I treated Ming to a screening of "The Danish Girl" and the movie was his choice. I wasn't surprised that the topic was about transgender and the film tells the remarkable story of Einer/Lili Wegener (played by Eddie Redmayne), the first transgender person to undergo reassignment surgery. The movie is based on a fictitious book by David Ebershoff which was loosely inspired by the lives of Danish painters Lili Elbe and Gerda Wegener.

The film was very picturesque, alluding to the whole idea of a painting and it seemed like there was a constant filter throughout the whole movie. I'm quite sure that this movie will produce some awards this year as Eddie Redmayne as well as Alicia Vikander put up very strong performances as the leads.

I'm very impressed with Redmayne and how he was able to subtlety portray the confusion, then distress followed by determination as he went through the acknowledgement, denial followed by acceptance of how he has always felt like he is a woman. Some critics have slammed the movie for casting a non-transgendered actor in this role but I feel that these critics ought to shut up because it does not matter whether the actor is transgendered or not. What matters more is whether he can act and Redmayne did a splendid job.

It is easy to just see the film as a vehicle to support transgendered people, which is truly is, but what I found more interesting was about the complexity of human gender and sexuality.

In the beginning of the film, we see how in love both Einer and Gerda were, where Einer couldn't keep his hands off Gerda. It was only revealed later that Einer's fondness of dressing up as a girl started when he was a child but this was obviously suppressed by his family and society. However, the love between Gerda and Einer/Lili did not falter throughout this whole transition. Sure, it evolved from romantic love to something else but it definitely was not pure platonic love.

That is the thing which kept me thinking. There are so many transgendered people who have married and have children, while still loving their spouses or ex-partner once they've transitioned. But I could not understand was, assuming that these transgendered people were 'straight', how could they marry someone of the same 'sex' , love their spouses romantically and have children? I would understand if this were 50 to 100 years ago where arranged marriages were common but we're talking about people like Caitlyn Jenner.

To make the whole idea of sexuality more complicated, there was one episode of Oprah that I watched where she interviewed transgendered people and there was a transgendered woman who had been always sexually attracted to women so she concluded that she's lesbian.

Then that brings me to another stream of thought: would you accept a transgendered person as your partner? I asked Ming (who is gay) whether he would accept a transgendered man who is gay. His reply was, "Not really. It would still think that I'm with a woman or lesbian or..." However, I did see a YouTuber who is a transgendered woman and she has a boyfriend who is straight. As for myself, I'm really not sure because intellectually, I think transgendered men would probably be more emotionally vested than straight men but when it comes to raising a family, having a relationship with a transgendered man would mean that I'll not have his biological child. I think to some, it isn't a very big deal but...I can't say that I have very strong opinions/feelings about this.

As you can tell, the movie really got me thinking about how gender/sexuality is actually a spectrum rather than dual but this spectrum is definitely not linear. Regardless, the film's important message was that what was more important is about being true to ourselves and having supportive, loving relationships.

I went to watch "The Crossing" with Ming today despite not knowing much about the storyline/plot because of the following reasons:
1.  It's a John Woo film
2.  Takeshi Kaneshiro

I found it also mildly interesting that the cast is so diverse, with Song Hye Kyo in it together with other big weights such as Zhang Ziyi, Huang Xiaoming, Tong Dawei and Nagasawa Masami. I also knew that John Woo was going to take advantage of Kaneshiro's multilingual abilities to the max in this movie.

"The Crossing" is a 2-part epic that starts at the end of the Sino-Japanese war in 1945 where General Lei (Huang) is a war hero and returns to Shanghai to marry a rich man's daughter (Song). In that last battle, a Taiwanese doctor who was drafted into the Japanese Army (Kaneshiro) is sent to war prison and when he finally is released and returns to Taiwan, he is caught in a lonely world where his Japanese love (Nagasawa) is repatriated and he is seen by some as a traitor due to his time with the Japanese army. The army signaller (Tong), meets Miss Yi (Zhang) one day as part of his ploy to get more rations from the army by pretending that she is his wife. On that day, he ends up falling in love with her but she is on a desperate mission in finding her love, who is in the army but has not written to her for 4 months. There is never any sense of peace because all of this takes place during the Civil War in China.

