Jdorama review: Haruka 17 ep 1

Haruka 17 is based on a manga and tells the story of a 22 year old nerd-like girl who can't get a job and becomes an idol talent pretending to be 17 years old. Usually the nerd type rolls in doramas are played by Suzuki Anne but I doubt she could have played the idol parts as well. Of course, the main attraction for watching this series is Hirayama Aya. As a former gravure idol, she has had small parts or parts that required her just to be hot so this is her first role that will challenge her acting.

And I'm happy to say that her acting is pretty goood. Granted bad actresses like Fujiwara Norika do ok in comedies but Aya-chan does well in the dramatic parts of ep 1 as well.



Before and after shots of Haruka's boobs which her stylist improves by using tape. (dun ask me how) I was rofl during the scene of the camera crew hearing shouts of yamete and ittai from her change room as the tape is applied. :)

Haruka getting sprayed by water to uh, improve the shot quality.

Didn't enjoy this scene of Haruka being held kicking and screaming as the cameramen take photos of her. Feels too much like a rape scene with her being symbolically raped by the camera. Uugh.

Preview of next episode where she enters a talent contest. Hhmm, this is like a Sabra gravure video with a story. :)

The jokes are really funny (I enjoyed the Winter Sonata spoof) and a show about the idol industry is a refreshing change from your typical boy meets girl dorama. For fellow sukebes, there are plenty of reasons to watch this show. Though it isn't subbed, most of the jokes are pretty easy to get. Currently still stuck getting ep 2. Hope a seeder jumps in soon.

Top 10 Japanese girlfriends pt 2

Now we present top 10 which Japanese celebrity do you want as your GF as voted by Akiramike! Voting was done based on the following requirements:
1. Kawaiiness
2. Kawaiiness
3. Kawaiiness

Without further ado, we present Akiramike's top 10:

1. Natsumi Abe

The only all-round idol to come out of Morning Musume. Has a great on stage presence with the kawaii girl-next-door factor. Plus the fact that she has a kawaii sister as well. :) Akiramike has been obsessed with her since 2001. Too bad her solo songs suck.

2. Ogura Yuko

She can't sing nor dance but she is the most kawaii creature on God's green earth. Plus she's 22 while she looks 18. With such a young gf you'll be the envy of your friends! Watch any of her gravure vids and tell me she doesn't make you fell all warm and fuzzy.

3. Hirosue Ryoko

If not of the fact she's lost some weight and she has a kid, she would be no.1. Yeah, she has a 'bad' reputation but the disparity between her on screen characters and her real life reputation makes her more appealing.

4. Takeuchi Yuko

see pt 1.

5. Ishihara Satomi



Super innocent and kawaii in H2. She's the most adorable creature in Jdorama-land right now.

6. Matsuura Aya

Used to be most kawaii girl in my book (tied with Kago Ai) until Ogura Yuko came along but IMO is probably the most genki girl ever. Her biggest selling point is that she always seems 'in character' all the time. Took screencaps from Watarasebashi but can't find any that does her justice.

7. Tanaka Rena

Photo taken from the press conference of the Odoru Daisasousen spin-off movie 'The Suspect: Muroi Shinji'. (can't wait to watch it) Tanaka Rena is just too hot and was the only good thing in overrated dorama Overtime.

8. Kanno Miho

Check my previous post at http://hamsapsukebe.blogspot.com/2005/08/kanno-miho-so-beautiful-it-hurts-to.html

9. Ichikawa Yui

Another gravure idol turned jpop singer and actress as well as Ishihara Satomi's 'rival' in H2. How can anyone choose between these 2?

10. Hirayama Aya


Gravure idol turned actress. Now starring in Haruka 17.

Fellowship of 419 ep 6: SC Profiles

Today I will attempt to write briefly about the various members that made of the Fellowship of 419. Unfortunately, my memory is really bad so there could be mistakes here and there. I apologise for lack of explanations for non 419 members and non-Sc players. There are just too much stuff too write about.

KV aka Godfather of SC
Race: Toss/Terran

The man who took taught us Sc. Kv's Sc wasn't fancy but it was damn solid. His main advantage was his experience. As Sc has so many variables, Kv's experience allows him to know what to build and when and how to attack.

Famous for:

- his LT mass cannon expand technique against Yc
- mass terran machine drops against toss
- Bcs
- dt+corsair against zerg

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NiGHTs
Race: Zerg

NiGHTs was the only one of us who could beat Kv once in while. NiGHTs' strategy was to defeat his opponent in one sweep.

