movie - patriot games

IMDB:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105112/

movie title:
patriot games

main cast:
harrison ford as jack ryan
anne archer as cathy ryan (jack's wife)
thora birch as sally ryan (jack's daughter)
samuel l. jackson as robby jackson (jack's best friend)
sean miller as sean bean (jack's nemesis)

synopsis:
jack happens to be the accidental tourist that takes out an assassination squad from an extreme IRA group.

the aim of the group is to kidnap royals to exchange for political prisoners. however, after what jack did, sean is only motivated by personal revenge.

sean got busted out while being transported to prison, and he went after the ryan family, who are now back in the USA. he didnt succeed in killing, but he hurt ryan's family bad.

so now he's made jack mad, and he went back to the CIA so he could go after sean personally. even so, ryan missed wiping out the group, cos they were already on their next mission to kidnap the royals who are visiting ryan.

ryan and his good buddy robby foils their plans, the end.

my score: 8 out of 10.
harrison makes ryan human. although in the tom clancy novel, ryan was a lot younger (35 instead of 50) and the original actor was supposed to be alec baldwin.

why you should watch it:
special effects, harrison ford makes an excellent ryan, sean bean for his very focussed role. and darth vader in plain clothes! haha. i mean, james earl jones (as admiral james greer).

kdrama - hotelier

official website:
http://www.imbc.com/broad/tv/drama/hotel_new/

drama title:
Hotelier

main cast:
Kim Seung Woo - Han Tae Jun (ex is Suh)
Song Yun Ah - Suh Jin Hyung (ex is Han)
Bae Yong Joon - Shin Dong-hyuk (likes Suh)
Song Hye Kyo - Kim Yoon Hee (likes Han)

synopsis:
story of hotel under takeover crisis, with subplots of love amongst the key players of the takeover. Han Tae Jun is the Hotel GM, trying his best to thwart the plans of Shin Dong-hyuk, a corporate raider hired by a Korean tycoon.

Suh Jin Hyung is a hotel manager, caught between the 2 men in their power tussle. it's hard to believe she is so innocent but the drama is pretty old, 2001, so it's relatively conservative. In the meanwhile, the tycoon's rebellious daughter, Kim Yoon Hee, is trying her best to end up in the arms of Tae Jun, who has rescued her time and again.

there's also lots of hotel behind-the-scenes stuff which are very interesting.

my score: 9 out of 10.
um, i have watched this drama at least 3 times? and i havent got bored yet. and i didnt even watch it when it first came out. i only watched it on DVD, long after i had already been hit by the korean wave countless times (stuff like Winter Sonata, Stairway to Heaven, etc). the whole package just came together really well.

why you should watch it:
Kim Seung Woo and Song Yun Ah are perfect foil for each other. friends, with that intangible link of having been ex-lovers. but since it was innocent korean drama, ex-lovers in the commitment sense and not physical.

add to that a fabulous cast of hotel staff, a mean corporate raider going soft on cutie Jin Hyung, and you have the all-engrossing korean drama that you wont be able to take your eyes off until you are too sleepy to continue.

movie - nanking

IMDB:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0893356/

movie title:
nanking
NOT the rape of nanking (which is another nanking movie)

main cast:
john magee, george fitch, minnie vautrin, john rabe, bob wilson (the actors gave voice to these)

synopsis:
it's yet another story of the rape of nanking, which happened in 1937. it tells the overall story, but focussed on a small group of westerners who chose not to run, but stayed on and set up a sanctuary for those chinese without the means to run away. even so, horror descended on the chinese and scarred the westerners for life.

my score: 11 out of 10.
if there is just 1 film you watch of nanking, this should be it.

why you should watch it:
the actors who spoke to us from the words of the westerners left behind in letters and journals, the interviews with chinese survivors and japanese soldiers, the videos and photos of that era, puts you right smack into the situation then.

but it's sad that history repeats itself, isn't it?

