What’s Up 2019: Week 50

Its Week 50 already! That is absolutely crazy! The end of the year is just around the corner and its been a lot of wrap-up and thinking more about the next year and of course, holiday stuff. There is also a bit of holiday fatigue and work rush before holidays factored in here, so things have slowed down or been a bit irregular. Anyways, lets see whats going on!

READING

• Love Potions & Other Calamities by Charlie Laidlaw

Currently reading: Legends of Exile

I am working on double speed to get things back on track on the reading front and took some extra time to finally finish Love Potions and Other Calamities. I literally just finished so the review is coming up this week. And then, its time to finish Legends of Exile to get these things done and next year a clean slate. I have accepted that I won’t on the books make the Goodreads challenge evem if I read 3 book packs at the beginning of the year that only counted as one entry. So, I guess I did… I’ll know when I do the final overview of 2019 😉

PLAYING

• Roki Demo
• Carrion Demo
• Wooden Nickel Demo
• Chicory: A Colorful Tale Demo

The Game Awards happened as well and of course, Game Warp did watch it and did a recap on the winners as well as the trailers and impressions. Some fun stuff. You can read it HERE. This is the first year for The Game Awards to work with Steam to have a 48 hour Steam Game Festival which is like most game festival concepts to play demos of upcoming games and that was most of my gaming as I tried to play as much as I could and ended up playing 4 demos (out of 8 or 10). It has made me anticipate both Roki and Carrion. Different gaming styles but both so fun in different ways. I did record the playthrough of those demos so it’ll be going up on the channel soon. Its in the process of revival.

WATCHING

• Hulk (2003)
• Let It Snow (2019, Review)
• Holiday Joy (2016, Review)
• Shazam! (2019)
• Klaus (2019)

Other than Hulk which was for Movies and Tea, its been a lot of holiday viewing. You can argue that Shazam isn’t but it is set during Christmas with snow and Christmas decorations everywhere so it counts even if I do admit it was simply added in because the rental was going to expire and I almost forgot about it. My fave goes to Klaus which is a new Netflix Original about the beginnings of Christmas and Santa Claus in an original story and has voice acting by J.K. Simmons and Joan Cusack.

BINGING

• Zumbo’s Just Desserts (rewatch, Review)

Currently binging: Who’s the Murderer 5, The Brightest Star in the Sky, Viva La Romance (Season 1)

I am watching VERY little TV right now as I am trying to read and catch on blog posts on all projects so I did rewatch Zumbo’s Just Desserts which is my go-to for rewatch and background when I work. Other than that, I am still rewatching The Brighest Star in the Sky on Huace Channel and wanted to finish Viva La Romance Season 1 before finishing Season 2 and 3. Its almost done but I do have to give mega props to Who’s The Murderer Season 5 which has really taken a lovely turn this season and become not only one that has some pretty good cases and mysteries but has been edited in a way that makes it somewhat have a better line of link to make educated guesses on the culprits.

That’s it for Week 50 recap!
Things are starting to get back on track! Yay!
What have you been reading/watching/playing/binging?

What’s Up: Week 46 Blood in the Snow Festival is right around the corner…

A week of vacation is upon us and the recap of it actually is surprisingly not quite a lot, especially since we just had a stay-cation so still around our home quite a bit. However, a lot of it was in the relaxing state so all doing things that I wanted to do while catching on a few little errands and eating good food and you know, the having fun not in the house variety. I’ll share those adventures at the end of the month in the November Adventures post. For now, lets look at the week!

READING

• Proximity by Jem Tugwell

Currently reading: Love, Potions & Other Calamities

And we are done with Proximity! Its a pretty clever little mystery and suspense thriller which plays on a future that could happen if technology were to control our lives or due to the overdependence of it in the future. A premise that definitely applies very well to questioning certain elements of a technology-filled world and how it applies to the investigation. I’ll talk more about it in the upcoming review. As for now, I just started reading Love, Potions & Other Calamities. Its too early to say anything yet but I have great hope that it will be great as this author Charlie Laidlaw has released some solid novels.

PLAYING

Currently playing: Afterparty & Cube Escape: Paradox

An hour down and a bunch more to go for Afterparty but its a start. Afterparty is a game that I’ve been anticipating since its announcement so I’m working hard to get some hours into it. Only thing hindering it is that whole Cube Escape: Paradox that I started but never got around to finishing it as its very difficult. I’m going to wrap that up before continuing on with Afterparty.

