K-pop Girl groups ~ My Top 20 Songs for 2013 (No. 13 - No. 7)

Welcome to part two of my K-pop chart featuring my 2013 top 20 songs from K-pop girl groups. In part one, I've already listed out songs from number 20 until 14. If you missed it, you can find it by clicking here. For this second part, I have listed the songs from number 13 until number 7. What songs would they be? Scroll down to find out. Hope you enjoy it!

13) AOA Black ~ Moya

As I mentioned in my first part for the chart, AOA has an idol division and a band division. At number 13 is the song Moya from the band division, AOA Black. Comprised of Choa, Jimin, Yuna, Mina and Youkyoung, the group performed the song while playing musical instruments. Although Moya doesn't have catchy lyrics or addictive beat that usually associated with K-pop music, I still like it very much as I found it simple and unique, and I'm also impressed with the vocal performance from the group, especially from the member Choa. It's very rare for K-pop female groups to have their members playing musical instuments and performed as a band rather than a normal dance group, that is why I'm impressed with the concept that the company is doing for this group. Vey impressive indeed.

Moya MV

12) 4Minute ~ What's Your Name?

4Minute, which consists of Jihyun, Gayoon, Jiyoon, Hyuna and Sohyun, has lots of great, ear-pleasing hits under their belt. "Muzik", "HuH", "I My Me Mine" and "Volume Up" are all great songs from the group. And for 2013, What's Your Name? would definitely be added to the list as one of the group's best effort. Topping various music charts when it was released, the hip hop influenced song became one of the most well-received song for the group. The music would definitely makes you want to dance to the tune, and I also love the fact that the song suited the fun and funky image of the group as well. Bravo 4Minute!

What's Your Name? MV

11) T-ara N4 ~ Jeon Won Diary

T-ara N4 is a sub-unit for T-ara with Eunjung, Hyomin, Jiyeon and Areum as the members (Areum had officially left the group and a new member, Dani, will replaced her but only in the sub-unit T-ara N4 and not for T-ara). Jeon Won Diary is such an energetic and fun song but judging from the lyrics, it seems that the song was the group's response to haters regarding the controversies that had been clouded T-ara since 2012. Although I think there is no statement to back that up and it might all be just a coincidence, when you study the lyrics it does seems possible that the song is their response to all that had happened to them. Controversy aside, I still think Jeon Won Diary is a great song and no one can argue that T-ara continuously delivers when it comes to great music.

Jeon Won Diary MV

K-pop Girl groups ~ My Top 20 Songs for 2013 (No. 20 - No. 14)

This end of the year would be all about K-pop music (or Korean pop music for those who are unfamiliar with the term) as I would count down my favourite K-pop songs from female group for 2013. I started this K-pop chart last year when I listed down my favourite K-pop female group for 2012 based on the songs they had released.  But for this year, I would do the chart a little bit different as I would list down my top 20 favourite K-pop songs from female groups instead of counting down the groups themselves. Originally I only want to do Top 13 (as I thought Top 13 of 2013 sounds cool) but there are so many songs that I like that I feel I need to do Top 20 instead. The chart would be separated in 3 parts and for this first part, let's start with number 20 until number 14. Let's begin!

20) AOA ~ Confused

This group which debuted in 2012 is kind of unique because 7 of the members (Choa, Jimin, Yuna, Mina, Hyejeong, Seolhyun and Chanmi) are in the idol group while at the same time 4 of them (Choa, Jimin, Yuna and Mina) including one additional member (Youkyoung) also formed the band division (there are all 8 members altogether). The song Confused are performed by the idol division and was released back in October 2013. I like the song's tune especially the chorus which was quite catchy. The music video has a sexy concept and seductive feel to it and eventhough I don't have any problem with the music video, I feel that it might not be too good for the younger viewers.

