At an internet cafe' right now trying to blog. The download speeds are fucking fast here compared to my DSL at home and the internet access is free if you have your own laptop. AWESOME. That new House of Flying Daggers trailer is badass by the way.

Columbia College New Student Convocation

Man, I hated going to the New Student Convocation but I had to go because it was mandatory. I shouldn't have gone at all. It was a piece of fucking boring shit that wasted one hour of my life. I want it back Columbia. Although, I did purchase my first book (Math) and it was used. It was still $80 though. Why the fuck do used things still cost $80 and when you sell it back it's only $20. Fucking money grubbers.

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Being annoying

I was chatting with my ex-ladyfriend Leah and she typed out, "You know, you can be fucking annoying sometimes." It was all in CAPS too and then she logged off. I don't know what I said or did but I began pondering on the fact of being annoying.

I am annoying sometimes. Sometimes to the point of "I NEED SILENCE! (I did that for you, Wency) I go online, go on YM!, MSN Messenger, AIM. I chat with my friends out of the blue and I think they feel annoyed when I go online. One friend, whom I refuse to name, has blocked me (I don't know why) but I think it's because whenever I chat with him/her I go overboard with emotional theatrics and what not. A few people, whom I love and cherish, don't speak to me anymore. Our connection is lost, dead, and gone. I know that they're online because whenever I read their journals, they write about being online but yet I find them missing on my buddy lists. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I think it's good that I'll be living with my aunt Helen for awhile because I won't be able to use the internet for a long time. I'll be cut off from the technological world for some time. This is good. Real good.

I'm sorry Leah. I'm sorry for what I said or did.
I still love you.
I'm sorry.
Forgive me.
I still love you babe even if you don't have the same feelings for me.

-------------------------

Dry your eyes mate
I know it's hard to take but her mind has been made up
There's plenty more fish in the sea

Dry your eyes mate
I know you want to make her see how much this pain hurts
But you've got to walk away now

It's over
Over.

The Streets "Dry Your Eyes"

Please post a comment.

I like A Perfect Circle. Their song "Weak and Powerless" was original and quite excellent. Listening to the radio, I hear a cover of John Lennon's "Imagine," and man, it was horrible. My friend Jorge and I were thinking "Who the fuck is this?!" and I thought that it sounds like A Perfect Circle but they wouldn't do that. "It must be another fucking band," I kept on thinking in my head.

Much to my surprise, it fucking was A Perfect Circle.

They took a song about peace and turned it into a piece of shit that sounds so different and dark that it feels like it's about hate.

One more thing:

Rage Against the Machine - Zack De La Rocha + Chris Cornell = Audioslave (AWESOME)
Zack De La Rocha = Zack De La Rocha (BAD)

Found this to be hilarious.

It's hilarious because it's true.

Olsen twins.

Slept at 9:38 pm last night and I don't know why. Woke up at 5:30 am to bring my dad to the train station. Went back home and slept again. Woke up at 1:21 pm and I still felt exhausted. I didn't eat breakfast or lunch because I wasn't hungry. Later in the day received a phone call from a Chris who works at the Odeum. She called me to confirm the hours when I will be working. I responded with a confused voice, "Excuse me, I'm wondering, how did you get this number?" She then asked if I was Daniel Lee or something. I said no but wondered how she got the wrong number but still got the right first name. I'm now having these sharp pains from my left inner ear. I looked inside and there's a fucking pimple there. I can't believe it, my pimples are starting to grow in the most fucked up of places. Earlier, watched J.J. Abrams "Lost" starring Matthew Fox and some other 30 people. The series premiere was excellent, having the intensity of "24" while having the drama of "CSI."

I don't know why everytime I find a really cool AIM icon, I can't insert it because either A) The image size is too large or B) The file size is too big. What the fuck America Online?! I can't even make my own because even if it's 48 x 48, it will still be too big to post.

