The Legend of the Blue Sea: Episode 5

푸른 바다의 전설: 제5회

FLASHBACK: Dam-ryeong brings Se-hwa home, but a nasty rumor is circulated by his enemies blaming the town’s misfortune on an evil mermaid. A swordfight ensues, and the arrival of a shaman puts her life in danger. Back in modern day Seoul, Joon-jae disregards his own safety and speeds through the checkpoint to save Shim Cheong, who is almost caught by the murderer sent by his stepmother. He lies to the police and gets away with what he has done. When Shi-ah comes over to visit, an altercation occurs between the two women. He tells her that she has to leave if she insists on not telling him what really happened to them in Spain. She promises him that she’ll tell the truth if he meets her at N-Tower during the first snowfall. He gives her a smartphone with a tracking device so he’ll be aware of her whereabouts all the time, stalking her and making her hobo life easier for her. As she hurries up to Namsan when the first snow falls, she is hit by his stepbrother Chi-hyun’s (이지훈) car who is secretly trailing him.

Un monstruo de mil cabezas

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Sonia Bonet’s (Jana Raluy) husband is dying, and his only hope is the approval of an expensive operation supposedly covered by their health plan. But the insurance company is not keeping its side of the bargain. Desperate and sick of her struggle against bureaucracy, she takes matters into her own hands by stalking everyone responsible and forcing them to cooperate with the help of her pistol. Her son Dario (Sebastián Aguirre Boëda) is unwillingly dragged into the ruckus but decides to help his mother fight for the right of his sick dad. As they come closer to achieving their elusive goal, so is the police as they track their whereabouts based on the last victim that they leave behind. In this fight between an ordinary citizen and a multinational company with a lot of clout, who will come out on top? What will happen to the losing party?

Elvira, te daría mi vida pero la estoy usando

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Waking up in the middle of the night to a crying baby, Elvira (Cecilia Suárez) calms her children down and tells her husband Gustavo (Carlos Bardem) that he should get used to it. He excuses himself and heads to the nearest pharmacy to buy some cigarettes. He never returns. Concerned, she files a report for a missing person, even though it is quite clear after rummaging through his things that he has run away. With another man. Investigating further, she finds out that Adrián (Luis Gerardo Méndez) is working with him at the office and that the two have fled to Acapulco. Low on funds and needing to maintain her household, she seeks the help of her friend Eloy (Angie Cepeda) who manages a funeral parlor. There she starts working as a professional mourner to make ends meet, and crosses paths with Ricardo (Luis Gerardo Méndez), one of the staff members who is a dead ringer of the guy her husband left her for.

[QUERETARO] Budget and Itinerary

SUNDAY: 27 November 2016

Pegasso (San Miguel de Allende - Queretaro) - 69.00

Uber (Bus Terminal - Centro) - 46.41

VIPS (Parillada w/ Fries & Coke) - 187.00

Querebus (Tranvia 6) - 80.00

Taxi (Centro - Calzada los Arcos) - 40.00

Starbucks (Choco Cream Chip Venti) - 70.00

Uber (Calzada los Arcos - Bus Terminal) - 46.80

Primera Plus (Queretaro - Mexico City) - 286.00

MXN825.21

[QUERETARO] UNESCO World Heritage Daytrip

Querétaro was not really in the itinerary. In my head, I was thinking that I should just spend two days in San Miguel de Allende. But I knew that small towns easily bore me regardless how magical they are. Given how Querétaro was on the way anyway, I decided that it merited at least a daytrip. Fine then, we will stop by on our way back to Mexico City, and that’s exactly what I did. I thought the city would be just like SMA, but it surprised me. It happens to be a good mix of the old and the new.

