Menthol-Guy

IT’S OFFICIAL!

My sembreak started yesterday (yes, just yesterday, thanks to my Accounting exam) and I went to the mall with a bunch of High School friends. Oh, the feeling of not having any academic-related qualms and problems. It’s just ecstatic and addictive. I got myself a new haircut (as usual, the spiky one), bought four books (all worth a hundred pesos) and watched Kulam.

Movie review: Kulam

You probably know me as Americanized in terms of film-watching but since I adhere towards the concept of democracy (wherein the majority’s choice shall be followed), I had to watch Kulam. Or rather, I forced myself to watch it. After I had seen Judy Ann Santos at the movie poster while we were filing ourselves to buy movie tickets, I cringe at the thought. I rarely watch mainstream Filipino movies because of hypocrite-sounding reasons. But the movie’s not really bad after all.

_{*lits up his third Dunhill Frost cigarette, and I’m really sorry for myself for acquiring another nicotine rush after two months of nicotine cleansing*}

It’s a good film to watch. Though you might end up wondering why it’s entitled “Kulam” since it only exhibited a tad of witchcraft in the plot, it nevertheless did not affect the film’s impact on me. Uhh, let me see. The acting’s not really convincing especially with the blind child–her eyes actually flicker twice in the entire movie. At some scenes, the child even had the COURAGE to even hold a Handycam and get videos of her mother (Judy Ann)! The video’s even properly set and focused! How’s that for being blind!?

As usual, the computer-generated graphics isn’t really that good but it wouldn’t make any difference in terms of the movie’s substance.

The plot is definitely two thumbs up. The storyline’s the factor that made the entire thing a horror movie. It’s thought-provoking, something that would confuse you at first but after adding up the right story shards you’ll get the picture. It diverts itself away from the usual horror movies which was entirely predictable.

The movie’s shocking in some ways. Though I’m rarely absorbent (?) when it comes to horror movies (all of my friends felt like cheated when I told them I didn’t enjoy the movie as “horror” since I didn’t even budge while watching it), it’s nice to know that Filipino filmmakers are doing a great job to elevate its already-deteriorating status.

My best friend was ultimately scared. She only managed to watch 35 percent of the film (according to her estimate; I think it’s 40) since she’s always closing her eyes. I told her to fight her fears but she just can’t, she really can’t.

After the movie I bought lettuce and hearts of romaine for the next day’s grilling sessions with Dad.

Wishlist this sembreak

• Drink with childhood friends (the friends I grew up with in the subdivision–I need a lot of catching up to do ever since I decided to mamugad at UPLB).
• Go to Tagaytay or Baguio just for the heck of it. Weed, perhaps? Huh.
• Read at least ten books. Yes, ten. The books that I’ve read, if “ratioed” with the total books I have, would be more likely a 1:9.
• Swim, play badminton and do anything sporty and fat-burning with friends.
• Clean my messy room. When I say messy, it’s really really messy.
• Go to some bar with a couple of friends.
• Watch tons of great movies courtesy of HBO, Star Movies and Cinemax. LOL

That’s it. I think I’ll be posting something geeky (i.e., a book review) tomorrow. I’m also planning to do something similar with that of Shari’s 24-hour-readathon. But I’m still thinking about it. And I’m working on another fiction about drugs and everything.

Not just for a one-month vacation, dude. It’s for a lifetime. Though it’s still tentative (like 70 percent sure), I’m quite feeling a mixture of emotions right now (or for the past few days).

Well, Dad received an offer from some corporation (or maybe I just wanted to make it sound grand but that’s what I’ve heard, anyway) that’s based in Abu Dhabi. Yeah, the United Arab Emirates. It’s just near Dubai, like a one-hour drive or something so maybe we could go to Palm Jumeirah and all that classy seven-star hotel and the beach and shawarma stands. Anyway, the offer deals with an amount that’s bigger with his salary here plus education benefits for the minor (and I’m just seventeen, ohmaygad). I should demand for a condo unit, or a Macbook for studying (megaLULz for a spoiled corporate son, as if the very word ‘corporate’ fits with me).

