If I could pick a romantic movie....

Since February is the month that contains the controversial holiday of Valentine's Day, the topic of romance inevitably comes up. Plenty of people hate Valentine's Day (mostly singles) and there is the group that love it (typically couples), and all the rest of us who fall somewhere in-between. I've been single for a lot more Valentine's Days than not single, so knowing the best romantic movie to watch is essential.

I actually don't watch romantic movies on Valentine's Day and dream about a love I don't have. Usually, I just try to find other people who want to do something fun. Last year, my roommates and I hosted a "Singles Awareness Day Party." We played games and had a great time! This year, my sisters and I went and saw the Zombie movie "Warm Bodies." I enjoyed it! I was thoroughly entertained by the preview for it, so I figured I would like the movie. What girl doesn't want to go watch a zombie movie on V-Day?

When it comes to romantic movies I am extremely picky. I get tired of unrealistic characters in unrealistic relationships. I know most people think that my ideas of love and relationships are unattainable in real life, so my idea of romance is unrealistic. I won't get into that now, I don't know who wants to hear me rant about my idea of love. The movies listed below are my favorite romantic movies because they do a beautiful job in illustrating two people falling in love. I think the phase of a relationship is one of the most romantic parts of a relationship.

My sisters and I were discussing our favorite romantic movies (we have similar tastes) and this is the list we came up with (in no particular order). Not even a top ten!

*I like this version of Pride and Prejudice, I have never read the book or seen other versions. I apologize if I am unaware of another, better version. Feel free to educate me :)

We thought that the Princess Bride deserves an Honorable Mention, but it doesn't really fit in the category very well.

What do you think of these movies? Any movies you would add?

Shadowless Sword and Chocolate

It's been a while since I've posted anything related to Martial Arts, and to relax a few weeks ago, I watched some martial arts films we've had lying around. Lucky for me Devynn is always up for watching some action movies:)

The first one I watched is called : Legend of the Shadowless Sword. It was great! It's a little unique because fist, it's a Korean martial arts film (In case you didn't know, the best and most of the martial arts film come out of Hong Kong). The other awesome thing about this film, is that the plot has very strong female characters. The premise of the story is a woman warrior going and finding the banished prince so he can come back and be king. I wouldn't want to give away any of the plot, but I really enjoyed the movie as a movie and the martial arts was pretty awesome too. Lots of good sword stuff.

The second movie I watched is called Chocolate. This movie comes from the same people who did the movie Ong Bak. I loved this one! It takes place in Thailand, and is a little slow to start, but it was so good! I believe what I heard about the making of this movie, is that the director wanted to produce a movie that showed that a girl could do everything Tony Jaa does. So again, the main character is a woman. This movie is also interesting because the main character is a "special needs" child. It's a great movie, with AMAZING action and I recommend you go watch it!

Be sure to let me know if you do go see either of these, or if you would like to borrow one. And I forbid you to watch either of these movies dubbed in English. It completely ruins the film. Now go watch!

Always the bad guy....

I finally got around to watching the new version of Clash of the Titans, and I was not impressed. I really wasn't expecting to be impressed, so it wasn't that big of a disappointment, but it was interesting how they changed things from the original plot. (The original plot I am referring to is the old 1981 version of Clash of the Titans, still not really based solely on Greek mythology.)

One of the most interesting changes of plot was the motive of Perseus to defeat the Kraken (the Kraken is Norse mythology... not Greek). Instead of wanting to save his love Andromeda, he wants to seek revenge for his family against Hades. Man versus the gods. Interesting.

There was a few things that particularly annoyed me about this movie (and many movies loosely based on Greek mythology).

One: Why do they always depict Greeks in Roman dress? The Roman toga and the Roman soldier's uniform was not that exciting. The mohawk on the helmet is probably what annoys me most! And don't even get me started on Perseus' buzz cut!

Two: Seriously, if some of these writers would actually look at the stories in Greek mythology, they would see how ridiculous and crazy they already are and just make a movie from that. I don't understand the need to mix the mythology of multiple cultures to create some new story.

Three: I know Hades is the god of Underworld, and associated with everything related to death, but is that a reason to hate on him?

One of the things I particularly like about Hades is the fact that he is one of the Greek gods that doesn't run around. He did trick Persephone into staying in the Underworld, but that was his wife and he didn't mess around with anyone else. Very unlike his brothers Poseidon and Zeus. Another thing I like about Hades is that he pretty much sticks to ruling the Underworld. He doesn't get mixed up in all of the silly things between the gods and man.

