Some downside to the movie would be the complexity of the story, which is much much worse in the manga (trust me on this: at the end of the series, I still cannot fully understand who Friend is or his motives.) and the constant flashbacks (which was done in the manga as well). There are too many characters as well, a problem in the manga. But this adds on the a consistent complex story that is entertaining.

If you like complex stories, this movie is for you. You might want to read the manga for a better understanding. 22 volumes + 2 (serialized under the title “21st Century Boys”) volumes. That’s a lot to read. I am looking to forward to seeing how they will compress this much content into three films.

For those who liked this, try Monster by the same author. It features a similarly complex plot with an ensemble cast.

My full collection.

In other words, Dark Knight was excellent. Probably the best movie I’ve seen in a while. Actions aside, there were lots of issues raised, moral and philosophical. Of course, we have the intelligent and cunning Joker to add to the fun.

In order to avoid having the same problem of not being able to get tickets again, I went over the cinema on my way home yesterday night to grab the tickets for today. I was able to get excellent seats: third row from the back!

ICCT next week. Hopefully it’s going to be a better week.

With this, I have ended my shopping for summer 2008, albeit with some stuff I would have wished to buy. But alas, money is a scarce resource.

$75 (pair of jeans after 15% discount) + $49 (shirt) + $149 (shoes) + $9 (belt) = $282

With this I have spent $282 and this is pretty much more than enough.

Need to catch The Dark Knight next week. I heard it was pretty good. Too bad all the tickets are sold out for the cinemas I went to this week. I couldn’t believe it when we couldn’t even get seats in the first row.

And I can’t believe Wall E only premiers in Singapore on 28 Aug, TWO MONTHS after its premier in the US.

A normal looking book cover with some accolades from reputable sources on the back. It almost costs $9.

Open up the book and you see…

…

For those who don’t get it, it means that men know nothing about women. What an interesting way to package a notebook. And I’d say it cheats people of their money as well.

In other news, I think I’ve just watched one of the worst movies in my life. What the hell. There is practically no plot.

And lastly to end off, something interesting I found online (click on the image for more):

But hell, it was worth it. At least our two days of rehearsal did not go to waste. (There was a wet weather programme and that programme is so truncated that it was not even worth doing.) Postings are going to be released on the 21st. I will keep my fingers crossed.

By the way, for those who want to watch 10,000 BC, please don’t. It’s a bad movie. I rated it 4/10. Apparently, Rotten Tomatoes gives it a 6% fresh rating. This is probably one of the worst movie rating I’ve seen.

First up was Atonement. It’s basically a tragedy kind of story and since it was rated M18, it was my first M18 show. Honestly, I think it didn’t really warrant that rating – a NC-16 would have been sufficient anyway. The soundtrack was pretty unique and was excellent. It used the sound made by those ancient typewriters as part of the music.

Next up was Kite Runner based on the novel of the same title. The story is great but I think the novel does the story more justice. You miss out certain important elements like characters’ thoughts which obviously cannot be put on screen.

On a side note, I finally managed to achieve a sub-ten 2.4 km run timing – 9:52 =)

And look how it turned out.

Well, the show is at least funny and heartwarming but my biggest problem with it is the simple plot. Not a lot of plot twists. Just some bimbo high school girls.

The funniest thing was when they showed someone mixing up some chemicals like Silver, Magnesium etc. up in a test tube to create some fireworks and called it the bernoulli effect. Well you could either take it as a joke to punch at geeks stereotypes (and this joke will be rather obscure to be spotted) or just simply… ignorance?

Final verdict: 6/10.

And Six more days.

My interests in soundtracks can be traced back to the Lord of the Rings soundtrack which I have already written to death here. For those who want to know though, the third Return of the King Complete Recordings is going to be released in the midst of our A-Levels on November 6. For some kind souls who have spare cash, please consider a Christmas gift for me with all three complete recordings

So far, there has only been five “entertainment” (mixture of movies, TV Show and anime) that has wow’d me with their soundtracks:
– Lord of the Rings (duh!)
– Lost
– Eureka seveN
– Death Note
– Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

Of course, there is also the once in a while song or two that sounds good but these are my top five in no order. As again, here are some of my selected songs for your listening pleasure. A mix of upbeat, majestic and soft music.

Well, in case you were wondering about the seemingly music themed entries nowadays, let’s just say that I’m in this mood right now to write these kind of posts.

WARNING: Detailed spoilers for the movie and manga follows. You have been warned!

