Song : 陳奕迅 - 於心有愧

Another nice song from Eason's latest album. Somehow I like it better than 七百年後.



陳奕迅 ~ 於心有愧

曲: 鍾達茵
詞:林夕
編: Gary Tong
監: Pam Chung / Davy Chan / C. Y. / Eason

如果我聽歌可眼紅 何以待你好偏不懂
自細做過多少美夢 慈悲的偉論
連乞丐喊窮心也痛
竟怕放懷擁抱你 讓你露歡容
追悔無用 轉眼發現 你失蹤

曾聽說過 你某夜結婚 未曾露笑容
實在不敢知道我是元兇

大概當初我未懂得顧忌
年少率性害慘你
令人受傷滋味 難保更可悲
這心地 再善良終生怎去 向你說對不起

良心有愧 原來隨便錯手
可毀了人一世
立志助世人脫貧以為
便偉大到像多麼有為
這種剌蝟 連誰曾待我好
都可帶來傷勢
被我害過來接受我跪
是我在製造眼淚居然想救世

就算積儲獻盡飢荒赤地
而太多債沒處理
累人累己滋味 餘生也記起
數一數 我實情不只得你要說句對不起

良心有愧 原來隨便錯手
可毀了人一世
立志助世人脫貧以為
便偉大到像多麼有為
這種剌蝟 連誰曾待我好
都可帶來傷勢
被我害過來接受我跪
是我在製造眼淚居然想救世

良心有愧 原來隨便錯手
可毀了人一世
立志助世人脫貧以為
便偉大到像多麼有為
這種剌蝟 連誰曾待我好
都可帶來傷勢
內疚內疚內疚沒作為
直到某年某日我能安息於葬禮

仍想你一家可到齊

Trailer - Sherlock Holmes (2009)

First glimpse of Sherlock Holmes starred Robert Downey Jr as Holmes.

Hmm...from the trailer it depart greatly from the usual Granada production style. More action packed, modern style jokes here and there with a bizarrely Victorian era James Bond feel. Hope that it will have a nice does of Holmesian deduction reasoning.

Thing is, this not clean-shaven Holmes does bear a striking resemblance of Dr House ay? What to do, if Holmes is Bond, the House is Indiana Jones. Any idea what kind of trivia I'm referring to? go Wiki for Jones.

Now this is Dr House...Elementary, my dear Wilson.

Review : Pink Flamingos (1972) - WARNING GROSS MATERIAL PRESENT!!!

Pink Flamingos is consider one of the greatest cult films that deserve to at least one viewing for any movie-goer. First released in 1972, directed by John Waters and star a drag Divine and Waters's Dreamlanders, which are those actors who he frequently use and star mostly in his films.

This film is notorious for its blunt portrayal of taboo act, nudity and bad taste. Don't get me wrong. This is not a straight film that fail artistically, but instead it is mean to be made as bad taste and down right campy.

The plot is simple and ultimately stupid, two criminal families fighting over a title called "The Filthiest Person Alive". This is not a title honored by a certain organization, but just a gag by a local tabloid when making a story of Divine, the main character or protagonist in this film. To prevent disappointment, the so call criminal families are not Mafia families. There is no wise guy dress in expensive Italian suit, or tommy gun or and Don. This two families are made of perverts, and the crime they commit are those that will other prison inmates to wallop and bitch them, if ever they ever get caught. To know more, please click the hyperlink to Wiki and you'll know what I mean.

From left: Divine's Mother, Divine and her travelling companion.

If some think the Genuine Pigs series are the grossest thing ever made into video, I think most probably they never seen Pink Flamingos. Please do not get the wrong idea again. Although this film has a certain degree of violence, but it is below the level presented in the Japanese series. That makes this film gross is, sigh...

- Divine is a fat and ugly Ah-gua
- She have a very disgusting mum
- Her son having sex with his date while crushing a chicken in between them
- Divine's rival send her shit as birthday present
- Divine's friends give her among others, a pigs head as birthday present

- One of Divine's friend lip sync a song using his anus
- The sex of Divine's rival family is just disgusting (they lick each other's toe)
- Divine pay back her rival by licking and dropping saliva on their home and furniture
- Divine give oral sex to her son etc

and the most shocking, disgusting, grossest scene is in the final scene, where Divine eats a freshly pooed dog shit. Given the pathetic budget of the film, I don't think there is any special effect involve. It should be a real thing.

The Genuine Pig series excel in their special effects on blood and gore, but that's it. But Pink Flamingo presents and imprint their disgusting act deeply in viewers' mind. The worst will be the shit eating scene. People still can stand watching a person get decapitated with blood spraying out, but eat shit? Real dog shit?