Just saw Ju-On 2 and found it to be much better than the first. It's funnier and scarier than the first installment. If you want to get anal about it, this is actually Ju-On 4 in the series (the upcoming Sarah Michelle Gellar one is 5). A couple of scenes really scared the shit out of me. Wearing headphones on this film is a must (with a full bitrate DTS track). The DTS track kicked my ass, there were a few scenes where I thought Kayako (the bitch with a grudge) was really behind me. To understand some of the minor details, viewing the first two television movies is certainly a must.

How the mighty have fallen.

De La Hoya got knocked the fuck out!!!!!!!

Just read on the internet that De La Hoya just got knocked the fuck out by Bernard Hopkins. No surprise really as Hopkins is the best boxer in the world. Just a 9th round shot to Oscar's ribs to bring him down.

Getting political

I really hate it when George Dubya Bush keeps on saying that the world is a better place with the capture of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein. He still keeps on saying that he "intended" to build weapons of mass destruction. How the fuck did he know that Saddam was "intending" to create some WMDs, is it because some people told him? Or is it because he just need an excuse for telling people that he couldn't find Osama? What the fuck Mr. President? I'd rather let a monkey be president than this asshole, oh wait, there already is one and his name is DUBYA.

Britney Spears' new music video

Saw future Mrs. Federline's new music vid and I think I just had sex with her. Jesus Christ, Britney's first music video featured her just dancing while singing. Now, she just whispers her lyrics into a fucking mic while the music video is just all sex, sex, sex. Who wants to see Britney Federline into a bra and panties moving around on a white bed? Not me. This music video especially (titled My Prerogative), is just filled with Brit's tits and ass and that's it! Man, she keeps on saying that she wants the media off her back and all this shit but she keeps all the attention when she creates music videos like this.

The Perfect Slurpee

Wow. I think I just had the perfect slurpee a few hours ago. You see, I purchased a Starburst Orange Creme slurpee. I doubt it was that flavor though (tasted more like Hawaiian Punch) but man, was it perfect. I drank the entire thing without mixing it with me straw. It wasn't too sweet or too sour BUT PERFECT.

The final days of Columbia orientation

Today was the last day (yesterday if you want to get technical) of my orientation to Columbia College. You know, I'm pretty excited to be going to this school. The only problem is the huge tuition payment ($7,440 to be exact and that's a semester!) but man, I love film. The advisers were telling us that to do well in the school that we need a major NOW! I already have chosen my major (film directing of course) and because my orientation was so late, I didn't have the choice of choosing the classes I wanted. I still chose some cool film classes though (development and preproduction and visual audio). It's still gay that I have to take Math and English (UGH) but what can you do right?

No pain, no gain

Because I was walking for 5 hours (not straight though), my body was starting to take a toll onto itself. My left hip, left knee, and left calf muscle started to burn like fucking hell. I could have called my dad to pick me up but I wanted to be like Michael Jordan and play through the pain. BIG FUCKING MISTAKE! I walked home from the Lombard Metra to my house (which is 2 miles) and when I arrived home my body was completely exhausted. I don't know why this didn't happen Tuesday or Thursday but man, I think my body is telling me to lose some fat (and I have a lot). I think I shouldn't push my body to its limits anymore because I think my arthritis flares up whenever I do. I think walking TO the metra station, from the cta station to Columbia, getting lost along the way, and then walking to union station, then walking back home fucked up my body for awhile.

At the end, I took 2 pills of Relafen then my left side started to feel better. Thank God for arthritis medicine.

Sorry to say this but what the hell is that? It's really cute though.

My dad is not working tomorrow. Shit.

In other news, Alyssa Milano is so fucking yummy hot in the new FHM.

Finally had the guts to post my profile on my blog for the whole world to see. Do you notice the striking resemblance to Tony Leung Chiu-Wai?

So tired.....I think I'll go to sleep now.

Received a comment about the iffy sentences on the Garden State review and man, I should really check my work before publishing. The review has been proofread twice and has recently been corrected.