The movie has an NC-16 rating probably due to all the gore from the war scenes where you see flying bodies and body parts and John Woo does not shy away from the pyrotechnics with all the bombs going off.

I really wonder what's going on in John Woo's mind when he made this film. He's clearly anti-war, judging how the war scenes aren't glorified. He can't help but portray some sympathy to the Nationalist Army who were fighting a losing battle but he tried to balance it out by giving a voice to why the farmers and the poor sided with the Communists during the Civil War. But his ambivalence makes me then think that he's trying to focus on the sob stories that each character tells. However, (this is where I get mad) the script has cheesy lines that no normal human being will say to each other. Especially in those days. I get the romance and play on the weather/plants/gorgeous scenery BUT normal people don't spout out cheesy one-liners about how "you are like this orchid, it's been with me for 3 years and no matter where it grows, it's still beautiful" before staring into each other's eyes deeply and then kissing semi-passionately. The cheese gets cheesier in the scene where Tong suddenly falls in love with Miss Yi. Was it done for comic relief? Hmm...

Another thing that is sadly lacking is the chemistry between the cast. I feel sad/happy on an intellectual level when scenes such as the couples falling in love is supposed to be happy and when someone dies, you go "oh...that's sad." Sadly (pun intended), you do not connect with the characters and you can't empathise nor sympathise with their situation.

To add, the movie had tons of picturesque scenes which were really gorgeous but the treatment of some of them were a bit lacking. It seemed as if those scenes were used simply for the sake of having really gorgeous scenes that can be cut as postcards.

I didn't like how Part 1 ended either. There was a really confusing trailer meant to pique your interest for Part 2 but it was a little out of place from the previous scene where they gave you the sad facts about how many soldiers died etc. Gah. I'm so irritated by the whole thing that I don't know whether the second part is worth watching. Honestly, if I do, it'll just for Kaneshiro-san.

The Cathay had Bumblebee and Optimus Prime displayed so of course, I had to take photos of them and a selfie too!

Ming and I went to watch Transformers: Age of Extinction and I know that there are 2 camps on this movie - those who love it and those who hate it. Reasons why I love it:

1. Megan Fox isn't in it
2. Lots of action with the bots!
3. Cool cars
4. 3 hours = value for money
5. Very cool special effects
6. Mark Wahlberg
7. Li Bingbing was funny
8. Kelsey Grammar as a baddie is soooo good
9. There are dinosaur bots and the autobots poke fun at it

It's an action film so don't think too deeply about it and just enjoy the ride. Sure, it has a super thin plot and some things are just so ridiculous (eg. they had to fly to Beijing first before going to Guangzhou where the actual factory is?). If there's a 5th edition (highly likely), I think I'll still go and watch it. It's just entertaining. Especially when I played "spot the sponsors" throughout the movie.

I was lucky enough to win a pair of tickets to watch "Vampire Academy" which is based on the series of books of the same title by Richelle Mead.

I had previously watched the trailers and already thought that it looked like a fun movie to watch, especially when you watch it with your girlfriends. As such, I asked Moon to watch this with me.

"Vampire Academy" tells the story of Rose Hathaway, a Dhampir, whose sole purpose is to protect the life of her Moroi (aka vampire) best friend, Princess Vasalisa "Lissa" Dragomir. In this first movie, it starts off with how Rose and Lissa have ran away from the Vampire Academy after surviving a car crash that took the lives of Lissa's parents and brother. It was after this crash that Rose and Lissa have bonded in such a way that Rose is able to see and feel what Lissa is going through.

After 2 years away from Vampire Academy, Lissa and Rose are found by the guardians and brought back to the Academy where they have to face the threat that caused them to run away to begin with and find out who is the main mastermind.

