Now now, the future is definitely not flux. (pun intended)
Read on to find out why. (Warning: might contain spoilers)

(more…)

Ok I’m here blogging again. So freaking stressed, frustrated and bored, cause I just finished burning midnight oil for tonight, was busy the whole night mugging hard at my books with only my Sony NW-HD5 been my sole companion. I didn’t even touch or logon MSN today man, blame it on my laziness earlier on in the day, no mood to study or do anything, so just slack off and watch animes lor. *lol* So just now, earlier on in the evening after I had my dinner, decided to give a go at my NDS and continue with my Jump Super Stars, but oh boy, it was damn wrong mistake, cause it was seriously fun fun fun and I was totally sucked into it, and before I knew it, 3 hours just went passed like that. (._.'’)

But I really have to say this. Jump Super Stars for the Nintendo DS is seriously one of its own. Anyone who’s into anime or manga culture, even just abit, would love the playing experience in this brilliant game. This is just like the ultimate cross-over, in terms of any anime or manga-licensed game ever, it’s like heavenly karma or nirvana for any otaku-alike. This is also one of the more serious games for the DS platform to-date, compared to the current crop of innovative and yet weird games, like for example Nintendogs, or even one of my personal favs, Pac-pix. Gameplay-wise I guess I would categorise Jump Super Stars under the RPG-fighting genre, and the rewards system is pretty good. You get to unlock komas(read: manga strips) that form up like any other pages in any mangas, and when you match a koma with the right character, you get to unlock the manga characters most famously from the Shonen Jump history, be it whether it’s a support character, or a playable character. Heh, who knows probably after completing this game, I would be interested in watching some of the animes that the characters were in, pretty cool stuff yea.

(more…)

Oxygen is like Love. Without it, we might just lose that motivation, determination and confidence to accomplish stuffs or goals in our daily lives. Possibly the only awe-inspiring, astounding kind of spiritual force unexplained by science that grants you the strength to do things you would had deem impossible under normal circumstances, but possible before your very own eyes, with miraculous results. Though it seems so implausible and unimaginable, but tell me wouldn’t you agree with me, especially if you are one of those who have experienced before the power of love?

Love is something I cannot do without; in fact it is the very air that I breathe for without it my world collapses and everything ceases to function as it should. Love adds colors and variety to my life and makes everything all right for me; Love is undeniably addictive and I am a junkie to it.

For someone like me, who used to be so ardently devoted to my passion for gaming, has since shed this obsession aside. Ok I still play games, but just that my main piorities are replaced by my studies and probably music for now. Did I just say music? Please do not be mistaken that I was just referring to listening music, but actually talking about performing music. All along I have been a rookie with playing the acoustic guitar, but recently I seem to be expressing a greater interest in playing the piano as well as the electric guitar. Will definitely try to work out something after my exams. And since I already have a piano at home (my sis plays it most of the time), all the more easier for me to pick things up.

On to some random stuffs. Had a discussion with the usual peeps on MSN earlier on, we were contemplating on what stuffs to buy for Timothy’s birthday and also since he’s going back to Perth in Oct, all the more we should buy something to leave as a memorial for our friendship. So we were chatting here and there, sharing ideas and suggestions, and more or less has decided on what to get for him liao. But just in case he happens to read my blog, I shall keep everything under the hood in suspense, no clues on what we’re gonna get hehe. ^ ^;

On a side note, for those who haven’t been checking out local cinemas recently, Sekai No Chusin De, Ai Wo Sakebu ( 在世界中心呼唤爱 ) is showing now, applicable to Cathay theatres only. It’s based on the great selling Japanese novel of the same name and I actually already caught this show since last year. Before that I had already watched the jdrama series (1st picture for reference), and it was more heart-wrenching that the movie version (2nd picture for reference), reason been the jdrama series has actually more details closer to the original novel, and with a longer running time of 11 episodes + 1 special altogether it’s also able to fill in more details from the original novel. So while watching the movie version, though it does feel sad and touching, since I already knew abt the great story-plot and touching dialogues, the show was just mediocre to me. But I have to give credits that the movie has a very good soundtrack to go with as well as a great cast to complement the show, so if you haven’t watched it yet, please do yourself a favour and go catch it in the theatres now, and be sure to bring along a pack of tissue, you will definitely need it even if ya a guy. So that pretty much sums up my mini-review for the movie, a very note-worthy romance flick. If I haven’t caught the related jdrama series yet, this flick might have ranked on-top of my most favourite japanese movies of all time for a good period of time I believe. (Remember I’m a romance flick junkie?)

