Galileo

Japanese title: ガリレオ
Number of episodes: 10

Some info:
1) D-Addicts Wiki
2) Official Site (Japanese)

This is one “truly amusing” drama. Why do I put the words within quotations? That’s cos I’m just using one of the guy’s favourite lines in the show. Lol. There was much discussion about this drama when it aired, and it’s well-received, judging from what I see on forum discussions. And I can see why it is so after watching it.

Though this drama has a huge (hey, it has to be put in a separate wiki article for guest stars) number of guest stars throughout the series, I think it’s not the main point as to why it’s popular. While many of the guests are well-known stars (even I can at least recognise them by face), it takes more than just stars to make a show popular and high viewership (average of 22%). This show incorporates quite a bit of science to solve certain strange occurrences and “phenomenons” and the way it is done is interesting and not often seen in many other mystery shows (or at least the ones I’ve seen).

The duo (see picture), played by Fukuyama Masaharu and Shibasaki Kou, have quite a good chemistry on-screen, probably due to the nature of the characters they play. Fukuyama plays Yukawa (nicknamed Galileo), an A/P in a university who helps Utsumi (played by Shibasaki) solve various cases by helping to figure out the scientific rationale behind the strange occurrences. While it seems nothing peculiar, the Prof always behave in a super logical/rational way and says things straight to people’s face but the detective usually bases things on “intuition” and jumps to conclusion “illogically”. I guess have to see it to get a better idea of what I mean by their chemistry. Lol, I’m just bad at describing, ain’t I.

Some explanations are quite interesting, while sometimes it may seem a little coincidental/lucky that certain clues are left behind for them to pick up and hence being able to deduce out a logical (scientific) solution to what has actually happened. Most of the concepts aren’t too difficult to understand (to cater to the masses I suppose) so it’s actually quite fun to see them being incorporated into solving crimes. Haha. Just like the way Yukawa explains stuff and the way he talks, heh. Well, I guess the highlight in every case is when Yukawa gains “enlightenment” and starts scribbling various formulae and equations (which I’m lazy to pause and analyse) to figure things out once and for all, and then keeps the viewers in suspense until he decides to give a full explanation on what has happened etc. The editing for this part is pretty neatly done with its effects and stuff, haha.

The theme song is mainly sung by Shibasaki, with Fukuyama contributing his vocals in the chorus part (though you still don’t hear that much). Pretty interesting song I must say, haha, seeing how the karaoke is done.

Well, the ending isn’t exactly the best, but it’s possible to have SPs on this one if the producers manage to come up with some nice, original ideas/cases to showcase. It’s kinda sad that the show ended liao, since I kind of like the way cases are solved even though sometimes it’s not all that impressive. Haha, oh well, all good things have to come to an end anyway. On to my next show!

Finally No School~

Yay, for the first time on a weekday during this “recess” week, I do not need to go to school. Well actually there’s still the java “intensive” course today, but I was told yesterday that there will be no new material given out, so I can’t be bothered anymore. Haha, anyways I did attempt 6/9 questions though not all 6 are correct. Lalala, the other 3 I’m kinda lost as to how to work on it so I guess I’ll wait for the solutions :P

Oh well, at least I know I can cope with simpler problems much easier after the past 3 days. Thanks to Dom for guiding me on many, many occasions, spotting errors that I didn’t realise at all. Haha. Probably learnt more from his teaching than the tutor has taught, since the sessions were more of a self-coding exercise, but can easily ask for help face-to-face when in doubt. Oh wells, I find asking peers easier though, so end up never really “utilise” the tutor much also. =X Nonetheless, I guess this short “intensive” course is somewhat helpful, since I have learnt some things that I wouldn’t have even if I were given the same questions, but I’m at home instead. Lolx…

Yeah well, I think I’m not gonna touch java for the rest of the week liao. I’m supposed to study for my midterms next week but of course, being me, I haven’t started yet. Heh, and of course, clearing assignments/tutorials that are due next week too. I really need to get started manz. Oh well, I think things should somehow work out bah. Hic.

I think that’s all for today. Don’t wanna bore you guys with more crappy talk. See ya around. A new post every day~~

p.s. Wow, ken, you’re right. My visits ytd boomed like crazy. Highest daily record stands at 190 now. My gosh, 190 leh… see how the next few days fare.. Hehz.

Jumper

Rating: PG (Action Violence)
Duration: 88 Minutes
Opens: 14 February 2008, Now Showing

Some info:
1) Wiki
2) Official Site (English)
3) IMDB Profile
4) Movie Mistakes entry

I was actually late for this movie due to unforeseen circumstances, and it’s not very nice being late for a movie that isn’t very long to begin with. Oh wells, I probably missed the part where the main lead first found out that he could teleport, and the departure of his mother. Hehz, I’ll probably find some way to find out what I missed in the future bah. Hic.

The summary of this movie can be found at wiki. It’s not really that much actually. But I guess the fun is watching the teleportation, rather than reading the story summary in text. The effects were mostly quite neatly done though everyone knows it’s all special effects. Haha.