[GUANAJUATO] Budget and Itinerary

SATURDAY: 26 November 2016

Primera Plus (Mexico City - San Miguel de Allende) - 410.00

Airbnb (1 Night) - 190.00

Toilet (Central Terminal) - 5.00

Pesero (Central Terminal - Centro) - 5.00

La Finestra (Alfredo + Cold Choco) - 187.00

Comida China (Beef w/Broccoli & Rice + Prawns) - 62.00

MXN859.00

[SAN MIGUEL DE ALLENDE] A Town of Magic

When I saw La vida inmoral de la pareja ideal, I was really impressed with the setting of the adult Lucio and Martina storyline. The vibe felt uniquely European but with a Mexican twist. When the credits started rolling, I found out that the town is called San Miguel de Allende in the state of Guanajuato not far from Querétaro. Without thinking twice, I added it to my priority list before leaving Latin America this December. Well, now that I’ve visited the place, I’m really glad that I did!

No sé si cortarme las venas o dejármelas largas

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Nora (Ludwika Paleta) aims a pistol at her husband, asking him “how many times”. Aarón (Raúl Méndez) responds with “many”, which doesn’t help much in calming her down. Next door, has-been football player Félix (Luis Ernesto Franco) wallows in depression. He cocks his gun and points it at his head. Moments later, two gun shots are heard echoing throughout the building. Eight months prior to the incident, young couple Lucas (Luis Gerardo Méndez) and Julia (Zuria Vega) welcome their new neighbor. He is immediately smitten with him and is eager to prove that maybe he is gay too. She warns him not to be so obvious, given how he’s not out of the closet just yet. In fact, they just married each other for convenience, a way for him to evade rumors and for her to pursue her singing aspirations, which her parents frown upon. The couple next door bicker nonstop about everything from her being too dependent on prescription drugs and him lacking the intimacy that they used to enjoy. When the new neighbor invites everyone to his place for dinner, their individual issues begin to surface, forming an intricate web of complications among the five of them.

The Legend of the Blue Sea: Episode 4

푸른 바다의 전설: 제4회

FLASHBACK: Se-hwa surfaces and ventures inland to look for Dam-ryeong, her one true love. She is subsequently attacked by the men of her original captor, but he comes to save her. In modern day Seoul, Joon-jae also comes to Shim Cheong’s rescue, pretending to be a police investigator to get her out of the aquarium break-in incident. He presses her for answers, but she won’t divulge anything. She follows him around anyway. He is dismissive, but now he can’t get rid of her. Again. He brings her over to his house with the intention of eventually getting the information he needs from her. Shi-ah comes over and meets her. The two then suddenly have equal disdain toward one another. Now it’s Joon-jae’s wicked stepmother sending goons to kill him, breaking out a murderer from prison to go after his stepson to make sure he doesn’t get the inheritance he deserves. Apparently, he is a chaebol heir, but decided to run away from his father as an act of rebellion because he sent his mother away.

The Legend of the Blue Sea: Episode 3

푸른 바다의 전설: 제3회

FLASHBACK: Young mermaid Se-hwa met Dam-ryeong when they were kids. Given how mermaids can’t produce legs until they are older, they had to part. When he drowns himself in grief, she rescues him and plants a kiss on his lips. A mermaid’s kiss erases memories. Back in modern day, Shim Cheong’s kiss does the same for Joon-jae, although she leaves him her bracelet as a remembrance. Back in Seoul, he struggles to remember how he got the piece of jewelry, but his memory is wiped clean of everything about her. She decides to swim all the way there to follow him. Once on land, she relies on a hobo lifestyle to survive and heads to the one place she remembers him mentioning: 63 Building. Lost inside, she finds the aquarium and jumps in. His admirer, KAIST researcher Cha Shi-ah (신혜선) brings him seaweed soup for his birthday which his lost mom, who now works as her maid, cooked herself. Haunted by past memories, he goes to 63 Building’s aquarium where she used to take him. There, he crosses paths with Shim Cheong once again.

Keeping Up with the Joneses

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Living the stereotypical suburban life, Jeff (Zach Galifianakis) and Karen (Isla Fisher) Gaffney distract themselves from their everyday routine by taking on hobbies such as brewing their own ale or remodeling the bathroom by adding a urinal. When perfect couple Tim (Jon Hamm) and Natalie (Gal Gadot) Jones move in next door, the Gaffneys immediately get fixated on them and how ideal their marriage seems to be. Inviting them over for parties and bonding with them a bit, Karen soon suspects that there is something off with their new neighbors, although Jeff is quick to dismiss her distrust as something fueled by an odd mix of curiosity and jealousy. She keeps on spying on them anyway, until it is eventually revealed that the two are actually working as secret agents. But now that covers have been blown and secrets have been revealed, this ordinary couple’s otherwise boring existence is now going to take a turn for the adventurous, whether they like it or not.

