Roasted Garlic Rosemary Brussels Sprouts and Oven-Baked Ribs

This Saturday was totally efficient for me.  Other than getting lots of chores done, I managed to make a very awesome dinner with one of my most favorite foods ever, Ribs! Plus, I experimented with trying out how to make Brussels Sprouts.  I’ve never made it before and only ate it once before the week before when my best friend made it for the potluck.

Ribs and Brussels Sprouts with Rice

I have my own ribs marinade.  I don’t really know the portion as I do it by the feeling that I get.

However, this time I did change it up a bit.  The ingredients I used included: Low Sodium Soy Sauce, Hoisin Sauce, Honey, Ground Pepper, Herbes de Provence and a bit of sugar if you find it not sweet enough or just use a little bit more honey.  After you spread it on the ribs, you can add a bit of water in it so that it won’t be too dry in the baking process.  Set the oven to 400F and covered it with aluminum foil and then cooked it for about an hour and 15 minutes.

Ribs!

When there was about 30 minutes left to bake the ribs, I switched on my rice cooker to steam some rice and started prepping the brussels sprouts.  For the brussels sprouts, I got the recipe from Tone it Up when I signed up for the Bikini Series.  Its a pretty simple recipe, although the only part that bothered me was that they didn’t tell us how long to bake it for…so I slightly improvised on that.

They named this recipe: Beauty & The Brussel.  I think its for the nutritious factor of it, I don’t know. Its called Roasted Garlic Rosemary Brussels Sprouts.

Ingredients:

2 cups of Brussels Sprouts

2 Tbsp olive oil

2 Tbsp pine nuts

2 garlic cloves, diced

1 1/2 tbsp fresh rosemary (or dried)

Pinch of seasalt

How to make this: 

1) Set oven at 400F. Prepare the baking tray by covering it with tinfoil. Spray a little cooking spray on your tin foil.

2) Cut off the ends of the brussels sprouts and then cut it in halves lengthwise.

3) Mix together olive oil, pine nuts, and diced garlic in a bowl.  Toss the brussels sprouts in the bowl.

4) Lay the brussels sprouts in one layer on the tin foil including flakes.  Sprinkle rosemary and salt

Roasted Garlice Rosemary (or Thyme) Brussels Sprouts!

I ended up baking it for about 30 minutes.  However, the key is to keep flipping them every 8-10 minutes.  I’ve read some recipes that say 5-7 minutes.  It worked out pretty good for me.  I did make one modification to the recipe aside from using more for each ingredient to be in proportion with the amount of brussels sprouts I had.  I ended up substituting rosemary with dried thyme.  I did some research and it says that its a good replacement and thyme itself is a milder spice, I believe.

My first time eating brussels sprouts like this and it was pretty good.  I’ll search up some more recipes for it especially since its supposed to be really nutritious as its filled with vitamins and helps boost immune system and metabolism. That sounds pretty good to me!

I have to say, I was impressed with myself with this meal.  Plus, I didn’t flip out at any part of it.  I may have gotten frustrated just a little, but I was alright.  In between of the first 30 minutes of the ribs baked time, I actually whipped up something else, but I’ll save that for another post

I’m a beginner at making brussels sprouts! Anyone have suggestions of other good ways to make it?

Step Up (2006)

Channing Tatum is red hot now.  Looking at some of his movies, I’ve seen a few here and there.  I never really got into him as an actor, although he has an attractive factor to him.  Seeing as I love dance movies, my boyfriend was shocked when I told him that I hadn’t seen Step Up.  It made it to the 4th movie last summer afterall, maybe it was time for me to dive into it.  Magic Mike proved to me that Channing Tatum could dance, so why not give him a shot at Step Up, right?