For a movie that has so much jumping around and teleporting, there isn’t actually many very gross continuity errors that I would expect since I think they will want to film everything in a particular place first (especially if overseas) before moving on to the next one. So yeah, without proper planning, it’s sure to have lots of glaring errors. Or maybe I haven’t stared at it hard enough, or people haven’t gone digging out every nitty gritty thing over @ MovieMistakes.

According to the wiki article, this movie is actually being planned as a trilogy. Well, that explains the not very conclusive ending that left a lot of things unexplained (like how an ordinary dad with a paladin mom gives a jumper son). Didn’t stay all the way to the end of the credits to see if I’ve missed anything or not. Hehz. Probably isn’t all that crucial (hopefully). Shall see if there’s a sequel (or two) or not. Only time will tell (too lazy to research properly lah).

Not sure if missing the front bit makes a significant difference, but this movie doesn’t seem to impress me as much as I thought it would have. My take: 6/10.

p.s. something not very related to the review: i didn’t recognise the actor until i saw his name and thought it’s that star wars anakin dude in episode I-III. haha… sorry lah…

p.p.s. there’s 1 guy in the cinema whose laughter is super irritating and annoying, and he has to laugh at every small little thing. Zzzzzz….

L: Change the World

Rating: PG
Running time: 128 minutes
Opens: 21 February 2008, Now Showing

Some info:
1) ANN
2) Wiki
3) Official Site (Japanese)
4) EncoreFilms Site (English)

Ok, this is actually a spinoff from the 2nd live-action movie. But since the live-action movies have already changed the original story somewhat, perhaps spin-off is a bit of a strong word to use. Oh wells, but I won’t deny it’s a golden opportunity for the production team to try to earn some big bucks out of this movie series based on a very popular manga/anime.

For one, I’m quite surprised that Singapore is screening this not too long (approx 2 weeks) after it premiered in Japan. Normally, it’d be something from a month to “long enough for DVDs to hit Japan stores”. Perhaps they’ve realised the “demand” here isn’t as low as expected, or maybe…. ah whatever. Can watch good liao.

Right, enough of pre-review talk. Now on to the main topic. Objectively speaking, from the start I knew that this story isn’t going to be exciting as the Light vs L story arc since there’s not that much of a battle of wits and stuff to begin with. It’s more to sum up L’s remaining lifespan as left off from the 2nd Live-Action movie, which already deviated quite A LOT from the manga storyline. So, viewers should treat this movie fairly and not compare to the original story. Of course, if you were to do that, it obviously is going to be very bad.

ANYWAY, if you even bother to find out a little bit about the movie, you’ll roughly know about the storyline of this spinoff. L tries to deal with 1 final big case before his fated 23 days are up, but in actual fact, he doesn’t really tackle this case in 23 days, since the first few remaining days he spends his time helping various law enforcers around the world in solving some tricky/difficult tasks. Ah well, I’m sure all those people are going to miss him. Lol… The main issue at hand this time is the discovery of a deadly virus, which is potentially going to be use as a bioweapon (hmm, terror-related stuff is quite “hot” these days), and some extremist group (with K involved) intends to use it to “purify” the world by killing the “excess” people who are destroying the ecosystem of mother Earth.

There also 2 kids involved, who each play their important role, especially the one who eventually named to be “Near” by the soon-to-die L. Near in this movie possesses a keen grasp of mathematical concepts, and seem to have a good memory for remembering a long string of numbers to call L’s organisation (I can only remember it starts with 010 and has a 217 in the later half. Lol). Yah, for more details on what roles those kids play, just watch the movie bah. Hic.

Hmm, though the case solving doesn’t seem as exciting as Light’s witty battle, there are also quite a number of funny scenes along the way in the show, and also some basic code breaking/representation bah. I guess the codes aren’t made that hard so that the viewers can understand what’s going on, instead of going “huh? what?”. Haha. But aiyah, I didn’t get a good look at the Circles question which contains an important clue to the antidote content, and apparently is quite difficult to solve since even the genius Near took more than a day to solve! Gosh =P Anyway the funny scenes, are indeed quite funny (like DUH), and Mastuyama Kenichi’s acting of L is indeed very well done. Must have spent a lot of effort to undertake the role so well, oh and also the language lessons to speak in a few European languages and also English. Though I wouldn’t say his English pronunciation is fantastic, it’s quite good liaoz for an average Japanese (irl la).

