- Watch the trailer for one of the most celebrated graphic novel of all times - Watchmen The Movie. Screening is scheduled to be out in March 2009. On a side note, I am loving the dark and emo soundtrack.
- THE NEXT BIG THING: Christmas!!
DUDE. If you consider yourself a martial arts fan, you simply cannot miss this show. Forget Bruce Lee and his yelling. Forget Jackie Chan and his comedic stunts. Finally, forget about Jet Li and Fearless and let yourself loose in this other side of the world - the world of Wing Chun, the legendary fighting style adopted by Ip Man (pronounced Yip Man), the master of the iconic Bruce Lee.
So how does one described the Wing Chun style of fighting? Well, for example, Judo, Akido and other forms of grappling techniques are for close combat and can really lock you up in a dead tight position without you being able to fight back. Long range fighting styles like Taekwondo and Karate are well, meant for long range advantage and cannot really be used in close quarters due to lack of speed and power in extreme tight spots. Wing Chun is like a close combat style with range advantages that packs punch, speed and style altogether and it can whoop your ass so much, your mother probably won't be able to recognize you after that.
Ip Man basically tells the story of the master of Bruce Lee, who is known as Ip Man, and how he fights for the Chinese and unites them with his fists in times of hardship by the Japanese when they took over sometime during the war in the 1940s.
Donnie Yen was simply amazing as Ip Man, and I would even go as far as saying as near-perfect. The times he had spent studying the character really allows him to encompass it with much needed flair and sincerity. I don't know who else I can see fit in that role because Donnie have raised the bar to such a level that even he himself would find it hard to jump over.
His facial expression was also very suitable indeed. Some might complain that he was previously a very stoner type of person but you'll see something completely refreshing here. A peaceful, family loving man who hates fighting but always finds himself in the middle of the wrong attention, Ip Man is trully a sight to behold. He lets his moves does the talking for him!
I love watching him fight - fighting may not necessarily be a good thing in real life but in a show it is totally okay! His throws his punches at the speed of a machinegun firing...trully lightning quick! If you don't focus, you probably won't even be able to see his hands.
Other noticable characters were very well portrayed by their actors and actresses respectively as well. Pity, Sammo Hung was busy directing the stunts and choreography and did not actually made any appearance in the show. I always loved to see him get himself in a rumble as well.
I won't provide any spoilers here, and all I can say is that this show is simply worth watching and the fight scenes are simply awesome and memorable. Mindblowing material - looks real, feels real and definitely IS REAL. If you have Donnie Yen as one of your fighters, you simply can't go wrong. Unless of course, if you really suck at directing...then Donnie probably wouldn't even work with you in the first place.
Verdict! One of the best kungfu shows I've ever seen. And I mean in terms of storyline, action, fight scenes as well as humour! Yes, Although this is somewhat a serious show, there are comical moments as well that were provided by Donnie and his crew. Really funny stuff. That is why this movie comes highly recommended by me!
OKAY. Now, this show is OFFICIALLY the weirdest show I've ever seen - this year, at least. Nowadays we have a new term for weird ideas and funky directing. It is called visionary! They even stated that a couple of times over - "From the visionary director of 300...", which obviously refers to Frank Miller - unless you haven't been watching 300.
I did not read any materials before watching the show so I have absolutely no idea what this show is all about. The poster shows "My City Screams" - I was left dumbfounded for awhile, wondering what was that about. I later found out about that as the plot unfolds itself throughout the movie.
Now, here is a very quick summary of what I understand from the plot: Boy likes girl. Girl's dad, who is a cop, gets killed and girl started to hate cops because she didn't want to see any of her loved ones getting killed as a cop. But boy wants to be a cop - girl argues with boy and breaks up. Boy becomes a policeman and got his ass whooped and killed. Gets resurrected and becomes like a phantom with supernatural powers. Basically can't die. Takes on the name of THE SPIRIT and plays the good cop fighting baddies. Only fights in the night time, apparently. Goes on a quest to kill the main bad guy called THE OCTOPUS.
