Tekken: Blood Vengeance

It's been a long time since I last watched a movie at home.

So after going through a very stressful first half of the year, I badly need some time to relax and clear my mind off things. Just wanna get away from it all for a little while. My sleeping patterns have changed and I have been sleeping little since the beginning of the year. I have also been going home late at night due to meetings and other extracurricular activities, much to my parents' constant worry.

I chose Tekken: Blood Vengeance because I also miss playing video games. Just recently when I attended an org meeting, the coordinator chatted endlessly on our personal interests and we have a LOT in common. We LOVE Diablo, Final Fantasy, Nightwish, Jay Chou, animé, etc. Talking to him made me realize how I have been giving up much of my time for others instead of engaging in my hobbies. Don't get me wrong, I love doing volunteer work but there are aspects of it that I don't like, like preparing the expense report. It's a hassle! >,< (But we need it to get reimbursed...)

Pardon my senseless drifting again...

The movie begins with a fight between sisters Anna and Nina which ended without any conclusion. The two sisters both hire one young girl each to spy on Kamiya Shin, the only one of the many students kidnapped earlier for a biological experiment. Xiaoyu was selected to spy for Nina and she meets Alisa, an intelligently programmed robot in the form of a cute pop idol-looking girl.

two cute girls escaping from military robots on the back of a cute panda

Xiaoyu investigates the kidnapping case that happened in her school a few years back. The students were allegedly experimented on and Shin, named 78M of the Mutare Experiment was the only survivor. Her close friend Kazama Jin was also taken for the same experiment.

It is interesting to note that Alisa shows signs of being human especially in the scene wherein she and Xiaoyu were in Mr. Lee's mansion and Alisa blushing, tells Xiaoyu that if their will is strong enough, they can top the Mishima family war, and that if her feelings are honest and true, then she will be able to rescue Shin. Xiaoyu counters by questioning Alisa's feelings, if they were real or just programmed, to which Alisa replied that true love makes someone human.

Also Alisa shows signs of being more human when she questions the morality of family members fighting each other. She wonders about the possibility of her creator being the same as the warfreak Mishima clan which engages in human genetics experiments.

Sisters Anna and Nina meet again. Disappointingly they didn't engage in a fight this time.

Alisa and Xiaoyu learns from Shin himself that he's got the world's first immortal cell which renders his body invulnerable to death. This was the reason why the two factions fight each other, to get hold of Shin's power. Shin lures everyone to Kyoto Castle for a final showdown among three generations but is killed by Heihachi. (Just what the heck were the others doing, not even trying to prevent Heihachi from killing Shin...)

Angered, Jin releases his Devil Gene and engages in a fight against Kazuya and Heihachi. Heihachi seems to be having the upper hand at first until the last minute when Jin's continuous punches send him down Kyoto Castle. Then it's just between Jin and Kazuya in devil form.

Kazuya in devil form

Although the movie doesn't say it, Alisa's creator seems to be Jin because Jin's voice commands are followed by Alisa without question. This happens when Alisa tries to protect him from the attacking Kazuya. Kazuya steps on her and destroys her, much to Xiaoyu's grief. Jin awakens his devil form to put an end to the cursed Mishima bloodline.

Jin in final devil form

With Kazuya defeated, Heihachi springs back to ruin Jin and Xiaoyu's moment. (O.O) [I can't believe that with the extra cool graphics, this movie does not invest in good storytelling!] Heihachi reveals the true form of the Kyoto Castle, that of a gigantic monster reminiscent of Diablo in Diablo 2. [So now with his winged form, Jin looks like an archangel fighting a huge Diablo.]

So while Heihachi thinks he controls Mokujin, he is wrong. The Mokujin ignores his appetite for destruction, having seen the strong bond among Panda, Xiaoyu, and Alisa as they try to protect each other. 

Alisa's final punch to save the day

And who would have thought that a teardrop from Xiaoyu will be enough to revive a robot [feels like watching a Disney movie] who will then give her last punch to Heihachi-cum-Mokujin to save the day. Jin says farewell, saying he will wait for Xiaoyu to defeat him.

As for the ending, Xiaoyu shares her dream of having an amusement park with Alisa. The two agree to enter the Tekken Tournament.

Read: Tekken the Motion Picture

March

I may not have traveled a lot in March but I did eat out a lot. My only trip was in Caliraya, Laguna.

My lunch mates and I had lunch at Tonkatsu by Terazawa in Greenbelt 2 for an office friend's despedida; she is now in Singapore. I had the oyster and chicken katsu set consisting of two pieces breaded oyster, and chicken katsu. The set includes unlimited rice (nothing beats Ginza Bairin's unlimited Jasmine rice but rice here has nice texture), unlimited miso soup (which I LOVE, the best miso soup I've had), unlimited shredded cabbage, and corn. As in Ginza Bairin, I like my shredded cabbage with roasted sesame dressing. The fried oyster and chicken are wonderfully executed but because they're fried, there's the umay factor. Probably the reason why I had three bowls of miso soup.

