Category Archives: Drama/Film

Nostalgia : Reminiscing – The Last Unicorn

I was chatting to arawr earlier and she happened to be lurking on our own blog. That what a good time we had blogging and how we should just change our blog name to M.W.W.W. Manga whenever we want. I Loled so hard.

But save that for later. Allow me to reminisce about The Last Unicorn. Or more like fake reminiscing since I never watched or heard of it until last week. Isn’t the Renaissance style picture of The Last Unicorn so befitting for M.W? Since we’re almost non-existent.

I came across The Last Unicorn when I bought a shirt with the poem from the novel embroidered on it. It was thought provoking deep and also plain depressing. But, I was never a bunch of sunflowers anyway. On the shirt contained part of the poem called Eli’s Song and here it is below:

What is plucked will grow again,
What is slain lives on,
What is stolen will remain—
What is gone is gone.

What is sea-born dies on land,
Soft is trod upon.
What is given burns the hand—
What is gone is gone.

Here is there, and high is low;
All may be undone.
What is true no two men know—
What is gone is gone.

Who has choices need not choose.
We must, who have none.
We can love but what we lose—
What is gone is gone.

If this isn’t the epitome of beauty and sadness merged into one, I have no idea what is.

I knew this poem had to be from somewhere, so I researched and found out it was from The Last Unicorn. There’s something extraordinarily dangerous about the topic of unicorns. From my experience, the idea of unicorns always induces jokes or other ‘nasty’ connotations. Say the word unicorn and I think of this large teenage boy attempting to fly screaming “I’m a unicorn,” as a joke between his friends. But basically, I was a bit taken back. When I first saw the poster picture of The Last Unicorn, it felt incredibly nostalgic, it was the same feeling I got when I re-watched Fern Gully except I never even heard let alone watched The Last Unicorn before. This was the type of movie we all watch as kids and hold onto because we grew up with them. Forget the Disney movies, these movies were more in lined with the Ghibli films because of one thing, they don’t exactly have a happy ending which I believe contributes hugely to their epic-ness-ness. Continue reading

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Spoilers – Fullmetal Alchemist: Milos no Sei naru Hoshi (The Sacred Star of Milos)

Fullmetal Alchemist: Milos no Sei naru Hoshi (The Sacred Star of Milos) / 劇場版 鋼の錬金術師 嘆きの丘(ミロス)の聖なる星

 

Criminal Melvin, serving his sentence at the prison in Central City for robbery, escapes from jail, and heads West. Ed and Al chase him to the Milos City, where they meet mysterious girl Julia Criton, member of an organization called “Black Bat”.

Genre: Action, Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, Shounen

Aired 2nd July 2011

Directed by Muraya Kazuya and produced by Bones and FUNimation Entertainment

Rate NC16 for blood spamming

Official Website

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This is quite sad, but on Saturday night – for the first time ever, in my life – I watched an anime on big screen. Fullmetal Alchemist: Milos no Sei naru Hoshi was screened for only two days, and my brother immediately snapped up 3 tickets for us siblings – but even then it was half full. On the day itself, I was so excited to see that tickets were sold out. They even gave us a free FMA poster! Life as an anime fan is pretty sad for me, since there’s only one person in my life (who isn’t related to me) who holds a passion for manga and anime up to my level (hi chungky). Even then, chungky’s a shoujo fan while I’m a shounen one. Whatever it is, it was an unbelievably wonderful experience to be sitting in the cinema watching the movie with other fans, enjoying and laughing the movie together.

Okay, I live such a sad life I’m becoming sappy. Moving on.

I would write a review for this, but I have a feeling that not many out there have watched it. So I’ll be nice and just spit out what happened from A to Z. Bear in mind that I’ve only watched this once, and the highlight for the movie for me were all the alchemy action scenes so some details may be a little blurry. Some of the sequence of events may not be in correct sequence, and I may have omitted some of the happenings but I’m pretty sure I’ve got the gist of it. Also, the pictures in this post are really blurry and are kinda really almost ultra LQ since I just took snapshots from various trailers. So for all that may be wrong and unpretty, I’ll apologize here in advance.

The setting of the movie is at the border of the two countries, Amestris and Creta. Ed and Al go all the way there chasing a fugitive, and they get dragged into the whole political-terrorism whish whash between Creta and the people of Milos who want to take their country back.

If you’re planning on watching the movie sometime soon, you don’t have to worry if you can’t stay until the end of the credits since I assure you there’s nothing there. This was what made my movie experience quite sweet – even when the credits were rolling and the lights had turned on, hardly anybody got up from their seats. And when there was nothing after the credits, there was a disappointed ‘awww…’ from all of us. Ahh, the sweet experience…!

Spoilers start after the break!

Continue reading

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2NE1TV Live Worldwide Sneak Preview: “I Welcome You to My World, 2-N-E-1!”

Last friday (15/07/12), Manga Weekend had the opportunity to attend an sneak preview of 2NE1TV Live Worldwide which was held in Los Angeles, California, U.S.A. You might understand that Arawr and I aren’t in the U.S.A so we engaged our friend and ally, Amelie, who stays in L.A to enjoy the exclusive preview and guest blog for us!

Here we go!

 The 2NE1TV Live Worldwide sneak preview was held in the CGV Cinema in Korea town and began at around 7:45 p.m. pacific time. My partner on this mission and I began our quest to the sneak preview as soon as we could in the crowded city of Los Angeles. Fans of 2NE1 were lined up patiently outside the venue, while workers frantically ran around making sure everything was well prepared. During the wait, people were cheering, waving their arms in the air, and singing along to the music; a camera man continued to escalate up and down the stairs to get shots of the fans as they waved to the camera and shouted their love to 2NE1.  Continue reading

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2NE1TV LIVE: WORLDWIDE Premieres on MNET July 17th!

