"What's the point in living if you're not beautiful."
--Howl Jenkins Pendragon

"Oh my God.
My Indian Tourette is acting up!"
--Russell Peters

"He's allergic to everything,
for God's sake!"

--Bradley James on Colin Morgan

Birthday Mom

A card I made for my Mom's birthdayh. The black and white photo was an old photo taken by my dad when they were young. My dad is so proud of this photo. He said it looks like a photo taken by a pro. Meh^^
My mom the like the card, but she said I forgot to put the date inside. Mothers, always the critics. Hehehe...

The Sky Crawlers

This Japanese animation was based on a novel by Hiroshi Mori. To be honest, the reason I was interested in this movie at first because Ryo Kase is one of the voice actor. He usually played in indie type movies, so it's a rare chance to see, or rather hear, him as a voice actor. And I can totally imagine his expression through out the movie: totally stone-faced, as per usual. Much like his character, Kannami Yuichi. Hahaha!!
In the first few minutes we were greeted with intense aerial battle scene between a double propeller fighter plane and a slick looking plane with black leopard painted on the side namely, The Teacher. The scene is breath taking and the mechanical design is just awesome. You can see the details on the plane while it flew cross the sky. The mysteriousness of The Teacher reminded me of JAM planes in Yukikaze series. Although looking at the whole fighter plane scenes reminded me of 1990's movie, Memphis Belle, about a group of bomber plane pilots back in WWII.
The character desgin for the movie is done by Tetsuya Nishio, which is maybe the reason why I think it's similiar to Blood: The Last Vampire. All the pilots in Sky Crawler are humanoids genetically enginered to stay as adolescent forever until they are killed in a battle. The war itself, is merely an entertainment for the peacetime people. Which is why most of the people are taking it like it's the football season. Supposedly, these pilots are still a kid, they don't grow up. But I think Rinko Kikuchi is the only one who can bring the child out in her character, Kusanagi Suito.
The interesting part is that whenever they are on a plane, the conversations are done in English. And I'm talking Japanese people here. But still, you'll be amaze upon hearing Ryo Kase speaking English. He looks like he's reading it straight out of the script though, but this pronounciation is still better then other Japanese actors I've heard speking English before.
Well, more or less, this movie is worth watching. It has a twist in the plot, which I love. And the music is nice too. Very calming and soothing. Me like.
Personal rate: 9/10

Mutant Chronicles

I was so excited with this movie when I first saw the trailer at Blitz Megaplex. I mean, really, altered humans with blade hands. BIG blade hands. How exciting was that!! The first part really caught me. I love the atmosphere. It has Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow tone in it, but darker. The war equipment is also a plus. It kinda reminded me with Squaresoft's RPG games (Later I found out that the movie is actually does based on a card game/video game/comic book). It's really cool. Oh and not to mention the color of the blood when the mutants slash and dice the human army! They add the contrast a bit so blood looks really bright red like those in comic books. I kinda like it.
But here's the thing that I don't get. With all the special effect, CG, props and all that jazz, how can this movie can be soooo dull!!! I was even half asleep watching it! One thing I realized was the lack of sound effect. There is this scene where the plane they're on was hit by another plane. It caused a huge explosion fire was streaming down the plane..visually. Because at the time the plane exploded, I heard nothing but silence. Wait, I know there are a lot of movies who deliberately use silence on such huge scenes to enhance tension just by looking at the visuals. But this isn't it. Because while the plane is still on fire and the inside part is crashing, the characters are talking in normal tone, even with flying burning debris behind them. It looks as if the director didn't brief them enough about the scene.
Even until the movie ended, I was just sitting there, with a confused look on my face thinking, "That's it??". And feeling nothing. Despite of the visuals that I do love, the movie left no other impression in me whatsoever. It's a pity though, I have such high expectations at first.
Personal rate: 5/10

I'm not saying goodbye...

So yesterday was my last day working at Media Satu. I've been a graphic designer there for a year plus few months. A lot of things have happened, good and bad. But working there has been a wonderful experience for me. I will sincerely miss them a lot.

My desk. It's filled with paper craft toys and Pocky packaging boxes. The Tanuki is one of my firsts.

Me and my partners in crime. Aku akan sangat kanget pada kalian semua!!!

どうぶつたち

Land in the Sky

Kemarin seperti biasa saya pulang tepat waktu. Begitu jam di komputer saya menunjukkan pukul 17:59, saya sudah membereskan tas dan siap beranjak. Pukul 18:05 kaki saya sudah menapak di atas angkot D10 yang melaju ke arah Pondok Labu. Tidak seperti biasanya, entah kenapa hari itu langit masih cukup terang. Saya duduk di dekat jendela (seperti biasa) untuk mendominasi hembusan angin yang masuk ke dalam angkot. Saya tidak peduli rambut saya tertiup ke depan dan jadi acak-acakan karena angin. Yang penting adem...hehehe...

Tak lama saya tiba di perhentian. Supir angkot memutar balik mobilnya untuk berhenti di pangkalan, dan di situlah saya turun. Setelah menyerahkan 3 lembar uang seribuan dan menerima sebuah logam 500 dari sang supir, saya berjalan sambil memasukkan uang logam tadi ke dalam kantong baju.

Namun tiba-tiba langkah saya terhenti. Di hadapan saya terhampar pemandangan yang membuat saya terdiam.
Di atas, sekumpulan awan terhampar di tengah luasnya langit. Tidak adanya gedung-gedung tinggi di kawasan itu membuat saya dapat menatap langit dengan leluasa. Gumpalan-gumpalan awan putih itu begitu kontras dengan birunya langit. Bercak-bercak jingga terlihat di tepi-tepi gumpalan awan. Dua buah pesawat kecil terbang melintas. Pesawat-pesawat itu semakin terlihat tidak berarti bilang dibandingkan dengan awan yang begitu besar. Kumpulan awan cumulonimbus itu terlihat begitu dekat dengan saya. Untuk sesaat khayalan saya langsung bermain. Nama 'Laputa' langsung muncul di otak saya. Saya langsung membayangkan bahwa ada kehidupan di atas sana. Di balik tebalnya awan itu, ada peradaban rahasia yang berkembang. Sebuah kota kecil yang selalu terombang-ambing terselubung awan tebal di tengah luasnya langit. Dan apabila saya memperhatikan lebih lama, mungkin, mungkin saja saya dapat melihat sesuatu.

Khayalan saya memang agak tinggi. Dan saya tipe orang yang cepat terpana. Sepertinya cukup lama saya menengadah dan memperhatikan gumpalan awan tersebut sambil larut dalam khayalan saya. Karena begitu saya sadar, beberapa supir ojek sudah memperhatikan saya. Entah karena mengincar saya sebagai calon penumpang, atau beranggapan bahwa saya aneh.