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 (3060 KB)

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 (1636 KB)

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 (2221 KB)

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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hilariously_serious_warning_sp.zip (366 KB)

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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J-cinema_Sunday.zip (413 KB)

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.

               

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long_weekend_long_list_of_movi.zip (869 KB)

The Good, The Bad, and The Weird
As stated in my last post, awesome.

Suspect X (Galileo movie special)
Galileo is a Japanese detective show. Very fun to watch and I loved the chemistry between the two leads (a handsome scientist played by Masaharu Fukuyama and a dumb but pretty rookie female detective played by Kou Shibasaki). Suspect X is a feature length film and a continuation of the TV series. I've waited for so long to see this but I have to say I'm feeling disappointed after seeing it. Don't get me wrong, this is still a very decent movie. BUT this could have been any movie, it does not need the connection to the TV series. What I mean is, this is not a good entry into Galileo. My biggest complain is that the chemistry between the leads is not there anymore, probably due to a large portion of the screen time went to the villain. I can understand why, because the villain is played Shinichi Tsutsumi, who is one of Japan's best actors, any movie with him is guaranteed quality. His solid performance not only upstaged the main characters but also took away the screen time to develop the two's relationship. The TV series was such a cliff hanger not showing the two confess their love to each other. Their love/hate relationship was so much fun to watch but the movie does not even mention any of it. The movie also had a really long run time and it certainly dragged. So......this is a good film but fails to give what the fans what.

20th Century Boy 2: The Last Hope
The second entry into the live action adaptation of the manga 20th Century Boys. Much like the first chapter, this is an entertaining movie with a HUGE cast featuring some of Japan's top actors/actresses. A good balance of action, comedy, and suspense plus an amazing story (a bit geeky but amazing nonetheless) make this movie franchise one of the best in recent years. I can't wait for the final chapter.

Reincarnation
Creepy Japanese horror flick with a unexpected twist in the end. M. Night should learn from this. A must watch for any horror fans out there.

Run Papa Run
A triad film with a different point of view. When the triad boss married and had a baby girl, everything changed. A great coming of age story starring Hong Kong's ever entertaining (and tan) Louis Koo. Go watch it for yourself.

Sniper
Awesome action flick from Dante Lam. Cop drama with tons of great shooting scenes. Don't miss this.

Fatal Move
Lamest movie I've seen in a while. Big cast, lots of talents wasted in this 2 hour long shit show. The final fight is worth watching but you wouldn't want to find out the lame excuse they came up with that leads to the fight. I mean, COME ON! Skip this if you can.

Founding of a Republic
Big budget commie film celebrating 60 years of People's Republic of China. Very educational and fun to watch. Also brings out the patriotism inside me. Besides the main cast, it features some of China's biggest names in showbiz in one-minute-or-less cameos including Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Zhang Ziyi, Chen Kaige, and the forever young ANDY LAU.