My Girl (Ma-i-geol)

It's a nice day here in Sunny California. Temperatures in the 80's, the sun shinning bright, a bit of soft wind here and there. Bascially, its a good day to go out and enjoy. Especially when it's mid-February... I mean who can really enjoy wheather like this anywhere else in the winter?
With that said, i'm wasteing away this beautiful day sitting in my room, bored with nothing to do BOOO...

It's been quite sometime since i've written in this, as i recall the last time i wrote was when i was talking about starting my winter session, but as of this week, i just finished. CRAZZZYNESS but unfortunately i start my spring semester next week.. booo I guess at least i have a four day weekend to just chill out till then.

This past month, i've been trying to look for stuff to watch since, Hana Yori Dango had such a hook on me, i decided to look around and see what i could find. I watched some shows here and there like "Kima Wa Petto" and "Densha Otoko" both were good to watch but i guess those dramas were something i could watch when thier wasnt anything else. But i still enjoyed the both. Since i'm pretty horrible at researching shows and such on the net, my bro told me about another drama his friend told him about called My Girl. I actually finished this drama a couple of weeks ago, but i think it deserves to be in one of my favorite drams along with Hana Yori Dango.

This Korean drama is about a girl Joo-Yu-Rin, who starts off being a tour guide at Jeju Island of South Korea. She lives with her father, who is unfortunately an addictive gambler, who seems to get himself into trouble constantly. Joo Yu-Rin has a talent of fibbing, though her talent gets the best out of her when she meets the heir of L'Avenuel Hotel, Seol Gongchan. Seol Gongchan's been trying to look for his long lost cousin, whom he must find for his grandfather before he dies. Do to the short time that his grandfather has, he heirs Joo Yu-Rin to pretend to be his cousin, in which she agrees to because she needs the money. However, being that she would only have to appear once, the grandfather suddenly recovers and asks Joo Yu-Rin to stay with them so he could get to know her. Joo Yu-Rin once again agrees to stay with them for the time being, until Gongchan finds his real cousin. During this time, Joo Yu-Rin gets showered with love and care from this family, and eventually being so attatched to Gongchan, shes tries not to lie as much as she once did. She then becomes drawn to Gonchan but believes that this one sided love with never seem to work out, though in the process Gongchan slowly starts to like her as well, creating a good story hahah..
This drama is really good, it consists of 16 episodes all an hour long! I really enjoyed this drama, It's a romantic comedy, but also has it's drama. Other main actors/actresses include Lee Jun Ki who plays Gongchan's best friend and Park Si Yeon who plays a professional tennis player as well as Gongchan's girlfriend. You all should check it out! It's worth a watch.

Volver

Another Foreign, Spanish movie for my brothers and me.
This time, we were debating over The Curse of the Golden Flower or Volver. We just decided on Vovler because it was the top movie on Rotten Tomatoes. haha We were being very indecisive, which resulted in being late watching the film. Luckily the previews saved us some time, so that when we got in they were barely showing the films title. VOLVER

Volver, translation: To return, is about three women. All are related to one another, but all have thier own stories that are portrayed in this film. The movie follows a good mother, Irene played by Carmen Maura, another young mother, Raimundo, played by Penelope Cruz, who is living a struggled life, and Sole played by Lola Duenas, who is running a salon in her apartment, where gossip is being told. This film is categorized as a drama/comedy and runs for about about two hours. I thought this film was really good, even though the diaglogue was really fast. Thier were a lot of things going on in this film, however, in the end everything seemed to come together. It had its fair share of sad moments, as well as its funny moments. The overall storyline of this film was good too. This film is nominated for 2 golden globes, and has won about 12 awards overall. I dont know if you want to believe the Hype, but i thought this film was overall pretty good.

Letters from Iwo Jima

Hello everyone, boy has it been an insane month. Finishing off my fall semester, crazyness malls, crowded streets. It's just been a busy month i guess you can say. It's only after christmas that it has been ok to just hang around not having to worry about doing errands. actually only thing to worry about is finding a party to go to for new years eve hahaha. But its ok. New Years isnt a big thing for me i havent celebrated it like the big kids. So i'm not expecting much...