This first movie is sort of a bit of a coming of age story for both Rose and Lissa who, after running away from it all, begin to grow stronger physically as well as emotionally. Nonetheless, it is not your run-of-the-mill cheesy teenage drama as the script is full of witty lines, quick dialogue, action scenes and of course, teenage romance.

Kudos to the director who paced the movie in a delightful manner and yet was able to flesh out each character enough for you to feel for the protagonists while leaving you with enough intrigue for the next movie. It really is a fun and entertaining movie to watch! I don't understand why there aren't that many showtimes for this movie in Singapore. C'mon...this is waay better than "Ah Boys to Men"!!

I was super excited to find out that I had won a pair of tickets to watch "Mortal Instruments - City of Bones" via HVN Entertainment (thanks guys!) so yesterday, I headed over to watch the screening with Siew Mai.

I have read the book (only this particular one) and was extra excited because Godfrey Gao and Jonathan Rhys Meyer are in the movie!!

For those who do not know about the books, you can read the wikipedia version here.  It may be a little confusing but at least you get a gist of the novels.

After watching the movie, I was rather disappointed.  Sure, the visuals were stunning but a beautiful set and wonderful visual effects cannot beat a seamless script.  The movie took too much liberty with the book and the end result was a choppy series of scenes that were disjointed.  Siew Mai has never read the books and she said that the movie did nothing to convince her to start reading them.  In fact, the opposite is true.

I do understand that it's necessary to shorten the book into a 2 hour film but there's where excellent scriptwriters show their prowess.  The cheesy lines and the jarring insertion of lines from the books really didn't help.  I was also a bit disappointed with Gao's portrayal of Magnus although Siew Mai thought that it was campy enough.  To be fair, I felt that Gao couldn't portray a better Magnus because of his lines in the party scene and not that he's a lousy actor.

I'm glad that I didn't pay good money to watch it but I have a feeling that I will pay to watch the sequel.  It's what fans of the books will do!

Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, Sci-Fi action flick...quite a no-brainer as to why I watched this movie in the first place.  In fact, I felt more compelled to watch this than 'Pacific Rim', although both are supposed to be on par in terms of visual effects.

So, I walked into the theatre only knowing the gist of the plot, which is - Earth is so polluted that the wealthiest of the world built a habitat in outer space where everyone is healthy and everyone has a med bed which cures all diseases.

Naturally, this film touches on the socio-political issues between the haves and have-nots.  Where the poor are forced to remain sick or are denied access to medical care, simply because they do not have the wealth to become a citizen of Elysium.

Enter Jodie Foster's character, Jessica Delacourt, who is the Minister of Defence and also known as Class A b**ch in the movie.  She takes the hardline against illegal immigrants to Elysium and doesn't bat an eyelid to using forceful methods and illegal agents on Earth.

Matt Damon plays Max De Costa, an orphan and an ex-con, who gets a lethal dosage of radiation during work one day.  Given only 5 days to live, he decides to go to Elysium at no matter what cost/price.

I'm not going to reveal any more because, it would then read like Wikipedia or a blow-by-blow account of the movie.  Overall, I felt that the movie was touching and rather entertaining.  However, the starting was a little long drawn and the director obviously has a penchant for showing blown up body parts.  Gross.  There's not going to be any explanation on how these med beds were invented, how it is possible to create Elysium and science buffs will question how it is possible that Elysium has an atmosphere.  But yes, suspend all logical theories and just enjoy the fight scenes between the 'good guys' (ie. illegal but poor folks) and the 'bad guys' (ie. the government of Elysium plus that psycho agent).

