April 14, 2014
Spoilers! Spoilers! & Mixed feelings...
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Labels: movies and TV shows
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Spoilers! Spoilers! & Mixed feelings...
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April 8, 2014
...in detail! Stop reading if you don't want spoilers. But for anyone who doesn't care to watch this show...this could be quite entertaining.
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Labels: movies and TV shows
February 6, 2014
Definitely do the 1080p HD setting to watch it. If this (the preview) is not perfection I don't know what is - those cheekbones, the Del Rey creepy rendition of "Once Upon a Dream" (you can get it on google play for free here), AND THAT GIGGLE. All in theaters May 30th!
Labels: movies and TV shows, music
March 23, 2013
A beginner's guide to Game of Thrones, and a rant for all who have watched it.
First and foremost, I do NOT own any of these pictures and they're not being used commercially. I edited most of them to make them suitable for this post.
I am supposed to be reading The Hobbit, which I borrowed back in February. It is due tomorrow and I'm only half way through. I can't really argue why reading The Hobbit is less exciting than talking about Game of Thrones (GoT for short), so this title is gonna be somewhat misleading. I do find the story quite appealing, especially after watching the movie, which made it even easier to imagine everything (though Tolkien is already describing everything in the most detailed fashion possible) with Peter Jackson's amazing visual aid. I guess I'm not one who was brought up with the pleasure of reading. I listened to classics my parents read to me at bed time when I was unable to read them myself. There weren't novels as a language class requirement in either Chinese and English. Even after I started going to school here, I (shamefully admit that) relied mostly on SparkNotes (SparkNotes really is a wonderful creation for review, though). All in all, a lot of books are timeless, but books are not my thing. I still wish they were.
OK. I don't know where to start. Keeping it spoiler free is no easy task. Let's just say that there will be very vague descriptions about the show's concepts, nothing too specific. But I will eventually venture into details, and I will tell you when those start! It is also important to clarify that I've never read the GoT books (as I have explained my reasons about this in general), so it is very possible my assumptions about the show can be wrong.
If one asks me my favorite thing about GoT, I have to say it is how the story has a general direction that the audience knows it is heading towards aka the defeat of the weak, but we all know there is going to be a long journey before this can be achieved. And through this journey, we get to explore all sides of all the players that are important in determining their own + others' fate. I don't know if you guys notice this, but a lot of shows change direction a lot. You get confused about what they are trying to achieve and eventually give up on it because you feel like it's becoming lame (and it probably is becoming lame). Or some others try to stick with these shows just because they feel responsible for themselves for tying up the loose ends. With this show though, you know a war is coming, and it intrigues you to see how everyone is trying to one-up the others. With that being said, you should know that people are going to die, because there are obviously lots and lots of characters, and they all evolve and are all fit candidates for world domination. There is simply no THE major characters because everyone is important. This also makes the show interesting because you don't know who is gonna be killed off, since no one is not vulnerable. There's no saving-the-day personalities, if you know what I mean.
For all who haven't watched it, let's have a spoiler-free brief introduction of the realm. (By spoiler-free, I mean you're going to be introduced to the background of this story. None of these actually happened on the show, they are also given as known facts in the show...but if you want to know absolutely nothing before you start the show...you can pass up this post now.) And this is just a corner of what you will know. It's the most basic of the basics. Here's a map:
I know this is not the most clear map on earth, but looks rather authentic and I like that. It is important to know that THIS SHOW IS A FANTASY SHOW, THERE'S NO HISTORICAL BACKGROUNDS!!! OK. Because before I watched this show, I had a long-held perception of this show being about a random medieval time with white people in Europe, but it's not. It's purely imagination, which is what makes it wonderful. Let's focus on the left island-looking place on the map. This is where most of the story takes place - a struggle of power. Obviously, in the middle, "King's Landing" is the capital of the Westeros. It's all warm and beautiful there. The three groups of important characters who live there are from House Baratheon, King of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros, some members of House Lannister, who are kin to the king and are really rich, and king's advisers. Other members of House Baratheon and Lannister who are not so closely related to the king don't reside there, they have their own lands in various provinces of Westeros.
