Finals Week

Ok today, I am going to take a step away from my usual media stuff, and start talking about my life in general.  Especially right now, as a student, it is finals week.  Yes, the dreaded week of finals.  It really is a time of literally ‘hell’ for students as it is time for them to start taking in a lot of caffeine to stay awake a lot of the time.  Many of the students have sometimes have just given up on the entire thing in general.  I myself have to do 2 study guides that are both due tomorrow and of course they are both going to take up a LOT of time so probably I am not going to sleep today.

I really do want to stress to any teachers reading this (Cough Cough Mrs. Patterson) that this is a hard time for students and we would appreciate it greatly if we get all the help we can get with these tests.  Throughout my highschool career this is mostly the reason I cannot sleep at night…because we are overloaded with homework.  Then we get summer break and so that’s good but then our report cards come in…and yeah…but anyways I think it was good time spending my sophomore year.

For all you students out there, here my call.  If you understand the burden of Finals and how it can change your grade exponentially, study well and don’t cram like most of the students here.  Good luck on getting straight A’s.

Drugs: Requiem for a Dream

Wow.  Before we all begin I would like to say that this is NOT a movie review but is actually just a discussion on the topic of drugs.  Now we all know that drugs is bad and we see everyday, these commercials that hammer into our heads the fact that again, DRUGS ARE BAD!! But we really never know why they are bad or how it actually affects us, and I think that this movie accurately shows the effects of drugs and how it can help you but also kill you.

For the longest time my parents would keep on saying that there is nothing to gain from drugs, but I really never understood the true meaning of WHY or HOW.  The movie Requiem for a Dream summarizes the story of a teenage boy who tries to start a drug dealer business and of course, starts taking drugs himself.  At first it goes well, he makes a lot of money selling drugs, he starts living with the love of his life, and his mom grows skinnier so that she can wear the dress to a TV show she was apparently invited to.  But then after a run-in with a rival drug dealer, they lose most of their money, lose all their drugs, and also his mother starts to get hallucinate and turn psycho.  In the end his girlfriend turns into a prostitute to get more drugs and also his arm gets infected due to unsanitary injections which forces the hospital to amputate it.  Everything falls apart, which he realizes too late.

All in all, this is a great movie.  Although there are a lot of explicit-and-very-graphic-inappropriate-for-minors-scenes, it still gives the overall message of how it is so bad.

Review: Kung Fu Panda 2

Ok, a few things I would like to say about this movie, WOW.  This just totally blew me out of my mind.  Also please bear with me, for I am not a professional movie critic, so please no harsh comments. This is just the pure opinion of the author.

Alright I would like to start off with the fact that this movie (in my opinion) was actually better than the original.  At the start of the movie you can clearly tell that the protagonist ‘Po’ has grown significantly from his original self.  As a dragon warrior he does seem to be quite the celebrity.  Now I don’t want to spoil anything for you but you’re probably going to read the plot summary on wikipedia anyways so I might as well just give you a few hinted details.  I would say that this movie focused more on the storyline than the first one.  This isn’t your typical, children-is-the-only-ones-laughing-movie, this is a movie that everyone will enjoy.  It also focuses on Po’s background on where he came from and how he was adopted by that hilarious dad of his.  It also introduces how slowly the world’s technology is changing and the release of gun powder (I just said it!) is threatening the usefulness of Kung Fu.  Po would have to confront his past self and seek the “inner peace” that Master Shifu always talked about.

All in all, this was a fantastic movie.  I would like to say that Dreamworks, although you get compared with Pixar most of the time, you are getting better at this kind of stuff and I applaud you.  Bravo for making such a good movie.

Review: Thor, The God of Thunder

One of my last posts were about epic superhero movie called Thor.  Now I do realize that I am not one of the best movie critics out there, but I really do want to spend this blog post on how Thor actually surprised me and how (I hope) will surprise you.  When Thor actually came out, it was one of the most anticipated Superhero movies to date.  Others that will come this year is Green Lantern, The first Avenger: Captain America, and next year: The Avengers and the reboot to the Spiderman series.  Let me tell you, I was actually quite not looking forward to this movie, when I first saw it.  It seemed to have an aura of Clash of the Titansish feeling to it.  Then I realized that the famous Kenneth Branagh was the one directing it.  You know, the one who directed all the nice Shakespeare movies.  Anyways, although I had my doubts about him able to properly direct a superhero movie, I let him a try at my opinion and boy was I satisfied.

A little bit of plot story.  The movie is obviously about Thor who is a prince among all the Asgardians, mythical beings who protected the humans long ago from demonic beings called the Frost Giants.  He is a powerful warrior but is extremely arrogant (kind of like an Anakin Skywalker-character) and his actions of attacking the Frost Giants recklessly costs him his powers, his title, and is banished to earth.  He goes through the entire movie, redeeming himself and defeating his arch-nemsis and brother Loki in a battle.

Overall its a very good movie which tries to blend the two cultures together.  Interestingly its not like Transformers, where its him who tries to fight his way through the movie through awesome CGI effects, it has good popcorn laughter to it.  One scene depicts Thor going into a pet shop and demands a horse.  The movie is also not the stereotypical hero-kills-everyone-and-gets-the-girl-in-the-end-type of movie.  To those who haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it and good bye for now.