I’m very impressed with the way the writers has managed to compress the whole manga into two movies. The second movie was pretty faithful to the manga from the point where L and Light met to the point where L dies, albeit with major deviations. There is one flaw with this though, which I will explain. While doing so, they’ve managed to squeeze some elements from the Near and Mello saga into the whole thing. Overall, very impressed.

From what I’ve read, the reviews weren’t that good. Probably because the reviewers didn’t understand what was going on or it was probably because I knew or thought I knew what was going to happen and it turned out to not be what I expected.

The movie starts with Misa being chased by some lecher and being killed by Jealous. Misa picks up the Death Note and sees Rem who explains the Death Note to her. Then we get some sort of flashback sequence to the first movie’s events with Light narrating though the basic rules of the Note.

L invites Light over to the investigation HQ and they play a game of chess while L accuses of Light being Kira and Light defending himself from being Kira. Sayu and a friend is seen at a sort of festival held by Sakura TV when Demegawa (who isn’t fat) plays the video from Misa. Unlike the manga, Misa claims to be the “second kira” and doesn’t demand L to appear on TV. I guess this was done to reduce the movie length perhaps.

We are shown Kiyomi Takada being unhappy about her efforts to research Kira being not recognised by everyone and having the anchor woman of Sakura TV news taking all the limelight. This sets up the rest of the show, taking elements from the Near/Mello saga.

The broadcast then switches to the scene outside Sakura TV where some policemen rushes up to stop the broadcast, but ultimately to their death at Misa’s hands. Mogi took the place of… what’s his name again?… and died in front of the TV station. Sayu goes over and lament Mogi’s death while shouting for Kira to stop killing, calling the second Kira a murderer upon which Misa has a flashback of the scene when she reaches home to find everyone dead.

Soichiro rushes to the scene in a manner similar to that of the manga and picks Sayu up before entering the building to stop the broadcast. Light uses this excuse to run to the scene to check on his father and sister. Misa walks down from the TV station and sees Light’s name, without his lifespan, thus identifying Kira. L orders an investigation of everyone at the TV station.

Light walks home to find Misa. The next scenes act out very similarly to the manga. No need to touch so much on that. L goes to school to check on Light. Misa comes up to see Light and see L’s name. L pickpockets Misa’s phone. Light calls Misa and L picks up the phone. Misa gets caught. This is very faithful to the manga. Similarly, Rem makes Misa give up her possession of the Death Note and Rem goes to Light. She explains to him how Jealous died and Light says Misa’s line of “what a romantic way to kill a death god”. Light buried the Death Note and told Rem to give the note to someone else upon which he surrenders himself to L, claiming he might be subconsciously being Kira without knowing it. He is imprisoned. He gives up ownership of the Death Note and loses his memories.

Rem gives the note to Takada. Takada thus takes the role of Huguchi and herself during the Near/Mello saga. Rem says that Takada is the partner of Kira and has the same ideals as Kira. This is very similar to what Light in the manga says to her during the Near/Mello saga. A good attempt at changing the story while maintaining a level of faithfulness to the manga.

After some time, Misa and Light are released but still under surveillance. The dramatic scene in which Soichiro has to go through to release them is not shown. Light is not handcuffed to L as well. L loses his mood at being wrong with Light being Kira. Of course, Light, just like in the manga, manages to trace down to the deaths being mostly on criminals reported by Sakura TV. They install cameras in Takada’s room and see her writing in the note, wondering what she is doing. They manage to confirm that everyone written in the note is dead though. Takada writes in a page per day, reflecting what Mikami did in the manga. Therefore, she is basically playing the roles of Huguchi, herself and Mikami combined.

They have Matsuda play a reporter who claims to have installed cameras in Takada’s room and demand 5 million from her. A similar scene from the manga is then played out. They have Matsuda go to the TV station to “reveal” Kira’s identity. Takada takes out the note and tries to kill Matsuda, who gave Takada a name card with his fake name.

Takada tells Rem that “she was lucky” while Light and L wonders who she was talking to and are baffled by how Takada attempted to kill. Matsuda doesn’t die and Takada does the eye-trade. She goes to the station and is ambushed. Along the ways, she kills a traffic police, similar to how Higuchi did. The next scene plays out very faithful to the manga as well, though it happens inside the station. Light touches the note and regains his memories. He uses the secret note inside his watch and kills Takada, therefore claiming the ownership of the note and will not lose his memories. Back at HQ, Light and Misa are acquitted though the fake “13 days rule”. Misa is told to go and dig up the note and her memories return, though she can’t remember L’s name and foolishly trades the eye again with Ryuk.