Up north the vast land of "Winterfell" is where House Stark resides. The Stark family is the lords of Winterfell, a province of seven kingdoms of Westeros; and they are the first introduced ones in the show as well. Near the top of the map, you can see "The Wall". And no one goes beyond the wall, because there are evil wildlings up there and it's below freezing (it's already very cold in Winterfell). So people at the Wall (called "Night Watch") are guarding against wildlings, and they are mostly previous prisoners within the realm who give up their life in better-suitable-for-living parts of the realm to become soldiers, essentially. Not that they had much better living conditions...though.
Let's move on to the bigger right piece on the map, "Essos". This is not a part of Westeros, and is believed to be inhabited with exotic peoples. A (House) Targaryen was king of Westeros before Baratheon. But I think he went crazy so they killed him and his two children are in exile in Essos at the beginning of the show. Most peoples of Essos don't really build ships, so these two Targaryen children cannot come back. And as you can imagine, "exotic" places mean deserts with not-fully closed peoples.
These are three main locations that you will become aware of once you start watching. As you probably figured, not all Houses are in peaceful terms with each other. (There are also more Houses and more complicated relationships, obviously.) This brings me to my second point about why I love this show - all characters are amazing!!! Each is so unique and totally relate-able, no matter old or young. It really is a vast assortment of people (personality-wise) that you can see in the world right now. The drama is based on love, family, loyalty, and many other relate-able themes. It keeps us guessing with unexpected new events coming up, but rarely strays from the central storyline. And it also never over-complicates the story, which is what happens to many other shows. (And for those shows, I would often find myself already forgetting some important facts that was introduced a while ago, and I have to look up things after watching episodes. Yuck!) It finds ways to go on without introducing unnecessary new ideas. I believe this is because of how multidimensional each character is. But still, the story is injected with the excitement of new faces every so often when an old character is exhausted and killed off.
GoT is also very clever dialog-wise. My favorite character is Tyrion Lannister (probably the likely favorite among many fans). He is so intelligent and is a champ at taking advantage of his strengths and hiding his weaknesses. I'm sure we all love the smart characters, Arya as well. I don't want to expose too much details here. But I'm sure everyone will find a character (or many, like me!) that they really like in this show! (HBO didn't get along with me so well in True Blood...I kinda liked Eric because he was hot, but I didn't find a character I really really enjoy until Russell Edgington. Watch this scene if you have seen season 3 episode 9, or if you don't plan on seeing True Blood at all. Viewer discretion is advised. But this scene is crazy awesome.)
Oh, there are also a little bit of black magic, dragon, and some awkward sex scenes that we can all ignore.
Yes that was my awesome warning of spoilers. Because "spoiler alert" is so 2012. If you're reading this, then you are probably as super excited about this new season as I am. I feel the need to rewatch the second season before I start, but all the important details are still very fresh on my mind. These GoT season finales were so good! Such amazing cliffhangers that are perfect bits of taste of what to expect in the new season!!! My favorite storyline last season was definitely Arya meeting Jaqen H'ghar and the phrase "valar morghulis" (and Arya and Tywin Lannister's exchanges were also cool). I honestly cannot wait until I see the next time they meet up (hope we wouldn't have to wait long). I also enjoyed Sansa + The Hound's shared scenes. I feel like everyone ships them even though they are an unlikely pair. My least favorite bits were Stannis + Melisandre (what kind of crazy witchcraft was that?!), I thought that was even worse than some good characters dying. They are just not very likable characters. It's not that I hate them, it's just...they are not cool. Unlike them, characters like Joffrey are people that you hate with a passion. And he just turned majorly sadistic. :O
I have mixed feelings for some characters like Daenerys Targaryen. (This is my mixed-feelings section.) A lot of people love her. I like her ever-stronger personality too, and how gorgeous she is. But you know, she's like a potential threat to other characters that I love. I also have mixed feelings for Margaery Tyrell. I love how she has becoming more and more important as a player in this game. But I find her kind of creepy...I also have mixed feelings about Theon. Of course, there's always the unliked child seeking acceptance from his family. He's trying too hard. It is a very reasonable plot if you think about it, but he kind of just made his own life miserable.