Confused MV

19) Tahiti ~ Love Sick

Another group who debuted in 2012 is the six-member group Tahiti, which consists of members Jungbin, Minjae, Miso, Jisoo, Ari and Jin. For the song Love Sick though, Jin was taken out from promotioning the song as the concept for this album was deemed unfit for her age. Love Sick is a good song, however it sounds too similar to Potential Breakup Song from Aly and AJ which makes me guessing that their company purchased the copyright for the song and made a cover version of it. I'm not sure about it since I didn't find anything that state this but considering they hadn't had any trouble like so many Korean artists in the past who were accused of plagiarism before, so I guess they did made the copyright purchased after all. Anyway, it's still a great song and I'm looking forward for more music from the group.

Love Sick MV

18) BESTie ~ Love Options

Eventhough the four-member group BESTie debuted in 2013, three of its members were originally from the group EXID, so it's safe to say that the group are not entirely new to the industry. Consists of UJi, Hyeyeon, Haeryung and Dahye, Love Options was only their second single. It's an energetic song with upbeat tempo and great vocals which hooked me immediately after my first time hearing the song. Although Love Options is a pop commercial song, it does showcased the group's strong vocals and presence (in the music video) which I feel will help them garnered more fans.

Love Options MV

17) Tiny-G ~ Minimanimo

I had post about this group before which you can find it here. I'm such in love with this song that it got stuck in my head for weeks. Released in the beginning of the year, Minimanimo is a cute and catchy song which I think would catch people's attention even without seeing the cheerful and coulourful music video that comes with it. Members J.Min, Mint, Do Hee and Myeong Ji definitely have strong stage presence even being physically small. I feel Tiny-G is one of the new group which has such a huge potential to be big and hopefully that's where they are heading.

Minimanimo MV

Masterchef Malaysia All Stars ~ 1st impression

Tonight is the premiere of Masterchef Malaysia All Stars on Astro Ria (ASTRO Malaysia Channel 104) and here's what I think about the TV show after watching its 1st episode.

Basically this All Stars season of Masterchef Malaysia gathers back some of the memorable contestants from Masterchef Malaysia season 1 and 2, and also Masterchef Selebriti Malaysia season 1 and 2. So it means some contestants from the original version of the show will compete alongside their celebrity counterpart from the celebrity edition of the show. Although some celebrity contestants can be larger-than-life in terms of their personality, but I think the contestants from the original version of the show should not have a problem competing with them as this is a cooking competition (not a popularity contest!) and they have their own talents as well when it comes to cooking. This is not to say that the celebrities have no talent in cooking as these crop of contestants had proved themselves before that they can definitely cook and be a tough competitor.

Some of my favourite contestants that had come back for this All Stars season are Brian, Imelda, Zamil, Celina Khor, Ary Malik and Sharifah Shahora. Although I'm a fan of the TV show, but I must admit that I didn't really watch season 2 and Celebrity season 1 of the show hence I am not really familiar with some of the contestants. But I am looking forward to watch the rest of this season as it seems that they have an interesting batch of contestants here.

For this first episode, the contestants had to prepare the same dish that got them eliminated in their previous season. It was an interesting twist as we can see how the contestants had to improvise their dish and make it a better dish than before. Raja Azmi won this round and was excluded from taking part in the next round which is the Invention Test. She were given a chance to pick two other contestants to sit out from the Invention Test and she chose Ah Hong and Karl Shafek. In the Invention Test, the remaining had to cook any type of dish but only using six ingredients. Shahriah and Celina Khor had been declared winners for this round with their dishes while six contestants will have to face Elimination Round in the next episode.

Overall, it was a fun episode and definitely got me interested to continue watching the show. And the crop of interesting contestants with their funny comments also add flavours to the show and make it even more exciting. As this is an All Stars season, I expect the challenges would be far more difficult compared to previous seasons with a few interesting twist along the way. Hopefully this will be another fantastic season for the popular cooking competition.

Image from Masterchef Malaysia website.

