The Following

Am gonna talk about a tv series today as i don't think i'll have time to do so tomorrow.

The tv series i'm introducing today is The Following. Ya, pretty dark and violent drama again lol.

The story is about how a serial killer manages to manipulates other people and make them do things including killings for him even when he's in jail. The main protagonist is a ex-FBI agent who caught the serial killer and put him into the jail. Very organised and structured drama, lots of good actings. I would say it can become the next best thriller drama tv series.

Although it only has one season now, the 2nd season is already in plan and gonna be released next year i think. I'm now at the episode 8 season 1 and is totally drawn into the plot and amazed by how detailed and brilliant the serial killer is. Well, he obviously has no empathy for people and is so good at giving people what they want, which makes him a total psychopath. A charismatic one.

I think they did a good job in recruiting the actors and actresses. They are all great for their characters and performed amazingly, especially the killer.

The story makes me think about how a religion can affect someone and the belief in the wrong thing can be deathly. Oh well, i can't really judge people in what they believe in but i have to say the followers of the killer definitely put in lots of faith in him to treat him as a god.

Cool drama but i guess it's for 18 and above since it's quite violent.

Dexter

It's Friday!

Saw lots of my coursemates posting how scared and nervous they are for the pre-registration exam in UK today, makes me feel depressed. Well, obviously it's because i still waiting for the pre-reg training in Malaysia and they are already 80% done with theirs. How irony, i was like the top student in my class but end up so much slower in progress in being a registered pharmacist. This lesson teaches me that top student is definitely not everything. It's more about attitude and character of a person rather than the results he can get. But well, at least i know it now and i know what i want. Rather than struggling in a high pressure oven, i choose to slow down my pace and think about what i want really. I guess it was still a good call. Thank god i skipped class, so that i have this extra time to think.

Well, today, i'm gonna introduce a rather violent US series, Dexter.

It's one of my favourite detective/police drama apart from Criminal Minds. And yes i hate CSI and NCIS. Dexter is about a guy who works in Police department as a forensic guy focusing on blood spatter. Aside from his routine job, he is also a serial killer that takes down other serial killers. The drama is about how he balances his life between being a normal person and a serial killer and how struggling sometimes it can be.

There are 7 seasons to date and the 8th season, which is also the finale season will start airing on 30th June, this Sunday =) So excited that it is gonna start again but on the other hand it's kinda sad to know it's the last season already. It's like House MD, i was so into that drama and suddenly it ends. I guess things are better off if you end it when it's great. Rather than making some shitty episodes, they choose to end it before the reputation gets bad. Wise.

The legacy of Dexter! People that are killed by Dexter and these are not all. Particularly love the interaction between him and the Trinity killer. On the other hand, love the actor playing Dexter's son, Harrison. He's such a cutie pie!

Not gonna do any spoilers, but if you love serial killers and don't mind to see lots of blood and other disgusting violent stuff, please do try watching this series.

Man Of Steel

Despite the worsening of the haze which reached PSI 401 today at extremely hazardous level, I guess you guys still deserve a little bit of entertainment. I guess watching movie in a cinema will be relatively safer.

Movie of the week - Man of Steel!

Well as most people already know, it's actually Superman movie. It's like Batman, they called him the dark knight, and now Superman is man of steel. I think it's actually quite cool. And everything he does make sense in the movie. I think Nolan did a good job again after batman series. He is always able to turn a story into his own and make it interesting to watch.

It's actually quite fun to interpret some of the superman's move. He was not flying, he just experience a relatively weak gravity force compared to his own planet therefore the force used to jump is relatively greater. I believe he jumps normally in his own planet haha. Everyone is superman in his hometown lol. His suit is actually cooler in this movie.

Find the movie v touching especially at the front part where his parents have to send him to earth. And in the end part, i actually find the bad guy kinda sad. He is not exactly evil, he's just raised to protect his people and it was his responsibility to find a new place for his people. That was his designated destiny. Like many of us, we are controlled by a lot of things most of the time and are raised to be certain type of people. It's not like some people are bad, it's just the way we are raised is different. We are all good in the beginning of life. I believe this movie sends this message very clearly, which is a success.

Well in conclusion, i find it to be a great superhero movie. It makes people think. Kinda like The Dark Knight with Joker as the bad guy. Less of a commercial movie compared to Avengers or Ironman.

Kazoku Game (The Family Game)

Look how fast time can pass, it's Friday already! Or some people might say, finally it's Friday.

