雲のむこう、約束の場所 also known as The Place Promised in Our Early Days (Kumo no Mukou, Yakusoku no Basho) is a brilliant animation film by Makoto Shinkai, who was also the creator of the highly-acclaimed anime short-film Voices of a Distant Star (Hoshi no Koe) which won several awards in Japan. Hoshi no Koe is a 25-minutes-long anime entirely created in 2D and 3D CG that he painstakingly did all by himself on his PowerMac G4, except for the background music, voice acting, and such. I didn’t know about this guy’s existence at all, but after watching Kumo no Mukou, I think he’s a very impressive story-writer, director and CG-artist. It’s not very often that an anime of this caliber comes along in my opinion. The artwork in it is very beautifully done and smooth, with nice scenary shots and excellent cinematography direction, coupled with a touching story-script and consistent flow of plot unfolding. One of those very few animes that impressed me in both artwork and story-line wise, and also urged me to buy the original DVD for it. Yes I admit I’m not really a big anime fan, I don’t follow the crowd and go for mainstream animes nor am I like those otaku friends of my who goes for almost any kind of animes. Truthfully speaking, the only animes that really hit me and got me hooked are probably Ghost in the Shell (OVA and TV), RahXephon and Initial-D. Very seldom does something like this come along that makes me do some reading up on its creator, searching for his past works, and making me order his DVDs of his works. Yes it’s really this good, so if you haven’t caught this anime yet, do yourself a favour, please watch it. Buy the DVDs. Support his works.

Honestly to say, I think the reason why the anime really impressed and touched me, was because of the theme and its values behind the story. Two teenagers, and a girl. A dream of building an aircraft, a promise to see what was the tower beyond the clouds. It doesn’t have a very fantasy setting behind the story, everything was actually pretty realistic, no overly-exaggerated storylines or characters with powers no-way one can see in today’s reality. Yet it has the moving elements, and the same magical effect that comes from the fairy tale of the sleeping beauty that so many of us are familiar with. Wonderful. You can download the trailer here, do leave some comments behind and let me know how you feel about it, and those of you who have my MSN, feel free to drop me a msg if you need the ‘alternative’ source to watch it first. ^ ^

So anyway, I had a long talk with Lydia tonight on MSN just now. It’s been awhile since we did such a long and faithful chat, though it’s more like I was lending a listening ear, while she vents her frustrations out. We did exchange some ideas abt the various issues though, and also got to know each other deeper, both in our thinking and dreams. I think it’s a pretty nice exchange we had there, though sometimes it kinda depressed me that we can only communicate in this way, even though she’s only up-north and a drive away. Promised to drop by and visit her later this year, since I think it would also do good for myself with a break after my exams, perhaps drag a friend or two along too, go JB and do some shopping or something.

On the other side, someone is still playing ‘cold war’ with me. Not that I can help it, I did all I can, she just doesn’t wanna compromise and sit down for a talk. So fine with me, if she can do things so non-chalantly, I guess I will leave it as that. Just wanna say I’m quite disappointed with her actions, really thought she’s matured enough to resolve things as an adult. I mean c’mon man, combine both of our ages together and we can be counted as almost half a decade years old liao, yet she still plays this kind of ‘cold war’ shit thing with me. *shakes head*

I might be very blunt on this issue here, and I might also offend someone with my remarks or comments on this entry. But seriously, nowadays it’s getting harder to find friends who share the same frequency with you as you grow older. Despite the good (harsh to them, cos reality is often harsh) advices you disperse to them, they don’t take it as constructive criticism from you, and might even think ya spouting bad about them. I mean c’mon, if you think because some people never criticise you or give you comments abt the way you do things, you can highly assume and think it’s perfectly and fuckingly alright the way you’re doing things, then I say please fucking wake up your idea and change yourself. There is a very fine line btw tolerating your attitude and temper, and accepting you for who you are. The tolerance and understanding that I give to my friends, is not to be taken for granted, all my friends will incur the wrath from me once they cross that very fine line. You have been in your own comfort zone for long enough, have you ever spared a thought for the friends you said you care for? Touch your heart and ask yourself.

With that, I shall end my entry for tonight with this: “A friendship’s promise ain’t meant to be broken, keep them well or you might just lose your friends someday.”