Saturday, September 11, 2010

Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore

In the age old battle between cats and dogs, one crazed feline has taken things a paw too far. Kitty Galore, formerly an agent for cat spy organization MEOWS, has gone rogue and hatched a diabolical plan to not only bring her canine enemies to heel, but take down her former kitty comrades and make the world her scratching post. Faced with this unprecedented threat, cats and dogs will be forced to join forces for the first time in history in an unlikely alliance to save themselves and their humans in Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore, a comedy that blends live action with state of the art puppetry and computer animation. It is time for the fur to fly!!

Step Up 3

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The filmmakers who dazzled you with box-office hits STEP UP and STEP UP 2: THE STREETS reunite to bring you more STEP UPnow in 3-D! In STEP UP 3, the story of urban street dancing goes global with an electrifying new story of hearts, dreams and bodies in motion, made even more thrilling with cutting-edge 3-D technology.

LUKE is an orphaned street dancer, desperate to avoid getting evicted from his only home: a rundown New York warehouse that's a haven for young dancers from around the world. This de-facto family has a dance crew, the House of Pirates.

In order for the crew to survive, they must defeat their longtime rivals, the House of Samurai, at the upcoming World Jam Competition, where the best crews in the world compete for a huge cash prize. We follow Luke through the city's diverse underground dance scene, scouting new talent to help the Pirates win World Jam.

At last, he finds the two dancers he needs: NATALIE, a mysterious street dancer, and MOOSE, the comedic sidekick from the franchises second film, who's now a freshman at NYU.

Unbeknown to Luke, Natalie has a secret that threatens to destroy their budding romance, and everything the Pirates have built. The Pirates put together a killer dance routine, only to have it stolen by the Samurai. With time running out, Moose turns to his old MSA crew for help. Can the Pirates and the MSA crew pull together a new dance number at the last minute? And will it be good enough to beat the worlds best street dancers?



It's all about the dancing I guess, whoever said the plot was good? I thought people watched it for the dancing. Of course, if there was more character development and more of a storyline, it would be more fun to watch. But over all I thought that it was ok.

This was one of my favorite:


And of course the final battle, it was expected, but good nonetheless:

My Girlfriend is a Nine-Tailed Fox / My Girlfriend is a Gumiho (Complete)

This show revolves around a guy named, Cha Tae Woong, who accidentally releases a gumiho, a legendary fox with nine tails that eats the livers of humans. When he finds out that she is a gumiho, he ends up doing crazy things to prevent the girl from eating his liver... more info>>

Review 

Mi-ho, the gumiho, was imprisioned in a painting for 500 years, until ChaDae-woong. Being an orphan, Dae-woong was brought up by his grandfather and aunt, his grandfather happens to be very rich. As a result of being brought up in a luxurious environment and spoilt when younger, Dae-woong becomes conceited and lazy, always wanting the easy way of in life and believes that money can solve all his problems. Dae-woong has always wanted to be a famous actor and thinks that he can use (his grandfather's) money to buy his way to become one. Dae-woong is in his early twenties and his immature way of thinking causes his grandfather to try to be stricter with him, to make him a more sensible person... by threatening him with his bank account. This often results in hilarious situations where Dae-woong gets into trouble...read more>>

 

Episode Guide

My Girlfriend is a Nine-Tailed Fox: Episode 1

My Girlfriend is a Nine-Tailed Fox > Episode 1 [Watch it]
The first episode of the show shows Mi-ho waiting patiently for Cha Dae-woong outside the school campus, looking lovely and chipper. The moment she spots Dae-woong, she waves enthusiastically and calls out to him. Instead of being glad to see her, he immediately whirls around and starts walking the other way.

Mi-ho comes at him with supernatural speed from the opposite direction. When she catches up with him, he gives the excuse of not having seen her. Despite her sunny innocence with which she accepts his excuse, she adds with complete earnestness, “Well I’m sure if you didn’t want to die, you wouldn’t have lied and pretended to not hear me, right?” Which goes to show she's not that naive.