One last Japanese drama to introduce for this season, and the season is almost over as most of the dramas have now reached the finale ep or 2nd last ep. The drama i'm introducing today is a very intense family drama. At first i wasn't sure if i like it or not, but after watching it for all this while, i guess it is a good drama. It teaches us a lot of things, tell us how important it is to take responsibilities and how important it is to care about people around you.

Kazoku Game. Or translated in english as The Family Game.

It is a story of a family which looks very glamorous and peaceful in other people's eyes. But the family is not happy with the youngest son as he has very bad results at school and reluctant to go to school. So one day they hire a tuition teacher to help with the study of the youngest son. This story is about how a tuition teacher can turn the family upside down and force them to realize the family is not as perfect as they think.

The actor playing the tuition teacher is from my favourite Japanese boy group Arashi. Sakurai Sho has shown his potential in acting since his leading role in The Quiz Show 2. He plays the psychotic role so well. I find him to be the smartest guy in Arashi as he not only take initiative in being the hosts in their shows and is also a news reporter. He has the most variety of jobs among the other members of Arashi i would say.

Another great actor in this drama would be Kamiki Ryunosuke, who act as the big brother in the family, who is smart but don't believe in anyone else including his family. This kid is totally a diamond in acting. He is good in almost every roles that he played in and always make a great impression to people regardless he is the lead character or a special guest for just one episode.

Well, that's all that i will say and hope you guys will watch the drama and maybe learn something from it. It is a great drama to be watched and also think about ourselves and our life after watching.

EXTRA: Update Review Of Galileo 2

Watching Ep 09 and finally realized they actually did the story in the book again! I have to say the 2 eps that follow the book story is so much more interesting =) Both involved another scientist as the killer which were kinda cool.

Also Ep 08 is quite good too. Mainly the acting performance of the killer.

Oh and i just google the series and realize the last ep, which is Ep 10 will be the most interesting story! Read the novel and found that story really good. Although the trick revealed is not much of a physic stuff.

Follow Up: Galileo 2 & Last Cinderella

konichiwa! I'm pretty sure i'm sort of late for today's post because i was so amazed by how Dr Oz used his charm to attract housewives to watch or even go to the show lol. People who are interested in him can surely google about him. BUT, he is not the main focus today.

Today, i'm gonna just do some follow-up reviews on the dramas i introduced previously including <Galileo> and <Last Cinderella>.

Ok, as i mentioned before, i recommended <Galileo> but i said i need more time to review on it's sequel <Galileo 2>. And, after 2 more episodes, i really think that it is not as good as the first season, mainly because of the scripts. The actors and actresses are all as brilliant as ever but the story is kinda weak as it is not very consistently interesting. The latest episode, i find it to be very boring. It was basically just a detective show which has nothing to do with physics. Very disappointing.

But the one before that was quite good actually. Well, i understand that it is very difficult to produce a story that use physics to solve a murder case as physics is not an interesting subject for me in school. Things about waves and electricity, those were the dull topic but they manage to make it little bit more applicable to everyday life and bring out the consequences of using illegal walkie-talkie. And the non-physics storyline was very touching as well. Japanese are really good at emphasizing family love. They can warm your heart and make you cry.

Anyway, <Galileo> was definitely a 8.5/10 but <Galileo 2>, it's around 6 or 6.5/10 up till now.

Ok, time to switch the channel to the romantic comedy!

<Last Cinderella>, my last review was mainly on the actors and actresses. After a few more episodes, i still find it interesting. The story was, well i can't say it is completely original, but i see some variations in the usual romantic comedy framework. Till now, i still can't figure out which guy will the lead actress pick in the end, but that's actually quite normal for japanese drama. I like the chemistry between all the actors and actresses including those less important characters.

Little bit of spoiler here! I was surprised in the last week's episode. When Sakura went to see Hiroto's competition, she suddenly became unconscious when he won the competition. I thought she faint of exhaustion or being too worried, and i was expecting Hiroto to send her back home or to the hospital. However, SURPRISE! She was merely falling asleep =.= I was totally tricked yet totally in love with this kind of surprise haha.

<Last Cinderella> will worth around 7.5/10 at this moment and it's definitely one of best but not the best's best. Hope to get more surprises in the coming episodes!

And here comes to an end of this post and hope you guys have a wonderful weekend =)

When Detective Met With Weather Girl - Otenki Onee-san

TGIF!

As people might know, Japan has a few main genre of drama that will always be a success which includes what i called "MDS" - Medical, Detective and School. Undeniable, they do produce good medical and detective dramas. Not sure about the school type as i don't really like to watch school-age actors/actresses acting cute.

