Monday, December 31, 2012

2012: The Year in Review (Or a collection of Facebook quotes)

Credit: Carina (Xiaowoo)
There's no better way to start a new year than by dumping out an easy to churn 'year in review' post. Though I don't celebrate New Year (amongst many other typical celebrations), I suppose a little ceremony now and then couldn't hurt- an annual summary to bury the previous year would be just nice. Without further ado...

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

The Hobbit: A mostly coherent account

I just noticed that I'm using the cover for the OST instead of a movie poster. But who pays attention, really?
This being one of the most anticipated movies of the year, at this point, what's there to say about "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" that hasn't already been said? With this in mind, I won't force you to go through yet another movie review- what you'll get instead is a fan of the book's random babbling as I extrapolate- postulate- discombobulate- confound it for the life of me I can't recall the right word, but you get the picture.

Monday, December 24, 2012

Sydney 2012, Part 3: Fish, Wax, Sex

Day 3 in Sydney. We left the tired ones to rot in the hostel, and walked to the somewhat near-by Sydney Fish Market- a 'must visit' site according to travel websites. It's said to be the largest in the world, next to Tsukiji in Japan (Did I just make that up? I'm not sure). In any case, it was large, alright... if you count several buildings surrounding a big parking space as large, though all the buildings are dedicated solely to the sale of slimy things from the depths of the ocean. Oh, and french fries.

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Japanese Film Festival 2012: Identity Switch, Loss and Expiration

Guess it's about time for me to get to work on this piece, before 2013 comes along and I'll have another film festival to cover. This piece is now three months late! Hoorah for procrastination. Crud, if I ever apply for a job as a writer and Human Resources finds this blog, the first thing they'll come up with is that I'm a slow, lazy ass when it comes to 'work'- assuming composing this piece counts as work- though truth be told, I'm still on schedule, since my self-imposed deadline for posts with '2012' in the title is basically anytime before 2013.

Now, back to business. 2012 marks the- what, eight (?) Japanese Film Festival in Malaysia, and I've been fortunate to have been able to attend every single one so far. I even have a little collection of brochures- something the European Union Film Festival should pick up. Out of a total of 12 films, I caught two, the first being...

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Life of Pi... and a Tiger called Richard Dreyfus. Branson. Gere. Oh screw it.

Here's a review of the new film (relatively) currently topping the charts, Life of Pi. I'll keep it brief, thanks to my usual lethargy and lack of analytical thoughts on it- no thanks to my conveniently summarising the entire film in one para, which wouldn't make for much of a review- which is why I'll keep it till the end, so you'll have to read a brief synopsis and hear me ramble on about mildly interesting inconsequentials.

What's an inconsequential, you ask? Here's an example: Pi is the first time I've opted for couples seating, which is essentially  a double seat, non-foldable, without an armrest in the middle. I went with a lady friend (she'd probably laugh at being described as a lady- that's another inconsequential for you). The seat was fairly comfortable, but mainly it enabled me to make silly jokes like "well, I'm sorry I stole your first couples seat experience" (since she had no prior warning, as some ladies seem to need- and take such seating very seriously), et cetera. Well then. Now that you have a firm grasp of the word...

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Steins;Gate: A lab coat isn't the same as a Tulip Mask, but it'll do

Steins;Gate is probably one of the best anime I've watched in recent years, and fully deserving of the label 'epic', simply for the scale of the plot. This is high praise, coming for me, especially despite the lack of anything on the scale of an intergalactic war or mass extinction; not to mention the subject matter: time travel, a plot engine whose use often makes or breaks a show.