Dreamgirls

Lately, I've been hearing a lot of good reviews for this film. Personally, I actually never intended to watch this particular film. It didn't jump out to me like the other movies I've watched, but I decided to check it out and the fact that it was showing free at my company. Score!

Dude, I didn't know it was a musical. I freakin love musicals. However, I like old school musicals like Sound of Music and My Fair Lady. If you haven't watched those, check them out. Anyways, Dreamgirls is a film about making it in the music industry. Typical movie about how the industry works. But the thing that makes this movie good is the personal experiences for the members of the group and of the team. Also, the fantastic singing and musical numbers make this film that much cooler. I thought this film was pretty good. I wouldn't watch it a second time, but it's good for a one time run through. The actors in the film were great. Eddie Murphy was the bomb. He is so funny, even though he's not playing a funny role. It's just his face. HAHA comedy. And damn, Beyonce looks freakin gooooood. In the beginning of the film, you see her kind of nasty looking. Then by the end of the film, she's bangin. My only dislikes of the film were that some of the songs weren't that good. Many of them were chill, but some were just watevers. Other then that, definitely check this film out.

Stand Up!!

This is a TV series about 4 schoolboys. They are the last virgins in school. This is the first episode. It's pretty addictive to watch. I hope it turns out to be one of those romance comedies. I love those. Enjoy!

edited January 16, 2007

Crap, didn't know they got rid of the video. I'm pretty sure you can either get the DVD box set or find someone who has the fansubbed version. Ganbatte!

NANA starring Mika Nakashima - Hitoiro

This is a live performance of the theme song to "NANA 2". Enjoy!
She rocks!

Mika Nakashima

I want to meet her once in my life! Marry Me! Oh and NANA 2 is already out. DAMN, can't wait to check that out.

Rinne

So here goes another movie review. For those who don't know. I am a true viewer of horror flicks. If I had to choose, my two most favorite genres are romance and horror. Yes, I am twisted. The only reason why I haven't posted much horror on my site is because there hasn't been any to watch. J-Horror used to be my all time favorite with Ju-on, Ringu, and the rest; however Japanese horror fans, like me, have seen a bit of a drought. There just haven’t been any quality films from Japan or anywhere in the world for that matter. So it pleases me a lot when I do receive a new horror film.

Rinne, or Reincarnation, is psychological horror released from "Ju-on" director Takashi Shimizu. I really didn't know much about this film until I saw the commercial for 8 Films to Die for - After Dark Horror fest on TV. I had to check this film out. The film is crazy. Right from the start, the scaring commences. The film is about, you guessed it, reincarnation. The main character, Nagisa Sugiura (Yûka), is an actress trying to make it in the film industry. She auditions for a film but is saddened that it is another horror film. The director of the film, Ikuo Matsumura, notices something special about Sugiura. Thinking she failed the audition, she soon realizes from her agent that she has landed a roll. That's when strange things start to happen. She notices a young girl with a doll where ever she goes. The script, that she is to star in, is about a true event that happened in the 70's about 11 people who were murdered. She is to play the murder's daughter. At the first rehearsal, she starts getting visions of these murders so real that she would faint on set. At home, she would wake up, not to be in her bed, but in the hotel. This film is just creepy.

I thought this movie was pretty cool. But maybe that’s because I've seen so many duds that this one wasn't that bad, I’m not sure. I really liked how they blended the past and present. It gives you a sense of being trapped. The story was good. I wish they went a little deeper with the characters, but I guess who cares when you’re cringing with fright. Awesome flick. Peep it!

Volver

Volver is another excellent film choice. Honestly, I didn't want to watch this film because I absolutely had no clue what it was about. I was contemplating on what film to see the night of and didn't know exactly what to do. What I really wanted to watch was The Curse of the Golden Flower with Chow Yun Fat. I read some reviews on it and people gave it okay reviews, but then I stumbled upon Volver and it got good ratings. I then find out that Penelope Cruz is in the film. I'm not a big fan of hers. The only movie I really ever enjoyed with her in it is Woman on Top. It's not an Oscar winning film but it's a very fun type movie, with a great soundtrack. Check it out people. So, my movie crew (sister and brother) headed out to check it out! I ended up really liking the film. It's pretty cool. It is a comedy and tragedy combo that works. The story is pretty deep, so I'll do my best to explain the main plot.

Volver, or Coming Back, is a story about death. Well not totally about death but damn does it occur often in the film. The main characters are the two sisters, Raimunda (Penélope Cruz) and Sole (Lola Dueñas) and Raimunda's daughter Paula (Yohana Cobo). Raimunda lives in Madrid where she works as a custodian. Her husband is always drunk at home and is a dead beat. Her sister Sole is a hairstylist who lives alone after her husband left her. The film opens up with the two sisters and Raimunda's daughter tending to their mothers gravestone. After the cleaning, they go to La Mancha, their hometown, to visit their Aunt Paula who is still speaking to their dead mother, Irene, as if she never died. Then Aunt Paula dies and more mystery and suspense endure. But this film isn't a ghost or horror movie. It's a comedy and drama. So yeah that’s the back drop. There’s all this mystery and shit that goes down in the film. I don't want to spoil it so, I'll leave it there. Yeah, sorry my reviews are kind of weak.