Besides those, I'm excited to see what happens beyond the wall, especially after the hilariously-looking group of white walkers surrounds Sam (who is equally funny). I am also excited to see what Lord Varys is gonna be up to, plotting against Littlefinger. Brienne and Jaime Lannister also have enjoyable travel scenes. And of course, I feel bad for Tyrion Lannister and hope to see him doing well again. Lastly but not least, I want to know what happens to all the Starks all over the place.
Who are your favorite characters in GoT? What about your favorite scenes?
I'm in no way a political expert...but this sounds funny and hopefully doesn't come off offensive to anyone. (OK, it is funny if you don't take it seriously...)
Original photocreds: 1, 2 (I honestly don't know where I got this, I believe it is the official map), 3, 4
Labels: movies and TV shows
February 24, 2013
As promised, Steph gets her own song. It's somewhere in the playlist, Steph (&Pri), you'll know when you see it. As for the rest of you, read on.
There were major moments of sudden realizations these past weeks. And most of them are centered around adulthood. Some of you may know, I'm a huge procrastinator, especially when it comes to things that should totally be done thoroughly and as early as possible. Welp, finding a place to live next year is definitely one of these things that I hate to get on but have to. I kind of looked at places towards the end of last semesters, online, and gave up pretty much after 3 hours sitting at my computer. Often do I find things more complicated with modern technology. It really does help out with the exchange of information, but the ideas don't really come across as nicely in many occasions. All I saw was these horrific comments about how unsafe the neighborhood was, or how mean the managerial peeps were once you sign the lease. In reality, probably only a fraction of the people is as angry as these people appear to be online. So at the beginning of my search, I was pretty much scared away from the idea of living off-campus.
A couple of months later, an email about some on-campus housing appointment timings arrived saying that I was selected to go sign my contract next Saturday. Just to clarify, apparently next year there will be only half the amount of beds as this year. And all USC students know that only like 2% of upperclassmen actually live on-campus. While feeling fortunate that I could actually live on the historic horseshoe for a school year and wake up to beautiful sceneries every morning, I really panicked. I am extremely uncomfortable spending my parents' money at a terrible value, and on-campus housing is definitely not cost-effective. The rates also went up to 7K a year for next year without free parking spots. For garages, you'd also have to pay about 300$ a semester. While my mom urged me to live on campus because of its convenience, I thought about it as if it's my own decision concerning my own money. I went back to do some serious research and actually checked out a couple of places in person, which made me become aware of all the little details that I didn't see before. There were places that were just upfront not for me as soon as the leasor started talking. And there were other places that were just OK but I felt that I could definitely find better ones. I'm not a picky person when it comes to living. As long as it's safe and undisturbed, I'm fine. I don't need fancy pools or community-sponsored social events once a month, but that's what I ended up settling with. It honestly wasn't a long process. My budget is limited, so I find the best that fits. And the rest is luck. Life is really simple when you don't have that many options and don't try to struggle with it too hard, right? I will update on it once I move in in August. Oh, did I mention they have a 24-hour gym? Now I can't avoid working out just because the gym is too busy.
Talking about taking chances and stuff. Last September, which really doesn't feel like a long time ago, I decided on driving up to Nashville on my own and attend a concert this March. Well, it just got canceled. I was really upset. But gaga is hurt (her hip) and needed surgery and recovery and blah blah blah. Yes it's very selfish for me to be so bummed just because I now have no plans for spring break and all my planning for arriving early to get into the Monster Pit (enclosed between the catwalk and the stage, where people will possibly get picked to go on stage or even backstage). My pink hair is also of no use now. But obviously she is probably the saddest about its cancellation among us all. So here it is, my dearest and biggest inspiration, Lady Gaga, thank you, for being such a role model for simply being who you are, for allowing me to upset my parents when I talk about you (but they were glad that I wasn't antisocial for once and wanted to attend your concert), for making me feel better when I'm down, for letting me become involved with supporting LGBT issues, for getting me all pumped up and ready to go before exams. I love you and hope you recover from this terrible injury soon. (She already had her surgery last week.) & I will most definitely rock on with this awesome pink wig.