Went to watch 'Red 2' after seeing the trailer before watching 'Now You See Me'.  Just found the trailer hilarious and I was watching it mainly for John Malkovich and to oogle at Lee Byung Hun's bod. *Huge grin*

Unbeknownst to me, 'Red 2' is the sequel to 'Red' which is from a comic of the same name.  In this movie, it shows Frank (Willis) trying to live a normal life with his girlfriend Sarah (Mary-Louise Parker) but ends up being boring and safe as he refuses to leave the house for dates etc.  In the meanwhile, his best friend Marvin (Malkovich) tries to warn Frank that a top secret document has been released onto the internet stating that both Frank and Marvin were involved in an operation called 'Nightshade' during the Cold War.

What ensues is a hilarious action comedy where Frank, Marvin and Sarah try to find out what Operation Nightshade is about while being pursued by CIA, KGB, MI6 and Han (Lee) who was contracted to assassinate Frank.

You can definitely watch 'Red 2' without watching the previous installment and still laugh out loud at all the antics.  Anthony Hopkins really shined because his acting was perfect.  He still has it! Helen Mirren was super cool as contract killer Victoria Winslow and I loved how she and Lee Byung Hun had their own theme song while chasing the baddies/losing their tail in a cool blue Porsche.  Malkovich channeled his usual kooky self and was the perfect foil to Willis.

'Red 2' is super entertaining and deserves 5 stars for that laugh out loud factor.  Just don't go in trying to make things logical.  Some parts definitely don't.

I seldom give films high praise but 'Now You See Me' deserves 2 thumbs up/ 5 popcorns out of 10/ whatever scale you want to use!

This movie is not as widely publicised or marketed as other films, which is a shame considering that the cast is rather star studded and the acting was superb.

We have Mark Ruffalo acting as FBI agent Dylan Rhodes, Morgan Freeman as Thaddeus Bradley who exposes magicians for a living, Isla Fisher as Henley Reeves, Woody Harrelson as Merritt McKinney, Jesse Eisenberg (of 'The Social Network' fame, having played Mark Kuckerberg) as Daniel Atlas, and Dave Franco (James' younger brother) as Jack Wilder.  Not to mention the brilliant cameo (of sorts) by Michael Caine.

So, the plot begins with the 'Four Horsemen' that is made up of Daniel (Eisenberg), Henley (Fisher), Merritt (Harrelson) and Jack (Franco) and they got onto the FBI's radar when it seems like they robbed a Parisian bank during one of their magic shows in Las Vegas.  This turns into a cat and mouse game between the FBI agents, with the aid of a French interpol agent, and the horsemen.  Thrown into this mix is Thaddeus, who tries to expose the Four Horsemen's tricks for his DVD but also tries to seemingly help the FBI although it seems more like Thaddeus is more interested in the 'grand finale' that the Four Horsemen are about to pull off.  It is the ultimate battle of wits and game of deception under the guise of...wait for it...magic.

I love how this movie gave you enough so that you know the general storyline but still leaves enough room for you to guess and wow you in the end.  Love the twists and turns, which in turn gives you that same feeling when you were 8 years old and watching magic shows - a sense of wonder and mystery.

Excellent film and GO WATCH IT before it closes!!

I love the minions in Despicable Me!! I want some!!  Minions!!! *Starts singing the Banana Song*  If you love the minions as much as I do, just go watch Despicable Me 2 for some brainless laughter and cuteness.  This cartoon is all about the minions!

hel·ter-skel·ter  (hltr-skltr)

adv.

1. In disorderly haste; confusedly; pell-mell.

2. Haphazardly.

adj.

1. Carelessly hurried and confused.

2. Haphazard.

n.  Turmoil; confusion.

 

My friend made this movie known to me by describing it as the Japanese version of 'Black Swan' and after watching it, I would recommend it to whoever loved 'Black Swan'.

 

'Helter Skelter' tells of Lilico (played by Sawajiri Erika) who is a model and actress who has undergone extensive plastic surgery to reach her current state of beauty.  The movie shows how her mental and physical body breaks down, the latter due to the illegal procedures that the plastic surgery clinic used.  Lilico may be gorgeous on the outside but she's not happy and the pursuit of physical beauty leaves her empty, jealous, unhappy and she uses sex to feel something - be it the semblance of love or just to wield power over those whom she considers close to her.  As the title suggests, things start to go awry and she goes helter skelter.

