Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea

"Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea" is Hayao Miyazaki's latest animation. Being a No. 1 fan of Miyazaki's, I had been anticipating the release of the DVD ever since I've heard of this movie. Finally having a chance to watch it, I'm sad to say it's kind of a disappointment.

The story itself is not attractive, neither is it captivating. At some points I found it difficult to concentrate on the progress. It's either because I have a very distracting movie companion or because of the movie itself.

The story is about... erm... a... mermaid, I supposed, named Ponyo who had, out of curiosity, ran away from home. She (though it was not obvious at the beginning that it's a female, but towards the end I suppose we can make that conclusion) met 5-year-old Sosuke and had taken a great liking to him. Meanwhile Ponyo's worried dad was looking for her to bring her back. And when he finally did, Ponyo declared her choice of becoming a human and live with Sosuke.

I feel that it is not convincing that the bond between Ponyo and Sosuke is very strong since there wasn't much elaboration in this matter. And yeah, the story sounds somewhat like "The Little Mermaid" from Walt Disney a number of years ago. But in this case, it's a love story between two 5-year-old kids! (If you can call that a love story...) I can't help thinking realistic... My movie companion also mentioned that there are many unexplained things.

Anyway maybe I should watch it again. It's possible that I've missed something. I mean, I didn't like "Howl's Moving Castle" that much the first time I watched it; and I don't expect anyone to produce another miracle like "Spirited Away". And for the rest of Miyazaki's fans out there, since you've watched all of his series, why not give this a try as well? Anyone wanna watch I'll be glad to lend it.

being happy

Like I said, my biggest failure in life, is that I am afraid to be happy. I guess I've finally decided to change for good. I'll start... say... by writing something less gloomy on my blog. So... here goes...

People say that the future lies in your hands. I believe it's more than that. I believe that a portion of it does lie in our hands; the other portion, is beyond our control. Or in a religious manner, it's in God's hands. What's important, is neither the future nor the past, it's the present. Enjoy the moment, live life to the fullest... These are things easier said than done. People spend too much time worrying about the future; and regretting the past, they fail to notice small little details around them... the apartment guard who greets you warmly every morning when you leave for work, your best friend who always listens when you tell her boring things like what you ate for lunch, the swing which always squeaks when you sit on it, the person who always notices whenever you feel unhappy and who is willing to go through so much trouble just to download a song that you like, the taste of the best dish in the world - mom's cooking, the soft "thank you" uttered by a pregnant lady when you offer her your seat in the LRT... When you have master the art of appreciation, you already possessed the key to happiness.

the saddest

I had recently discovered the reason I could never have happy thoughts, write happy things in my blog. I lack the courage to be happy.

I dare not have high expectations in myself, in people around me, in the world. Because I'm so afraid of having to be disappointed. So if I don't hope, there will be no disappointment.

There are many types of people living in this world. And I believe, I belong to the saddest, the most pathetic of all.

Is it time to let go?

Ampang Lookout Point

On the night of mid-autumn festival I went to Ampang Lookout Point. It's just a 30 minutes drive from my house, 20 minutes drive from Ampang Point. The map shown below is very accurate and reliable! If you can't find it, you are more geographically-blind than me. And I'd probably have to close down this blog (nah!).
There are restaurants with reasonable price. Though the food is not so nice but you get to enjoy the cool breeze and the beautiful scenery. There is also a observation tower where you can climb 3 levels of staircases to reach the top level and have a clear view of the city. When we reached the top it was totally packed with couples hugging and whispering to one another. There were like... around 10 pairs of them and they were behaving as if they live in their own world. I was slightly unhappy (or to better describe my feelings, "bu sun") by this and it was both funny and embarrassing at the same time.

It was my third time there and the coldest night of all three, as it was raining heavily that evening and it was still drizzling when we reached there. The main catch in that place is that it has a awesome night view of KL city.

Can't get enough of the beautiful scenes!

It is a nice place to hang out, whether you are with your family or your friends. One of my favourite places. Highly recommended!

Handicap

I am a handicap
I am unable to love
And therefore
I shall not be loved in return

Mirrors

I did not really have high expectations when I walked into the theater, to be honest. I figured this would just be another watch-and-forget movie. And I was right.

Mirrors is loosely based on a Korean horror movie in year 2003 - Into The Mirror. But except for the ending (and the mirrors of course), I can't find any resemblances. I would say both are equally bad.

Like any other conventional scary movies, the most important element to scare the viewers is... the sound effects. And yeah, I got scared, but it was not a creepy feeling, not the kind where after days of watching and you recall back the scenes you'd get goosebumps. And sadly, I don't remember the last horror film I saw that gave me this type of feeling and satisfaction.

There was a girl sitting next to me in the theater who was damn scared, kept hugging her boyfriend. This had disturbingly reminded me of a very bad experience I had when watching a ghost movie with a guy friend a very long time ago. So I made damn sure I don't repeat the same mistake with ZiLin, the guy I was watching this movie with. SukTeng, you know what I mean. And I'd like to assure you nothing dramatic happened.

