Live-Action deviation

Well well, just watched Death Note 2 - The Last Name a few hours ago. And no, just because i did the reviews for Curse of the Golden Flower and Night at the Museum in the same language as used in the movie, dont expect me to be using jap to review this movie. Well, i would if i had sufficient knowledge of the japanese language, which is obviously far from it.

Now, into the topic proper. As from part 1 of this live-action movie series, manga readers or even anime-only viewers such as myself could tell that the story has been changed (rather) significantly, thus don’t go comparing the manga with the movie.

As I’m only watching the anime version of Death Note and it’s only shown to a little more than movie 1, I dont truly know how far the story has deviated at the end of the live-action series so I guess it wouldn’t really affect my judgement for this particular movie.

For the most part of the movie, it is rather logical and easy to follow assuming u’ve watched the first one. Those who are watching part 2 as their first encounter with Death Note series may find themselves lost because many things about the Death Note aren’t explained clearly in DN2 as it was already done so in part 1. Good choice as it will waste a lot of screen time explaining everything over again. As it is, i think the ending was kind of rushed so that the movie can be ended and not drag into 3hours or longer. Instead, they (producers) recapped on some of the basic rules of the Death Note at the starting of this movie, for the benefit of those who only came in contact with the first part and neither the manga/anime.

Following that, the story resumes with Kira getting into the investigation team and how the 2nd Kira (Misa) came into the picture, and finally interacting with Kira. Many things happened in the course of the story but somehow the battle of wits part is much more rushed compared to the 1st part. It didn’t have the similar kind of atmosphere as in movie 1 and i had the feeling of being more “spoon-fed” with the on-goings. Once again, good for those who cant figure out things fast enough but to many i’m sure it kind of lacked the “kick”. For the majority part of the movie, it flowed pretty well even though clearly it’s a version that the production team has come up with. Unfortunately, the ending wasn’t nicely done. Blatant continuity errors took place. *note: the following may contain spoilers*

1) The Death Note that Light took at the end is a fake (swapped by Watari on 2nd day of Misa release as explained by L). So how does Light see Ryuk again? He did not touch Ryuk’s Death Note ever since he gave up the ownership. Even when he wrote the name of Takada Kiyomi using the piece of Death Note in his watch, he didn’t actually come into contact with the paper. Only his needle-like thing came into contact. Even if u say it’s his blood, the blood already out of his body liao so I dont think it works that way? Haha. So the ending is kinda flawed, no doubt at the very end he got touch the paper. He was able to see Ryuk too early~.
2) After Ryuk wrote Light’s name in another of his Death Note (this part not explained in movie why Ryuk got so many Death Notes), yes, Light did have a heart attack, but somehow Light has a very very strong heart/body as he is able to mumble so many sentences before dying when throughout the rest of the 2 movies, all victims that died through the cause of heart attack didn’t last even a quarter as long. I know for it’s for drama, but still the difference is too great to be forgiven. Haha.

Overall, this production is the best Live Action (from manga/game) i’ve seen. Though sadly, the image of Light i get in the anime is very much different from the Live-Action. And i think the acting of L is great, it’s no wonder there are rumours out there that there will be a spin-off Death Note movie with the focus on L. (with his great acting and great earnings from cinemas)
I would give it 3/5 (0.5 taken away because of the flawed ending.)

*End of review*

I am pretty sure there are other errors in the movies, but hey, i dont go to watch a movie SPECIALLY for finding faults and errors in the movies. Of course, there are always debatable actions of the characters in the movie. Like how Light didn’t confirm L’s “death” by checking his breathing/pulse and totally trust the sensor set up by L himself. Such things, imo, aren’t really blatant mistakes and they do happen in majority of movies/drama.

Now in response to mistakes that Ken spotted, i have the following to comment. Relevant for ken to understand only. (just lazy to retype what he wrote. but too long to leave it on his tagboard. lol)
1) The fact is that Japan has both Left and Right Hand Drive, as explained on Wiki.
2) Firstly, dont compare with manga. Obviously it’s changed in the Live-Action adaptation, so dont go commenting who was supposed to change the rules etc. Next, at the end, L explained that on the 2nd day Watari already swapped the Death Note that Misa possessed (which is then Ryuk’s Death Note.), so L can just happily look at the rules written in Ryuk’s version as he translated the rules into English for ease of use for the owner, which he would then deduce the 13 day rule is a fake. Now as to why Jealous’ Death Note had rules written in English. When Light told Rem to add in a fake 13 day rule, obviously Rem is going to write in a language that a Japanese would be able to read, if not Rem wouldn’t be able to execute Light’s plan (which he did explain to Rem before he went onto self-torture) and help Misa. So it’s only logical that the language the rules are written in would be something the next user can understand as Rem is supposed to save Misa. Thus, isn’t really oversight.

i guess i shouldnt be watching any more movies this year. (only 2 days to the new year~ duh). anyway, i should be sleeping soon. another day (or half) of lesson ahead of me.

p.s. won 50k in Gunbound lucky draw last night and none today. Kind of balances out huh. Lol.

