Movie Updates

Well, there's been a bunch of movie casting updates recently for Asians in new Hollywood films. Here's a quick recap:

Kristin Kreuk is Chun Li!Smallville star and half Chinese actress Kristin Kreuk will be playing the part of Chun Li in the new Street Fighter film. Not really a fan cuz I've never watched Smallville but it's an interesting choice. Kind of wish they had gone with a full Asian actress though. I'm sure my friend Grover is thrilled about this news.

Jamie Chung in Dragonball Movie
I've never watched the cartoon so I have no idea what it's about but they're making a live action movie based on the Dragonball cartoon. And who did they cast in one of the female lead roles? Jamie Chung! I saw a bit of her on MTV's Real World just because I heard a Korean girl was cast and she sure is a cutie. I hope her part is a big one! Here's a video of one of her modeling shoots.
More Dragonball Casting
Also joining Jamie Chung in the Dragonball movie are the legend himself, Chow Yun Fat, and Park Joon Hyung from the Korean boy band G.O.D. Looks like CYF will be taking another shot at Hollywood. His last role was in the Pirates of the Carribean sequel. Park Joon Hyung will also be seen in the Speed Racer film with Bi (aka Rain).

Lee Byung Hun = Storm Shadow!Korean top Hallyu star Lee Byung Hun (All In) has been cast as cool as hell ninja warrior Stormshadow in the new GI Joe movie. Awesome! LBH is a good actor but I'm not so sure about his martial arts skills. He'll be going up against the fantastic Ray Park (Phantom Menace, X-Men) who will be playing Snake Eyes. Can't wait!

My Sassy Girl Remake
When the hell is this movie gonna be released? The original Korean film is one of my favorite films of all time (you should definitely see it if you haven't already) and I've been anticipating this remake for a while now, just out of pure curiosity. Plus, I like the lead Elisha Cuthbert. But they keep pushing back the release! There isn't even a trailer for this film, just this lame poster.

Got My Soccer Tickets!

Got an email from a friend last week letting me know that the tickets for the Pan Pacific Championship in February went on sale on 12/18. I didn't even know! How come they don't advertise this stuff?

Anyways, thanks to the heads up from my friend, I went down to the Stadium box office to get my tickets. No way was I going to buy through Ticketmaster and pay a $7 fee for each ticket! Forget it!

I ended up getting really great seats. I'm in the orange section, literally mid-field, and in Row 13. Low enough to be close to the action, yet high enough to see the entire field and layout of the team formations. Excellent! I got tickets for both the Wednesday 2/20/08 matches and the Saturday 2/23/08 matches. One ticket lets you in to both games each day.

Can't wait!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Thanks to all of you who peruse this blog of mine. Here's wishing you all a wonderful Christmas with your family and friends.

By the way...the poster above is from a movie titled "Happy Erotic Christmas". Yeah, I wish! ^_^

Dinner at Yanagi

Took my parents to Yanagi Sushi for their anniversary the other night. Hadn't gone there for a while, although I did lunch there earlier this year. Originally, our first choice was Suzuki Japanese Restaurant in Kaimuki, but turns out they're closed on Wednesdays so Yanagi it was since we were all craving sushi.

Went the ala carte route this time instead of the teishoku style. Although that would've been pretty affordable (2 choice dinner for $19 and I think 3 choice dinner for $24). Not bad! But we felt like eating sushi and trying different kinds of things.

The tsukemono to start you off. I don't know what that black stuff in the middle is but I love it!
Here is the toro, hamachi, and mirugai
The toro was super fresh and I believe $15 per order of 2 pieces. Well worth it. When I ordered it, the waiter asked if we wanted Hawaii toro or Japanese toro. I asked him what the difference was and believe it or not, his answer was "the Japanese one is more expensive". Uh...okay. What the hell...we went with the Japanese toro. The hamachi was also excellent and mouth melty. I love it when they give you a big slab of raw fish! I didn't try the mirugai but my parents both enjoyed that as well.

