Movie Review The Nun

Story goes...

"In 1952 Romania, two Roman Catholic nuns living at the Cârța Monastery are attacked by an unseen force when they enter a tunnel to retrieve an ancient Christian relic. The surviving nun, Sister Victoria, flees from the attacker, a demon appearing as a nun, and hangs herself. Her body is discovered by Frenchie, a villager who transports supplies to the nuns..."
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nun_(2018_film)

Conclusion

An overall satisfying movie...
- just nice special/scary effect for the movie
- despite the main casts was only around 4 (3 humans and the nun), the screen didn't felt lacking.
- the main storyline was well paced with the ending giving a smooth wrap up to link up with it's Conjuring series.

Looking forward to sequel but seemed like the next up would be The Conjuring 3.

Movie Review: The Predator (2018)

Storyline
"The alien Predators come to the southern backwoods of the US state of Georgia, and a group of former soldiers and a biologist have to face the Predators to save the human race." -Source: https://www.foxmovies.com/movies/the-predator

Watch out for?
The young boy, Jacob Tremblay as Rory McKenna. Great acting he got there.

Conclusion
The movie itself...
It felt like the movie was shot by different people.

The movie pace was like sudden accelerate and changed pace which makes the tension falls apart, then proceed with a fast pace and dead end.

The movie left me very CONFUSED. The focus shifted all over the movie.

I still prefer the portion where it felt like the predator movie style of "fight-run-survive and loop again". But the movie kept trying to bring a main story frame and pull it together but not a smooth transition.


Spoilers Ahead:

Feels like I watched a sci-fi drama but on the big screen and it was like.. "what? I just finished a movie? Where's the follow up?" Not that I wanted more, but it ended with a superb thumbs up gears look for the Ultimate Predator Killer... BUT the way it was portrayed made the WOW impact felt like a "hm.. Oh.. okay.. that's the new gear...so..?"


I really had to say.. or ask..

1st... Where did the faith of Emily McKenna (acted by Yvonne Strahovski) on her Quinn McKenna (acted by Boyd Holbrook), ex-hubby came from?

Her role as the supportive mother and ex-wife felt like she was trying to be tough but without a very good reason. Normally the mother would be screaming in tears or blaming the ex for taking their child and putting their child in danger. I mean it's like... why the need to be a divorced status? There wasn't even a love link between Casey Bracket(the lady professor) and Quinn. Why can't Quinn be the man with a family? IF they are still together, it would make more sense of why she trusted and sided with Quinn

2nd... Why can't there be more survivors? 

Everyone fought side by side and the chemistry was build up but they just had to wipe everyone off. It's just almost an instant wipeout when I thought finally there is a movie with maximum survival counts. Although some died in honor but there can be more survivors.

3rd.. The role of Casey Bracket(acted by Olivia Munn), the lady professor is a biologist. Did she served the army too?

Casey was almost as good as the soldiers and she even had the courage to run after the predator even though she had witnessed what the predator did. It killed or wounded people badly BUT that didn't freak a normal human away?  She managed to survive... BUT not the others... ? So she is the tough one apart from the main lead and the young boy? If the character was someone like the tomb raider, skilled in many areas and had braved through storms, then it seemed ideal. Also, towards the end of the movie, she was SOOOOO far away from the alien craft, but suddenly she appeared out of nowhere. How did she know to use the ball and how did she come to the site where the alien craft crashed? She can't fly.. right? Maybe I wasn't paying enough attention to find out who she really was in the movie.

4th.. Will Traeger (acted by Sterling K. Brown) is a hard to understand. 

He gave the reason to the name of the Predator. He played the villain being rough to the young boy. He even managed to figure out the objective of the evolved Predator? Did he had the ability to read his mind? I thought he had strike a deal with the Predator. But faced against the Predator, he was in fear. But before that, he was acting almighty and looked like he can kill a dozen. He had many gears to research and even had a lab with the scientists to help him. But the weapons was used by his team wasn't anything that could hurt the Predator. So what have he been researching on? And at the end... he was finished off in such an ironic manner.