Review: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1

Harry Potter!!! The legend of both book and movie series will finally be brought to an end with this final film.  It made J.K.Rowling the first female writer to become a billionaire through her books as it is pure genius.

Before I start on this review I must note that whatever I say is pure opinion of the author and that whatever argument you would like to say, just keep it shut.  I am sorry for very rudely saying this, but I do it for the sake of others who clearly do not understand what a blog should be about, and that is about opinion.

Alright before we start talking about the 7th film, I’ll start talking about the film series in general.  I must say, I actually like the films itself.  Most of you would agree with me on that part.  I would like to boldly state that the fourth movie was actually the best movie in general before the seventh film came out.  It was the fifth movie that I got immensely disappointed with.  Unless you are an avid Daniel Radcliffe fan to the point where you would completely disregard the way the film is set up, you would all agree with me.  Although I will say that the film was not bad, it was a bad compared to the rest of the series.  It went even further downhill on the sixth movie.  It was just completely horrible.  Words on this blog cannot describe how much of a bad movie it was.  After watching the film I just started to quit on Harry Potter.  Two bad movies in a row was a little too bad for me.  Finally on 2010. Harry Potter and the deathly Hallows Part 1 was launched.  At that time I did not think it would be a good movie, but after I got some favorable reviews from a couple of friends, I decided to check it out.  The result was good.  I wonder whether it was due to the fact that it was split into two movies, but it was more into depth, there were more internal conflicts between the two characters, more of everything.  I can also really see Draco Malfoy’s gradual turn to good as we can see his emotional collision between regaining his family honor of Potter & his actual good side emerging.  I really loved the film and I expect the same or much more in part 2.  I believe the directors did a good job in making the finale of the series a very big hit.  The only fact that I was slightly disappointed about was that I do think that Voldemort as a character seems a little too “cowardish”.  He does not seem to have the aura and the menacing feeling he has we feel in the book.  He seems to be some bald guy with a fat huge nose, that just has a lot of power.  He seems to lack a little bit of authority.  But overall I do love this film and I would expect more in Part 2.

Rebecca Black…ITS!!! No its only Wednesday

OK people it has finally come.  FRIDAY FRIDAY, GOTTA GET DOWN ON FRIDAY~!!!!!  Alright I’ll stop.  The thing about this new song is that EVERYONE HATES IT.  Seriously I never saw so many haters on one singer (except Justin Bieber) that exceeded one million dislikes.  I have to admit, although it seriously was a bad song overall, I kind of feel sorry for her.  Here’s the link.

I actually looked at this video after everyone told me about it.  Of course I was always the one that gets the news very slow.  After I checked this out, I found out that this is perfect to write a review about.  First off, the fact that a 13 year old is actually a singer disturbs me.  I do not know if Justin Bieber started it, but as the years go by, stars become younger and younger.  Of course, unless they have talent that is beyond imagination such as Charice was when she was around 12.  She sang unimaginably beautiful for her age, and so Oprah Winfrey looking at this, took her and suggested her to be a singer.  Later she sang the hit single Pyramid with IYAZ.  In this case of course I do not think this is the case.  Although people who have actually met her in person said that she “sings pretty good” my speculation for her voice is the overuse of auto-tune.  Not only that I have to admit the song itself was pretty dumb.  Although she said it was something she experiences, and essentially music is supposed to be telling your emotions, no one really wants to hear an 8th grade singing about her joy of today being Friday and worrying about “which seat can I take”?  And seriously about the car, apparently she ditches the thought of waiting for the bus and suddenly hops into a car that is driven by a 13 year olds.  Then she goes to a party that usually 13 year old do not often have.  Although I have all these elements to criticize, at the same time I feel sorry for her.  She has an significant amount of haters and the only reason she became famous was merely because everyone thought of her as horrible.  Well you know what they say.  Negative attention is better than no attention at all eh?

UCLA girl Rant on Asians….

Alright before I start my little blog on the following topic, just a word of note that this blog is pure opinion supported by factual evidence, but if you have a different opinion on this, its fine.

OK, I’ve recently come across a viral video on the internet.  One of my older classmates actually told me of this.  As an Asian, I decided to check it out as the friends described a blonde girl making fun of Asians.  I checked out the video which all of you who didn’t get to see is here.  Now onto the real thing…

Well typically there has been a LOT of backlash at the video for its supposed racism and stupidity for actually putting it on one of the most widely known video portals.  Truthfully as an Asian I am not offended in the least.  Merely I worry if there are OTHER Asians out there that may have been hurt by this viral video.  I do wonder whether she thought of how putting this out would actually profit her in anyway, other than her becoming the center of criticism.  In it she also mentions the tragic Japanese tsunami and I must say, that was harsh.  As a Korean, although our rivalry with Japan is a world-wide known thing, I should say supporting Japan is the best thing to do while this clearly uneducated girl (who SOMEHOW got into UCLA) is saying how annoying it is for Asians talking the library.  OK Yes it is true that some people talk loud in the library.  Does that mean just because an Asian person did it, that only Asians talk loudly in the library?? I don’t know about you but if you did not know WE HAVE LIBRARIES IN ASIA!! *Light-bulb* didn’t know that?  If that person was still inconceivably loud as she so passionately described, than it was because he was generally a rude guy NOT because he is Asian.  Alright we are making progress.  And Yes we tend to bring our family members to cook food for us in the dorm, etc.  Who cares?? Its our custom to meet up with our family, if you do not like our customs and mock it, then that is clearly racism.

