Girl is all her! I laughed a lot during the first 2/3 of the film, it was very quirky and cute with a Terminator-like storyline. And I was mesmerized by Haruka's performance. The last 1/3 of the film gets more dramatic and lovey dovey, and it wasn't as effective. Overall, it's a very entertaining movie that I wouldn't mind watching it over and over again. Did I mention there's time traveling involved? Oh yes, I'm a sucker for time travel theme.

Ichi
This movie has been getting some promotion in the US lately and it's playing in selected theaters. It's a little more dramatic than I thought it was gonna be, and way less action than I expected. This is a new take on the legendary character Zatoichi, Haruka had to fill some big shoes, not only because the character is legendary but also it has always been played by a male. She did an OK job, I felt her acting was a bit wooden. As for other actors in the film, the male lead Takao Ôsawa simply just cashed in, not good but not bad. And then "overacting" would be the word to describe the rest. I have to say I was quite disappointed when the credits rolled. A female Zatoichi is a surprise but the film is a bore.

Glorious Team Batista
Oh boy, have I mentioned Abe Hiroshi is one of my favorite actors of all time? No? Well, I'm telling you now! This guy is simply amazing. Comedy, drama, action...he can do it all. It's rare to find such a versatile actor nowadays. OK, about this film, it's a medical film with a suspense/mystery twist. For a film about open heart surgery, it didn't have a lot of scenes that would make me cringe. I did turn away once or twice though. I have always enjoyed watching Takeuchi Yuko in films and she did a pretty good job in this as well. Abe Hiroshi did not appear until about 30 minutes into the film, Yuko held up pretty well on her own during that time. Once Abe Hiroshi steps in, the film goes from "meh" to "kinda awesome". His performance is so amusing, even in a serious film. He provided comic relief but was also quite effective when it was time to get serious. Too bad he did not have enough screen time to bring this film up a notch. It still ended up being mediocre.

Finally finished the 8-episode series Mr. Brain starring Takuya Kimura. What an entertaining show! Takuya is playing a similar character as in Hero, a weirdo who's extremely smart and solves crime in nontraditional ways. He's a neuroscientist working in the Institute of Police Science. He helps the police to solve tough cases. The detective who's always looking for help is played by Teruyuki Kagawa. He added a lot of humor to the show. The show is a mixbag of other shows, Trick, Galileo, and 24 to name a few. Somehow everything blends together and makes the show very fun to watch. There's a nice balance of comedy, drama, and suspense. Best of all, you get to know many things about the brain that you didn't know before. A cool thing about this show is, there is guest appearance in every episode. BUT that's also the weakness of the show. Because every time you recognize a famous face, you instantly know that's the villain. Some episodes are very predictable. Even so, they still managed to work out some twists and suspense. The best cameo is probably by Gackt in the second episode. He played a psycho killer who eats his victims. His performance is quite disturbing. In one scene, he ate his own finger!!! Overall, great show. Best of 09? Maybe, it's up there.