Movie: Hard-Boiled

Hard-boiled, probably one of the most epic movies I've seen Chow Yun-Fat in. Everything from the cinematography to the action and the background plots for the main characters was stunning.

It starts off with Chow Yun-Fat's character, Tequila, getting into a shoot-out in the local tea-house. It ends badly when he kills the the man he was suppose to arrest alive. Later you find out that his captain is taking him off a case, in which he wants to handle because the crooks killed his partner. He continues with the case anyway, despite the threats for his job and whatnot. As the story progress you come to find that the captain has a deep cover operative within the gang that Tequila is trying to take down. This part is played by Tony Leung (coincidentally the character is named Tony also). He warns the captain to take Tequila off the case before the man blows his cover, but Tequila doesn't listen. Despite butting heads numerous times Tequila and Tony end up working together to bring the crime lord down.

The most memorable part of this movie was in the hospital scene in which Chow Yun-Fat is killing guys, while holding a newborn infant in his arms while the hospital is on fire. Though very unrealistic, it was an awesome scene to watch. His character Tequila had some major mood swings. It seemed that he would go from angry serious one minute to goofy happy the next. I thought he was on drugs. All in all, it was an amusing thing to watch when he did that. Tequila was out for revenge and had a good sense of humor along the way.

Tony Leung's character was good too. He was the typical brooding angst character. I was a little disappointed with him in the beginning thinking he was just another bad guy, but after finding out he was a deep cover cop, it kinda made sense. He too had an epic fight scene in the hospital with a 'former friend'. Though it ended sadly when the crime boss came in and killed all the innocent patients, which caused his own henchmen to turn against him. Pity...(note sarcasm). In this scene, Tony had pieces of glass sticking out of the side of his face which made him look more badass as he fought with the enemy. And let me tell you...glass in your face hurts like a mother...

Again, this was a beautifully made more and one I would recommend to all Martial Arts and Action fanatics.

Manga: ZombiePowder

<WARNING: A BIT OF SPOILERS>

In order to get Zombie Powder, one must collect all 12 'Rings of the Dead'. With the Zombie Powder, you can either become immortal or bring someone back to life. The trick is the rings are dangerous and if touched by flesh it will devour the life force from them.

So enter Elwood, a 14 year old pick pocket and knife thrower, who happened to feed the wrong person at the wrong time. Gamma Akutabi, the man who was fed and also has a 960 million nit (the currency) bounty on his head. When Elwood's boss's get wind that he had Gamma at his home and didn't tell them, they come to collect. In the crossfire, Elwood's ill sister, Sheryl Ann gets killed while trying to protect him. Gamma comes and saves Elwood from his former bosses, and the young boy ends up following the man in order to get the Zombie Powder to resurrect his dead sister.

The manga is only 4 volumes long due to it being canceled. The reason I first got into it was because I saw it was by Tite Kubo, the man who had done Bleach. Apparently this is his first manga series, and Bleach his second. Go figure the US would get it backwards. No wonder Gamma has a Grimmjow vibe to him (heh).

ZombiePowder is reminiscent of Trigun. In where as the main character holds immense power, a dark secret, and wants to help the weak. And like Trigun, the main character has an upbeat partner who is known as C.T. Smith. This man dresses like a Londoner and I wouldn't be too surprise if this was an anime, that he would have a London accent too.

Not only that, but you also have other minor characters such as Wolfina and her brother Emilio, who had one of the rings nested inside his body. And last you saw of anyone was Gamma had taken everyone to a mad scientist known as Nazna Gemini, who would perform surgery on Emilio if Wolfina would be her test subject for a year. Furthermore, Gamma and Smith left Elwood to see what kind of path he would choose. And that's when it was canceled.

Due to the blantant ending, nothing is known for sure about what happens to the characters. But then again...that's what fanfiction is for. I would not mind seeing this series picked up again, just for the shear fact that in the last chapter of Volume 4, Kubo gave you a lot of hints to some very interesting facts about Gamma's past as well as Smith's. But I highly doubt that would happen anytime soon.

AFO 2007 Mention: Breakdancing

Okay two posts in one day! Woo. Now here's the thing about Anime Conventions. If you know me, you know I like to photography/video a lot of things especially if I go out. For those that don't, my camera was full of pictures at one point or another.