Most famous for:

- fast expanding then teching hard
- fast super lings/fast guardians
- using dark swarm

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Yc aka DTYc (Dirty Tactics Yc) aka Queen-zhai
Race: Zerg

Yc is probably the most evil and bloodthirsty Sc player in the world. Always on the way to cybercafes, he would keep silent to accumulate all his bloodlust.

Most famous game: Beating Kv's Zerg using Terran on a map with damn lot of hills.

Most famous for:

- His evil laughter everytime he wins.
- Using evil tactics like nuking/sieging from unreachable places
- Being obsessed with infesting command centres
- Being the only Sc player in the world besides Boxer who can play to his maximum ability
- Going fast super ling drop with mass spores
- Turning up the volume everytime he goes in for the kill
- sending 8 queens to teamate's base when he was getting gang banged
- making queens into a fearsome unit
- playing at least 2/3 game daily against Kv
- splitting up 3 dropships when getting chased by scourge
- super fast mass mutas tactic against Terran

Famous quote: I played to the best of my ability (after losing a two on two game thereby blaming the loss on poor Druggy)

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Druggy aka Wu Kui Wang (turtle king)
Race: random

Druggy started out exclusively as a micro player. He was hardly a masser. To his credit, he stuck to microing and improving his macro to the point that he was responsible for using a lot of new and effective tactics that struck fear into the hearts of fellow 419ers. Although famous for his turtle tactics, Druggy is also very adept at harassing and being offensive.

Famous games:

- Defending against Akiramike's attacks for an hour and then nuking the poor bastard.
- Successfully defending against Yc and Roc in a 2 on 1 situation
- Smart storming (mass psionic storm) against Yc and Pipboy
- Mind controlling half of Pipboy's carriers

Famous for:

- His supreme turtle tactics/slow push tactics and his 1 hours plus games
- Smart-storming
- Being the only member of 419 being able to win using psionic storms + archons
- Mind controlling dropships/carriers
- Running his lings around enemy troops and assasinating workers
- Obsession with blinding opponent's units
- Obsession with pandas
- Being the batu api ie inciting hatred and spitefulness among fellow members
- forever bickering with Avatar

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Pipboy aka CKPip (Carrier King)
Race: Toss

Pipboy is Mr. Reliable. When you type 'help' you know that he's going to be running to your base with a huge army of lots and goons or carriers.

Famous for:

- Somehow always surviving after getting gang-banged and building back to help win
- Somehow managing to get lots of carriers

Famous games: Any game that ends with lots of carriers

Famous quotes:
- Don't be so spiteful
- How now brown cow?

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AvatarStormbringer aka Cannon King aka Nuke King aka Hydra King
Race: Random

Famous for:

- cannon rush tactics ie, building cannons in his opponents base while rushing.
- winning a 2 on 2 game with just nukes.
- forever bickering with Druggy
- trashing Akiramike 3 games in a row in hunters TvZ

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John
Race: Toss
John, one of the founding members left halfway through the journey but occasionally returned

Famous for:

- Attacking his own teammates, hence the term to john also means to backstab
- Ignoring/never noticing messages for help

Famous quote: Huh? How come you're dead one? How come you didn't ask for help?

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Fish
Race: Terran

Fish loved building bunkers and was not a masser. Later, Kv started teaching him the Terran machine push. Came down to Melb last year and somehow was vastly improved.

Famous game:

- using hallucinated carriers to defeat Akiramike.
- nuking a bunch of carriers just in time after they had gotten frozen by an arbiter

Famous quotes:
- Whoever those carriers belong to, RUN! (as two groups of carriers try to avoid the impending nuke)
- I am the stud of the firm

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Psibeing
Race: Zerg/Toss

Psibeing joined us in the middle of our journey and his allegience was torn between Sc and WcIII.

Famous game: Beating Akiramike with super lings on his last game.

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Ghostroc
Race: Zerg/Toss

Roc plays Sc with a different philosophy. He uses 'surgical strikes' to attack. His objective is to harass and wear down his opponent with minimum troops and maximum micro efficiency.

Roc's rivalry with Yc over who has the best Zerg has never been resolved.

Famous for:

- Inventing the philosophy for solid and sexy for 2 on 2 games. Roc's theory is that one must mass (solid) and macro and the other must tech and micro (sexy)
- snatching victory from the jaws of defeat in a two on one situation against Druggy and Yc after Akiramike quit the game.