[TLAXCALA] Budget and Itinerary

SATURDAY: 19 November 2016

Sierra Atah (Mexico City - Tlaxcala) - 140.00

Toilet (Tlaxcala) - 3.00

Colectivo (Tlaxcala - San Miguel Del Milagro) - 9.00

Store (Snacks) - 21.00

Colectivo (San Miguel Del Milagro - Tlaxcala) - 9.00

Toilet (Tlaxcala) - 3.00

Sierra Atah (Tlaxcala - Mexico City) - 140.00

MXN325.00

[NATIVITAS] 50 Shades of Maya Blue

I was supposed to go to Taxco but some last-minute schedule changes meant I had to come up with a backup plan. Puebla is closer but I need at least two days to explore both the city center and Cholula. And so one alternative candidate came to mind. Why not Tlaxcala? The journey time is almost similar to that of Puebla and the itinerary can fit in an easy daytrip from the capital. There was a problem, though. What is there to see in Tlaxcala? It doesn’t really figure that much in the tourist circuit, now does it?

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

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When a young wizard is forced to suppress his powers instead of harnessing it, he produces a malevolent entity referred to as an Obscurus, while the child himself becomes the host, an Obscurial. Newt Scamander’s (Eddie Redmayne) arrival in New York coincides with one wreaking havoc in the city, subjecting the magical world to a constant threat of exposure. It doesn’t help that Gellert Grindelwald, one of the most notorious dark wizards of all time, is on the loose and with a bad agenda in mind. Newt’s suitcase hosts a plethora of wild beasts that he has taken in and cared for from different parts of the globe. In fact, his trip across the pond involves finding yet another one to add to his collection. When he openly uses magic to tame his beasts in public, he catches the attention of ex-Auror Tina Goldstein (Katherine Waterston). Things get more complicated when he crosses paths with No-Maj Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler), an American muggle eager to start his own bakeshop. Together with Queenie (Alison Sudol), Tina’s Legilimens sister, the quartet must find a way to protect the beasts while dodging a combo of political and magical attacks from Percival Graves (Colin Farrell), a high-ranking Auror who has accused them of being responsible for the American wizarding community’s recent dilemma.

The Legend of the Blue Sea: Episode 2

푸른 바다의 전설: 제2회

Joon-jae brings Shim Cheong back to his place because she doesn’t seem to know anyone and he is worried about her. What he doesn’t know is that the same smartphone he’s been using all along has been tracked by the Myeongdong Capital CEO that he scammed, and she has sent a rather large delegation of gangster loan sharks all the way to Spain to pursue him at all costs. And so the mermaid gets entangled with the con artist’s bleak immediate future. She proves to be an asset, though, serving as a fighting machine defending him from his assailants. Her superhuman strength is really effective in warding off the goons, but the chase continues along the Mediterranean Coast. On the way, they manage to squeeze in a scam involving religious worshipers before they end up at the Tower of Hercules, on the other side of the Iberian peninsula facing the Atlantic where he was abandoned by his mother as a child. There, the duo is cornered, until she takes his hand and forces him to jump with her into the deep blue sea.

The Legend of the Blue Sea: Episode 1

푸른 바다의 전설: 제1회

1586. A fierce typhoon ravages a village in Gangwon, and the townsfolk enjoy a windfall of fresh fish, including a mermaid who gets stuck in a cave. The young new town head frees her from captivity. As he rows his boat and she swims beside it, she reaches out her hand for him to hold, which according to superstition could very well be as lucky as it is bad fortune. Flash forward to modern day Seoul, Heo Joon-jae (이민호) is the "Harry Potter of Con Artists,” achieving his material needs through scams. His latest venture brings him to an exclusive resort on the shores of the Mediterranean. A trail of food items leads him to his closet where Shim Cheong (전지현), a modern age mermaid, has sneaked in after a storm maroons her inland. When he realizes that she’s wearing a 400-year old jadeite bracelet worth $6 million, he does his best to get his hands on her jewelry, taking advantage of her cluelessness. When his conscience kicks in, he comes back for her. As their hands touch under the pouring rain, a new story begins.

