71: Into the Fire

I always thought that PS I Love you was the best movie of all time, the setting was perfect, the story was perfect. I cried my heart out watching that movie, feeling the imperfect yet undying love of Holly and Gerry. Until last night I watched 71: Into the Fire  (also known as 보화 속으로) and found myself in a fetal position sobbing. I downloaded this movie last summer but never paid attention because it appealed to be dragging in the beginning. This Korean movie was released June 16, 2010 which became a major box office hit and had a gross revenue of around $20 million.  

It was based from a real-life story of 71 student soldiers who defended the Pohang Girl's Middle School and slowed down the advance of North Korea soldiers for 11 hours. The fact that they were student soldiers, they lack the skills and war tactics. The 71 soldiers were lead by Oh Jung-bom which was played by the Bigbang rapper TOP who had only been to the real combat once.

The rest were teenagers, untrained men and few criminals who wished to see a real battle. Kwon Sang Woo played the role of Kap-Jo whose parents were killed by communists and chose to live a life without regard. Cha Seun-won played as Park Mu Rang,  commander of North Korean forces who wishes to advance to the Nakdong River. Colonization of the Nakdong river spells the end of South Korea and is therefore on top priority. Most of the South Korean troops and its American allies defended the river, leaving the 71 student soldiers all by themselves. 

For me endings are as important as beginnings because it could either spoil or stride the movie and I think I just saw the most heart-warming ending. It's all embedded in my head now. I must say TOP was the most impressive because he was the most amateur in terms of acting but he kicked himself gracefully. The picture shown below was a tear jerker, watch to movie and find out why.

   

Crazy over Asia

I have been soaking myself to lots and lots of Asian series lately. City Hunter, Protect the Boss, Code Blue and the most recent Greatest Love. If ever you're interested, you can always watch these series online at http://otaku-streamers.com/ which has also numerous anime streaming list. However you must sign up for unlimited viewing. I do not usually go online streaming since it's quite time consuming. What I do is I download each video via the very convenient internet download manager. Let me recognize my computer genius Vietnamese friend for introducing this ultra fave dload manager. It is fast and easy compared to torrent, however it may slow down your computer system. 

There is also http://www.epdrama.com/ which has fewer anime list compared to that of otaku-streamers. Both otaku-streamer and epdrama gives you high resolution downloads. Only, otaku-streamer downloads faster and groups each series per episode while epdrama divides each episode into either 5 or 6 parts. Based on personal experience, otaku-streamer often encounters more webpage problems compared to epdrama so I often do dloads via epdrama for Japanese and Korean series. All of my anime dloads are from otaku-streamers. The downside for both otaku-streamer and epdrama is that scrolling is slower since they show numerous video list in their homepage. What I do is I go to http://mysoju.com/ for suggestions of what Korean or Japanese series is hot for the month. Mysoju is not ideal for dload because their videos are usually flv in format, has very poor resolution and therefore ideal for online streaming. For anime suggestions, I go to otaku discussions such as those available in otaku-streamer. The users will usually name their best slice of anime for example, and most of them has a common answer so you can never go wrong. 


For more drama and anime list, you can also visit www.crunchyroll.com and  www.dramacrazy.net respectively.  

Friends Forever

I often hear grown-ups say that if they will be given a chance to go back in time, they would rather choose high school. They had the best time of their life, lots of friends, no strenuous study load and flirty flings perhaps? I can never relate to them because my wee hours in high school was spent in the library. It was a brat's world and a naive girl's ground for inferiority complexes. We had our graduation last 2004 and I revisited only after 6 long years. It was September last year where I have to become a resource speaker for the senior's career orientation. I was entering the gate and everything was nostalgic. I confessed to my listeners that if there is one thing I am forever grateful during my high school life, that would be my friends. We shared a synonymous verve and we would like to put it "birds of the same feathers are birds." We were sophomores then, playing cards in the lobby. I must believe destiny is not exclusive to the lover's lane. We just found ourselves liking each other, laughing and sharing stories to our heart's content. 

Jo Ann's debut. Standing: Franco, Jo Ann; Sitting from left: Joseph, Claudius, Diana, Faith, me, Francis, Ivy, Frenchy

Summertime spells swimming, of course with "money and permit issues" involved. We had no extra work and dwell heavily on our parents. It was a perfect time for swearing such things will be spared in the future. College was fast but we manage to be present on each others birthdays and fiestas. Eating was the name of the game.

We are "big" girls and "big" boys now. I just realized that indeed "money and permit" issues were spared. However, it is not only destiny that we share from the lover's lane. I'd like to put our present status as "it's complicated". After 2 years of hiatus, Joseph is still not reaching. Either we had deeply hurt him, or he is simply career driven that he is not able to make time, there is only one thing I am sure of. Despite the bitterness and painful exchange of words, he will be remembered.

In the middle, Joseph during his last summer outing with us

We have issues concerning about time and as to who does and does not give effort to the group. This is neither counting the blessings nor insensibility. We agreeably call this "abnormality syndromes". We don't think alike but we live with each other. We are 24 years old and this year is our 10th together.

To indicate some degree of accomplishment, I must call ourselves young professionals. Claudius is currently working as a registered nurse while chasing his American dream. Frenchy is working in an outsourcing company at the same time trying to settle her weight issues. Diana worked in a bank but looks for greener pasture in another outsourcing company. Jo Ann finished nursing and continuously acing on fulfilling career paths. Francis is a living example of my-hobby-my job and spends time grooming his posture. Franco kept his coll as always and is into maritime industry. Ivy travels around Philippines, munching on audits and the like. Faith had been lady-like and has work in the bank ever since. As to for me, I am into a more quantitative pedagogy fighting in awe to my students. Lastly, Joseph, whom we are clueless of his whereabouts. All in all, we are immature and insane. We would not end here. As we will move forward, we will be more self reliant in the years to come. This blog is without labels, and only for the purpose of sharing what the half of my life has been. I would like to end it showing the video I made last April 2010, this was the time when they set for Camiguin while I was still away. I was envious when I first saw their pictures but my heart melted after seeing my nickname imprinted on the sand. This was meant to express my gratitude. 

PS. Have just checked my facebook post of this video, it had 10 likes and 217 comments. Turns out our biggest fans were our older brothers and sisters. OM! could this mean that though they put a sad face on our frequent meetings, they still appreciate our undying loyalty for each other?

Marian and Vince Prenup

I have this friend Frenchy, a long time gal and high school mate, who buzzed me proposing a prenup project. Of course she knew I am a desperate photographer and should I also say she has high hopes for me. Maybe because we're too close, we love our own (haha). Marian, the bride, is her best friend and my heroic friend wants this prenup be a wedding gift. In a nutshell, I was the sacrificial lamb. I was absolutely thrilled, as it has always been for first timers.  I thought this could be a stepping stone of my ever changing journey. These are just some of the pictures I took last April 17, 2011.

The shoot was at Papa Kits, Lilo-an Cebu. That day was like heaven and hell. The heat was scorching but we were so fond we did not realize our skin were already sun kissed. The couple requested some photos for display, of which I took the liberty of editing. I chose this one as the banner picture.

This one is the backdrop for the picture taking of A-list-hollywood-star-fever guests.

Later that night, I posted some photos on Facebook then Risa came claiming that Vince, the groom, was her high school mate. To top it all, it was one small world. Marian and Vince shall wed this coming Saturday, May 6, 2011.