I think that another reason I don't buy into Hades being a bad guy is because I am kind of sick of the bad guy plot. In reality, there aren't really any real bad people, not like the sadistic bastards that we put as the antagonist in movies anyway. If someone is bad, there are reasons that person became that way, and I love movies that illustrate this. One of my favorite movies that sort of lacks the bad guy, is Princess Mononoke. It's an animated film by Hayao Miyazaki. Go see it if you haven't, it's great!!! :D

Any other comments on the movie or other bad guy topics?

A Loyal Dog

I recently watched the movie Hachi: A Dog's Tale with my family. It's Christmas break, so I'm watching movies :)

Hachi was filmed in 2009 starring Richard Gere and Joan Allen. I was a little reluctant to want to watch this movie. My family came back from their day with a stack of movies, none looked very promising to me. Across the cover of this one said the immortal words "Based on a True Story," so it was obviously my mother's first choice.

I was pleasantly surprised, because I actually enjoyed the movie. Here was a movie with a fairly simple plot about a dog, that was done well (much better than that ridiculous Marley and Me). I was ready to give this movie a thumbs up until the end of the film, when the words on the screen said that the true story was actually about a Japanese professor at a Japanese train station. Pfft.

If you know much about be, then you know that I am currently obsessed with all things Asian, most of all Japan. So to find out that this movie could have actually been in a Japanese setting really put me out! To think I was excited about the one Japanese character in the film, and the discussion of the Japanese history of the dog!

If you don't want me to ruin the movie for you by totally revealing the plot, please, read no further. The real story of the dog Hachi started when he was born in Odate, Japan, in the Akita prefecture in November of 1923. He was sold to Professor Hidesaburo Ueno, an agricultural engineer professor at the University of Tokyo.

From what information I can gather between the film, the ever reliable Wikipedia, and other random websites, is that Hachi would walk with his master to Shibuya station everyday, go home, then at the end of the day come back to the station to pick him up. After two years of owning the dog, one day the professor boarded the train and then never came back. Hachiko waited for him to return, in fact, this dog came back to the station every day for nine years after his master died, every day until he died.

The loyalty of this dog is what makes this story so famous, famous in Japan. According to what I've read, there was more than one newspaper article printed up about the dog while he was alive, praising him for his loyalty. After the dog's death their was a film made in Japan in 1987 (Hachiko Monogatari). A bronze statue has been placed at the Shibuya station and is one of the most popular meeting places in Japan.

Every year in April there is a ceremony at this statue for this dog, where lots of dog lovers from all over Japan come to participate. There are also two other statues of this dog in Japan, one in Odate where he was born and one in front of the Akita Dog Museum. (Akita is the breed of dog that Hachi was, also Japanese).

This movie did lead me to a neat bit of history about Japan, so I am happy about that. I have one more thing to add to my list of places to visit when I go to Japan!(Maybe I could meet someone at Hachi's statue!)

Here is the statue of Hachi:


This post makes me think of two things: (1)this seems to me like the second Japanese movie remake that Richard Gere is a part of, and (2) we have an American dog hero statue... Balto. Perhaps I'll post about it in the future.

Purpose

So I just finished watching the movie Julie & Julia. If you don't know anything about this movie, it is about the beginnings of Julia Childs, the famous TV cook, and of a woman named Julie Powell who writes a blog committing herself to get through Julia's book of 524 recipes in one year. I really enjoyed the movie and definitely recommend it. It's very inspiring.

It's things like this that get me thinking about what I'm doing. I find it interesting how people can take something simple like a blog and turn it into something that really affect people. Not only does it affect other people but it gives the person doing it a real sense of purpose. I brought up Michelle Phan in an earlier post, and I think she is another one of these inspiring people. She has taken Youtube videos on make up tutorials and I believe, has companies sponsoring her to do what she does.

I don't think that every persons blog or youtube channel should live up to these standards, but it is an interesting concept to consider. Wouldn't it be neat to have a purpose with all of these rants? I would like to commend a friend Miss Jennifer M. She has her own project of teaching herself photography and shares her lovely photos with the readers of her blog.

