What’s Up – March 2024

Quick Update on Reality TV Round-Up

The beginning of the year has been pretty crazy. I’m not sure why I expected otherwise as I’m pretty much back into the normal routine of working. With that said, there’s been a lot of delays on the monthly posts which I’m trying to stay on top of but not really getting anything done. While I can’t change a lot of the other posts without it being too bulky, I’ve decided to do the Reality TV Round-Up posts every two months now as I don’t watch as many variety shows or documentaries to have enough to talk about. Its already been the case for the first Reality TV Roundup post this year and it will continue with that.

With that out of the way, let’s get the show on the road with a very late What’s Up for March round-up! And yes, there is no books section because I haven’t really finished anything or started anything new other than cycling through my child’s books and re-reading a lot of them.

MOVIES

• The Bad Guys (2022)
• Joy Ride (2023)
• Nope (2022)
• Meg 2: The Trench (2023)
• Ghostbusters (2016)
• Bring It On: Cheer Or Die (2022)
• Missing (2023)
• Slaxx (2020)
• Tampopo (1985)
• She Said (2022)
• Door Mouse (2022)
• Paranormal Activity (2007)
• Halloween Ends (2022)
• Julie & Julia (rewatch 2009, Review)
• Before Sunrise (1995)
• Wonka (2023)
• Pig (2021)
• Damsel (2024)
• Before Sunset (2004)
• John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023)
• Chef (2014)
• Cobweb (2023)
• Spring (2014)
• Paranormal Activity 2 (2010)

March viewings was primarily dominated by the one month Crave subscription I took for a Movies and Tea viewing. Looking back at March, some of these films feel like a long time away however there were some impressive offerings on Crave with an Awkwafina voice acting fix with The Bad Guys, a slightly awkward but entertaining Joy Ride, an outstanding alien invasion with Nope, a well-executed look at a true story adaptation with She Said, a stylistic offering with Door Mouse, a gripping cyber found footage with Missing, a truffle pig chase road trip with Nicolas Cage in Pig, a great action piece with John Wick: Chapter 4 and a fairly creepy offering with Cobweb and finally catching up with an overnight wandering in Vienna with Before Sunrise. Let’s not forget a musical adventure with Wonka.

Of course, it wasn’t only Crave that had some fun offerings although those titles really did stand out quite a bit. Tampopo was a fun foodie trip into ramen which has definitely become more impressive as I think back to it. Netflix’s new film in March Damsel starring Millie Bobby Brown had some issues but overall was pretty fun as well. However, the surprising find was definitely our first time into Paranormal Activity franchise with the first two films were sufficiently creepy. Those last few have reviews that will come out soon.

TV

• Asia Super Young (Season 1, 2023)
• Gilmore Girls (Season 7 rewatch Review)
• Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life (2017 rewatch)
• Closer To You Season 2 (我的刺猬女孩之念念不忘, 2023)
• Till The End of the Moon (長月燼明, 2023)

Currently watching: Memories Beyond Horizon S2, Run For Time S4, Is It Cake? S3

As my Gilmore Girls rewatch comes to an end in March, I’ve been trying to work in more Youku viewings with the last month of the streaming service subscription and I have to say that I picked two decent TV series to wrap it up. I still have a few more series on my radar from the service that I will probably sub again when the second season of Asia Super Young comes around.

Closer to You Season 2 is a fun series but the change in the female lead does impact the feelings toward it. While she did a great job, the first season definitely had a lot more going for it however for something angled around time travel, it worked for the most part and threw some decent curveballs at the end.

As for Till The End of the Moon, I’ve been a big fan of Leo Luo since last year with Light Chaser Rescue so I’ve been intrigued by his series and he does a great job here, much like Bai Lu which I can understand her popularity. Its a fairly typical fantasy romance drama full of heartache and breakups and tears and it also has kind of a time travel element as well but the chemistry and the execution is really great and it ended up growing on me especially the development of Leo Luo’s character.

GAMES

• Season: A Letter to the Future (demo)

Currently playing: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy

Not a whole lot of gaming in general recently as I make a little bit of progress in the Ace Attorney as I edge to the end but not really finding time to actually finish it. A lot of the same expected in April as work takes over more so not a lot of time for gaming. However, I did get around to checking out a demo sitting in my archive since the last Steam Fest and in true forgetful nature, I can’t remember when that was so its probably been at least a month or two. The game is available already so it was just for fun to see whether its worth adding to my wishlist and its pretty fun as it adds in a biking element and definitely a more relaxing sort of game as the character goes through the story finding elements and taking photos to the story. That’s been my type of game lately.

We’re incredibly late with this one so expect the April What’s Up to be in about a week or so.
I need to catch up with the other monthly segments that hasn’t been done the past month.