Then came the unagi (not pictured). This, I was a little disappointed in. As we were enjoying the first batch of sushi, I could smell a slight burning smell coming from the sushi bar, which we were sitting right in front of. Turns out, it was the unagi they were burning as they were heating it up. As soon as I popped the unagi in my mouth, I could smell and taste the slightest hint of burning. The eel itself and the sauce were very good, but they just overdid it on the cooking of the eel.

Also had an order of shrimp tempura, which also came with some pieces of vegetable tempura. Good, but not the best I've had. Still, very tasty and the shrimp portion was adequate.
Mmm...misoyaki butterfish. The portion was a little undersized for its price (around $10) but the sauce was good as was the fish. The best I've had so far has to be Ideta restaurant.
Fried chicken wings. Tasty! I ate 5 out of the 6 pieces, I think! ^^;;;
Seafood dynamite. Not a fan of the dynamite dish no matter where the restaurant. But my dad wanted to try this dish. Took one bite and yeah, same reaction. Bleah. If you're a fan of the dish, you may like it. I just don't like the whole concept of the dish.
Overall, it was a very enjoyable meal, especially the sushi. And as always, the place was packed, even on a midweek night! Reservations are highly suggested.

Lee Myung Bak Is The New President of Korea

This news is a few days old already, but just wanted to make some comments.

Lee Myung Bak was elected President of Korea a few days ago in a landslide victory over his closest competitor. I knew all along that once he defeated Park Geun Hye in his party's primary election that he would win the whole thing.

Lee is the former mayor of Seoul city and expectations are great for his upcoming Presidency. Especially after the waste of space that is Noh Moo Hyun. I am so glad that this joker is finally out of office.

Lee comes from a strong business background (he ran Hyundai for numerous years) and is quite charismatic. You can just tell that he really intends to use his Presidency to make things happen, rather than to just make a name for himself. Yeah, he has a questionable background (especially with the entire BBK scandal) but the Korean citizens seem to be forgiving of that as he seems to be the best candidate to lead the country for the next five years.

I think Lee plans on taking a business type approach to running the country with him acting sort of like a CEO. We'll see if his vision will match with his Senate and if they can work well together. But considering a lot of Senate seats were turned over to his political party in the last election, he should do okay in that capacity.

The other thing I like about Lee besides his "just get shit done" attitude is that he is going to concentrate on domestic matters, rather than foreign policy. I think Noh spent too much time sitting in an uneasy position on relations with the North as well as with Japan and other countries with ties to Korea. Basically, Noh had no marbles. I think Lee will put domestic matters first and foreign policy second. Not to say that foreign policy should be ignored. There will always be tension with the North but I hope that Lee can head the country in a new direction regarding that.

Let's hope that Lee's 5 years in Presidency can make a difference!

The KOFF Is Dead! (Well...Kind Of)

The KOFF (King of Fantasy Football) suffered a heartbreaking 3 point loss to Da Niners last week in the Fantasy Football Semifinals. D'oh! If only QB Tavaris Jackson had thrown for 2 more yards or if only the WR hadn't been tackled at the 1 yard line or if only I had started RB Aaron Stecker, I'd be alive this week.

So sadly, my reign as Fantasy Football champion in Daboyz league is over.

BUT....I am still in the Championship game of my other league so if I win that league, I still get to call myself the KOFF! ^_^

Lost Season 4 Trailer

Check out the trailer for the new Lost season here.

Looks pretty cool! I'm especially anxious to see what kind of role Ken Leung will be playing. That's one cool dude.

Season 4 starts January 31st. The writer's strike is preventing any new episodes from being made, but they've already completed 8 of them.

AC The Hero!

I was watching the Houston/Denver game on TNT tonight and it was a very exciting game, even going into double OT. Denver was down by 1 point in the closing seconds and who makes the winning shot? AC Carter, baby!

The Houston defense had been leaving him open all night in order to double team Iverson and Carmelo so I think maybe Coach Karl called the inbounds play specifically for him, knowing he would have an open look. Bonzi Wells actually got a good leap at Carter but AC just stepped through him and put up the game winner.

