Evangelion Jo and Ha

Last week, I watched Evangelion 1.0 (wiki) on DVD and Evangelion 2.0 (wiki) at a cinema. I can't say that I am actually a fan, and I even didn't like the previous Evangelion anime series. But the hype among lab members and work seniors around me, which feels very different from the hype of Transformers 2 (prev post), made me interested to watch the remakes.

After watching Evangelion 1.0, I was very excited ! I am not sure exactly why, because it still has the same story as before, but it could simply be because that the frames/pictures are all totally remade using the latest computer graphics technology. Another simple reason is that, perhaps my ability to speak Japanese was zero and the quality of the subtitle was very bad when I watched the anime series around 9 years back.

This time though, I particularly tried to look at the story plot from the perspective of the main character: Ikari Shinji. One of my Japanese friends, who is a die-hard fan of this franchise, gave me this hint to understand the story better a while back when we were having dinner, and I guess it worked well :). But I have a hunch that, you need to understand Japanese culture in order to understand the story since I felt I would not have been able to understand some of the scenes, had I seen the same scenes a few years back before going to Japan.

So, last Friday, five people of my lab members and I went to a local cinema to watch the second episode in the movie series. And to my surprise, this time the story changed a lot ! I have heard that the story is different from the anime series, but I didn't expect it to be this much different. There seems to be two opposite reactions about the differences in the story. I myself, like this version because it is easier to be understood, and the story doesn't feel too dark. I still remember when I watched the anime series, the story was so dark that I was dragged into a stress state. I didn't even know what I was watching :). But for some people, particularly Japanese, who liked these dark stories, the story change may be not so enjoyable.

In any case, I like Evangelion 2.0 although I have to admit I don't like it as much as I like Evangelion 1.0. From another perspective, one of the things that I like about the story is that there are many countries that are trying to save the world, unlike the stories in recent Hollywood movies. I am definitely looking forward to watching the next episode in the movie series: Evangelion 3.0(Q), which I think won't be out until at least two years later.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (spoilers alert)

I have just seen Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (wiki) yesterday with two of my lab-mates. Despite what the reviews say, which chop Transformers into bits and pieces, and although I am not a Transformers fan, I myself was quite satisfied with the movie, and I must say it is perhaps due to the awesome Computer Graphics technology used in the movie, and the good actions too.



That said, I was hoping for better story. I am going to list a few drawbacks that I noticed, and they contain spoilers, you have been warned !

...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...

Drawback List (Mine):

1. I was anticipating that the Autobots would lose in this movie and then come back in the next series (the third one), just like what happened in Star Wars. WRONG ! Although the last scene indicates that there will be a third movie, Autobots won again. Optimus Prime was indeed destroyed but he was resurrected.
2. If it is possible to resurrect Autobots or Decepticons, they must know better that in order to kill one enemy, they should obliterate every part of the body. Why didn't they do so ?
3. Stupid jokes in the middle of intensified situations, like a small Decepticon behaving like a Chiwawa and trying to "play" with Mikaela's legs.
4. Is it that easy to land in Egypt ? Is Egypt part of US ? And is it that easy for US to order Egypt's and Jordan's armed forces to participated in the war without explaining ?
5. The idea of combining two Autobots is cool, but why does the form remind me of Alteisen in Super Robot Taisen Series (wiki) ? But maybe this one was just my imagination.

I am also going to put up some drawbacks which my Japanese friends brought up yesterday:

1. Is US the world ? Maybe they can learn from other movies, like Independence Day (wiki) for example, which at least includes resistance by other countries.
2. Combining robots ? Aren't they just imitating Super Sentai (wiki) ?
3. A decepticon camouflaging as a pretty woman ? There should be a distinction line between a bot, and a human
4. There were many unnecessary scenes, like the vacation in Paris and some of the university life scenes. (Come to think of it, the story about the sliver of the Cube wasn't even touched from the middle until the end of story ).

I guess that's all the critics from me. I guess one way to enjoy a movie is not to worry about the little details, after all, isn't the idea of transforming robots itself absurd ? NOOOOO ! Just kidding :). Anyway, I hope that they'll make a better story next time, just like what they did with The Dark Knight (wiki).

Aiming at JLPT Level 1

Two weeks later on 2009 July 5th, I am going to take a JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) level 1 test in Japan. Not that there is any requirement for a particular purpose that I have to fulfill. It's just that I think it's a good time right now to take this Japanese test and obtain the certificate since I have studied for SPI, that is GRE/GMAT-like (but in Japanese) tests a while ago to look for a job.

One of the peculiar things about language tests in Japan, including this one, and another one for English proficiency called "英語検定" or "eigo kentei" (I bet you didn't know this one existed), is that they divide it into several levels, and let the applicants decide which level they want to apply to. This is different than tests held in English like TOEFL, TOEIC or GMAT/GRE, which basically only have one level (if you can say it as a level at all). Thus, the way you say your score is also different. For English tests, you usually say "my score is ...", while for these Japanese test, you say "I have passed the [test-name] level [level] test" without mentioning the scores. At first, I was a little bit confused whether I should take level 1 or level 2, but I decided to take level 1 anyway. Oh yeah, level 4 is the easiest, while level 1 is the hardest. Confusing ?

So I still have two weeks left to study, and aside from the job hunting preparation months ago (it's already that long ?), I have barely started preparing ! Indeed, I better focus on it soon, or else I will be wasting my application fee :).