M

M Synopsis: (from http://www.koreanfilm.or.kr)
A prominent up-and-coming author Min-woo readies his new much anticipated follow-up novel while suffering from frequent nightmares and hallucinations. This unexplainable condition affects both his personal and professional life. Soon he can’t differentiate reality from fantasy and continues to have feelings of being chased. His own paranoia leads him to a café in a dark, unassuming alley and encounters a charming young woman named Mimi. Min-woo starts to wonder how he and this girl in front of him are connected and traces long-forgotten memories of his first love.

My comments:
I don't have much to say because I'm not sure if I fully got M...Although that I find it confusing and messy with the flashbacks and the time jumping back and forth, I'm actually pretty intrigued by it and I wasn't bored for a movie that's almost 2 hours long with no much happening but seeing someone mad. Even halfway through the movie, I had not idea what is really going on. However, it's really beautifully shot with most scenes in dark but the colors are mesmerizing. It keeps us guessing what's up with Minwoo; is he dreaming, hallucinating, is it all real or he's simply schizophrenic? I didn't find it surprising about the identity of Mimi and what happened to her. Anyway, this is not my type of movie so watching one like that from time to time is an interesting experience.

Upcoming movies

Being a bit disconnected with HK cinema lately so I was updating myself for future releases this year. Well, HK cinema is not entirely dead yet...at least there are still some movies that seem worth checking out. I'm posting this so that I'll remember these titles for future rents or purchases. :D

Lady Cop & Papa Crook (大搜查之女)
Cast: Sammi Cheng, Eason Chan, Michelle Ye, Chapman To
My reasons to watch: Sammi's comeback and it's by the people behind Infernal Affairs. Sammi + Eason should be a refreshing duo to watch. Looks like I will have some fun time spotting cameos.

Painted Skin (畫皮)
Cast: Vicki Zhao, Zhou Xun, Donnie Yen, Aloys Chen
My reasons to watch: Technically, I'm not sure if it's an HK production since most of the cast and crew are from Mainland. I tried to read this story from the 聊斋 collection but it was too hard to read so I abandoned. Anyway, it's by a cast that I'm fond of and it looks creepy.

Connected (保持通話)
Cast: Louis Koo, Barbie Hsu, Nick Cheung, Liu Ye
My reasons to watch: Louis Koo! Hehe...that aside, director Benny Chan's movies are guaranteed to be action packed and it's Da S' first HK movie.

Butterfly Lovers (武俠梁祝)/ 2nd trailer with dialogues
Cast: Wu Zun, Charlene Choi, Hu Ge, Harlem Yu
My reasons to watch: The trailer did boost up my expectations. It looks really dark and moody and of course, tragic. I'm curious how they will change this classic story and fusion it with martial arts.

When a Dog Loves a Cat

I remember having interest in watching When a Dog Loves a Cat (20 episodes) when I saw the little preview during the sales presentation but oh boy...

When a Dog Loves a Cat Synopsis: (from DramaWiki)
Chow Chi Yu runs a pound. Her whole family knows a lot about the animals and loves to take care of them. One day, she brings home a dog that was abandoned on the street. Unfortunately, the dog is ill and infects the other dogs in the pound, almost destroying her business. At the same time she meets Miu Jun, the man whom she realizes had left the sickly dog on the street. Of course this makes her despise him and so the two of them are always fighting with each other.

Cast:
Gallen Lo as Miu Jun (MC)
Myolie Wu as Chow Tze Yu (Chow Chow)
David Lui as Chow Tze Tsim
Margie Tsang as Sui Tin Lan (Tina)
Benice Liu as Man Chi Kei (Kit)
Raymond Wong as Ying Hoi Leung (Carson)
Tracy Yip as Cheung Ka Ka

My comments:
I thought that When a Dog Loves a Cat is only average. Being a 'comeback' drama of Gallen Lo, it's a bit disappointing. It's only of those dramas that you saw but wouldn't remember much next year. Anyway, the message is good about how pets can change and cure people and how people should not abandon them, etc. The interactions between the pets are cute to watch although I thought that the voice dubbing of the pets a little too cutesy. I find myself liking Can Can, the cat more than Siu Ba, the dog, ha! The drama title references when Siu Ba loves Can Can and when MC loves Chow Chow...