Director: Anne Fletcher

Cast: Channing Tatum, Jenna Dewan(-Tatum), Damaine Radcliff, De’Shawn Washington, Drew Sidora, Mario, Rachel Griffiths

Living in the less fortunate areas of society in a foster home, Tyler Gage (Channing Tatum) spends his time earning money doing illegal activities with his buddy, Mac (Damaine Radcliff) and his little brother Skinny (De’Shawn Washington).  After getting kicked out of a party, they end up breaking the window accidentally to the Maryland School of Performing Arts and ends up vandalizing their theatre.  When Tyler helps his friends escape but end up getting caught, he ends up having to pay with community service hours cleaning at the place that he committed his fault.  Its there he meets Nora Clark (Jenna Dewan), a senior class dancer preparing for her final number in order to pursue her dream as a professional dancer.  When her partner sprains his ankle and can’t join her, she needs to find herself a partner but none of the dancers that are willing to help her fit the part, until Tyler offers to help her rehearse as a replacement.  At the reluctant approval with the director of the school, Director Gordon (Rachel Griffiths), they start rehearsing and start to know each other.  As Tyler merges with this new group and sees new possibilities, he also struggles with losing his own friends and their support.

Wow, such a huge synopsis for a very simple movie.  I watch these movies in abundance and own probably the majority of them.  These inspirational youth flicks are something I watch a lot.  I never expect much from this movie genre (does it even have its own genre?) but just take it as a relaxing time to listen to some cool music (most of the time), some dancing and singing and some silly flirting.  Its always fun when I just shut off my mind of most criticisms.

This movie had a lot of pretty nice characters.  I actually didn’t really hate on it much.  The only thing I don’t like is that Channing Tatum talked like Paul Walker in 2 Fast 2 Furious, trying to be all tough, I guess.  I don’t know how to describe it.  Either way, he did dance pretty impressively.  Plus, he was with quite the beautiful co-star Jenna Dewan (who I learned on IMDB) is now his beautiful wife in real life.  Ah, romance from acting, right? Nice!  I haven’t seen her anywhere before this but she was good in what she does.  She’s a very elegant dancer.  I enjoyed the supporting cast as well.  Mario played Miles and the guy who makes the inspirational music in the movie.  I love the last song. Whether he actually mixed that song, I don’t know but I loved that final dance scene’s song.  Its in my MP3 on repeat right now. Now I’m talking about music…Fair to say, music was pretty good and the characters were decent.

These stories are enjoyable because they are simple.  Its all about inspiring people that its possible to chase your dreams with hard work and a bit of luck.  Its inspiring to watch others succeed in the performing arts.  Of course, I mean, not everyone gets to be lucky and do what they are passionate about.  I will never be the one to believe in dropping something completely and doing this..its how I was brought up, although as I’m learning how to find my passion and do something meaningful with it in my life, these style of movies really become quite charming and fun. It becomes a personal thing…I can’t really see if others will enjoy it as much as I did.

Step Up is pretty cool! I would definitely rewatch it when I have spare time.  Its not epic and its not anything fancy, its just a fun dance/music and inspiring movie (if you buy the concept and like this sort of thing).  It worked for me! Channing Tatum does a pretty decent job here (plus, he even has a ballet scene doing plies).  He has a very pretty and talented dancer as his co-star. Its just a nice movie to sit back, relax, listen to some music, watch some dance scenes and  see the inspiration and of course, love

Do you like these music/dance/inspirational movies? I don’t know what to call them.  Do you have a favorite? How about Step Up series, have you seen them all or some of them?

Week 14: All about the Abs!

I love working on my core and this week’s daily challenge is for our abs! My goal is to eventually get some 4 pack or 6 pack.  I think that’ll look quite awesome! So, lets start off this week.