Ok, now for some JH observations and comments about the show (may not be in order of movie sequence).
1) How did the FBI agent enter L’s premises? FBI is sure resourceful huh, or maybe K and gang’s entrance totally triggered off, giving the FBI agent free roam?
2) I don’t know what type of video conferencing K & L used when they conversed, but L is able to zoom in quite a lot to observe the reflection in the mirror, which is rather small in the video footage. Maybe it’s a full HD video conferencing. Wonderful network in Japan eh?
3) The medical facility which K and Prof Nikaido worked in seems quite weird, the security aspects at least. It’s like so easy to just destroy a lab siah, seeing how K just used a quick fingerprint check and press 1 destroy button. Oh, hate the last scene when Nikaido suddenly pop ups with his erm, unsightly look. Reminds me of a zombie-type movie. Lol.
4) Apparently the virus which attacks sugar as its “energy source” doesn’t seem to affect L 1 bit even though L loves all the sweet and sugar stuff. The power of the Death Note is indeed great. Once your death has been decided, nothing else can take your life away first? Hahaha.
5) Apparently the people on the plane didn’t really die from the virus yet. Perhaps ALL (for those who appear to have died in agony) of them happen to lose consciousness only since the antidote still works and can revive them! Unless you’re telling me the antidote has 起死回生 effect, cos I see the baddies (who apparently have a severe onset of the virus) being escorted off, awake and walking, by the police force.
6) There’s cameo appearances by Misa, Light at the start of the movie, and incidentally in the credits, Light’s name is last on the special thanks list for “old characters”. How can such an important character be ranked last. Lol…
7) F’s code phrase for the boy to speak to Watari (or in the movie, L who answered the phone) is F1225, and L interpreted as a gift from F. Hence, I deduce that 1225 stands for X’mas, and is used to denote a “X’mas gift”. Lol… Just my own deduction though. But it makes sense!=P

All right, enough of observations. As to why I stayed for the credits is because there’s a -really short- ending note that L died peacefully at the very end for about 3 seconds? Hahaha, those who can’t be bothered can just skip it. You’re not missing out much. =D

Though it’s not as exciting as the original Death Note story, one has to be objective about this movie when watching it. It still has its merits and all, especially the funny scenes. Haha… it still has its entertainment value, but die-hard fans of Death Note should probably stay away from this one. Lawl~

My take: 6.5/10.

p.s. I don’t think there’ll be a spinoff involving Near. That’ll really be pushing it to attract people to watch, since it’ll really, really be totally a detective crime-fighting movie liaoz, with hardly reference to Death Note… Haha. Oh, and sorry for the long entry. =P

Intense Day…

…or it was supposed to be so, considering the java lessons in the morning should have been very intensive, or so I got the impression prior to the recess week. Yah indeed it’s quite intense lah, considering we’re supposed to finish all the questions in the 2 hours but I could only manage 2 out of 3, and 1 requiring much guidance from Dom. Heh, I guess these lessons kinda force me to do some form of coding, even if the questions are not difficult (I only managed to finish the 1 star questions, aka the easiest ones). Lol.

Judging from the “header” of the question paper given out, looks like over the next few days, the questions will only get harder and harder. Bleah, I wonder how many question(s) I can solve in the subsequent days. But ok lah, the lessons weren’t as “bad” as I had imagined, since it’s supposed to be meant for students who got 5 and below (though you can still opt out or in even if you are/not in the affected group). We were mostly left to work by ourselves though. Heh.

Well, since it seems that not many of my friends are interested in catching L’s spinoff movie, I went to watch alone after lunch @ NUS. Wow, Biz canteen is even more crowded on some days during term time siah. Very scary. I guess too many students have projects and group work to clear during this so-called “break”. Haha. Of course I think got some people go school study for midterms or something. Wells, I would have preferred a quieter and less busy canteen though. Can enjoy better bah. Haha.

Yeah well, to head over to AMK hub from faraway land NUS, had to take 151 to Bukit Timah and switch bus. Well, maybe I abit “suaku”, but today’s 151 is different from the usual 151s. No lah, not the Music Bus, I not that suaku. I think it’s supposed to be a 1-decker version of the bus that caters to handicapped people (like those wheel-chaired). Well, I’ve seen quite a number of the double decker ones (service 21 lor…) but it’s the first time I’ve seen one for 151. Though it’s good to cater to the less fortunate, I do have a couple of complaints about the bus:

1) The bus looks bigger, probably due to the framework design of the bus, but the interior like seats and all, dun seem really that big. Well of course, there’s a bigger space for wheel chairs (think max of 2?) to fit, but seats wise, it’s the usual space, with more bus space taken up for dunno what use. Maybe, the bus is supposed to be eco-friendly as well, then maybe those “extra space taken up” are for the eco engines? Hopefully, such buses wont be put into use during the really crazy peak hours for students to chiong to sch (or chiong home). The space in there isn’t a lot.
2) The number display is somewhat different. Usually for buses with digital-ised display, the number is on the LEFT (from POV of ppl @ bus stop) and maybe a place/end destination description on the RIGHT. Well, this bus seems to be have done the OPPOSITE of the usual convention for Singapore buses. It’s not just me who can’t really get used to the new type of numbering as along the way (kinda short journey also and offpeak hour), can see many people at the bus stop quite last minute then flag for the bus, when they appear to be looking at the right direction all along. I guess it really takes people extra time to take note of something that is different from normal convention. Haha.

Hurhur, somehow this entry just blew into quite a long one. Anyway, the bulk of the rest of the day was spent watching 2 movies, namely L: Change the World and Jumper. So yeap, you can expect some JH movie reviews over the next 2 days. As to which movie I’ll post up first, I don’t know yet. Maybe you guys could take a vote or something. Haha…

p.s. last week was the highest gross week for blog visits since the birth of this infant blog, and the highest daily hits day (so far) was also part of the week. Doubt it’s gonna break the monthly high though. February is still disadvantaged even with the help of the leap. Lols.