5th.. Quinn McKenna (acted by Boyd Holbrook) was pinpointed by the predator as the "Ultimate Predator Killer"? Why? How? 

I watched the movie, he fought like the rest of the cast. His additional ability was to command the others. Because he got to save his boy, so he have to give it all to save him. Is that why the predator see him fitting the role well?

Letting his wife narrate the number of battles, credits or honor he got was the proof? When the predator roughed him up, it felt like the predator only wanted to throw him away than to kill him. When the predator hunted the others, it took minimal effort to finish them off... Be fair and let the lead guy get rough up badly like the other Predators movie did with their lead man/lady in order to show that he is the very tough guy who survived it all to fit the title well!

6th.. NO COMMUNICATION is the best communication for Predators!

From past movies till date, there were only body language communication and strange characters unknown and unreadable to human. It was great when Rory was able to understand their language and hacked into their system. But when there was direct translation to human language, it felt totally NOOOOO... The sound and the sentence is just so NOT Predator's style. For a moment, it seemed like the call from the killer for the movie called "Scream"...

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Side track...
It's the opening week of the movie but the theater I visited was less then 10% filled on a weekend at the afternoon slot. Given the movie is rated M18, it could one of the reasons.

Movie Review: The Meg

Storyline ^[1]

In the film, a deep-sea submersible—part of an international undersea observation program—has been attacked by a massive creature, previously thought to be extinct, and now lies disabled at the bottom of the deepest trench in the Pacific… with its crew trapped inside. With time running out, expert deep sea rescue diver Jonas Taylor (Jason Statham) is recruited by a visionary Chinese oceanographer (Winston Chao), against the wishes of his daughter Suyin (Li Bingbing), to save the crew—and the ocean itself—from this unstoppable threat: a pre-historic 75-foot-long shark known as the Megalodon. What no one could have imagined is that, years before, Taylor had encountered this same terrifying creature. Now, teamed with Suyin, he must confront his fears and risk his own life to save everyone trapped below… bringing him face to face once more with the greatest and largest predator of all time.

[1] STORYLINE SOURCE: HTTPS://WWW.WARNERBROS.COM/MEG

Summary:

An exploration into the sea which accidentally triggered a legend race of creatures into the surface.

SPOILERS AHEAD! AVOID if you don't want to know the details yet

MY REVIEW:

From the start till the end, the pace was quite smooth. Minimal technical lingo throughout which makes the film easy to digest. And there was the storyline of a family which makes me easier to feel for the characters.

Unlike other similar shows where there can be only 1 survivor, casualties in The Meg is to the minimal. It did kill off some characters in almost an instant but that was when the movie was already more than half of the film over.

Scare factor is to the minimal as well so although I did scream, but it was a bit. Overall, a film for almost all ages.

Day 4 BKK (Don Muang International Airport) > SG

The last day of our trip. Did nothing much except lazing in the hotel and then check out of the hotel for airport.

Our flight was 3.50pm (Thailand time) and we started out journey @ 12.30pm as we were worried about traffic jam on the road but there wasn't. Traffic was quite smooth as what the hotel receptionist had mentioned.

If you are heading for Don Muang International Airport, please be prepared for the crowd! We were shocked by the long queue to the immigration counter. Took about 40 minutes to clear the immigration counter.

Our friend went to another the BKK international airport and it was a breeze for him.

There are shops at the airport for last minute shopping but the pricing is much higher as compared to the shopping mall.

Smooth flight back to Singapore via Scoot (Tiger Air).

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Hotel Review

Stayed @ Citin Pratunam Hotel Bangkok by Compass Hospitality

The room 

1. Value for money. Less than SGD$50 a night (without breakfast)

2. Hotel room is better than expected: Room was clean and neat. One of the few hotel that has minimal (almost no) cigarette smoke smell in the room. There were toiletries (No comb though), coffee powder, tea bags, 2 bottles of drinking waters, a small electric kettle, hair dryer, safe deposit box etc. 