Monday

Today’s goal was 30 minute jog and doing the butt exercise from Tone It Up followed through with our daily challenge of today’s being 100 squats throughout the day.  I never do the jogging stuff so forget about it.  At my job, there is no chance I could start doing squats, so after taking a really long walk with my boyfriend like 45 minutes or something, I took a break and then did 100 squats straight through.  After that, I took another little break and instead of that same exercise every week, I switched it up and did the Brazilian Butt Workout featured by a fellow blogger, The Haute Bunny that I found on Pumps and Iron’s workout roundouts a month or two ago.  That workout owned me big time.  It murdered me after one round.  I had to stop even though it was supposed to be 3 rounds.  Just to give you a quick idea of the rundown of one round, here it is:

• 20 Plie Squats
• 20 Donkey Kicks per side
• 20 Fire Hydrants per side
• 20 circling Donkey Kicks per side
• 20 Frog Jumps
• 20 Side Lungers per side
• 30 alternating Split Jumps (here’s where it starts going downhill)
• 30 Alternating Sliders
• 30 Hip Lifts
• 20 Lunge Kicks per side

For the full workout, please click the link above!

Tuesday

Man, another rainy day! I decided to take a day off since everything was in pain from either stress or just yesterday’s workout.  I did manage to get the daily challenge done! 50 Lunges each leg! I broke it down into 2 times of 25 each leg during our evening planning for my vacation with my boyfriend.  First few days are generally planned.  Now for the 2nd half!

Wednesday

I really hate to say this but I had to postpone tonight`s workout another day.  I tried to do the daily challenge and it proved that hurting my wrist wasn`t good.  So I did 15 burpees and called it a day to give it some rest.  The daily challenge was to do 50 but I took the better option.  I will try to make up for it on the weekend when there aren`t any daily challenges.

Thursday

My wrist is all better. It just needed a little rest.  I went straight for the doing 3 rounds of the new workout St. Tropez We`re On Our Way.  You will see the exercise on the left.  It was a full body workout that was pretty intense.  It had awesome warmup exercises, same as the ones I use for dragonboat and followed through with some double duty moves that was really fun.  In between of each round and then 2 times with a 2 minute break in between, I did my daily challenge of 5 times of 2 minute planks.  The last one really killed!

Friday

Since I missed out the awesome tough combo workout day on Wednesday and I wasn’t in the mood for the workout they had planned, I decided to do 2 rounds of Pura Vida workout.  For the daily challenge, it was to do 20/20/20 TIU Tummy Tucks.  I can’t do them midday but I sure can get it in during the morning before work.  Then I snuck them in before and after my workout.  These still get painful to do by the 3rd set but at least I feel that my strength as improved so I have better muscular endurance.  A step in the right direction!

Saturday

Today was crazy! The weather being perfect helped motivate me to go crazy cleaning for a good part of the morning.  Eventually at 2pm, I managed to take a break and do a cardio workout from FitSugar.  I’ve been wanting to try out some workouts and simples recipes from their site so I found this one HERE!  It starts off with a light cardio warmup then lower body stretch, then jumps into the actual workout with burpees, jump squats, squats, pushups, jump rope, ab work, tricep dips (not in that order). It was totally awesome!

Originally, I had planned on a really long bike ride (like 30 km) but because I got caught in doing chores ( I know its not normal), I ended up waiting for my boyfriend and we walked to do groceries and then we went out for another walk in the evening after dinner It was just too beautiful outside to not make the best of it.

Sunday

I took it easy today since my muscles were screaming in pain! My legs were feeling extremely weak from so many days of working out.  I’m seriously considering to lower it to 4 days a week workout.  Sounds about right

However, I did not just sit around and do nothing.  I ended up doing an hour (and a bit more) of DDR, plus I did some stretching throughout the day to help the muscles.  It was nice to do some indoor cardio and move around!

OVERALL…This week was pretty good.  I managed to get in 5-ish days of workout.  I balanced cardio and strength training.  At this point in time, I can be positive that I won’t reach 100 miles by the end of next week. However, it has upped my normal amount of cardio.  Plus, this week was all about the Abs and I did all the daily challenges and even kind of made up for the burpees by doing some here and there throughout the weekend. My abs are feeling fantastic and starting to look a lot better.  I need to keep pushing hard and adding more cardio, plus focus on full body workouts.