Hello everyone! MARK YOUR DATES.

We have something special to share with you today about an upcoming reality TV show –  ‘2NE1TV LIVE: WORLDWIDE’  about the hawt Korean Pop-Group 2NE1 which will premiere on Mnet, the ultimate TV network on for Asian Culture. Continue reading

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Art of Animation: ‘Watch Me Move: The Animation Show’ at the Barbican Centre, London

Exciting news for Londoners and visitors! I didn’t get this news until I was watching BBC on the telly the other day.

There’s an Animation exhibition at the Barbican Art Gallery from 15th of June to 11th of September. It’s one of the largest animation exhibitions featuring more than 100 years of history.

I condensed most of the information into this:

For the first time, there is an exhibition set to bring a whole variety of works featuring a history of over 100 years of animation. Many popular artists, film-makers and studios such as Walt Disney, Pixar and Studio Ghibli will be represented. I’m particular excited about Studio Ghibli since most of their work are my favourite movies! Continue reading

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Boku to Tsuma no 1778 no Monogatari / 1,778 Stories of Me and My Wife

Boku to Tsuma no 1778 no Monogatari  (僕と妻の1778の物語) / 1,778 Stories of Me and My Wife

Director: Mamoru Hoshi

Writer: Mayumura Taku (novel), Hanzawa Ritsuko

Genre: Drama, Romance

Production Company: Toho

After sci-fi writer Sakutaro ( Tsuyoshi Kusanagi ) learns that his wife Setsuko ( Yuko Takeuchi ) has colon cancer, he takes the advice from his doctor that laughter helps the immune system. Sakutaro then writes a short story for his wife every day.

This isn’t an anime, manga and neither is it one of those 50 or 90 minute dramas. So why post it in MW? It’s just that I strongly feel that it is one of the most touching, heart warming stories I’ve ever come across.

I was on a 12 hour flight back home, and picked out Boku to Tsuma no 1778 no Monogatari, or 1,778 Stories of Me and My Wife for my first movie. Towards the end, I was gnawing my pillow (very hygienic) so I wouldn’t look like some clichéd, weeping, heart-broken girl on the plane. Continue reading

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Summer Adaptations – Ikoku Meiro no Croisée & Usagi Drop

I’m back home now for my summer holidays, so I decided to make this post a little manga sneak peak for two of the upcoming anime this Summer 2011, Ikoku Meiro no Croisée and Usagi Drop.

Before that though, if you want the summaries and trailers for most of the summer anime, you can go check out squidoo. Hope it helps! =D

Moving on!

Ikoku Meiro no Croisée (異国迷路のクロワーゼ)

Manga-ka: Takeda Hinata

Genre: Historical, Romance, Shounen, Slice-of-life

During the second half of the 19th century, Europe became intrigued by the Japanese culture. A Japanese girl named Yune travels to France, where she started working in the lower parts of a town in Paris at a craft store called Enseignes du Roy. She and the store owner named Claude communicate with each other in order to get over their cultural differences. This is the story of Yune’s stay in Paris.

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I picked this up shortly before I realised it would be aired in the summer, and I have to say that it is definitely one of the anime that I am really looking forward to. From the art, to the story, to the characters and setting… everything is just simply so beautifully executed.

After reading it the first time round, I really wanted to mushroom it. It’s the 21st century, and having to live and study in a foreign country hasn’t been that easy for me – I can only imagine that it should be about 50 times worse for the main character in the 19th century, who knows next to nothing about French culture or its language. Topping it off with the fact all it took for her to travel halfway across the world was her thirst for French culture (and that she’s a kid) makes Ikoku Meiro no Croisée  really something that is worth reading. Continue reading

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Moshidora Live-Action Film!

Well now. Moshi Koukou Yakyuu no Joshi Manager ga Drucker no Management wo Yondara, or (since hardly anybody would be able to memorize that) more commonly known as Moshidora, has ended. Ironically, although it was one of the last (if not the last) anime to start airing this spring, it has now finished. Done. Adapted from the top-selling book of the year by Natsumi Iwasaki, 10 episodes flew past us in about 2 weeks while the rest that started ages ago have just reached half that. Oh well.

Anyway I really did like Moshidora. I wouldn’t say I’m obsessed with it or anything, but it was a nice high school baseball anime drama. It was a nice change in the sense that instead of trying to strengthen the team by pumping their players up or coming up with awesomely wicked strategies, they tackled it through management. The whole thing was kinda predictable and the OP was a tad bit annoying but whatever. It was enjoyable.

So enjoyable (and popular), in fact, that it’s being adapted into a live-action film on 4th July, 2011.

Produced by Akimoto Yasushi and starring Maeda Atsuko from AKB48 as Kawashima Minami (the whole film is pretty AKB48 centric), I suppose it’s going to just be a repeat of everything that we’ve already watched. Except that it’s, you know. Live-action.

And I have to say, when I saw the pitcher dude who’s acting as Asano – for some reason, I thought… “Wow. He really looks like he just stepped out from some 80’s baseball manga.” Does anyone else share this feeling or is it just me??

Wish I could say more but have to get back to studies now. Just really felt like sharing this =P

Sources

The Official Website

Tokyo Graph

Nippon Cinema

and inevitably,

Wikipedia

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Manga-Talk/Drama-Talk: High School Debut Live-Action Film

Speak of the devil. I just released my High School Debut Vol 1 review and thanks to wordpress for automatically generating ‘possibly related posts,’ I found out there was a HSD live-action film to be released this Spring 2011.

Here’s where I obtained the news even though it’s been months: Junpei Mizobata, Ito Ono star in “High School Debut” Continue reading

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