3. Hotel Bathroom: The bathroom rain shower seemed to be given minimal maintenance with limited hot water. Aside from that, everything was great. 

4. Easy access to food, market, shopping mall and hiring drivers. 
-> Food and markets: Right outside the hotel are lanes and lanes of food stalls, restaurants and markets. 
-> Shopping mall: There are plenty of shopping malls around. But to get to BIG C or Central World, it will take around 15 minutes or longer walk if you aren't familiar with the location to the shopping mall.
-> Drivers: Tuk tuk, taxi and tour drivers are readily available along the streets right outside of the hotel. 

5.Hotel Service Staffs: There were some communication barriers but staffs were overall attentive and responsive with our requests. 

6. Getting to hotel via train: The route from train to hotel can be tricky. Need to walk through a train path after alighting from Ratchaprarop Station and cut into a small alley which cannot be seen from far. For those dragging heavy/many luggage, take note it might be difficult task getting across the train path due to rough stones on the track.

7. Two buildings: One is the Main building with check-in counter while the other building were 2 mins away on the opposite lane where hotel guests had breakfast at the lobby in the morning. I was given a room at the 2nd building. Seemed liked no one guarded the lobby and anyone can enter the 2nd building hotel. The lift was supposedly operated via hotel room card to access the different levels BUT one of the lift seemed to allow access without the hotel room card. A bit concern on the security issues.

8. Minimal Noise: Not much noise during the night. Could be due to my room was on higher floor at the other building further from the busier streets, so it was quite peaceful in the night.

Vibrant Color Silicon Suction Pad

Pros -

• Vivid colors to choose from.
• Helps to stick phone with portable charger, tablet/phone with music scores stand etc
• Works well with glossy, smooth surface
• Small and slim in size, almost weight nothing so not a load to carry in bag

Cons -

• Only works well with glossy and smooth surface
• Slide off easily if not enough suction

Price: - 

Overall: I would recommend buying. 

- Affordable and color is very nice

Item Review: Kano Foldable Fabric Storage Box

Pros -

• Color are vivid.
• Helps to cover up any messy piled-up stuffs
• The box are foldable, making it easy to keep if you need to keep it for future use.
• Easy to set up and dissemble for keeping
• The handles to carry the box around are quite durable and it makes moving the box easier even if it is heavy loaded.

Cons -

• In order to stack the box up, the storage box have to be fully filled with items in order for the box to sit properly.
• The part where it is cream color, after using it for a period of time, it will have brown mold so take note about that.
• The assembly parts is sometime flimsy when it is not in the correct position. It ain't a big issue as it is easily fitted back.

Price: Bought @ SGD $11.90 pc box years ago but now pricing seemed to have gone down. Also, there are better ones which can minimize the molding from appearing. Can consider if in need of flexible storage as takes little storage space when not in use as compared to plastic/carton box as it be can folded.

DAY 3 Day Trip at Bangkok

Day 3


After Day 2 trip with our driver, we took another one day BKK trip with him. We started the day at 7am. Our driver told us we got to start this early in order to be in time for the Train Market and Floating Market.

Had a very light breakfast at hotel with self prepared meal (instant porridge, mango sticky rice and cream puff) for breakfast!

On the way to our driver's car.

Our first destination is the Maeklong Railway Market. 

A lot of people. Everyone came to see, buy, eat, take photo (especially when the train came)

Small walking path, with vendors on both sides

Some of the passengers from the train ride alighted to the Railway Market

This shop has delicious roasted meat. Our driver highly recommend us.

My Roast Pork with Char Siew and Chicken for lunch. Thumbsup!

Our next destination was the Floating market damnoen saduak but we gave it a miss after much consideration and went straight to the next location.

