Rule #1 : an Asian horror at its "not so best"

salam & good day all

It's movie review time (should be doing this for some time already, since the jobless me had been watching a lot of movies lately..haha), and I'm going to start with a Hong Kong horror movie I've been wanting to watch for quite some time now; Rule #1.

Language : Cantonese
Release Year : 2008
Director : Kelvin Tong
Main Casts : Shawn Yue, Ekin Cheng, Fiona Xie, Stephanie Che

*credit to original source from  Hong Kong film poster web for the movie poster.

"These 2 man, who do you think is the cop?
They both are. The one in front is in plainclothes.
So in a world that neither black nor white, never assume"

|start of movie summary|

The movie started with a very slow (as in not-so-clever-person slow) Sergeant Lee Kwok Keung (Shawn Yue) performing his patrol inside a basement parking area, and stopping a seemingly normal harmless car driving super slowly on its way out of the parking area. Apparently Sergeant Lee noticed that the car driver is not wearing the seat belt, hence stopping him for questioning. He even produced a ticket to the driver for it for good measure. Suspecting something more Sergeant Lee went over to the trunk to further check the car and found out 1 of the backlight was not functioning for the car. While checking on the backlight, there were bloods spilled over Sergeant Lee hand, and this lead to him opening the trunk where he saw a body of young girl full with blood on it. In his shock state, Sergeant Lee didn’t notice that the driver is already out of the car and before he managed to pull out his pistol he was shot by the driver. Then he was shot a few more times, with the driver or should I say the killer taunting him along the way. Just before Sergeant Lee passed out due to the all the shots, he vaguely saw the body of the girls sitting up in the trunk and tearing up her own neck before he managed to grab his pistol and shot dead the killer out of all the confusion/shock situation. Then Sergeant Lee totally passed out.

Fast forward a few scenes, Sergeant Lee was transferred to Miscellaneous Affair Department (MAD) after the incident. Apparently it did due to him not want to change his report of seeing the body sitting up in the trunk i.e. him seeing ghost. So here, in MAD is where our hero meets Inspector Wong (Ekin Cheng) who is in charge of the department. MAD is where any cases that cannot be clearly classified belong to any other departments in the police force were handed to i.e. ranging from prank calls to over suspicious old lady and also surely, ghost matters.

And the rule number one in MAD is “there is no ghost”.

|end of movie summary|



Rule #1 has all the potential to be a very good Asian horror movie. It has all the ingredient of good typical Asian horror movie.

- Slow paced with sudden very well placed burst of pace? Sure, it is not as slow as the Japanese horror movie but still I thought for a HK horror movie, the pace of the movie is just nice. So, checked.
- Good story line? Definitely. I thought this is 1 of the movie strong point. Checked.
- Good acting? I thought Ekin Cheng was very good in his role as an outgoing chief of department. It’s not really easy watching him and not thinking of Chan Ho Nam you know, so credit to him for able to make that. Shawn Yue was decent enough, even though I do not really like his portrayal of a police officer at the start of the movie. Other than that, he did OK in my opinion. So, I checked this.
- Long black haired ghost? Sure, every Asian horror had it. Checked.
- Hot chick? Of course. Checked again.
- Twist at the end? If you let your mind into the movie without really thinking that much, you’ll enjoy the twist a lot more. Checked.

I love it when a movie does not keep you guessing too much on the main concept of the storyline. The let-the-audience-make-up-their-own-mind-on-the-story type of movie is fine with me, as long as the main concept of the story is established. And this story did that, firmly established the main concept of ghost. That is a major plus for this movie.

The twist also is very good. Like I mentioned earlier, if we let our mind into the movie storyline without much deliberating on what everything is all about, the twist is quite good.

However, my main gripe with this movie is that 1 of the major scene showed to us viewers are totally different to what actually happened as being revealed nearing the end of the movie. The incident I meant is the old school incident, the 1st scene with Inspector Wong, his ex-wife and Sergeant Lee . I just could not accept that in any movie. I mean, do all you want to add to the suspense, twist, riddle etc of the movie but never, and I mean NEVER use a false scene altogether to create them.

I know that the movie started with “in a world that neither black nor white, never assume”, but this is not us as a viewer assuming. This is the director planted a scene that never was in the storyline to add to the twist revealed at the end of the movie. And what was the function of the police chase scene at the start of the movie other than to establish the tagline as per mentioned above? A missed opportunity for this movie I guess.

With all the above being said, my overall rating for the movie is

5/10 – a strong premise for an Asian horror story with good acting but spoiled by the scene that never happened pictured as major scene and impacting the ending of the movie.