AC has actually been getting a lot of minutes at PG recently, but that may change now with Chucky Atkins returning from injury. I hope he still gets solid PT.

Congratulations AC!

Colt Brennan is Da Man

Just saw this over at Stephen Tsai's blog. Can this guy do any wrong? Well....besides that whole jail stint back in Colorado....

My name is Rita Bongo and I am the Deputy Superintendent at the Detention Facility on Alder Street.

I just wanted to share my insight of a young man I met by coincident while standing outside of the Detention Facility. The young man is Colt Brennan. One day, he walked up to me and asked if he could speak with to the children in our facility. I didn't know him from Adam; but he seemed sincere; and display a genuine compassion for the our children. He was cleared to speak to the children and from that point; I realized how important it was for him as well as the children to share his life experiences.

Colt has often taken the time to speak with the children on impromtu visits without looking for recognition or special treatment. He has donated clothes for our children who are without. He never forgets to acknowledge the staff by greeting them with "Hi Aunty or Howzit Going!" The children have made banners which are displayed outside of the facility to recognize Colt and the University of Hawaii Football Team. Some of our hardest children; have shown their artist abilities to work on the banners which we display proudly. Colt has taken it upon himself to personally thank the children; and speak with them on an individual basis.

We are so proud of his efforts to attempt to change some of the life styles of our children. Colt is a "NORMAL KID, and a part of our "FAMILY."

Mahalo,
Rita Bongo
Deputy Superintendent
Hale Ho'omalu, Detention Services

Speed Racer Trailer

I'll admit...I've never seen the cartoon. But man, does this trailer look awesome! It's directed by the Wachowski brothers who are responsible for The Matrix trilogy so you just know they're gonna bring out the visual candy in this one. I can't wait!

Check out the HD trailer here.

By the way, there are 2 Korean pop singers in the movie as well. Bi (aka Rain) and also Park Jun Young from the boy band GOD. Cool!

Friday Night at Fusions

I went to Fusions in Waikiki with a few friends on Friday night. Haven't heard of it? Let's just say it's a bar that caters to the "alternate lifestyle". Actually I went because the co-worker of a person in our group was performing that night.

The show is on every Friday night and is called the Gender Bender show or something like that. I forget the exact title. What it is is a bunch of drag queens come out and lip sync and dance to all types of songs. Hmm....sounds an awful lot like a night I spent in San Francisco! What do they say? Twice is a pattern...three times is a trend? Uh yeah...don't worry, this is not a trend. This is just something to do on a Friday night.

So what did I think of the show? It was fun...but I wish they had picked better songs to perform to. The show was almost 2 hours long but kind of dragged (no pun intended!) at times cuz they were doing a bunch of ballads and diva type songs. They also did some Christmas carols. I wish they had done more upbeat dance type stuff like in SF. Plus...the gals weren't that attractive. Not that it would've mattered to me...but if you're gonna look at something it might as well be pleasing to the eye, right? Some of these girls were almost as big if not bigger than me! And I'm a pretty big guy!

Here's some photos I took of some of the performers....

The introductions...
The host...



Oh my! That's a lot of skin!
The finale...

The Lake House vs. Il Mare

I popped in my HDDVD of The Lake House last night, wanting to compare this Hollywood remake of the Korean film Il Mare.

While The Lake House was a decent romance flick, I don't think it reached the depths of the original. Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves were fine in the lead roles and they kept some of the key plot points of the original, but I just wasn't feeling these characters as I did the ones in the original.

The end climax scene in particular is where you can feel a big dropoff in emotional commitment. The climax in Il Mare almost had me in tears whereas the one in The Lake House I felt was glossed over too quickly and too obvious. This key scene was also more heart wrenching in the original because the male lead was doing something as a favor to the female lead when the key event happens but this sense of self sacrifice is gone in the remake.

That being said, The Lake House is certainly a pretty film. Cinematography is gorgeous and it looks even better on HD! Some shots were downright gorgeous.

But as a film, the original is the better choice.