Sting (2024)

Sting (2024)

Director (and writer): Kiah Roache-Turner

Cast: Alyla Browne, Ryan Corr, Jermaine Fowler, Nona Hazlehurst, Robyn Nevin, Penelope Mitchell, Danny Kim, Silvia Colloca

After raising an unnervingly talented spider in secret, 12-year-old Charlotte must face the facts about her pet-and fight for her family’s survival-when the once-charming creature rapidly transforms into a giant, flesh-eating monster. – IMDB

Sting is the latest creature feature featuring a fairly underused creature, spiders. Having fairly recently completed the creature feature season on Movies and Tea Podcast and looked at two of these films, the spider world is fairly underused despite having the Arachnophobia remake to look forward to. Directed and written by Wyrmwood director Kiah Roache-Turner, Sting is a more personal journey for the director with both his personal experience as a stepfather and as a person with a fear of spiders making this an interesting territory for him to explore and craft this tale. At the same time, it also sets the story in one location confined inside by a snowstorm.

The film takes place in an apartment complex in Brooklyn spanning over a few days when the creature lands spontaneously into the dollhouse in the grandmother’s home. The story focuses around this family centered around 12-year-old Charlotte (Alyla Browne) living with a newborn baby brother, her mother Heather (Penelope Mitchell) and stepfather Ethan (Ryan Corr). With the building being owned by her grand-aunt (Robyn Nevin) and her fascination to share the vintage things her grandmother Helga (Noni Hazlehurst) owns, she maneuvers the apartment via the vents. The story tries to strike a balance between the struggling family dynamic in Charlotte’s family unit as well as the acceptance of the struggling artist career that Ethan is dealing with which ends up creating a lot of tension aside as the underlying threat, the alien spider ends up growing up under the care of Charlotte. For the most part, the script is fairly well-paced and executed. There are some little bits of the family drama and feel like could be left out for a tighter execution and have more of a focus on the creature feature element however, the film never forgets the core of the film and keeps the creature development as a central plot.

The character dynamics work pretty well also. There are some pretty neat executions and use of the character especially in the starting sequence with grandmother Helga who hears noises around the house and calls the exterminators to end the scene with a well-timed, slightly fourth wall breaking shush towards the audience. Its a nice place to say that Noni Hazlehurst does a charming job with Helga as the aged grandmother who is losing her memory. The same can be said about Alyla Browne who plays as the main young lead as 12 year old Charlotte. Younger roles tend to have the threat of being annoying however Alyla Browne does a great job at maintaining the balance of being a normal 12 year old but also delivering the more emotional elements as she tries to find her sense of belonging in this new family unit. Another wonderful mention does go out to the supporting role as the exterminator Jermaine Fowler who delivers the comedic break in the film that helps tie up where it starts to when the story heads back into the present after it flashes back to how the whole spider situation started in the first place.

The spider design is definitely worth a mention as the director wanted the spider to have a physical presence in the film hence, the spider Sting is a puppet made by 3d printing material and maneuvered by a few puppeteers to make the whole creature move as are the venom spitting capabilities and the webs also implemented physically. There’s something so fantastic about creating a physical creature that makes it all the more believable and it definitely pays off in Sting. The spider scenes are done very well, not only from the element slowly revealing the creature as a whole after its initial size, but also have the growth progress and using the light and shadows to add tension to scenes as it interacts with the cast.

There’s a lot to love about Sting. While the creature feature does try to add in a more personal story element here and at times, it does seem to add more than this film actually needs, there are a lot of other elements that work well from having a great use of the one location concept to building and executing a horrific spider story. To be fair, Sting does have a few minor details that feel like its been inspired by other horror or creature features but in some ways, it does add to the film as a whole. In the world where the eight legged arachnid is not used sufficiently in all its creepy glory, Sting does a great job at rectifying that situation a little.

*Screener provided by Well Go USA*

Oh My Horror Challenge Week 4: The Strangers: Prey At Night (2018)

The Strangers: Prey At Night (2018)

Director: Johannes Roberts

Cast: Christina Hendricks, Martin Henderson, Bailee Madison, Lewis Pullman, Damian Maffei, Emma Bellomy, Lea Enslin

A family of four staying at a secluded mobile home park for the night are stalked and then hunted by three masked psychopaths. – IMDB

The sequel of 2008’s The Strangers comes a decade after with 2018’s The Strangers: Prey At Night which takes the initial vacation home setting into an open space mobile home park. While the initial film wasn’t impressive enough for myself to feel this was long-awaited, this sequel does have a few elements that end up being a much more satisfying horror film as a whole.

While certain films benefit and use a single enclosed location really well, its a tough one to use when its based around a home invasion and not some type of discovery or deeper location secret however, The Strangers: Prey At Night increases the scope of the film by opening up the location to a mobile home park which gives it not only multiple mobile homes to explore but common space area and lots of open space to increase that sense of isolation. Adding in the darkness from the night setting, the film is able to create a lot more surprises and unexpected scares from the trio of The Strangers.

While the film is set 10 years after its predecessor, The Strangers are essentially the same as they also are a trio with the same masks: Man in the Mask, Pin-Up Girl and Doll-face. The concept of having killers initially inspired by true events makes it unsettling especially with their masks which also help add to the creepy factor. The first film set up this trio’s purpose which gives them all the more freedom to truly do everything to further extents in the sequel. Prey At Night does take that element to give these characters a lot more than just creeping around but gives them a little more room to play and toy around their victims as they stalk and prey on the family of four that make their stop at this mobile home as an invitation from their family who they soon realize has been murdered. If there were any little issues with this character is the Man in the Mask feeling like a classic slasher which takes a lot of effort to get rid of.