This week, I definitely had the most fun with Brazilian Butt Workout on Monday.  It was only one round and I wanted to cry.  I look forward to the day I can do the full 3 rounds and not have to stop because I couldn’t do the move at all.  One day it’ll get there! Second one was the new workout, St. Tropez.  It felt awesome and its the one that has caused me to feel so much pain in my legs.  However, I did try out the FitSugar cardio workout on Saturday and that one was pretty sweet too.  I can’t choose which one is better but they all fit a different purpose.  Try it out if you’d like

Oh…one more thing! This week, I rounded up 16.3 miles, tallying up to 72.8 miles done! 27.2 miles to go before I accomplish the 100 miles by summer.  Who knows? Maybe the weather will be in my favor and I’ll manage to get in lots of cardio We’ll see, right?

Hope you all had an awesome Monday (even when it doesn’t feel that possible some times)!

Hamburger Cupcakes!

My Father’s Day baking project this year was Hamburger Cupcakes!

Summer is around the corner and my boyfriend and his dad love the grill.  Last week, when my best friend brought this up to me, I knew I had to try it

Hamburger cupcakes!

To find the original recipe, please follow this link: http://www.bakerella.com/fast-food-fun/

Prepare for these to take a good amount of time to make however, they are composed of the simplest form of baking as in using baking mixes.  I haven’t used mixes in a long time but seeing as I had an afternoon to prepare for it, I felt it was the best choice.  I used Duncan Hines baking mixes for the moist yellow cake and fudge brownies.  The original chose Betty Crocker and Pillsbury instead.  I don’t have those available here so I used what I could find and improvised

Hamburger cupcakes inside

The hardest part was making the right color icing and decorating it.  This was possibly the best control I’ve had and it still looks a bit weird.  But, when you put the top on it, aside from having very pastel colored condiments, they do look quite like burgers, right?

I ended up making 12 Hamburger Cupcakes and a piles of “fries” from sugar cookies.  I somehow forgot to take pictures of them.  I used the President’s Choice Sugar Cookie mix.  They are quite delicious It would make for the whole Happy Meal concept but dessert style!

I had 24 cupcakes so guess what I did with the rest? I used the remaining icing (which I used as they recommended Duncan Hines Home-style Creamy Vanilla Icing) and decorated some cupcakes!

I was pretty happy with the results and everyone loved it! It seems to be a very creative and sweet hit.

Its an awesome hit! If you get the chance, maybe you can whip it up for a barbecue party or next year’s Father’s day? Whatever you want, this is just so fun to make.  Time-consuming but very fun!

Happy Monday everyone!

My Father, The Artist!

Today’s Father’s Day! I had a gap of not celebrating it in between my father’s passing in late 2006 till after I met my boyfriend in 2008.  Today we’ll be heading over to bring some baked goods (which I need to do after I get this written and posted up). I’ve been thinking about it all week as to how to write about my father.  I’ve already written a very deep post about how the passing of my father has impacted me in December last year (you can read that HERE if you’d like).  As much as I’m still learning to let go, there isn’t a day I don’t think about my father.  Today I’d like to share a little about him because I was always so proud of him.

My fave Valentine’s card to him and a picture of my dad and baby me

My dad was amazing (as are most fathers, when we think about it).  He was smart and devoted to his very complicated work as an actuary for 30 years.  He was an amazing scholar but gave up finishing his PhD because he was bored.  He was hardworking and mega committed.

Even when he was very busy, he would find time to hone his artistic talents.  I remember him taking me to his  Chinese painting classes.  My dad may not be a worldwide famous artist but he was in my heart.  A lot of the art hanging on our walls was his work.  He focused mostly on Chinese Painting and Chinese Calligraphy.  I can still remember the days when he patiently sat down with me and taught me how to do Chinese Calligraphy.  All the the energy to teach me the tricks in mastering the stroke.

My dad’s painting

My favorite is that painting of  bird. He always did amazing with flowers.  The best one he did is now with my Aunt in Hong Kong but we have one thats very pretty also!