But anyway, it is still entertaining cause the campiness and over bad taste is sure worth a laugh.

Don't believe it? Here's the scene, WARNING: IT'S REALLY GROSS!

Tokusatsu in Review 05 - Kamen Rider J (1994)

Kamen Rider J...J for Jiant?

Kamen Rider J, the last of the movie rider, the last lead rider where Okamoto Jiro don the suit. The worst rider flick and the first (and only I insist, I hope, I pray) rider than can grow into giant Ultraman size.

Since ZO has nothing new to offer, I think the production crew has come to a bottleneck, and perhaps after a few packs of Marlboro and a dozen bottle of sake, some boo zoo suddenly said "Make him a giant, Ultra-Kamen!!!" Fuck~!

Trailer

The lead actor for human form...forgettable. The rider design, almost like ZO; maybe they took ZO design and just made some changes.

The bad guys, known as Fog Mother. Guess the writers have some row with their mum. Won't suggest this as a Mother's Day flick.

The evil mother, I mean Fog Mother.

Fog Mother has three hench dudes, a little too much for a 45 minutes flick. As like ZO, zero character development and almost no sincerity in production.

Evil Hench Dudes in human disguise and monsters.

Unlike multiform rider, giant rider obviously is suicide, as this concept never being explored again; unless you count the evil rider in Kiva's movie. But that is not Ultraman like giant, just bigger.

Nothing much to say, this is like a final nail to the coffin and there is no any new rider appeared in the 90s. Hence, the end of Dark Age for Kamen Rider franchise.

J and ZO later has a 8 minutes movie. Should have named the movie Kamen Rider Dumb and Dumber. Who approve such dumb designs anyway?

Tokusatsu in Review 04 - Kamen Rider ZO (1993)

Kamen Rider ZO, he does looks a bit dumb.

A year after Shin, Kamen Rider ZO arrived to the theater. It is the first movie rider that appears only in feature film, being a the first join production between Toei Company Limited and Bandai.

From here onwards, most new rider monster will follow such concept.

In this film we can see the union of things the production crew learnt from Black, RX and Shin. This rider costume, like Black and RX, has no fabric. It is sleek and clean, the only downside is instead of a henshin belt, it spot some sort of a gem in his ab. The effect from Shin is, the monster is very organic looking. Instead of those bulky rubber suit in previous series, the monster anatomy is more humanoid which makes them more flexible and fight better.

Bad guy boss is a machine?

Being a 48 minutes show, without a series to equip the audience with the character background, the characterization and the motivation is almost non-existent. I got a feeling this production's purpose is to squeeze a Kamen Rider to the theater and remind the public of the existence of Kamen Rider franchise.

The villain looks cooler, I actually hope he wins!

Plot wise, typical if not boring. Action wise,is Ok, since the suit action is the very same with Black. In fact all 90s riders are played by the same person - Okamoto Jiro.

The bike is transformable, and looks like its owner. Reminds me of Batter Hopper.

Sadly, it does not offer anything new and we are lucky they never make a series out of it.

ZO Henshin

Tokusatsu in Review 03 - Shin: Kamen Rider Prologue (1992)

No, this is not a cool baddy. This is Shin Kamen Rider.

Three years! Three years after the lackluster RX, they gave us this, Shin Kamen Rider, literally "The Real" Kamen Rider, or so they hoped. It is said that this is based on the utmost representation of Kamen Rider as envisioned by its creator Shotato Ishinomori. Well, since he is the creator of Rider, we can't argue, but this show really derive greatly from all other riders.

For a start, it is not a series, but a video special entitled Shin: Kamen Rider Prologue. Since it is a 'prologue', it is safely to deduce that they may want to make a follow up, maybe a feature film or a TV series. But since it is almost universally panned by the purist, they idea never come into reality.

While some embrace the new take on this old franchise, most detest it. Reason being it is too bloody different. The rider in this case is not a cyborg like being, but a mutant. A human being genetically manipulated with some grasshopper DNA and become this mutant. It has a bug like features,along with the iconic tentacles, but unlike other riders (especially No 1 and No 2) where they can be unmasked i.e. take the helmet off, this rider is transformed Incredible Hulk like into this fearsome being. It is not technology based, it is more to organic based.

Another thing is, this rider never rides in its transformed form. He only rides when he is the human form. Thus Kamen Rider, meaning masked rider really cannot be apply to him. Furthermore, he does not have those signature move like rider punch or rider kick, and lacks of the fancy belt which plays a big part is almost all rider story. He doesn't even has a henshin move. He just change when he is pissed off, hence Incredible Hulk like.