But anyway, my Dad told me about the offer and asked my opinion about it the morning before I go to the concert. So I was feeling tense and light-headed at the same time: excited since I’d be seeing Ely Buendia and the rest of the guys onstage and tense, just tense, since I was kind of feeling that something could go wrong (and it did happen to Ely). With planned events I feel tension since most of them have this tendency to go haywire - not that I’m a huge pessimist but that’s just true, most of the time. I feel the bonkers and think of necessary preparations before even going. Like, mental preparations. Whatever.

When Dad told me about it, I was watching HBO and I was a bit absorbed with the movie. Here’s another thing: he’s completely fresh from the bed and his eyes were even tired from the sleep and he was having a hard time putting things into words so I thought he was just kidding. I was even checking if he’s lucid and conscious enough to even talk about such a serious thing to me - though I really liked his way of consulting to me.

“When will this happen?” I suddenly asked, somewhat excited.

If there’s anything I’ve been hoping ever since I got my ass on here at UPLB, it’s change. I’m demanding change - my course had to be a royal pain in the ass since I’m not really liking it, though nowadays I’m quite glued with my Economics subject since I’m having a good time with all the graphs but generally speaking - I don’t really like it. I should really apply for some writing-related course but I’m just not that inspired to even write those formal letters which addresses appeal to pity and all that please-admit-me stuff.

I welcome change. A lot, actually. Though usually I experience bouts of sentimental shit and all that goodbye stuff the way Holden hates saying goodbye without even surveying the entire place or something, but I’m actually good with adjusting. Living in the Middle East could be one of the major leaps in my life, and I don’t speak Arabian or even understand Arabian, but I hope they could at least speak and understand English - fluent or not. Else I shall master sign languages.

With all the pressing problems here in the Philippines (not politically or generally speaking, though), I think my Dad will accept the offer. I just hope this is not just some shoot-to-the-moon attempt to go abroad, study and work our asses off. Dammet, my Dad’s working on the same corporation for thirty-something years. It’s probably an attack towards our nationalism or patriotism or whatsoever, but I have no comment on that. As I’ve said, it’s more of the personal issues that presses us to actually migrate.

But lately, as I’ve been having a lot of rumination about it (and I’ve only conferred to two people and shared my side of story to them), it’s kind of sad. I mean, c’mon, where in the world can you even play on computer shops? Where can you find fishball vendors and jeepneys and phonies at malls wearing their fake Nikes? Where can you find Blogger’s events, friends who would even convince you to sleep at their dorm, orgmates to smoke with, to watch DVDs with, and even professors to prank?

Our homeland will always be dear to our hearts. It’s the single addiction we have ever since we were born.

I just hate it when my friends would be planning their subjects for the next semester or asking me what I’m gonna take next semester (probably literature subjects) or where am I gonna reside next semester. I wanted to tell them that hey, my Dad and I were planning to leave this October for Abu Dhabi. But I can’t. I’m not even sure about it, but what if everything’s settled? When will I wave goodbye at them? When will I even take a last glance at UPLB, at Drew’s Katipunan?

Sheeesh. I hate myself when I go emotional but it’s really nice to let it out for once in a while.

_{Post header courtesy of Deviantart.}

I firmly believe that going to a moviehouse just to watch a movie (whether it’s slightly interesting or not - but if it’s extremely interesting, say Angels and Demons or something close to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, then I might just change my way of thinking) you’re not really crazy about is a waste of money. Why spend 200 bucks for a movie?

In my case, I check the Internet every weekend for the schedule of Cinemax, Star Movies and HBO here in the Philippines: they usually air blockbuster (even indie!) movies every Saturday night and also throughout the weekends. I only spend twenty pesos an hour to do the blogging, the movie-checking, the photo-posting and all. Perhaps I’m just not really a fan of watching movies on theatres and perhaps, it’s a nice way to maximize the use of our cable subscription.

Let’s see. The first movie I watched on a moviehouse was Madrasta (I only remember Sharon Cuneta and… Rico Yan) since we sort of toured my American-grown cousins around here. Then the Richard-Angel movie (entitled “The Promise“) where it featured a love scene on some lighthouse: I watched it since a bestfriend forced me so hard to watch this one. Then Spiderman 3 with Rens, Joe, Alan and Aaron at Mall of Asia, just for the heck of it.