I do wonder whether we have our own MAD or not in our police force :-p

ciao.

dinner semalam....best

salam & good day all

seminggu jugak aku tak update blog ni, Arsenal kalah punya pasai...hahaha. tensen aku, tambah lagi tensen dengan a few other issues, terus takdak mood aku nak update. selalu aku cakap kat bini aku; 'tak rasa la nak tulis apa2'. so macam tu la

sampai la semalam dinner time. bini aku buat segala macam benda pon dia grill..hehehe. atas request aku jugak. pernah sekali masa aku kat Malaysia tengok dia masak menda ni kat Melbourne ni, macam sedap saja. aku pon request la semalam dia buat camtu gak. tengok pon rasa macam dah sehat sikit, belum makan lagi ;-)

maka, terjadilah dinner kami semalam dengan makanan macam gambaq kat bawah ni

 

benda2 makan dalam pinggan2 gambaq atas ialah

1. ayam drumstick
2. ayam kepak
3. ayam fillet
4. asparagus
5. carrot
6. terung (urgghhh...tapi ku telan jua)
7. tomato (urgghhh x2..tapi ku telan jua)

semuanya grill, dan terasa sunggoh sehat. maka dengan ini aku berikrar akan belajar macam mana nak buat masakan ni sebelom aku balik Malaysia :-)

tu la dulu buat masa sekarang. nanti update lagi. ciao.

operasi mencari McDonald halal di Melbourne; MISSION GOOOOO!!!!

salam & good day all

hari Sabtu lepas bini aku jumpa supervisor untuk review terakhir lukisan2 final project dia. bila supervisor dia dah kata everything looks good, happy semacam la makcik sorang ni..hehe. terus dia ajak aku meng'initiate'kan operasi mencari McDonald halal di Melbourne. aku pon apa lagi, terus sarung kasut ja

disclaimer : operasi mencari ni untuk aku sahaja. bini aku dah memang pernah merasa dah McDonald halal kat Melbourne. so sebenarnya bukan la operasi, cuma bini aku nak tunjuk kat mana McDonald halal kat Melbourne ni ja...muehehehehe

MISSION GOOOOO!!!

from left : ketua pasukan operasi memulakan perjalanan.
kelmarin lunch tapau kat sini la. kebab ayam dia ma rvellous!!

from left : tu dien dah nampak dah tram stop.
ketua pasukan operasi enterframe...bwahahahah

from left : stop #4 untuk menunggu tram ke McDonald halal. tram #1 atau #8.
tu dien tram #1 mai dah. masuk, jangan tak masuk.
then berenti kat tram stop #127 untuk ke McDonald Brunswick. 

from left : daripada jauh dah nampak McDonald.
sebagai menghargai ketua pasukan operasi, bagi la dia enterframe banyak2 kali sikit.

from left : ketua pasukan operasi melangkah masuk untuk melengkapkan operasi.
halal certificate untuk McDonald ni.
sekali tengok staff McDonald ni macam muka somebody kat Scope Int daaa...

from left : haul for the day, 3 burgers, 2 fries and 2 drinks.
amek hang, the damage to the pocket. AUD22.05

from left : pandangan atas.
pandangan sisi.
pandangan hadapan dengan kotak burger sudah dibukak maksudnya...sudah ready untuk di NGAP...muehehe

maybe akan ada orang kata "ceh! pi jauh2 sampai Australia susah2 pulak nak makan McD. bukan takdak kat Malaysia". tu la hangpa taktau, sebab dah ada kat sini la kena rasa McDonald halal tengok, bukan senang ni nak jumpa. tapi rasa dia tak banyak beza pon la. tadi bini aku baru cakap yang KFC halal kat sini rasa dia lain, so the next operasi will be untuk mencarik KFC halal la pulok..muehehehehe.

semalam selepas mengerah tenaga berjalan kaki mencari tempat printing lukisan2 bini aku, berenti jap makan kat Blok M. nanti2 la aku buat entry pasal tu. tapi apa yang aku bole kata, menu Ikan Balado dia memang terbaik la. till then, ciao.

pictureOfTheMoment updated 101031

salam & good day all

as per the entry title, aku update pictureOfTheMoment hari ni dengan gambar stesen tram mana patut berhenti kalau nak carik McDonald halal kat Melbourne ni. stesen #127 ye tuan2 dan puan2 :-)

more on that in the later entry. ciao.

short summary on the match last night; Alex Song rocksss!!!!!!!

salam & good day all.

last night the plan was to watch both Arsenal match and also the Malaysia Cup finale match, but as I actually already expected I was not able to watch the Malaysia Cup finale due to no online streaming available for the match. even the RTM website doesn't help much, when they actually advertised in their official website that they have the online streaming service. but then, that should not really surprised me eh? hehe

anyway, was able to watch the Arsenal vs West Ham league match, and my hope for not-so-cold weather was fulfilled. maybe because it's already raining all day hence the night doesn't feel all that cold anymore. my short summary of the match as per below.

The Starting 11.

as per predicted in my previous post, le Boss will start Andy instead of Theodore in the LWF position. well, maybe some other time we'll be able to see Theodore on that said position as a starter.

The Substitutes.

Theodore for Denny Boy (min 67)

Super Nik for Andy (min 80)

Manu Eboue for Marouane (min 90)

The Final Result.

