Sunday, November 22, 2015

Danganronpa: The Animation ~ The first 4 episodes impression

Danganronpa is a video game franchise which currently consists of 3 main titles (with one upcoming title) and had also spawned manga series, novels and of course, anime adaptation, in which I will review now based off the first four episodes that I had watched. Danganronpa: The Animation had been aired in Japan beginning of July in 2013 but it had just premiered on Animax Asia last Monday on 16th November 2015. It's kind of sad to see that it only got released on the channel more than 2 years later but I guess it's better late than never.

I've never heard about this series before and I was just lucky to have seen TV ads for it a few days before its premiere. So what is it about? It's about several people trapped in a building and the only way for them to get out is to kill someone but they have to make sure they don't get caught doing it. Sounds dark, creepy and interesting, right? The ads just showed this simple premise but that definitely caught my attention straight away.

The anime starts off with the main protagonist (Makoto Naegi), a regular, normal, "extremely lucky" student walking into Hope's Peak Academy, an elite academy that only accepts the best of the best of students. But once he step his foot into the academy territory, he passed out and next thing he knew, he was trapped in the academy's building along with 14 other "accepted" students of the academy. As they assembled at the assembly hall, they were introduced to an evil-talking-stuffed bear named Monokuma and were told that they were to stay in the academy forever and if they want to get out from there, they have to kill someone but they cannot let themselves get caught by the others for doing it...and so the story begins.

Monday, November 16, 2015

Regression ~ review

Regression is a 2015 movie starring Ethan Hawke, Emma Watson, David Thewlis, Dale Dickey, David Dencik, Lothaire Bluteau, Devon Bostick, Peter MacNeill and Aaron Ashmore, written and directed by Alejandro AmenĂ¡bar. It's a psychological thriller film about a detective investigating a case which involved a girl who had been a victim of a Satanic cult. I think the release date for the movie had been delayed in the US but it was already released here in Malaysia in October 2015, and had also been released in Spain, United Kingdom and Canada. This will be my review of the movie and it will have no spoilers in it, so don't worry about getting your movie experience spoiled.

Before I begin this review, I would like to address that the trailer for this movie was a bit misleading to me. It was marketed as if it was a horror movie from the trailer but I would say that the movie's plot lean more towards the mystery and crime aspects of the story. But I would still labelled it as a horror film because it does have some pretty scary scenes, and it also have a typical horror vibe to it since the case the detective was investigating revolved around the horrific activities that were related to the satanic cult.

Sunday, November 15, 2015

Asia's Next Top Model Cycle 3 ~ Top 15 Favourite Photos (No. 5 - 1)

Here is the third and final post for my Top 15 favourite photos for Cycle 3 of Asia's Next Top Model. My apologies if I have kept you waiting. Without further delay, let's begin the final countdown. Can you guess which photo will top my list?


5. Monika ~ Episode 5: Close-Up Diamond Attraction Ad campaign


Monika is extremely photogenic and when she smiles, she just melt people's heart away. She not only look stunning and sweet in the photograph, but she looks natural and approachable as well which I think is important for an ad campaign like this. I must say that the position of her right hand seem a bit awkward to me but other than that, she looks gorgeous. She won best photo for this episode, which I think is deserving, and as part of the prize for winning best photo, her shot was run as an actual commercial ad for the product as well. Great job Monika!


4. Gani ~ Episode 3: Jewelry photoshoot


I really like this shot of Gani and I was a bit disappointed that it only received lukewarm reviews from the judges. The jewelries look good on her, the clothes fitted her perfectly, the make-up was not overly done; personally I feel that she simply looks stunning in this photo. I wish they would just adjust the necklace's position on her neck because as you can see, some part of the necklace got tangled up in her clothes but other than that she looks amazing and she sold the necklace to me as what she should be doing for this jewelry photoshoot.

Thursday, November 12, 2015

What to watch? ~ 2015 movies: November

There's not a lot of movies that I'm looking forward to in November, at least compared to the number of movies I've listed for October. There are a total of five movies that I had listed here and honestly, that is actually still a lot. So what are those movies? Scroll down to find out.


1) The Peanuts Movie


I'm not really a fan of the Peanuts comic strip but I did read them before occasionally. What got me interested the most for this movie is the animation. The movie looks almost like a hybrid between 2D and 3D animation, and it looks beautiful. And judging from the trailer, the story seems to be pretty nice as well, so I'm looking forward to it. The movie is directed by Steve Martino (who previously directed Horton Hears a Who! and Ice Age: Continental Drift) with voice casts that includes Noah Schnapp, Bill Melendez, Hadley Belle Miller, Anastasia Bredikhina, Mariel Sheets and Noah Johnston. The Peanuts Movie had already open in the US on November 6, 2015 (and will find its way into Malaysian cinemas starting December 10, 2015).


2) The Hallow


I found this movie by accident when I was browsing my local cinema chain website for upcoming movies. I like horror movies and this movie looks kind of good judging from its trailer. It has a great setting that gives the film the creepy atmosphere that it needs, and the actors look pretty convincing in their performance too. Directed by Corin Hardy and starred Joseph Mawle, Bojana Novakovic, Michael McElhatton and Michael Smiley, The Hallow had already open in United Kingdom in July but will only open in Malaysian cinemas on November 19, 2015.