The Interview

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Dave Skylark (James Franco) is the host of an entertainment TV show notorious for its lowbrow interviews which contribute nothing to the betterment of society. Producer Aaron Rapoport (Seth Rogen) is ever supportive, but begins to doubt his purpose in life after receiving an offhand remark regarding his job from a college friend who works for serious news. He sees an opportunity to be taken seriously when they find out that North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un (Randall Park) is an avid fan of the show, and is willing to do a scripted interview with them straight from Pyongyang. CIA Agent Lacey (Lizzy Caplan) contacts the duo proposing a plan to discreetly assassinate the dictator in order to free the country from his repressive government. Dave, however, finds this hard to do as he spends more time and gets to know the dictator on a more personal level.

Into the Woods

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The Baker (James Corden) and his Wife (Emily Blunt) have no other wish than to have a child. What they do not know is that the Witch (Meryl Streep) next door has cursed not only their house, but also their ability to conceive an offspring. She offers them a deal: They shall go into the woods to recover the secret ingredients that would help restore her youth and beauty, in exchange for lifting the curse she had cast. They are to bring back to her: a cape as red as blood, worn by Little Red Riding Hood (Lilla Crawford) who is off to see her grandmother, but eventually ambushed by the Wolf (Johnny Depp); a cow as white as milk, which is tasked to be sold by Jack (Daniel Huttlestone) in a neighboring village; hair as yellow as corn, let down by Rapunzel (MacKenzie Mauzy) from above her lonely tower; and a slipper as pure as gold, which Cinderella (Anna Kendrick) wears as she repeatedly runs away from her Prince (Chris Pine). But one’s wish could very well be a curse for another, leading to a short-lived happy ending disturbed by a giant problem caused by each of their selfish desires.

English Only, Please

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Julian (Derek Ramsay) just could not get over his ex. He regularly stalks her on Facebook and even follows her all the way back to Manila. His obsession results in a scathing letter which he wants to be translated to Filipino, so he could say it straight to her face as some sort of closure for their failed relationship. Hence, he hires a personal tutor to get it done. Tere (Jennylyn Mercado) eagerly obliges, what with the USD1000 price tag for the personal lessons. She uses the amount to support her family in Bulacan, as well as to buy her ex a new iPad. She is a hopeless martyr and she knows it, but that's just how she is. Sick and tired of their inability to move on, both teacher and student decide to help each other forget their respective breakups, and perhaps develop something more than friendship for the two of them.

Shake, Rattle & Roll XV

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AHAS: One of the fitting rooms at Alegria Mall doubles as an elevator leading unwary victims to the lair of a snake monster, whose existence has fed persistent rumors for years. Sandra (Erich Gonzales), the daughter of the mall mogul, denies the existence of an evil twin, and even laughs off many a hearsay that she herself is the snake. But her twin sister Sarah (Erich Gonzales) does not agree. Life under the mall is lonely, and now more than ever she wants the world to know of her existence so she can profess her crush on Troy (JC de Vera), whose wife she devoured for dinner a few years back.

Gonzales gives the role her best shot but her every attempt is sabotaged by the crappy CGI. Good graphics is essential to the success of storylines like this; anything subpar would result in a half-baked product that is simply cringe worthy. As for the story, no youngster in the 90's would not know the urban legend of the giant snake supposedly lurking in the basement of a once popular mall chain. This episode capitalizes on that but adds nothing substantial to the myth. It is because of this that the episode seems lacking, like they could have done something more but chose to rush production instead. Alice Dixson, one of the alleged victims of the "real life" snake makes a cameo appearance.

The Amazing Praybeyt Benjamin

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Benjamin Santos VIII (Vice Ganda) is back and this time saves the world from what would have been a zombie apocalypse brought about by a virus which starts to spread in France. Honored by none other than the president himself, Benjie’s success easily gets into his head, which leads to a demotion due to his hasty actions. He is now transferred to the unit of Wilson Chua (Richard Yap), a commanding general whose expertise as a soldier seems to be inversely related to his parenting skills. The Metro is being threatened by a terrorist group led by Janjaranjan (Tom Rodriguez) and only Bimbee (James Aquino-Yap), Wilson’s son with his terrorist ex, knows where the bombs are located but would not tell anyone. Benjie is then assigned to try and convince the kid to spill the beans, for the sake of peace and order in the country.

