Monday, July 23, 2007

Feelings About Harry Potter 7 (NO SPOILERS)



I finally finished reading the book today! As I was reading it, I was caught between wanting to slow down so the moment of finishing the last HP book would not come so soon and reading quicker to find out what happens next. All I can say is that JKR is brilliant. The tone of the book is definitely not directed towards the kiddie audience of elementary school children. The style of the writing departs sharply from the rest of the series and the contrast between the war and peace could be seen clearly in the way JKR plays with humour. Characters that one could say were important but flat are fully fleshed out. As I was reading the book, I could really see why it took JKR so long to plot out the entire story. There are seven books but it really is one story with a very intricate plot and seemingly unimportant details from previous books are brought up, I must say that I admire her intelligence. The story is deep and rich in wisdom with the way Harry's character develops. The plot twists and turns, its impossible not to be addicted. Alot of theories from fans that I've read online have come true, including theories in the shipping (romance for those of you who don't know) department. I really don't think there's anything left to debate about for the hardcore shippers now, haha.

From reading this book, I could see why I have never really gotten into the Book 7 fanfiction stories. Fanfiction writers usually only use the good side of the characters when they write, JKR knows her characters, she made them come fully to life by exposing their weaknesses and made them react realistically in difficult situations. I guess after reading the book, the story feels complete. I mean, I want to read more in the world of Hogwarts and magic, but at the same time I could see why JKR wouldn't write another book in the Harry Potter series. I still feel sad though. Its as if a long time good friend is moving away. I would still hear from them in the form of phone calls and emails, but its not the same as seeing them in person. The movies will still come out, there's always fanfiction, but its not the same. I think the books have changed my life in the sense that I've discovered the world of fanfiction and the hobby of writing and using writing to express myself when I can't get the words out of my mouth.

I suppose some day, I'll be eighty years old and sitting in my rocking chair telling my grandchildren, "Oh, dearie, I remember when the Harry Potter books came out..." and show them my first edition hardcover books yet again as they clutch their Random House Classics edition in their sweaty little hands.

*sigh* The end of another page in history.

Saturday, July 21, 2007

The Shopping Experience

Before I begin this post...





"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" is released today, yay! I'm on chapter four right now and I decided to take a break to blog and talk to my friends back in Canada. Secondly, when I saw that I had a comment for my movie review yesterday, I thought it was going to be a flame, but instead it was a comment by a very nice person preferring to remain anonymous who agreed with me. Thanks!

Moving on...


Travelling is always an interesting experience because you're being thrust into somewhere that is simply different from what you are used to. Shopping in a different part of the world of course has been a very amusing and memorable experience. The other day, I saw a bag that I really liked and it was priced at eighty-nine dollars in local currency. Since the store wasn't in a big retail chain or anything, obviously I attempted to bargain.

Me: Come on, that's so expensive!

Vendor: This is a really good quality bag, totally worth the price!

Me: I'll give you fifty dollars for it.

Vendor: No, no, if I did that, I'd be losing money, sixty-five.

Me: Fifty, last offer.

Vendor: Sixty-five is a good price.

(I start to leave)

Vendor: Okay, okay, fifty it is!

So in the space of two minutes, the price of the product dropped by 44%, advice for people travelling to Asia: BARGAIN!

Next, I had a rather bad experience. I saw a pair of Converses on sale, they were in a sort of brightish green so I had some doubts about how they would look on me but I figured: it never costs any money to try anything on, so why not? Since the shoes were wrapped in this plastic wrap or something, the store owner unwrapped one for me to try on. So I tried it on, the colour was sort of bright but I was wearing one so I wasn't totally sure. I asked her if I could try the other one, so she unwraps it and I try on the other shoe as well. With both shoes on, the green was way too bright so I decided not to buy the shoes because of the colour. With that, the owner of the store proceeded to yell at me, saying that I shouldn't ask her to unwrap the shoes if I didn't like the colour and kept yelling while I walked out of the store even after I apologized. I found the situation rather ridiculous seeing as she expected me to buy the shoes right away just because I tried them on and the fact that she was chasing after a customer and yelling loudly.

Whereas the prices in Asia are pretty low, they could work at their customer service a bit more.

Friday, July 20, 2007

Review: "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" (NO SPOILERS)

Even in Asia, I managed to watch OOTP in English, yay!



For me, the Harry Potter movies have never managed to bring the magic of the books onto the big screen and OOTP was no different. In terms of the plot, as usual, a ton of detail was cut out as more than seven hundred pages was squeezed into about two hours of screen time. Many things were changed to simplify the plot in order to shorten the movie. It wasn't cut down to the point of GOF where the movie did not have a complete plot and was more of a bunch of scenes from the movie stuck together as a companion for fans of the book. At the same time, however, there was so much cut out of OOTP that the magic of Hogwarts: the students, everyday life, Harry's interaction with his friends, etc. The main plot of the Harry Potter books is of course Harry vs Voldemort, but what makes fans everywhere get sucked in is how we can relate to Harry and through him, "live" at Hogwarts and do magic. In the movie, I just couldn't feel that.

I didn't find any part of the movie particularly boring, but at the same time, there wasn't an emotional high point, this left me with a blank feeling when the movie ended: not good. Those of you who have read the book must think that I'm crazy, but its true. The book is packed with emotion with everything that happens but the way the emotional scenes are presented is so cheesy. It felt like something I've seen in a soap opera or a bad movie. I couldn't feel for Harry the way I felt for him in GOF when Cedric died. "Love conquers all" is the basic theme of all the books, but in the movie it was presented in a very lame way that doesn't allow me to feel the message that is presented on screen. It seems like I've already seen the technique that all these scenes are presented in. I, and movie audiences every where, are tired of melodrama.