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Akiramike
Race: Random

Weaknesses
- jack of all trades but master of none
- can't micro even if his life depended on it
- cannot win any game that goes over 1/2 an hour
- would rather lose because his attack failed than his enemy's attack suceeding
- crap at changing strategies mid game, especally when 1st strat fails

I know I left out a lot of stuff. Most of the stuff I remember are recent so fellow 419 members pls contact me if you have anything to add or just post in the comments section.

Top 10 Japanese girlfriends pt 1

Apparently there was a survery done that asks Japanese dudes:

1) Who do you want as your girlfriend.
2) Who do you want to have sex with.

http://girls.www.infoseek.co.jp/express/summerlove2005/unq/q11.html

Apparently Japanese guys don't have sex with their gfs. Perhaps the questions should be rephrased as:

1) Who do you not mind working your ass off for and then losing half your assets when you divorce.
2) Who is worth the risk a divorce and thereby half your assets by having an affair with her?

For the benefit of my fellow sukebes, I will now go through the results for question 1:

Top 10 GF candidates as voted by Japanese:

1.矢田亜希子 - Yada Akiko

She may deserve to be in the top 10, but no.1? Yada Akiko relies heavily on make-up so the sight of her non made-up face in the morning may not be so good. No one beats Ayu in the excessive make-up department though, lol. Still her character in Yamato Nadeshiko would make a damn fine gf.

2.竹内結子 - Takeuchi Yuuko

Definitely deserves in be in the top 5. Super sweet and kawaii. Her character of Aki in Pride is every man's dream. As Haru said she is the 'furuki yori jidai no onna' or woman from last century ie not a woman who has been corrupted by too much feminist ideas. Too bad she's pregnant and married. Lucky bastard.

3.伊東美咲 - Itou Misaki

I think all the guys who voted must be influenced by Densha Otaku. Best legs in Jdorama and she has the elegence. I would think her height would put off Japanese guys. She's 171cm. That's taller than most Japanese men. She's too classy for your average guy and belongs more in the top 10 sex category.

4.山田優 - Yamada Yu

Zzzzz..... WTF? She was in Orange Days and Shiawase no Shippo? I don't even bloody remember her in the bloody shows. Too busy drooling at Shiraishi Miho and Euno Juri in Orange Days. The Japanese must know something about her I don't.

5.眞鍋かをり - Manabe Kawori

The pregnant teacher from Waterboys movie. Don't remember her from Koukou Kyoushi 2003 and Antique. WTF is she here and not Aya Euto? Is there no justice in this world? At least she's pretty cute. hhhmm. Definite GF material. Akiramike goes dig up Koukou Kyoushi 2003.

6.長谷川京子 - Hasegawa Kyoko

Yar, she's nice but have any of these guys surveyed seen how horrible she looks in Dragon Zakura? (check my Dragon Zakura review) Maybe they all have the image of her as a dental nurse from Itsumo Futari De burned into their minds.

7.安めぐみ - Yasu Megumi

Gravure idol I never heard of so no comment. Here's a nice pic of her. Hhmmm....

8.仲間由紀恵 - Nakama Yukie

WTF? Yeah she's hot but she has a crappy smile. She's so freaking boring in Tokyo Wankei. In what freaking way is she GF material besides the fact that she's hot. Hot chicks are a dime a dozen in Japan. Not even going to bother with pic.

9.安部なつみ - Abe Natsumi

Definitely deserves to be in the top 3. She is so GF material and has the girl next door attitude. Even looks kawaii when she gets angry. I guess her ranking was affected by the plagiarism scandal.

10.安田美沙子 - Yasuda Misako

Another gravure idol I never heard of. Can't be bothered to research.

This list sucks. But then, I don't live in Japan and most of exposure is through jdorama and jpop. I would think the list would have more girl-next-door type idols. As they say, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

I was doing my own top 10 list when I started having problems uploading pics to blogger. Anways, I think I'll save my list for next time or else this will end up being a super long post.

Props to the ppl at the Momusu section of jpopmusic.com for the names in romanji and stuff. Pictures were stolen from wiki.d-addicts.com, scanlover.com and Akiramike's HD.

Kanno Miho: so beautiful it hurts to look at her......

Stupid Melb weather. It always rains when its time for bball.

Anyways, spent the whole night watching Itoshi Kimi E ep 6-11 raw. Since okumasama dropped the translation I encourage fellow d-addicts to get the raw files. Most of the dialogue is pretty easy to get. As there are no seeders, I used VLC player to watch the 98% completed files. It skips at certain parts but was smooth on the whole.