Back to talking about feeling like an adult (please excuse the unnecessarily large face shots...) I got off meal plan this semester and it makes me want to cook for myself. Like, WHAT?! Eileen wants to...COOK?! Food is another thing that I am not so particular about just like housing. I'm like, as long as I have something healthy and eatable I'm good. But my school and its surroundings are definitely not up to par with my very basic needs. There're fried chicken Wednesdays (is that what it's called?) and I got some vegetarian entree that day and the chef asked me why. Plus, Freshens also disappeared from our campus quietly last semester, so now I'm basically living off firehouse across the street. I don't bring my parents' car here so I don't have access to any fresh produce. There are grapes you can get downstairs at the fake Starbucks for $2.60 (about 10 ripening grapes, I'd say), or one slightly bitter banana for a dollar. Fruits are my life, yo. So now I get like 2 bags of oranges every three weeks I get home and a bunch of bananas and stuff, and pray they don't die before I could finish them while trying to make them last as long as I can, or, they can. So, getting a car is on my list and I hope that comes to fruition soon. (PUN INTENDED!!! GET IT GET IT???)
My laziness takes presence in other forms, like starting to study for this plant exam at 11 the night before. I hate it when other people are like, "I didn't go to class and studied for this exam the morning of and I passed it." So it's not my purpose to show off or anything here. I truly feel troubled when I don't have motivations to do anything. Yes I did an oratory on finding motivations to do things. And yes it was coming from my heart. However, it is something that I'm still working on myself. I don't know maybe I thought the test was going to be easy, or I thought I didn't know how to study since it was the first test, or I just get away with it too often. But I am still finding my own way of "perspiration is more powerful than inspiration". Mark Foster wrote Pumped Up Kicks when he forced himself to stay in the studio one day and see how successful that turned out. :) Maybe I can do it too. The environment I live in is really not all that challenging though, so I have become very laid back and chill and off beat. Le sigh. But when I do get inspirations or motivations, I overachieve. If you have read this far, I can entrust you with these following words: I have four hot ochem TAs! And I'm totally cool with that, because I have now become amazing at ochem, like, I'm the one that knows all the answers. If people can show off how they pass a test by studying the day of, it is definitely more appropriate for me to say that I don't even need to study the night before an ochem exam right? That's right. This is my motivation at work so I pretty much master my ochem shiz every day (not really but something like that). I don't know. I get switched on/off like that with things. It's really spontaneous and funny to think about. But I like my gift of spontaneity.
I am not only nerdy but also extremely shallow because I like to talk about inanimate objects in every post - I found a new shampoo that work wonderfully on my hair! Fleur mentioned it in her video and it just happened that I needed new shampoo. It is TRESemme Platinum Strengh (4 bucks?), which comes in a giant black bottle. For all Asians that struggle with flat hair - this shampoo actually makes it look not so bad while not being overly fluffy at all. I still envy Leandra's naturally French-y hair though. One always wishes for things that one could never get!
