Mooovieeesss

Cake and I went to see Sweeney Todd yesterday. An interesting movie... or should I say musical. It wasn't super duper but I must say it was very enjoyable.

The melodies to which the lyrics were sung to were all very beautiful and complemented the scenes very well. Similar to the musical version of 'The producers' (2005), I especially thought the combination of the more 'classic' singing style and the use of simple everyday/casual language in the lyrics was very cool. If my ears weren't playing tricks on me, I heard the C-word in one of the lines sung by Johnny Depp. It had quite a kick to it.

If you're ok with a bit of blood then Sweeney Todd is very worth watching. Actually, make that lots of blood... Lots of splashing blood. But it's all good!

As for Cloverfield, damn that movie got me so nauseous I was close to puking in the cinema. I guess it's what sets Cloverfield apart from other big screen movies, but I really am not a big fan of the hand held camera/home video style movies. The camera was constantly moving so fast that I got soooo sick. I had to take five and come out to wash my face in the bathroom. That didn't help much.

There was a line in the movie where one of the girl characters was losing lots of blood and said she was dizzy. I felt so much like yelling out 'I'm so f*cking dizzy too!' but I don't think my fellow audience members would have appreciated it much. It certainly didn't help the whole place was smelling of rich butter from all the popcorn they had in there, either.

That aside, I thought the movie had an interesting concept to it. The way the plot progressed definitely left me wanting to find out more (If I didn't have to constantly close and rest my eyes and brain every 2 minutes). The trailer and early parts of the movie did a very good job of getting you curious. If it wasn't because of the constantly moving camera, I think I would have liked the movie a lot more. I honestly really wanted to leave my eyes open and see everything they had to offer, but my brain wasn't co-operating. Ok, I'm back to complaining again. But such a shame... so promising, yet impossible for me to watch.

Now I'm waiting for SAW IV to come out. Woohoo!! Who wants to come watch with me??

Hachimaki o kudasai

Well, first thing I wanna say is the weather in Melbourne has become really soothing this weekend and I am extremely happy about it. It just makes everything so much nicer.

A perfectly mild Saturday afternoon

On the flip side, I've been a little ill. Aching joints, sore throat, radiating heat and pulsating head... But I started feeling better. So yesterday afternoon I decided it was time to do a bit of cleaning around my room (which has been loooooong overdue). By the end of the day, I was so proud of how clean my room felt and how nice my bathroom smelt.

The sight of my bed makes me so sleepy

Other than that, I had been interested in checking out Afro Samurai for a while. Then I got to watch all five episodes, courtesy of Noelle and John (who have also kindly burnt all five episodes onto a CD for me) and I must say I really liked it. Afro Samurai is coolness. I love how they have immaculately blended oldschool samurai culture with bits of modern elements.

Afro Samurai is coolness

I must admit my favourite character was one that probably had the smallest role and probably had one line throughout the whole series. It's Brother 3 from the Empty Seven Clan. I of course thought it was really cool how he's forever moving his head to the music through the headphones that are never to be taken off. I think it's his un-hostile attitude and sense of respect for his enemy that make him so cool... attempting to offer his enemy rice and tea, before fighting one of his brothers, mildly asking for the 'number 2 headband' as an alternative to fighting... 'Hachimaki o kudasai'... Such a cool guy.

Hachimaki o kudasai

Now that I've seen all 5 episodes, I just wish there were more...

Anatomy for Beginners

The lastest member to be added to my precious DVD collection, 'Anatomy for Beginners' presents live dissection of the human body in front of an audience, who I think must be medical students, as well as other general spectators. As explicit as it is, I find the show extremely educational and entertaining.

Anatomy for Beginners

The dissection is led by the German anatomist, Dr. Gunther von Hagens, who I personally find quite charismatic and admirable. His passion for the human body makes me realise how much people take for granted their bodies. I find it a pity that everyday we move and go about doing things without even really understanding what goes on inside our bodies. But then again, what goes on inside is extremely complex. And that's what makes this DVD rather special.

Despite all the controversy surrounding Dr. Gunther's work, I think his invention of plastination was an ingenious step forward for us to better understand how the human body works and what each tiny bit inside all of us looks like. I never knew what the spinal cord actually looked like and how long it was , or that there's a spot on the inner thigh that makes one of your testicles move upwards, when lightly stroked (I am still yet to find it) .