The beginning was okay but after 15 episodes, the drama drags and doesn't have much story, which mostly revolves around how MC pushes away those around him after he learned his illness. It turned out to be manipulative at the end and I wasn't as moved as they want us to be although the final episode was a sobber. I also had problems characters development. Some characters just changes a little too fast, it's like they realized what they did was not right and then just have this 180 degrees change in a snap, so fast that I cannot digest it. A lot of people were complaining about the ending but I'm actually fine with it. Not all romantic comedies have to end happily ever after.

The acting of the cast is also average. I felt that this time they are mostly reprising roles that they previously acted. I didn't have much surprise in terms of acting. Maybe because it was filmed during the summer, you can clearly see everyone looking tired and worn out. The Gallen and Myolie pairing is very odd, not because of their actual age difference but because of their memorable siblings relationship in Golden Faith. Whenever I see them together, I have images of them in Golden Faith, so it distracted me a bit watching them in romantic scenes. Therefore, I wouldn't mind if Chow Chow ends with Carson although he's a playboy and a bad boyfriend at first. Carson was more interesting to watch than MC. I like the arrogant MC who shouts "Wrong! All wrong!" at the beginning more than the selfless MC at the end, which become a boring character.

If you really want to watch cute dogs and cats, go ahead. If not, you're not really missing anything.

* Themesong of the drama

Playlist of early September

- 兩面 - Emme Wong => I think Emme's singing is a bit tense but it's a good dance beat song for the summer.

- 不只是場夢 - Nicky Lee => not sure if it is or will be a plug but I liked it at first listen. Very Khalil in terms of composition and very Khalil in terms of performance as well. Good job Nicky for handling well the song while another Niki ruined a Khalil composition.

- 不吐不快 - Hins Cheung => this song is a winner after being indifferent for his first 2 plugs, I still have to ask, why '吹水'?!

Fated To Love You

Finally, after more than 2 months of waiting, I finally finish Fated To Love You (24 episodes) since I joined the hype when it aired the 12th episode in Taiwan and since then it’s pure torture to wait for ONE episode per week…

Fated To Love You Synopsis: (from Dramawiki)
A really unfashionable working class girl Chen Xin Yi has the desire to tie down her handsome boyfriend to be with her. Due to certain reasons, her boyfriend gets her to go on a love cruise and she started to ponder on how to lose her virginity and tie down her boyfriend. Xin Yi ended up taking cold medicine which made her drowsy and went into Ji Cun Xi's room. Cun Xi is the sole male heir to his family's company and has been in love with his girlfriend, Anna, for a long time. He planned to propose to Anna on the boat but she didn't turn up on the cruise. An island owner added drugs into Cun Xi's drink and Cun Xi became disorientated and returned to his own room. Xin Yi and Cun Xi end up having a one night stand. Xin Yi later finds out that she's pregnant and Cun Xi's grandmother forces them to get married. Will a couple forced to marry for the sake of their unborn child find love with each other?

Cast:
Chen Qiao En as Chen Xin Yi
Ethan Ruan as Ji Cun Xi
Baron Chen as Dylan
Bianca Bai as Anna
Tan Ai Zhen as Ji Wang Zhen Zhu
Na Wei Xun as Anson

My comments:
Hoho…I was very curious about the hype surrounding Fated To Love You because it broke all rating records in Taiwan and it’s now the highest rated series, dethroning its previous record holder Prince Turns Into Frog, starring the same main actress. I even read the novel version before watching the drama and when I started the drama, the impatient me read the comic version to ensure that it’s a happy ending. I really like the novel, it’s short and sweet and the drama followed faithfully the book until the miscarriage part.

I absolutely loved the first 14 episodes but the last 10 episodes gave me a headache most of time. It dragged a lot at the end and the story just turns around in circle. Fated To Love You is still a Cinderella story but it’s more mature than most of Taiwan’s idol dramas. It’s a shame that it started so powerful and mature but ended so childish, lame and corny. I agree that since Cun Xi treated Xin Yi like dirt at first; therefore, he should suffer a little and must have a hard time winning her back but the way it played out is just tiring. The drama could have ended in 18 or 20 episodes since a lot of scenes could be omitted and it wouldn’t hurt the drama (eg. such as Steven Chou’s second mistaken abduction, Cun Xi pretending to be blind, etc…~roll eyes) However, I was all teary when Cun Xi and Xin Yi finally had a proper wedding at the end.