I am not sure if I want to create a specific purpose for my blog, but it has got me to thinking... if I did, what would be the purpose? I think for now, I might just set a goal of posting every week... or something like that. Maybe I will get some great inspiration. Do any of you have some ideas? I think I remember another one of my friends having this question.... :)

Twilight Movie Review

One of my least creative titles. As predicted, this is a review for the movie Twilight. This review will talk about any surprises it holds for those who have not seen it, and will also discuss some differences found in the book.

So, my overall opinion of this movie is: pretty good. I read the book first, like the weekend before seeing the movie, and when I first saw it, all I could do was compare it to the book (even though I tried so hard not to) and feel a little disappointed in the depiction of Edward. I have since seen the movie a second time, and that viewing was a whole lot more enjoyable. I noticed things I hadn't noticed before, small details that make a good movie great.

First, I should tell you, that I did not love the book Twilight. I loved the idea of it (a love story that includes a vampire, what's not to love?) and I also really loved the first half of the book. The second half wasn't as exciting, I didn't like the way Edward and Bella had "playful" squabbles. It was annoying. Bella got really annoying.

But this review is about the movie, not the book. I will start with the things I did not like about the movie. First, I have to talk about Edward. I knew that the Edward that Hollywood would create could never equal the one created in my head. After all, he's supposed to be my dream guy, and who knows what he looks like? Aside from that, I didn't really like the make-up for Edward during most of the first half of the movie. It made him look really scary and not really beautiful and colorless. It made me think that the actor wasn't that good-looking, but as the movie progressed and there was less make-up, he really is good-looking, and makes a very good Edward.

My other gripe about Edward is that he seemed more shy in the movie than elegant. In the book he was described as being from another time, he was overly polite and spoke in a more old-fashioned way. He didn't really seem that way in the movie, just sort of shy and afraid of what was happening.

Since I am on the topic of looks, the evil vampires were not quite as evil as I imagined. Then again, my mind has more power to make something scary than Hollywood does. James looked like a good-looking punk, not really the ruffian killer I had imagined. The evil vampires were alright, just not as menacing as I was hoping for.

Another downer on this movie was some very cheesy lines, and not all the fault of the movie, some were taken straight from the book. I especially hated when Edward was describing what Bella's blood was like to him. In the book he used a few analogies before he got to the ridiculous "You're like my own personal brand of Heroine." If they were going to take just one analogy, my pick would have been the alcoholic with the scotch, not the heroine. The description of the alcoholic was much more elegant, which probably helped me think that the movie version of Edward was not so elegant.

Along with some cheesy lines, I have to poke some fun at his running scenes. It looked funny. It wasn't as bad as it could have been, but I definitely think it could have been better. Also the scene where the Cullens were killing James, that part was pretty ridiculous too. Just strange. Not elegant. Not my version of a vampire.

Now on to the things I liked about the movie. I really, really liked Bella. I can't describe how much I don't like her in the book. In the movie, she was a klutz but not so much that it made you get annoyed with her. She has a much stronger character in the movie, which is very conflicting in the book. She was prettier in the movie too, and that's got to be a plus.

Because of this good Bella, I like her relationship with Edward better. It seemed more real, like they could actually have a relationship, like he might actually be attracted to someone like her. Bella has a strong character, and that made her a little bit closer to having an equal relationship with Edward. So the silly squabbles, weren't squabbles, they were legitimate. I think you get the point.

I also really liked how some of the characters changed. Take Eric, for example. He was just some nerd in the book that I didn't really care about. In the movie, he was funny and some of the needed comic relief for such a serious romantic story. The same goes with Bella's dad, Charlie. I liked him better too. He seemed to act more like a dad and also add to the humor.

Another interesting thing I liked, was that there was a ethnic diversity to the cast. I imagined everyone white, as would be easy to do, this story takes place in a small town in Washington which is not far from here, where most people probably are white European decedents. It was nice to see a good variety in the cast.

Did anyone else notice Edward catch the apple in his hands, just like the cover of the book? That picture has absolutely no significance in the book, I thought it was really awesome that it was incorporated into the movie. Very artistic.

The last couple of things I'll mention don't really have much to do with regular movie topics, but I still enjoyed them! First, the music. I was very excited to hear a song from Muse for the baseball game scene. (That also reminds me, I loved how Alice pitched, so pretty!) The other thing, an OSU graduate helped work on the set design, and part of the movie was filmed in Oregon. I bet you saw Multnomah Falls.

All in all, I enjoyed this movie, and wouldn't be opposed to seeing it again. Please feel free to give comments on your thoughts about this movie, or my opinions of it!