Itoshi Kimi E is based loosely on the movie Gege (one of my favs). Gege was about about a man who had bechet illness coming to terms with the fact that he would soon lose his sight. (whoever said you don't learn anything from watching dramas) Itoshi Kimi E is more of a boy who just happens to have bechet meets girl story. IMO, the movie had more about accepting one's fate than this 11 ep series had.

This series is notable for two things:

1. Great songs by Naotaro Moriyama. I can't say enough about how fucking good the music is.

2. Kanno Miho

As someone said on d-addicts, Kanno Miho is so beautiful, it hurts to look at her. She's so kirei you'll wish somone could clone her so you could buy one. (hhhmmm..) She's so hot that she's worth going to war over. She's so bijin I wouldn't mind watching a two hour movie of her just talking. Plus, she's got a really sweet voice. Not the forced anime-like voice that more and more actresses seem to be doing. (maybe that's just a side effect of watching too much anime. Girls end up talking like anime characters)

She looks so delicious.... I mean the rice looks delicious.

Another shot of the lovely Kanno Miho with the lucky bastard who got to get it on with Aya Euto in Koukou Kyoushi 2003. Damn, these screen captures don't do Kanno Miho any justice....

Misaki Itoh doing the kawaii pout before she bitch-slaps some poor guy senseless. Her acting has little depth and she should stick to doing supporting character stuff. (Except for comedies like Densha Otoko but I'll get around to reviewing that one later) Acting aside, she's very pleasing to the eyes and has the best legs in Jdorama-land.

Kurotani Tomoka. Probably most known to Jdorama fans as Enzo's ex from Hotman. Her character used to be engaged to our main character. Hhmm, what's the use of getting a hot looking girl when you're blind and can't see her beauty yourself?

Kurotani Tomoka and Kanno Miho face off. Why can't jdoramas follow wrestling and have a girl on girl fight where the objective is to strip the opponent down to their underwear? And secondly, wtf did they have to make Kanno Miho a doctor instead of a nurse? Imagine Kanno in a nurse outfit. Drool............. (Akiramike goes of in search of Kanno Miho as a nurse dorama)

Screencap of random nurse. Does Japan have hot young nurses in their hospitals or is it something that exists in doramas and Avs only? No, I don't have an unhealthy obsession with nurses. I just think its a noble profession that young, beautiful women should get into.

So how good is this Itoshi Kimi E? Since I've watched Gege, comparisons are inevitable. The acting is not as good and the first half is really slow. The pace picks up in the 2nd half and I couldn't stop watching, not even when I finished downloading H2 ep 10. The drama takes a different road from the movie and uses the usual plot devices to make it interesting. I feel its too melodramatic and the writer(s) seem to fear treading the same ground as the movie. My expectations were too high but I'll still give it a good rating for obvious reasons.

In short, girls will enjoy the melodrama and sukebes will just have to content themselves with drooling over Kanno Miho + Misaki Itoh and the music saves it from being a merely watchable dorama.

Extra sukebe info: Kanno Miho did a nude photobook when she was twenty. No I'm not going to tell you where to get it. Just google.

Jdorama review: Dragon Sakura ep 1

Man, has this been a slow week for jdoramas. Anyways lets get right down to Dragon Zakura.

GTO, the fish out of water tale of a former biker gang member who became a teacher if IMHO, one of the best doramas ever. Since then, I've seen two similar type doramas being Salaryman Kintaro (biker turned Salaryman) and Gokusen (yakuza turned teacher). Kintaro is pretty good with minor flaws while I found Gokusen being funny in the 1st half of the eps but boring in 2nd halves.

Now comes Dragon Zakura, starring one of my fav actors Abe Hiroshi as Sakuragi Kenji, a former biker gang member turned jobless lawyer turned teacher. My enthusiasm for this series is also due to my similarities with the character. No, I was not in a biker gang. I'm talking about good looks and being unemployed lawyers.

The basic plot of the series is that he has to save this 'baka-school' from bankruptcy by getting 5 students into Todai (Tokyo Uni). Finally, A school drama about teaching. After all, wtf did GTO and Yankumi actually teach? On a side note, I didn't know lawyers in Japan get some sort of badge so that ppl knew they lawyers. They must really look up to their lawyers since they call them sensei as well. If I went to Japan, would all the cute girls have to address me as Akiramike-sensei? hhhmmm.....

Hasegawa Kyoko from Staa No Koi and the nurse from Itsumo Futari De stars as the lone hot female teacher who is against Sakuragi Kenji but of course come to her senses later. Unfortunately, as can be seen from the picture below, she does not look as hot as in her other dramas.