L wants to test the 13 day rule and he has the police team go over to Washington to test on the criminals. Matsuda was teased as being incompetent but he defended himself, saying he’s good with guns. This is a minor detail that I was surprised they added it in. Light and L are alone. L has Watari bring Misa in to be caught in the act of writing down L’s name.

Rem sees this and goes into another room to kill L and Watari, burning the note at the same time. L falls off the chair in the way similar to the manga during his death. He claims that he has made a mistake and Light gloats over how L was a worthy opponent and yadayada. My only gripe with this scene was that Light did not hold L as he fell and then do his evil smirk over L’s dying face. Watari dies too.

Light meets Misa and goes in to finish the job – killing his own father and making him come back to bring the Note to him. Light tells his dad about how he has admired his unfailing sense of justice and that since his time was up, he was to hand Light the note. The suitcase opens and it’s empty inside.

Everyone comes out of the shadow and Light finds himself ambushed, and being discovered, similar to the situation he faced inside the warehouse when Near cornered him. Surprisingly, L is not DEAD. He comes out and explains everything. (This is the flaw of the story, more later.)

Apparently, Misa’s note was a fake. It was swapped one day after Misa started killing. This is similar to how Mikami’s note was a fake one too. This was also what led Light to his downfall. Light turns around and accuses Misa of betraying him, similar to what Light thought Mikami did in the manga too.

L explains that he cannot be killed because he has already written his name inside the death note, saying he will day 23 days later in a peaceful death (borrowed from the pilot chapter). He says his “mistake” was that he thought the death god will not kill Watari and that he was surprised that Light will use the death god. Light denies everything while he attempts to use his note hidden inside the watch to kill, again similar to the manga scene. Matsuda sees this and shoots him, like what he did in the manga.

Light gives a shortened speech about how he was justice and was god while L simply says Near’s line that Light was simply a mass murderer. Light asks Ryuk to kill everyone and instead, Ryuk writes Light’s name and kills him. Lo! and behold! The movie Light suffers the same fate as his manga counterpart – to die at Ryuk’s hands. Dying in Soichiro’s hands, Light tells his father to believe in his ideals. The only problem with this scene is that Light takes very long to die, unlike the other characters. L then burns the notes.

Everything goes back to normal. Misa loses her memory. Light was claimed to have been killed by Kira. Soichiro thanks L for having the chance to have worked with him and L says Soichiro was like a father that he never had to him. L dies peacefully alone inside the HQ. Soichiro salutes him. The movie ends with Sayu saying how crime rates have gone up while Soichiro asks if she would rather have Kira back to which Sayu replies no, because Kira killed her brother.

We see Misa celebrating and lamenting Light’s birthday. She says she has forgotten something. We last see Ryuk flying around and laughing crazily about the tower of Tokyo. The End.

The part about not L dying seems like not being consistent with the rules to me. I’m not sure but I don’t remember seeing such a rule that you can’t be killed again if you are already killed/or are going to be killed by another note. I’m not sure about this, can someone confirm it?

On the whole, I was very impressed with the movie. 9/10 for it. It”s not a perfect ten because the soundtrack doesn’t catch my ears. No memorable tunes except for Dani California by Red Hot Chilli Peppers. A definite must watch for die hard Death Note fans. It tries to be faithful to the manga while keeping it short. This is a movie that L-lovers and Near-haters will like. I personally am one of them. I don’t like the idea of Light being defeated by kids like Near and Mello. Catch it while it’s hot!

He shares some problems with the movie as well.

EDIT: Another Error: If Misa’s note was fake, how did Light manage to see Ryuk when he touched Misa’s note!?

I went to watch the movie The Holiday yesterday. Not my type of movie but I kind of enjoyed it, at least the humour within, much unlike the terrible You, me and Dupree. The crowd at Orchard was just terrible. I wonder how it’s like right at this moment, 10+ minutes to Christmas.

Today, on Christmas eve, I went on a shopping spree, including stuff that weren’t for me. I had a haircut, followed by a trip to Sim Lim to buy 200 CD-R and 50 DVD-R for CCA usage. Gosh, that was SO heavy and expensive (SGD 87). I almost died along the way carrying that home. I bought myself a Bluetooth adapter and for my cousin a network card and a thumbdrive (a pretty good looking one if you ask me).

Walked around for a long time before settling on a pair of Niké shoes. Believe it or not, this is my first piece of Niké merchandise I ever bought. The rest belonged to Adidas and New Balance etc.

And later on, I bought another jacket and a new shoe bag.

Phew, remind me not to shop at this time of the year again. The crowd is kinda huge. I still need some shorts and pants. That should be all that’s left to get.