And... Right, back to the movie. So there was blood, there were people dying horribly, there were ghosts suddenly popping up, there were mirrors, there were mysteries waiting to be solved and people to be saved... Up until 20 minutes before the movie ended, it was still acceptably frightening. But when a 60-year-old nun turned into a supposedly-possessed-by-demon-monster, it took me a great effort to choke back my laughter. I supposed the script just couldn't go on anymore but they simply had to put an end to the story. So this is where the monster conveniently came in. In a nutshell, if you have too much time to spend and too much money to waste, you are most welcome to watch Mirrors.

Wall-E

Wall-E stands for Waste Allocation Load Lifter - Earth Class. Their sole purpose of survival was to clear up the garbage left on earth so that the people can come back to Earth to live. The beginning of the movie was so sad. I just couldn't bear looking at Wall-E working alone on Earth collecting garbage. And the most pitiful is the part when he had to collect the second-hand spare parts from his fellow out-of-service Wall-E robots to replace his own. I find it quite unbelievable that he was able to develope human instincts from time to time. But this is an animation, so it's still acceptable.

It then started to become interesting following the introduction of the female robot, Eve (Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator), who came back to Earth to look for sign of life - plants. The first half of the movie revolved around the two robots - Wall-E who fell in love with Eve; and also the extremely aggressive Eve.

There was not a single conversation before the appearance of the people, as in the humans. But just like what KokChiang and ZiLin said, a good animation/cartoon does not need conversations, take the classical Woddy Wood Pecker, Pink Panther etc.

And Wall-E is sooooooo cute!


The movie emphasized on the sense of touch. The people in the future eventually forget about the importance of the sense of touch. Touching is so important it shows passion, love and care. Even robots need to be touched. My colleague said the holding hands part means it is a movie to watch with the guy who's after you. But I think that's just crap. It's a good movie no matter with whom you watch it.

Just like any other Pixar production, it is moving, funny, cute, and irrelevant, especially at the ending. But then again, it is an animation, so it is still accpetable. I'll refrain myself from revealing too much. You guys should go watch it yourselves. It's another one of Pixar production that you can't miss!

Untitled

Tears streaming down my cheeks
Ignoring the curious stares from other passengers
I wiped away my tears
Allowing sadness to overcome me
Darkness was taking over
Enveloping me
When I felt a sudden vibration from inside my handbag
Heard the sweetest tone in the world
I took out my handphone and read,
"Hey, what are you doing?"
I stopped crying
My fingers gotten busy
As the darkness quietly slipped away
And I felt better already

Sparrow

A Johnny To production - one of the best movie director/producer from Hong Kong. Thus before the movie Sparrow (watch the trailer here.) actually ended, I was very much confident that something good would eventually come out of it.

The film started by introducing Simon Yam, sewing his own pants (or something like that, couldn't tell whether he was sewing a button on his pants or actually sewing his pants), with a very cheerful-sounding music playing in the background. It simply sounded weird cause I expected a typical Hong Kong style good-guys-versus-bad-guys-chase. But the cheerful soundtrack and a happy Simon Yam just don't fit in.

Things finally gotten serious when the film moved on to Simon and his fellow colleagues' daily routine - having breakfast together and then "hoi gong" (start work)... picking-pockets. Up until this point the story plot is still understandable. But for the next 30 minutes or so, the director gave a very out-of-the-ordinary introduction to Kelly Lin, one of the main characters. Kelly crossed paths with the 4 pick-pockets (sparrows) intentionally, trying to... seduce them (seemed to me), maybe. This could be the longest 30 minutes of my life. The slow-motion and unexplainable scenes could definitely bore you to tears. Halfway through the movie, the true purpose of her encounters with them finally revealed, though Zi Lin already could guessed at the beginning and told me before this already.

I have to agree with Zi Lin that the storyline was too simple, without unexpected twists. And the action sequence, to my surprise, was very limited. I believe that the story itself is quite fresh, it just needs some spices, a little bit of furnishing here and there, and LESS artistic/slow-motion scenes (the slow motion parts are very much like Johnny To's style though). I think that it has a lot of space for improvement, and I mean A LOT.

I watched this movie with ShinYin. She had some very interesting comments on this movie too.

watch Korean, Japanese, Taiwanese, HK dramas online

I was randomly surfing the net when I came across this website that allows you to watch Korean, Japanese, Taiwanese and Hong Kong dramas and movies online. For those who do not like to download dramas and movies (like me), this would be a good site to go. Truly feeding your drama addiction, http://www.mysoju.com/ provides a long list of dramas/movies (mostly Korean and Japanese) for your viewing pleasure. I find it quite convenient as I do not like to use bitcomet. Although I noticed a few of "under repair" dramas and movies, but the list is long enough for me to look for dramas that I've never watch before.

I'm now watching 1 litre of tears. A heart-warming Japanese series that tells a true story of a 15-year-old girl who had an incurable disease called spinocerebellar ataxia; and how she cope with the chronic disease that slowly destroyed her nervous system, taking away her ability to walk, speak, move, and understand. As I write I'm currently on episode 7, there's four more to go and already my eyes are watering like nobody's business. I usually am not easy to cry when watching movies. Any healthy living human beings should watch this, it made you realize how lucky you are to be alive, to be able to do things that you do everyday.