The Anatomist: Dr. Gunther von Hagens (right)
and The Pathologist: Prof. John Lee (middle)

The DVD itself features 4 live autopsy episodes, explaining Movement, Circulation, Digestion, and Reproduction, as well as a documentary film on Dr. Gunther, centring on his Body Worlds exhibitions, and the development of his invention of plastination. All four episodes of the public autopsy feature commentary by Professor John Lee, a pathologist from London, who does a good job of explaining the functions of different body parts, as Dr. Guther dissects away.

All in all, a very entertaining, well-directed/filmed, attention sustaining TV event I'm happy to have in my collection. I shall now look for 'Autopsy: Life and Death', the second installment following the DVD, focusing on understanding causes of death, one being poisoning. Interesting!

Randomania IV

And it's time for another Randomania, where everything has nothing to do with anything. And bookoo pictures is always fun. So without further ado...

Woohoo!! Another Space Invader spotted.

Location: Meyers Places, Melbourne

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A tram derailed in the city the other day. No idea how that happened.

The tram from another angle with a lot of onlookers.

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There have been a number of protests lately, within the city of Melbourne and that has been getting on my nerves a little. Roads and trams were blocked so getting places was a bit of a hassle.

People waited ages for trams as tractors strolled at the speed of a snail.

Well, it was a change to see some farm tractors roaming the city.

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Where my eyes are when I daydream at home.

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My new toys

Pieces of the Kaleesh and the Jedi Master

General Grievous and Master Yoda about to get it on

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Can't decide how I should do my laces. Which should I keep? And yea, I'm still wearing my BPS PE shorts.

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The best chicken rice I've had must be from Montien Hotel in Bangkok. Everything about it is so good. The sauces are uber tasty.

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Just a random little doll someone had put outside an apartment on my way home.

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Lunch: Mmmm Lamb Rump and Tofu

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Mara: The best thing to sleep with.

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There's this tiger farm in Thailand not far from Bangkok, where piglets and tiger cubs are raised together. And this is what you get, lil piglets sleeping on a mother tiger. Notice how they've dressed the piglets up in the tiger vests. hehe.

A cub sleeping on top of piglets

Tiger cubs drinking from a mother pig's teats

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As you can you see, Pie and I have been going a lil crazy over DVDs lately. Well, may be just me. To add to the rapidly growing collection;

Iron Monkey: Action packed traditional Chinese Kung Fu movie with funny bits. And Donnie Yen is always a plus.

Peanuts I & II boxsets: Kinda grew up watching Snoopy. Mother's special request.

Little Britain Complete Third Season: One of my favourite comedies. The new characters are getting more and more disgusting. And there's that Thai ladyboy, Ting Tong (or is it Tong Ting?)

The NeverEnding Story Trilogy boxset: Probably the first proper fantasy movie I watched. Gets me a lil nostalgic.

Pink Panther The First Season: I think the best thing about Pink Panther is the music.

Dragon Tiger Gate: Corny..Very Corny. But good fighting scenes. Of course, it's Donnie Yen.

The Adventure of TinTin: For the last time, Dom, TinTin is NOT homosexual, alright?

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Our house seems blessed with weird strawberries.

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And finally, dinner: Roast Turkey (Potato popcorns are great)

DVD Galore

And my dvd collection has begun. I've decided I'm gonna start collecting movies I like and ditch pirated dvds. I've had enough of the frustration from a bootlegged dvd getting stuck half way through a movie and having to skip the whole scene to get the dvd going again. Plus, it's always a good investment to build up a collection of films I like. Well so far, here's what the stock's looking like...

Fawlty Towers

Ahhh good old Fawlty Towers. I was first introduced to this classic British comedy series by a friend, Infomatica back in the days at the dorms. After a few episodes and I thought Fawlty Towers was one of the most wittily humourous comedy series ever written..still is. That's because it's written and starred by the ingenious Mr. John Cleese himself.

My personal favourite character has to be Manuel, played by Andrew Sachs as the hotel's only waiter (from Barcelona, as Mr. Fawlty always says). The character is simply adorably funny, being constantly confused due to his limited English.

For a lil taste of what Fawlty Towers is like, here's a short clip off of my favourite episode, where Manuel's having trouble understanding one of the hotel guests.

The Neighbour No. Thirteen

This Japanese film first caught my attention with its cover with these two guys in identical urban clothes, one holding a samurai sword. I thought that was pretty cool. Its Jap name Rinjin 13, the plot follows young Juzo, who used to get bullied in school and develops an avengeful alter-personality, whose sole mission is to kill his childhood tormentor. The movie gets more interesting as the bully coincidently moves into the same building as Juzo, along with his young wife and his lil son. And when Juzo's split personality, #13 comes out to visit them at home :)

The other thing that got me picking up the dvd was that the guy on the cover with the samurai sword is Nakamura. If you have seen Fearless (Jet Li), Nakamura is the Jap guy, who fights Jet Li at the end. I like his style...