WATCHING

As the final festival of 2019 is among us, yet again the watching section will be split between two sections. The normal viewings and the festival viewing. The festival hasn’t actually started BUT remote coverage means some reviews can start going up as it approaches so if you are in the Toronto area, you can always go and catch it during this festival run.

• Creepshow 2 (1987) Friday Film Club
• Murder on the Orient Express (2017)
• The Ice Storm (1997)

If only I had a 2007 then I’d have watched films ending with 7s over 3 decades. It wasn’t intended until I noticed the pattern here. Either way, Creepshow 2 was my pick for the Friday Film Club and I’ve shared the link up there. However, the movie that caught my attention the most was Murder on Orient Express which finally landed on Netflix so I jumped right on it during vacation week to catch up and it did not disappoint. As for The Ice Storm, its part of the Movies and Tea new season which is starting up soon with Ang Lee’s filmography.

Blood in the Snow Festival 2019 (Remote coverage)

• Puppet Killer (2019)
• Liaison (short 2019) Review
• Housekreeping (short 2019) Review
• Happy Face (2018)
• Copenhagen Road (short 2019) Review

I’m slowly getting into the Blood in the Snow Festival screeners day by day and working out a nice schedule to get the writing done. Its been a lot of procrastinating and pondering. Hopefully by the time this gets out, the review for Puppet Killer will be listed as done above. I spent a few days thinking about it and putting together the review and its really growing on me.

BINGING

• Wait, My Youth (2019)
• Nailed It! France (Season 1, 2019)

Currently binging: Lipstick Prince (Season 2), Relation Ship, Green Eggs and Ham, Chase Me, Who’s the Murderer (Season 5), Viva La Romance (Season 3)

Go ahead! Tell me to pick my favorites this week! Not an easy task. Everything I watched was really awesome. Wait My Youth was the TV series that I chose as the series to watch during my week off and it was a ton of fun. I’m a huge fan of the male lead, a young actor with a lot of potential. Nailed It! France was hilarious to watch as well. The husband and I has pretty much pinpointed that understanding the language does help in the enjoyment of these things but this host also seems more in line with our type of humor than the other foreign version we saw, I think it was Nailed It! Mexico (review). I’ll probably do a TV binge on Nailed It! France soon!

Even my currently binging stuff, which is more currently playing, except for Green Eggs and Ham, has been pretty entertaining. All the variety shows and reality shows and whatnot have just been a blast to watch. I sometimes play the episode in the background when I’m writing to watch again. Its rare that I do that usually. Unfortunately a lot of them don’t have subtitles. But then, I’m translating the 90% of Chase Me, which is a celebrity Ultimate Beastmaster tag concept game on Zhejiang TV (on Youtube), for my husband as he also finds it very amusing to watch. Not to mention Season 5 of Who’s The Murderer is set on a cruise ship so its awesome plus it has Boran Jing (who I like a lot) as one of the participants. Viva La Romance Season 3 also started (and I just realized that I never finished Season 2..oops) and it has Miriam Yeung and I never knew a lot about her after she got married so its a fun little wife’s trip. So far, its been pretty cool. Lots of a great shows!

That’s it for this What’s Up!
Week 46 already of 2019! Its crazy!
But then, we have started setting up for Christmas..so I guess its not that crazy, right?

What have you been reading/watching/playing/binging?

TV Binge: Who’s The Murderer 明星大侦探4 (Season 4, 2018)

Who’s The Murderer (Season 4, 2018)
明星大侦探4

Cast: He Jiong, Benny Sa, Angel Wang, Bai Jing Ting, Emma Wu, Liu Haoran, Zhang Ruo Yun, Wei Da Xun, Justin, Seven Tan

No. of Episodes: 13

**With that said, instead of the poster, I added in the full playlist of the series. Its backwards to scroll to the second last video to see episode 1 and turn on the CC for English subtitles.**

Let’s start off right away that I have never seen Who’s The Murderer Season 1 to 3. Its only been since last year in July that I started getting into the TV series/dramas & variety shows from China. With that said, after watching The Chamber of Secrets Escape (Review), Who’s a Murderer was even more up my alley. The best part is that it had these twists and turns in their stories and the investigations was cool. Plus, the set and stories they always did added intrigue but also a lot of logic and problem solving and analytical sort of thinking. It relied especially in the final episode on (what I believe) an unscripted way to twist and turn throughout the situation for the murderer to not be discovered with whatever tactics they can use. Who’s the Murderer is a lot like an elaborate version of this party game called Wink Murder or Killer (whatever you call it, I’m not too sure…) but instead of a circle, it adds in these Clue elements and sometimes, escape room elements.