Ok time to sleep. Oyasumi Nasai. (I so wanna watch Ima, Ai Ni Yukimasu…)

Today, I’m gonna write two short movie reviews since I watched them recently. Let’s start with Azumi 2: Death or Love first. As usual we get to see the cast from the previous title like Aya Ueto, Shun Oguri, Yuma Ishigaki make a comeback, as well as some new faces like Chiaki Kuriyama and Ai Maeda. The film is fairly short, about one hour and thirty minutes in length, and it’s directed by Shusuke Kaneko this time, instead of the fanatic Ryuhei Kitamura (of Azumi 1, Versus fame) whose crazy shooting styles are something which I’ve come to love with. Action was pretty steady, nothing too crazy this time, no fanciful camera angles or shooting styles, in fact I would call it a pretty normal samurai versus ninja kind of flick, but it’s the characters involved around Azumi and of course Azumi herself too, that makes the story interesting and on-going. Though this time there’s actually quite an imminent and obvious factor that viewers would notice, that is we get to see the entanglement of emotional struggles and the more humane side of Azumi this time, as she finds her stuck in a perplexing confusion as she tries to uphold her responsibility, beliefs and her affections for the one she loves. My verdict? 3 out of 5 popcorns. Gonna love the characters development and plot in the movie, but the action department falls short of expectations. (so for this I believe Ryuhei Kitamura has an upper-hand in the action dept)

And then we have H2G2, which is shortform for The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, based on the books by Douglas Adams. A wholesome cast of british actors and actresses, no real familiar faces here. (at least to me) But they have a really cute robot called Marvin in it, and he’s uber cute I tell ya. Programmed and built around a technology called GPP which is also known as “Genuine People Personalities”. He has a informative brain that holds the size of a planet, but seldom gets the chance to use it. Severely depressed, he often procrastinates and whines about his problems, irritating the people around him. Interestingly, some people might recognise the VA cast for Marvin, he’s voiced by no other than Alan Rickman, notably famous for his VA cast in the Harry Potter movie series, as Professor Severus Snape. As for the story, it’s very fantasy-like, as were the fictional books it was based on. But I like how the movie conveyed the sensible and spastic messages about “Life” through the various quotes used, as well as the funny little moments, like vomitting strings, the claymen-like scene, and also how everyone looked upon ‘Deep Thought’ as the ultimate god, forty-two anyone? *laughs* And my verdict for it? 4.5 out of 5 popcorns I say. This is hilariously one of those light-hearted movies you would enjoy any day without too much complexity about the plot, just relax and enjoy the show, good for the laughs and characters in it.

Oh, and did I mention that I’m so damn glad that the air-con goodness is finally back? The air-con system at home broke down somewhere since May, and Dad finally arranged someone to come down to install the new air-con system today, Mitsubishi Electric Starmex series. Can’t believe that I actually lived without the air-con for one whole freaking month, and not to mention the weather was terribly hot these days. Feeling snugged I am, in contentment of solace I feel.

Gonna head down to SLS tomorrow to buy some stuffs for my sister’s PC, the stubborn old system refused to boot up even after I did some troubleshooting today. Freaking problematic piece of crap machine, which is actually not surprising considered that I reused the parts from my Athlon XP system DIYed back in 2001, so all these had to come sooner or later. Time to do an upgrade for it, hrms it’s gonna be a busy Sunday for me.

Can’t wait for next week. My precious baby my Sony NW-HD5 Network Walkman. Oh drown me in the goodness of mellowy music oh please.

I downloaded and watched this flick a few days ago, it’s based on an adaptation of the popular manga series by Go Nagai, whose works mainly drew rave criticisms though they were typically controversial, consisting of very violent and risque content. Sad to say, I haven’t really read any of his works, so I’m not really a fan or reader of him, even though I’m a manga fan myself. Nagai’s most famous work was Devilman, which was first released in 1972, then later produced and made into animated form. (1 TV series and 2 OVAs were made to my knowledge) The main protagonist is a young man called Akira Fudo, who has a shy personality with a kind heart, but was often bullied in school due to his kindness and the purity of his soul. But one day his fate was changed, when his world was invaded by demons. His good friend, Ryo Asuka convinces him that the only way to subdue the demons, is to join their minds and bodies to a demon’s, so that they can assimilate its powers and become devilmen themselves. Unwillingly, Akira’s fate was sealed when a demon bird called Amon awakens from its long sleep and Akira succeeds in acquiring the demon’s powers by possessing the body of it, and due to his purity of his soul, he was able to control the demon within him, instead of letting the demon’s soul overcome him, thus becoming Devilman, the union of Amon, the Lord of Darkness and Akira Fudo himself. This came as a surprise for Ryo Asuka, on the contrary he thought Akira wouldn’t be able to successfully control the demon, Amon within himself. The truth is Ryo is actually Satan’s incarnation, and all the sudden appearance of the demons are planned by him, he was the actual mastermind behind all these. Interesting story? And from what I read, the OVA animation are indeed very violent and bloody, rivalling to the likes of Berserk and Ninja Scroll. Hrms so do I recommend this movie? Yes, even if you’re not a manga fan of the series. Just watching for the CG alone for this movie flick is justified enough for me, this movie has some of the nicest CG effects I have ever seen in a movie, like the transformation of Akira into Devilman, and the intense post-apocalypse battle between Devilman (Akira) and Satan (Ryo) themselves. And how can I forget about oh-so-beautiful Ayana Sakai, who plays Akira’s love interest in the movie, as Miki Makimiura. She isn’t really a new actress, saw her back in the highly acclaimed flick Battle Royale 2 as well as in the tennis-related japanese drama series Ace Wo Nerae.