As there are a lot good Japanese writers who write detective stories, the dramas will often bought the copyright and use the stories. In result of that, the story itself will be very interesting already. Plus some good actors/actresses, it is quite difficult for the drama to be not good. Of cos, i'm talking mainly about the 9pm to 10pm drama, which they call it the "popular time period" as a lot people will be at home watching tv around that time.

So, today i will introduce another detective type drama which is newly released this Spring - <Otenki Onee-san>, which can be translated into The Weather Girl (Sister).

The lead actress is very popular in tv series recently, Emi Takei she acted mostly as lead characters in the dramas she participated in. She was first noticed (by me) when she acted as the supporting character in a romantic drama starring Miura Haruma and Erika Toda. Her best acting skill was unleashed, in my opinion, when she acted as two twin sisters who have extremely different characteristics in <W no Higeki> (Tragedy of W). And guess what, she is only 19 years old!

Anyway, in this new drama of hers, she acts as a genius meteorologist who got her licence at age 11 and now work as a weather girl in a morning tv show. She gets to know a rookie detective during an investigation. Because of her extensive knowledge of the weather, the rookie detective always approach her to ask for help solving the cases he has.

The overall atmosphere of this drama is relatively relaxing and funny compared to other serious detective drama. All the characters in the drama have their own distinctive attitude and this creates an interesting interactions between the characters.

Japanese always know how to input creativity into dramas, they already tried collaborating detective element with all sorts of stuff, e.g. food, physics, etc. Now, time for weather to take part in the reasoning process!

I find it quite interesting to watch, as they also do a simplified animated explanation when they talking about the weather phenomena.

Hope you are now interested and planning to start watching Episode 1 =)

The Black Monday

As some people are awared that yesterday was the voting day for Malaysia General Election 13, I went back to my hometown in muar to vote with my parents.

We woke up at 6.30 am so that we can vote early. Picked up my grandparents and went to the voting centre. A lot of ppl are already queuing. I was at the youngsters line as I think they arrange the queue according to age. We were excited because most of us are first time voters. The guy in front of me said he just came back from china on Saturday purely to vote. Although we dunno each other, we chat happily just because we have the same goal which is to transform malaysia to a better place by using our precious vote.

I inked my finger and checked my vote. Just to make sure I did everything correct. After voting, I can see a lot of ppl complaining their blue ink had already 50% gone. Some even manage to clean their finger spotless clean outside the voting centre. Well, although the newspapers and radios keep saying the ink is indelible, we are know what is the truth in our heart. 5 million ringgit is used to bought all the indelible ink. I believe there are real indelible ink in some area but maybe they blur and mistakenly used other ink, I dunno. Or maybe according to news on tv, apparently they nv shake the bottle properly.

Anyway, we are glad we voted. We can see all the supporters cheering on the street and its really like a big family. People with PAS flags are inside the bak kut teh shop (non-halal). Malays, Chinese and Indians all cheering for the same party. I'm proud of my people.

We went back to jb to have dinner and quickly rush home to check the voting result. The voting centre closed at 5pm, some earlier. The result start coming out at 7 plus or 8pm. All the results came out were from Sarawak, ppl there are very efficient. And as predicted, bn won most seats. However, results from west malaysia keep on delaying and delaying and delaying. During first count, according to unofficial results, PR won a lot of seats. They gain more than half state seats in Penang, selangor, perak, negeri sembilan, kelantan and Terengganu. Then suddenly, a lot of places blackout. People at those scenes saw cars trying to break into the counting centre. People took picture of boxes of mysterious votes in those cars. And suddenly, ppl who leads by 1k plus votes lost by 300 votes. We all know what happen, we just couldn't believe it.

In the end PR only gets 3 states and lost the parliament seats fight. People were pissed, frustrated, sad, disappointed on Facebook.

This election is transparent, because we all see what happens, regardless good or bad.

This election is a wake up lesson for us, first time voters. I believe a lot of us only start looking at politic stuff because of the election. Our parents always say politic is complicated, can get ugly and can be shocking. Now we know how ugly and shocking it can get.

Transformation is a long time fight. People have to continue making effort despite of the loss this time. It's like life, you have to try harder and harder each time no matter how hard u hit the ground and break ur nose.

I believe Malaysians are now stronger and united after the GE13. And we still hope for a better future.

Galileo the Detective

Yo TGIF again! Anyway, due to the overcrowded queue getting tickets for Iron Man 3, i didnt manage to watch it last weekend, therefore no IM3 today =(

So, i'll introduce dramas instead!

