Just a little update

Recap of what I did lately:

Books:
Finished reading Sophie Kinsella’s newest book Remember Me? Other than finding it a feel-good chick-lit, I have nothing to more to say.

I’m currently reading Eileen Chang’s Lust, Caution in French… quite hard to read if you ask me, maybe it's the translation...

I like the book cover so much that I have to post, I mean it's Tony Leung and Tang Wei here!

Movies:
I’m in the mood for aminated movies so I rewatched Shrek, still very cute and funny. Saw Howl’s Moving Castle on DVD by the very great Hayao Miyazaki, still fascinating and lavish but I prefer Spirited Away more. Interestingly, Christian Bale dubbed the voice of Howl in the English version but I watched it in Japanese anyway…

Saw The Dark Knight in cinema yesterday with cousin P and her friends, awesome movie, worth a second watch despite being very depressing and dark.

Music:
Ordered Hins Cheung’s newest album Urban Emotions and Khalil Fong’s Wonderland Live 2008 DVD + CD (bows to Warner!), still patiently waiting for them to arrive. I’ll probably spend a lot on CDs later because Jay Chou is rumoured to release his newest album in August and Khalil Fong in September (I seriously doubt it but I would like to believe it’s true)…

Virgin Snow

Virgin Snow Synopsis: (from http://www.koreanfilm.or.kr)
Min moves to Japan following his professor father. One day at a local shrine, he meets a beautiful Japanese girl with innocent eyes. Her name is Nanae, and she is an aspiring painter. Min falls for her at first sight, and soon learns that Nanae attends the same school to which Min has just transferred. They become friends, and despite the culture and language barriers it is an intense friendship. When his grandmother suddenly falls ill, Min hastily returns to Korea but can’t get in touch with Nanae beforehand. After his grandmother regains her health, he hurries back to Japan to reunite with Nanae, but she is nowhere to be found. Had his true feelings for Nanae not been apparent to her? Why has Nanae disappeared without a word?

My comments:
Err…I totally felt that I wasted 100 minutes on this bad movie. It’s so mediocre that I don’t even want to write about it. Beautiful scenery and a young/good looking cast couldn’t cover its weak, blank and shallow story. I think the whole thing is so fake and unnatural. I was bored and indifferent most of the time and I was hoping the movie would finish soon. About the acting, Lee Jun Ki and Miyazaki Aoi gave their average performance but even so it failed to move me at the crucial moments. For a romance movie, it’s a total failure; perhaps I’m too old for that movie.

3 Melodramas

I watched 3 melodramas from 3 different countries, involving similar theme and even a similar ending: Love Phobia (South Korea, 2006), Heavenly Forest (Japan, 2006) and Happy Birthday (HK, 2007). After watching countless melodramas, I thought that I became immune to them. Boy, I was wrong…I’m still a crybaby when it comes to tearjerkers!

Love Phobia (with Cho Seung Woo and Kang Hye Jung)
Summary in short: Guy and girl like each other since young but they only get to meet 3 times in 10 years because girl keeps disappearing without a word.

Comment: Typical melodrama which might be boring to others but I liked it thanks to the pair of charismatic leads. I prefer the first half when it’s light and happy while the later half is very heavy, but still effective. I’m confused about the ending; I think I got it but I’m not sure I got it right.

Side note: Cho Seung Woo and Kang Hye Jung were still a couple when making this movie. They just broke up recently. Sigh…what a waste; they are such a lovely couple.

Heavenly Forest (with Tamaki Hiroshi and Miyazaki Aoi)
Summary in short: Girl loves guy but guy just treats her like a friend. He realizes that he truly loves her after kissing her and it was too late already because she disappeared without a word.

Comment: It’s not hard to guess what the ending will be from reading the synopsis. I was all prepared for the sad news but when it came, it’s still very poignant. The most heartbreaking part is when he was in the exhibition and saw her picture...That moment was like “whoa” for me! The movie had beautiful scenery of nature.

Happy Birthday (with Louis Koo and Rene Liu)
Summary in short: Guy and girl love each other but because of girl’s stubbornness and insecurities, they carried an on-off relationship for 7 years. No matter what, the guy will always send birthday greetings the girl until...

Comment: My mind was away a few times while watching this movie. It’s a bit slow but I find it less manipulative compared to the other 2 movies above. The ending is not that shocking because they did give obvious hints during the movie. After finishing it, I feel bitterness for them.