I finally watched US President-Elect Barack Obama's victory speech on the night of the US general elections. I must say that he is a very inspiring figure, and the speech itself was truly mesmerizing and it sent chills up my spine. He's a great orator, and a symbol of change to Americans and to the world.
Well, the Beijing 2008 Olympics have finally come to a close, with a very meager closing ceremony (in comparison to the outstanding and excellent opening ceremony held 16 days earlier).
Nothing much of note, except the unexpected appearance of someone who looks very similar to... well, I'll let the pictures do the talking. You tell me who that looks like!
With only 2 more episodes to go in both (yes - both - I'm watching both) Astro-On-Demand dramas, finally the stories will end. As always, it will be a happy ending. And I hope that the loose ends are tied up nicely, or else it will be quite irritating to see an open ended plot line not properly closed up. It will just show the flaws during the script writing.
So what will I do from next week onwards? I guess it's back to whatever routine I had previously before the drama invasion. A mix of Heroes/KyleXY/Prison Break watching, reading up on all my books, and preparing for my grandpa's 90th birthday bash!
Steps is currently showing on Astro-on-Demand channel 901. Yesterday was the premier of the first episode. It revolves around an aspiring dancer who ends up in a dancing school after failing to qualify in the Hong Kong Dance Company auditions. I suppose she ends up pairing with the son of the dance school's principal and both of them spark off a wonderful friendship which eventually blossoms into romance (I guess). There will be trials and tribulations but the end should be a good one, as they participate in a professional dance competition (this is from what I saw in the previews).
Anyway, from what I've watched yesterday, I think this is another potentially great series from TVB! Of course, it doesn't hurt that Bernice Liu also looks so adorable ;)
20 episodes for less than RM20, and you get to watch it over and over and over and over and over again. What are you waiting for?
Yesterday I was walking in SS2 near the McDonald's and there is a video rental shop. Prominently displayed on the window was a poster of The Drive Of Life series and another notice written in Chinese. Well, I can't read Chinese, but I sort of caught the gist of it. Basically, you can rent the series from that shop for only RM50. And the notice also states that it's for the entire 60 episodes, which comes to about 83 sen only. Obviously this is in direct competition with Astro On Demand!
I normally don't chase chinese TV dramas. When I do, it's usually because they are of exceptional quality in terms of storyline, acting and overall production.
The most recent one I caught was the Dicey Business (dou cheung foong wan) which revolves around a casino operation, friendship, brotherhood and betrayals. Top notch acting and storyline but of course some cheesy scripts abundant in Hong Kong productions.
Now that Astro On Demand is showing non stop repetitions of The Drive Of Life (sui yuet foong wan), I find myself gravitating toward this show. It's only at the 7th episode, but already showing the quality since the first episode. The storyline generally focuses on family, friendship and trust, and of course expounding the goodness of the Chinese government and the Chinese people.
Will I have the strength to follow through this drama? Well, let's put it this way. Even if I miss the original screening time, I can always watch the entire thing all over again via all the repeat screenings of all the episodes. Thanks to Astro On Demand, I am able to do this. Of course it comes with a price, but the price is only 99sen per episode, which is actually quite a good deal. It works out to about RM55 for the entire drama. I'm sure the original VCD's will probably cost about the same when it does get released. And from what I see, this price point is generally acceptable by most of the viewing customers.
However, there are some pain points. Firstly, there is no subtitle! How can anyone understand Hong Kong cantonese without some helpful subtitles, even if the subtitles are in chinese? The better option would be to supply on-demand subtitles. Secondly, the picture and sound quality is substandard. The picture looks like it's been compressed several times over that there are splotches of colour everywhere instead of fine detail. The sound is also quite terrible, with the extreme high trebles and extreme low basses severely muted. Often, the conversation is muffled because of this, making it even more difficult to catch what is being said (minus subtitles!). Astro should fix this, considering we are paying premium to watch this show.
Which one wins?!!
Alias 4
I got hooked into Alias from Season 1's highly original and intruiging mix of mysticism, fantasy, heroism and conspiracy theories. It was so intruiging, that I went ahead and watched Season 2 and 3. Suffice to say my curiosity was peaked to the max at the end of Season 3!
So when Season 4 finally arrived, I was a little disappointed.
What happened to all the conspiracy theories? Conveniently shelved.
What happened to Sydney's mom? Conveniently killed.
What happened to the CIA? Conveniently moved to APO.
Well, at least there is promise in digging up the past concerning Vaughn's father and his connection to Nadia. Let's see if anything interesting crops up.
Lost
Well, I've only started watching this new series from the creator of Alias, J.J. Abrams. The first episode hooked me! Again, an effective mix of human drama, fantasy, mysticism and heroism.
What exactly dwells on the island apart from Polar Bears? Where is the island exactly? Who are the people on board the plane which crashed?
All these questions are answered in flashbacks. For example, we know how Jack the doctor got his bottle of alcohol. And we know that Kate was in fact a felon under federal custody when the plane crashed. I'm sure there will be more startling revelations of the main characters in future episodes.
I hope it doesn't disappoint!
CSI:NY
The highly successful CSI franchise moves on to the Big Apple! Managed to catch the season premiere of CSI:NY yesterday on AXN. So how did it fare?
Well, I still like the original CSI in Las Vegas, somehow there is an affinity with the cast members and the cases that they solve. But watching CSI:NY yesterday, there was a sort of mood established, one of desolance and despair rather than hope and triumph. Perhaps it's due to the complex characterization played by Gary Sinise as Mac Tayler the head of CSI:NY. Somehow, although the case and the production didn't do much to impress me, it was the storyline and the promise of deep character development that clinched it for me.
Am I looking forward to more episodes of CSI:NY? Absolutely. I would like to see more of the CSI team, and more of the human drama that unfolds. In comparison, CSI Las Vegas does not delve too much into the human side of the story, and I have no comments of CSI:Miami since I don't watch it.
But CSI:NY... there is promise!
I found a website to download Alias S4! Unfortunately, it's only the first 3 episodes. I dunno if it has already finished airing in US, or is it just started... can anyone enlighten me? :)
Yesterday's i-gemz practice was OK. I managed to sing quite ok with the proper accents and intonations. However, I still need to work on my breathing technique. I need to get the proper breath support so that my voice will be able to be projected well. My song is being recorded on 5 February 2005.
I need to learn how to bake cookies to impress elsf ;) anyone want to give me lessons? :P
Is Alias getting a little over exagerrated? The more I look at it, the more comic-book it feels, and yet there is something in the series that makes you crave for more! Who was Rambaldi? What is Sloane's agenda? WHAT is Sydney Bristow?
It is the intruiging mix of all these variables that make Alias such a wonderful watch!
Oh, yea... I actually marathon through it during the weekend! :)