The Strangers: Prey At Night does have a small cast which works to its advantage. The family of four including the mother played by Christina Hendricks eventually does dwindle to an even smaller cast as it switches it focus to the survival of brother Luke (Lewis Pullman) and sister Kinsey (Bailee Madison). There is no doubt that the focus of the survival is on Kinsey as a lot of the chase and escape focuses on her side of the story. Bailee Madison is known for a lot of her child actress roles in my knowledge so its refreshing to see her in this role, even, the characters as a whole don’t really have a lot of depth. However, the film does deliver on the entertaining horror moments that build up in their intensity as the film heads to the finale. The general store and swimming pool scene being one of the more memorable of the film.

Overall, The Strangers: Prey At Night is a better horror film than its predecessor mostly because it manages to be more well-balanced and increases in its intensity. Its not a perfect film by far but it does utilize a lot of its great horror potential to create something that has some great moments and add in a little creepy and unsettling feeling. The acting could be better as a whole but its sufficient to keep it engaging.

*Part of the 2010s Horror pick for Oh My Horror Challenge 2024*

Wolf Pack (狼群, 2022)

Wolf Pack (狼群, 2022)

Director (and writer): Michael Chiang

Cast: Max Zhang, Aarif Lee, Luxia Jiang, Ye Liu, Yi Zhang, Gianluca Zoppa

While seeking answers about his father’s suspicious death, a tactically trained physician infiltrates a mercenary group and soon uncovers a dangerous international conspiracy that could threaten the lives of millions of civilians. – Well Go USA

Wolf Pack is the directorial debut of Singaporean screenwriter-playwright Michael Chiang while also penning the script of this action thriller which follows a young physician that gets caught up in a mercenary group as he tries to learn about his father’s death which gets thrown into an international conspiracy.

When we look at the script of Wolf Pack, its not necessarily the most original idea about mercenaries and international conspiracies, not even how the whole issue pans out. However, what does stand out is the little moments that add together to create a lot of variety and maybe a little unintended comedy to lighten up the mood in an increasingly tense plot. Despite that, the film does keep a steady tone and keeps things focused on a different view of mercenaries and focuses a lot on having good and bad guys in any spectrum whether its political or solely in the mercenary world.

As we follow the main character Ke Tong (Aarif Rahman) and learns more about this mercenary group which he basically got kidnapped into by one of the members called Monster (Luxia Jiang), he realizes that there’s a strong sense of belonging, loyalty and righteousness in this group that extends further than simply making money under the leadership of Lao Diao (Max Zhang). Loyalty and righteousness, good and evil are usually common themes in Chinese films which root from classic Chinese stories and the fact that its implemented here fairly subtly does work well. What doesn’t work as well is the melodramatic bits which is a normal staple in Chinese cinema but loses a little bit of its momentum when not executed well.

Wolf Pack does hit a lot of good elements where it counts. The casting here is pretty solid. Max Zhang has been in the business for a long time starting out as a stunt actor and eventually getting his own films. He has been part of some Hollywood films in minor roles like Pacific Rim Uprising. His wushu training from when he was an athlete lends well to his action sequences. While this film leans heavily on the firearms elements, there were a few close combat moments which was able to show off some of his skills.

The same applies for Luxia Jiang who is also trained in martial arts and wushu. However, her role of Monster has a lot more room to play around as the character brings in a little charisma to the group of men in this mercenary crew. Both Max Zhang and Luxia Jiang deliver pretty decent roles here. The mercenary crew as a whole work well while the other members have less screen time outside of the action scenes, they each do represent their role in the crew well. The cast on the whole is pretty decent especially since this involves an international plot and the English dialogue all lands pretty well.

For fans of mercenary films with lots of shootouts and infiltration, Wolf Pack is a fun choice. Of course, for those less familiar with Chinese films, perhaps there might be a little bit of dramatic moments that might feel more than what the film needs. However, Wolf Pack is a surprisingly satisfying and entertaining action film. While its a little thin on the hand to hand combat which is what Max Zhang and Luxia Jiang is trained in, there’s still enough action to keep this a thrilling film experience.

*Wolf Pack is currently available digitally on Well Go USA*

Oh My Horror Challenge Week 2: Puppet Master (1989)

Puppet Master (1989)

Director (and co-writer): David Schmoeller

Cast: Paul Le Mat, William Hickey, Irene Miracle, Jimmie F. Skaggs, Robin Frates, Matt Roe, Kathryn O’Reilly, Mews Small, Barbara Crampton, David Boyd

Psychics find themselves plotted against by a former colleague, who committed suicide after discovering animated, murderous puppets. – IMDB

The Puppet Master film series is one that I’ve only recently heard about and since puppets (and not dolls) are actually fairly slim pickings as I’ve covered a few of the bigger ones, here we are watching the first film released in 1989 which goes on for another fourteen more films with the latest released in 2022. I’m not going to cover all the films consecutively this time around but its definitely peaked an interest to seek out the films gradually.

