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Label... Hamasaki US Movie Review Asian Movie Review Japan-Related Blog Hong Kong USA European Movie Review China Macau AnD-specific 52 Category... Standard Entry Video Information Press Release Event News

• Alive in Singapore - THK Screening

  Friday, Oct 2, 2009 8:35PM / Standard Entry / AnD-specific

  On the 19th we did a screening of 'The Heavenly Kings' and panel discussion about the film and AnD at Sinema @ Old School in Singapore.  

  
  

  

  Before the show I set up our banner.   Including HK, Macau, Mainland China, Japan and the US,  this is the 6th country we've done an official event at!!!  (did I miss any?)

  
  

  After setting up it was just a matter of waiting to see who shows up! 

  
  

  

  Hey, all the way from KL, its Elvanna! And all the way from Singapore, its Philip Ng, who was in town working on a TV project.  

  
  

  

  Singapore artists rEpReSeNt! 

  
  

  

  And special guest, Terence! 

  
  

  

  Our host for the weekend,  Nicholas Chee,  who is the director at Sinema.  They invited alivenotdead.com to participate in their 'Social Action Film Festival',  we were part of a series on social media.  

  
  

  

  As you can see there was a good turn out of alivenotdead.com members and artists.  I didn't get a chance to take pics of everyone unfortunately! That's Fish Chaar rocking his official alivenotdead.com logo T! ;-)

  
  

  

  After the movie we did a panel discussion and answered questions about the movie and the website.  There were a lot of questions about the reaction to the movie in the entertainment industry, the media, the general public, etc.

  
  

  

  Philip shared his perspective and experience as an artist on how participating in AnD has helped him.  He has been very effective in using it as a networking tool and has helped us bring in a lot of artists.  Elvanne is dazzled with his story telling ability too.

  
  

  

  Jedi_Jean shares her thoughts at the Q&A! 

  
  

  After the discussion panel, we met up with everyone outside for photos, chatting and delicious Coca Cola Zero (thanks to our sponsors at Coke Zero for the drinks!)

  
  

  I was too busy talking to people to get any pics, I only took a few worth sharing:

  

  Charlyn

  
  

  

  
  

  
  

  Thanks to everyone who came out!  I hope we can do more events with Sinema in the future! 
  
  

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• Deco Choco = DECOチョコ!!!

  Monday, Sep 28, 2009 7:20PM / Standard Entry / AnD-specific

  Its not a photoshop trick,  these are real boxes of delicious chocolates:

  
  

  

  Santa came early to the alivenotdead.com office! its DECO CHOCO! (DECOチョコ,  which is a Japanism for customized chocolate).

  
  

  

  Courtesy of Radwynn and Koko930, we got another three boxes of delicious chocolates from Japan with custom wrappers.  My favorite is the white chocolate. :-P

  
  

  Their website is here - http://www.decocho.com/

  
  

  you can see some examples and user submitted designs.  Cool stuff. ;-)

  
  

  Thanks Radwynn and Koko!

  
  

  
  
  
  

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• US Movie Review: "Fan Boys"

  Saturday, Sep 26, 2009 12:30PM / Standard Entry

  Being in Asia the last few years, I never heard of this movie til I saw the DVD when I was in SZ last weekend.   Being a big big Star Wars fan, I decided to take a chance on it, even though the cover photo did not inspire much confidence:

  
  

  But I enjoyed 'Trekkers' a lot, so why not try?

  
  

  

  Let there be no doubt, 'Fanboys' is a low-budget comedy filled with references that only a super Star Wars nerd is likely to get...  that said, I think I got almost every random reference and trivia question that came up in the movie.... so how could I dislike it?

  
  

  Its not Shakespeare, but its entertaining... typical road movie with nerdy Sci Fi stuff mixed in.  The Trek vs SW rivalry is pretty funny.  Its interesting to see how hard they had to try to keep the Trek costumes from looking anything like the real thing to keep Paramount from suing them. :-P

  
  

  

  
  

  Actually a lot of the jokes were a bit TOO close to home.  Long time Etchy blog fans will recall that I actually travelled from Japan to Korea expressly to get to see Episode 6 two months earlier (since the Japan release was 2 months behind the entire rest of the world).  I DID attend the midnight screening of The Phantom Menace on opening day in Oakland with my friends (we lined up all night on the sidewalk) ...and I used to have a millenium falcon hanging from the windshield of my junky van, and for a while I only listened to 70s Guitar rock in my car too.  And then there's my profile headshot here... :-P  

  
  

  The coolest thing about the movie is not the characters or the jokes, its actually the cameos.  For a low budget movie they actually have quite a lot!  Apparently they added a lot of them after the first cut was screened and they got noticed and got additional funding.  It took them another two years to release the film in its current form.  