Septimus Heap Book Three: Physik ~ review

Title: Septimus Heap : Physik

Author: Angie Sage
Illustrator: Mark Zug
ISBN: ISBN 0060577371

Warning! This review might contain spoilers. If you don't like spoilers, please leave this post right away.

Physik is the third entry in the Septimus Heap book series by Angie Sage. The book once again featured Septimus Heap as the Apprentice of the ExtraOrdinary Wizard, and Jenna the queenling of the Castle, who both would meet a new enemy in the form of Queen Etheldredda, a former queen of the Castle 500 years ago. Joining in their adventure would be Septimus's big brother Nicko, a young trader from the Northern Countries named Snorri Snorrelssen, Septimus's friend Wolf Boy, and Septimus' pet dragon Spit Fyre. As the spirit of Queen Etheldredda was accidentally released by Septimus's father, Silas Heap, she had planned to take over the Castle and sent Septimus back in time with the help of her son, Marcellus Pye. It is now up to Jenna and the others to save Septimus and the Castle from the grip of the evil Queen.

Magyk, the first book in the series, is still is one of my favourite children's novel that I have on my book shelf right now but I thought the second book, Flyte, while is still good, didnt't quite live up to the first book. So what about this third book in the series? In my opinion, the plot for Physik is entertaining with new twist and new characters. The author also included time travel in the plot which makes it even more interesting as I always love time travel-related stories in books and movies. Although I think the plot is good, it can get tricky sometimes when it comes to story with time travel and I feel the plot for Physik was hurt by it a bit. But it might be me being picky about it as it was the details such as the Glasses of Time that I'm complaining about and not the main story of Septimus, Jenna and the others travel back in time to 500 years prior. So readers do not have to worry about getting confused of the plot as it is actually the small details that I'm worrying about. But it might be good if the author did tight it up a bit as it might get frustrating to readers like me who are worrying about tiny details in the plot.

Studio Ghibli anime films ~ Films I had watched

I think most of the anime fans had heard the news about Hayao Miyazaki retiring from making any more films. So it means that the recently released The Wind Rises would be his last film. For those who didn't know, Hayao Miyazaki is one of the founder of Studio Ghibli, a respected animation studio from Japan that had produced many great anime films such as Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Ponyo and My Neighbor Totoro.

Although I love the works of the studio, I must admit that I didn't watch every one of them, in fact I had only watched 5 films. But that is enough to convince me that the studio is one of the great animation studio in the world because of their high quality anime films. In a way to honour the announcement of Hayao Miyazaki's retirement, let me introduce you (at least to those who are not familiar with the works from the studio) to the five films produced by Studio Ghibli that I had watched. Enjoy!

1) The Cat Returns

Out of the five films, I have to say that this is my least favourite film from the studio. Nevertheless, I found the story to be quite charming. The Cat Returns tell a story about a girl named Haru who were taken to the Cat Kingdom to marry a cat prince after she saved him from being hit by a moving vehicle. The characters in the movie, especially the cats, are very cute and although I feel the story could have been longer, it still offers an exciting journey into a fantasy world ruled by cats.

2) The Borrower Arrietty

Released in Japan in 2010 to much positive reviews, The Borrower Arrietty tells a story about a group of tiny people living under the floor of a house and live their lives by borrowing items from humans. Based on children's books called The Borrowers by an English author Mary Norton, the film was praised for its animation and music. I love the animation too and the different view of the world seeing from the point of views of Arrietty. You can check out more of my comments about the film in my review here.

3) Princess Mononoke

This would be the 1st film from the studio that I had watched, and it was such an amazing film. Princess Mononoke is an epic fantasy adventure film released back in 1997 and regarded as one of the film from Studio Ghibli that garnered worlwide attention. It was such a rich, fantastical and at the same time, serious film that made me realised at that time that animation was not just for children. The film is about the struggle between the spirit of the forest and the humans of a town who had been consuming the resources of the forest. Loved by critics, the film had also made into various top movie list.