EDIT - Whoa....I was just doing a search on my blog for references to this movie and just realized that I've already reviewed this film! How's that? As I was watching it last night, I didn't even know that it was a film I'd already seen! That is so bizarre! I must be losing my mind! Well...at least it's good to know my opinion of the film hasn't changed! LOL

Book Em Dano!

Well...it was bound to happen. I got my first ticket yesterday. After being able to talk my way out of tickets in the past, the Man finally got me!

I was driving around running some errands during lunch yesterday and I ended up on Salt Lake Blvd, going back to my office. I ran a late yellow light (I sped up to make it) and at the next intersection, I see a cop on the side of the road. He signals to me to pull over. I thought he was gonna tag me for running a red, but he tagged me for speeding instead. He said I was going 43mph in a 25mph zone. Before I could say or do anything, he had his clipboard out and was writing up the ticket. Dammit! There goes my clean record. I looked at the ticket and its for $147! Holy schneikies!

I asked him of course if there was any way out of the ticket cuz I didn't want to ruin my pristine driving record and even undid a few buttons on my shirt just in case. He actually gave me a few pointers! He suggested writing a letter (which I was gonna do anyway) and saying stuff like "I'm unfamiliar with the area", "I thought it was a 35mph zone", "I've never gotten a ticket before", stuff like that. So I really appreciated his offer to help.

So I'm gonna write the letter and see what happens. This is where I put my High School Creative Writing award to good use! I hope it works! Nothing to lose, right?

Turtle Bay

Went "golfing" at Turtle Bay Palmer Course this past Sunday. Notice I put the word "golfing" in quotes. That's because I don't think you can call what I did out there golf. It was so bad that I quit keeping score after the 3rd hole. Yup, that bad.

I find it so hard to believe that I can play so bad on the course nowadays. Back when I was in high school and in college I could shoot right around 100, dabbling in the mid 90s on good days, but now, it's just not happening! So frustrating!



This is the 13th hole, where WW and I were stationed for 2 days when we volunteered at the SBS Open.

Man, What A Crappy Day!

I was driving towards Wahiawa this morning in the pouring rain when I heard on the radio that the school I was going to was closed for the day. So I made a few phone calls to confirm this and then after getting halfway there, had to turn around and drive back in traffic to my office.

Then, for some reason that even I can't comprehend, I decided to get a cup of coffee at Starbucks near my office. Now, I hardly ever drink coffee but I really wanted to eat a muffin and Starbucks was the only place nearby that sold them so I figured since I was there, I might as well get a cup of joe since it was cold outside. I get to the register, and the total is $6.05! Wow! For coffee and a muffin? Jeez! And to make things worse, my body has had some weird reaction to the coffee all day, even to this hour. I don't know if it's because I'm not used to the caffeine or what, but I've been feeling really tense and weird all day and I keep burping cuz my insides don't feel right.

I then went to a lunch meeting in Downtown. I parked my Pathfinder in a garage with of course narrow corridors and tons of concrete posts. After giving my parking ticket to the person in the booth, I didn't even see the column to my right and I whacked the front right corner of my car right into the column. The sound of impact was a lot worse than I thought it would be! I figured, at worst, a busted headlight but then as I started driving, I started to hear weird noises whenever I turned left. It turns out that the front corner was so smashed in that the tire would rub up against it whenever I turned left. So this means I gotta go into the body shop next morning. I tried to fix it myself by hammering it out but no such luck. And I'm so busy the next few days that losing my car will be a HUGE inconvenience.

Not to mention my back still hurts from aggravating my taekwondo injury when I went to hit balls this past weekend and I think I'm coming down with the flu or something cuz I'm always cold and tired at night.

Then on top of all that, I find out that Jason Kidd didn't play tonight due to migraines! I need him for my Fantasy Basketball team! =)

What the hell is wrong with me??? Time to turn this luck around!

Just A Phase I Hope

Man, it seems like nothing is going right for me lately...financially, physically, socially, work, etc.

Just in a funk I guess...I gotta snap out of it! SOON!

Just take it day by day, one by one....