Newer Stuff

Don't worry, I'm still alive!

I've been busy as hell with school and various things, so I haven't been watching many movies lately. This is a good week to watch something, however, so I may get to see something within this week or the next.

While on hiatus from watching movies, I've been relegated to watching anime. It's cool since anime works on a shorter format (30 minutes) and a longer span - between 13 and 26 epsodes, if not more - and there have been some interesting series coming out in the past few weeks. Once I get through all of them (Christmas? Next year?) I'll tell you all about them.

Speaking of that, if you're an otaku living in the Philippines and have cable, it's a travesty not to have Animax. It's the greatest channel I've ever watched since WOWOW. Call your local cable provider or something. I'm not kidding. Do it now. NOWNOWNOW! Run, don't walk! And if you're in prison, break out~!

Oh, and remember the time I did a review on the movie Ilusyon? Apparently the directors of the film posted on this site regarding the review. I'm really thankful to know people are somehow reading my stuff. Really! I was honestly touched. It inspires me to write more stuff, which in the long run is going to mean more things on this site. I originally did this as an outlet to express my thoughts about films I've seen and liked (and disliked) and so far I'm very happy with the results.

Honestly, from the bottom of this lowly student's heart, thank you for reading the stuff on this site. It may sometimes sound weird *cough*kickboxing*cough* but bear with me.

Well, hopefully next time I'll get to see some of the films on my itenerary: The newest Harry Potter (first two were faithful to the book and entertaining but were only decent films, the third totally screwed with the book but was a better 'film' overall.) Hur Jin-ho's April Snow, and Jackie Chan's The Myth, which reportedly didn't live up to the hype. Let's hope either another solid return to HK cinema or Rush Hour 3 (at last, in production, no thanks to a certain co-star...) proves advantageous to him.

Well, that, and a slew of previously unseen films up high on the ol' queue: Ryu Seong-wan's Crying Fist, the mishmash period film Heaven's Soldiers, the not-so-mishmash-but-still-strangely-unbelieveable Blood Rain, the cheesy yet unavoidable Godzilla: Final Wars, and the new gut-crunching action flick from Prachya Pinkaew, Tom Yum Goong.

Come December, come hell or high water, I'm going to scrounge up enough cash to buy a DVD of Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, Park Chan-wook's last film in his revenge trilogy, from Korea, which has both the theatrical version and the version Park originally intended for the film - a gradual shift of color to grayscale in the last third or so of the movie. There are English subtitles, of course.

Until next time...

New Stuff

Hey there! Er, just a few things and some movie news.

Back from the Measles... well, it was a mild case, so it isn't much of a problem (barring SSPE in a decade or so - I hope that doesn't happen! *knocks on wood*) it did prevent me from watching the last few days of Cinemanila, which is a shame.

There's a new film coming soon that's caught my attention. It's Shadowless Sword, and it has Shin Hyun-june in it. That's the guy from Bichunmoo, another swordfighting movie that wasn't as good as it sounds, but was rather entertaining anyway. It isn't a coincidence - this film is directed by the same guy who directed Bichunmoo, too.

The trailer sold me right away - it was freaking amazing. I haven't seen that kind of speed in fighting since... Arahan. And speaking of Arahan, this movie has Yun So-yi in it. You know, that absolutely hot girl from Arahan? Yeah, her. I saw her in another movie called The Twins. I liked that movie for some reason.

Mmmmmm.... Yun So-yi...

er, anyway, the film looks like a vast improvement over Bichunmoo, it looks to come out before the end of the year, and I can't wait to see this.

In other news, Animax Philippines is airing a few good anime. I'm following the unintentionally hilarious (but still decent) dub of Inital D 4th stage, and I came to like the series after watching a few episodes. Angel Locsin as Kyoko Iwase wasn't bad at all - although her kind of voice is a rarity in Tagalog-dubbed productions...

It's the magic of Tagalog dubbing. Like what the dubbing did to Yu Yu Hakusho. As if a good anime wasn't good enough, the Tagalog dub gave us some gems as "Tapusin! Tapusin!" and "Hindi ako umiinom ng alak. Katas ng prutas pwede pa o tsaa." Then there was that debacle of whether Genkai and Kurama were one gender or the other. (Remember the early episodes? The old masculine voice for Jeremiah and the whole "Denise" thing? Haha!)

Then there's Witch Hunter Robin. This anime aired on GMA 7 quite some time ago, and I didn't take notice of it until now. I now watch the series quite often - it's a very interesting story.

I'm waiting for Hur Jin-ho's April Snow. Seeing his excellent track record for romantic movies (Christmas in August, which is a veritable classic, and One Fine Spring Day, which is good in itself) I'm looking forward to this one, although advanced word has not been as good as I'd expected...

I didn't get to do a Horrorfest 2005 like last year, but someday I'll get to watch all these horror films, especially The Ring 2, which is way overdue. Just you wait! Still waiting for a chance to hold a Chambarafest 2005 continuation...

Chambarafest 2005... continues!