Salam Aidilfitri to all Muslims!!!

I want to wish Happy Eid ul-Fitr to all Muslims all around the world. After a month of fasting in Ramadhan, it's time to enjoy and celebrate all our hard work. It is also the time for us to show our unity and celebrate the festivity as one big family.

For those of you who are not familiar with the celebration, let me fill you in with some explanation. Eid ul-Fitr (also known as several other names in other parts of the world) is a Muslim celebration that marks the end of Ramadhan (in which the Muslims go through a fasting month). The first day of Eid ul-Fitr, which is on 1st Shawwal, Muslims will perform a 2-raka'ah prayer. There are several ways Eid ul-Fitr is celebrated  in different part of the world, but in Malaysia, people usually will go to their hometowns and ask for forgiveness from their parents, and celebrate the festivity together with family, relatives and friends. Different kind of foods are served and family and friends gather around, catching up with each other. People will also go to the cemetery to pay respect to their families and relatives who had past away and do some prayers. Kids are the one who usually have a blast celebrating as they will receive "duit raya" (gifts in form of money) from their elders.

But, with all the joy and excitement in celebrating the festivity, it is important for us to also remember those who are less fortunate than us. Remember that they are others that faced injustice and difficulties in their lives in other parts of the world. Let us all pray to Allah and hope for a brighter future for all people around the world. Amin.

Happy Aidilfitri everyone!

Pendragon Book Three: The Never War ~ review

Title: Pendragon : The Never War
Author: D. J. MacHale
ISBN: ISBN 0-7434-3733-0

A word of caution: spoilers ahead! It might not be much, but it may still ruin your enjoyment of the book.

As I mentioned in my previous post about Pendragon, this book series is definitely one of the best series for children and adults alike. Still not familiar with it? Well, it's about a boy who learned that he is a Traveler who can travel through time and space to different worlds or territories, and have to save them from destruction planned by the main antagonist of the series, the ever-changing shape-shifter, Saint Dane.

In the third book of the series, Bobby Pendragon had to travel to the territory of First Earth, which was Earth in 1973. Found himself in New York but in a time way before he was born, he teamed himself with the Traveler from First Earth, Vincent Van Dyke, or better known as Gunny. He also brought along the Traveler from Cloral (which he had previously explored in Book Two: The Lost City of Faar) Vo Spader, for this new adventure. So it seems like it will be the three of them against Saint Dane, sounds like a piece of cake right? Well, apparently not. They also had to deal with two rival gengster mobs and their leaders, Maximillian Rose and Winn Farrow.

At first, I thought I would not enjoy this book as much as I had with the first two books in the series since the book was set in 1973, and I'm not really a big fan of reading books that were set in the past. Fortunately, I was proven wrong. The plot was well-paced, enjoyable and it got me invested in the story and the characters. Even the action scenes for this book were interesting eventhough they were only fighting normal human beings (the gengsters) instead of fantasy creatures like in The Merchant of Death (Book 1) or The Lost City of Faar (Book 2).

The characters for this book were pretty well developed and I really like the new characters that were introduced like Gunny, the female pilot Nancy Olsen (or Jinx) and the gangster godfather Maximillian Rose. Gunny, for example, had that likeable and calm persona that were important in keeping the team together. He also served like a consultant to Bobby in giving his opinions about certain situations and events. In fact, he might actually be the one who saved the territories from destruction.

Bobby Pendragon, the main protagonist, was also developed well in this book. In fact, we can actually see the improvement in his role from being the newbie in the Traveler thing in Book 1 to begining to take his role as the future leader for Travelers very seriously. He still had a lot to learn though before he become the leader he was destined to be. Mark Dimond and Courtney Chetwynde, Bobby friends back on Second Earth, on the other hand seems to be taking a backseat this time. I'm not sure whether it's because of their lack of character development or simply because they were overshadowed by the many great new characters in this book. Nevertheless, I'm sure they will have a greater role in future books in the series as they had always been so close to Bobby eventhough they were territories apart.