Just finished watching the Ladykillers directed by the Coen brothers and found it to be quite funny. Most critics hated it but I didn't really care for it so maybe that's why I liked it. I hope to get that Windstruck movie review later today. Just read that Zhang Yimou's next film House of Flying Daggers will arriving in the U.S. December 17th (just in time for Academy Award contention). If it is better than Hero then goddamn!

Man, I've been watching too many movies the past few days.

Movie Review

Garden State (2004)
Director: Zach Braff
Starring: Zach Braff, Natalie Portman, Peter Saarsgard, and Ian Holm.

Let me just get this out of the way first. Natalie Portman is beautiful in this film, she is too cute for words. I wish she could be my future wife. Every scene she's in she glows with such charisma and energy that all you can do is love her. Okay, done with my Natalie Portman speech. I loved this movie, it's characters, the soundtrack, the cinematography, and especially the directing.



Braff does a wonderful job (in his directorial debut no less) as director AND actor in this film. He takes time with his characters, he loves his characters, he cherishes each one. There are no villains within the film. The only villains I could see are the characters within themselves. Each is their own worst enemy. Braff is patient while letting the story unfold before your eyes. This is the purest essence of filmmaking.



The actors do an incredible job of bringing a sense of reality into the movie. Every character feels real and acts real. I cherished Braff's character of Andrew Largeman, whose character has been taking anti-depressants since he was 10. His friend Mark (Peter Saarsgard), a gravedigger who lives life slowly and whose mother dates a knight (that's right, a knight). Natalie Portman's Sam is genuine and true despite being a liar throughout half of the movie (for humor). Portman is radiant is every scene and almost steals every scene from Braff. Supporting characters such as Jesse (a character who's made "silent velcro"), Gideon Largeman (Andrew's strict and commanding father excellently portrayed by Ian Holm), and Karl Benson (Geoffrey Arend) an ignorant former classmate of Andrew's who thinks he committed suicide years ago. Every performance is pinpoint perfect in the film.



Another mention has to go to the amazing soundtrack consisting of Coldplay, Frou Frou, Remy Zero, Simon and Garfunkel, the Shins, and more. The film felt like it was created out of these songs. I loved the use of Frou Frou's song "Let Go" especially at the end, it just felt right.



This is one of the best American films of the year. Check it out.

Grade: A

Mini Movie Review



Director: Woo-suk Kang
Starring: Sung-kee Ahn, Kyung-gu Sol, and Jun-ho Heo

Silmido is a 2003 film which tells the story of 31 criminals who are transformed into soldiers through dehumanizing military training. The film, set in 1968, is intriguing until it loses focus during the last third of the movie. Performances, fortunately, are decent and quite impressive while production values are of high quality. The film also set a record in its native South Korea for selling the most tickets in South Korean film industry (only beaten recently by Tae Ku Gi)



Grade: B-

Oh yeah, one more thing.

I'll hopefully get that Windstruck review out of the way later today.

As for some afterthoughts, I thought the movie had an identity crisis problem. It didn't know if it was an action thriller, a comedy, or a drama. I thought the ending was hilarious though (anyone who's seen My Sassy Girl will explode in laughter!).

End thought: It was really weird seeing Jun Ji-hyun (the girl from My Sassy Girl) crosseyed while sobbing really, really hard.

Saw a Korean movie titled Oasis and man, was it depressing........and so fucking boring.

I can't believe that Roger Ebert gave three stars to this piece of shit. I missed 20 minutes of the movie because I went to sleep so I rewinded back where I left off and what do you know, I went back to sleep during those same fucking 20 minutes. The movie started to get good when the movie was almost over and man, a movie is supposedly has to get good within the first 15 minutes or its a fucking dead fish.

Contemplated whether I should watch Resident Evil: Apocalypse tonight and the answer is a BIG NO! Man, I haven't seen a movie like that being ripped in reviews since Gigli or recently (the what the fuck are they doing with the money) movie of the week Baby Geniuses 2.