Hrms, on the other hand, I seem to have gotten out of the ‘Star Wars’ craze already. Not really crazy about the show anymore, I guess it’s also because there’s nothing more to look forward to, the saga has finally ended. Oh, so you were saying that I didn’t do a review for it? But I figured that if you really wanted to read reviews for it you wouldn’t had come to read my blog in the first place, and what’s more there are plenty of sites out there for you to read upon for the impressions for Episode 3: Revenge Of The Sith, am I right? Well all I can say is, it did lived up to my expectations, but I didn’t really liked the flow of the story as it is, and somehow it didn’t really felt like a two hours and twenty minutes show to me, I just couldn’t feel the flow or pace at all. (?!) (-_-)”’

Anyway, had a pretty boring Saturday. Was actually gonna meet Henry for coffee in town today since we haven’t like catch up for a long time, but he said he was gonna start on his new job this weekend, aww such concidence. It was only for weekends though, so I figured that asking him out during weekends is out I guess, promised to catch up with him some other day. Then yesterday night was asking Jimmy wanna go out and chill only, he tell me he’s broke, and just wants to go Gamescore to chill. *faints* And I was like, eh is Gamescore the only place we can hang out and chill, why do we always have to go there like every Saturday? (or precisely, why Sats!) Then I was like argh, you jolly well know the crowd there on weekends, and somemore during Sats there will be this particular guy I don’t wish to see there, and yet he wants to go there. (-_-)”’ So in the end I told him, can we like go other places, if not it’s out for me. Sorta got into a trival arguement with him because of that. But my point is, if you’re really broke, I can always offer to pay first, you can pay me back later. Everyone who knows me well, knows I do small monetary favours for my friends, regardless of his or her status and I don’t expect any returning favours either. (Eh Shaun if ya reading this, I’m sure you can vouch for me for this right?) But he, been the one giving the excuse that he’s plain broke, doesn’t want to go anywhere that needs to spend money on. So I was like fine, I told him I won’t force him, forsake the plans for going out then. (but inside of course I was like pissed off, like show me attitude liao, of course I’m pissed lah) Then later on when I cool down and think about it, I decided that perhaps he was really broke, and I should really be understanding about it. But I really don’t like to hang out at Gamescore for nothing, you know? It’s not like I really adore games now, I think other than touching my PSP and NDS occasionally, I haven’t been playing any games on my PC and PS2 lately, in fact it’s been a long time since I played any games on my home consoles.

But then, something hit me hard today that really left quite a bad impression in me, about him. Earlier on today, Val smsed and asked me if I was interested in watching Madagascar on Monday. I initially didn’t ask him who else was going, so I merely told him that I was interested, but do let me know the timeslot for the show first. Soon thereafter he confirmed with me that it would be an evening timeslot for the show, so I was ok for it and told him to count me in. Then just now a few hours ago, when Val chatted with me online in MSN and was telling me the time for the show, I casually just asked him who else was gonna join us for the show on Monday. When he mentioned that Jimmy was joining us, I was like stunned. But I didn’t ask him anything else further, cos it was just a trival matter. But deep inside me, I know I was hurt. So is that all lies or what? The matter of fact that you told me you were broke, and I believed you. Then now you pulled out this kind of stunt. So how do you expect me to trust you again, as a friend? (…)

I probably should just forget abt all this, forget about trustworthy friends, forget about everything. Everytime, some point in my life, I get to know this kind of stucked up people, who just spill excuses and lies to cover up for themselves, regardless of either at the expense of myself or anything else. And I’m totally sick of it. Really sick of it. But no, I won’t turn to the dark side or anything, because of this. I still have my girl buddy, I still have my friends whom I trust, who never failed me before. Having these people as my friends, are definitely good enough. I shouldn’t ask for too much, desires will only kill and push a person to his or her limits.

