This year’s birthday has been particularly good, after 2 free meals from Suan & ST the night prior, I went to Sushi Zanmai at Gardens on Ringo‘s treat (who also gave me a book as gift, thanks 
) before heading to watch Gamarjobat thanks to complimentary tickets from Bangsar Actor Studio via Nuffnang.
Hello! Gamarjobat
Gamarjobat actually means “Hello” in Georgian, or “Herro” in Japanese, which is the country the 2 jokers, Ketch and Hiro-pon hail from. One with a yellow Mo-hawk and the other have it red.
This is in fact, my second time watching their show. Last year’s main feature was “The Boxer” which featured a very hillarious slow motion sequence, but this year’s “Western” did not disappoint either. You’ll have to be there at the horse riding and gun shootout parts in person to truly appreciate it. Their signatory fast pace intro and the very funny penguin rock star act adds was equally as hilarious.
The show will stay until 19th October, check the Actor Studio’s site for ticket pricing and schedule. If it is the only live act you’re going to watch this year, make it this one. I’m sure Ringo, Tim, Grace, and Audrey would agree, they were laughing at least as hard as me.
On a semi-related note, I had 2 more free meals in conjunction with the whole birthday thingy. Lorna spent me lunch at Ah Yip’s soup place at Plaza Damas, and Douglas bought me the 1/2 pound set at Wendy’s last night. Five free meals in a row, I must be the luckiest guy!
Last weekend I finally watched a movie I’ve heard about for a long time: Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket.
This movie was released over 20 years ago, a story about transformation of men into killing machines, about friendship, human psychology, and the torment of war.
The story is separated into two very different parts. The first half illustrates the metamorphosis of young men into US marines who are “born to kill”, emphasizes on a particular Private Pyle who dealt with the situation in a very different way. Though heavy, this section also features a very entertaining Drill Instructor who is most awesome with his usage of metaphors. Example:
Gunnery Sergeant Hartman: If you ladies leave my island, if you survive recruit training, you will be a weapon. You will be a minister of death praying for war. But until that day you are pukes. You are the lowest form of life on Earth. You are not even human, fucking beings. You are nothing but unorganized grabastic pieces of amphibian shit. Because I am hard you will not like me. But the more you hate me the more you will learn. I am hard but I am fair. There is no racial bigotry here. I do not look down on niggers, kikes, wops or greasers. Here you are all equally worthless. And my orders are to weed out all non-hackers who do not pack the gear to serve in my beloved Corps. Do you maggots understand that?
More quotes from FMJ here.
The second part of the movie reflects the cruelty of war in a very honest and in-your-face way. No romanticism, no heroism, just the very harsh reality of Vietnam war with pain, suffering, death, and pointless revenge being exhibit vividly.
The song Paint it Black by The Rolling Stones is used in the ending credits.
If you haven’t seen this movie yet, grab a copy of DVD, one of the best war movies ever made.
Maybank2u 2.0
In another totally unrelated event (except for the fact that Maybank painted their new site black), I attended the Maybank2u 2.0 preview last Monday at Marc’s Residence, KL. Events like this have since became a platform to catch up with friends in similar circle. Suan, David Lian, Erna, Michael, Thomas, Ringo, Nicholas, and more were all there.
Being in an IT field myself, I was actually quite captivated by the approach taken for the requirement study in the site redesign exercise. Very user oriented, and in my opinion, the result shows. A clean, light, and very easy to navigate website. Back end remains the same, but I believe most users will like what they see when they launch this site.
The buffet dinner served by Delicious at Marc’s Residence was, well, very delicious too. As for now, I am going to listen to Paint it Black for the nth time.
Thanks to Eyeris who managed to source a pair of extra tickets for Iron Man last night, I got to watch this show before the official release this weekend. Before you ask, the movie is awesome and totally kick ass, you have to watch it when it comes out this weekend. Now lets proceed to a bit of a “review” that might or might not contain spoilers, read at your own risk.