[HIDALGO] Budget and Itinerary

SATURDAY: 12 November 2016

Ovnibus (Autobuses del Norte - Tula) - 126.00

Ovnibus (Tula - Autobuses del Norte) - 126.00

MXN252.00

Estimate of MXN1 = PhP2.60

TOTAL – PhP655.20

[TULA DE ALLENDE] Toltec 1000's

I think Tula is just fine and doable as a day trip from Mexico City. The trip takes an hour and forty minutes on a really comfy Ovnibus departing from the capital’s North Bus Terminal (Autobuses del Norte). Getting there depends on where you are in DF. It took me another 50 minutes on the MRT coming all the way from the south. Once you get to the terminal, head to platform number 7 and look for the Ovnibus counter. Ask for the direct trip to Tula and pay MXN 126 (~PHP 325) one-way. Enjoy!

Macho

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The biggest name in the Mexican fashion industry, Evaristo Jiménez (Miguel Rodarte) has built his empire based on his status as Mexico’s biggest gay icon. But everyone has a dirty little secret that eventually threatens their careers. For Evo, it’s the fact that he has slept with 322 women in the last six months. Shifting to damage control, he gets a boyfriend to flaunt around to distract the press from his real sexual orientation. Sandro (Renato López), the new production assistant, is still reeling from the death of his husband three years prior. While everything is just a game of media manipulation for his boss, he starts to develop feelings for him, which causes more friction between the two of them. What Evo can’t explain is how he always feels inspired when Sandy is around, helping him get over the mental block hindering him from creating enough designs for his new collection, up to a point when he himself begins to doubt his very own sexuality.

Kiki, el amor se hace

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HARPAXOPHILIA. After having sex, Alejandro (Álex García) asks his girlfriend Natalia (Natalia de Molina) if she liked it. Her reaction is rather passive, and then goes on to confess that a guy robbed the convenience store she went to that morning, holding her at knifepoint, and that IT turned her on. DACRYPHILIA. María Candelaria (Candela Peña) is having a difficult time having either an orgasm or a baby with Antonio (Luis Callejo). When he receives some bad news over the phone which leaves him in tears, she gets aroused. SOMNOPHILIA. The intimate life of José Luis (Luis Bermejo) has never been then same after his wife Paloma’s (Mari Paz Sayago) accident, but he stays up all night waiting for her to fall asleep, because the sight of her lying unconscious on their bed makes his pulse race. ELIPHILIA. Sandra (Alexandra Jiménez) is deaf and has always thought of this as the reason why she can’t catch a good relationship, although it could also be due to her unusual fetish for everything made of silk. POLYAMORY. Paco (Paco León) and Ana (Ana Katz) attend a sexual therapy session to salvage their marriage, but it doesn’t work. When his lesbian childhood friend Belén (Belén Cuesta) pays them a visit and gives her a peck on the lips, she realizes that she actually likes it. When she tells him this, he is angry at first, but suggests that the two ladies give it a shot. When he sees them making out, he joins the fun.

Arrival

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An extraterrestrial spacecraft lands in Montana just north of the I-94. The military has initiated contact, but doesn’t have the capacity to decipher the non-human language involved. Desperate for answers, Colonel Weber (Forrest Whitaker) enlists the help of Louise Banks (Amy Adams), a linguistics expert with the qualifications and an existing TS security clearance to match. She teams up with theoretical physicist Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner) and together they build a systematic approach in teaching the extraterrestrial duo enough vocabulary for them to articulate their purpose on Earth. This intergalactic dilemma is far from domestic, as eleven other “shells” have touched down across various other locations on the planet, and not all governments are advocating a friendly approach. As China begins to doubt and mobilizes its army to deal with the issue using brute force, Banks must race against time and tackle all the political hurdles to crack the linguistic enigma that might just save mankind.