So my bro's been wanting to watch this film for awhile. I guess he did some research which lead him to some info to find where this film was playing. The ARCLIGHT, in Hollywood, where it plays movies in a Cinerama Dome, at 11:05 was where we were going. I haven't seen a war movie in quite sometime, i think the last one i've watched in the theater was probably.... saving private ryan? i'm actually not sure haha i guess thats how long its been.

Anyways, Letters from Iwo Jima is bascially about the war between the U.S. vs Japan in World War 2. This film is the opposite side of the film Flags of Our Fathers. It's bascially the Japanese side of the story. I have yet to see the movie Flags of Our Fathers so i can't really compare the two films. So you can make that decision to pick which one you want to watch first. Both are directed by Clint Eastwood too. So they both can be equally as good.

The movie is told in the perspective of a japanese soldier who fought and lived through it. I thought this movie was really good. This movie is actually in japanese, and runs for about two hours and thirty minutes. Thiers soo much going on, that i didn't think it felt that long. Thier were stories told, as well as side stories of some individual soldiers, and of course war scenes.
Thier were some familiar faces that were in this film, which included Ken Wanatabe who was in the Last Samurai, and Shido Nakamura who was in Fearless.

I thought the movie was pretty intense, like all war movies, you can see how crazy wars were/are from watching so many die and suffer. Watching your friends, officers, and practically everyone around you die. The feeling of knowing you can die at any moment, or knowing that you WILL die with no hope left. This was a good movie to watch, some of you may even cry. I know i got watery eyed at some point of the film. But none the less it was a good film to watch so GO WATCH IT!! it's only in select cities so be on the watch.

Thanksgiving Weekend

Yay for thanksgiving. Finally had the chance to have a loooong break. However, all good things must come to an end =(... haha
Anyways, this weekend I got to catch two flicks. Tenacious D and Bobby.

Tenacious D in: The Pick of Destiny
I originally wasn't really interested in watching Tenacious D, but I mean it was Jack Black and my bro-hams wanted to watch it, so I said OK! The movie plot is bascially just about JB (Jack Black) and KG (Kyle Gass), forming a rock band. They find that it's tough to become a successfully rock band, so they go on an adventure to find a guitar pick that they think will give them the power to become awesome. haha and that is bascially it. The movie is classified as a comedy, I mean I laughed at some things, but it wasn't like water eyed funny hahaha (if that makes sense). I never heard the F work said so much ahhah... but the movie is kind of like a musical. The Tenacious D songs are played throughout the movie, and every song described what they are doing at that moment, exactly like a musical. My brother told me that the movie is exactly like their HBO show, so I guess if you've seen the show on TV then you should know what to expect. As for the rest of you, I say it was alright. HOWEVER, I think it would be wise to just wait for it when it goes on TV...












Bobby
Alright, so this movie I saw Friday night with some of my old buddies. I actually wanted to watch this film for awhile, just because Shia Labeouf was in it hahah.. But then I also wanted to see the interaction between an all star cast. To name a few, Helen Hunt, Martin Sheen, Joshua Jackson, Shia Labeouf, Anthony Hopkins, Demi Moore, and so much more... This movie is basically about, the assassination of Bobby Kennedy, and how it revovles around twenty two people that were there when he was shot at the Ambassador Hotel. Each story has its uniqueness to it I suppose, and of course each person is connected to one person out of the twenty two persons. I would categorize this film to be a drama, though there are some parts that would give you a chuckle here and there. When I watched the film, I must say that there were a lot of older folks that filled the theater. I think that my friends and I were probably the youngest ones in there... At the end of the film, the movie showed a couple of pictures of Bobby Kennedy, as well as JFK, and I must say, everyone stayed in their seats just looking at each photo. It was so long ago, that I think every person in there had a moment of nostalgia. It was a sad film. I mean you already know what the ending is going to be, so i guess everyones just waiting for that moment to come. Overall, i think the movie was alright too. I suppose i had high expectations of the film, and the overall outcome wasnt as great. This movie is definetly a DVD film. It's definitely interesting to see how all the chracterts worked out the way they did. I thought the movie was portrayed really well, and every character had thier own story. The ending is one of those endings where each character realizes when something tragic happens, the people around them is really the people that they value. (or something like that haha)

