Pacific Rim

When I was young, one of the more famous TV series was a Japanese cartoon depicting man-operated huge machine fighting against monster trying to create havoc. Most of the time, these monsters came from the sea. Godzilla and the likes. There was always the fight between good versus evil and the good always triumphant whatever the odds.

So, when I learned that a movie along similar line, Pacific Rim was being released, I was keen. It was out a few days back, so after the ward round this morning, I stopped by Pavilion and purchased the afternoon show.

Quite a good movie actually, but you have to enter the theatre with minimal expectations. The acting was average, the plot was predictable, the chemistry between the two main characters to out in kindly, non-existant. And the stakes, I was expecting it to be higher, but in the end, it was nothing more than just a popcorn summer movie - mind you I was fasting, so no popcorn for me.

The effects and sound was as you'd expect, mind-blowing. The plot could have been more intricate as I remember from the cartoons, the story was a lot heavier. Even from back then.

Would I recommend this movie? Definitely for male 40 something with memories of old Japanese cartoon series. If you remember Captain Future, this movie was definitely for you. This was not a movie you bring your girlfriend to on a first date!

Tokyo Street Anniversary

When I was at Pavilion today, I saw a commotion created by throng of photographers on the top floor. Apparently it was the second anniversary of Tokyo Street, and they had some events to mark that. Today, it was an Anime gathering. There were also competitions. But the whole place turned into Cosplay heaven.

And to that, also a photographer's heaven. I only had my hand phone with me instead of a proper camera. So, in just snapped away to what I could. Great fun though.

At one of the stage, there was an Anime character competitions being held. The participants would act their character and explain to the public what the character was about. Rather surreal to see that in Malaysia. I was sure in Tokyo proper, this would be quite a normal weekend activity.

Since I was rushing to get to Pasar Ramadan, I didn't have the time to find out what else would be going on as part of the celebration. Which was a shame. It would've made for a great photo opportunity.

Uprooted

I wasn't joking about the wind yesterday. On my way back to Gombak, I had to take a detour to avoid an uprooted tree near Bukit Bandaraya. It had stopped raining by then, but you could see that some of the shrubs and leafs been blown away. The place looked a mess.

Windy Afternoon

The plan this afternoon was to join the boys for their swimming class straight from the apartment after work. Usually on a Saturday afternoon, I would gave lunch at work before taking a breather for a couple of hours at the apartment.

Being Ramadan, there was no lunch today. So, in spent the afternoon just watching TV - watching the fascinating documentary I blogged about earlier.

Right after the documentary, the weather just changed. It was raining heavily outside night this moment. Hopefully, then traffic won't be bad as we planned to have our iftar outside this evening.

Alive

A few years back - more like 20 years ago, I remember watching a movie called Alive with my housemates in Sheffield. All of us were Medical Students back then and the subject behind the movie interested us. It was about survival, and what happen if you were to neat another human being.....

Funny then kind of things that interested us back then. Anyhow, it was a real story of survival and it was based on a true tale. A group of rugby players from Uruguay was on the way to Chile when their plane crashed at the top of the Andes Mountains due to what turned out to be pilot's error.

There were no means for escape for the survivors and after the rescue mission were called off, they had to find their way out ton alert the public. And it took them more than a couple of months before they were rescued after a daring trek down the mountain by a couple the fellow survivors.

As their food store depleted, they had to resort to eating the passengers who perished. A lot ethical issues here, but it was a matter of live or death.

Ten days of trekking in such treacherous condition. They were finally rescued after 72 days in the mountains. They were taken out just in time for Christmas 1972.

This afternoon, I watched a documentary on Discovery in what actually happened. And the actual survivors from the flight were interviewed. A group of mountaineers also went to trace the actual route that they took to take them back to civilisation. The survivors also returned to the site, and the story of their lives since the event were also told.

Fascinating stuff.