Hope you guys enjoy Japanese drama cos I really love it haha. I'm currently self-studying Japanese so that i know how to read them. By the way, due to the excessive exposure to J-dramas, animes and shows, I have successfully learn to listen and speak Japanese (elementary level). So now i'm gonna learn how to read and hopefully i can go Japan and live a life of a Japanese over there. How exciting!

Anyway, today my recommended drama will be < Galileo> (ガリレオ). Recently <Galileo 2> is out so i thought i will recommended the series as the 1st season was good.

The story is basically about a young female police who has to deal with smart killers who used tricks to complete unexplainable crimes. Therefore she seeked help from a physicist in the well-known university in Japan. The physicist will use his knowledges to help coming up with a scientific explanation for the crime. The chemistry between the 2 lead characters is fun and interesting, which also spice up the story.

This drama is based on the detective novel <探偵ガリレオ> written by one of my favourite Japanese writer Higashino Keigo (東野圭吾). He's like the famous famous writer who has a lot of his stories used to produce dramas and movies. And because of his great stories, a lot of great actors/actresses will participate in the dramas/movies.

I will recommend to watch the first season because it is great. There is also a movie <Suspect X> followed by the drama due to the great positive reviews, which is mainly about the physicist and his old friend aka the killer, who is a genius in mathematics. That is also a great movie because i was pretty surprised when the trick of manipulating the alibi was revealed.

I'm not too sure about the 2nd season yet. Till now there is 3 episodes and i find the interaction between the new female police (new original character made up just for the TV) and Galileo is very funny and interesting, but the story itself is kinda boring. Don't think the story is anymore based on the novel as I have read the whole Detective Galileo series and the story is different. There is no more simple tricks but 2 out of 3 episodes the trick is relying on the machine or device the killer has. So ya, not a big fan of it now, maybe wait for a few more episodes to determine whether it's good.

Just want to release some frustration or i'll go crazy

Well, i'm supposed to talk about the pizza i made during the weekend as promised in the <coming up next> post. But i just had a fight with my mum and would like to complain about it for a bit.

Well, my mum is an old-fashion v disciplined madam. She likes to view things as only RIGHT and WRONG. So yes, she judges everything she sees everyone she meets in her heart. We used to get into a lot of quarrels. By that i mean A LOT. We used to fight every single day when i was in high school, not so much in uni as i was away from home. And now when i came back from overseas, i seriously can't stand her. One of the reason is that i can't face the fact that she is getting older and act like a crazy old woman. She used to be a wise person, good manners, have good relationship with her colleagues. Now, she only mixes with 60+ year old people. She has no more friends at her age due to her attitude. I wanted to make her realizes that she can't make it a habit to correct everyone when people say something negative. It's like she wants to be this moral police and blow whistle when people say something that she doesn't agree with. She's like the politician who has hold the power for too long and getting terrified that people AKA me might overpower her. Well, that's how life goes on! When you're old, you admit it and pass over the decision maker position to other people. She just couldn't take it.

Anyway, what happen just now was i trying to reorganise my cupboard in the washroom, then i realize she has lots of unused rubbish (or maybe not) in the cupboard which makes it very messy and crowded. So i took out her stuffs and shift all to the small living area where she stored hundreds of hotel toiletries collected by my dad and her. She got angry and said i shouldn't throw away her stuff without asking her and nagged for 10 minutes (?). Well i didn't say anything as i wasn't prepared to quarrel. Silence is golden. Totally applicable to my situation. Then, she came into the bathroom. So i started to defend myself. I wasn't throwing her stuff, i was merely shifting them to another place and when i finish everything i'll ask her if she still want those stuff. Well, she definitely didn't agree with me as she starts rising her voice saying i should ask her to come pick up her stuff instead of shifting them by myself cos I'm being rude. Ok, I DON'T UNDERSTAND. This is my room, and somehow she storing her unused stuff in my room is perfectly ok and i CAN'T TOUCH THEM?! She said i wasn't using the room when i was in uni so she store everything in my room, and now as i'm back, I SHOULD INFORM HER I NEED TO USE THE SPACE IN MY ROOM then she'll arrange her stuff to other place. I'm totally lost. And then after a few more sentences by her, i get it. What she meant was: THAT WAS NOT MY ROOM, IT WAS HERS!

Well, i guess she still wants to be in control of every single tiny unimportant things in this freaking house. When she lost it she'll scream and shout and snatch everything back. I'm not sure if it's pathetic or crazy. And guess what, this incidents just show like 1/100 of her.