The film starts in the past as we watch a puppet maker craft his latest creation while his previous creations are animated around him and on the lookout for impending threat for his capability. This past scene acts as the introduction to set up both the story and the location of the present setting. As the group reunites together, the story does have its fun moments but the general plot is fairly predictable. Some of the spooks don’t land too well especially with the dead friend’s body moving around constantly. Even the kills feel more entertaining to watch than horrific especially since the more gruesome deaths are showed off-screen.

While the acting is a little over the top at times, there is some good elements for the character structure. They all have their own unique capabilities that we gradually learn from their actions like Dana, who we see in the opening as a fortune teller telling the fortune to a young Barbara Crampton which is a lovely cameo especially watching it now as she’s been part of many notable horror films in much more prominent roles, but at the hotel does a few more psychic things which give an idea of her abilities. However, the main character in this film is not her but the university professor who can see the future in his dreams.

The strength of The Puppet Master not surprisingly are the puppets. Not only do they expand the “villain” pool since its a group of them killing together but they all have their own abilities that make them distinctive like strength or leeches or knives. Also, their parts are stop-animated which makes it really neat and fun to watch especially since the camera likes to go into their perspective to film to keep the puppets a mystery before they are revealed. While there are definite technology differences which shows the age of the film, the sequences are well-executed. Plus, the puppets themselves have a nice mischievous personality which adds to these characters.

The Puppet Master sets a good foundation for the film. While the plot itself isn’t too exciting and at times, feels little awkward, the introduction of the puppet villains do add to the film a lot. Its not exactly a scary film, but it does hit a lot of the campy 80s horror entertainment elements. While I’m not a fan of horror films adding in the open endings suggesting something else is at work, cliffhangers and such, I was pretty satisfied with how this one chose to end which hopefully is a nice stepping stone to the next film. Fingers crossed.

*Oh My Horror Challenge 2024*

I Did It My Way (潜行, 2023)

I Did It My Way (潜行 ,2023)

Director: Jason Kwan

Cast: Andy Lau, Gordon Lam, Eddie Peng, Yase Liu, Simon Yam, Suet Lam, Kent Cheng, Philip Keung, Hedwig Tam, Kevin Chu, Terrance Lau

As the secretive, complex world of online drug trafficking increasingly targets Hong Kong, the police launch a risky, top-secret sting operation to bring down one of the most notorious drug lords in Asia. – Well Go USA

Hong Kong crime films have been a huge staple of the last two decades of its cinema from drugs to human trafficking to terrorists and more. Infernal Affairs kicked off the undercover phase and really pushed the recognition of these types of crime films into a whole new world. I Did It My Way enters another realm as its police force dives into the dark web and online drug trafficking. The concept is more modern and has more technological elements involved in their operations on a wider globalized scale. With many regular faces taking on the leading roles like Andy Lau, Gordon Lam and Simon Yam in a Jason Kwan film, the film in concept has no issues but in execution, there are some issues

There has been a lot of crime films in Hong Kong from incredibly successful ones in the early 2000s like Infernal Affairs to Cold War in 2012. In recent years, its been a lot more rehashing of familiar ideas and many sequels for Z Storm running through a few more letters. In concept, many of these films work very well especially since the casting is solid even if the characters and plot are familiar. I Did It My Way sets up its stage well in the first stage but quickly loses its pacing in the second act and spirals off into explosions and montage killing by the third act to end in a fairly odd way. In some ways, the film script does give a nod at the use of its older casting by using classy cars and classic Cantonese music as its soundtrack. However, for a few moments, I felt like I was watching Michael Bay film with the generous explosions happening on screen throughout the film. Its not exactly a bad thing except it feels like it was going very far for its purpose (but then maybe it was also to shape the character). While explosions are still acceptable, perhaps the biggest criticism of this film does go to the subplot of the pregnant wife and the death of a baby, granted its computer-animated, that truly felt like it was there to create an unnecessary motivator but wanted to be more of an emotional manipulator.

Looking at this script with the globalized drug trafficking, it is a decent idea which works to a certain extent. There is a little stretch of imagination here needed especially since it uses the dark web as a means of distribution. While there is no way to do this in a non-sped up version for film pacing purposes, it did grasp the global feeling and the threat that it created. Jason Kwan implements a lot of montages to help speed up the film a little from kill montages to drug effect ones. For a crime film, this one does use a decent amount of action and for the actual fighting bits, credit does need to be given to Ka Lok Chin as Action Director that choreographs some pretty neat action moments that adds a lot of tension overall.

While there’s been a general criticism of the use of older actors and actresses in Hong Kong cinema, I’m in the group that believes any actor or actress can act as long as they are capable of doing so and still offer great material. If not, how would there be Time, a spectacular offering by an even older cast than this one. In that sense, everyone in this casting are well able to do that even if the leads are in their fifties and sixties with a few younger cast like Kevin Chu and Terrence Lau. This roster is what made this genre great in the first place so for them, this is definitely familiar territory and well above their capabilities. As these films start to form, we’re really starting to actually see the fantastic work that Gordon Lam and Philip Keung is capable of, two actors that started out in supporting and smaller roles respectively but in the past decade finding themselves picking up more prominent roles and in I Did It My Way, these two characters stood out the most, much like Taiwanese actor Eddie Peng who carried most of the action scenes incredibly well especially one in a wine cellar/store. Having watched Kevin Chu recently in TV series Dead Ringer, this actor does feel like he would have potential for bigger things in time, much like Terrence Lau who was in the Anita Mui biopic as Leslie Cheung and in this one, captures a more mischievous hacker persona.