Someone from TBS change her hairstyle back pls and reduce the freaking make-up. Only 4 eps have aired in Japan so there's still time. She was so cute in Staa no Koi and hot in Itsumo Futari de. (ok, maybe the nurse uniform had a lot to do with hot)

Here's the main girl played by Nagasawa Masami. I wonder what intentions does our hero have, paying her 10,000 yen just to stand. I'm sure my fellow sukebes have plenty of ideas. You just have to watch to find out.

I see hot chicks. Ok, she's not that hot. It can't be helped that since the school is a baka school, all the girls have to have super heavy makeup and look slutty.

This is your typical best friend of main actress character. If only the chicks in this show were cuter.

Damn, how come I never did this type of stuff in high school? How can they glorify this type of acts on prime time national tv? Will there be an increase of skirt-flipping in Japanese high schools after this? Me, I'm just hoping to see a pantsu shot soon. :)

On the whole ep 1 is ok. The visual appeal from the female cast is lacking, especially compared with H2. GTO is THE high school dorama that every other high school dorama not in the Kinpachi sensei style will be compared to. I'd be happy if Dragon Zakura turned out to be a watchable series but Abe Hiroshi is a good actor so fingers crossed.

Props to pbfansubs for subbing ep 1.

Fellowship of 419 part 6: Enter Starcraft

The picture on the left belong to Tossgirl, a Terran player. She can kick my ass any time in SC.

Note: Names may have been changed to protect the innocent who do not want their parents to know they spent their whole uni life playing Starcraft.

I had been a long time fan of fighting games. The appeal to me are that fighting games are like janken/paper-scissors-rock combined with chess. To win, one needs mind games + execution + strategy + reflexes.

I really went fighting game crazy when Street Fighter II finally landed on Megadrive. I spent tons of hours on the game with NiGHTs and Nick. Then came King of Fighters 94 and KTS got into it as well. Years later, I came to Melb and met Ben who became my sensei in KOF97 and spent lots of coins at the uni arcade. After that I met Elvis and KTS came to Melb. The four of us spent at least one night a week playing KOF for over 2 years.

What does all this have to do with Starcraft (SC)? When I went back home in end of 98, my friends were crazy about SC and were eagerly awaiting the expansion pack Brood War. I didn't bother with the game then. I had played Command and Conquer against KTS before (when M'sia had flat rate phone connections) and to me it was all about building as many tanks as possible and rushing. The big RTS (real-time-strategy) b4 SC, Total Annihilation did not impress me.

Kv was a big fan of this RTS game called Starcraft, having learned the game from his friend Roger and was playing on bnet. What impressed me was that Kv said that nothing in SC was 'tian sia wu di' (invincible in heaven and earth). That everything in the game had a counter and it was up to reflexes and planning. This intrigued me because it was exactly what I enjoyed about fighting games. Furthermore, he said that the 3 races were very different but balanced. The only one thing I didn't enjoy about Sc were the long battles.

I remember the first time I played SC. It was at a cybercafe next to Charlton's. I had no idea how to play and the only thing I remember was him telling me to build seige tanks. I don't remember much about the beginning of 419's obsession with SC.

I remember Kv teaching us basic build orders and the marines+medics+tanks push. If I'm not mistaken me, NiGHTs, Yc and John can be considered students of Kv. Druggy,Pipboy and AvatarStormbringer were already familiar with the game.

We played lots of 3 on 3s or 4 on 4s because we only knew the basics and it was the best way to learn the game while having fun. Mostly, it involved tons of rushing and teching to invisible units. We learned how to protect ourselves from rushes by 2 armies and got very familiar with early Starcraft game. We would play 3/4 games of Sc and then switch to 1 hour of CS.

Later I got to know Fish who turned not only played b-ball but was also a SC player! Then Psibeing joined the fellowship of 419 and Avatar moved into 419. 419 then acquired broadband and had 6 computers on lan. Pipboy also had 3 computers at his place.

That was the golden period of SC in 419. Everyday, there would be 1 on 1 or 2 on 2 Sc battles to happening. Yc got for us cheap original Sc cds from China and we went on bnet. We had enough ppl that we could swap teams when playing 2 on 2 or 3 on 3s. Members living outside 419 would stop by to have games or watch the latest replays. We'd spend countless hours discussing strategies and tactics. We'd watch replays of Korean pros and try to learn their stuff. For years, we ate, breathed and lived Sc.