Overall, it is an awesome movie for real. It's funny and sad. Oh and there’s this scene where Penélope Cruz lip sings this flamenco song. So cool. I'm a fan of flamenco music. Film didn't seem too long even though it was 2 hours. Go check your local listings, most places won't show this indie film even though I think it kicks most of whatever’s out there's ass!

Favorite quote "With your tits and my drinks, we can make a fortune" (well, it goes something like that. I don't know it exactly, but you'll see it).




edited January 10, 2007


This is the song by Raimunda (Penélope Cruz) in Volver. The actual artist who sings the song is Estrella Morente. Oscar winning performance by Cruz and great singing by Morente. Enjoy

El Laberinto del Fauno

A couple months back I saw this trailer on the Apple movies site. Immediately after watching the trailer, I knew that I had to see this film when it came out. During the Christmas holiday, I was able to find one theatre that was showing this film. My sibs and I went to go check it out and man was I right. I loved it. So here goes the review. The film title actually didn't make much sense to me because the actual foreign title translated would be The Faun's Labyrinth. Who the hell is Pan? The film is set during WW2, 1944 rural Spain to be exact. The main character, Ofelia (she's rad), and her mother are sent to live with her step father in the woods. We then are introduced to this adoptive father who's a military captain tasked with destroying the rebels. Man is this guy a dick and boy is he evil. Also, Ofelia's mother is pregnant with Captain JACK-OFF's kid (his acting is too good really, he makes me hate him). They arrive to the house which is also a fortification where they meet the rest of the characters in the film. Because of the mother's pregnancy and illness, Ofelia is often on her own. In her loneliness, she creates a world filled with fantastical creatures and imaginative destinations. That's basically what the film is about. But it's not totally fantasy. I'd say the film is more 25% fantasy and 75% realism. I’d go deeper into the plot but I don’t want to spoil anything.

Oh, there’s side story that I wanted to share. I went to the theatre during matinee to watch the film. Upon purchase, I asked for 3 tickets. The lady looked at me and asked if she could see my ID. I was like," oh crap, we get a student discount?" She then said, "No, the film is rated R. Can I see some ID?" I was shocked! Shocked! I'm 25 years old. And if you think about it, I'd have to look younger then 17 to be not eligible to watch the film. That lady was dumb. She must have been blind.

So yes, ladies and gentlemen, the film is rated R. You must be wondering why this film is rated R when it's clearly a fantasy film? Boy, are you in for a surprise. This movie is pretty damn gruesome. The characters are cool as hell, but they are pretty creepy looking. But the war scenes are pretty jacked up. People get blown up and stuff and you see it. Cooool! I give the film 2 thumbs way up. Check it out. My favorite scene in the film is task #2 with the retrieval of the dagger. Damn, so cool. Enjoy!

School Rumble Opening Theme

Sorry this will be my last youtube type post. I know it makes the blog run slow. I saw this on Tsuji Eriku's blog and I had to jack him. One of my favorite all time animes. I just started SR 2nd Semester. I hope that turns out good too. Enjoy the music video.

Placebo Gathering - Nindu 2006

HAHAHA I'm just lost for words here, literally. That's because I'm drunk fool. Rockin my Lakers Jersey. PEACE!

New Kids on the Block II - Bboy Jam

This is a bboy jam thats going down on Feb 3rd. It's local of course. The only reason why I'm posting it here is if you look under the panel of judges you'll see my name there. HAHA Killa-B. Yeah, names a bit corny, I know. Also my homies Placebo Effect and Instant Noodles and ETC are gonna rep so keep an eye out for them. Okay that is all.

Letters From Iwo Jima

Happy New Years everyone! I have finally returned. My company gave their employees a whole week off. It was great. I slept all day. I caught up on some reading. I watched a little Trash TV. I even played some Nintendo Wii. I partied like no other. It was awesome. Haha I gave a shitty intro. Okay now on to the blogging.

Letters from Iwo Jima. I really didn't know much about this film other then that Clint Eastwood Directed it and the obvious fact that it is about World War II. Boy was it hard to find a theatre in LA that was showing this film. I guess it's more of an indie film. My brother, sister, and I had to catch it at the Arc Light Cinerama Dome out in Sunset. Tickets cost me 14 dollars. Freakin craptastic. I guess it was kind of cool; you get your own assigned seats. We were ghetto enough to bring in our own diet cokes. Hurray!