My dad wasn’t only crafty with Chinese painting but he love all art.  I remember going to the Museum of Fine Arts in Montreal every year on museum day.  There were times that we’d talk about how he feels and what not.  I may not be able to draw past stick people but I always was up to learning more about my dad’s interests.  At home, he would take newspaper clippings of animals and sketch them right on the spot. Just like this one…

Or he would love to sketch our Siamese Cat and later came back to liven up the picture with the hunt of a mouse.  Isn’t it adorable?

My dad’s art didn’t end there. He sang Cantonese Opera and even if I wasn’t a huge fan of it, I was at every single performance he did.  After so many days, months, years of listening to him practice and practice and perfect his skills, he was one of my favorite Cantonese opera singers and he always lit up the stage when he performed.  Even when I would tell him to let me sleep when he was practicing at midnight because I had an exam the next day, I still loved hearing him.

My dad’s performance in 2003

He was one of the reasons that I stopped putting time into the Hollywood movies.  For a few years, there was no time but seeing movies was my time with my dad. We watched lots of movies together.  If he was alive, I’d have put together a movie marathon and sat through the Back to the Future, Indiana Jones, The English Patient, Moonstruck, and probably wrapped it up with the Blu-ray version of Phantom of the Opera live performance (because thats his favorite and I’d have saved up to bring him to see it live one day). I’d have baked him some chocolate eclairs and Mille-feuilles desserts because those are his favorites.  I don’t have the chance to do that anymore but every once in a while, when I do/see something that reminds of my dad or that he’d like, I will still have him in my thoughts.

My dad taught me a lot of things with his actions.  I was happy to hear his passion and feel his hard-work and it motivated me.  Whatever it was, my dad may not have been perfect but to me, I will always be proud of who he was, the things he’s accomplished and miss him every single day.

Happy Father’s Day to you all! I know many of you are fathers and fathers to be! Have a great day with the family!

Spirit, Motivation and Finding the Positive!!

Last weekend was fun because of my family and friends.  Heading back into reality on Sunday was a tough one.  It was full of thoughts and reflections that I had pushed to the back of my mind. I was supposed to post about it during the week but I felt like it was too heavy plus I haven’t figured out how to word it.

**I’m going to try to put it out in a more positive way since I want to keep these personal blogs light and fun! If you don’t want to read about it, thats okay..at least check out the vids that I’m sharing, packed with music and motivation **

Work has really been on my mind lately.  I hate that it carries into my personal life especially when it invades my weekends and depreciates my own self-worth immensely.  I’ve been on a constant search and reflection to find something that I will feel is my career and my dream and not just a simple job.  Do you get what I mean?  Something that I’m passionate about.  I chose my field because I had to think about reality and (a better chance of)work stability.

When I see these independent YouTube artists doing what they love, it really makes me happy, especially because they are seriously talented. Like I supported Sam Tsui’s first independent album, and I’m hoping it’ll come in the mail soon.

Or someone like Green River Ordinance who went back to doing what they felt was right for them and going independent!

Its mostly because I want to find something better that I’ve been getting myself involved in getting a certification to teach English as a second language.  Its always been something I wanted to do back when I felt started university.  Second, I aim to finish up my piano and eventually maybe do some teaching as well.  I just have certain skills to improve before I feel that I’m fit to be a good teacher.  I’ve been discussing it with my boyfriend and he urges me that maybe I should look into baking: something that I’ve thought about as well.  I’ve even thought about putting those health and training knowledge and strengthening it to become something a certified personal trainer.

There is a world of options, choices and paths out there and for me, its just finding that one that I want to do, because I sure don’t want to stay in the rut I’m in.  What I need now is to make a decision, find the courage to not regret and work hard towards it.  I know once I start, I won’t turn back because thats who I am.  All I know is that I’d like to incorporate something that makes me happy to wake up for in the morning!