Starcraft is truly the greatest RTS of all time. I mean they even broadcast Sc matches on Korean tv and pros there thrive on winnings and sponsorships. The game has such a high learning curve because there are so many variables and despite having so many variables and 3 very distinct races, the game is super balanced. Even when we started SC way back in 2001 the game was still on version 1.06 or something like that. Sc is a visually exciting game to watch because its like watching a chess game with more action. You can see what the competitors are going for and predict the outcome of skirmishes. Korean Sc leagues are still going and this year at the world Cyber Games in Singapore they're still playing Sc.

Down the line Ghostroc became the last member to join the fellowship. Unfortunately, all good things must come to and end so at the end of 2003/early 2004 Kv, NiGHTs, Psibeing, Fish and Avatar left Melbourne. The fellowship still continued and we played a lot of 1 on 1s and 2 on 2s. Pipboy left middle of 2004 and and Druggy just left, signalling the breaking of the fellowship.

I'm writing the chronicles of 419 not to mourn its loss but to celebrate the brotherhood and good times that can never again be achieved. May we all meet on bnet again someday.

Coming soon: scandalous SC profiles of 419 members. What dark and terrible secrets will Akiramike reveal?

K movie review: Innocent Steps

Another Korean Dancing movie. Had a crappy IMDB rating. But then, it was starring Geun-Yeong Mun from My Little Bride, which was a watchable film. Plus the fact she has a lolita look unlike all other Kmovie actresses who all look the same with their long hair and model faces. (No, I'm not a lolicon. I just find her very kawaii and her acting really good)

She plays a Chinese dancer who's been paid to come to Korea to be the main dude's new dance partner. However, to stay in Korea she and the main dude have to get married. Sounds pretty good, doesn't it?

Unfortunately, this movie sucks. There are parts that are pretty good but they don't come together well. This is a movie that can't decide whether it wants to be a cheesy romantic comedy, romance movie, serious drama or semi tragedy. Some of the comedic parts are funny, some are over-cheesy and the subplot of the fake marriage inspectors is done so half-assed. Its like the producers of the movie got decided that the best way to make money was to incorporate all the elements into one but had no idea how to mix it well.

As the result, the movie is super uneven and I ended up fast forwarding the last quarter. Sigh, this is going to be my last Korean movie for a while.

The only reason for my fellow sukebe's to get this movie is Geun-Yeong Mun. She's super kawaii and plays her character like a village girl who speaks archaic and super polite Korean, kinda reminds me of Cecelia Cheung's character from Failan. (now that was a good movie)

This is the cheesy romantic comedy part of the movie. For some reason they are playing some quiz about which book is about filial piety and she chooses Karmasutra. It would have been funny if she had pressed on asking wtf Karmasutra was about.


Another funny scene where she thinks she has to 'get it on' with the dude. Damn, she was hot in this scene.

Contrast all the cheesy comedy with Geun-Yeong Mun getting slapped around. Women getting beat around do not belong in a comedy. Not the mention the serious notion that she's basically trapped like a prostitute who has to dance to pay off the people who smuggled her in.

Another super cheesy scene of her lyp-synching Yue Lai Xiang (Fragrance of the moon).

Korean movie review: A Bittersweet Life

Minor Spoilers: Beware. or just scroll down for the good stuff.


Just finish watching 'A Bittersweet Life'. Its about an enforcer who works for his mob boss. Anyways, one day the enforcer's boss tells him to watch over his woman, played by Shin Min-A (the hot chick from Volcano High) . The boss suspects that his woman is cheating on him and orders his enforcer to kill her and the guy when he confirms it.

Of course anyone with half a brain can guess what's going to happen. Yup, the bloody enforcer decides to spare her life and the life of her bf. The boss finds out about it and then for some reason decides to have his enforcer tortured and killed.

Hello, Mob boss? Your enforcer just didn't kill your hot girl. He didn't screw her behind your back. I can't imagine what the boss would have done to our hero if he did actually screw her.

Of course, the enforcer dude escapes and goes for revenge. Sounds ok so far but the main problem with the movie is that it has almost so little character development. The enforcer is suppose to be some stoic fella who never smiles and has been with the mob for the past seven years. The only thing we learn is that he used to be a bodyguard.

That's it? Wtf did he join the mob anyway? How come he quit the bodyguard business? Wtf is with his super serious character?

He supposedly falls in love with Shin Min-A's character but how do they show it? By 1st person views of him perving at her bare shoulders. That's called lust Mr. Enforcer. You work for the mob and run a hotel. You get to perv at hot women everyday. News flash for you - guys perv at any hot chick they can lay their eyes on. It doesn't mean we have to risk our lives for them.

