Tsunami at Haeundae ~ review

When it comes to Korean movies, I always looking forward for their horror offering. But this time, it's a disaster movie. As bad as I want to watch their horror movies, I felt like I should not miss this one too. Maybe it will turn out good. Maybe....

Tsunami at Haeundae has a simple premise; people living their lives at the gorgeous and famous beach in Korea, earthquake deep in the ocean sea occurred, mega tsunami came, and how the people survive the ordeal, or for some how they died. There's also a typical character who knows about the arrival of the tsunami and try to warned the authority but being ignored instead. Everything seems cliche. But cliche isn't exactly a bad thing.

The plot was somewhat separated into two. The 1st half of the movie focus on the introduction and development of the characters. Audience will get to know the central characters that will be involved in the tragedy, their relationships, and their personal struggles. The 2nd half of the movie will involve 2 big tsunamis, a lot of screaming and crying, and a lot of dying. I have to admit though there are some parts that I did not understand in the plot like the relationship between two male characters. It's either the plot did not explain enough or the translation sucks.

The development of the characters in the 1st half did help a lot in giving the audiences the chance to relate to them. We get to see their personal problems, and how they overcome their differences when the disaster strike. It's not all action and no drama. In fact, it was quite balance between the two. The emotions and actions felt real. Who says a disaster movie should all be about major over-the-top destruction? But of course there are some scenes that did not look logic. No need for me to explain in detail there because in my opinion these things are common in this type of movie.

So what about the acting? The actors did a good job in portraying their characters. However, I only recognized two of the actors; Ha Ji-won (from the horror movie Phone) and Uhm Jung-hwa (from various TV series). Hopefully this movie will provide more exposure to the other actors as well.

Overall, I give this movie 3 and a half stars. As many of you may have heard, Tsunami at Haeundae is billed as the 1st disaster film of South Korea. For a first-timer, I'd say they did a pretty good job. Congratulations!


Image source: star-ecentral

An adventure like no other

Title: Pendragon: The Merchant of Death
Author: D. J. MacHale
Cover artist: Victor Lee
ISBN: ISBN 0-7434-3731-4

I like the cover. The synopsis behind the book was quite interesting. And the price is cheap. So I thought I should give it a try and bought it. But did I like it?

Pendragon: The Merchant of Death is the first book in the Pendragon series that contains 10 books and several other companion books. I was first interested in it when I was looking for an adventure book to read in a bookstore. I did not know that there were more than half a dozen of books already in the series at that time, and so I bought it and start to read it without any expectation. Boy was I surprised. It was a great book, filled with action, adventure, humor and imagination.

The book is about a young boy named Bobby Pendragon who was taken by his uncle, Uncle Press, to another world (or territory as they called it in the book) named Denduron. He was forced to accept the fact that he was a Traveler, chosen to fight against Saint Dane who planned to bring every territory into destruction. While he was in Denduron, he learned more about the culture and life in that territory, and the conflict that the people on Denduron was facing. In the end, it was up to him, Loor (a traveler from the territory Zadaa), and Alder (a traveler from Denduron) to save Uncle Press who had been captured, and also Denduron from major chaos in the hands of Saint Dane. While on Second Earth (which is the territory that Bobby came from, the present Earth), Mark Dimond and Courtney Chetwynde, Bobby's best friends, were trying to cope with the disappearance of Booby and learning the new life that Bobby was living through a series of journals that Bobby sent them through a portal.

While the story was good, I was particularly interested in the book narrative which keeps on switching between first-person perspective and third-person perspective. The third-person perspective was when the story focus on Mark and Courtney on Second Earth while the first-person perspective was when the story focus on Bobby through his journals. It was an interesting read. D. J. MacHale had also created the territory of Denduron realistically unique. I was even amazed at how closer I felt the conflict was to home although it was happening on Denduron.

Overall, it's a fun book to read and have good moral values in it too. I was looking forward for the second book in the series. Hopefully it will be as good as this one.

The final round of Dark Tournament begins!

Image source: Coverbrowser

It's been awhile since I last wrote about YuYu Hakusho. Let's continue from where we left off. There might be spoilers so stop reading if you do not want me to kill the fun.

The final round of the Dark Tournament started in Volume 11 of YuYu Hakusho. But before that, we get to see what were the characters up to before the final round begin. Hiei was practising his ultimate moves for his final fight; Kurama and Kuwabara got some help from a former rival to enhance their spirit powers; while Yuusuke finally overcame his grief over the death of his mentor, Genkai, in the previous volume.

The 2 teams who reached the grand finals of the Dark Tournament were, you guessed it, Team Urameshi and Team Toguro. Since each team needed to have 5 members, Team Urameshi added Koenma into their team while Team Toguro added Sakio in theirs. Both contestants however stated that they will not participate in the fight (they would not have the strength to do so anyway).

The 1st round was Kurama vs Karasu. It was an interesting and long fight. We get to see Kurama in his full glory as he fought his heart out against the bomb user, Karasu. So basically it was plants vs bombs in this round.

The 2nd round was Hiei vs Bui. The fight was rather short but it was a violent fight. Hiei showed his greatest skill yet while Bui shed his heavy armors to unleash his full strength. We get to see Bui's face for the first time too (he's quite a good-looking fella ;-P)

The 3rd fight was Kuwabara vs Older Toguro. Although he looks like a small kid, but Older Toguro is a cunning and vicious little man. The fight was quite difficult for Kuwabara. As the situation got tense, Kuwabara finally showed his inner strength and double-up his effort in the fight. But was it worth it? Will Kuwabara win in this round?