From Dusk till Dawn

One of my favourite movies. I remember watching it on VCDs in highschool, and thought it was a shit cool movie. I like to think of From Dusk till Dawn as like an everlasting gobstopper, with each scene dissolving to reveal a new flavour/mood. You get to see George Clooney be as crude as ever, starring as the elder of the crime-indulging duo, the Gecko brothers (nothing to do with the amphibian whatsoever).

This movie was the one that got me into Tarantino's work. In fact, I think it's my favourite from the Tarantino collection. Mr. Tarantino also plays one of the main characters in the movie; Clooney's character's younger brother.

A Nightmare on Elm Street: The First Three Nightmares

This dvd boxset contains the first three of the infamous A Nightmare on Elm Street series. The last time I saw any of these was probably when I was around 8 or 9. Wasn't exactly my movie of choice at the time but dad had me sat next to him while he was watching it, and I remember thinking Freddy Krueger's damned cool. He's just different from any other boogiemen out there. He's not another one of those slow-moving big stupid mysterious figures with a large knife in one hand and a mask to hide a disfigured face, who can barely walk but somehow always manage to catch up with the girl only to see her scream hideously and stick the knife in her stomach. Freddy's much more than that. He makes slashing wayyy stylish.

P.S. Freddy kicks Jason's ass any day.

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I have also just seen SAW III at the movies. Now, I would classify myself as a fan of horror flicks and usually, the bloodier the marrier. But SAW III did turn my stomach in that cinema. Well, may be it had been a while since I last saw a blood and guts film on the big screen so everything seemed so amplified. A brain never looked so big.

Dont get me wrong. I'm not saying the movie was bad in any way. In fact, I think it was very well made. The plot was clever as usual with its unexpected twists and turns. The concept behind each of the torture scenes was also very clever, with each of the excruciating machines that were so nerve-wrenching to watch operate, and at the same time, invigorating...in a way.

All in all, a good movie with some excellent make-up effects (well, they better have been make-up effects), and a clever plot. And if you're a fan of the good old blood and guts (and brains), SAW III will definitely not dissappoint.

Randomania

One of my favourite flash cartoons on the internet has to be David Firth's 'Salad Fingers'. While all the episodes take the meaning of weirdness to a whole new level, I LOVE IT..(not that being weird is a bad thing, right?). Being a solo artist, Firth boasts creativity allover his Salad Fingers episodes. The eerie music in the background, which he claims is based on samples from Boards of Canada, sets the vibe the cartoon emits very different from anything I've seen out there.

Here's the first episode called 'Spoons': An introduction to Mr. Fingers as he pays a small child a visit. And if you're in the mood for something peculiar, watch all seven episodes.

Firth's work is featured on the website: www.fat-pie.com. There you can find his other cartoon series, all guaranteed to be weird. A word of warning, tho..some of the episodes may leave you in sorrow for hours. So if gloomy cartoons doesn't sound like your cup of chocolate, avoid the 'Spoilsbury Toast Boy' and the 'Milkman' series.

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Has any of you ever felt that some of Pink's and the Veronicas' songs are suspiciously similar? Well, not only are Pink's 'U+Ur Hand' and the Veronica's '4ever' written by the same guy (Gottwald), the songs have pretty much been constructed with the exact same chords. Check out this cool vid on youtube.. Pink VS. Veronicas

Despite not being a big fan of pop music, I actually like both these two songs. Plus I think Pink's cool anyways..

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I think I'm used to the fact that I don't look like I'm from Thailand but I don't really know why I always get mistaken for a Korean. I'm saying this because lately I've been having random people on the streets coming up to ask if I'm Korean. Then when I say I'm not.. they just piss off.. Weirdos!!

Anyhoooo, I was just watching this US TV-series called 'Monk' by Andy Breckman, starring Tony Shalhoub. I had been seeing the ad on TV for the series so I thought I'd give it a try over tonight's dinner. Five minutes in and I found myself hee-hawing on the couch.

The story follows Detective Adrian Monk (Shalhoub), who has an extreme case of an obsessive-compulsive disorder. The funniest bits are when he breaks into his super anal rituals haha, among other funny things he does. I wonder what it'd be like to have to really work with a person like him.

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Tonight's dinner: Porterhouse with Tofu Rocket Salad (fusion cuisine, no?)