Immediately after accepting his excuse, Mi-ho grabs Dae-woong’s hand and leads him to her “very special discovery”. On route to her special discovery, every man who see her on campus goes gaga - beauty being a typical characteristic of the gumiho, having an especially alluring aura that captivates men. Therefore, Dae-woong is the envy of every guy on campus… only he would beg to differ.

Soon they arrive at the "special discovery": a restaurant has just killed a cow and is serving the freshly killed cow, and she’s just dying to eat some. This is a common routine for them, however today Dae-woong decides to put a stop to her demands, claiming that he can’t afford beef!

At his outright refusal, Mi-ho raises her eyebrows skeptically, and leans in close to whisper, “Then I’ll want to eat you.” That instantly makes Dae-woong cower. Mi-ho than starts to sing a little ditty, “Fox, fox, what’s up? I’m eating rice. What are you eating it with? Some Dae-woong side dishes! Did he die? Did he live?” Dae-woong gulps fearfully, and she declares, “He lived!”, running off exuberantly to eat some beef.

Then there is a flashback of what happened previously of how Dae-woong ended up in this predicament.

The scene cuts to the action school where Dae-woong is recording an action sequence with the aid of his buddies. Unlike his timidity in the opening scene, he displays a strong, masculine energy as he swoops across the gym on wires, brandishing a sword menacingly while his buddies hold on to the wires. He wants the recording to become a success story when he posts it online.

He uses his status and acts like a leader. After the shooting, he buys everyone ice cream just like he’s the star of a drama treating the staff. He also brags about the movie role he has almost got — he’s a finalist and his last audition is coming up.

In a bid to look good for his last audition, he goes to his grandfather’s hair salon, bringing along his buddies Sun-nyeo and Byung-soo, promising them free perms as well. Just as he gets his own hair set in anticipation of his audition, the Grandpa arrives (manager of the hair salon called in Grandpa), who berates Dae-woong abusing his status as the owner’s grandson once again.

Just as Grandpa is berating him, Dae-woong hastily pretends he’s going to pay this time... Only to speed away on his flashy new motorcycle, which was paid for with the tuition money given by Grandpa. Not to be outwitted, Grandpa reported the bike as stolen. As a result, Dae-woong is soon pulled over by a cop and ends up in jail. At this point in time however, all he can worry about is whether his hair will be over-permed.

Being more lenient than her father, Aunt Min-sook bails him out and sides with Dae-woong. But Grandpa is determined to straighten Dae-woong out, and announces that he’s sending him off to a rigorous academy to get some education.

Despite Dae-woong protests, Grandpa is unmoved, saying that until Dae-woong becomes a person (meaning, a mature adult), he’s grounded. Dae-woong offers one shoe as assurance that he won’t run away. This action buys him a little space when they drop by a rest station. On the pretext of going to the toilet, Dae-woong hides himself in an empty garbage bag. When Grandpa cannot find him, he assumes Dae-woong fled out the window. Grandpa yells in frustration, and Dae-woong escapes by sneaking onto the back of a grocery delivery truck.

The ride in the truck lands Dae-woong somewhere along a mountain road. By this time the weather has turned dark and rain, so he attempts to hitch-hike. A car stops, the driver is a monk, who brings him along to the temple (where Mi-ho is trapped in the painting) and puts him up for the night at the temple.

Wanting to contact his is aunt Min-sook, Dae-woong borrows the monk's cell phone and tries to guess her phone number. As the phone reception is weak, he holds up the phone and wanders into the woods in search of a stronger signal.

His quest for a stronger phone signal takes him to the isolated temple that houses the painted scroll in which Mi-ho is trapped. He finally finds reception just outside the building but gets a wrong number, the recipient (which happens to be Mi-ho) asks him not to hang up. As she the comment that he looks better with his hat off, Dae-woong looks at his phone with growing dread; the phone’s battery has died, but the voice is coming from it.