That would feel like Paradise, right?  Tiesto & Dyro’s new song is exactly that! It always makes me feel better to listen to some electronic music

With that said, piano and English training is really taking up a lot of time.  However, I’d like to complete them this year or be ready by early next year to take the piano exam.  That was what prioritized over Dragonboat.  This week, we had a Chinese festival, the dragon boat festival which commemorates a loyal scholar who sacrificed his life and this is what leads to the dragonboat competitions that we have now.  Dragonboat really is my motivation.  If life wasn’t so busy, I would never have dropped it to part-time.  Just look at the inspiration and spirt of it! Thanks to my awesome coach for sharing this with the team!

This may not be everyday life, but character is shaped out on that boat and I bring everything with me every day of the week

He captured it all in that video! Just a little bit of sharing and possibly promoting dragonboat.  Even watching a race feels awesome but being a part of it feels even better! My motivation to pull everything together so that I can get back out there to all my practices.  At least I know I’m working hard training on my own to make sure I don’t fall behind.

This has been a scattered post full of my feelings about this week.  I’ve pretty much spent this past week in depression.  Trying hard to pull myself out of this deep, dark hole and I just keep falling back in.  To think that I had spent so many years working hard to stay positive and being trapped in something that has eventually made me so negative that I’m cracking under its heaviness made me realize that change has to happen really soon! I never back out when I have hard times but sometimes, maybe its better to know when to stop a bad thing and find something that attributes more positive.  As I work towards climbing back out, I know that I’m ready to build up my future stronger and find a better path! How I live my life is my choice and I want to have it with more smiles and positivity!

I mean, who likes to hang around with a depressed grouch (or a crying mess), right? I’m not going to let anything do that to me, I promise! I’m climbing out slowly…just give me some time.

Just curious (to those who have followed me a bit or a while): What would you think I’d be good at? Maybe your objective mind will give me something I haven’t thought of

30km bike ride here I come!  Have a fantastic weekend!!!!

Tomorrow, I’ll have a special Father’s Day post! If you’re not too busy celebrating with your loved ones, drop by and check it out!

Cold War (2012)

Prior to this past week or two of movie watching, I’d have to say that Resident Evil: Retribution was almost the best one I saw in 2012 (guilty pleasure and fun).  I still have a lot to catch up and right now, I’m saying that 2012 movies kicked some serious ass.  It was the year of amazing animated films and then we had the record-breaking The Avengers, then yesterday I reviewed The Bullet Vanishes and says that its been a while I’ve seen something so awesome in the Hong Kong industry.  Hong Kong entertainment has successfully regained my hope in it.  Cold War was a masterpiece, okay? Wait, wait…I’m getting ahead of myself!

Director: Sunny Luk, Longmond Leung

Cast: Aaron Kwok, Tony Ka Fai Leung, Kar Lok Chin, Charlie Yeung, Ka Tung Lam, Andy On, Terence Yin, Andy Lau, Michael Wong, Eddie Peng

The Commissioner of Hong Kong Police (Michael Wong) is away for conference to talk about Hong Kong raising itself to be called the safest city in the world through their technology and security systems set up and protocols.  Shortly after their departure, one of their emergency unit vehicles have vanished off the grid and no tracking devices on the 5 officers and the car itself could be located, while at the same time, a building  explodes in the middle of the heart of Hong Kong. The police has to now find the balance between not ruining their safest city reputation but not threatening the citizens either.  Normal protocol is that the Deputy Commissioners usually take over the role as Acting Commissioner to lead the assignment.  Right away, Deputy Commissioner Lee (Tony Ka Fai Leung), responsible for the operations takes the reins and summons everyone to an emergency meeting to start reacting with project “Cold War”. However, Deputy Commissioner of management Lau (Aaron Kwok) forces him off due to his connection to one of the missing officers being his son Joe (Eddie Peng) and takes over the operations instead to prevent him from overreacting and treating the situation too subjectively, especially if this was now considered a kidnapping and possibly a terrorist attack.