I didn't find the acting of the three leads particulary spectacular, I didn't see improvement in terms of acting skills, maybe it was because of the faults in the "emotional" scenes. However, I thought that Imelda Staunton did an excellent job playing Dolores Umbridge, all pink and evil like a piece of poisoned taffy. Her actions fits the description of the book perfectly: evil but pretending to be nice at the same time. She didn't over or under act, she made you hate her, but you feel like you know someone like her in real life, which makes you hate her more.

The costumes were interesting, especially how in certain scenes, charcters seemed to be wearing clothes that the fanfiction reader, writer, and shipper (supporter of certain relationship theories in the HP fandom for those of you who don't know) in me was dying to get a screencap of for banner making purposes of future fanfiction stories. I like the musical score better than the one from GOF, I think I will get the soundtrack once I get the chance.

Overall, I liked it more than GOF, but it still doesn't meet my standards of what a good movie is.

Overall rating: 3/5

I heard somewhere that David Yates is directing the next movie ("Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince"), this worries me.

Saturday, July 14, 2007

Beach Frolicking



Ahhh haven't been to the beach in ages, finally had the opportunity today. There's something about beaches that I really like. It feels really relaxing to feel the warm sand underneath my bare feet, feel the foam of the waves licking my legs, and see the water stretch for what seems to be an infinite distance. When I almost arrive at a beach, I can always tell by the salty smell of the water. I like to stand where the waves roll in and feel the sand move beneath my feet, there's something strangely comforting about standing on a surface that's not solid, letting the ocean take what it wants and give back what it wants when the waves roll in.

Unfortunately, going to the beach isn't as fun as it used to be. I have to constantly watch every step I take so I don't step on broken glass or any of the other crap that people leave behind. Swimming there is completely out of the question after hearing all the nasty things that people have been dumping in the ocean. Of course, there's always alot of sunbathers, which means I have to carefully walk in between a whole bunch of beach towels laid on hot sand instead of drawing my own path on the sand. The most horrible thing that happens is when sections of the beach become part of private property and while the nice fancy homes are being built, all the construction noise and dust doesn't exactly make it ideal relaxation enviornment. I suppose this is why out of all the recent times I've been to the beach, I didn't take my shoes off, there just didn't seem to be any point.

Maybe someday, I'll do something extremely hypocritical if I ever become stinking rich and buy a house with a private beach property backyard. Meanwhile, maybe all the enviornmentalists will make a difference and we'll all get our nice beaches back.

The Louis Vuitton Bag


I'm sure there was a time when someone walked down the street with a Louis Vuitton bag and everyone came to the same conclusion that she was a woman with wealth and class, able to afford such a luxurious and beautifully designed bag. Nowadays, when I walk down the street, especially here in Asia, I see imitation LV bags being sold for less than $5 or $10 in Canadian dollars and everyone from the seven year old that doesn't even know what LV is to the twenty-something wanna be to the forty year old that doesn't give a damn what brand the bag is as long as its useable seems to have one. So now when somebody walks down the street with a LV bag, nobody thinks she's a woman of class and wealth, we're all guessing whether the bag is real or a really good imitation. Its like that with practically every single luxury brand of clothing and accessories. I suppose the reason why people would spend so much money on something in the first place is for the feeling that one can "afford" the luxury and its a status symbol. (Yeah, I know I'm shallow, but come on, everyone has had those moments in life where you need some item to raise your self esteem.) However, the status symbol of these luxury products have diminished significantly due to all the imitations. So by buying the imitations, we've stripped the real product of its meaning. So then we must ask ourselves, what's the point of all of this?

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Review: "The Queen"

This movie definitely came out a long time ago, but I watched this on the plane over to Asia (refer to previous post) so I figured I might as well write a review for it. I had a choice of several movies to watch but I chose this one simply because Helen Mirren won an Oscar for her performance. The movie is basically about how the death of Princess Diana affected the British royal family, more specifically, Queen Elizabeth. Mirren definitely deserved her Oscar, she completely humanized Queen Elizabeth and made me feel for her. Most of the time, I see the Queen as some rich old lady leeching off of the British when she doesn't really do much to serve the people. Mirren showed the struggle the Queen has of maintaining her personal traditional values of how the monarchy should behave and the attack of the press and the loss of her people's love. There was no over exaggeration or cheesy melodramatic acting, just the expression of Mirren's eyes in the moment when the Queen was at her lowest point where Tony Blair advised her to lower Buckingham Palace's flag to half mast, return to London, and how her people that she was sorry for Diana's death. There was the look of absolute despair in her eyes for that split second, and then the iron determination to do anything to keep her throne for her son and grandson.
However, there are some negative points to this movie. Its based on events that happened not very long ago so there aren't any surprises in terms of the plot. Most of the teenage crowd will probably find the movie boring even if I found it quite interesting.

Overall rating: 4.5/5

Travel Log

Haven't had a chance to blog yet, but I'm currently in Macau, staying at a relative's house. I'm feeling extremely miserable. The fucking mosquitos won't leave me alone and its so damn hot here. I can never towel myself completely dry because nobody uses nice big fluffy towels here and when I hang my towel in the bathroom, the humidity makes it impossible to ever dry. I hate living with relatives, I don't have anyone my own age to talk to and its boring me to tears. I can't believe I threw up on the airplane getting here, I have never thrown up on an airplane before. Argh, this trip was doomed from the start.
However, on a more interesting note, I've discovered a strange cultural difference. Instead of products that give you a fake tan, brands of skincare products like Neutrogena, Olay, etc have skincare products that make your skin fairer. I suppose since in Asia, its considered better to have lighter skin, unlike in North America where everyone wants a tan.