An extra 20 minutes on some character development would have done wonders for this film. Sure, its beautifully shot and directed by the story is too slow in some parts and character pieces are really missing.

If you like your action movies lacking in explanations and character development, this is the movie for you. For me, I think its going to be a long time before Korea makes an action movie to match the greatness of Musa.

Is this the face of a woman worth disobeying your boss, get tortured, have your left hand crushed, get buried alive and risking your life fighting the whole mob by yourself? IMHO, She looked much better with a ponytail in Volcano High though.

Hhhhmmm, Shin Min-A's nice ass. Wait, I think I can see her pantsu! Feel free to click on the image for a bigger version. The highlight of the movie for me. :) They should cut down on the violence in the movie and put in more shots like these.......

Yes director/cinematographer, I can see she's got a fucking hot body with a nice ass and perky set of tits. Couldn't you have put her in the movie for more than 20 freaking minutes out of 2 hours?

Kisah Benar/ True Story pts 2 and 3

Disclaimer: to protect the innocent, the names of the characters may have been changed. Akiramike has a hazy memory so some details may have been left out or altered. Some things may have been exagerrated for story-telling purposes.

This is the sequel to 1st part which can be found here: http://hamsapsukebe.blogspot.com/2005/07/true-story-kisah-benar.html

PART 2

Unlike pt 1, the main protagonist for this story has changed. Since then, the girl has not appeared. Maybe she read my blog and knew that we knew she was stalking KTS. However we can't know for certain that she knows we know because what we know may not be true and so she can't possibly know that we know something that may not be true.

The main protagonist for pts 2 and 3 is a friend by the name of Ken and the whole thing started two days ago, one sunny Friday afternoon. Ken was playing ball at the same court as part 1 when 3 girls appeared on the scene.

Somehow, the appearance of the 3 girls seemed to energize Ken and he played like a man possessed. He was driving to the hoop at will, swishing his mid range 3 pointed and performing acrobatic lay-ups. The girls at this point were having some kind of sprinting competition, except for the girl in the light blue sweater who Ken thought was the cutest.

Somewhere in the afternoon, they ended up borrowing Akiramike's ball and were playing with it on the other court. I think my ball must have been been very happy that day. But no, Ken had to be a bastard and ask them to play with his ball instead.

Everytime the ball bounced to the girls direction, Ken would slowly walk to the other court to pick up the ball and take his time to come back. I shall call this the Ken-pick-up-girl-technique-no-1 or kentech1.

By now, it was pretty obvious to us that Ken was enamoured by girl no 3 as we called her. When they had finished playing Ken's ball, they returned it to him with a thank you. Unfortunately, Exploding Head spoiled Ken's fun by shouting at the girls ' Why don't you thank him by giving him a kiss.'

The embarressed girls giggled and walked to the water fountain for a drink. Undettered, Ken made the decision to approach them but alas, the girls quickly walked off after having a drink.

PART 3

The weather today was good. I was waiting for Dragon Zakura ep 1 to finish downloading and I was too lazy to cook, so I decided to see if anyone was there. Quite a lot of the usual ppl were there and then Ken showed up as well and we called KTS.

So anyway, my team lost and we were sitting at the sidelines when KTS showed up.

KTS: Hey, I think I saw two girls walking around with a basketball.

Akiramike: Where, I don't see any.

KTS: Over there, playing on the swings. Aren't those the same girl as last time? And this time, they brought a basketball with them.

Unfortunately for Ken, girl no 3 was not with them but he got fired up and played more agressively. Maybe due to girl no 3's absence, he lost his mid range touch. The other side of the court was preoccupied so they girls had to content themselves with playing with their own ball on the footpaths.

The sky grew dark and most people left. The girls started playing on the other court. We were playing 3 on 3 at this time and Ken began using kentech1 at least 4/5 times. Later only, me, KTS, Ken and Randy were left. Ken was desperate. Where was his girl no 3?

Ken was undecided on what to do. We counseled Ken that the girls were here for him. After all, they had heard Exploding Head's remark the other day and had even come with their own ball. After much deliberation, Ken decided to ask the girls if they wanted to play a little 3 on 3, and they accepted. We introduced ourselves and under the pale street light Akiramike noticed one of them was pretty cute. Anyways the game was one.

We tried to run plays for them and they managed to score quite a few baskets. They were very sporting and aggressive as well to the point of fouling hard. I think Randy got hit on the face on a drive. It was pretty dark but I was impressed that they managed to catch passes. One of them even managed to steal Ken's ball. Alas for poor Ken, he seemed to have lost his touch and could not score in the final game.