See, I don’t really give a damn going to movie theatres except if someone made me do it.

_{The point of the explanation is this: I’m a loser, so I make movie reviews about movies from decades or years ago. Enough said.}

Death Sentence - Kevin Bacon, Kelly Preston. I totally liked the gory and bloody scenes on this movie. It’s about Nick Hume, a man who becomes a vengeful vigilante killer after his son is murdered by a gang as an initiation ritual. The movie tends to shift to a ruthless mood when Nick Hume’s wife and sons got killed after the gang took revenge on the slaughter of their ‘gangmate’.

The Breed - Michelle Rodriguez, Oliver Hudson, Taryn Manning. Lame, lame movie - the way I see it, it’s the dogs that made the movie hair-raising and horrifying. But I like the concept of using bows (as in bow and arrows) to kill genetically-mutated attack dogs. Big, big deal. The dogs are even smarter than the cast themselves. See, the dogs unlatched their yacht off the dock and even killed three out of the five characters. LOL.

Zodiac - Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, Robert Downey Jr. It’s about a serial killer named Zodiac who kills people at California’s Bay Area during the 1970-1980s. The cinematography was nice, the scenes were pretty much convincing to tell you that it did happened in the 1980s. Even the scenes were a bit chrome (yellow?) in color, for chrissake, and it was really nice and thrilling and all. The evolution of the plot was unmistakably the thing that made me feel devoted to watch the movie: it so happened that the Zodiac can’t be found due to distorted fingerprints and the use of gloves. Jake Gyllenhaal and Robert Downey Jr. work on a newspaper (San Francisco Times, if I’m not mistaken) house and there they received Zodiac’s coded letters and stuff.  Zodiac was never captured or even tried or hanged for the death sentence after eleven killings on the span of twenty-something years. It’s really nice, masterfully captured, and it’s a true-to-life story.

Venom - Agnes Bruckner, Jonathan Jackson. A real Urban Legend-like thriller about some whatever. It’s all about voodoos and stuff and how each and everyone was killed by a zombie infested with sinister souls and all. Not really a good plot but it would make you scream the way director Jim Gillespie made you scream in I Know What You Did Last Summer.

Next - Nicolas Cage, Jessica Biel, Julianne Moore. This is the kind of movie where it kills you on the end (just watch the film and see for yourself). It’s about Nicolas Cage, a magician who can see two minutes ahead of time. Yet when he slept with Jessica Biel, whom he has been predicting for such a long time, he has seen what happens for the next several hours (therefore concluding that Jessica Biel is a potent key for him to see the future longer). The plot’s about a nuclear thingamajig planted on the center of Los Angeles that would kill around a couple of million people plus the infrastructure damage and all, and the pursuit of FBI for Nicolas Cage’s “power” of seeing the future - since they still don’t know where the bomb was. The ending? Definitely the suckiest.

Memoirs of a Geisha - Zhang Ziyi, Michelle Yeoh. I rarely watch movies when the protagonist’s a female (I don’t know, not that I’m a anti-feminist but this one’s too classic and I have no idea why I somehow didn’t like the movie at first glance) but this one’s just too good to be missed on HBO. It’s about a child who was left out by her parents and her sister and the dream of being a geisha and attracting wealthy people. It’s about lust, love, treachery and deceit behind their white faces and their impressive kimonos. The entirety of this movie is just one of the best with all its historical, tell-tale style and the illustration of the Imperial Japan before the World War II was just spectacular. Definitely a must-watch.

The Omen - Liev Schreiber, Julia Stiles. Grand, grand movie. Really grand but not in a phony sense. Grand, well-funded movie. It’s a thriller, though it may be blasphemous to the devouts. This movie used a lot of symbols (like 666, which traditionally is regarded as the “number of the beast”) and everything. It’s a movie that would leave you shell-shocked for a while. I liked it, though the father should’ve killed the goddam child first. And the ending, ARGH. Definitely depressing.

Now I shall check the movie schedules of HBO, Cinemax and Star Movies. Bahaha.