We ended up on an elephant ride. I sincerely didn't know that these rides were actually a torture for the elephant. The ride itself wasn't pleasant also. 

Paid around THB $600 per pax for the ride.

After the unpleasant ride, we went back to town for a quick local delights lunch. 

Next, we went to the Wat Pho.

Our last stop is none other than Chatuchak. 

Great for shopping

What you can find at Chatuchak... Wide varieties of stuffs from bags to clothes to food to souvenirs to pet to massage services etc etc. Must go if you are in a shopping mood. There are shops which can keep you shelter from the hot sun and there are some shops with aircon as well. Toilets/restroom are also easily available at several sections.

Take note of:

RAIN!! If it starts to rain heavily, try to get out of the place asap as it will flood and before you know, you are trapped at one of the stall waiting for the rain to go away. Flood is one thing, but pests also get flushed out. Saw a few cockroaches during my second trip when I encountered the heavy rain.

Dinner time, we went to this stall for a delicious and cheap meal. I finally get to try this fish which I saw vendors selling along the street. The fish was covered with salt and lemongrass/pandan leaves was stuffed inside the fish.

After dinner, we walked to the nearby night market outside Palladium, Talad Neon Night Market. There were food stalls with seats but after a very filling dinner, we can only head to the back of the night market where there were container stalls selling yummy desserts.

Late Night Desserts @ Talad Neon Night Market

That's all for Day 3.

Japanese TV Drama Switch Girl Season 1 and 2

Synopsis and Cast

"“Switch Girl!!” is a manga series by Aida Natsumi that currently runs in Shueisha’s magazine Margaret and has sold close to 5 million copies total. The story revolves around a high school student named Nika (Nishiuchi Mariya) who appears to be a stylish and fashionable girl at school, but that’s really a fake persona that she uses when she’s in public. At home, she “switches off” the facade and her returns to her true slovenly nature. Kiriyama Renn (26) plays the good-looking transfer student Arata, who is Nika’s love interest in the story.

The drama series will begin airing on satellite channel Fuji TV TWO on December 24, which is Nishiuchi’s 18th birthday. -" Tokyography

My review:Picked up this drama randomly ever since I stopped Japanese drama. And I like it! Enjoyable..watch at your own pace or watch it in one go, it's addictive. However, if you are not into comedy, pure leisure kind of drama, this might not be your cup of tea. 

As said in the synopsis, the drama setting is in high school. The chemistry of the overall cast is good.  If you read the comics, you would have realized how close the live action tried to stick to the comics. However, there are some chapters that they changed (which I think I would have prefer if they did not changed)


The Surprising Information:- About Kiriyama Ren (portraying as Arata) he is actually 26! I was thinking he was at most 20/21. I first saw him in Kamen Rider W as a detective. And now he revert to high school character!

-Did I not mentioned there were season 1 and 2? 

Recipe: Cream Cheese Frosting

Needed cream cheese frosting for a birthday cake. Read that frosting should be make earlier so I searched for a cream cheese recipe (link)

I doubled my recipe as I was afraid it is not enough for my cake.
So here is goes:
Ingredients
2 packs of 250g (approx 18 oz) cream cheese (Philadelphia cream cheese)
1 cup (approx 125g or 4.4 oz) of icing sugar
8 tablespoons of butter (melted butter for easier mixing)
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Steps as below:

1. Combine all into a big mixing bowl 

2. Mix well until creamy

3. Use and required or refrigerate till you need to use

Step 1

Step 2

Recipe: Sandwich

Yes, it’s not difficult to make yourself a nice sandwich!

Make-do with whatever that is available in your kitchen and create your own “sandwich”.

