Andhaghaaram (2020 Tamil film) ~ film review

Image source from Wikipedia

One of the best thing that Malaysians get is exposure to media and entertainment from so many different countries, and this is from free-to-air TV stations no less which is easily accessible by public. Unfortunately, this film will be one that is only available in select streaming platform (read: Netflix).

[Update] The film has been aired in one of the channel on ASTRO Malaysia (sorry I can't remember which channel), so the film is available on other platforms now.

Andhaghaaram is a 2020 Tamil supernatural/thriller film which is available on Nextflix starting 24 Nov. 2020. It starred Arjun Das, Vinoth Kishan, Pooja Ramachandran, Misha Goshal, Kumar Natarajan and Jeeva Ravi.

The film follows the story of three seemingly unrelated people; a blind and poor young man struggling to maintain the mansion that he inherited from his dead parents, a de-spirited cricket coach who felt guilty after his friend suffered an unknown mental disorder after receiving a book about occult from him as a gift, and a renowned psychiatrist who woke up from coma from the result of being shot by his own patient and found out that he had lost his entire family from the same attacker, as well as losing his medical license and his voice. These three stories which are told separately eventually intertwined to reveal the horrible connection between the characters involved.

Artemis Fowl Book Four: The Opal Deception ~ book review

Title - Artemis Fowl: The Opal Deception

Author - Eoin Colfer

This is the review of the fourth book in the Artemis Fowl book series titled The Opal Deception. First published in 2005, the book tells the story of young Artemis Fowl and his fairy friends trying to beat his pixie nemesis, Opal Koboi, from her second attempt at world domination.

It's been years since I read the third book but I must say, it's one of those series that is easy to jump back into. It won't take long for you to familiarize with the characters and the world of the series again, at least that's what I've experienced. I immediately recognized the main characters, the basic plot points of what happened to our main characters in the previous book, and the humorous tone that is carried over to this fourth book which is something that I always like about this series and glad that it is being retained in this chapter of Artemis's journey.

The following review will have minor spoilers of the plot so I recommend that you only read my review if you had read the book, or if you're okay with spoilers.

The Undoing (2020 miniseries) ~ TV review

The Undoing is a 6-episode miniseries aired on HBO (here in Malaysia and I believe in most Asian countries) starting in the end of October until end of November 2020. It starred Nicole Kidman as Grace Fraser, a therapist who found herself intertwined in a murder case of an acquaintance which unbeknown to her involved her family members as well. As the murder case begins to unravel, so do her personal life as she tries to make sense her connection to it and the impact it has on her family.

Overall, this is a really good miniseries. I've been a fan of many HBO miniseries before and I must say this is another one from them that they delivers. The story is very compelling and engaging. It also gave an interesting insight into the life of an elite New Yorker family dealing with a murder, and the attention and spotlight that comes with it.

My Top 10 Movies for 2019 ~ No. 5 - No. 1

We're back with my list of 2019 top 10 films. We have covered the first half of the list in Part 1, and now let's cover the other half of the list. These are the movies at number 5 to 1.

No. 5 - The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part

Image source: Wikipedia

I love this film! The story is highly entertaining, funny and the songs are super addictive. It's just a perfect movie to watch together with family or friends. The film is still as quirky as the first one, in fact I'm surprised that the film still feels fresh despite already knowing the twist that happened in the end of the first film. Hats off to the creative team for that. Another thing that is super creative is the end credits scene. It's crazy to say that but it's true! The film itself is self-aware but the end credits scene takes it to another level. It's very amusing and humorous to watch. Even though I like it a lot, sadly the film didn't fare too well at the box office, only grossing around $190 million worldwide. That's very low compared to the first film.

No. 4 - Knives Out

Image source: Knives Out official site

It's a fantastic ensemble movie; Daniel Craig, Ana de Armas, Jamie Lee Curtis, Chris Evans, Michael Shannon, Don Johnson, Toni Collette and many more starred in this amazing mystery whodunit movie. I particularly like the atmosphere of the movie; it feels cozy but at the same time you can feel the tension between the characters (well, they do fight a lot but it's entertaining to watch). The movie was a success for the studio and they are planning a sequel with the enigmatic private investigator Benoit Blanc (played marvellously by Daniel Craig) investigating another mystery. I really hope they can turn this into a popular franchise because I can see a great potential in it.

My Top 10 Movies for 2019 ~ No. 10 - No. 6

I think there's a silver lining in me doing this list so late. 2020 is a really bad year for movies, lots of movies scheduled for the year had been postponed, so it's kind of nice to at least have something to talk about when it comes to movies. I still don't know what I'm going to do with my 2020 top 10 list yet but let's just think about that later. For now, let's talk about my top 10 films for 2019. I know it's beyond late, but oh well, I always late doing these lists anyway.

Let's start! This is the first part for my 2019 top 10 list, and these are the films at number 10 until 6.