The acting from Sawajiri is solid and those who remember her from '1 Litre of Tears' may be shocked at how she has shed that innocence and she's a total bitch-vamp in this movie.  After reading on her controversial real life, this role may actually be more her than one thinks.  She's breaking the mould, pushing the boundaries of Japanese media and really making people question whether what we see on screen and in magazines is the real person.  Also, it makes you question why there is this constant pursuit of an ideal beauty and like the voice of reason in the movie, in the form of the police officer, beauty may not be necessarily youth and vice versa.

Go watch it and stay with it.  You may not get it at first but it will draw you in.

"Skyfall" is the 23rd James Bond movie and it also marks the 50th anniversary of Bond.  In the film Bond investigates an attack on MI6; it transpires that it is part of an attack on M by former MI6 operative, Raoul Silva. The film sees the return of two recurring characters after an absence of two films: Q, played by Ben Whishaw, and Miss Moneypenny, played by Naomie Harris. Skyfall was the last film of the series for Judi Dench who played M; a role which she had played in the previous six films. The position is subsequently filled by Ralph Fiennes' character, Gareth Mallory.

Overall, it is a very good Bond movie and it certainly pays tribute to old school spy thrillers where the storyline is simple and just a lot of action.  There were some side jokes in reference to gadgets that had appeared in previous Bond films which were quite funny if you got them.  The most outstanding actor in this film has to be Javier Bardem.  His acting was SUPERB and he brought in that flair to the character of the villain whom you love to hate but secretly want to be simply because he's quite a genius (albeit a crazy bloodthirsty one). 

Women (and feminists in particular) will prefer this Bond film to the rest because the usual sexy Bond girl(s) here are sidelined and hardly play any role in the movie, with exception to Moneypenny but then she doesn't sleep with Bond.

So, what are you doing reading this review? Just go watch it and enjoy it as an entertaining action flick that will not disappoint. 

I won a couple of tickets to watch "The Woman In Black" so Mel Li and I headed off to watch it together.  No way was I going to watch a horror flick all by myself. 

Based on the book by Susan Hill, "The Woman In Black" is a supernatural horror-thriller film starring Daniel Radcliffe.  Radcliffe stars as a young solicitor, Arthur Kipps, who goes to Eel Marsh House to handle the estate of Alice Drablow.  When he arrives in the village, he was not welcomed and was constantly encouraged to return to London as soon as possible.

At Eel Marsh House, Kipps sees a woman in black and soon, other strange things happen as he unravels the reason behind all the strange deaths of the village children.  Through this all, Kipps is constantly thinking about his wife who died 4 years ago during childbirth as well as his 4 year old son.

It was quite interesting for the director to cast Radcliffe as Kipps because of Radcliffe's young age (he's only 22!).  Needless to say, Radcliffe really tried to show his acting chops by emoting his grief over his wife while trying to convince the audience that he's grown up enough to be a father.  Did he succeed?  To a certain extent but it doesn't help that the other actors are a lot older than him and they too have young children in the movie.  Nonetheless, kudos to Radcliffe as this movie really helped him shed the Harry Potter image.

The movie proves to be scary and they did go along with the usual method of using creepy music and some shock tactics.  That said, the movie achieved its goal of scaring you but at least having some depth to it.  The ending was really bittersweet and it sorta lingers in your head even after the movie ends.  Verdict? 1 thumb up and try not to watch this while holding onto a drink/ popcorn...you do not want a shower of soft drink or popcorn confetti.

Wahh...these people are so cruel! The movie is only premiering on 25 Aug and the trailer is already out! Enjoy the trailer!  I can't wait to watch it :) :) :) :)

The movie stars Sato Takeru as Himura Kenshin and I think he's well cast as he does resemble the short but feminine looking Kenshin.  Agree?

