- sleeping only to wake for breakfast; napping only to wake for lunch, and before you knew it – dinner was served

- obsessively playing Tokimemo GS2 for another ED because you can’t stand to hear Majima Tarou on the intro screen

- alternately, obsessively playing Final Fantasy IV which had been abandoned for goodness know how many months. Got out of the Underworld, only to fall right back in. GJ, Cecil, GJ ”orz

- being ambushed by my dogs unexpectedly. In my own room, in the living room and pretty much everywhere else in the house.

- learning how to play Poem for Everyone’s Soul / ???????? on the piano. Had not touched the piano for a good 9-10 years. My fingers are like bricks one moment and jelly the next ”orz

- making my Mum got addicted to playing Monopoly Deal XD

- learning how to solve the rubik’s cube. Finally.

- good :Dbbb

So this is the last week of the year 2009. Somehow, it feels kind of sad .. ???????????????how did the year 2009 went for everyone?

Ah well, I’m still an hour before the day is over and is now soooooo…. everyone had your ??/tang yuan?

Image shamelessly stolen from here

There’s this saying that everyone should at least eat one tang yuan/tong yuen per year as an indication that a year had passed and you’re older/wiser by a year. A story I heard since I was a kid, but never really paid all that much attention to mainly because I get stuck in University and work most of the time during these season since I got out of school and never really had much of a chance to celebrate it with the family.

Anyways, what kicked me out of my blogging funk is an adorable message from my GrandAunt. I texted her about 7p.m. earlier when I realised that today IS supposed to be a rather big celebratory day for the Chinese community ( though even though it’s called Winter Solstice, I’d NEVER experience winter in all my life. Woes ). In which I said :

“Happy Winter Solstice! I just realised I haven’t had any tong yuen for YEARS!”

… and she replied about a minute after my message went through ( I was really rather surprised that she can text this fast! I was the one who taught her how to text message, so I have a small bit of happy teacher’s pride there )

“So, I guess u r still 22 then!”

Awwww… my grandaunt says the most adorable thing (;A;)/ ( Also, note her usage of U R as short form! I AM IMPRESSED XDDDbbbb )

Last weekend was a weekend full of longings and post-travel blues. Unrequited ones. Woes. ( So I decided to sleep it all off and stay awake long enough to crave crispy fried chicken from Shihlin before falling back to sleep )

I am now back from my six days long trip to the capital of Taiwan. Mainly for Mayday’s D.N.A.’s World Tour concert with Rachel and Emily. For those who really knows me, I guess it’s not much of a surprise anymore to know that I have the tendency to attach ‘concert’ and ‘traveling to foreign country’ together in one big happy package :3

So, Taipei. Have a picture of Taipei. ( My personal view of the 101 Building was not half as good though XD; )

As for the rest of the pictures and notes from my trip, it shall have to wait until they got off from the stringent QC-ing ( and meticulous photoshopping ) from Ms. Rachel ( so that we don’t look like half-dead sleep deprived zombies; which sad to admit, we were ).

Until then ~!

( btw, Mayday’s D.N.A. concert @ Taipei was just so awesomely amazing; more coherent and eloquent words failed me kaaay? )

 
And wow, I just realised it had been a two month gap between the last I posted here @.@; Whooops?

So uhh… this is not actually a Japanese movie per se, but I’m dumping it here because the orignal story IS from a Japanese animated film back in 2001? And well, Saya is Saya and it is set in Japan? Errr…

I’m a fan of Blood : The Last Vampire animated movie. I’m an even bigger fan of Blood+ ( which is the alternate universe/interpretation of the story and characters from Blood:TLV so I figured I might as well watch the live action movie just to see how it goes even if I went in without a single hint of expectation.

And guess what? Without expectation is still not quite enough to describe how hilariously bad this is XD;

On the surface, Saya is a stunning 17-year-old, but that youthful exterior hides the tormenting soul of a 400-year-old “halfling.”

Born to a human father and a vampire mother, she has for centuries been a loner obsessed with using her samurai skills to rid the world of vampires, all the while knowing that she herself can survive only on blood like those she haunts.

When she is sent onto an American military base in Tokyo by the clandestine organization she works for, Saya immediately senses that this may her opportunity to finally destroy Onigen, the evil matriarch of all vampires.

Using her superhuman strength and her sword, she begins to rid the base of its evil infestation in a series of spectacular and elaborate showdowns.

However it is not until she forms her first human friendship in centuries with the young daughter of the base’s general that Saya learns that her greatest power over Onigen may well be her ability for human connection ….

Okay, this is a serious case of “The description of the movie is much better than the entire movie itself”. Let’s move to what’s so loltasticly bad about it okay?

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So uhmm… at least I had a good time snarking at the movie with Star Wars quoting friends in the cinema itself?

But oh! Watch out for the awesome ninja-fights scene. That was really well done and I think the best thing that happened to the movie are the ninjas and the old man fighting them :D

There’s no secret I’m a fan of director Nakashima Tetsuya’s work after seeing Rolling Bomber Special years ago. But it was pretty much Shimotsuma Monogatari/下妻物語 the one that cemented my love for his fast paced, psychedelic style ( an even more over the top Guy Ritchie’s Snatch, minus the profanity imho)

When I was looking through the movies list the film festival has to offer this year, I made a note to myself saying that if I’m to watch only ONE movie from the list this year, it’ll be Paco ( because, seriously, I can’t get enough of his style :D )

There once was a hospital where patients and even doctors & nurses were all weird. Above all, Onuki, a patient who built up his company all by himself from scratch, is a super cranky old man. One day, he meets up a girl called Paco, who cannot retain memory beyond one day due to a car accident. She is reading the same picture book everyday. Onuki starts bonding with Paco after some incident, and begins to doubt his way of living.
~ from AsianMediaWiki

I must admit the description of the movie made me did a double take, and after seeing the trailer, doubly so. So Nakashima directed a kids’ movie… with his usual suspects of crazy casts and antics @.@ After watching his Memories of Matsuko/嫌われ松子の一生 ( which is a really depressing movie deep down that I’d only realised after the ending credit started to roll which showed how awesome it was ), I do wonder what Paco has in store ( because seriously? The trailer and description doesn’t say much at all XD;)

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Personally, I didn’t think Paco and the Magical Book as well done a story as Memories of Matsuko, but considering intended younger audiences and the bizarre fairy tale-like premise the story took, it’s really a very psychedelic fun and yet moving story that can be enjoyed by both young and old.

I must admit to trying my damnedest not to cry at certain moments in the movie; which took me by surprise because the story can be hilarious most of the times, and was so over the top you wondered what everyone on the casts were smoking during the filming session.

( I kept hearing sniffles from the crowd when I was in the cinema, so I’m glad I was not the only one who were really touched and saddened by this weird cocktail of a movie )