As an educated scholar like the Chancellor of UCLA seen here, said, we should respect our different ethnicity than yours so just suck it up and be quiet.  Although it doesn’t bug me at all (despite the fact some people told me it was actually directed to a Koreans) I still wonder how a student from UCLA which is one of the top 25 best schools in the world, is saying this out loud.  Even if you WERE racist, usually people would have the wit to shut their mouth and just be quiet.  Her official apology said “if I could undo it, I definitely would”.  Well girl OF COURSE, ANYONE in this situation would undo their actions for garnering so many haters.  Now UCLA is a good school and I myself was considering on going there, but here I am, 16 years old and rebuking a college student and reconsidering my goals.   Although I say again, I am not offended.  All this video proves is how naive the mind of a  “polite nice American girl that my momma raised” is.  I pray to God this does not happen again..

Green Lantern’s villain??? Who is it?

It is coming!!! One of the most anticipated movies of 2011.  The Green Lantern.  Finally some superheroes from DC comics who really has superpowers (besides superman) is going to debut in his own feature film: The Green Lantern.  Now after the superhero is introduced the next most anticipated character is who?  That is right, who will be the main villain of this new superhero movie?

You got it, it is the huge-noggin-headed scientist, Hector Hammond.  When I first found this to be true, I was a bit disappointed.  First off, I thought the villain was someone who is actually evil, not someone who has just gone mentally crazty and is planning to destroy the world because of misplaced beliefs.  Someone who is pure evil, powerful enough to rival the Green Lantern in power and he knows he is evil and enjoys it.  That is why I enjoyed the Venom villain from the Spiderman series.  Although the movie itself was not as favorable, I enjoyed how Venom became what he was, someone who knows he was the bad guy, but still he lashed his anger towards everyone else.  That was when I found out that the MAIN villain will not be Hammond, but Parallax.  Now things where starting to get more interesting as an entity that was the main rival to the Green Lanterns will finally come out.   People look forward to it and if you did not take a look at the trailer is is here.

Bruno Mars…….in trouble?

This is pretty old news to you guys but I wanna say this to my other friends.  We all know Bruno Mars, c’mon guys.  He is the “Just the way you are” singer.  He started out as the guest singer in B.o.B’s title song Nothing on You which was a hit song and earned him fame for his outstanding vocals.  For people who want to see it, it is here.  It did not end there.  He also co-wrote Cee Lo Green’s F*** You and Flo Rida’s Right Round which were all hit songs.  He then was featured on Billionaire, a song by Travie McCoy.  That song earned him fame equal to Nothing on You.  For people who want to see it, it is here.  He finally released his solo album called “Doo-woops and Hooligans”  The album produced 4 hit songs: Just the way you are, Grenade, Lazy Song, and Marry You, two of which were covered by the Glee cast.  But enough of that

Bruno Mars, on September 19, 2010 was arrested in Las Vegas for having the possession of cocaine.  He claimed that he has never done drugs before and that he made a big mistake.  He pleaded with the court for felony drug possession and because of the plea, the court decided that Mars will need to pay a 2000 dollar-fine, do 200 hours of community service, and complete a drug counseling course and if he succeeds, then the charges will be erased.  Well Bruno, whether you really wanted to do drugs or not, we do not know, but hope you get over it and show us that beautiful voice that both boy and girl want to hear.

The Korean WAVE~~~~~~

THE WAVE~~~~!!! For those who do not know what this is, you’ve been living under a rock, sorry but it is true.  You have at least heard once the term “kimchi” or “kpop”.  Yes!! It is the Korean wave.  As a Korean, I am proud to tell you all that Korea is stripping itself of its dark past and is heading towards a shining future.  The Korean wave for all those under-the-rock-souls, is the significantly increased popularity of Korean culture.  Korean food, Korean drama, Korean boy/girl bands, etc.  If you are familiar with these words, *clap* *clap*, good for you, if you don’t, its time for you to learn.

For the past years, Korea has been starting to flourish and bloom more.  We, Koreans started to win Olympics (Kim Yuna, Park Tae Hwan, etc), we started to produce drama series that were intensely popular worldwide (Winter Sonata, Coffee Prince, My Girl, Shining Inheritance, etc), also girl/boy group (B2ST, SHINee, Big Bang, 4minute, Girl’s Generation, 2NE1, etc) and international superstars (Rain, Jang Dong Gun, BoA, etc).  Of course, the new international star’s English are not as fluent as a normal American, but just give him/her time.  These stars are all Korean, and as a Korean, I have absolutely nothing to do but to brag about it .