Starring Malaysian hotties Henley Hii and Josh Lai, this local production (I know...ironic since the cast is mainly Malaysian) is set in 1983 during National Service.  A timid recruit (Tedd Chan) believes that a local female ghost is out to get him and when he dies during a night march, his best friend and platoon mate soon experiences weird hauntings, where another platoon mate is even possessed.

I must say that this is one of the better Singaporean productions and it was a lot more horrifying than 'Changi Hospital' but less thrilling than 'The Maid'.  Thumbs up for local productions! The film quality was very good and I liked how the director, Gilbert Chan, weaved in jabs at what's currently going on in today's National Service (think of spoilt boys with their mobile phones and a really funny liner regarding maids carrying the pack).

The plot was a little predictable, it reminded me of 'Ghost Whisperer' meets 'The Ring' where the ghost was haunting and killing for a good reason and not because she's the spawn of the devil.  Some parts were not very believable either.  I reckon that the horror could have been amplified if there wasn't so much humour in the script especially with Mark Lee's Sergeant Kuah and your typical hokkein-spouting bad-boy soldier played by Lawrence Koh.  Might've been better if the movie opened during the lunar 7th month or on Halloween itself to increase the spook factor.

All in all, I was quite entertained and I wouldn't mind watching it again on telly just for the heck of it.  You won't be scared till you pee in your pants but at least you don't leave the cinema feeling like you've wasted your money on a ticket.

My dad really wanted to watch "The Woman Knight of Mirror Lake" for some weird reason.  Oh wait. I do know the reason.  It's because he thinks that it's some action film.  Anyway, the Chinese title of the movie is 競雄女俠•秋瑾 which I would've translated as "The Heroic Lady Warrior/ Knight - Qiu Jin".  It IS about Qiu Jin, a revolutionist and a feminist who grew up in the 1900's.  You can read up more about her via wikipedia.

Back to the movie.

This is another movie celebrating the 100th year of the 1911 revolution where the Sun Yat Sen-led group managed to overthrow the Qing Dynasty.  The flow of the movie was a little odd because it starts off with the scene where a wealthy lady is carried in a sedan in the rain and she is accompanied by a younger woman who is crying.  The wealthy lady comes out of the sedan, sees something and then collapses in tears.

The whole movie then jumps from one time space to another and the audience has to fix all of them up like a jigsaw puzzle.  It's not a confusing jigsaw but it definitely does not build up the tension nor made you really feel for the characters.  The storyline is so rich but the story-telling failed it.  Worst part is, you can't blame the actors and actresses who really did their very best in emoting and you can't fault them.

I feel that the movie "The Woman Knight of Mirror Lake" is good to watch for historical value but then, you might gain more insight into Qiu Jin and the revolution from reading her poems and books on her.

I went to watch "The Sorcerer and The White Snake" (trailer above) with the parents last Sunday evening and thank goodness I didn't pay for the tickets.  The newspaper reviews were whinging about the over-usage of CGI but I don't think that's the real issue.  The real issues are:

1. Lousy plot
2. Lousy script
3. Many cheesy scenes

The movie's saving graces were:

1. Jet Li
2. The chemistry between the "White Snake" and her human love interest
3. Excellent song at the ending scene where the lovers are separated forever
4. Jet Li's apprentice

Watch this movie only if you have spare cash/ need brainless entertainment/ can't wait for the DVD/ can't wait for the pirates to catch hold of this and load it up onto the web.  'Nuff said.

I went to watch "Due Date" with Let-chan last night and the main reason I went to watch it was for Robert Downey Jr.  Gosh...he's such an amazing actor and his acting chops didn't fail in this comedy!

The chemistry between him and Zach Galifianakis is great and you can feel the tension.  It's such a funny film and there were moments when you just have to cover your mouth in case flies flew into your wide-open mouth.  Yup, there were many jaw-dropping moments that just made you laugh.

Go watch it to unwind and just laugh. :)

I had a movie marathon at my place from Fri-Sat morning with my friends! :) Nothing much except to chill and eat!!!