Kubot: The Aswang Chronicles 2

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Veron (Elizabeth Oropesa), the leader of the Kubot, avenge the massacre of the Tiktik in the hands of Makoy (Dingdong Dantes) by killing his wife Sonia and abducting their son Macky. He loses one hand in the encounter and barely survives with Nestor (Joey Marquez), Sonia’s father. Two years later, the two of them live a new life in Manila with his sister Nieves (Lotlot de Leon) who works as an assistant in an ob-gyn clinic. Her boss is young gynecologist Alessandra (Isabelle Daza), whom she suspects to be doing abortions on the side. The truth is, she is an Aswang, albeit a reformed one who has effectively assimilated with human beings. She is forced to reveal her secret, though, as she gets in the way of Dom (KC Montero), a fellow Aswang who is hell-bent on world domination through the production and distribution of hotdogs with human flesh as the main ingredient. Such product turns a human being into one of them after consuming an entire package. Despite his reluctance, Makoy needs to team up with Alessandra to save mankind from an impending Aswang invasion.

Feng Shui 二

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10 years after the events in the previous film, the haunted bagua continues to claim innocent lives before it finds its way to Lester (Coco Martin), a streetwise thug who has been commissioned by Lotus Feet's grandniece to retrieve it. As expected, he is showered with good luck: he easily gets cash through various means; his father who abandoned her mother (Carmi Martin) five years ago suddenly comes back and the three are reunited; they even transfer to a new house, the real estate agent of which happens to be Joy (Kris Aquino). She has finally moved on from the unfortunate events as the bagua’s owner a decade prior, but her chance meeting with Lester in the midst of destroying the Chinese lucky charm brings back more than memories, as Lotus Feet aims to go full circle and double the fun by getting back at all her cursed possession's previous owners.

Feng Shui (2004)

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A hardworking wife and mother of two, Joy (Kris Aquino) unwittingly becomes the owner of a bagua, a Chinese lucky charm said to bring good luck. True enough, her family experiences a windfall both in cash and in kind: her husband Inton (Jay Manalo) gets promoted while she reaches her maximum quota for the month; she wins the grand prize in a supermarket raffle; an old client leaves her five hectares of land in Batangas; so on and so forth. What she does not know is that the bagua is cursed. Its owner, referred to as Lotus Feet, was part of the Shanghai elite when the Cultural Revolution erupted in Mainland China. She was left to burn inside her mansion while clutching the ornament, leaving it with a curse: whoever sees himself in its mirror will perish in exchange for the good fortune it brings to its current owner. As people around her start to die one by one, Joy must find a way to stop the curse before it takes the lives of her husband and children.

Gemini

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Police detective Manuel (Mon Confiado) conducts an interrogation session in a mental facility where distressed Julia (Sheena McBride) is confined. She is being accused of the murder of a man named Anton, but she insists that it was her twin sister Judith (Birigitte McBride) who did the crime. She even issues a grim warning that she is going to be the next victim. Eager to extract more information, the detective tells her again and again that her version of the reality is hers and hers alone, and that nobody can really say that it is not true. Together, the duo recounts the night of the incident, but navigating the mind of a troubled individual proves to be a formidable task as her recollection of the truth constantly changes with every new bit of information that comes to her mind. Who really killed whom?

Mulat (Awaken)

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An engaged couple bicker about the details of their upcoming wedding while driving late to an appointment. Their heated discussion takes a turn for the worse when he loses control of the wheel and their car collides with a motorcycle. The resulting impact sends the driver flying off his bike, while the fiancee is left all bloodied and unconscious as Vincent (Ryan Eigenman) desperately tries to revive her. Soon after, Sam (Loren Burgos) is no longer the clingy ex-fiancee she once was, but her new mantra about relationships is getting in the way of her rebound romance with Jake (Jake Cuenca). She is now detached and aloof, while her new beau appears to be the serious one, just like she was before her accident. Things get more complicated as she starts hearing voices in her head, as well as having recurring nightmares with visions of herself all black and blue and covered in blood.

[CAVITE] Budget and Itinerary

WEDNESDAY: December 17, 2014

Corregidor Day Tour Package (Sun Cruises) - 2,350.00
Malinta Tunnel Show (Corregidor) - 200.00
Coke (Corregidor Hotel) - 75.00

Total - PhP2,625.00

[CORREGIDOR] Correct Me If I'm Wrong

“Corregir” is a Spanish verb which means to “correct”, and a fundamental knowledge of Spanish suffixes should tell you that a “Corregidor” would be the one doing the correcting. Why name an island as such then? It does pique one’s curiosity, but there are several plausible theories mentioned by the tour guide to justify this island’s name: one involving the Acapulco-Manila galleon trade; and the other, that of the island being used as a correctional facility.