Arsenal 1-0 West Ham

Alex Song min 87

The Team Performance.

sure we all love the 4-0, 5-1 win but sometimes this kind of result will tell you more about the team. we keep on going with our game up until the final minutes, and I like it very much. we never gave up with our football identity up until the end, and in the end it proved to be just enough for 3 points. yup, 3 points is what matter the most with both Chelsea and Man U also winning their respective league match last night.

to sum it up, I am very proud with the team performance last night.

The Individual Performances.

standout performances from the defensive unit as a whole. they've look a lot better as a unit in recent matches. I'm not sure it's the effect of new found confidence in Lukasz or the effect of leadership from our new signing especially Seba who we all can see is vocal during the match. maybe it's the combination of both. Bak and Gael even go forward on attack with purpose and final ball now. Lukasz did his job very well again last night. and something I noticed was that our back 4 was all French last night. must be only the second time that happened.

Cesc was clearly carrying a knock, and still able to provide a number of killer passes. Samir took the deep lying playmaker role quite well when Theodore came in the second half. and Alex Song, our marauding midfield maestro. I guess people will not complain now that he always seems to found himself in the attacking moves which supposedly left his 'purpose' as a defensive midfield. bullshit la I tell you, we never played with defensive midfielder no more this season.

disappointing performances from Andy and Denny Boy. and to a lesser extent; Marouane. Marouane looks really tired and he could use a period of resting now that Nik is back. Denny lost the ball too much for my liking, and most of them are from his own mistakes i.e. heavy first touch and lack of positional awareness. surely Jack will take back his place now that he had finished serving his 3 match ban.

and on to Andy. let's give him a place on the bench for few games eh le Boss. can be good to rest him, he seems to always played an awful lot of international matches. cannot be help la I think since he is the Russia international team captain. but also, and more importantly maybe he will realize that he can be dropped if he keep on performing as how he's been doing so far this season. I'm quite sure Theodore will relish his opportunity to play on the left side if he got it.

The MOTM.

surely Robert Green deserve the MOTM for the match, but from our side I'm choosing Alex Song to be our MOTM.

that's it for now. and oh, Kelantan win Malaysia Cup after getting their revenge on N9 from last year final. congrats to them. ciao.

West Ham coming to the Emirates. and also Malaysia Cup finale; both tonight

salam & good day all

it'll be a late night again for me tonight as Arsenal will be playing at home to West Ham in a London derby league match at 0100 my local time. I just hope it won't be 9 degree celsius again as what I experienced last week, TWICE. it was so cold, I was shivering on both occasions.

anyway, we are coming to this match on the back of back-to-back away clean sheet victories last week. wow! it is actually feels weird to say that. I mean how often did we have a clean sheet recently, not to mention back-to-back away at that. maybe there are some hope for our GK department after all..hehe. we are still without Robin, Kieran and the Verminator through injuries. we also be without Jack as he'll be serving his last match suspension from the red card he received during the match against Birmingham. Aaron is still on his road to recovery. I don't think we'll see him playing at all this year, while I fully expect him to start his on-field recovery next year. anything good occurs during this year will be considered bonus for me.

with that being said, I'm hoping that we'll start like this tonight.

I always want to see how Theodore will do on the left side of our attacking pay ala King Henry used to do last time around. and with Andy mixture performances this season we should be trying it now, at home against opposition who known to play open football (but then who knows maybe they'll park the bus also tonight..hahaha). adding the ammo to that suggestion is that now Samir had proved to be an excellent goal threat also. my understanding of why le Boss keep on playing Andy even though at times (and most of the times to be honest) he doesn't bring much into our play was that Andy provides excellent goal threats. and in our team especially when Cesc was not available we just do not have enough of it (goal threats) to be able to drop Andy.

but I know that le Boss will start with Andy on the LWF position tonight. so let's just hope for the best. I know we will win as long as we keep on attacking from the very 1st minute.

also tonight is a Malaysia Cup finale, a repeat of last season final between Kelantan and Negeri Sembilan. I'm still looking around the net for a way to watch this online, even though I'm not expecting much. here's hoping for a good match, for the sake of Malaysian football.

ciao.

insiden sorang2 dan memalukan pagi sabtu

salam & good day all

my other half went to see her supervisor for early round of final reviews for her final project, so aku sorang2 kat rumah pagi tadi. lepas kemas2 rumah, aku pon masuk toilet nak mandi. tiba2...

(bunyi berdering2 seperti bunyi telefon)
aku : (bergegas2 keluar dari toilet dan angkat telefon) hello
(bunyi berdering2 masih kedengaran)
aku : hello hello..moshi moshi
(bunyi berdering2 berhenti)
aku : (sambil menoleh dan melihat pintu)ceh, bunyi interkom ropa2nya

ya, sunggoh bengong aku. bunyi interkom pon tak perasan dan pi angkat talifon pulak..muehehehehe

ciao.