Sure, the RE2 trailers did look cool but so did the Alien Vs. Predator ones and you know how that movie sucked rat tits and stunk to high heaven.

BTW, there's already blue pringles?

Movie Review



Director: Johnnie To
Starring: Kelly Chen, Nicholas Cheung, Richie Ren, Lam Suet, and a special appearance by Simon Yam

Johnnie To is one of the biggest directors in Hong Kong. I enjoyed his previous works The Mission, Running Out of Time, and Fulltime Killer. These films contained complex character developments while keeping the action tight and the pace fast. Sadly, his latest work Breaking News is just plain bad. It's missing character arcs, original action scenes, and a fast pace (the pace is almost dead in comparison to Fulltime Killer).



Breaking News is about four robbers trying to escape while embarassing the Hong Kong police force. For payback, the Hong Kong police force decides to use the media to its advantage. Rebecca Fong (Kelly Chen) decides that the media can make the Hong Kong police force look more heroic. A rebel policeman (Nicholas Cheung) just wants to catch the criminals instead of putting on a good show for the public.



Throughout the film, a father (Lam Suet) is taken hostage by the leader of the robbers (Richie Ren). I usually like To's films because they are usually action packed and unusual in their execution and style. But here, it feels like To already has directed this type of film before. And for once, the acting in a To film is unsatisfactory. Kelly Chen, who did a great job in Infernal Affairs I and III, is just horrid in this film. Her performance is so stiff then it made me want to punch her. Cheung's performance is also a mixture of glances and snide looks at the criminals. He is just the definition of annoying in this film.



The surprise here is Richie Ren, who doesn't take his role too seriously and adds a bit of depth and humor to his character. His character is the most interesting when he converses with the police and when talking to his fellow robbers. The so-called awesome beginning 7-minute long continuous shot throughout a street underwhelmed me. Instead of the being original and inventive, it feels like a rip off of the hospital scene in John Woo's Hard Boiled. Another scene involving lunch boxes for the media and police officers is just out of place in a film like this. It was too comedic and the music sucked major, major ass.



A few critics have said that people who liked To's previous films would love this film. I, however, disliked more scenes than liked. Only the performance by Richie Ren is the saving grace for this film. Hopefully, the remake (bought by a major Hollywood studio) would be better than this film.

Grade: D+

You know the MPAA can't do shit about piracy when bootlegs are starting to look like this.

Shot from Wicker Park (2004)

Windstruck review
Coming soon.....

Man, she is so hot.

I was pretty excited that the Prodigy is releasing their latest album Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned on September 14th. I listened to a couple of tracks from it and all I can say is...............


........it stinks. Wow. I never thought that the Prodigy would create shit but shit is what is on the album. Vocals from Keith Flint and Maxim are GONE! Can you believe that?! Their voices are what made the Fat of the Land great. They brought the hype and adrenaline to the music and beat-maker Liam Howlett decided to scrap them? Fuck that man.

At least there's one good thing to this. McG won't be fucking taking Prodigy music for his fucking gay Charlie's Angels movies. Man, those movies did suck!

Movie Review


1994
Director: Luc Besson
Starring: Jean Reno, Gary Oldman, Natalie Portman, and Danny Aiello.

Leon is not an action film, it's not a thriller, or a gory action motion picture. It's a love story, it just happens that action is used as its background. Jean Reno stars as Leon, a cleaner who does his job so precisely, so efficiently that no minute he's there and the next he's not. Natalie Portman stars as Mathilda, Leon's next door neighbor whose family literally gets wiped out by Gary Oldman's character, Stansfield. He adopts her as his own while she teaches him while to read. In return, he teaches her the ways of being a cleaner (aka hitman).