Luckily for me, I have the below in my fridge

Ingredients

1. Bread/lettuce/rice wrap – for the top and bottom layer
2. Cheese
3. Ham in slices
4. Tomato
5. Butter

Making - Here you go:

a. If you have bread, then spread a layer or butter onto one side it bread

b. Stack one piece of the bread (the side with butter facing on top) on the plate.

c. Stack up ingredients (2 to 4) in the sequence you like.

d. Ends with placing the remaining bread on at the top (the side with butter facing down)

Note: At times, I will replace:

i. ham with bacon (if you have time to fry it to crisps or if you have bacon bits)

ii. cheese with egg (fried/sliced hard boiled egg)

iii. butter with margarine or strawberry/blueberry jam

bak kwa sandwich

Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum Review

Having seen the trailer, it looked like it's another great movie ahead. But when I was done with watching, it just felt.....

Spoilers Ahead...

Some thoughts on the movie:

Scare factor: 2.5 of out 5
At many scenes where we would typically get a scare of our lives with a suddenly shriek or a ghost projection, it was only to a minimal and when it felt like more than half of the movie was already gone then it really happened. Being a ghost movie fan, I am so sure there would be something happening at that point of time, or even more... but it didn't.

When the ghost possessed the human body, the only difference is a nonsensical mumble/speech with a enlarged black pupils which reminded me and my friend of her colored contact lenses with the enlarge the pupils' visual effect. It seemed better effect to leave the ghost outlook alone.. maybe like Sadako, covered her face with hair and leave it up to the audience's imagination for the fear factor.

Movie Overall: 3 out of 5
Having seen quite a lot of horror/ghost/exploration/gross movies, something felt lacking in this movie. Although the movie tried to give a totality in how the crew formed together during the beginning to giving an explanation to the rumored haunted room 402, it could have been better.

The bonding at the movie beginning could have been shorten since I was really in the "hm.. can bring up the pace to the exploration?" when they were still not in the asylum.

At the beginning when the team was formed, they were talking about the people who had venture to the asylum and there were a group of 3 ladies who were rescued but 2 committed suicide. It would add on to the ultimate mystery if the scriptwriter were to link that survivor lady with Ji-Hyun (the lady who is a nurse) or any of the exploration team ladies by portraying her as one being possessed during her previous exploration and this time round, she joined this team to ensure they will proceed to go to the Asylum. However, it wasn't.

Summary

At the end of the movie, it felt like the movie was trying to portray about the Room 402 as a gateway to another dimension world which would explain the disappearance of those who was last seen trying to enter the room. And the other dimension lives the ghosts of the asylum's patients and they are the one who haunt the asylum.

Conclusion: The characters played their part well in this movie.

Almond Florentine Recipe - Revisited (with Air Fryer)

CNY again, time for some baking... with my new electrical appliance in my kitchen... AIR FRYER!

My microwave oven has been quite cranky (the plate doesn't rotate 90% of the time) so I tried using air fryer and it worked just fine!

Air Fryer Setting
- temperature @ 160C
- timer set to 12 minutes

This time round, I changed the recipe to

Batch 1:
Ingredients
a. 70g almond
b. 20g pumpkin seeds
c. 10g sunflower seeds
d. 50g-70g florentine powder

Batch 2:
Ingredients
a. 70g butter almond
b. 20g pumpkin seeds
c. 10g sunflower seeds
d. 100g florentine powder

Instruction:
1. In a large bowl, simply mixed almond, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds (ingredient a-c) and stir in florentine powder a tablespoon at a time for easier mixing.
2. Spread onto the air fryer baking tray. (Note: to line the baking tray with baking paper)
3. Set air fryer temperature to 160C and timer set to 12 minutes
4. Keep tabs on the almond florentine, once turn brown, it's time to remove from air fryer.
5. Upon removed from air fryer, cut into desire shapes before it hardens.
6. Cool to room temperature and store as required.
- Sunflower seeds is a good combination

Results:

For Batch 1:

- Gaps in between
Saw online from other bakers they used a 2:1 (nuts:florentine powder), so for my recipe, the baked almond florentine has some gaps in between.