Spooked, he starts to edge away from the entrance of the isolated temple, but Mi-ho warns him that if he runs, there will be consequences and he would not want that to happen. Mi-ho invites him inside and directs him to the scroll, telling him to draw nine tails on the fox. He futilely attempts to refuse, but she orders him to hurry, so with a lot of misgivings, he starts to draw the tails. As he draws, the skies start to thunder and the watchdog barks furiously. Realizing that something is wrong, the monks hurry to the gumiho’s temple.

Finally, Dae-woong finishes drawing, and Mi-ho is free. The ongoing storm freaks Dae-woong out, so he runs out of the temple, only to end up falling down a rocky hillside; knocked unconscious.

Mi-ho finds him decides to save him. She reasons that since he drew the tails for her, he could become useful, so she she may as well save him. So she leans over and breathes a mystical energy into Dae-woong, her “fox bead”, her nine tails gleaming in the moonlight.

It is morning and Dae-woong finds himself in an odd position: hanging on a high tree branch, only remembering he fell down the mountainside. He doesn’t recognize Mi-ho as she approaches. However, a few key phrases trigger Dae-woong’s memory, he realizes she was the girl on the phone. Thinking that she is a ghost, he freaks out, but confirms she is human when he touches her cheek.

Believing that she was playing a prank on him the night before, he attempts to leadsher back to the temple to confess about the scroll, thinking that it was mere vandalism.As Mi-ho tells her story, Dae-woong interprets her being locked up by her grandmother (in the painting) and not wanted to go back as she’s a troublemaker who is serving punishment.

When she introduces herself as a gumiho, Dae-woong concludes that she is crazy. He retorts that she should have nine tails, and she answers that they’re only visible in moonlight. She also mentions that she helped him too, how her "fox bead" she gave him is healing him and the reason why he is no in pain. She reaches under his shirt to point it out, but he quickly pushes her aside, convinced she’s literally insane.

Fed-up Dae-woong heads off on his own leaving Mi-ho, and ends up encountering a ferocious pig. However, despite Dae-woong’s wish to be rid of the crazy girl, he can’t just leave her to the pig’s mercies and he comes back to get her. Although she’s not scared of it, he grabs her hand and starts running.

Meanwhile, the mysterious Dong-joo, who apparently is a Gumiho Hunter, makes his appearance at the temple...

They manage to go to a nearby town, where Dae-woong separates from Mi-ho and sells a necklace for some cash. He concludes that if Grandpa pays his school tuition, he is safe to return home. So he calls his school and gets confirmation that the tuition has been paid, signifying he is free to return to Seoul. Nearby, Mi-ho's keen ears pick up the details of his phone call, and starts to follow him.

Assuming that he can ditch her easily as she doesn’t know anything about him, he is shocked when she calls out his name. She then goes on to recite a list of his personal details, asking him to buy her lunch. He takes her to a nearby grill restaurant, where she eagerly anticipates her first taste of meat in 500 years. She almost takes a bite of raw meat, but controls herself to appear human.

He excuses himself to go to the bathroom, but slips away, rationalizing that he repaid her by buying her lunch. When he doesn’t return, Mi-ho goes off in search of him in the bathroom,. In the bathroom, she marvels at all the chairs in the bathroom, opening the lid of one "porcelain throne", she decides that it’s a well! And she happens to be thirsty…

Thankfully, she decides that although the well is pretty, it is not very clean. At this juncture, the meat she was eating drops into the bowl. In her desperate attempt to retrieve her meat, she ends up accidentally flushing it away. Just as she is about to reach into the bowl to retrieve it, she catches the scent of her pursuers in the air (the monk, Dong-joo, and policemen) and hurries away.