One of the perks of not having an extremely challenging life is that you get lots of time to develop your hobbies. I spent some money (or a lot, according to my income level) on this hobby called fashion that you probably have heard/read about. So if this is the shallow part of the post that you don't want to read about you can skip this paragraph. :P I purchased some really awesomely cool Thundercats truck taylors (originally for the concert, but I assume that is just an excuse). To be honest, I don't know the Thundercats story/comic at all. But the prints look cool and they were the only nice ones left when I found out about them (there's a whole collection Converse did with DC Comics). Turned out, though, they are still giving me blisters. Band-aids, baby, are girls' best friends. I also got this Prabal Gurung x Target skirt. I was originally going for a patterned sweatshirts, but the prints look a bit tacky with the Target quality. Now I can just pretend "x Target" part doesn't exist and it's actual Prabal Gurung. :P The moral of the story is, fashion obsession doesn't come too expensive at times. I am also obsessed with this Rihanna x River Island collection that is coming out in March. Despite the fact that while her songs are just going downhill, her fashion sense just keeps on getting better. I'd love to have her wardrobe! There I said it. And my wish is granted. Here's a preview of her collection. I hope it will become available on ASOS because I don't think there's any other way I can buy it in the States. You see, I'm slightly obsessed with the crop tops, high slits, and just the general I-don't-give-a-fuck-ness of her way of dressing.
Material world aside, my lazy ass still loves some old fashioned entertainment. I finally got to watch Django Unchained and HOLY SHIT it was good. It's totally my kind of movie. (minor spoil alerts about nothing too influential towards the major plot...read on at your own discretion) It's not only directed by my favorite director of all time - Quentin Tarantino, but it also contains all the other aspects of me - DENTISTRY (that tooth on top of the carriage was freaking hilarious), Django's fashion sense (that blue suit was nothing but MAJOR), and my love for Wagner's opera (OK not really, but this Brunnhilde-Siegfried reference totally got me going.) So cool. One thing I love about his movies is how in all the extremely serious scenes there are these moments that just crack you up. OK I'm gonna stop there I don't want to spoil anything. Also, really exciting new music are coming out:
- March 12 - David Bowie "The Next Day"
- March 19 - Justin Timberlake "The 20/20 Experience"
- April 9 - Kurt Vile "Wakin on a Pretty Daze"
- May 7 - Vampire Weekend "Modern Vampires of the City"
- sometime this year - Lady Gaga "ARTPOP"
- The Black Keys is also working on their next album!
- Arcade Fire is also working on it....
- OK I'm gonna stop looking for more now. These are all I know.
So, this is pretty much all I'm gonna blog about today. Before I finish, here are some other minor details I wanted to say before I got completely off-track:
I got contacts. And some badass aviators to make me look like a boss in a Chinese mafia. That's right!
I do realize that I need a photography boyfriend to take proper pictures of my outfits. So...anyone? (Maybe that's one of the reasons that my blog is still not a proper fashion blog, Ha!)
Titling a blog is hard. My last title was supposed to be temporary. And now this one is even more boring...help me please! Inspiration, where art thou?!
Also, if you're actually listening, most of these songs have some interesting moments.
Um, blogging is an addiction I feel incomplete and irritated before I wrote this post. Now I can move on with my life. :) But so few of us still do it now. It doesn't matter what you are interested in, fashion, politics, environmental issues, personal issues, or anything you can possibly think of, blogging is a good way to either help you digest your thoughts or kind of let it all out. Do it!
Labels: Lady Gaga, movies and TV shows, music, personal, photography, thoughts and feelings
January 26, 2013
SNL, Paolo Nutini, Dirty Projectors
Requiem For A Dream
Nicolas Jaar, State Radio
Dexter
Jack White, Massive Attack, The Black Keys
American History X
Kurt Cobain, Solange, Frank Ocean, Lana Del Rey edited by Joshua, Lana Del Rey
Arrested Development
Kurt Vile, Rebel Without A Cause, Kendrick Lamar 
Birdy, a drawing my friend did
Michelle Williams as Marilyn Monroe
Moonrise Kingdom, The Royal Tenenbaums
*if not credited, photos are taken by me
Labels: movies and TV shows, music, photography, travel
January 10, 2013
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, no one really cares. But some seriously awesome people keep getting snubbed. Meanwhile, I am also lacking blog-post inspirations. So here I am, writing a post on (mostly) movies that I haven't watched, and making some wild accusations.
- Snub #1: Ben Affleck, aka Matt Damon's best friend, keeps on getting snubbed for directing. But directors don't like (hot) actors who direct. It's (not) OK though. He's like the nicest person ever.