The tournament is far from over. The fights and final result of Kuwabara vs Older Toguro will be revealed in Volume 12 of YuYu Hakusho.

Final goodbye...Yoshito Usui (1958-2009)

Sad, sad news. Yoshito Usui, the creator of the popular manga Crayon Shin-chan, had died. On September 12, 2009, his family filed a missing person report after he did not return from hiking in nearby Gunma Perfecture. On September 19, 2009, a body had been found at a bottom of a cliff wearing clothes matches to his. Dental records and family members had indentified the body to be Yoshito Usui.

Source: Wikipedia

I have been a great fan of Crayon Shin-chan and the passing of Yoshito Usui had certainly left a sad feeling in me. I did not even heard the news of his missing until I stumbled onto the subject on the Animax website today. I was shocked!

R.I.P.

Selamat Hari Raya 1430!

I want to give an early wish of Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri to all my Muslim friends and also to all those Muslims throughout the world. Have a pleasant month and enjoy the food. :-D

The Final Destination ~ review

So what would you do if you have premonitions on how you and your friends would die in about 10 minutes later? Would you run away and tag your friends along with you eventhough you are not really sure if the events that would lead to you and your friends' deaths would happen? For the fans of Final Destination movie series, the premise may sound all too familiar. But would it be too repetitive for a 4th installment?



The Final Destination (or Final Destination 4 to avoid confusion) follows Nick O'Bannon (Bobby Campo) as he tries to save his friends and a few others, including himself, from horrific death staged by Mr. Death himself (not a real actor mind you). The opening scene shows Nick having premonition of horrific accidents at a race track that would kill him and his friends. Freaked out, he rushed out from the stadium along with his friends and a few other spectators. Shortly afterwards, one by one of the survivors died in freak 'accidents'. Convinced by the disrupted death pattern due to his intervention, Nick and his girlfriend, Lori Milligan (Shantel VanSanten) and the security guard of the stadium, George Lanter (Mykelti Williamson) try to warn the other survivors about their impending death.

As a fan of the first 3 editions of the series, I must say that I like this 4th movie as well but of course it's not without flaws. Eventhough the male and female lead are gorgeous on screen, but I feel the acting especially Bobby Campo is a bit stiff. Maybe because I keep comparing him with Devon Sawa from the 1st movie, which is of course unfortunate for him, but I honestly think that he can do better.



The story, after seeing it for a fourth time, is quite predictable but that's fine with me since I was only there to see the death plan that Death had for the characters, and of course the fate of the male and female lead (survive? no?). One thing that bothers me is that the plot seems rushed. It's like they want to finish off the characters as quickly as they can, which I think is a bad way to tell the story. The audience did not even have time to feel sorry for the dead characters which somewhat disconnect the bonds between viewers and characters.



I was a bit disappointed that the director rely heavily on crushed skulls and bodies to reflect the gruesome of the deaths. Whatever happen to slow and tortured deaths like the one suffered by Tod Waggner and Valerie Lewton in the 1st movie? Now that were creepy! Anyway, there are still some creative death scenes in this movie. Some of them to watch out for are the Pool Death, the Carwash Scene, and the Escalator Death. There are tons of gory scenes in this movie so better leave the minors out of it.

Overall, I give this movie 3 stars out of 5. Although some will argue that they have had enough of this movie series, but I beg to differ. I do agree that it's hard to keep the story 'fresh' but it's not impossible. It is likely that The Final Destination will be the last movie in the series but I do hope it's not. As long as they can come out with a fresh and creative story, people would keep on watching. Well, I know I would.


Pictures courtesy of Yahoo! Movies.

What to watch? September - December 2009_part 3

Here's the final part for this series of posts. Enjoy!




9

This animation looks really cool, plus the post-apocalyptic setting makes it stands out from the rest of your 'normal' animation from Hollywood. Well, it is from Tim Burton. I'm not going to say more, you can just click here or here to enjoy the awesome trailer. I really wish this movie will come to Malaysia because I have a bad feeling that it won't.

U.S. release date: September 9, 2009
Malaysia release date: TBA




Whiteout

This movie stars Kate Beckinsale. Enough said, I'm going to see this flick. Wait, you want more? Okay, okay...It's about a lone U.S. Deputy Marshal (Kate Beckinsale's character) who was stationed at a research base in Antarctica investigating a murder, well maybe a couple of murders (I'm not sure actually). That's enough right? What...more? Fine, click here to watch the trailer. I'm off to mark my calender.

U.S. release date: September 11, 2009
Malaysia release date: October 15, 2009




Avatar

It would be crazy to list interesting movies to watch this last few months of the year without mentioning Avatar. Avatar the cartoon, you say? Sheesh, where have you been? It's an upcoming film from James Cameron, the one who brought you Titanic, remember him? Avatar would change the way we see movies, or so he said. Anyway, I would definitely not miss this movie since the trailer looks so fantastic. You can click here to be amazed.

U.S release date: December 18, 2009
Malaysia release date: December 17, 2009




Surrogates

I discovered this movie when I randomly click on a link to watch a movie trailer. I know nothing about this movie before that. Lucky for me to have click it, because this film looks great. It's a science-fiction film based on a comic book series of the same name, and it stars one of my favourite actor, Bruce Willis. I don't really know how to explain the premise for the movie (partly because I don't read the comic books) so I would let the trailer do all the talking. Enjoy the trailer below courtesy of IGN. You can click here to go to the official site.

U.S. release date: September 25, 2009
Malaysia release date: October 8, 2009

I think that's all from me. This is the final part, part 3, for What to watch? September-December 2009 series of posts. Please check out previous posts for part 1 and part 2. Thank you for reading.