Overall, I Did It My Way tries to craft an action crime film to the globalized illegal business. While in concept, a lot of these ideas do work, there are some issues throughout from pacing which possibly showed its cards a little too soon but also adding unnecessary plot. However, its strength is in its casting choices and its action. There are some truly strong moments in this film that build up tension very well but its mixed in with some dragging and predictable ones as well.

I Did It My Way opened in theatres January 12th.

**Screener provided by Well Go USA**

The Flying Swordsman (雪山飞狐之塞北宝藏, 2022)

The Flying Swordsman (雪山飞狐之塞北宝藏, 2022)

Director (and co-writer): Qiao Lei

Cast: Huawei Zhao, Ray Lui, Yusi Chen, Shanshan Chunyu, Zihan Chen

After a wicked plot to steal a hidden fortune results in the death of two renowned warriors, the map leading to the treasure’s rumored location inexplicably disappears. But when the map is finally located a decade later, the eight assassins from the original plot re-emerge only to be challenged by a mysterious swordsman. – Well Go USA

Adapted from Jin Yong’s 1959 wuxia novel Fox Volant of the Snowy Mountain, The Flying Swordsman uses the general story and novel framework to craft this retelling with a lot of changes from its source material, changing what was an intricate story spanning over decades and romance, revenge, loyalty and politics to a more common vengeance scheme that feels a bit like Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight, a coincidence considering this also features eight assassins and a little bit of the generous blood spill in certain kills. Being someone who recently finished reading the source material and truly enjoyed its original framework which would actually work really well in an adaptation that stayed true to its intentions, I’m not opposed to changes made for the big screen normally however, in this case, the screenplay takes away a lot of the themes and originality of the story and turns into a straightforward revenge tale that shows its cards way too early especially if you have a general knowledge of the source material and its main characters. I can understand that this does reduce the possibility of having too many elements in a film that could create a convoluted storyline.

Nothing can always be viewed in one way. In many ways, with all the changes, I’d actually prefer to look at this strictly from the point of view of the tale that its telling. Aside from the straightforward storyline, the film does craft its characters to each have their own essence which links to a part of the surprise element of what their special power is which is revealed when the wuxia elements come in. The cast itself is pretty impressive with special appearances as the cause of the whole vengeance setting the stage at the beginning with the battle between Yidao Hu and Renfeng Miao played respectively by Ben Ng and Mark Cheng, which are familiar names in the Hong Kong film and TV. The Hong Kong casting does end there as Ray Lui plays a bigger role as Baisui Tao, one of the assassins who are looking for the treasure who plays opposite to Baoshu (Shanshan Chunyu).

From the angle of the characters, the costume design and aesthetics as well as their different personalities do give each of the eight assassins their own distinctive style to tell them apart even if the film doesn’t have the time to dive deeper into these characters, making them fairly shallow. The main character Gui Yu (Huawei Zhao) is a well-constructed character which has a little bit of backstory in flashbacks and gets caught between the two main leaders of the assassins as his role plays off both sides.

The visuals of the film overall have some decent set pieces. The film has a few settings but mostly focuses on the treasure hunt element that is set on the “snowy” mountain which also has a few traps. These traps break up the assassins so that the main vengeance plot can unravel. As with most China sets, these are done fairly well. If there was any criticism on the visuals, it would be the unpolished CGI effects which does fall apart especially with its group of hyenas that is more comedic to watch than threatening. However, there is some impressive sound design in the film which helps build up the atmosphere especially when its in deep conversation, for example, pulling out actual soundtrack and trading in isolated wind and natural surrounding sounds which help amplify the sense of isolation for this location.

The Flying Swordsman is a very loose adaptation of the source material and could actually be its own wuxia story. If we look at this as what’s offered, overall there are some good choices from character design and costumes, sound and the setting itself. The framework of using flashbacks to help restore some of the past story to add context is commendable as it does give a nod to its source material in structure. The action sequences focus heavily on the effects and some slow motion emphasis rather than fluid choreography. Its not to say that some of these sequences aren’t done well. There are some fun elements with the special powers when its revealed for each of the characters involved. Overall, some good and average elements for the most part make up The Flying Swordsman.

**Screener provided by Well Go USA**

Upcoming Plans 2024

Happy New Year everyone!! 2024 is already here. Honestly, I’m not sure how 2023 went by so fast but I almost always feel that way the last few years. A new year means some new plans and some new goals. While the last two years hasn’t exactly panned out extremely well or even achieved much of the actual goals, I’m hoping that as things seemingly are finding some type of rhythm that I’ll be able to implement blogging (and other things) more regularly into my life. It will probably never be like before but at least work up to gradually hit 2 to 3 posts a week would really be nice.