- Snub #2: Quentin Tarantino, aka my favorite director, probably isn't liked very much by the Academy. I mean, it's probably because he's not a classic-styled director. But isn't his mix-and-match, nonlinear storyline, and awesome satirical sense amazing though? Even though his movies are getting recognized by them recently...they kinda just want to shut him out. They probably don't like spaghetti westerns...or spaghetti per se.
- Snub #3: The Dark Knight Rises, aka the super-amazingly-awesome-grand-finale-of-a-super-amazingly-awesome-film-trilogy, was snubbed...ENTIRELY. I'm just gonna say it, what. the. fuck. Not even special effects?! It had one of, if not the best, special effects of the whole year!!!!! Remember that scene in a football game, where a player ran across the field thinking he had a touchdown, but in fact all the other players fell into a giant hole bombed by Bane?! Uh. Even Snow White and the Huntsman (my title: Kristen Stewart, Thor, and Charlize Theron the Sexy Evil Queen) had a couple of noms. I don't even know if this is real.
- Snub #4: Kathryn Bigelow, aka the star-female-director...well, I don't particularly like her, because of her movies (I'm not a fan of these grand-scale war movies, if you know what I mean). But apparently, the Academy feel like they already gave her an award on a similar war-movie so they are done w her.
- Snub #5: Moonrise Kingdom, aka indie-movie-of-the-year, is not up for Best Picture. I could say, that because it is so indie, mainstream pplz don't like it. But there are TWO other random indie movies that no one has heard of that got nom-ed.
- Snub #6: Leo DiCaprio, aka he-has-that-same-face-in-all-his-movies, has been totally snubbed since The Aviator (2006). I'm not even gonna make sense of this. But he does have the same face though.
- Fun fact #1: Quvenzhane Willis is the youngest actress nominated, ever, at 9 years old.
- Fun fact #2: Still age-related. French actress Emmanuelle Riva is the oldest actress ever to be nominated, at 85 years old. (These two need a picture together.)
- Fun fact #3: Joaquin Phoenix has declared the Oscars the stupidest thing ever, but he still got nominated. I guess the Academy is like, LET ME LOVE YOU. *gif of a bunch of old men running after him...* He might not show up tho.
I must conclude the post with my picks of winners (purely based on my movie-fandom & one year of studying high-school-level statistics)
- Best Picture: Lincoln - hey, Lincoln is gonna own us all after nearly a century and half. He's coming back as a vampire.
- Best Director: Ang Lee - Actually, I have a feeling it's gonna go to those indie movies. But he's Asian. Gotta back my azn heritage, yo. (I still terribly wish Ben Affleck & Quentin Tarantino got nom-ed...uh. It would've been so much more interesting.)
- Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis as Lincoln - he's like an acting god, so...oh, and pretending to be some historical figures will most likely to get you awards. & This is also perfect considering that last year's best actress, Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher, will present the award to the winner. Isn't this just perfect?!
- Best Actress: Jennifer Lawrence in Silver Linings Playbook - I already said it, I love her so much. (I was just talking about presenting...and it reminds of me Jean Dujardin will present.......Emmanuelle Riva will be the only one who understands him. :P)
- Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz in Django Unchained - he's so good at being these people-hunting persons (ref to Inglourious Basterds)
- Best Supporting Actress: Anne Hathaway in Les Mis - I'm done with you Oscars if she doesn't win!
- Best Original Screenplay: Moonrise Kingdom - I was gonna give it to Django, but I really don't want to snub Moonrise. Seriously, go see it.
- Best Adapted Screenplay: Argo
- Best Animated Feature: Brave - SO. FREAKING. CUTE. Plus, it has gingers!
- Best Makeup & Hairstyle: probably Les Mis. But THE HOBBIT. Just look at Martin Freeman's disproportionately big & hairy hobbit feet!
- Best Costume Design: Anna Karennia...gosh. So much haute couture. So gorgeous. Did y'all see Keira Knightley's all-Chanel necklaces?! Divine.