The biggest discussion of the drama is who should Xin Yi end up with: Cun Xi or Dylan? I’m a supporter of Cun Xi right from the beginning although I do think he’s a jerk sometimes. When he’s a jerk, he’s really a jerk; when he’s sweet, he’s really sweet. When he’s with Xin Yi, you see the chemistry and sparks whereas Dylan and Xin Yi seem more like siblings to me. So when Dylan and Xin Yi were temporarily together, it just didn’t seem right to me. Character wise, Xin Yi is a character that I can relate to, physically or behaviorally. I just cried with/for Xin Yi a lot of times whenever Cun Xi treated her badly. She’s sometimes too selfless that it can be annoying. Cun Xi is one flawed character. He’s wishy-washy, indecisive and acts sometime like a kid. I just want to knock his head for being so indecisive that he ended up hurting both Xin Yi and Anna. I don’t really agree with his way of handling things such as being engaged to Anna and “chasing” Xin Yi at the same time. Dylan is like the most perfect character; however, because he’s so perfect that I don’t have much feeling for him. I just find it funny the way he walks, like he’s going to throw a fight anytime. I believe Anna is not evil, she’s just selfish and manipulative. She’s not the sole responsible for the miscarriage incident because the parties involved had a certain responsibility to it. She won a bit of my sympathy at the end. All the side cast seem like they came from cartoons, their performances are so animated (or exaggerated) that can be tiresome and irritating. Maybe that’s not my type of humor.

I wondered if Fated To Love You would turn out to be my #1 Taiwanese drama…but I guess not. The top spot for me is still Mr. Fighting!

* Themesong of the drama

Hins Cheung - Urban Emotions

I still bought Urban Emotions despite hearing people say that it's disappointing. I agree that there is a certain level of disappointment because Hins did not write any songs in this album and he's leaning more to the commercial path singing crowd pleasing songs. Furthermore, it didn't help that I absolutely found his first two plugs 他的故事 and 櫻花樹下 boring. I find myself not having interest in listening to the whole album a third time. I listened to all his albums and my favorite is still am/pm and I can conclude that I prefer him singing Mandarin more than Cantonese...

In short, what I love about this album is its title: Urban Emotions and the CD booklet.

Songs that I wouldn't skip:

- 不吐不快 => it should be his jackpot hit of the year but the mention of '吹水' in the lyrics kinda ruined the song a bit. What was Lin Xi thinking when he wrote the lyrics?

- 鬧鬼愛情 => the only song that gave a surprise and I found myself tapping along

His Mandarin and Cantonese Hate That I Love You duet with Rihanna were nothing special but gimmicks. Listen to the original version instead. 吻得太逼真, Mandarin version of last year's hit 酷愛 is an unnecessary bonus.

I'm in Wonderland!

I got these two albums yesterday; I already finished Khalil's concert and I'm listening to Hins' CD as I'm typing this.


I'll just focus on Khalil's Wonderland Live 2008 DVD + CD on this post and these are the highlights:


The most haunting performances: 南音, 每天每天
The most perfect performances: 拖男帶女, 叫我怎麼說
The most charming performances: all the English songs
The most lively performances: 愛的初體驗 (with Endy Chow), the MJ dance
The most surprising performance: 春風吹, almost unrecognizable after its rearrangement
The most funny performance: 歌手與模特兒, look how he improvised when he forgot the lyrics
The most disappointing performance: 蘇麗珍, I love this song but that performance wasn't his best.

It's always an enjoyment to listen/watch Khalil live because he's the type that goes with the flow and it's always different each time he performs. For this concert, I give him my thumbs up, totally worth that 20$ I paid and a special thank you to Warner HK for being generous this time releasing a DVD and a CD, bows again to Warner!!!

However, some minor complaints here. It's very obvious that they cut a lot of Khalil's talking (I want to hear his lame gags =)) and those blurry and slow motion shots took away the live feel, it felt more like shots for MTV. Too bad that his performances with Fiona Sit and Fama were not included in the DVD as well because it sounded really good in the CD.

When the camera was on the crowd, I spotted a few celebrities: Eason Chan, Wyman Wong, William So and Louis Cheung...hehe...