BOOKS

Goodreads Reading Challenge 2024: 30 books

Considering last year, I did 41 books consisting of some small toddler books and some children novels and did get a couple of full length novels done, I’m going to set a very ambitious goal of 30 books. This time, it consists of finishing the Roald Dahl collection I bought from Costco which has 5 more books, the last book of The Summer I Turned Pretty trilogy as well as the City of Ember books 2 to 4. I am almost done the Fox Volant of the Snowy Mountain and do want to work on some more Chinese Classics that I own to mix things up. Last year’s books I had set out to read didn’t happen at all but hopefully this year will be a little better in that sense. The funny thing is that I did some tidying and ended up misplacing my Kindle for the good part of the year then I never came across it again so hopefully I find it again and I’ll get back to some ebooks again but I already have it set up on my phone as well so its really no excuse at this point.

MOVIES

I touched upon this a little in the year-end wrap-up post HERE. After the most abundant posting phase of this month in October, I’ve concluded that it seems that I’m much more comfortable doing single post reviews nowadays than collecting a double feature. That’s not to say that I won’t do compilation posts especially if I go through a series of films that garner the treatment. Talking about marathons though, I’ve decided that I have to let go of some of the marathons as it just doesn’t seem feasible to do anymore especially for the holidays which is mostly a bunch of films that I don’t really want to watch. With that said, the mildly successful Halloween marathon in 2023 is getting me hopeful that I can actually keep up with the February romance especially since I have A LOT of romance films sitting in my backlog to watch .

With a toddler, its also hard to go to catch new releases and with some financial budgeting last year into this year, my main focus will be on streaming services specifically Netflix, Amazon Prime and Paramount Plus (they had a sweet 50% off annual subscription deal in December). Disney Plus might pop up if they have a deal for Disney Day or whatnot. Who knows, right?

Movies and Tea Podcast remains a heavy focus in the film category but I will start working on those lists posts that I’ve been meaning to do since we started 10 seasons ago (more than a 100 episodes now!). I’ll be reviving the Sunday Lists probably in one format or another. We have some exciting episodes in production right now that will follow the current Hayao Miyazaki season. Follow us on our Movies and Tea blog or whichever podcast platform you enjoy.

TV & Tranquil Dreams Podcast

As some of you have noticed, I’ve actually been more active with writing TV binges this year than movies. To be fair, I’ve been planning the switch to podcast for the Chinese Language dramas for over a year if not two years. While no actual episodes have come out, I’ve actually set up a lot of what I need and all that remains is to find time to record and edit which is where I’m struggling the most to do. With that said, TV binges will continue for everything else but Chinese language dramas but this year, I will launch the podcast, probably by March latest since real life work gets a little hectic in the first two months of the year.

In terms of TV though, I will keep doing the monthly recap of Reality TV & Documentary shows. I really enjoyed adding that segment in and it also helps to talk about some of the variety shows that I love watching and its a big part of what I watch during the year.

MONTHLY SEGMENTS

With the previous lead-up, monthly segments are now in 3 parts.

First weekend of the month is Music Obsessions. Last year, I changed my concept and started doing a deep dive into sharing one Cantopop artist per post. This year, we’re going the same path with a focus each month on a different artist but it will be my other music love, Taiwanese Pop which I think I basically know who to talk about already and opens the door for some artists that I like but want to dig further into their music.

Second weekend of the month is Reality TV Round-Up which is as the title says a round-up of the previous month’s reality and variety TV shows I completed including documentary series. Note the series part and not the documentary films (although I might move onto to do that as well if I feel the new trend if back to making documentary films and they are worth discussing).

Finally, end of the month is the What’s Up post. I’m hesitating on whether to keep the Adventures post since there honestly isn’t enough to keep that going other than my Toddler updates which is something of a personal diary for myself at this point. Let’s say for now that we’re just doing What’s Up and any announcements and updates will be listed there as well. It will open up the opportunity to go back to doing individual posts on whatever hiking or restaurant that I go to if I’d like.

OTHER PROJECTS

Avenue of Daydreams (HIATUS)

I’m honestly not sure if anyone is still on Avenue of Daydreams as I still get some visits every once in a while. While I want to keep that one going, it seems easier to just do it on Instagram at this point. Its something I’m still working on. For not, the hiatus over there will still be in effect. I have to choose how to use my time and right now, I lose my phone 5 times a day in my own house so taking pictures almost seems like an afterthought for most days. Do keep an eye out on Instagram though, I probably will update over there if I end up taking some fun pictures.

Game Warp Podcast

While Game Warp isn’t exactly in hiatus, its definitely been a tad slow. The goal is to get more written game reviews on the blog as I work through my Steam backlog. If you haven’t been over there, we have a lot of podcast backlog as well as written reviews, you can find it HERE.

PERSONAL GOALS

The scary personal goals come up and I’ve been thinking about this a lot since every year I’ve basically been wanting to do the same thing but this year, I want to be able to touch back to the things that once brought me joy and I think still would if I had the time to do it.