  
  

  Personally I'll give it a 7/10.  You'll probably want to skip this if you're not into Star Wars at least a bit.
  
  

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• The Ghost Platform of Sheung Wan

  Thursday, Sep 24, 2009 7:28PM / Standard Entry

  Its not exactly a secret, but not a lot of people know about the 'Ghost Platform' at Sheung Wan's Rumsey Street exit.  Apparently in the original plans for the MTR in the early 70s, there was supposed to be a second cross harbor interchange between lines here instead of just the one that now exists at Admiralty. 

  
  

  

  In anticipation of the two line station, they built a portion of a second platform while constructing the island line. It was supposed to connect to a 2nd, cross harbor line.  The station wasn't actually completed until 1986 when the island line was extended past Central.   

  
  

  Even though they never used it, this short section of platform is still there and accessible since you need to pass through it to get down to the island line if you enter from Rumsey Street's entrance (this is not the main entrance/exit of the Sheung Wan station, but rather a smaller one at the eastern end of the Island line platform).

  
  

  

  It looks like a very short train platform (apparently only about 3 cars long), except there's no signage and a permanently fixed railing to keep you from falling onto the tracks.  Also note that there's no advertisements on the walls, and no sliding glass doors (which OG HKer's know is how all the platforms were before a few years back).  I didn't take a picture, but the floor is also bare,  no tracks, no ties, etc.

  
  

  

  At the end of the platform the tunnel is sealed off with cinder blocks.  I wonder if they dug the tunnel any further or it stops here.    Maybe the bricks are to keep the ghost trains from coming in to the station. :-P

  
  

  You can read a bit more about it here on the Wikipedia entry for Sheung Wan MTR station.

  
  
  
  

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• Japanese Film Review: Cyborg She (僕の彼女はサイボーグ) - Best time traveling cyborg movie since the first Terminator!

  Wednesday, Sep 23, 2009 12:00PM / Standard Entry / Asian Movie Review

  Best described as a Japanese comedy/sci-fi/romantic melodrama.  The English translation actually should be 'My Girlfriend, the Cyborg' based on the Japanese title 僕の彼女はサイボーグ... but I digress.

  
  

  

  There's no sense in beating around the bush here.  The first 2/3 of this movie is pure otaku jerk-0ff material! Imagine this premise:

  
  

  A super attractive girl, who turns out to be a cyborg is sent from the future to save the life of a geeky college student.  She is programmed to follow him around 24/7 and protect him, so as they end up living together, he has to teach her the ways of the world of course much hilarity ensues...

  
  

  Its all rather cartoony... lots of people getting slapped across the room by freakishly strong yet still hot girl who is entertainingly non-emotive.  As its pretty over-the-top in this respect, you can't get too picky about the storytelling details... but the movie also has an interesting time travel component to it (exactly like Terminator) that makes it more than just a cheesy comedy... 

  
  

  

  instead of naked Arnold saying "your clothes, give them to me" to punks in a dark alley, you get cyborg girl in an 1980s leotard shoplifting in a department store.  doh. :-P

  
  

  
  

  Of coure the paradox of time travel is not covered in any way (any one who watches Star Trek knows that if you go back in time and change the past, you wouldn't exist in the same form in the future to be sent back in the first place).  But you'll have to put those tricky detail aside for the duration of this movie...  focus on the important things:  its a comedy and it has a hot girl in it!

  
  

  

  Poor Raoul! :-(

  
  

  The actors all do a decent job,  the girl is played very well by former gravure idol Ayase Haruka (綾瀬はるか), there's a cameo from Shinjuku Incident's Takenaka Naoto (竹中直人),  and its directed by none other than Korean director Kwak Jae-yong (곽재용), the director of 'My Sassy Girl' and 'Windstruck', to name but a few.  The biggest problem in the film is the male lead,  who's character is an annoying wuss most of the movie.  :-P

  
  

  
  

  Long time etchy blog readers know one thing that REALLY bugs me about asian comedies (particularly Korean ones) is when they suddenly shift gears into a life and death tragedy in the last 20 minutes (probably the most blatant cases would be 'Sex is Zero' and 'Windstruck',  which as I mentioned is by the same director).    But I have to say, unlike those cases, the life and death part in 'Cyborg She' is relatively tolerable,  even though it still really comes out of left field,  there's a good reason for it to exist other than to illict tears from the audience.  (seems like Director Kwak has finally perfected his comedy->dramatic death scene->comedy transition!!)

  
  

  I'll give it a strong 7/10, especially if you are into those realistic looking japanese robots that look like women.  (you know who you are).

  
  
  
  

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