One great element of this is its setting. They build these fantastic sets as a backdrop for each of their things. Sure, its mostly just rooms mildly divided in some cases to show the different characters and their rooms. The structure of the game is also quite good. The first part is establishing and discovering the “body”, then introduction of the characters and their timeline, the first collective search, the first collective analysis, the detective’s solo (secret) vote on who’s the murderer, the second round of collective search, 1 on 1 with detective, final collective analysis and final vote for everyone and then the reveal whether they successfully voted the murderer to go to “jail”. Its usually the search and the analysis that makes for a lot of fun moments. The other part of this which is great especially being a variety show (and something China does particularly well) is the focus on society and how each of these stories focus on some element of society and people whether its relationships, idols, love, families in regards to revenge, trust, loyalty, etc and how a lot of these cases sprouted from an extreme negative thought or self-preservation or whatnot and they reflect on these cases at the end.

As for the cast here, there are a few regulars and then every episode has some guests that only pop in to participate. He Jiong is a super popular and talented host for Happy Camp and an array of variety shows in China, prominently on Hunan TV so since that is mostly where I watch variety shows, I’ve grown to really appreciate him and in this, he is really talented especially when he is the “killer” he can almost always avoid being caught. The other is Benny Sa who I’ve never seen in anything before but he is also quite comedic and very analytical but sometimes has this silliness to his theories and guesses. The younger semi-regulars is one of the reason that I started this and that is Bai JingTing who I first saw in a TV drama (which I haven’t written up yet) and through this I’ve known a few other semi-regulars that I honestly really like a lot too.

There is a lot of after editing on these shows and probably a lot is cut out of the whole episode but there is a great post-editing effect for it to make it very mysterious and suspicious. A lot of the mysteries have a lot of twists and the character have their own depth. It also brings up a lot of questions on right and wrong and morals and ethics. For a variety game show style, it definitely has more depth than most. Plus a lot of times, it also gives the audience watching an outlet to analyze the case with what they have found and always reveal at the end whether they found the evidence that solidifies who the “murderer” is. The first two episodes and the final episodes are the most awesome ones. Its nice to see how they incorporate some spinoff on popular movie backdrops as well as different genres such as time travel elements and whatnot. Its a very colorful show to say the least and while there are a few little stumbles and some episodes are slightly more predictable (which is a rare occasion), its one that, I would assume, has gone through  a lot of polish and it shows because its highly entertaining and really fun to get involved to make your own guesses while watching it. I like that element of it the most as it becomes very immersive.

What’s Up 2019: Week 4 Currently in progress…

Welcome to Week 4 of 2019 recap! Currently in progress is the theme here. Nothing much finished, a bit of progress in all categories and well, what else can I say other than the fact that life takes over and things fall apart. Its pretty obvious when last week had 3 posts go up and its been a long time since I’ve posted so little in a week’s span. It happens, we pick up and move forward. Its not a foreign routine but this year had a lot more of other factors affecting my own time so life gets priority in these cases.

Let’s see what is still in progress then (although you might know if you had seen last week..so sorry for the repetition if that’s the case.)

READING

Currently reading: The Girl From Everywhere by Heidi Heilig

Its been a challenge to do anything other than work and sit around recuperating so reading on the bus has always fallen into a slow pace or just a very sleepy challenging moment. It has nothing to do with The Girl From Everywhere because its a pretty decent read. I like the idea and premise so far. I’m about halfway done and I think things are just about to take a change in pace and having some influential factors kick in. I’m pretty interested to see where the story goes from this point.

PLAYING

Currently playing: Mortal Kombat X, Lemmings (Android)

If reading on the bus has been affected, suffice to saying gaming has been almost non-existent. I’m still working on Mortal Kombat X on PC. However, when I get a chance, I mostly play on my mobile most of the time and the recent game I’ve been playing is Lemmings which has been revamped for mobile and its a pretty fun experience and has a pretty smooth transition.

WATCHING

• Look Out, Officer! (rewatch) Review

This sad sad category should have two more movies added in but one didn’t make it because I only listened to it and while I don’t feel like its going to be any better even if I looked at the movie, I want to give a fair chance to finishing actually watching it. And the second, I watched halfway for Movies and Tea and fell asleep from over-exhaustion from the work week and massive overtime. Which ends up with the fact that I rewatched Look Out, Officer from Stephen Chow because life feels better even when its busy whenever I watch Stephen Chow, any Stephen Chow film usually works.