movie - die hard 2

IMDB:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099423/

movie title:
die hard 2
or die harder

main cast:
bruce willis as john mcclane, again

synopsis:
john spends christmas at the airport, and stumbles into a merc plot to hijack the airport control tower in order to rescue a drug lord general that's being delivered to US authorities.

his wife in the meanwhile, is on a plane circling the airport and will run out of fuel in a couple of hours.

hence he gets up close and personal with the general and his mercs.

my score: 7 out of 10.
i'm an action blockbuster fan and this is an action blockbuster of the finest order. in case you didnt realise it, the action is 2x as hard to make as the first time round, cos its filmed in freezing conditions.

why you should watch it:
the usual die hard reasons. bruce is funny and gives as good as he gets. plus some of the twists and turns in the plot are really good. the special effects too. in fact, it makes you wanna go watch die hard again.

movie - me, myself & irene

IMDB:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0183505/

movie title:
me, myself & irene

main cast:
charlie/hank - jim carrey
irene - renee zellweger

synopsis:
average guy gets a job as a state trooper, gets married, has an average life. not.

turns out wife has affair and kids are not his, but he shuts out the obvious and lives in denial. wife eventually runs away. end of story. not.

he goes mental. when his normal mind cant take it anymore, his alter ego takes over. and there the fun begins. farrelly style.

somewhere down the line, irene pops up, with killer cops after her, and she is stuck with the charlie/hank combo in a wacky escapade.

my score: 7 out of 10.
jim carrey switches between normal and mental like no one else can. irene is just the excuse to flesh out the storyline. besides, it's all good farrelly fun.

why you should watch it:
jim is awesome normal, and stupendous mental. the first time hank comes out, it blew my mind. funny and tragic at the same time. you really feel for the poor sucker.

kdrama - the vineyard man

official website:
http://www.kbs.co.kr/drama/podo/

drama title:
포도밭 그사나이 / Podopat Geusanai
oso known as the man in the vineyard

main cast:
Yoon Eun Hye as Lee Ji Hyun (city girl)
Oh Man Seok as Jang Taek-Gi (country boy)
Kim Ji Suk as Kim Kyung Min (doc, town boy and city girl's college crush)
Jung So-young as Kang Soo Jin (prof, country boy's ex gf)

synopsis:
city girl goes to the country and falls in love with country boy. can this even be possible? guess that is why this is a korean drama.

the original pretext of luring city girl to country is good. it's a financial windfall for a fashion designer wannabe who got backstabbed and then fired from work. her granduncle only requires her to work for a year at his 10,000 acre vineyard, and it's hers. checks with the property people say it can be worth a whole lot more when converted to resortland. at the same time, she could avoid a certain guy whom she had accidentally molested in a public male toilet during the time she got backstabbed at work, and he was harassing her.

turns out he is working for her granduncle, and she even has to learn farming from him! the work is tough and she isnt used to the living conditions. but over time and even meeting up with her old crush, a doc on duty in the boondocks as his national service stint, she ends up preferring plain and honest country boy to dressy and rich town boy???

of course, it is never easy to inherit that much money. the granduncle's daughter in law turns up with a son and claims it's his grandson. but ultimately, everything turns out A-OK.

my score: 7 out of 10.
i would have given it a higher score if the storyline wasnt so cheesy. still, it's a great drama about the pros of working hard and seeing the reward. oso, the pig hunt cum overnight camping scene is worth the whole drama put together.

why you should watch it:
learn how to take care of a vineyard. as well as a farm. see lots of juicy grapes. makes me wanna eat them too! ok ok, im skirting the main reason: it's all about YOON EUN HYE. can this girl do anything wrong on camera? so far, all i can say is, NOPE. dont believe me, go check out that camping scene. and she is so dorky looking at times, it's super funny! esp when she tries to dress up and still work in the fields. or gets her hair stuck in the vines. just watch the drama!!!!