Finally up again

Yeah, here i am again, after some downtime faced ytd, as affected by the aftermath of taiwan earthquake. Even though the sites that i frequent all can surf/login liao, i can still feel that the net isn’t as smooth as before since the rerouted traffic is congested too. Condolences to the victims and hope things will resume soon (in weeks, yea).

Nothing much happened these few days. Almost done with my video. No idea when i’ll upload it even if i get it encoded and done soon given that the net is kinda unstable now. When that time comes u can expect some screencaps and link(s) posted here in an entry, but till then, i guess it’ll just sit in my hdd. Heh.

Hmm, i almost completed tc4 leh. =( the lass boss had 1.5 life bar (out of 9) left. if i dont make stupid mistakes, i should be able to complete the next time round =) then some mastery will come after that. haha.

sigh, now i dont know if i can get to watch DN2 tmr. hope things can be settled and decisions can be made fast… bleh.

What Boxing Day Means To Me

Actually, boxing day was never a so-called special occasion. Heck, even X’mas day wasn’t any special this year. Basically spent the most of today and last night editing my video. Yeah, it’s still not done. I wonder why I spend so much time on it, and yet it still turns out to be not very satisfactory. Haha, perhaps I set a much higher standard to expect of myself with each video so I might never be satisfied with my own work. Expect some screencaps soon (and maybe links to download) as I am approaching the final phase of editing liao. ^_^ Just get over and done with this thing so that I can move on and do other things.

It’s about 5d2h to a brand new year, and I’ve yet to think about what I want to achieve in the coming year. Wait, have I really set goals/targets for the coming year before? Hahaha. Finding a job should be on my list of things to do next year. Confirm will get nagged at if I’m not working till I go uni (late July). Then again, things that I plan to do tend to end up being uncompleted or simply ignored all together. I guess being spontaneous is part of my personality, rather than planning far ahead for most things. Of course, sometimes I do plan ahead, but the former occurs more often than the latter, heh. Anyways, I just hope the year ahead will be good overall (GST hike is gonna be a pain.).

I should be watching Death Note 2 - The Last Name some time this week, so you can expect yet another review up on this really boring/lame blog. Haha. So long for now~

Some CMVs to intro this X’mas!

It’s X’mas already and I’m here to share some CMVs that have been released recently. First up would be FreeMax Combo Union’s first CMV.

There are some nice combos in there, although the editing may be a bit dizzy for some people during some parts in the video. U can get it here. It is a 8m5s video and requires winzip/winrar etc to unzip (duh) and requires Real Player (or suitable alternatives) to play this video (as usual with most Chinese productions.)

Next up, Ralphcai’s 1st CMV.

Honestly, i’ve never seen him around much on the bigger chinese kof forums, but hey he’s a pretty good combo maker (hopefully he does it with legitly with his own 2 hands instead of messing with hexadecimal codes). The editing is also pretty cool for a first timer releasing CMV (i’m assuming he no other alias that has released CMVs before). Do check it out here. Requirements to play this video is same as above.

Last but not least, it’s Hinako’s 8th CMV!!!

For those who have actually read my entries in the past/active in such stuff (i doubt so), you would have definitely seen the name before. This time, Hinako’s back with a CMV on Matrimlee, a game which i never went into proper, but it’s good stuff (editing wise i can still appreciate. and combos wise are from the people who actually play this game.). Requirements are still the same (yea, what were u expecting?) and u can get it here.

p.s. i got 20k from GunBound lucky draw again. oh and i won the first match in Fantasy Cup. Yay x 2. Merry X’mas To All! Wonder when i can “advertise” my own CMV here. (i hear someone saying “Go finish up the editing lah u lazy bum!!!”)

