Thursday, May 21, 2015

Asia's Next Top Model Cycle 3 ~ Who are the Top 5?

We are almost at the end of the competition in Asia's Next Top Model season 3 and it's down to the final 5 now. It has been a great season thus far but if you had missed this cycle, I've listed down the final 5 contestants below and my thoughts on them. Check these ladies out.


Aimee (Singapore)


I think Aimee gained the most from the makeover that the contestants had gone through this season. Her makeover suits her very well and elevate her look to a whole new level which I think give her an edge and advantage compared to the rest of the contestants. So I'm not surprised that she made it this far. She had been doing pretty well in the competition, pretty consistent, but I think for her to go farther, she has to give more and take more risks with her poses. She had received a best photo call-out once before, so I'm sure she can push it further.

Amanda (Philippines)


Amanda is such a sweet girl, I like her a lot but I think out of these 5 ladies, she is probably the weakest one. In the beginning of the competition, I thought she was one of the strongest contestant but her "blinking eyes" issue was getting in her way during photoshoots, and it's kind of hard for her to get good photos with that issue. Nevertheless, it's still great to see her come this far, and I still believe she has a shot in winning this but she needs to fix that "blinking eyes" issue quickly. She received her 2nd best photo in the latest episode (episode 9) so hopefully she had managed to get rid of that "blinking eyes" problem.

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Namie Amuro New Album "_genic" Songs Preview


It's been awhile since I last follow any news on Namie Amuro and when I was digging about her recently to find out about her latest activity, I found out that she will be releasing a new album soon! The new album which was titled "_genic" will be her twelfth recorded studio album and will be released in June 2015. The album will contained 13 new songs (plus one bonus track) with 5 of the songs will have music videos.

Namie Amuro official channel on YouTube is also currently running a trial listening of all the songs from the album. I'm not sure how long will they have this trial listening so you might want to go check them out before they end the songs preview. You can do that by clicking here.

I've listen through all of the songs and I must say the album is quite good. The album is bilingual with English and Japanese lyrics and from my trial listening it seemed like most of the lyrics will be in English. Although I prefer Namie Amuro songs in Japanese, she sounds really good in English too. I feel like I want to get this but unfortunately Japanese album is quite expensive in my country, and I don't think it is any cheaper if I order it online. I'll see the price when it's finally release here, hopefully they will have a special price for it and will not be too expensive.


Sunday, May 17, 2015

Infini ~ review

Infini is an Australian 2015 science fiction/thriller/drama film directed by Shane Abbess and starred Daniel MacPherson, Luke Ford, Grace Huang, Bren Foster, Harry Pavlidis, Dwaine Stevenson, Luke Hemsworth, Louisa Mignone and Kevin Copeland. Primarily set at the farthest space station that human had ever explored in the 23rd century, a search and rescue team was dispatched to secure a highly-volatile source material from being transported to Earth and to rescue the only known survivor that had escaped from the disaster that had happened there.

This movie review will have minor spoilers regarding the film's plot, so if you haven't watch the movie and want to avoid spoilers, please leave to read other posts in this blog right away.

I had never heard about this movie before, and I just noticed it because of the poster and film's trailer that had been shown at my local cineplex while I was there to watch another movie. I have no knowledge regarding what's the movie about and I was only interested to watch it because the trailer reminds me of the movies Event Horizon and Sunshine, both which I loved. And I love science fiction movies, so why not? But in the end, did I like the movie?

Sunday, May 10, 2015

YuYu Hakusho Volume 19 ~ review

We have come to the end of the manga series! I know this is an old series but...oh well, it's still pretty exciting to finally review the final volume (Volume 19) of YuYu Hakusho. What would become of our four protagonists; Urameshi Yuusuke, Kurama, Hiei and Kuwabara? How would it all end? This review will contain spoilers (not just for this volume but for past volumes as well) but if you don't mind spoilers, you may continue to read ahead. I also want to apologize for procrastinating to do this post. Now that I finally post it, I hope you enjoy my review on this manga series and if you want to see my review on previous volumes for this manga, please click the YuYu Hakusho label and it will take you there. Okay, now let's get started.

Let's rewind a bit and recap what had happened in this final story arc. Yuusuke, Kurama and Hiei were each visited by representatives of powerful demons that rule the Demon World. Yuusuke then join his demon blood-related ancestor Raizen; Kurama joined the blind demon Yomi; while Hiei joined Mukuro. Not long after that, Raizen passed away and Yuusuke inherited his throne, and suggested to held the Demon World United Fighting Tournament (that is not the official English name by the way, I directly translated it to English from the Malay-translated manga that I bought in my country) which anyone can enter, and whoever wins will rule the Demon World. The preliminaries had begun and the final 128 contestants will move on to the final stage where they will have a one-on-one fight. So what happen next?