Chicago (Lunchbox Theatrical)

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Roxie Hart (Bianca Marroquin) dreams of fame but instead lands herself in jail after shooting her lover Fred, who promised her stardom but was apparently just interested in the “extra” benefits of their relationship. There she meets vaudeville veteran Velma Kelly (Terra MacLeod) who is also imprisoned for the “alleged” murder of her philandering husband and sister. The two eventually vie for the attention of Matron “Mama” Morton (Roz Ryan) and star lawyer Billy Flynn (Jeff McCarthy), both of whom they perceive as their ticket to freedom. But more than the get-out-of-jail ticket, the two seem to be more interested in the fame brought about by the media circus involved in their respective court trials hoping that each of them would have a showbiz career after the final verdict is passed. However, the game changes as one of their Hungarian inmates is hanged, a first in the history of the Windy City. The two then forge their own strategies to get the media in their favor. After all, it does not really matter if you are innocent or not in 1920’s Chicago. It’s all about image, fame, and all that jazz.

[GANGWON] Budget and Itinerary

FRIDAY: 7 November 2014

Jungnang/Gyeongchun (Hoegi - Sangbong - Gapyeong) - 1,950

Gapyeong Bus (Gapyeong Station - Nami Island) - 1,200

Nami - Jara Zipline (Nami Island Package) - 38,000

Gapyeong Bus (Nami Island - Gapyeong Station) - 1,200

Gyeongchun/Jungnang (Gapyeong - Sangbong - Hoegi) - 1,950

KRW44,300

Estimate of KRW1,000.00 = PhP40.00

TOTAL – PhP1,772.00

[CHUNCHEON] Nami Island By Air

Nam-i Island, you’ve probably heard about it. Once upon a time there was this popular Korean drama called Winter Sonata shot in a beautiful island somewhere near Seoul. That's the Hallyu version of the story. Technically, Nam-i Island was born with the creation of a dam and the consequent flooding of some areas. A wise entrepreneur thought it would be profitable to turn it into some sort of amusement park. After it was featured in the drama, the rest was history.

Interstellar

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The Earth is no longer capable of supporting life. America is ravaged by frequent dust storms causing serious pulmonary problems for its inhabitants. Corn is the last crop to endure the planet’s worsening condition, but is predicted to go extinct in a few years or so. The Apollo moon landing did not really happen; it was just a government ploy back then to bankrupt the Russians in a fictional race to reach outer space. This is what is being taught in schools at least, to dissuade the youth from investing time in technology-related careers. Farmers have replaced engineers in the list of in-demand professions, given their importance in the current society which has no choice but to fall back on agriculture. Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) is one of those corn farmers, but he is also a man of science. A disgraced pilot, he discovers a gravitational anomaly in his daughter’s bedroom which gives them coordinates pinpointing the covert location of NASA, now operating underground. There they meet Professor Brand (Michael Caine) who expounds on the repercussions of the world’s current dilemma. A wormhole has appeared next to Saturn, leading to a galaxy with planets capable of supporting life. The plan is for Cooper to man the spacecraft along with Amelia (Anne Hathaway) and two others, in an effort to find a new home for the human race.

댄싱퀸 (Dancing Queen)

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정화 (엄정화) and 정민 (황정민) have an interesting love story to tell, and well-documented by the local media to boot. This is mostly because of the oddities involved in their first meeting, combined with some unlucky events which bring them together as a couple. Years later, they struggle to raise their daughter and pay for monthly rent, something that normal families have to go through in their early years together. He manages to become a lawyer while she puts her aspirations to become a pop star on hold, probably forever. Their luck changes when he unwittingly saves a guy who falls down the train tracks, fuelling a media frenzy which would bring him all the way to the Mayoral race of Seoul. She, on the other hand, applies for and successfully gets in a fast-rising girl band called the Dancing Queens. While each of the worlds they now belong in are complicated enough on their own, the fusion of the two seems highly unlikely to be accepted by the general public. Who between husband and wife should give up one dream in order to salvage another?