Shin Henshin...

The mood of the story is much darker and grimmer than Black, with far more violence scene, and being credited as the first and only rider show to have a topless scene of a woman and nudity. Reason being, this production celebrates the 20th anniversary of the franchise, and the producers think that those kid growing up watching rider shows since this first rider should have enjoy this adult version take.

The bad guys in this video is lacklusterly named "The Syndicate" and a campy take on the American CIA. It does have several monsters but is all the evil cousin of Shin.

Based on this screenshot, one may take as baddies fighting each other.

Overall, the production is not bad. It can be a solid FX flick if the plot got polished up a bit. If you watch it without thinking it is a Kamen Rider show, the special effect really will put you in aw and you will enjoy it. But too bad, thanks to RX, the 90s is the dark age for Kamen Rider, not because the stories take a dark view, but none of the early 90s idea really works...

Tokusatsu in Review 02 - Kamen Rider Black RX (1988 - 1989)

This is the direct sequel for Kamen Rider Black, where the protagonist is the same guy, but was capture by new evil organization in the beginning of the series and thrown to space. The sun however, manage to cause some reaction to him and thus "upgraded" permanently into Kamen Rider Black RX.

Frankly I have the DVD but do not watch it as keen as Black, most of the time I fast-forward it. The plot is predictable anyway.

The Opening

Departing from the dark and grim nature, RX is back to the campness that is thought to have ended since Black. Maybe the producer think this will become more kid friendly, but since most kid shows in Japan is dark in nature (try calculate the body count in Dragonball series, its more than all James Bond films combined!!!), why ever bother?

As mentioned in the entry for Black, the presume death of Shadowmoon means the protagonist is freed from his internal conflict, and now he is a boring happy go lucky guy and worries not on how to save his brother, but more to how made spoiled brats happy.

The campy Crisis Empire where I don't bother to name them one by one.

The evil organization this time is not that cool ancient cult, but an alien race known as the campy Crisis Empire. Yeah, it does sounds like a parody kind of name like Dr Evil, not at all intimidating. The character designs of this aliens are simply depressing.

Yeah, Kamen Rider drives...

RX is credited as the first rider to have multiple forms - Robo Rider and Bio Rider, where the ability he discovered as the series grows. It is also the first and only rider to have a car, thus it won't be too much to call him a Kamen Driver. The main finishing move is no longer a rider kick, but an attack using his light saber.

Lightsaber, see?

Roborider and Biorider

Roborider with his custom ride.

Biorider with his custom ride.

This series also revealed that Shadowmoon did not dies in the Black series, but the character was killed of in this series, where he experience some kind of Darth Vader plot - during the final minutes of his life, he regain his memory and save some lives. Yeah, it's typical and down right soapy.

While Black battles Gorgom all alone, with a few non-rider allies, RX plays cheat, like most of his senior where in the final episode, all previous riders appear to help him on the showdown with the campy Crisis Empire in a very campy kind of finishing.

If he summon them all in the beginning, we don't have to suffer 47 episodes of this series.

Maybe because this considered one of the least favourite rider series, there is no other rider series after this. There are a couple of rider movies and one prelude, but none able to develop into a series, until the franchise revival in the Heisei era.

RX has been used by Saban to be made as a spin-off of power rangers. But the production is so shitty it is universally panned. This made people hate this RX character more.

Video : Kamen Rider G

Kamen Rider G, not a series, but a special production to promote the Kamen Rider Decade series. It is a tribute to both Showa and Heisei rider series, with elements from both eras combined in it. Kamen Rider G is played by Goro Inagaki, of the popular SMAP boy band.

It is quite a funny show, though.

The obvious are

Showa elements:
- The Rider's design.
- The plot where the protagonist was kidnapped, brainwashed and altered into a cyborg.
- The design of the evil organization's emblem.
- The stunt where the rider on his bike jumps over an explosion, this is a rather standard scene on most opening in Showa series.

Heisei elements:
- Henshin device and concept echos the one from Kabuto.
- The use of elaborated, transformable weapon.
- Finishing Rider Kick similar to Faiz.
- The appearance of all 10 main riders from the Heisei series.

Moral of the story, if you are a terrorist, don't drink during a mission.

Part 1/2


Part 2/2

Trailer 3 : Transformers : Revenge of the Fallen (2009)

So, it's more than just robots fighting and Michael Bay blowing up things. Looks like there's a nice plot to follow...