The gun battles in the film evoke a sense of John Woo in his peak but the action takes a backseat to the Lolita-type story. During their relationship, Mathilda falls for Leon despite their huge age difference. Mathilda does something that changes both their lives dramatically. Stansfield finds out who this hitman actually is and thus begins the hunt for Leon.



This is personally one of my favorite films not because of the awesome gun battles but because its story is told so well and executed so efficiently that the film flew by. The original theatrical American of the film had 24 minutes cut out of it because of poor audience test screenings. Thankfully Columbia Pictures has decided to release Besson's true director's cut as it is so much superior to the original theatrical cut. Leon and Mathilda's characters are more fleshed out and their characters are explored more fully. One mention has to go to Gary Oldman's character of Norman Stansfield. His performance is utterly creepy and so good that it feels that this film is remembered because of him. One scene he can be completely calm discussing about Beethoven while another he screams for more men to help destory the protagonist. Reno and Portman gives great performances but its Oldman that truly struck me as a flawless performance.



This is one of the best films ever made and sadly Besson hasn't topped himself ever since.

Grade: A+

Zhang Yimou's Hero finally in cinemas and I had the privilege to see it.



I didn't like it though. The subtitles were so westernized I kept on comparing it to the Chinese DVD. A few examples:

Chinese: Let me convey my conviction in three words: "All under Heaven."
U.S.: Let me give you the gift of two words: "Our Land."

Chinese: How swift thy sword.
U.S.: How swift your sword must be.




The poetic Mandarin language that was written has been westernized to suit the casual moviegoers' palettes. It's the little things that could have kept this film from being a perfect release.

What really bugs me is the U.S. theatrical trailer of Infernal Affairs. First, in the trailer it presents the two main characters (Leung Chiu-Wai and Lau Tak-Wah) as friends. The thing is that they are never friends in the film. Second, they portray the film as a John Woo-esque action movie. The film is actually more a cat and mouse thriller than Hard Boiled. Wow Miramax, you again did a great job promoting this film!

Man, the past few days have been either a blur or in slow motion. I hated it Friday that my dad was home the entire day. Did my laundry and cleaned the comforters to get away from him.

On Saturday, went to my upcoming apartment to wait for the bed guys to come. While waiting, I found a cockroach sleeping on the carpet. My aunt owns the apartment and it is a fucking mess. Her room was particularly horrible with drawers open and dirty clothes all over the place. Of course, I crushed the fucking cockroach. Yesterday, my dad told me that we (aka my dad and I) will clean my room. Fuck that man. I hate it when he is involved because something that would take 1 minute would turn into 2 hours because my dad is such a fucking perfectionist. The thing is that all the things he does isn't perfect. A perfectionist would plan his schedule ahead of time not on the fly (like my dad).

Today was pretty good. Slept mostly the whole day because I was exhausted mowing the lawn, trimming the grass, and blowing the clippings yesterday afternoon. I couldn't believe that it was fucking hot yesterday. It took me awhile to finish the grass because whenever I would stay in the sun too long I would start to get fucking dizzy. What should have taken 45 minutes was extended to 3 hours. Thank God my dad's ass wasn't there or he would be bitching and complaining how I mow the lawn and shit.

During dinner time today, I took some noodles and I wanted to get some BBQ chicken. Before I opened the chicken, my dad goes nuts telling me that "YOU SHOULD ONLY GET WHAT YOU CAN EAT! GET A PLATE THEN GET THE CHICKEN!!!" Man, I don't know why he has to scream even before the situation ever happens. Man, sometimes I wish I could punch my dad in the face. What an asshole, you know.

You know I think my dad needs to listen to some music. All he does is sit in front of the tv all day. Everyday I listen to music but it soothes my nerves. My mom says that I'm hot tempered. I think that she's way off on that....it's my brother who has a hot temper. I only get hot tempered is when I get pushed. My brother gets hot tempered many times, especially when I go into his room. Jesus man, drinking some depressants or something.

Man, I can't wait to get out of this shithole.