No. 10 - Ejen Ali: The Movie

Image source: Wikipedia

Let's start with a local movie from Malaysia. This animated movie is about a boy who is an agent for a secret agency named MATA working to protect the city of Cyberaya. It is currently the highest-grossing Malaysian animated film as well as the highest-grossing Malaysian film of 2019. Quite an impressive achievement, don't you think? I like the film a lot. I think it is high-quality, well-made, and suitable for children and adult alike. There are certain elements of the plot that reminded me of Naruto, probably it was inspired by it or probably it was just pure coincidence, either way I don't have any issue with it, just want to point that out. I think it is a good movie with a nice combination of action and heart. There are some scenes that really can make you teary-eyed so you'd been warned. I'm not sure how aligned the Netflix are for other regions but the film is currently available in Netflix for Malaysia so maybe you can try to see if it's available in your country too.

No. 9 - IT Chapter Two

Image source: IT Chapter Two official site

This is a very good horror movie in my opinion. It has a bit of a long runtime but other than that, IT Chapter Two is quite enjoyable. The cast from young to the adult cast were really good, their acting really elevated this movie. There are some characters that I don't quite believe are the same person when comparing the young and adult version of the character but most of them are believable. It's not something that is easy to portray anyway so it's not much of an issue for me actually. As for the titular character itself, let's just say that it is "fun" to get to see It again. Bill Skarsgard who portrays It really knocks it out of the park, he's amazing in it.

Happy PlayStation 5 Launch Day!

My PS4 neatly in a PS bag when I first purchased it.

Technically, the PlayStation 5 is only launching in several parts of the world today (12th Nov.), while the rest will only get it on 19th Nov. I've read that in Malaysia (where I live), we would be getting it even later than that (11 Dec 2020 if not mistaken). With the limited units Sony is releasing, I think that kind of make sense although it still sucks for the countries that are not on the "priority" list.

Anyway, for those who already have their PS5 ready to play, good for you! Have fun and happy playing!

As for me, I will be sticking with my PS4 a little while longer. I just purchased it on the last day of 2019 so I only own it less than a year now. There are still a lot of games to play.

It's exciting to think that the new generation of consoles are here now. I wonder what would be the games that will define this generation? There's definitely a lot of things to look forward to.

My 2019 Top 50 Songs: The Best From K-pop Female Groups ~ No. 10 - No. 1

This is Part 5 and final post on my top 50 favourite songs from female K-pop groups in 2019. Finally we're here! I've done songs from number 50 to 11 and now let's find out the songs that are in top 10.

Can you guess which song is at number 1?

If you want to go back to the previous list, you can click on the links below;

Part 1: Songs at number 50 - 41

Part 2: Songs at number 40 - 31

Part 3: Songs at number 30 - 21

Part 4: Songs at number 20 - 11

Now let's continue on with the top 10 songs. Click and enjoy!

~ No. 10 ~

Violeta by IZ*ONE

~ No. 9 ~

Boogie Up by WJSN / Cosmic Girls

~ No. 8 ~

HIP by Mamamoo

My 2019 Top 50 Songs: The Best From K-pop Female Groups ~ No. 20 - No. 11

This will be the penultimate post on my top 50 favourite songs from K-pop girl groups in 2019. We're almost at the top so hang in there friends. Let's see the songs at number 20 to 11. Click and enjoy!

~ No. 20 ~

Boom Boom by ANS

~ No. 19 ~

Picky Picky by Weki Meki

~ No. 18 ~

Oopsie (My Bad) by Nature

My 2019 Top 50 Songs: The Best From K-pop Female Groups ~ No. 30 - No. 21

Welcome to Part 3 for my top 50 favourite songs of 2019 from female K-pop groups. In this part, we're counting down songs from number 30 to 21. Sit tight as we're powering through this as well; no commentary, just pics and links.

Don't forget to try and click around even from groups that you might never heard of, maybe you'll discover some hidden gems that you will like. 

~ No. 30 ~

Baby You're Mine by High School

~ No. 29 ~

BByong by Saturday

~ No. 28 ~

Dumb by BVNDIT

My 2019 Top 50 Songs: The Best From K-pop Female Groups ~ No. 40 - No. 31

Welcome to Part 2 for my favourite 2019 songs from K-pop female groups. Again, there won't be any commentary for each song in this part as we are powering through it like we did in Part 1. I do encourage you to explore and see if you would like any of the songs, while there are some which are already super popular, there are few songs that are not really well-known, so I do hope you check them out.

So let's start!

~ No. 40 ~

Bon Bon Chocolat by Everglow

~ No. 39 ~

Fever by Gfriend

~ No. 38 ~

I'm So Hot by Momoland

My 2019 Top 50 Songs: The Best From K-pop Female Groups ~ No. 50 - No. 41

Hello everyone! How's everybody doing? Please stay safe and healthy in the current pandemic situation.

Here we are again for my delayed list of favourite songs from female K-pop groups. I know it's usually delayed every single year but at least I'm committed to get it done.

Usually I do top 40 songs but I'm doing top 50 for this 2019 list. There are so many songs that I like and I want to put into the list for you guys to discover as well, so hopefully you'll check them out.

Let's power-through the first part of the list. Here are the songs from number 50 to 41. They would only be images and links to the songs without any commentary but please feel free to explore around and see if any of the songs "click" with you.

Enjoy!

~ No. 50 ~

Fancy by Twice

~ No. 49 ~

Butterfly by LOONA

~ No. 48 ~

Moonlight by GeeGu

Eid Mubarak 1441

Salam Eid Al-Fitr Mubarak 1441 to all Muslims. :-)