While surfing the internet about stuff that happened at AFO, Anime Festival Orlando, since I'm going to be living there soon. I found this skit with a guy named Chuck breakdancing. Now being a former dancer myself I'd have to say it's a mix between hip-hop and breakdancing, but because of this performance he got his famous name and got recruited by a group called 'Concept Galaxy'. Now I thought this was an awesome video. And being a woman, I thought it was very hot (abs....). But in a professional stand point (dancer), He did very well. Chuck stirred up the crowd and teased them in a way I haven't since I was in my teens dancing in high school. His costume though only consisting of a few things to label him to the character was very good considering it was jeans and a tank top with a vest and mesh shirt underneath.

Now I know some of my friends are going to be like 'Oh god what have you been doing?' But when Regina and I get bored, we tend to surf youtube for this kind of stuff. So without further ado, I bid you to watch Chuck as 'Breakdancing Kakashi!'

Movie: Chocolate

Chocolate is about an autistic daughter who has developed uncanny martial arts skills from the Muay Thai house next door and from watching TV. She is also the daughter of a former gangster woman Zin and a rival Yakuza heir Masashi. When both Zin and Masashi part ways after Zin’s boss forbids her to, Zin is left with the task of bringing up their autistic daughter Zen. After some trials and adopting a son named Moom, Zin finds out that she has cancer. With no money to pay for it they find a list of debtors in the ailing woman’s diary.

Zen and Moom attempt to make money to pay for these treatments by having people throw balls at her as a street performer (in which she catches with amazing skill). Unfortunately they are not able to earn enough to keep up with the treatments. One day, Moom discovers a list of debtors in an old notebook, from the days when Zin was a high-interest moneylender under the Thai gangster known as No. 8. Things then turn a bit choppy when Zen decided she wants that money. In collecting all the debts, they collect the interest of No. 8. Various battles ensue and Zen must fight for the money that could help her mom.


This movie in my opinion was interesting. I bought it for the martial arts. And it delivered. I like how the director was the man who did “Ong-Bak” and “The Protector”. He had a vision after working with Tony Jaa that was basically like this: ‘Hm….let’s have a movie where a woman does all this martial arts badassery!’ It came out pretty well. I wasn’t too sure on the autistic part of the movie, but that was integrated in seamlessly. Personally, if he didn’t put it in there, I don’t think it would have been as badass as it was.

The storyline was much to left desired. I think they could have developed that a bit more, but the martial arts makes up for the lack of. I think it’s pretty interesting that they forced the actress Jeeja Yanin to go through two years of training before hand, and then two years through the whole time of shooting. That must have been difficult. And from what I saw, she did her own stunts. That’s amazing. I wish I could do stuff like that.

Epic Fan-Trailer for Green Latern

So this guy and his crew made a Green Latern Trailer basing it around the actor Nathan Fillion. Now most of you Sci-fi fanatics will know Nathan as Captain Mal Reynolds from "Firefly"/"Serenity" or as Richard Castle from the new ABC show "Castle". Take a look at it and be amazed. I was.

Cirque Dream Pandemonia

So my dad's work, the Jitney Association, gave him two tickets to the Cirque Dreams Pandemonia that is playing at the Taj Mahal. Since my dad didn't go I took my cousin Stephanie.

Though short, it was an amazing show. Don't get it confused with Cirque De Soliel because it's a similar, yet different show.

The abilities the performers had was wicked. To be able to move your body like that and to bend like the women did...makes me wish I was still in gymnastics. Everything from the music to the painted backdrops to the spectacular costumes were simple fantastic. There was like 6-7 different acts not including the ending act. They had some damn amazing skills to pull off some of the things they did.

All in all it was a short show, and I wish it was longer, but beggars can't be choosers. After the show the actors went out into the lobby so people could take pictures. And there was this one really old couple that kept getting in the way. Rawr...

Afterwards, we walked the boardwalk and I wish I had someone other my 12 year old cousin to do that with. Someone around my age and preferably male. Ah, it is nice to dream.

J-drama: Gokusen Movie

I am seriously syked about this movie. It looks so much epicly awesome than the actually series. Students from all three seasons come back to help or give advice to Yankumi or so it seems. Apparently a student from her last 3d class (the third season) gets mixed up with drugs and gets framed. Like Big Time. Something that only happened in minor details in the series.

Some of the guys from her former classes have all gotten better in life. From punk to respectable citizens. What a shock after seeing Yankumi beat the hell out of people who messed with them. I wouldn't want to piss her off by continuing being a punk either. Anyway, some of the more popular ones among fans appear back in the movie. You can only guess why. Maybe cameos or maybe important parts of the movie. We won't know until 7/11.

This is not really a review, just a comment on how I feel about this. I hope it turns out really well since this is Nakama's last time playing Yankumi. And from the trailer it looks like she'll go out with a BANG.


See for yourself:

June 26th

I've conformed. Rawr.