Tony Stark’s first armour
For those who didn’t grow up with American comics (ie: me, I was reading Chinese version of Doraemon and Lau Fu Tze), Iron Man has his super power not via genetic mutation nor being born on some other planet. Instead, somewhat like Bruce Wayne in Batman, Tony Stark is an industrialist who archive superpower-hood via his engineering brilliance. If you haven’t figured it out, he built the freaking armour that allows him to fly, shoot people, carry heavy loads, etc etc.
2nd version in the making
The story doesn’t stray very far from the typical superhero movies, with the introduction of the main character as an ordinary person to the transformation that makes him a superhero to the final fight with the super villain. The difference is, of course, Robert Downy Jr. fits the profile of Tony Stark perfectly, and Gwyneth Paltrow played a brilliant role in being Pepper Potts.
awesome or not?
Then there’s the absolutely awesome CG that blends it perfectly while bringing the awe factor not any less than Transformers. You’ll love the movie, watch it!
the enemy, iron monger
I received the invitation to the premier of Dunia Baru the Movie from the PR lady Nuradila (Thanks! Keep them coming) at Grand Brilliance about a week ago. Initially I didn’t think I would be going to the movie, cos 1st, it is a local production (many of them aren’t very entertaining), and 2nd, it is also my badminton night.
However, things in life usually turns out the way you never knew it would. Due to fact that I need to steal Suanie‘s car for CNY, and that she wanted to catch the show, I ended up ditching badminton. BUT, before the movie starts, the Suan actually thought it might be a great idea if we skip the whole show and have a big dinner instead. I told her to be nice and just watch it in full.
We were both pleasantly surprised by our collective decisions at the end. Dunia Baru was just so entertaining!
Dunia Baru the Movie
The movie is actually based on a massively popular TV series by the same name on TV3 about life in college/university. In the movie, Anizah was being kidnapped by a stalker, her university friends then ganged together and traveled a long way to rescue her. 90% of the show is about their adventure, with a lot of funny bits and a few heart warming moments.
I particularly like the performance and character of the rocky chick, played by Elyana. A very strong character who also sings very well.
The stars of the movie (shot with my N82)
The movie does show a parallel to one of my favorite comedy, Eurotrip. With a lot of almost lame but very funny bits. I was laughing my butt off on so many instances it was ridiculous. The soundtrack was awesome, and sceneries very beautiful. Of course, production quality and sound quality suffers a little, but luckily they did not get into the way of me enjoying the movie.
The cool thing was, all the stars were seated just a few rows behind me during the screening!
Give this local show a try, I must say I am impressed. Much better than I am Legend that’s for sure.
Thanks to the young lady Reta who gave me some premier tickets to this fantastic show, I wouldn’t have gone to watch Death Note otherwise, especially after the horrid experience with the last Japanese show I watched in the cinema – Forbidden Siren.
In a nutshell, the story revolves around a brilliant student (Light) who picked up a death note that was dropped by a Shinigami (Death God). If a name is written in the book, the person will die in the next 40 seconds. Light wanted to get rid of evil and started using the book to kill off convicted criminals, gaining a reputation as Kira. But since he was taking justice solely from his own judgment, the police soon recruited the help of a famous detective, L, to stop Kira. The two then tries to outsmart each other, Light trying to kill L, and L trying to figure out who is Kira and to catch him.
The movie actually takes off from where the first one left off. If you did not watch the first Death Note (corresponding to anime series 1-7), the second (the rest of the anime) would still be very good, but might be a little confusing at first. Grab a DVD of the first Death Note, then go to the cinema for the 2nd.
This is by far the best non-anime Japanese movies I have ever watched. An interesting premise with a very smart story line full of brilliant twists. The ending might be a little dark, I get the feeling like I did while watching arguably last year’s best show – The Prestige. Go watch it, it’s awesome.
This movie currently gets 7.1/10 at imdb, and you can find a lot more information at wikipedia:Death Note.