The film starts off in the present with the uncovering of thousands of letters of the soldiers who fought on Iwo Jima. Magically, the film travels back 61 years to the soldiers who wrote those letters. Among them are Saigo (Kazunari Ninomiya), a baker who's only purpose is to survive the war to see his unborn kid; Baron Nishi (Tsuyoshi Ihara), an Olympic champion; Shimizu (Ryo Kase), a former MP; and Lt. General Tadamichi Kuribayashi (Ken Watanabe), he's awesome! These guys are the ones that stand out to me, but there are definitely more characters in the film. This is the untold story of the Japanese soldiers and their General who defended against the invading American forces on that island. Each character has their own story and in the film you get in touch with who these people really are. I really enjoyed this film. A picture that shows Japanese soldiers as human beings. One of my favorite scenes is when Baron Nishi speaks with the wounded American captive. True compassion between two human beings. Just awesome.

MGM Holiday Party 06 @ Cabana Club

For the first time in my 2 years at Metro Goldwyn and Mayer (MGM) Corporate, MGM decides to throw a holiday party to end the year. I don't know why we never had one before, ummm, maybe because we were bought out, sold, and then retained and rebuilt had something to do with it. Well, whatever the reason may be, I have to tip my hat off to our CEOs. They really know how to throw a party. The secret location of the party was at the Cabana Club. Included in our package were free valet and a free 40 dollar taxi voucher incase you were too intoxicated to drive home. Ohh and the best thing was, free booze and food till 10pm. As you can see in these photos, I was tore up. But I had a romping good time.

My main mission of the night was to have fun and hang with my friends. But, honestly, I wanted to meet some of the hot employees and temps that work in our building that I have not meet before. Sorry to say, I met a few (MERCEDEZ) but there actually weren't many. Either way, I still met some. HAHA, fun times. Hmmm, I hope I didn't have beer goggles. *Scratch* *Scratch* I was sure faded that night, though. Man, thank goodness for Patrick and Pepcid Complete (I’m Asian and I’m missing an enzyme that helps break down alcohol properly). That really helped me out there. And so did the raw beef and mash potatoes. Nice soaking materials.


I should have brought my camera, me thinks! These photos are courtesy of my friends at work and, I must say, either they are crappy photographers or I just look like shit in every photo. Damn, someone should have told me to fix my hair and my eyes from chinkying up. Oh wells, I just hope they throw another party next year. HAHA That’s if I'm still with the department. PEACE!



MGM CREW 2006

The House of Glam @ Cabana Club

Nov 22nd, me and the fellas roll to the Cabaña Club for some romping good times. Yes, I am wearing a sweater. I was dying in there. And no, I'm not mentally ill. Well, not that I know of. But yeah, the Cabaña is a real cool spot. It was actually my first time there and will definitely not be my last. Glam did this spot justice. What a way to kick off the Thanksgiving holiday. The Cabaña Club has an in door dance area as well as an out door dance area. So if you were baking, like I was, then you'd go out and chill, grab a drink, a little smoke if you smoke, and just enjoy the vibe. There were plenty of hotties to dance with, but Asian girls in LA are kind of harsh. Even if you try, you'd probably get brushed off by most of them. Not all of course, but majority of the Asian fems gives off a snobby demeanor. HAHA But if you’re the man, then you got it easy. Still a challenge for me every time I go out. Till next time. PEACE!

Britney NOOOOO - I Had To!

Well, umm, yeah, umm, gross. Here are shots of Britney's fire hole. It might be old news but it's new news to me. I really don't like posting topics on my blog about things that I have no interest in, but seeing this was a shocker. I had to, no choice. Okay, no more Britney posts. BTW, I loved her MTV performance when she wore the nude bikini thing. HAHA I know what your thinking, eat shit! I have my guilty pleasures too.

Holy Daddy - Korean Film Review

Alright, I'm back. It's been a while since I've posted anything. I blame it all on work. Damn, I've been swamped this whole month. SAWWKS!!! Oh wells, here goes the review. I watch a ton of Korean movies. I don't know how it all got started. I don't even understand the Korean language. However, what I do know is a good movie when I see one. This movie surprised me. I haven't seen any films in quite a while now, so I was very skeptical to watch this film. Maybe because of my low expectations, this movie came out the way it did for me. The film is called Holy Daddy. Seok Jo (Kim Sang Joong) is a gangster in prison. All he wants to do is see his son Won Tak (Lee Min Woo). Ironically on his last day in prison, he dies. Seok Jo is then visited by an angel who tries to take him into heaven. Before departing to heaven, Seok Jo requests one wish, to be his son's best friend. The angel agrees and gives him a second chance to right his wrongs by reincarnating Seok Jo into a teenage boy named Dong Hoon (Ha Dong Hoon).That's as much detail as I am going to get with this film. It's a comedy and drama all rolled into one. I really enjoyed the film, especially Ha Dong Hoon’s character. He is great. Kind of annoying sometimes because he plays a character that isn’t up-to-date on technological advances.This movie is very heartfelt and funny. I liked it a lot. Go and rent it!