1. Workout: I’m trying to work up to being able to do some consistent workout sessions over the week, something doable like 2 to 3 times would probably do me a world of difference. I did it sporadically back in November and early December but somehow its fallen out of schedule.
2. Streaming: The annual goal that I never achieve because I just haven’t found the right timing. Finger crossed that I’m able to do it even if I do shorter sessions in the beginning. It would help with the working through Steam backlog situation.
3. Cooking & Baking: I’m not going to lie that I’ve been living off some pretty basic meal ideas when its just me and my toddler which involves a lot of blanche and air fryer cooking but I remember the days when I’d be excited to try out new recipes and bake sweet and I’ve basically given up most of it except for the random few times during the year.

FINAL NOTE

There you have it, the goals and plans for the upcoming year. There’s a lot of constant change in life and yet, this whole maternity leave and being a stay at home mom (at least partially since I do work at home but less hours than pre-toddler days) has really helped me connect with myself. Blogging is not my main focus right now but I am going to try my best to keep it up as its something that I still enjoy doing. With that said, that’s it for this upcoming plans! I don’t think I’m being too ambitious but only time will tell!

Wishing all of you the best in 2024!

Adventures & What’s Up – October 2023

ADVENTURES

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving (in Canada) was the big event this month as well as our 8th wedding anniversary which happens to usually be about the same time. While we forgot to take a picture of the actual Thanksgiving dinner which had an oven-roasted turkey, roasted delicata & butternut squash and mash potatoes, we did end up eating the turkey for two more days, one of them was the day after making a “hot chicken” but with turkey. Delicious meal courtesy of my husband.

Toddler Update

October was an eventful month for development as Triple V got to 16 months which just meant that he suddenly is having all these development leaps from suddenly getting on his feet on day to walk slowly to progressing incredibly fast by the end of the month. As part of the follow-up for the previous months’ curve drop, we finally got the dietician appointment which was overall pretty good as the dietician told us that he was having a good variety and balance in his diet and gave us some tips on how to efficiently work on hunger and body weight as he is pretty active throughout the day and gave some recipes for making yogurt melts and puree melts. Other than that, the big event was Halloween where you can see he dressed up a cute little panda. It was a pretty cold and he isn’t supposed to eat any candy so we didn’t partake in any trick or treating but did go out for an evening walk in costume to check out the neighbor and join into the fun. Although he was more focused on his own walking than anything else, it was a nice evening out.

Halloween Marathon

Talking about Halloween, we need to recap the Halloween Marathon which has been fully updated on its page HERE. We only got 8 movies reviewed even though I did have a few other ones watched but never got around to getting those reviews out. There will probably a gradual release of horror reviews especially since my intention to catch up on the The Conjuring films and finishing the Final Destination series as well as Tremors films are still on my to-do list. One of my lesser yielding technically but in reality, I did prep a bit just the writing was a little slower.

WHAT’S UP

Books

Currently reading: Flying Volant of Snowy Mountain

Suffice to say that nothing too exciting is happening in terms of reading as I bounce between bedtime reading of Flying Volant of Snowy Mountain to re-reading a lot of bedtime stories to my toddler. On top of that, October is full of other everyday life commitments so it became hard to work on anything more book-related. As we near the end of the year and re-evaluate, probably reading will take a turn back to how it was next year. However, I haven’t read a whole lot of Jin Yong wuxia novels but seen a lot of movie and TV adaptations. Flying Volant of Snowy Mountain is one that I had a seen a TV adaptation back in the late 90s or early 2000s but really liked the plot so here we are.

Movies

• The Barn Dance (short 1929)
• Creepy Crawly (2022 Review)
• Zero to Hero (媽媽的神奇小子, 2021)
• Final Destination (2000 Review)
• I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998 Review)
• No One Will Save You (2023 Review)
• Rushmore (1998)
• Cars 3 (2017)
• Coco (2017)
• Wynken, Blynken & Nod (short 1938 rewatch)
• Fast X (2023)
• The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
• Once Upon A Studio (2023 short)
• The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004)
• Final Destination 2 (2003 Review)

This month is full of Halloween marathon and Disney Plus movie picks mostly because I got the Disney Plus 3 months deal so now I’m working through a lot of the nostalgia, Pixar and Wes Anderson films as well as the new horror picks that made it on the catalogue right in time for October’s horror month. On top of that, I even managed to get a Thai creature feature screener review up as well as well as a bunch of 90s horror films and their sequels. At this point, it seems like working through franchises I’ve left on the original films is a big theme in this current phase.

In terms of recommendations from this month, Final Destination, No One Will Save You and the rewatch of Wynken, Blynken & Nod was definitely highlights. The Royal Tenenbaums stood out from the Wes Anderson catalogue so far and I’d recommend that as well.

TV

• Michelle Wolf: It’s Great To Be Here (2023)
• You Are My Glory (你是我的荣耀, 2021)
• The Oath of Love (余生, 请多指教, 2022)
• The Fall of the House of Usher (2023)

Currently binging: Let’s Fall In Love S3, Call Me By Fire S3, Singing With Legends S5, Crush Over 2023, Light Chaser Rescue, American Ninja Warrior S13, The Midnight Club

As the year approaches its end, my WeTV streaming service is ending at the end of the year so I’ve been working through some of the C-dramas that has been on my watchlist. The service is a bit pricey in comparison so for now, I have no intention of renewing so working hard on getting through a few more series. However, the two that I’ve caught up with were pretty good. There’s a very healthy and positive message from the stories and focuses a lot on reality and the balance of work, life and self-improvement. Its a pretty nice overall. Not quite one of the best of the year for me but still delivered some good times. Not being frustrated at c-dramas in general is a pretty big win usually.