I've got cool Lady Gaga earphones now!!  WEEEEEE~~~~~~  Fren to me: We saw it and immediately went, "This is so Mel." Score for them because they didn't read my blog but earphones was on my wishlist!!!

Revisiting my wishlist:

1. Versace Bright Crystal Eau de toilette (no body lotion please)
2. DKNY Be Delicious (the pink one)
3. Donation to "revamp Mel's failing wardrobe"...the actual wardrobe, not the clothes inside
4. Donation to get a new digicam
5. A year's subscription to Elle/ Shape/ Female magazine
6. More sales at www.oct1983.com.sg
7. 50% pay rise
8. To pass my JLPT N2 in Dec
9. Mulberry Alexa satchel in grape
10. A boy toy
11. Face Shop gel masks
12. SKII miracle water
13. Vouchers
14. Dinner at Jaan/ Iggy's/ that Japanese restaurant at Marina Bay Sands
15. A holiday
16. Skull Candy earphones with the ear hooks! In shocking pink and black!!

Haha...ok, points 7-10, 14-15 are just my far-out wishes that my dear friends can't purchase for me.

Cubey bought me jewellery parts to add to my sales on Oct 1983 :D  Thanks to everybody for your lovely presents!! :)

I expected myself to be shocked, horrified and be in that nail-biting-wanna-pee-in-my-pants moment. Alas, it was not to be. There were tons of creepy moments but that was just about it. Creepy. Nothing else. I won't be having nightmares/ dreams tonight. How disappointing.

They had it all in there...the recipe for pure horror was all there! The fact that it's in 3D made it even better because those creepy objects really looked like they were going to fly into your face. I think it is the way the story was told. The director tried to be intelligent and pulls the character from past to present to imagination and then back to reality. Good concept but the execution seems rather lacking. Perhaps horror flicks should stick to a certain formula to ensure the spooks.

Nevertheless, I would enjoy another horror movie in 3D. Potential to really scare you to bits!!

Ah...I know, I know...I haven't been updating for the past week as I've been uber busy.

I received the 16th volume of Ouran High Host Club to translate and have been given a very tight deadline...so Ouran fans, keep your eye out! The translated edition should be out by *fingers crossed* June.

On a personal basis, I've also been doing lotsa stuff. Watched 'Shutter Island' with Cubey on Sun, became my bro's and dad's chauffeur on Sun night when I went to pick both of them up from the airport (separate flights in separate terminals!). Watched 'Crossing Henessey' with Mum on Wed (review of it is a 'so-so from me) and both of us were so disappointed that the 2 girls in front of us managed to get the LAST two goodie bags that are given out at GV's Ladies' Night. :(

Fri was the annual Dinner and Dance, after which I headed to Butter with Mel Li. Ok...we're sooo going to avoid Fri nights at Butter's Bump room now. It was crowded and the human traffic was terrible. More people were walking from one end to the other and they were just pushing and prodding. I did feel like a dancing sheep being herded from one end to the next in search of a nice spot to not get hit, sloshed with drink or squished. We headed to Fash instead where we could breathe. I think the air-con ventilation's much better in Fash.

Went to watch the musical 'Chicago' with my family yesterday! I loved the film and I love the stage version too!! I can see how and why certain elements were changed to suit the film and I love how there was a lot more interaction between the actors and the band in the stage version. It reminds me of the Brechtian theory of breaking down the 'fourth wall' so that the audience is reminded that you're watching a play/ musical. Love love 'Chicago'. Like the songs, it was jazzy, sharp and witty. It's really, ALL THAT JAZZ! :)

I'm waiting for my lunch as I type this. Hungry. Must eat in 15 minutes and then rush off for my Japanese class. Having a major test today and I haven't studied. :( I spent most of yesterday translating and I think I'm making horrid pace. No momentum. I need to get into the zone....okie dokes. I shall haunt the kitchen now. See ya!