Gone Girl

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Nick (Ben Affeck) and Amy (Rosamund Pike) move from New York back to his native Missouri after he gets laid-off from his job. She uses what remains of her trust fund to open a bar for him and his twin sister as their main source of income. Their marriage is on the rocks and he is about to ask her for a divorce. On the morning of their fifth wedding anniversary he goes to the beach for some alone time, visits his sister, and goes back to an empty house. His wife is missing, and the only clue as to what could have transpired is a broken center table, prompting authorities to assume that a crime has been committed. It does not take long before he becomes the prime suspect in his wife’s murder. All the clues, investigation results, as well as the resulting media circus point to him as the culprit, but he insists that he is innocent. Enlisting the help of America’s top defense attorney for spousal killings, he tries to reverse his public image as that of a loving husband convinced that his wife is not really dead and that she would soon come back to him. But is he doing this out of concern, or as a possible way out? Did Nick Dunne kill his wife?

Qu'est-ce qu'on a fait au Bon Dieu

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French parents Claude (Christian Clavier) and Marie (Chantal Lauby) witness three of their four daughters get married one year right after another, but not in the way they expect. The first one marries an Arab; the second, a Jew; and the third, a Chinese. Suffice it to say that every family gathering thereafter would be as interesting as it is awkward, as differences in religion, political views, and dietary habits all form part of a persistent four-way culture clash. As such, the couple counts on their youngest daughter Laure (Élodie Fontan) to restore balance in the family by marrying a traditional Frenchy, preferably Catholic. Much to their delight, she eventually announces that she is marrying her Catholic boyfriend Charles; Charles, like General de Gaulle, as her father would remark. They find out later on that Charles is actually from the Ivory Coast, and his father, who is just as racist as hers, does not agree to the wedding at all.

The Maze Runner

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A young man wakes up in a fast-moving elevator without any recollection of who he is. His name is Thomas (Dylan O’Brien), but he does not remember. He braces himself for what could be the end of his life as the elevator almost hits the roof, except that it stops at the precise moment so as not to cause any unlikely accident. Sunlight blinds him as the hatch opens; a group of boys surrounds him and takes him out to the open. Disoriented, he attempts to run for his life, but his legs bail on him. Having a good look at his surroundings, he later realizes that there is actually nowhere to run. The green patch of land they are occupying is enclosed by really high concrete walls on four sides. One of them opens every morning and closes just around sundown, a period of time in which an elite group of young men get out to explore the maze outside the walls, in a three-year attempt to come up with a map, in hopes that they could still get out. They are called the Maze Runners.

바쁜 금요일이다

바쁜 금요일이다

오늘는 중간 시험을 드디어 봤다. 그래서 어땠다? 이상한다고 생각하지만 정말 상관 없다. 왜냐하면 끝냈는데 주말은 방금 시작했다. 그래도 합격할수 있는 것은 가능한다고 생각하지만 점수가 아마 별로 좋자 않다. 끝나자마자 우리 반은 근처에 있는 식당에 같이 먹으러 가기로 했다. 2명이나 안 갔지만 기분이 좋은 것 같아서 자주 이렇게 같이 먹거나 노는 것은 좋은 생각이다. 그나저나 밤에는 신촌에 있는 Awesome Language Café에 가니까 사람이 적더라고 이상한 것 같다.

내일 1시 후에 다 괜찮겠다

내일 1시 후에 다 괜찮겠다

그것이 내 바라는이다. 어제 심지어 복습하지 않는 바람에 얼마나 걱젛하는지 모르다. 그런데 이렇게 부담스러운 것이 나 한테 정말 도아 준다? 그러니까 오늘은 편하게 예습하며 다 마음대로 했다. 걱정하느니 차라리 잘 애를 쓴다는 걸 괜찮다고 생각한다. 한국어는 무척 어렵기는 하지만 매일 그냥 열심히 공부해야 앞으로 다 쉽게 돼기 마련이다. 이 것을 이제 나는 잘 아니까 이왕 한국어 를 계속 배울 거면 제대로 공부했으면 됀다.

말하기 시험

말하기 시험

오늘은 말하기 시험이 있는데 면접중 문법을 별로 사용하지 않은데다가 제목을 거의 이해하지 않았다. 그래도 이번주 점점 끝나는 것을 진짜 좋아하지만 할일이 아직도 많은 것 같다. 게다가 오늘은 조금 피곤해서 복습하지 않고 오히려 많히 자기로 했다. 내일은 수업중 어차피 예습할거라고 해서 괜찮겠다. 이번주 너무 힘든데도 공부할 수 있는 것이 어쩐지 좋지만 나중에 이황 공부할거면 제대로 할 수 있으면 하다.