For Batch 2:
- Sweetness varies
The almond florentine looks good but my tester has commented it being a bit too sweet. I find this just nice.
- The butter almond further enhance the overall taste

Day 2 Bangkok > Ayutthaya > Bangkok

Day 2

Started the day around 9am+ looking for breakfast around nearby area.

 A lot to choose from and we couldn't decide!

Not sure what this is but it was nice! Crispy on the outside, chewy inside. Topped with sweet chilli sauce, reminds me of png kueh without fillings.

Wanton Mee from a stall along the roadside. 

So nice that we ordered another bowl to fill our stomach.

After breakfast, time to head for Ayutthaya. We had initially planned on taking the train to Ayutthaya. Based on various travelling sites, we planned to take the train from Bangkok Train Station to Ayutthaya (the second class seats is priced @ THB $245 ~325+  per person with fixed seats allocation or a third class seats with free standing at THB $15 ). The journey varies from 1 hr 30 mins to 2 hr 30mins and we factored in:
1. Rent a bicycle to tour around or hire a tuk tuk for short trips within Ayuthaya.
2. Recommended to head for the station for the train back to Bangkok by 3pm.

So....

We secured a driver for a round trip (to and fro) to Ayuttaya (the car can cater up to 4 person), costed less than THB $3,000 and it was a breeze from place to place.

Our driver suggested the following route which was good enough for us because my original route only covered 4 locations.

Bang Pa-In Royal Palace > Wat Yai Chai Mongkol > Wat Ratchaburana > Wat Maha That > Wat Phra Si Sanphet >  Wat Lokaya Sutha > Wat Chaiwatthanaram > Back to Bangkok

1. Bang Pa-In Royal Palace - A palace for the King during summer times.
(Admission fee is THB$100 for tourists (adults pricing))

2. Wat Yai Chai Mongkol 

Climbing up is tough as the steps are very high. Getting down was another difficult task because of the steps' height. Had to be careful not to fall down.

3. Malakor Cafe - Break time, went to have lunch @ Malakor Cafe.

The aircon area is cafe and the 2nd level (open air) is the dining area.

Spicy Minced Pork with Basil on Rice

Fried Rice with Chicken 

Tom Yum Goong

Royal Thai Milk Tea (*thumbs up!!)

4. Wat Ratchaburana - Across the street just minutes away from Malakor Cafe

5. Wat Maha That - By the time we get to Wat Maha That, we were exhausted. The heat got to us.

6. Kum Khun Phaan towards Wat Phra Si Sanphet. We didn't proceed into Wat Phra Si Sanphet and took a rest outside instead.

Kum Khun Phaan

The fishes in the pond

7. Wat Chaiwatthanaram - Our last location before we head back to Bangkok. Totally drained, we took a few shots on the outside.

As it was a weekday and happened to be the peak hour when we make our way back to Bangkok, it took us 2 hours + to return back to our hotel.

We started our journey around 10.30am and covered:

1. Bang Pa-In Royal Palace
2. Wat Yai Chai Mongkol
3. Wat Ratchaburana 
4. Wat Maha That
5. Wat Chaiwatthanaram 

and back to Bangkok around 7pm+.

We took a short break and head out to Central World for a luxurious dinner. (Wanted to go for After You as last order was 9+pm but our heavy dinner forbade us.)

Mixed Fruits beverage

The picture in menu showed cut fruits but it was served in a bottle. 

Lasagna which was nice but took a long time to come

Deep Fried Fish

(can't rem if it was sea bass)

Initially it was nice, but when it started to get cold, and only 3 of us eating, we can't finished it.

Fried Pork Belly                               Calamari Rice.

Our total bill amounted to approx. THB $2,000 (for 3!)

Although we didn't go for After You, we grabbed some dessert on the go!!

Japanese Water Cake @ THB $100/pc

(got a promo and got 20% off and it costed THB $80!!)

Mango with Sticky Glutinous Rice, THB $60/pack

On the way back hotel, couldn't resist this!! 

That's all for day 2.