Stranger Than Fiction

This week's movie pick is Stranger than Fiction. This movie stars Will Ferrell, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Queen Latifah, Emma Thompson, and Dustin Hoffman. The movie is about an average guy named Harold Crick (Ferrell), who suddenly hears a womans voice narrating his life. Throughout the film, Harold tries to figure out who this woman's voice is when she finally says that he is facing imminent death. He's get's time off of work and asks for help from a literary theorist (Hoffman) to find out who this writer is so that he may try to escape it. Another part of this film shoots to the actual narrator/writer (Thompson) who is trying to finish a book about Harold. An assistant (Latifah) is hired to help the writer finish her book, by giving her ideas to kill Crick. Little does she know that this fictional character that she's made up is actually real.

Thier's actually more to the story, but generally thats the over view of the film. The movie is a bit of a comedy/drama/ romance. The romance in it deals with Harold Cricks character falling in love with a cookie maker Ana Pascal (Gyllenhaal). I thought the film was good. Besides the fact that thier were people talking during the film (lame). The whole concept of somebody deciding your fate and knowing that you'll die soon is a bit scary. I think this type of film is the kind of film you could defintely watch at home with a nice cup of hot chocolate. hahah

Driving Lessons

This past weekend i got to watch the UK indie film Driving Lessons. It stars Rupert Grint, Julie Walters, and Laura Linney. This movie is somewhat of a remake of the movie Harold and Maude. This movie is about a seventeen year old, Rupert Grint, who comes from a traditional household, that has a domineering mother and quiet father. This film takes place in the summer, where Ben (Grint) is spending his days in bible school, getting driving lessons, and helping his mother. He then gets convinced from his mother to get a job. His job consists of taking care of an old, retired actress Evie (Walters). Evie, a very eccentric and adventurous woman, introduces Ben to a whole new world outside of conformity. At the end of the film, Ben must decide if he wants to be his own person or rather follow his mothers ways.

This film is pretty good, it's one of those films about finding yourself. It is a Comedy/Drama. Julie Walters character in this film is really blunt and sarcastic, which makes it funny. It was nice to see Rupert Grint trying new things outside of the Harry Potter world. Though his character in this film was a bit the same shy kinda of guy. I would reccoment watching it. It'll make you laugh and cry. haha mayb not cry but feel sad.

The Last Kiss, The Black Dahlia

Yesterday A day out to the movies. The last summer outing with my friend Christine. She's going off to college so we had a girls outing. We went to universal city walk and catched two movies. The Last Kiss and the Black Dahlia.

The Last Kiss is about a group of friends that are on the verge of turning 30 bascially finding themselves as they are getting older. 4 best friends realize that they are getting older and have a hard time accepting adulthood. I thought the movie was pretty good. It had a wierd ending haha but i mean it was still good. Not as good as garden state but you can't based it off of that movie. This movie was a little more realistic. It's just about how growing up can be scary; marriage, kids etc.

The Black Dahlia
This movie is about an aspiring actress, Elizabeth "Betty" Short, who was brutially murdered. It's bascially a suspense, mystery kind of movie. That's all i can really say HAHA.. the movie was quite confusing. I was watching it and thier was soo many things happening, that i didnt really follow what was going on. The crowd that i was watching actually laughed at some scenes. It was kind of wierd. It was confusing to the point when the movie was wrapping up i was still confusing. The movie keeps you questioning a lot of things, and by the end you get the gist of it but for me i was still confused on how everything connected together. Overall though i liked the way it was filmed. I liked how it was filmed old school style, the whole 40's 50's style. The music was old school too. It was just like those old mystery movies how thiers a narrator and jazz music playing. That was good.