Gabriel Macht plays The Spirit - you never get to see his actual face because he always keeps his mask on. But google is your friend, so consult google if you wanna know. The Spirit basically is the guardian of his beloved city and goes around whooping asses all night, never in the day - apparently it is always at night there. That's why when he says, "My city screams!", he actually meant that there was a crime happening somewhere.
Think of it as a clumsier, less cooler but more comical version of Batman.
You get your usual superstar lineup of Eva Mendes, Scarlett Johansson and Samuel L. Jackson! He plays The Spirit's arch-nemesis, The Octopus.
When I first saw the cast lineup, I was expecting some really kickass show with lots of cool fight choreography and stuff. You can't really go wrong with Samuel L. Jackson as one of the main stars. But what I got was a really, really strange show indeed! I won't call it silly - but rather, visionary. Because none of us probably have the "vision" to create a show such as this.
The setting was made to be very dark and sad, which bears very similar resemblences to Max Payne. The entire show feels like a comic, with the director often opting for C.G.I, cartoon-styled graphics to occasionally blend in with some scenes. It was really weird the first time I saw it.
It also took awhile for me to start appreciating most of the jokes in the movie. It was like you needed a moment to start grasping on the concept and style of the director. I saw some people walking out of the cinema like after half an hour as well! I can absolutely say this movie is not for everyone.
While I think that some of their jokes are genuinely funny, there are some that were so lame, it made me look cool! I am a rather lame person by nature, and if I can say that the movie is lamer than me, then something ain't right here! It is like our high-school days where we crack super lame and dumb jokes - you can find some of these in the movie as well!
The lines are somewhat corny and crude. I suppose that this is the style that the director was aiming for, but I couldn't help but to feel a little lost sometimes. Some of it were even worst than the lines in Spiderman! But hey, the director is a visionary guy and I'm a nobody, so who am I to comment?
Verdict Overall, while this movie did provide much laughter and fun (because it is partially a comical movie, in a strange way), it did left me torn between deciding whether this movie was good or bad. Sometimes I found it interesting and amusing, other times I found it boring and dull. The plot was rather lame as well!
That is why I shall put this movie as: The Strangest Movie I Have EVER SEEN THIS YEAR!
I'm referring to this year's Comic Fiesta event, of course. Unfortunately I wasn't the "official blogger" - yeah they have these titles to let certain people cover on the event. But fear not, even though I was not bestowed the title of official blogger, I was given another duty - The Official Photographer!
For those that do not know, Comic Fiesta is a yearly event organized by fans, for fans. It is the most largest otaku event in Malaysia and there are alot of cosplayers, doujins (amatuer artists), games, fun and anything to do with manga, anime and whatsoever!
Yea, so I just came back from the event and it was certainly one of my most interesting photoshoot to date. With so many cosplayers (people who dress in costumes of characters, usually in game, anime, etc), I was spoilt for choice to choose my models! Alot of girls were cosplaying as GUY characters and guys pula go and cosplay as girl characters! Some were hilarious, but some were just plain scary!
We had so many people from all over South East Asia! Visitors came in thousands and the crowd was massive - plenty of fishes out in the sea, eh?
I can't wait to share my pictures here, but unfortunately I am bounded by the 'invisible rule' that I cannot post up any pictures during this 1 week duration. I need to send my edited photos for them to select to put on their official site at www.comicfiesta.org. But if they get selected, it would mean that I can't share it here because the picture then belongs to them! But if they decide that they have other better pictures, then I get to keep mine!
So see how la in 1 weeks time ok? If it doesn't get selected then you all can see ya.
In the meantime, stay tuned for cosplay galore! Here's a teaser - no prize for guessing what this is!
A few more pics to round up this years PC Fair's babes collection!
Of course, as a Sony user, I must put the Sony's booth babe up first la. But the model was neither hot nor super chun, so I did some minor adjustments.
Okay that pretty much sums up the number/quality of babe models in the year end PC Fair. Looking forward to next year? Me too!
Posted on 2008-12-14, 08:31:04 Filed under: Event Coverage
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