There’s a silly scene involving Aunt Min-sook: she farts in an empty shopping mall elevator and panics because the smell remains the unventilated elevator. The doors open to let in another mysterious man, who pretends not to notice the smell. Soon the door opens at another floor, and two ladies get on the elevator. They start to gag, and the mysterious takes the blame for Aunt Min-sook. Aunt Min-sook is very touched at the gesture, and nods a thank-you in his direction.

Now back to Dae-woong, who is eager to take the next bus back to Seoul. He thinks Mi-ho was stalking him and does not believe her explanation that she followed his scent. He sneers at her story and mocks her explanation of being a gumiho, his meanness hurting her feelings in the process. In a hardened tone, Mi-ho vows to get him to believe her, and when she finds him, he's dead.

He takes the bus back to Seoul and heads to the action school, but he’s filled with paranoia, imagining Mi-ho lurking around every corner waiting to pounce on him. He meets up with his friends Sun-nyeo and Byung-soo with relief when he see no sign of Mi-ho. The former, eager to please her crush, gives Dae-woong keys to the building so he can spend the night there.

It’s only now that Dae-woong sees the injury to his back,recalling Mi-ho’s explanation of her fox bead’s power. Dae-woong starts to confide his strange experience to Byung-soo, hat he met a crazy girl who called herself a gumiho, then recalls that she made him promise not to tell. Byung-soo warns him (half-jokingly, of course) that if a gumiho tells you not to tell, you’d better not tell or risk death.

Troubled by what Byung-soo said, Dae-woong tries to calm don by shooting some hoops. But just as the ball rolls away from him, it rolls back.... and many more balls start rolling toward him, of their own accord. From the shadows emerges Mi-ho, who has tracked him.

She reminds him that she said she’s a gumiho, and looks up at the sky . She announces that the moon is about to come out. She steps into the moonbeam as the moon us revealed when the clouds part, when she faces him, there are nine mystical tails floating in the air behind her. Stunned, Dae-woong gapes. Mi-ho tells him, “I am a gumiho. Give me back my fox bead.” With that, she approaches him and leans in to retrieve it… [Watch it]

Friday, September 03, 2010

Fahrenheit Super Hot MV

Fahrenheit comes back with dance moves that are too hot for icebergs

Source: Cpop Access

Fahrenheit looks like they are ready to escape from the (badly photoshopped) “land of icebergs” and take off their clothes off once and for all! In anticipation of their "Super Hot (太熱)" album on September 17th, the group went to dance master Chang Sheng Feng, who choreographed Jolin Tsai’s Dancing Diva among others, for guidance on perfecting their icy-hot dance moves.

The members have been practicing hard on a “Towel Fighter Dance” that is supposed to exude their manliness. The highlight of the dance includes body contact, not with each other but with female dancers, where the ladies would run their hands over the members' bodies. These “Hot“ moves were apparently enough to expand Calvin Chen’s blood vessels, while an embarrassed Wu Chun asked his groupmates, “Did my moves and expression looked really weird?”

There was a price to pay for creating such “hotness” -- Jiro Wang re-injured his knee during dance practice, Calvin Chen pulled a thigh muscle, Wu Chun sacrificed his break from his drama to film the music video and Aaron Yan only had a day of rest after suffering a concussion recently.

Director Bi Er Jia wanted to emphasize on the visual effects of "fiery hotness" and "icebergs". In order to make Fahrenheit looking like they were “breaking out of ice”, the members were filmed while being half-naked and smeared with jelly that pretended to be ice. The staff also added some man-made hotness by spraying them with a water gun to create the “sweat effect”. Fahrenheit wanted to show their best possible bods on screen, so they all did last-minute push-ups and sit-ups before filming began.

The group will be holding a preorder event at the NTU Sports Center on September 4th. Some fans criticized the $700 NTD ($22 USD) ticket for being too pricey. Their record company said the event will be produced like a concert, with a specially designed stage that allows them to ascend and descend, in addition to visual effects. Fahrenheit will also give away limited edition of signed posters and autograph for the fans.

Watch the MV!