As for Netflix, I’m always there for Mike Flanagan’s new series. Last year, I didn’t get around to Midnight Club but this year, I wasn’t going to miss out on The Fall of the House of Usher which was so good that I suddenly have an urge to brush up on my Edgar Allan Poe literature which I know the basics of but never have dived very deep into it other than the little bits in College English class. Its also gave us the push to start up The Midnight Club. Reviews for those coming up soon.

Games

• Trek of Yomi (incomplete)

Currently playing: Forza Horizon 5, The Legend of Tianding, A Short Hike

There’s been a good bit of gaming lately as I’m about to work on the backlog and unsubscribe from PC Game Pass for a while however with a lot of the games I intended to play on the leaving list, I had to give those a quick look to see how I felt about them. Trek of Yomi is the only one here as completed mostly because the combat is more than I could handle as parrying is one of those gaming things I don’t have down and eventually even the casual mode was a little too much so while the story and the game was like playing a samurai movie, I’m listing it as incomplete because I can’t beat it.

Forza Horizon 5 is still the gaming playground I go to for a little fun everything once in a while. I did also check out Legend of Tianding which is a really fun game and a nice tribute to 2D action platformer games much like the 10 minutes that I played of A Short Hike which had a lot of elements I like in games for their fun, colorful and relaxing feeling.

Final Destination 2 (2003)

Final Destination 2 (2003)

Director: David R. Ellis

Cast: A.J. Cook, Ali Larter, Michael Landes, David Paetkau, James Kirk, Lynda Boyd, Keegan Connor Tracy, Jonathan Cherry, Terrence T.C. Carson, Justina Machado, Tony Todd

Kimberly has a premonition of an accident killing multiple people including her and her friends. She blocks the cars behind her on the ramp and as a police trooper arrives, the accident happens. Death is stalking this group of survivors. – IMDB

Taking place on the one year anniversary of the first film’s Flight 180 incident, the sequel takes somewhat of a follow-up approach as Death tries to close its loose ends when Kimberly (A.J. Cook) stops the traffic and creates another batch of strangers that avoided the accident, foiling Death’s plans except the plan was more linked to the Flight 180 incident than they could imagine. The survivor from the first film Clear (Ali Larter) also becomes a key character here as she comes out of voluntary admission to a mental institution to help this group face up to Death and prepare what they can do to survive.

While Final Destination doesn’t have to link to its first film and its villain Death can basically transform any sort of scenario where Death’s plan is foiled and take action, the second film does choose to draw its link especially with its first film having survivors. In some ways, it is a good move as it gives the film further basis to build foundation even if some of the foundation is a little rocky. What we learn from the second film is that Death basically makes the calls as what we thought was “Death’s plan” from the first film can basically be reversed in this film and so continues the exploration of why that is happening. Whether the logic behind it works or not, it doesn’t seem particularly important as the film’s more entertaining elements, at least for myself, has always been how the kills are executed and the teases along the way. It is what creates some of the tension. The sequel achieves that in a bigger scale since it moves from the bathroom and kitchen to bigger and more public settings with more sudden dramatic effects and chain reactions especially in its final last 30 minutes.

The cast in Final Destination 2 also is packed with more familiar faces watching it right now with Criminal Minds A.J. Cook (although I knew about her from an older and probably less popular show Higher Ground) being in the lead role alongside Ali Larter reprising her role as Clear from the first film. Ali Larter’s Clear returns in a better role than the first film in both her acting and how the character was written however, A.J. Cook does a great job at Kimberly and is more natural in her progression in terms of emotional progression with everything she faces throughout the film. Tony Todd still returns as the mortician that seems to know a lot about Death’s plan and in this film continues to give more cryptic guidance to the survivors and still delivering a fantastic presence. Another familiar face is Keegan Connor Tracy who was in indie horror Z and Once Upon A Time as Mother Superior as businesswoman Kat who adds a little attitude to the cast of characters. Final Destination 2 brings together a group of strangers who know nothing about each other and that adds to the surprise elements that can be what causes certain issues to happen.

Overall, Final Destination 2 is a fun sequel. While the tone isn’t quite as serious as the first one, this sequel’s pacing feels much swifter almost pairing up with the fact that Death has to make up for lost time because of the fluke in Flight 180 a year ago as well as this both leaving behind a group of survivors that should have been his victims in the first place. While some of the logic doesn’t always seem to work, the general frame of the story is still believable especially since being that Death is out to get anyone in what looks like freak accidents isn’t exactly the most believable situation in the first place but on a personal level, I’m Chinese, so I do believe a little in all this except its a different entity but the concept is the same. Final Destination films is entertaining in a great part to using Death as an invisible threat which means the best moments are really watching the pieces fall together in the execution of a kill and a lot of time adding that surprise element like a magician trying to get its audience to look one way and then actually it happens somewhere else. In that sense, the sequel actually does a better job than its predecessor.