Deputy Commissioner Lau and Lee fighting for the role of Acting Commissioner

The plot thickens as we hit the continuing plot that enters, but if I told you all that, then what would be the fun of you watching it, right?

This crime thriller is intense as hell! My brain is overloaded by  how to even start describing this.  Its smart and fast-paced.  There will be some twists in the story especially seeing it has a 2 level plot line, that happens where you won’t even guess and then some that you probably might see but still be wowed afterwards.  The story is pretty incredible and held up by literally *almost* everyone in the entertainment business.  Most of them are veteran actors and if they aren’t, they will possibly one day get there.  On the contrary, both directors are green and its their first directing effort but their days working in as art director and assistant director really helped them out.  My mind was totally absorbed and my eyes were glued to the screen. There was some action that had me on the edge of my seat and then some parts that had me wondering who was behind all this.  I mean thats the first thing we, as the audience, and the police want to figure out, right?

Aaron Kwok as Deputy Commissioner/Acting Commissioner Sean Lau

A lot of you may not know Aaron Kwok but he was red-hot at the same time as Andy Lau.  He was the youngest of the four singers to reign in the industry in the 90s.  I loved this guy for a time even more than I loved Andy Lau as a singer.  When Aaron Kwok first started in movies, he didn’t do that many.  He was in Future Cops (which I reviewed HERE) but it was more of a cameo.  In the past 8-10 years (I have a lot of catching up to do on Hong Kong movies), he’s been staring in a lot of action thrillers.  I have a few that I haven’t seen sitting on my shelf but I’m pulling them out and watching them pronto.  This guy was amazing.  Pllus, there’s this whole having brushes of grey hair showing that makes him even more attractive.  There’s this thing that he does with his eyes to emote that is hilarious but also intensifies the whole situation.  Its awesome! He was totally in the role and man, to see him become such an outstanding actor makes me so proud.

I talked about Andy Lau before! Hey, whats he doing here? He has a cameo as the Security official and comes out in 2-3 scenes.  What more do I have to say about him.  He’s great.  Now, if we look at Tony Ka Fai Leung who plays Deputy Commissioner Lee, there is really nothing to say.  He’s a Hong Kong equivalent Academy Award Best Actor so his skills are top notch.  I’ve always seen him doing gangster roles or slimmy perverted husbands (like in the horror movie Dumpling).  Seeing him as a police officer was a shock but at the same time, he proved to me that he fit the role even with his strong and stubborn character.  As much as there was a clash with the internal police HQ with the management and operations, they both had amazing sparks every time they hit the screen together.

“We Serve with Pride and Care”

On the image above, its to point out, this is the 3rd Chinese movie in a row that I’ve watched with Kar Lok Chin. This guy is not particularly on my radar but from 1995 to his two movies in 2012, I can see now that he’s changed his acting style and especially in this one, he has earned my respect.  This guy came out from doing stunts and in this one, he gets to show off some of it again and goes all Bruce Willis (making fun of himself getting old).  On top of that, on the left standing up, we have Ka Tung Lam.  I’m not sure if anyone knows him but this guy has grown also.  I haven’t seen him in movies in a while (maybe its because I stopped watching it) but he always does these jerk roles but he is quite convincing at them.  One other person I’d like to mention made me jump with absolute joy was the cameo of Commissioner played by Michael Wong.  I haven’t seen the guy in ages.  I used to love his movies, so I was super excited about it I kept going through the movie hearing his voice and being like, “hmm, that voice is so familiar.  Who is it?” Then BAM, there is he! *sorry, excuse the minor fan girl moment*

Awesome crime thriller with so many intense moments.  Loved the whole cast, maybe a bit less the young dude up there, but he was still pretty good.  Its officially my favorite movie of 2012 I don’t really see how anything else could’ve been better! I’m not going to go on with it because I’ll keep have fangirl moments.  I’m pretty sure they will have a sequel so GO SEE IT (if its accessible to you)!

I’ll leave you and go to my corner and continue drooling over this movie