Based on the events at the end of the Han Dynasty in China leading to the period called the Three Kingdoms period; John Woo returns to Asian Cinema to bring one of the greatest turning points in that period, the Battle of Red Cliff, to the big screen. How big a deal is this? This is the most expensive Chinese movie to date estimated at $80 million dollars to produce. Big name actors from Chow Yun Fat, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Tony Leung Chiu-Wai had all been cast once to play these important historical figures.
The movie adaptation is based on the events at the Red Cliff (Chi Bi) where the outcome decided the fate of the end of Han and creation of the three separate kingdoms; the Shu, Wei and Wu. The events leading to this great battle is interesting enough to carry a film of epic proportions that even John Woo has made this movie into two separate parts with the first one being released this month. This is also the second movie based on the Three Kingdoms in 2008; which I have high expectations for. The other movie starred Andy Lau and Sammo Hung; and that was a disaster and a complete let down in terms of plot and acting. I seriously hope John Woo’s Red Cliff (Chi Bi) will not let me down.
Continue reading ‘The tale of Red Cliff saga begins’
How many of you remember Chow Yun Fat’s God of Gambler? I do. It was during a time period where Hong Kong movies just churned out gambling movie after gambling movie. It was the golden age of Hong Kong flicks I would say. Seriously; it was a mix of mafioso mixed with gambling and comedy.
As I was stumbling around the net looking for images, I found this God of Gambler relationship chart detailing how everyone was tied to each other somehow. Interesting chart to say nonetheless.
Continue reading ‘The God of Gambler Family Tree’
We are a nation lacking sleep. I would rather sleep that extra 15 minutes than eat breakfast. Do you eat breakfast? If your like me, then you probably miss the most important meal of the day, EVERY DAY! (The whole sleep topic will be discussed in another post) So why do we leave out this most important meal of our day to get our day started? I don’t have an answer to that but I do have an answer for having breakfast.
I recently watched a movie called ‘Flakes’, it is a comedy love story trying to over come all odds. Go rent it, its a pretty good movie. I found the most interesting part of the movie was the business concept on a breakfast store serving ONLY cereal. So simple yet how come there aren’t franchises yet? This is the next business opportunity that could explode like what Starbucks did for coffee. Coffee was something you could have prepared to drink at home, at the office or picked up at any mom & pop donut store. Starbucks took coffee to the next level; offering multitude of choices and alternatives. From cappuccinos, lattes, frappacinos to now even iced tea varieties. The pure convenience of having coffee anytime of day to any where you live and marketing it as the trendy thing to do became a phenomenal money maker. No more is coffee constrained for the morning or the typical sleep depraved coffee fanatic. It is available to all! Worse of all, coffee is not even supposed to be healthy for you.
Continue reading ‘Did you miss breakfast? No problem, head over to Flakes!’
Starring an all-star cast with Jet Li (Hero, Forbidden Kingdom), Andy Lau (Infernal Affairs) and Takeshi Kaneshiro (House of Flying Daggers); this movie is set during the Qing Dynasty when Empress Dowager Cixi ruled the lands of China. The story is about a lost general meeting local bandits to rejoin the army to find greatness and glory. Among other things, a brotherhood is formed like the three muscatels except due to selfishness and drama; it all gets broken down. Betrayal, control, obsession. All characters are developed well and acted wonderfully. I cannot find much complaint.
The film is currently available on YouTube and here is the first part to get you started: Continue reading ‘The Warlords’
By now you may have already heard of Kahlil Fong and his fantastic R&B style to sing Chinese songs. I heard lame attempts in the past but I think this guy actually got it. If you have not heard of him, then you will be in for a treat because this guy has got talent. His second album, Love Song, was released earlier this year and this was my initial impression of his musical style. His R&B style is almost reminiscent of John Legend; the vocals are probably less soulful but he does have good range and a good sense of the rhythm. Overall, I think his songs are enjoyable and will definitely stand out and attract more listeners ranging from the traditional Chinese pop fans crossing over to fans of other genres including people that don’t typically listen to foreign music.
I want to note that after listening to his second album, I found that his first album to be more light and it tries bit less on striving to sound too R&B or too forced in having soul. The tone of the first album, aptly named “Love Love Love”, is quite good altogether. He sings a single English song, Peter Cetera’s “If You Leave Me Now” and does a good job at it. I personally like the overall feel of his first album better than the second. Enough for me to actually want to introduce Khalil Fong and share with you his songs.
Continue reading ‘Nerdy Love Song - Khalil Fong (方大同)’
I listen to Chinese music all the time. I have heard many Taiwanese singers try to sing in English and fail miserably at it. Until now; I can safely say that I found a nice gem of a singer. Her name is Joanna Wang and her music style is a bit unfamiliar to the normal Taiwanese pop music style. Her English is spot on and her voice is most similar to Nora Jones.
Her album consists of 15 songs with 3 only sang in Chinese Mandarin. All the rest of the songs are in English which definitely makes her stand out and shows her confidence as an English singer. After listening through her album, there are definitely noteworthy songs on this album especially her single, Start From Here. The Chinese version of the song is titled “Maze (迷宮)”. She also sings the David Tao classic “I Love You” redone in English. Another notable song I enjoy is “Lost Tapei”, which gives me a sense of nostalgic feeling from my recent visits back to Taiwan and its hectic nightlife and buildings. If you have not heard of her yet, take note because her music is definitely worth the time to check out.
Continue reading ‘The sultry voice of Joanna Wang (王若琳)’
I been hearing about it ever since the Xbox 360 was launched more than 2 years ago (?) and even have had friends speak about it. It must have been fate because the night I experienced it, there was an article featured on Yahoo! about the high failure rate of this console. And finally the unholy sight of the Red Ring of Death do I understand what its all about. I may be fortunate that my console is actually about 2 years old and it lasted this long but at the same time; I have played less than a handful of games.
I also have my doubts that the system will be cured of this overheating cause of the red rings of death issue even when I do receive my console back. And I wonder if they will even attempt to fix it at all; since my console in question actually showed the symptoms of the system failure but after several hours of rest; it will actually power up again properly.
Continue reading ‘Doomed… Red Ring of Death to my 360 console…’
Last week, Nintendo released the highly anticipated U.S. version (NTSC) of Super Smash Brothers Brawl on the Nintendo Wii console and after reading great reviews from Gamespot, IGN, and others; I had to go out and get it. I already knew I was going to pick this game up but since my Xbox 360 decided to turn the Red Ring of Death on me; I figured nows the perfect time to just play Smash.
So how did my experience turn out? I decided to trade in several games to get in on a promotion to get Smash at Gamestop for only $9.99. First Gamestop I get to around my house has no extra copies; apparently they only had enough to cover pre-orders. Who actually pre-orders? And I got this game on Monday; it was released Saturday. They should already received their second shipment already. Anyways, had to go to a second Gamestop in the local area which had the game in-stock. Traded in my games and headed home to test the game out. Popped in the disc into the Wii and apparently it prompted a “disc unreadable” message. Not freaking out yet; I decided I need to update the console as it HAS been collecting dust for the past 3 months. After waiting for the system to update; still a no go.
Continue reading ‘Almost smashed my Wii because it didn’t play Smash’
Based on the events at the end of the Han Dynasty in China leading to the period called the Three Kingdoms period; John Woo returns to Asian Cinema to bring one of the greatest turning points in that period, the Battle of Red Cliff, to the big screen. How big a deal is this? This is the most expensive Chinese movie to date estimated at $80 million dollars to produce. Big name actors from Chow Yun Fat, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Tony Leung Chiu-Wai had all been cast once to play these important historical figures.