I believe I have a devil inside me, but I’m still within control of myself, just like Devilman. Good night everyone.

I will be catching the final episode of the Star Wars saga in less than 24 hours time. Finally the epic saga series of more than 20 years old finally comes to a conclusion, with this episode leading to Episode IV: A New Hope. And with loads of reviews already out for this movie, reviewers and critics have said that this episode which is titled Episode III: The Revenge Of The Sith truly delivers what every single Star Wars fans have been hoping and waiting for. So the hype is not built up for nothing, I certainly think that I will not be disappointed this time round (unlike in Episode I & II) , and will definitely be in for a good roller-coaster ride of my life. *elated*

And in case you were wondering, what was actually the course of actions and innovations that made George Lucas exposed his ingenious ideas and stories about the saga upon the big screen? It was actually about the entire Skywalker family. As we can see, Episode I to III is an insight into the roots of Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker. Because back in the earlier days of Episode IV, V and VI, everyone sees this cool dark-claded with black armour and helmet-mask guy, and keeps asking and wondering who is actually the guy behind that mask, why is he so mysterious and so powerful in terms of the force. That was the reason that prompted George Lucas to make Episode I to III back then, but due to the lack of technology power and insufficient funds he had to hold back his project plans. It was only in the late 90s then did he realised that technology has finally caught up and he was able to bring his long-awaited visions to life on the big screens with a touch of reality to it. (I read that it was the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park by Steven Spielberg that convinced him about the technology advances) That’s all I know, as a fan of Star Wars series though I don’t really deem myself very hardcore, but I really do love the whole Star Wars saga, back then as a kid and even now, as a young adult. I could still barely remember those nostalgic scenes back then when I watched Episode IV, V and VI, that was when I was still in my primary school days as a young child. The nostalgic images of both Darth Vader and Yoda still stays clearly in my mind back in my younger days, and I’m glad that Episode I, II and III are the answers to my doubts and curiosity to those questions that I had about the Star Wars saga when I was a kid. I also think that Episode III will be the most emotional episode out of the whole saga series, as I had already read some parts of the script of the movie. From what I had gathered, in this episode we will get to see how deep Anakin Skywalker will steep as his fear for Padme’s death in his nightmares realises, and the emotional confusion of his dilemma of being torn in-between the Jedi Order he belongs to and his confidante Palpatine/Darth Sidious, whom he tries to lure him towards the dark side of the force. And I can’t wait to see the lightsabre duel battles in this episode, it’s touted to have the most lightsabre battles in any episode of the Star Wars saga.

Before I end tonight’s entry, there’s this quote by Yoda , that I found it to be very true in terms of its meaning, and yet surprisingly shares a shockingly true resemblance of its entire meaning when applied to our daily lives. What a sad quote.

“Careful you must be when sensing the future. The fear of loss is a path to the dark side. Death is a natural part of life. Rejoice for those around you who transform into the Force. Mourn them, do not. Miss them, do not. Attachment leads to jealousy. The shadow of greed, that is. Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose.”
– Yoda

I recently went on a downloading spree, especially for animes and movies. Downloaded and watched this pretty japanese movie Casshern directed by Kazuaki Kiriya, which was also his debut film. Oh and I must mention this in case you didn’t know, he’s also the lucky husband/beau of Hikki, the great japanese-singer Utada Hikaru. Anyway my comments about this movie? From an anime/manga fanatic point of view, this movie rocks. Everything from the cinematography, sound and visual presentation, to the story’s main theme and characters involved in the story, just simply rocks. Though those of you Final Fantasy fans out there, might find that the movie’s main theme has quite some similarities akin to Square Picture’s own Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. Nevertheless this is one great movie inter-woven with fantastic CGI coupled with a great soundtrack and good story-plot. This movie will be coming to the local Cathay threatres (sorry GV is out) on the 25th this month and I won’t hesitate to watch it with my friends when it’s released here locally. Check out the official website here.

Oh well, so it has been raining for almost the whole day since afternoon, it kinda spoiled my plans for today. I just hope tomorrow will be a fine sunny day, cos I wanna go to the park for a nice long run. Long-distance jog helps me to distress, and also helps to push myself physically and mentally. I would also like to go back swimming soon, haven’t been swimming since I left NS. There’s so much things I wanna try too, like rock-climbing but due to my laziness I haven’t had the motivation to kick-start myself. Haha talk about determination.

Ok I’m outta here, going back to my escapism of movies and animes. Have a nice weekend ahead everyone!