[XOCHIMILCO] Ready for the Canal Party

I thought Xochimilco was in Mexico State. I always hear about it from other foreigners but I didn’t know that it’s just here in CDMX, albeit a little bit farther to the south. It even has its own light rail line linking it to Taxqueña! What that means is it’s easy to go here, if you know Taxqueña well, that is. That place is a freaking maze. Once you find the light rail station BESIDE the Metro station, NOT inside, then you’re on your way. The trip takes less than an hour from one end of the line to the other.

The Girl on the Train

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Three women. One neighborhood. A murder. Rachel Watson (Emily Blunt) takes the daily train on the way home back from Manhattan and develops a curious hobby, which is that of stalking the residents of the homes she passes by from the train window. One girl never fails to catch her attention, the young and perfect wife Megan Hipwell (Haley Bennett) who lives at #15 Beckett Street. Two houses down the block at #13 is where her ex-husband Tom (Justin Theroux) resides. She used to live there too, but her place as his wife has since been taken by his one-time mistress turned current Mrs. Watson, Anna (Rebecca Ferguson), who was their realtor. As the train traverses its normal route one afternoon, Rachel witnesses something that shatters her veneration of the perfect suburban couple, seeing Megan get intimate with another man on her balcony. Fueled by inexplicable rage, she gets off at that stop and stalks Mrs. Hipwell before blacking out. Perpetually drunk and disoriented, she couldn’t recall anything about that afternoon. When the object of her obsession turns up dead a few days later, she becomes one of the suspects for the homicide. Was she responsible for the crime?

Me estás matando, Susana

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Theater actor Eligio (Gael García Bernal) gets drunk from time to time, and cheats on his wife Susana (Verónica Echegui) with the make-up artist. He is not aware that she is unhappy, and is easily caught off-guard when he wakes up one morning with her no longer by his side, leaving her mobile phone but taking all of her clothes. A week or two of online stalking reveals that she has flown to Iowa to attend a writing workshop at Middlebrook University. Selling his car to get enough pocket money, he follows her to the United States. The problem is that she doesn’t really want to be found, which is why it’s her turn to get surprised when he crashes one of her afternoon school functions. Refusing to go back to Mexico, they are forced to spend their time together in an attempt to patch things up, but there are times when broken relationships can no longer be fixed.

Cásese quien pueda

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Using her friend’s phone to take a group photo during her wedding dress fitting, Ana Paula (Martha Higareda) stumbles upon a photo of the friend and her fiancé in a jacuzzi. After a catfight ensues, she is now having second thoughts whether the marriage should push through or not. Her sister Daniela (Miriam Higareda) thinks it’s a bad idea, and tells her that she will boycott the celebration. Confused and with a tequila bottle at hand, she drives around Mexico City, crashes a wedding reception, and ends up unconscious on the back of a pick-up truck. When she regains consciousness, she finds out that she’s been taken all the way to the jungles of Quintana Roo where she meets Erick (Michel Brown), an Argentinian doctor who lives in a small Mayan community. Back in DF, the other sister comes to the rescue of Gustavo (Luis Gerardo Méndez), her BFF with whom she has been in love since she was seven. Being teased as gay by his family for never having a girlfriend, he rides along and joins the charade, until both of them start to feel that perhaps there really is something there all along.

El Jeremías

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With an IQ of 160, eight-year-old Jeremías (Martín Castro) has always had more questions than answers. Why does his mother sing about monsters swallowing children to put him to sleep? Why do old people think that kids don’t need privacy in the bathroom? Why is Pluto no longer a planet? His mother, Paloma (Karem Momo), is supportive, but she doesn’t understand him. His father, Onésimo (Paulo Galindo), is aloof about his son’s intellect, and he doesn’t understand him. His fellow students are not of the same wavelength either. Frustrated, he befriends a retired librarian with whom he starts playing chess on a regular basis. When the old man suggests that the kid take an exam because he believes him to be a genius, they all discover that, indeed, he is. Capturing the attention of a physiologist producing a documentary for gifted children, Jeremías now has more questions than he can ever handle, including the most important one: What does he want to be when he grows up?