Comments on Curse of the Golden Flower

几个钟头前刚看了这部电影。一开始看就了解问什么这部电影制作费那么高。不知多少的道具是用金做的。服装华丽，主角的灰甲据说非常之重，是用纯金制作的。不止那样，请的临时演员可真多。皇宫里那么多奴婢，那么多守卫。个个都穿着看似相同的服装。再便宜加起来也需要花不少钱吧。场景的布置也毫不马虎，做的十分华丽，尤其是那一大片的菊花。宫里的布置也装饰的漂亮，的确像是皇族住的。

故事方面的却是没什么新颖的，也没什么令人想继续看下去。从某个角度来看，是有点像夜宴。到底说它的概念都源于相同的故事。那么，到底看这部电影是要看些什么呢？周润发和巩俐的演技当然是不错的啦，没什么好辩论的。至于不是演绎出道的周杰伦，演技当然没有前辈们的那么精湛，不过看得出他已经尽全力了。至少我认为比头文字D好多了。可是他始终不像是太子，也不像是个将军。呵呵，没办法。

那么就说说影片的整体吧。很明显地，张艺谋这次是专门为了照顾老外而制作这部电影的。片尾的出现的演员表和制作组，都以双语的方式呈现；华文的在左边，英文的则在右边。电影里的字幕的准确性是相当完美的，片尾曲(菊花台)的歌词也附有英文翻译。总觉得这样并不好，给人一个很假的感觉，好像是纯为争夺老外的欢心而制作的。（也许这是真正的原因。）有些地方还看得出是分开来拍摄的.因为演员的服装/头饰或者是化装都有了一些不一样的地方,有的时候还挺明显的呢.制作组应该多注意这些细节吧.

总的来说,这并不是必看电影之一,不过我个人觉得比Eragon好.呵呵.我给这部黄金甲3/5的评价.

Minor Tweaking

Did some very minor tweaks to my blog. Shouldnt see very much change. XD

edit: i just broke my minesweeper record for expert. 84s!!!! (but i still way far off world record leh)

Short Movie Review

Caught this comedy earlier this afternoon with Stan and Jeff. Well of course, when one is watching a comedy, watch it with a relaxed and open mind. If you want to scrutinise it, well definitely there are questionable areas. Come on, I never really go look out for errors but i spotted quite a few errors in the Chinese subtitles, like using a WRONG CHAR NAME not just once but a few times. Amazing. Those 错别字 suddenly didn’t seem so bad (but it’s still bad ok!)

Ok, with that aside, the movie imo is entertaining and there’s really comical and funny scenes that will make you laugh. The cast played quite an important role in achieving that. With Ben Stiller as the lead actor, together with the support of Owen Wilson and Robin Williams and this Roman dude (sorry i dont know his real name.), you should already expect this to be a decently good show.

Overall, I enjoyed this show much more than Eragon (which had dont know how much more publicity). Those who are still deciding whether to catch this movie, I would suggest just go watch it =) My rating 3.5/5. (if u’re wondering, Eragon is either a 2 or at best 2.5)

p.s. i won 20k gold at GunBound lucky draw again. and need to play more for GW event. and finish up my video. And. And. And. And. hic.

Enough for Winter Bells (i hope)

Been playing a tad too much Winter Bells (see link in earlier entry). I guess 16 trillion should be enough. Time to quit this game and move on with life. Hah. (Right, do i have a life?)

I know it’s kinda unclear so do click on the link to see the full picture. Okay, everyone please DO NOT beat that score to tempt me back into the game. Haha just kidding, if u all wanna beat, go ahead…. I think i really had more than enough le.

update: sigh, looks like i gotta challenge the quadrillion barrier.

Records as of 21 Dec ‘06

for own reference. not much progress this month

Kakuro: 1m13s (14 Dec 06) *new* (slashed 1sec >_<)

Sudoku:
Easy: 1m38s (25 Jun 06)
Medium: 2m20s (30 Sep 06)
Hard: 5m1s (22 Jun 06)
Evil: 5m43s (31 May 06)
Diabolical (from su-doku.net): 7m37s *new category* added 11 Nov 06

Minesweeper:
Easy: 5s
Intermediate: 31s  *new* 27/11/06
Expert: 94s *new* 21/12/06 (slashed 2s)

Warning Forever (in millions, will update exact when i feel like it):
Normal: 27
Custom: 81.325100, stage 30, 29 deaths, 29m34s09 Winterbells: 16,814,662,355,140 (16 trillion)

p.s. YAY i just won 50k gold from the GunBound lucky draw. WHEE

Nearly 2 weeks

That’s how long I’ve ORD-ed and yet, it feels much longer than that. Perhaps the taste of “freedom” is really good or maybe it’s simply because I never really had the chance to do whatever I want for 2 full weeks (including the period of clearing leave/off).

anyway this game is kinda addictive… haha. http://ferryhalim.com/orisinal/g3/bells.htm