Thought i'll go crazy sooner or later. DAMN.


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Another fight goes on. I'm not a freaking thoughts detector or some psychic, so stop acting like you're disappointed when i didn't do stuff that you think i should do IN YOUR BRAIN. If you want me to do something, JUST SAY IT! Just face it, we are not a perfect family so stop fantasizing me and dad to be perfect daughter and perfect husband. We are normal humans not ACTORS.  And what? I can't even complain to myself when i'm frustrated? Fine, i'll find somewhere you can't hear to complain. The problem is, YOU ARE EVERYWHERE!

Now i have a headache because anger is over-filling my brain.

"Penny, I'm Really Glad I Know You."

It's Friday Friday gonna get down on Friday~

Found a link to watch <Seeking a Friend for The End of The World> few days ago and finally watched it yesterday! It was a movie that i wanted to watch last year when i saw it's poster, but didnt get the time to do so therefore slowly it slipped off my mind. I was excited when i saw the link and thought i should watch it and see if it's good to be recommended.

Anyway, it was a story about two neighbours who never know each other until the end of the world is around the corner. I find it to be a very touching movie. It's romantic. And it shows that everyone is so lonely that when their time is coming to an end, they freak out and are terrified to be alone. As everybody's clock is ticking, any unusual things and crazy actions are rationalized by themselves.

It's not the kind of blockbuster movie. It doesn't have great explosions or heroic actions. It purely says a story about an average man and a gipsy type of girl. A beautiful story. A comedy, romance, drama and family movie.

SPOILERS ALERT. (Used a dark font everytime for a spoiler is to prevent people from accidentally reading it when they don't want to. Thoughtful? )

Love the first appearance of the dog, Sorry. I mean, the dog's name is Sorry haha. Isn't that briliant? People has problem to apologize and admit their mistakes all the time, and this dog, if you want to call him you have to say SORRY. I find it sarcastic yet heart-warming.

Also love the moment when they fall in love with each other. The music is good. Kinda romantic, kinda brightening their life a little bit. The meeting of father and son was touching as well. The music makes everything better.

Can't believe Dodge send Penny to her family and went back to prepare dying by his own. I almost cried. "All I need is the air that to breathe and to love you..." sings the background music. 

Love all the music in the movie. Vinyl records are vintage and cool. The lyrics of the songs said it all.

Love the last 5 minutes of the movie. The dialogues are amazing.

"I wish I'd met you a long time ago. When we were kids."

"It couldn't have happened any other way. It had to happen now."

"But it isn't enough time."

"It never would have been."

"I though we'd somehow saved each other."

"We did."

Will She Live Happily Ever After?

Yey TGIF!

Anyway, this week is like the premiere week of Japanese drama for Spring 2013. So, I'm excited! Always a fan of Japanese drama but last season i've only followed one drama. As that's the only one i found to be interesting =/

This season is good though, as i have already picked out a few that i will follow. Today i'll introduce one of them which i've already watched the premiere episode -- < Last Cinderella >

It's a romantic comedy which talks about a 39 years old woman who work v hard to live her life but have forgotten about how to have a relationship. Love all the actors and actresses, I've copied down a relationship chart of all characters in this drama hope that can provide some explanations. Watching this drama is very relaxing, which is good for after work hours haha.

The lead actress Shinohara Ryoko has a lot of other famous works such as <Unfair> (still one of my favourite police detective type drama). As for the lead actors, Miura Haruma is one of my favourite young japanese actor. He caught my eyes in <Bloody Monday> which is a thriller about a computer genius trying to stop terrorists. On the other hand, the other guy, Fujiki Naohito he is also my favourite actor too. He was in the drama <Hotaru no Hikaru> acting as a boss of the lead actress and have a funny but romantic relationship with her. I like him more when he's in a romantic comedy.

Miura Haruma took big leap to act as a boy toy kind of guy this time. He surprises me everytime =) He was acting as a teacher last time in another drama while he was only 20 years old. Yes, he's only one year older than me, 23 this year! Such a young and talented actor. He was already in the famous japanese movie series <Yonimo Kimyona Monogatari > in 2011. That is a movie which contains a number of short stories and only invite really famous and good actors/actresses to get involve in.

Anyway, after watching the premiere episode, i believe i will continue to follow this drama as i think it would be interesting to see how a manly middle age woman (SPOILER: she really grows beard in the beginning of 1st ep 0.0) can interact with a boytoy young guy and get into a relationship =)