Asia's Next Top Model Cycle 1 winner!

Congratulations to Jessica Amornkuldilok from Thailand for winning the first season of Asia's Next Top Model. Congratulations too to both runner-ups; Kate Ma from Taiwan and Stephanie Retuya from the Philippines for making it into the Top 3.

Asia's Next Top Model is hosted by Nadya Hutagalung (also served as head judge) with model mentor Joey Mead King, fashion photographer Todd Anthony Tyler and fashion director Daniel Boey took on the role of secondary judges. The show featured 14 women from all over Asia such as the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Nepal, Taiwan, Japan and India compete to win the title of Asia's Next Top Model (and some awesome prizes as well).

Personally, I think the show was a bit slow in the first two episodes most probably because I was still trying to get used to the whole new contestants and environment, but the show did get better and more interesting after that, and the photoshoots were great as well. Hopefully season 2 would be green-light for production as I feel this show has a lot of potential to become big and influential in Asia. And if they do, hopefully they will keep the current line of judges as I feel they had done a great job in this first cycle.

Again, congratulations Jessica! Hopefully this will be the start of an amazing career for you. By the way, my favourite contestant was Aastha Pokharel from Nepal who finished 5th in the competition. What about you? Who was your favourite contestant?

Image from Youtube screencap.

K-pop group ~ Introducing CHI CHI

K-pop groups (that's South Korean groups or bands for those who are not familiar with the term) keep popping up like mushrooms these past few years and it seems like the industry is kind of saturated with them right now. Personally, I find it hard to keep tracks of these new groups. They are too many of them with almost similar style and sound that sometimes they made me confused which is which. So instead of focusing on their sexy outfits and fancy choreography, I would concentrate first on their music to decide which one would I like to know and follow in their journey to superstardom. But of course, unique choreography and dressing style help as well to stand-out from the rest. One of the group that caught my interest is CHI CHI.

Originally a 7-member group, CHI CHI is now consists of Boreum, A-zi, Sui, Semi and Shine. They have an electronic sound to their music which is logical since their group's acronym stands for Creative electronic House Idols. The girl group debut with Jangnanchijima (meaning Don't Play Around in Korean) in 2011. Then they came out with a powerful somewhat ballad song (which is currently still one of my favourite K-pop song) called Longer.

After that in 2012, they came out with Love is Energy, a great pop track with a unique dance move called the hand blender, handcopter or mirrorball. This is also the song that made me first noticed them. They also remake their first single Jangnanchijima for Japanese market called Karakawanaide!! (Jangnanchijima). As of now, I have no news yet about their comeback in 2013. Although they are still considered 'green' in the industry, I think they have a chance to stand-out from the rest of the groups because of their electronic-sound pop music. I hope they will work hard and I pray that they will become successful in their career. All the best CHI CHI!

Click here for Longer MV.
Click here for Love is Energy MV.

Image from CHI CHI Japanese website.

*UPDATE ~ October 2013*

On my new search for the group's possible comeback, I sadly found out that the group had officially disbanded this year. What an awful news! I like the group and I honestly think that they got a lot of potential. But it looks like its not working out for them (or maybe the company who manage them). I wish all the best to the former members of the group and hopefully they will have success in their next venture in life.

2013 Summer movies ~ What to watch? (Part 1)

Last year summer movies season was packed with great movies that I truly enjoyed such as The Avengers, The Dark Knight Rises and Prometheus. So what movies would Hollywood brings us this year? And can they top the great box-office numbers of 2012 summer movies? Let's check out some of this year summer movies that had caught my interest. For Part 1, let's look at movies released in May and June 2013.

May

1) Iron Man 3

The first movie had really good story, while Iron Man 2 had pretty good action sequences. What about this third movie? Judging from the trailer, I think it would have the combination of both. Robert Downey, Jr. is back as Tony Stark aka Iron Man and this film would also introduces new characters and villains such as Ben Kingsley as the Mandarin, Guy Pearce as Aldrich Killian, and Rebecca Hall as Dr. Maya Hansen. I am not sure about the plot, but it will revolves around yet another terrorist organization and a type of virus called Extremis virus. The conflict in this movie seemed to be more personal too to Tony Stark compared to the last two films. Will he prevail this time too?


2) Epic

This computer-animated movie by Blue Sky Studios featured the voices of Amanda Seyfried, Josh Hutcherson, Colin Farrell, Christoph Waltz, Beyonce Knowles and Aziz Ansari. The film would tell the story of a young girl who is forced to join a group of tiny forest warriors in a war against an evil force to save their world. I think those who already watched the trailer for this movie would agree that it is visually stunning, and I think the movie would be funny too especially with the slug character. The trailer did impressed me a lot so hopefully the movie would not disappoint.


3) Fast and Furious 6

To be honest, I am not a fan of The Fast and The Furious movie series. It's not that I think they are bad movies, but more because of my lack of interest in street racing. But after watching the trailer for this sixth installment, I must say that I might be watching it in the cinema when it come out this May. The movie looks fun with its wickedly awesome stunts and pack with heart-pounding action scenes. And the story seemed to have evolve too and will not just focus on the street racing. Will that be a good move for a movie series known for it street-racing action? Personally, with its loyal fanbase, I think the movie will do just fine.