Departures

Departures define as the sending off for the departed; a ceremonial ritual to bid eternal farewell to your loved one who has moved into the next realm. The movies has the right mix of respect, love and dignity when dealing with the dead people.

Daigo Kobayashi is a professional cellist till the orchestra is dissolved. He heads back to his hometown under the encouragement and support of his wife. Mistaking a job advertisement for a travel agency, Daigo finds himself starting a new career as an encoffineer, a funeral professional who prepares the dead for burial and the next life.

Earning from the dead is not a respected profession by the community. His childhood friend shuns him and to make the matter worse, his wife leaves him unless he is willing to change to another proper job. In spite of strong objection, Daigo finds himself enjoying his new profession and a deep respect for the living and the dead.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 fairy clouds. To be an escort and gatekeeper to the departed is one that takes a lot of courage. While Daigo deepens his respect, so did I. I particular like the scenes where Daigo and his boss prepare the dead for burial. You can feel the love, the dignity that oozes with every step they take to complete the ritual. Amazing and profound!

He's Just Not that Into You

I feel so cliche watching a romance movie on Christmas Day. To make it worse, the movie made me curdle up into a total cheese ball. There is a good lesson to be learnt from the movie (as well as the book) about man. He won't be bother to call you or do anything for you if he is just not that into you. That's a biblical truth which I urge all, let me stress again, ALL ladies to take note of.

The movie starts with Gigi learning about that men act like jerks like they like you at the tender of 5. Her latest blind date is with Connor, a real estate agent, whom Janine set up for her. Connor never calls Gigi after the first date, so she goes to the bar which he frequents, hoping to "accidentally" bump into him. There she meets with Alex and he becomes her Dr Love, advising her about her dates. Eventually he falls in love with her, making her the exception of the dating rule.

Janine and Ben recently gotten married and is renovating their new home. Ben meets Anna at Handy's supermarket and starts to lust after her. He hides this from Janine as well as his smoking habit which Janine's stubbornly objects to. He eventually confesses sleeping with another woman which secretly trying to destroy his own marriage because he isn't ready to commit and has gotten married because he has been with Janine for a long time. They heads for divorce. Poor Anna just happens to be the catalyst for this breakup.

Beth and Neil are happy and in love with each other. The only issue is Neil does not believe in marriage and refuse to walk down the aisle with Beth. She gets upset and frustrated, thinking her relationship is never going to get anywhere. She breaks up with Neil only to discover that he is really who she wants to be with and is willing to compromise her dream. It ends happy with him proposing to her.

Rating: 4 out of 5 fairy clouds. The storyline is alright, focusing on the relationship issues of the couple of friends. Love has a strange way of showing itself and expressing itself at times. The thing to remember might be that he's just not that into you. Don't forget that.

2012

2012 is a movie I would probably have given it a pass since I'm not a fan of catastrophic armageddon. In fact, I honestly dislike such movies as well as those in the war and related genre.

I won 2012 from a game of bejeweled from my bro. And so I gave the movie a chance. The storyline is very typical and predictable. The world is ending, and the people at the top are fully awared. Preparation has been made and it is time to go, forsaking the rest of the good people. Just imagine a modernised Noak's Ark story.

The CGI effect is quite impressive when you watched it for the first time. I'm not sure if I will be equally impressed if I were to watch the movie again. You do expect to get quite an adrenaline rush from watching the world fumbling before your eyes.

But one thing I do find lacking is the madness of people in such a dire situation. Logically, you will expect people to be all over the place to save their own lives. I see none on the streets when the fissures are formed. Strange, isn't it?

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 fairy clouds. It is still a decent movie in spite of the gloom end of the world. And somehow somewhere the hero should always save the day. Amen!

Sideways

Sideways is kind of an odd-ball comedy which will grow on you as you watch it. Two buddies take on a road trip as a 'stylish' send-off before the wedding.

Miles is a depressed divorce who has yet to get over his failed marriage as well as failed writing career. His good pal, Jack, is a minor actor who is getting married in a week's time to a rich lady. The two buddies go on a road trip to the California, passing through the vineyards and local girls.

While Miles is planning on giving Jack a proper send-off with good wine and golf to create some buddy bonding time, Jack is only concern to get as much as boning as he can. Along the way, the guys meet Stephanie and Maya. Miles starts to move out of his misery to take the next step forward in his life. Jack, on the other hand, is getting himself in trouble from one woman to another. At the end of the day, the best pal stands by him and rescue him in the true allegiance-way.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 fairy clouds. A decent movie to watch. The story-telling is quite nice from the man's perspective without being overly-overwhelming and hard to take.

Humpday

Think along the line of famous annual Seattle film festival, HUMP! and you can pretty guess the storyline of Humpday.

Ben and Andrew are very good friends back in their college days. They have not seen each other except the occasional exchange of postcards. Ben is your typical picket fence man who has a career, a house and a wonderful marriage. While on the other end, Andrew is a vagabond. He travels around from town to town, knowing different people, and never finishes whatever he starts with.

An unexpected visit from Andrew creates a ripple of change in Ben's life. The initial harmless fraternal bonding between two good friends became a dare of two straight man making their own porn as an art film for the HUMP! film festival. Both friends are pushed to their limits in terms of their friendship, sexual orientation and belief.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 fairy clouds. Though the movie concept is kind of catchy, the film does not provoke sufficient intensity and curiosity from the audience. The conversation is flat and plot development is average. There is a time and place for things, and that is college.

Astro Boy

I caught a ride to Metro City after leaving the Christmas Carol. Astro Boy is a much more entertaining animation to me.

Toby Tenma is a smart son of Dr Tenma, who is a leading scientist at the Ministry of Science. An experiment goes wrong and Toby who happens to have sneaked into the laboratory, is very unfortunately killed.

Dr Tenma, unable to let go of the death of his son, goes on to create a robot replica of Toby, hence the birth of Astro Boy. He is really the state-of-the-art, one-of-the-kind, super-duper-amazing-funky-real-like android. I guess you got my drift.

Astro, the android Toby, is amazed by his new abilities while Dr Tenma is unable to accept him as his real son. Feeling rejected, Astro leaves home. The power-hungry President Stone discovers that Astro has the blue core and soon starts a hunt to retrieve that energy core from Astro. As Astro left Metro City and made new friends, he starts to realise the meaning of his life and what he is made.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 fairy clouds. I quite love the simple and yet charming tune to Astro Boy. Though I am not a fan of Astro, I love the movie, along with the humour. The movie is as cute and as charming as Astro himself.

A Christmas Carol

Year after year, as we approach December, we see plenty of merry-making movies which celebrate the festive seasons. This year, I went to catch a glimpse of A Christmas Carol, aka Jim Carrey style.

As with the Charles Dicken's book, A Christmas Carol is kind of a dark and grimly tale about a Ebenezer Scrooge, a bitter and miser moneylender who has not enjoyed Christmas for many many many many... many years.

On this every Christmas eve, Scrooge meets with his former business partner, Jacob Marley who has passed away 7 years ago. Marley, heavily chained in his afterlife, comes to warn Scrooge that he will be visited by 3 spirits - Ghost of Christmas Past, Ghost of Christmas Present and Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come. The encounter with the 3 spirits forever changes Scrooge life, he becomes a new man, embodying the spirit of Christmas.

Rating: 4 out of 5 fairy clouds. A typical sha-la-la merry Christmas movie about giving. The animation is kind of decent, but lacking in a little depth which would have given it a much richer feel. An ok movie to watch, except that I'm not a typical fan of Christmasie movie.