Let me just clarify before I start with my review on the adapted graphic novel version of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button originally by F. Scott Fitzgerald that I have not yet watched the movie! So if you HAVE watched it and is going to COMMENT here (or talk to me in one form or another..) PLEASE PLEASE don't ruin it for me! This review is on the graphic novel adaption and that is all we'll discuss!


Naggings aside, this graphic novel adapted by Nunzio DeFilippis and Christina Weir, illustrated by Kevin Cornell, portrays Button's curious life in an alluring picturesque imagery with the original text of sir Fitzgerald.
For those who had not heard, watched its movie adaption or have read the original text or just do not know who is this Benjamin Button fellow and is curious on why the heck he is curious in the first place, allow me to explain...
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a story abouta man who ages in the reverse order. Naturally, as we grow older, we become old hags basically. Button on the other hand grows young. It is a satirical story with classy humour on society in the 1860s to 1930s. Cleverly written, we follow Button's life on how he comes to fit in with others his chronological age. Take a gander at the front page of the graphic novel. You can understand the challenges he faces.

This graphic novels can work in both ways. One way is the enhancement of the experience of living and breathing with our procrastinator Benjamin button as he grows young. this works mainly for those who have already read the orginal text. Another is the drawing sensation of its sepia charming imagery to the curious story of button for those who are virgins to button's epic legend.

I like to draw your attention to the facial expressions of the characters in particular. their sunken eyes, grey hollow faces and blankness gives extra "oomphh" to their character and and their emotions. Simplistically it is generally a " -_- " kind of face but within its context guided by Fizgerald's original text, the deepr meanings of their deepest thoughts and feelings are perfectly illustrated. It captures the moment panel by panel with such appeal you feel like you don't even NEED to watch the epic movie adaption.

The downsides, I cannot really think of any. Curious isn't it?
I give this graphic novel adaption a good 4.8 curiously curious buttons out of 5.Read more...

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One Piece is one super duper anime with a groovy soundtrack. TVXQ/DBSK/Tohoshinki is one super duper korean boyband. Put them together and you get some pretty super duper songs. Yay for my diverse vocabulary. Anyway for those who didn't know, the one piece songs; Asu wa Kurukara and We Are remake are by TVXQ. Watch them if you like but in this post I am going to be talking about their latest song, Share The World.

Share The World is the latest opening song for One Piece and is the next japanese song to be released by TVXQ. After listening to it a couple of times, I'd say it is a great, upbeat song suitable for One Piece. It has that believing and adventure feel to it typical of One Piece. I predict another number 1 single if they're not up against any tough competition. However I can't say the same about the music video. As much as I love these boys I would have to say the video sucked. It was too corny and looked like some low budget video lacking creativity. They have made much better music videos in the past so I don't know what went wrong here or who they pissed off. I can see what they were trying to achieve with the video but really all it's good for is LOL material. The only good thing about the video is that they look handsome but that is all. I think the One Piece opening video is so much better then the actual video. One Piece always has good openings and endings and this one is no exception.

Here are the videos for you guys to compare:





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I came across 'A Load Of old Bones: An Unfortunate Murder' by Suzette A.Hill randomly in footscray library and was immediately amused by the front cover (I mean it's a cat and dog looking at a leg sticking out of the ground for God's sake). There were a few positive comments on the cover so I decided to give the book a read. Fortunately I really enjoyed this book.

The story is told from the point of view of three characters; Maurice the cat, Bouncer the dog and Reverend Francis Oughterard (F.O). You'd probably find that odd especially since there are talking animals involved but hey that's what made the book even more delightful. The story is set in 1957 in a quiet, little village where F.O is in charge of the parish there. The peace is disrupted when an unexpected murder occurs which turns the lives of those three characters upside down especially F.O in more ways than you would have thought. The three characters come to live together at first to F.O's annoyance, however what he doesn't realise is that they are more clever then he thought and are the ones protecting his ass and theirs too. I tried to write that without revealing too much.

At first it was a bit difficult to understand since it's written in a kind of old fashioned style with lots of fancy words but I got used to it all after awhile. The book is full of wit that would keep you amused. There are a few twists here and there so it's not one of those predictable stories. It's really different to any book I have read which is a nice change. It is strange but in a good way.

I give this book 4.2/5 old bones. Apparently there is a sequel to this which I will try to get my hands on.Read more...

Dear readers, we haven't forgotten about vampires have we? I know Young Dracula may be too childish for you, the teen vampire genre too trashy and you'd rather stake yourself than get through Bram Stoker. The answer lies in Elizabeth Kostova's elegantly written The Historian. It is a very long book but the kind you want to continue for much longer. It is a very well researched book, seeped in vampire lore and history. It'll take you from modern day Oxford to the Ottoman Empire and Transylvania, all described vividly enough to make you want to go visit the places. The historical perspective on vampires is very interesting and fuses the novel with some real meat.