- Best Visual Effect: The Hobbit. I also love Avengers, but I still think demi-god world is super creepy. & Life of Pi will probably win.....
I did not comment on the categories that I have no clue about. But I do pull for Adele to win best song...
Labels: movies and TV shows
June 7, 2012
Recently I found previews of The Great Gatsby, Les Miserables, and Django Unchained and I'm totally stoked! All three movies are coming out this Christmas + have amazing casts.
I'm in love with the glamorous totally-Baz-Luhrmann set of Gatsby + the use of Jack White's cover of U2's Love Is Blindness.
This preview totally got me chills. Love Anne Hathaway's singing debut! :P
And my favorite director, Quentin Tarantino, is making another movie! And here Leo DiCaprio is a bad guy + looking fab as well...I swear he gets all the fab roles...
Labels: movies and TV shows, music
May 1, 2012
I really miss some of the greatest movies that I've seen. I'm quite determined to watch them again this summer (almost there!).
You have probably guessed Pulp Fiction (1994) because I'm a huge fan of Quentin Tarantino's movies. And I think so far, Pulp Fiction is his signature work, featuring nonlinear storyline, an ensemble cast, mix of humor and violence, and pop culture references. Every actor was amazing in it - Uma Thurman, John Travolta, Samuel Jackson, Bruce Willis, Tim Roth, among many others. If you haven't seen any Tarantino movies, I think this is the one that I would recommend you to watch. It's very different from most major films.
Few films I saw when I was little are very memorable to me. However, Leon: The Professional (1994) was the one that stood out the most (with Finding Nemo!). It features Jean Leno, a brilliant young Natalie Portman (this is like my favorite movie of hers), and Gary Oldman as a super-bad bad guy. The relationship between Leon and Mathilda is just amazing. I've seen it a couple of times but I just wanna watch it again!!!
The Godfather (1972) and The Godfather: Part II (1974) are the epitome of crime movies. I'm pretty sure this is a widely agreed fact. The complicated relationship among (crime) families, the leadership of the head of the family, and the acting itself are all very important for a successful crime film. I honestly can't waste more of my boring words on this. But this is a must see.
The Shawshank Redemption (1994) is many people's "best movie of all time". It was the first movie I saw in the United States because my dad had a DVD. Morgan Freeman pretty much owns every movie he's in..right? I only saw this once, and definitely need to revisit.
Schindler's List (1993) is about a German business man (Liam Neeson...way before he's like, " I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you") helping out lots of Jews during the Holocaust by employing them in his factory, thus preventing them from being sent to their death. It was definitely one of those movies that I will never forget. It shows the complicated personality of Oskar Schindler (he's definitely not a completely good man I'd say) and makes you tear up at the end. It was amazing.
Another Holocaust movie that I love is The Pianist (2002). It shows the horror of Holocaust and at the same time (the second half of the movie), how a German officer hides the Jewish musician (Adrien Brody) after hearing him play. It was also very memorable and I really want to show this to family (after finding out the Schindler's List, my ex-first choice, turned out to have lots of awkward sex scenes that I forgot about...).
I am a huge fan of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice and Keira Knightley, and this is a perfect combination (2005). I think it has one of Keira's finest acting (Atonement...it was hard to watch because it was too sad). This movie may not be flawless (because how can a 2 hour movie depict the complicated relationship between Elizabeth and Mr Darcy?!), but it is my favorite romance movie of all time (I love The Notebook too). There's also great chemistry between the two leads. And yes, I tear up a bunch in this. :P
Corpse Bride (2005) is one of my favorite animated movies. And I thought, I had to have one Tim Burton/Helena Bonham Carter/Johnny Depp movie. But I couldn't decide between Corpse Bride and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007). There's so much chemistry (and weirdness) between HBC and Johnny Depp. These also happen to be musicals. I rarely like musicals. But these (and Chicago) are among my favorite movies.
Exams are still going on...so here's some chill music by Norah Jones:
Labels: movies and TV shows, music