Thursday, May 7, 2015

Ranking the Avengers in Avengers: Age of Ultron

I bet plenty of you had watched Avengers: Age of Ultron, maybe even more than once. It's a great movie and I like it a lot. But which Avenger is your favourite? Instead of a regular movie review, I've decided to rank the Avengers like what I did when the first Avengers movie came out, but this time I will rank it in order from the bottom to the top (I ranked it randomly in my post for the first movie). I will only list the main characters so there will be 9 Avengers altogether. There will be no major spoilers here but if you haven't watch the movie and want to avoid any kind of spoilers (even the smallest one that may already have been revealed in the trailers and TV spots) - and to be fair, there are some minor spoilers involving a character's origin included here, you best leave this post right away. So which Avenger will be on top of my list? Let's start from the bottom and work our way up the list. Let's begin...Avengers assemble!


9 - Thor


At the bottom of my list is Thor (played by Chris Hemsworth on the silver screen). He is quite popular with the ladies and I think Thor is an interesting character too. However, I always feel that he didn't fit well with the team, always seems like the odd one out. Even though Thor's solo movies were not as highly acclaimed compared to some of the other superhero's movies from the team, at least he is more outstanding, or should I say he has stronger presence, in his own movies rather than in an ensemble team. Furthermore, he didn't have a strong character development in Avengers: Age of Ultron, and most of his scenes were focused on his abilities and the power that he possessed. Nevertheless, Thor still looked awesome in this movie, and his scenes when he used his hammer to call on the lightning were really amazing. I'm looking forward for his next adventure on the big screen with his third solo movie.


8 - Quicksilver


Oh Pietro Maximoff a.k.a. Quicksilver ~ I think it was quite unfair the way the movie handled the character at the end of the movie. He's a particularly interesting character and his relationship with his twin sister was one of the aspect that I like about this movie. Aside from that, his banter with Hawkeye were fun to watch too. Aaron Taylor-Johnson played the character well, and he definitely made an impact in the movie, especially in the final battle with Ultron. However, I felt that the character could have been developed more, that was also why I'm quite disappointed with the way the character was handled in the end, such a waste, a missed opportunity. From the studio point of view, I kind of understand why they had to do that, but still, it was a tad unnecessary.


7 - Hawkeye


Clint Barton a.k.a Hawkeye is a cool character, I like him. A lot of people complaint the way the character was handled in the first Avengers movie, so here in the sequel we can see they had expanded his role and make him more relevant to the team. Even from the first movie, I can see he is a great asset to the team, so I don't really have any issue with how he was handled in the first film, but to see the character developed even more in this movie is certainly delightful. The character and the actor playing him, Jeremy Renner, really deserved it. I really hope the studio would insert him in other solo movies the way they did with the Black Widow character, that would greatly help to make Hawkeye even more important and recognizable in the Marvel Cinematic Universe like the rest of the Avengers.

Friday, May 1, 2015

What to watch? ~ 2015 movies: May

The summer movie season has started, and we have plenty of blockbuster movies lining up ready to please the cinemagoers...or will they? It's going to be quite competitive at the box office because it's so packed with so many big movies. I wonder which movies will become successful and which will lose the audiences interest? Let's look at the movies that I'm most excited about that will be released in May.


1) Hot Pursuit


I don't really like watching comedy films at the cinema but Hot Pursuit is a movie I'm willing to try. Starred Reese Witherspoon (who also acted as one of the producer for this movie) and Sofia Vergara, the movie is about a police officer who has to protect a wife of a criminal from other criminals and dirty cops who are after her. It is directed by Anne Fletcher who had also directed movies like The Proposal (with Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds) and 27 Dresses (with Katherine Heigl and James Marsden) before. The trailer for Hot Pursuit looks quite funny although I don't know how much can it compete with this year's packed and highly competitive summer movie season. We'll wait and see if the counter-programming strategy will work for this movie. Hot Pursuit will be released in cinemas on May 8, 2015.


2) Mad Max: Fury Road


I don't think I have watch any of the Mad Max movies before. But that doesn't stop me from being excited for this movie. The trailers for it look incredible, with stunning visuals and eye-popping action and special effects, but I hope it will also has a good story to complement the rest of the amazing factors that I've mentioned. The movie stars Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron (whom I'm most excited about when it comes to the cast of this movie), Nicholas Hoult, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Zoe Kravitz and many more. Originally George Miller, the director and mastermind behind this franchise, planned to shoot the movie back-to-back with its intended sequel, but that plan didn't seem to follow through. The sequel tittled Mad Max: Furiosa, seem to be focusing on Charlize Theron's character since she played a character named Imperator Furiosa. I love Charlize Theron so I hope this plan would become a reality. Mad Max: Fury Road would be released in cinemas on May 15, 2015