Overall, The Never War is another great addition to the book series and it was better than I expected it to be. Interesting plot, great action scenes and awesome new characters had helped to make this book a great continuition to the Travelers journey to save the territories. A must have for the book series fans while for new readers, I suggest to start with Book 1, The Merchant of Death, for better understanding of the overall plot.

Image source from Wikipedia.

Fantastic horror films of the east - Part 1

Are you a horror movie fan? If you are, then this post is for you. If you are not a fan of such films, well, it doesn't hurt to know a bit about the movies that fall into the genre right? I'm introducing some of the good Asian horror films out there that I personally love. Some of them had (somewhat) gain recognition through Hollywood remakes but some of them remain unknown especially to those who have not really watch a lot of Asian movies. Asian horror films may be slightly different than their Hollywood counterpart, nevertheless they still have their own charm in captivating the audience.

Listing 10 of some of my favourite Asian horror films, here are the first five films;

1) One Missed Call (Japan)

It is one of the first horror films from Japan that I watched and I certainly enjoyed it. Also known as "Chakushin ari" and released in Japan in 2004, it tells a story of a cursed call from your future self that predicts your own death. What's interesting about this movie is that it downplayed the portrayal of a ghost (especially in the first half of the movie) and replaced it with a fear feeling of knowing your own death in the near future. I like the concept of the story and the haunting ring tone of the death call (creepy and beautiful at the same time). The movie was well made and the plot combined the Asian people traditional belief of unrest spirit and the modern technology of cellphones. As most of you already know, a Hollywood remake had been made with the same title. But personally I much prefer the original movie.

2) Jangan Pandang Belakang (Malaysia)

Released in 2007, it is currently my favourite Malaysian horror movie. Although the story about ghosts who haunt humans are a cliché in Malaysia local drama series and movies, Jangan Pandang Belakang (literally translated as "Don't Look Back" in English) managed to piqued people interest with clever ghost scenes that made audience at the edge of their seats. It may not have the best special effects or story but the flow of the plot and the clever scenes that I mentioned before surely made this film one of the best Malaysia horror movies had to offer.

3) Long Khong (Thailand)

The gore and violence in this movie had somewhat made it similar to the Hollywood splatter films like Saw or Hostel but the supernatural element in it made it unique and recognizable as an Asian horror movie. The film was released in 2005 and also known as Art of the Devil 2 as part of the Art of the Devil trilogy. The film tells a story of six high school friends who were caught up in between curses and spells as they travel to one of their friend's remote village. The images in this movie can be cruel and at times disturbing but it just shows that you should have never play around with black magic. The consequences might not be pretty.

4) A Tale of Two Sisters (South Korea)

To be honest, I was actually confused by the storyline in this movie when I first saw it in the cinema. The present and flashback scenes were shown back-to-back and I had trouble following the story. But once I understand what the story is about, and know what certain scenes in the movie actually mean, then I finally had my respect for the movie and truly appreciate the story. This 2003 South Korean psychological horror movie is inspired by an old folktale and had also been remake into a Hollywood movie titled The Uninvited in 2009. I love this movie not only because it has some really good scary scenes in it, but also because it has a good story with deep meaning and not just a typical horror movie. If you have trouble understanding the story in your first viewing, then watch it again. Hopefully you'll appreciate it like I did.

5) 4bia (Thailand)

4bia is a 2008 horror film that contains four different short stories from four different directors. The first story is about a young girl who unknowingly befriended a ghost via text messaging though her cellphone. The second story is about a group of high school friends who had been cursed by another fellow student who had been bullied by them. The third chapter tells a story about a group of friends who were haunted while they went for camping in the forest. While the last chapter is about a young flight attendant who were having trouble on board a plane with a royal princess for having an affair with her prince husband. It is a great compilation of horror stories from different perspective of protagonists, although I must say that the second chapter is a bit "weak". The way the story were told were great too and can be quite creative like the first chapter that has no dialogue at all. The third chapter were noted for being funny and less serious than the rest but my favourite chapter would have to be the last chapter with the flight attendant. How creepy it is to be on a plane with no one else but a corpse?


So there you have it, five of some of my favourite horror movies from Asia. If you want to find out the other five films that made the list, please click here for Part 2. Thanks for reading!

Images source from Wikipedia.