BINGING

• Who’s the Murderer (Season 4)

Currently binging: My Little One (Season 2), Meteor Garden (2018 rewatch), The Singer 2019, Behind the Scenes, Fated to Love You (2008)

Surprisingly, nothing pairs up with overtime like TV series and nothing relaxes me like watching a few episodes here and there. Not only is this the only category that had progress as in Who’s the Murderer aired its final Season 4 episode and positive to have Season 5 as the last episode did a nice spin to lead to the first episode of Season 5 but I also started up some series while not finishing any other ones I’m watching, but its also the category with new series started like Behind the Scenes which is currently still in progress and started up Fated to Love You (the Taiwan version from 2008).

Overall, we’re in a buffer week where everything is in limbo.
But as stressful and crazy as real life as been, the little time I got to spend with any form of entertainment was pretty nice.
Even if it resulted in me falling asleep… I might have been a monster blogger a few years back but sleep has become more and more essential as I get older.

On that note, what have you been reading/watching/playing/binging?

What’s Up Week 2: Everything in Progress

Week 2 has definitely slowed down from the previous week. Mostly work and overtime has consumed a lot of my life and then there’s the whole getting sick part which zapped a lot of my energy, motivation and concentration. With that said, the weekend was a lot of trying to catch up with stuff and get things back on track. It is inevitable to have slow weeks here and there and this is definitely one of them.

On the note of structure of What’s Up in terms of written and video, I’ve decided to do a monthly video wrap-up which means it’ll be like a month look back and what I did and highlight the stuff that I thought stood out. At the same time, it’ll give me time to sort out some more in-depth video content probably like adaptation compare and contrast or something like remake and original comparison, etc. It really depends on what I find fun and if research is required, gives me time to put something together as well.

READING

• The Penultimate Peril (A Series of Unfortunate Events #12)

Currently reading: The End (A Series of Unfortunate Events #13)

I’m really close to finishing The End of A Series of Unfortunate Events however, I’m still working through the last few chapters of the book. However, it has been quite a fun read. Its nice especially since I get to compare and contrast to the TV series and I have to say that it might be a nice approach to talk about how the changes benefits (or not) when I finish.

PLAYING

Currently playing: Tsioque

Gaming has been a tad slow. It is to be expected as games take time to finish and I don’t usually sit down for hours playing them anyways. However, I am working through some back catalogue of keys we got that needs to be reviewed so I went ahead and started playing this point and click hand drawn animated game called Tsioque (pronounced “chiock”) and its surprisingly fun. Really looking forward to getting back to it and finishing it up.

WATCHING

• Blade
• Bone Tomahawk

I’m starting to prepare for the next Movies and Tea episode despite our previous one still in editing. However, I personally feel to look at Blade 2 would require watching the trilogy from the beginning so that is what I’m starting to do since I’ve never actually watched further than the first movie anyways so its a good opportunity to get that done. After that, we went ahead and finally watched Bone Tomahawk. My husband was sold on the Western, horror and Kurt Russell elements so that is how that choice was settled. Its a pretty good one. I’m not much for the Western film pacing so that was my main issue with a part of it. The review for that is coming up soon.

BINGING

Currently binging: Who’s the Murderer (Season 4); Meteor Garden (2018) rewatch; My Little One (Season 2); My Amazing Boyfriend (2016); The Singer 2019; Ugly Delicious (rewatch)

I’m refraining from finishing anything new until I get some TV binges together. However, all the currently binging stuff is pretty straight forward. Who’s the Murderer will have their final episode next week, I believe. The just did part one of the final case and its pretty mind-boggling and fun to decipher. Definitely looking forward to part 2 this week. My Little One (Season 2) and The Singer 2019 will be my focus in terms of variety shows since they are new and pretty fun to watch. One talks about family and communication and society perspectives in China towards girls and the other is a singing competition between known singers. I only have 5 episodes left to finish off My Amazing Boyfriend so thats definitely moving along at a good speed and I’m enjoying it quite a bit while I took a slight break on Meteor Garden last week (and most TV stuff) to just catch up with other things in life. I test run a few new series but can’t say that I’m at the starting it officially point yet so not including those here. In terms of rewatches, I started up Ugly Delicious again as I realized that I never wrote the binge for that one.

That’s it for Week 2 recap!
Mostly everything is just in progress and not much has been done. With anything like this, next week should look much more inspiring. 😉