We bid them goodbye and Ken was happy to have found the names of no 3's friends. He vowed to find out no 3's name next time.

However, KTS and I came out with a hypothesis. Most girls don't have a basketball lying around. Most likely they would borrow it from their boyfriend. No 3 did not come along so we deduced that the ball probably belonged to no 3's boyfriend and that they had probably gone out. Ken's heart was shattered but he did not give up hope. Our hypothesis had a large probability but it wasn't absolute.

Will no 3 play with Ken's ball again? Will he ever learn her name. Find out the next exciting chapter of Kisah Benar, same blog and same address.

Drama Aoiiro

Added Drama Aoiiro to my links. Its a drama blog about jdramas. I would have missed out on Dragon Zakura if not for it. A review of ep 1 will be forthcoming.

5 reason to watch Ai Nante Iraneeyo

1. Hirosue Ryoko doing her 'pursed lips looking for away' look.


2. Hirosue Ryoko's pleading eyes look which no man can resist.

What I enjoyed about this drama is that they didn't do the usual throw the whole kitchen sink at her and make Ako a super pitiful character.


3. Hirosue Ryoko using a walking cane as a weapon. Beware of cute blind chicks as they know walking cane-fu.


4. Hirosue Ryoko's neko like smile. *sigh*


5. No I am not obsessed with Hirosue Ryoko. I just think she's the best Japanese actress out there. She's not photogenic, so the pics don't do her justice but she looks great on the small screen.

Yeah there are other chicks in the drama but they pale to you know who. I was going to take screenshots of them but I decided they are not worthy of my blog. Special thanks to nightwind for uploading the drama for everyone.

For those looking for the theme song, Life by Ayako Ikeda, go to:
http://id227.com/bbs/view.php?id=music&page=1&page_num=20&select_arrange=hit&desc=&sn=off&ss=on&sc=on&keyword=&category=&no=45

Fellowship of 419 - ep 5: You Jump, I Jump

In honour of Druggy who is leaving for his homeland today, I shall recount the CS tale that shall be forever be associated with his honesty, integrity and sense of fair play. Sayonara Druggy, may we meet again on bnet and may you dream about Miri Hanai every night, hehe.

Our story begins one night at our usual cyber cafe. We were playing either 2 on 2 or 3 on 3 on the map glassfloor. Anyway, it was a small map shaped liked an 'S' with two levels of glass as the floor. The two levels of glass floor were easy to break and the fun was making your opponent fall to their death.



However, there were support beams beneath the glass that were much harder to break down and the trick was to make sure you were walking on the support beams. There were various strategies from glass floor including breaking down to the bottom layer and rushing from the bottom level and shooting your opponent from below.

In one game, only Yc and Druggy were left. Only problem was that both had completely destroyed the main corridor (right corridor of above picture). Both levels of glass and support were gone so there was no way to get to the other side.

If I remember correctly, (my memory sucks nowadays, sigh, old age) both had run out of bullets for their main guns and only had their handguns left. I think both had no clear sight of each other and couldn't shoot each other.

Anyways, I suggested that this was a waste of time and they should both jump down to their deaths while shooting each other. The one who dies later wins. Both agreed. I think it was Druggy who said the immortal words 'I jump, u jump'. I began the count....

1...

2...

3...

Jump!

What Yc saw as he jumped down to his death was Druggy looking down at him from above, laughing. Yc unleashed some futile shots before his body was torn to pieces by the giant fan below. Now, whenever Druggy declared that he was an honest person, we would just say the simple words; I jump, you jump.

To be fair to Druggy, I shall also tell of YC's tale of treachery. We were playing a new map with a swimming pool in the middle. Pipboy and I were playing terrorists and there was a bomb on the map. However, we could not find the bomb site.

Yc said that the bomb site was next to the swimming pool. We ceased fire and Pipboy, carrying the bomb was looking around the swimming pool.

Pipboy: Can't find no freaking bomb site.

Akiramike: You sure there's a bomb site here? (looking around the pool as well)

Yc: Yes, definitely.

Next thing you know, Yc ripped through both of us with his carbine, laughing manically like only Yc can. Maybe Yc's evil personality can be traced to the You Jump, I Jump incident. Maybe he was already a treacherous bastard to begin with. After all, he had betrayed his own country. (inside joke based on true facts) So the lesson of these two stories, boys and girls is that friendship, honesty and fair-play counts for nothing in CS.