Kwak Jae-Yong's Cyborg She / My Girlfriend Is A Cyborg 僕の彼女はサイボーグ starring Haruka Ayase

I'm not sure what is the actual title of this film. Some articles call it MY GIRLFRIEND IS A CYBORG (a literal translation of its Japanese title), while Wikipedia called it 'CYBORG SHE', prefer the former, it's catchier.

This film is directed by Kwak Jae-Yong, the Korean director of MY SASSY GIRL. It was said that this will be the last film of his 'Sassy Girl trilogy', after MY SASSY GIRL, WINDSTRUCK.

MY SASSY GAL is widely considered a classic Korean romantic comedy, and (deservingly) made a huge international star out of Jun Ji-hyun, although I personally thought that Cha Tae-hyun's performance was a little underappreciated. It's one of my personal favourite Korean films, I've also seen Kwak Jae-Yong's subsequent films, THE CLASSIC and WINDSTRUCK. THE CLASSIC was a decent pure tragic tearjerker, while WINDSTRUCK was a mild disappointment, because it felt too obvious that he was trying to recapture the magic in MY SASSY GAL. By doing that, I felt that he was recycling his old tricks, instead bringing in something new. After all, Park Chan-Wook's films from his REVENGE TRILOGY are pretty different from one another, why can't Kwak Jae-Yong do the same?

THE ELEPHANT AND THE SEA Showing at Cathay Cineleisure on 21/8/2008!

Heya all, after winning a couple of cool awards at important film festivals last year, THE ELEPHANT AND THE SEA, directed by Woo Ming Jin, will be screening EXCLUSIVELY at CATHAY CINELEISURE MALL on the 21st of August, 2008 (You can read about Ming Jin the Mentor's blog post about his adventures at the 25th Torino Film Festival where the film became the first Malaysia film in history to win itself a Special Jury Award at the festival! Or you can read about what I did at the Elephant and the Sea screening at the Santiago Film Festival in Chile last August)

I hopped aboard as the co-producer of the film after joining GREENLIGHT PICTURES last year, and was involved mainly in the postproduction of the project, and securing its Malaysian theatrical release (countless visits at the Censorship Board in Putrajaya)

Faithful Dog Hachiko does exist!

This post will reflect my sheer ignorance.

Quick thoughts on the Spring 2008 Japanese doramas I'm watching now

Since scoring myself a free television last month, I've been watching the Japanese doramas every night even though there aren't subtitles and I struggle at most times to understand the language. But hey, thanks to the fact that the performances in most doramas are really... 'expressive', I can just read their faces and body language and deduce what's going on.

So, here are some brief thoughts on the doramas that have been airing the past few weeks. (I'll borrow the synopses from Tokyograph's Spring J-dorama preview)

Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon 三國之見龍卸甲 starring Andy Lau and Maggie Q

I remember THREE KINGDOMS: RESURRECTION OF THE DRAGON solely for one reason. It was the one film that was going to screen in Malaysia on the week I left for Japan. Thanks to my departure, I was deprived from my much-wanted Maggie Q dose. I also remember watching the trailer just before the laughably bad (but still laughable) AN EMPRESS AND THE WARRIORS, and realized later that the trailer itself was better than AN EMPRESS AND THE WARRIORS.

Preparing for New Japanese-language Production.

I mentioned last Sunday that reading through Kawabata Yasunari's Palm of the Hand Stories had given me inspiration for a new short film, and I was going to meet up with fellow film student Maiko to brainstorm some ideas.

Everything went on smoothly then and I managed to write the first draft of the script. It's shorter than anything else I've written, but only because of its lack of dialogue. The film's most likely going to be around ten minutes long. And it still doesn't have a title.

I've just returned from another production meeting with Maiko, earlier in the afternoon and things are starting to fall into place. The film can be done with the financial backing and assistance of the university, but Maiko has to submit the proposal and script (translated into Japanese) by end of the month.

Film adaptation of LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA

I actually watched this nearly a month ago (during the same span of days when I watched Strawberry Shortcakes and Funuke, Show Some Love Your Losers!, quality stuff) I was so appalled by the film then that I decided I really have nothing to say about it.

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, the second Narnia film

Finally went to Shibuya to see THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: PRINCE CASPIAN. It's the second film I went to the cinema for in Japan, and the first Hollywood film I saw here.

I dreamt that Manchester United lost and thought it was real.

I follow football news casually (the NBA is still my thing), so yesterday morning, I woke up to check the livescore of the European Cup finals. Game had reached overtime, but still a draw between Man U and Chelsea. As I stared at the live updates, I somehow fell asleep again without noticing and saw vividly that the score had become 2-1 after Michael Ballack scored one more and was named as Man of the Match (huh?).

I was on The New Straits Times! And...

The New Straits Times had an article about the BMW Shorties yesterday (21st of May). They credited Lesly (and my absence) correctly.



Great article. Check it out here.

Some really good quotes too.

[VIDEO] All-you-can-eat 'shabu-shabu' with Ai and Iyo at Shibuya

All-you-can-eat 'shabu-shabu' with Ai and Iyo at Shibuya


This video was shot on the 8th of May, during the last day of Golden Week. I was at Shibuya to have an awesome all-you-can-eat 'shabu-shabu' with two old friends of mine, Ai and Iyo (whom I knew back from my Murdoch days in Perth). I've met Ai the week I came to Tokyo, but I haven't seen Iyo for more than two years, so seeing her again was a joy.

Unlike most of my previous videos, this one isn't tampered with much, no hardcore editing, nor background music. Just diegetic sound, gives you guys a better 'you are there' feeling of Shibuya.

Tags: shabu-shabu, japanese food, tokyo, shibuya, video, youtube