Halloween Party 2006 - Finally got the damn pictures.

Yeah yeah, Halloween is over. I know. Damn, it was damn fast too. Here are some pictures that I got from Aimee. So this is of us on saturday night Oct something. We all wanted to go out to a costume party so we all went to Century Club. And no it's not 18+. For some reason, that night only, it was 21+. I thought the party was pretty chill. Very chill, infact. I got my dance dance on. The best costume of the night had to go to the random white guy dressed as TRON. So sick. Had a glowing frisbee and everything. Sorry, I'm just not in the mood to write right now. You can tell by all my ramblings. Alright, happy Halloween. Till Next year, suckas!

Kid Koala - Floor Kids Pt. 1

So I was flipping through youtube and I found part 1 to this whole Floor Kids bboy video. So the two people battling are BBoy Nugs vs BBoy O-live. Part 1 is of Nugs and Part 2 of O-live. I think O-live smoked Nugs. HAHA But yeah, great videos. Check this one out, yo. The art is straight sickness.

Kid Koala - Floor Kids Pt. 2

Sup my peoples! Alright, this video that you are about to watch or have already watched is a bboy cartoon animated by Jonathan NG for Kid Koala's Floor Kids. I hope I got that right. Well, the video is f'n sick. Right now in the bboy community, beat riding is the trend. It is where you hit majority of the beats with footwork tricks ie) cc's, which in turn makes the dance a bit cleaner and more rhythmic. NG does a real good job in this video. Much props. This is by far the freshest cartoon I've seen of breakdancing. I hope he makes more. Enjoy!

A Halloween Story @ MGM

On Halloween day, our department (participations) @ MGM held there first annual Halloween party. It was pretty cool, I'm surprised majority of the workers dressed up. Me and Petey came as Spidermen. HAHA For the entire day, we just f'd around acting like idiots. Even though we were suppose to have worked, we just kinda kicked it, walked around, went to other floors, and got MGM bought krispy kreme donuts in the lobby. For lunch, me, Pete, and Judy went to Chipotle Mexican restaurant for some tacos. Damn, everyone was staring. HAHA I loved it. Sorry, I'm an attention whore. It was cool though, we were the only spirited ones on the street that morning.

At 3 o'clock was when they brought out all the foods and drinks. Well our Vice President is kind of a cheap ass so he brought chips and dip. It was pretty cool, but damn where's the real food nukka! I was freakin sugared out. Nasty. But yeah, it was cool seeing all the different costumes. Everyone loved the two spider people. We were the hit of the party, even though we didn't win for best costume. My friend, Ben, won for his Tim Campbell costume. TC was our beer gut and bald EX VP. :)

This is the whole participations, residuals, and audit team.

Here are some other shots of the department peoples chillin in our meeting room for drinks, food and fun.

The Room - On the Corner of Santa Monica and 14th.

Sup fam! Alright, so I was lucky enough to have been invited to this little gem located in Santa Monica. Man was it hard to find! The entrance is in the back of some shop and the club next door to it doesn't help the fact. However, this place is f'n off the chain. The spot is called "the Room". From my sources, there is also another "the Room" located in Downtown LA, but the one in Santa Monica has really dope music. I'm not 100% sure on what nights they play dope music, but we went on a Friday. So yes, go on a Friday! So what type of music? Well, they started off with a little Groove Theory (hee hee I love thier one hit single "Tell Me"). You know the song. It goes:
-Tell me if you want me to
-Give you all my time
-I wanna make it good for you
-Cuz you blow my mind
-I promise boy that I'll be true
-You're the perfect find
-So tell me if you want me to
Okay back to the topic at hand. They also played a little rare samples from popular tracks and then they hit me hard with the real old school hip hop. Man does it feel good listening to a little Tribe Called Quest now and then. The spot was chill. The occasion? We went for a friend of mine. It was her bday. Nice choice of venue. The crowd was mixed, just how I like it. And if the women are shitty, you still have the atmosphere (dim red lights) and music to vibe off of. For Kevin and I, it was a real chill spot to grab a few beers and mellow out.
But don't get me wrong. I'm a dancer at heart and we got down. Man, this picture looks hella wierd. I look ummm pretty GAY. Yes two thumbs up for this club. If they keep banging out dope music, pretty people, and fresh atmosphere, then you'll be sure to see me there on a weekly basis. HAHA, okay okay it aint super dope. Just something fresh to check out. Highly Recommended. GOOD price too. Holla!

Group Photo 1

Group Photo 2