weekend reviews

Movies, food, new hair. Boom.

Pacific Rim 

Pacific Rim is this year’s movie event. And I love this film. Love love love it. This is a high-budget, special effects-laden action film in the vein of the beloved Japanese tokusatsu of my childhood (Ultraman, etc) with no unnecessary make-out scenes but with a female in the lead (would have wanted to see more females – anyway) fighting the bad guys instead of getting stuck in a meek, sappy role like Daimos‘s Erika, with no unnecessary make-out scenes (I need to mention this twice because this fact makes me so happy) and which puts emphasis on the female gaze for once!

Yes! Take all of my money!

Guillermo del Toro is great in character design (just see Pan’s Labyrinth and Hellboy: Rise of the Golden Army), so this film is bursting with detail at the seams. Look at this thing:

You can’t go wrong with Del Toro, y’all. The alien monsters, the robots, the massive scale. Ramin Djawadi (Game of Thrones) created the score and it is menacing and perfect. You can feel the bass notes in your chest. And the cast is first-rate: Idris Elba, Rinko Kikuchi, Charlie Day, that guy from Sons of Anarcy.

Bravo.

Further reading: A great analysis of Mako (Rinko Kikuchi’s character), ie why she’s not meek. Read only after you’ve seen the film, because spoilers.

Other movies seen recently: I saw Dead Ringers (1988) where Jeremy Irons plays twin gynecologists who are so close they share residence, patients, and women. Irons is so good in this film that I still can’t stop thinking about his performance.

I’ve heard about Hable con Ella/Talk to Her (2002) the year it won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. This film broke my heart. Only a story masterfully told can make you sympathize with a character who makes a questionable decision, and Hable con Ella is one of those stories.

We made some meatball spaghetti! This is based on an Ina Garten recipe.

It was delicious. We were surprised by how good it tasted.

Also, new hair! Permanent Blow-dry part deaux, and Hair Color, still at B&W Beauty Salon inside Kingswood Condominium in Makati. Drop by for a visit to know their rates. They have a rainy day promo right now. :)

This is the first time I had my hair colored, so I just chose the safest brown there is. But as several friends have said, subtle only works at the start; I will go crazy and choose the more risqué colors later, like platinum blonde, or cotton-candy pink. Or fluorescent orange.

Now reading: Claire Messud’s The Woman Upstairs, and loving it so far. Great cover.

And how are you?