The scholarly overtones with many references to libraries, various librarians, ancient documents and classic languages such as sanskrit, latin and greek renders the vampire legend very real and very chilling. The presence of Dracula looms broodingly as the main character, a teenage girl, slowly uncovers the secrets.  The plot is too complicated to try and summarise but you'd rather discover it for yourself, wouldn't you?

Readers who enjoy vampires, mystery, historical, gothic, horror or something fantastic to lounge about reading for hours during holidays won't be disappointed. 

There are no repetitious descriptions of hot-guy-vampires. Indeed, this literary thriller may require some brain activity and garlic garlands against the undead.

(Feel free to borrow from me and pass on.) Read more...

Note: I am not a hardcore dragon ball fan now, I was when I was younger (like any other highly hormonic growing teenage boy, I enjoyed watching bulky sweaty anime men train and fight). So the following review is based on my views as a half-ass fan. Enjoy!

How to begin? As everyone knows, this movie is not exactly best film of the year. My partner in crime and I ventured in the theater, knowing not to expect much, as so to prevent later disappointment and tears. We were ‘right on’ (groovy…?).

The story is loosely based on the original Dragon Ball story, merging the first dragon ball hunting saga with the King Piccolo saga together as one convenient anecdote. The setting looks to be like a modern ‘white’ society, with geeky Goku (Justin Chatwin) having problems fitting in his school, when suddenly, he is burdened to save the world from King Piccolo, an evil Namek, whose goal is to collect all dragon balls in order to “take my (his) vengeance upon the Earth”.

The movie was, for my taste, too lame and corny. There was too much emphasis on rebuilding the typical ultimate hero-like character, and not nearly enough effort to capture Goku’s free spirited story (“Far too much dancing and not nearly as enough prancing!” – Mr. Burns) Typical equals: “5000 years ago, an evil was locked away (blah)…you are destined to save the world (blah)…you are the destined warrior (blah)…”

King Piccolo’s makeup and costume was sickening, so was Goku’s trademark orange martial arts outfit. No need for explanations.

The fights scenes were ok though, where the lameness did help (for this particular type of movie), including good (and unintentionally funny!) slomo punches and impact scenes. The visual effects of the ‘ki’ energy weren’t that great though. Instead of taking a solid and luminous form as in the anime, the ki were presented as gaseous and misty. This didn’t look too great and impressive, compare to the anime at least, especially in the fight scenes where they are just throwing feeble-looking vapours at each other (fart much Goku?).

As mentioned above, we watched this film with minimum expectations, and surprisingly, it worked. It was quite enjoyable (and as said, unintentionally funny), but definitely not memorable. The best bits in the movie were the ones that probably included the cleavage-d exhibitionist Chi Chi (Jamie Chung), and the fobby and perverted Master Roshi (Yun-Fat Chow). As you can see, their descriptive verbs explains why.

In conclusion, the movie was not an evolution. Overall, I would rate this movie 3/7 dragon balls. Yes, the rating is out of the odd number 7, because there are 7 dragon balls in the movie, get it? (Kaka, I’m hilarious!) Read more...

The writing style of this novel is poor, as is this review! The Bride Stripped Bare conveys a story about a woman who believes that her husband is cheating on her, yet unable to leave because of her financial dependency on the cheating scum (I have no sympathy for people who cheat nor those who stay with cheaters). Through her struggles to accept what her husband has done, she seeks revenge by running around and sleeping with a bunch of people...yeah...i know...what a way to get revenge!

Some critics of The Bride Stripped Bare would say that this novel is about the liberation of sexuality for women, others (myself included) would say that this novel is borderline soft-core pornography for the chick-lit genre. Having said that i thoroughly enjoyed this novel, it was definitely a page turner. The scenes in the novel are rather explicit and graphical, so do not read if you feel uncomfortable about this kind of thing. The way the author describes the scenes are rather blunt yet descriptive, and you can definitely learn a few things from this novel!

I think this could be a novel for both genders, as there is a section in the novel called, "what we like, what we don't like and what we love". Yes, it's about what most women do and do not like in bed! So all males should definitely read it!

A lesson that I've taken from reading this novel is to never be financially dependent on anyone other than my parents! Even though that isn't the moral of the story (I'm not even sure if this novel intended a moral, it was marketed as a novel about the exploration of sexual desire). Another marketing gimmick that this novel had attached to itself, was that the author published the novel under anonymous. I suppose it was to create a mysterious bubble around this novel, and it worked! It gained a lot of publicity and eventually the author was ousted by media. It made it hard for me to find the book when it was recommended by a friend though!

I suggest listening to Not Fair by Lily Allen, not only is it an awesome song but reminds me of the character Cole (Cheating Husband).

(NOTE: It's been a few years since I've read this novel and this review is based on what I remember...which isn't much!) Read more...