Because my archaeo friends and I had a movie date at Gateway to watch 300: Rise of an Empire, we had dinner again at Taco Bell. If it's not KFC it's Taco Bell. Oh well, this little girl needs her dose of junk food from time to time, too. Our 3D movie ticket  (P300) comes with free popcorn and soda. As expected from the makers of 300, the sequel is violent with lots of blood spurting and splashing everywhere. While my first reason for watching it on 3D was Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro), it all changed when Artemisia (Eva Green) appeared. I just LOVE her, despite her dark back story. I found myself squealing everytime Artemisia appears with her varied costumes. And one of my friends, who is a big Lena Heady fan, naturally rooted for Queen Gorgo. So imagine how noisy we were as the movie was ending. When the lights came on, many people us angry looks for being so noisy. So I am taking this opportunity to apologize to the strangers who were put off by our childish behavior.

Other college friends invited me to my second bar experience at Cowboy Grill in Quezon City. To show my support for my friend's org's event College Collision Reactivate, I said yes. The event is an inter-college band contest. It's also our moment to bond, though the place doesn't seem to be apt because we couldn't hear each other. We were served cold food--- pancit canton, rice, pork BBQ, and iced tea. Nothing special, all regular normal food but I guess one shouldn't complain because the ticket costs only P200. Come to think of it, I was also with this set of friends on my first bar experience. And now we're planning to go to other bars.

My sister and I had a date again at Kokoro Ramenya in Fisher Mall. These days we don't get to hang out a lot because she's always working overtime whereas I've been busy doing a lot of things. Though I can drop anything I'm doing if she's the one to invite me because I know I'll be in for a treat. We shared a bowl of tantanmen. Not that QQ and the soup is too creamy. My sister found it too salty. I, on the other hand, wished for more sesame oil. They should have placed a bottle of sesame oil on each table. On the upside, we like the dumplings which were seared on one side. I love the way the texture plays in my mouth, it's like eating crispy pizza crust. But the price is too expensive, P155 for just 4 pieces. Will we go back? No. Better restaurants abound.

For our team's March celebrants, we had lunch at Seryna in Little Tokyo. I've been meaning to eat there and already have plans with a friend and her friends but it's already been a year and nothing's happening. So finally, authentic Japanese food! I had Kaisen Gozen (P380). I love everything in my bento except for the thin slices of ginger. Unfortunately, their miso soup is not unlimited. So considering I ate a lot, the price is just right.

Kaisen Gozen at Seryna

One Sunday, I visited UP since I've been missing school a lot these days. I had lunch at Mashitta in UP Shopping Center. I was initially tempted to go to UP Town Center but I guess it's better if I have a friend with me. My order of spicy squid with rice (P95) and miso soup (P35) was satisfying. The squid is cooked just right and I love the spiciness of the dish. 

That same day, off I went to RCBC Theater in Makati to watch the one-woman play "Full Gallop" starring the highly talented Cherie Gil who plays Diana Vreeland, a bitchy fashion editor with a grand sense of entitlement to everything fine and beautiful. I think Cherie Gil fully captured the essence of the role. I can never think of any actress best-suited to play Vreeland. However, the play is really very elitist in that non-socialites will have a hard time relating as Vreeland's opinions on just about everything is largely based on her own experiences as someone who came from a privileged family. 

So going back to restaurants, my quest this month ended in the Filling Station and Mey Lin Bistro.

And I think I'll be all the busier in the coming months with my acquisition of a tablet. Yay! At present Bulu Monsters keep me occupied.

Starcraft

So I finally installed Starcraft in my machine and played a game. As always, I chose Protoss as my team and Zerg as my opponent. I just love it when Zerg gets crushed.

Because of this, I expect to stay up late at night and play this beloved game until the wee hours of the morning, as I did many years ago. Will be very busy indeed this month. :)

On the other hand, I have to pay extra attention to my backlog. Still haven't sorted out photos taken in Shanghai and Xiamen. And will have to write blogs of those two trips. Also, I have to find the time to finish writing about my Ho Chih Minh trip.

Aaaaand, there's just a mountain of good reads, and unfortunately, there's not enough time to do everything. Sigh. So much to do, so little time.

Still I'm happy for this diversion. Will shun dates for now to save up for upcoming trips to Anywhere. 

Warcraft and Final Fantasy VII

Today after a few minutes of working on my paper, I had a long break. I played Final Fantasy VII for a while. It's my first time to play a Playstation game on my laptop via EPSXE so I'm still trying to figure out how the application works. It feels weird not to hold a controller. I had to condition my mind and to tell myself repeatedly that this is not a Playstation game, otherwise I'd have a hard time adjusting to the change in control devices.

Then a few minutes of paper. Yes, just a few minutes. I have a strange habit of doing different tasks in one sitting. Doesn't mean though that I do everything at once. It's just that I need t shift from one task to another because I have very short attention span.

After adding a paragraph to my paper, I tried Warcraft on my laptop. It's my first time to play that game on a laptop. It seems my laptop is too old for such games. It fainted on me. I had to restart the machine and then resume my work. Then after a few minutes, I itched to play Warcraft again and my laptop fainted again. That was it, I told myself. I need a gamer's laptop soon. Prob is, I will be out of job for two months because I will be joining an excavation. My new laptop will have to wait.

For now my biggest concern is my paper. I am almost done with the RRL. Hopefully tomorrow I will start writing the main body.

Demonrift td

It's been almost a month now since I knew about Demonrift td, an online flash game under the genres strategy and tower defense. The main goal is to defend the Kingdom of Emaeron from the demons. You play as Baroness Milena, the commander of the empire troops against the invading demons.

Basically, you just place your warriors in strategic positions. Every game has a unique route to the castle and you must defend that pass. There is a tutorial to guide you before your actual battle. It's a fairly easy game, you only have to think WHERE to place your warriors.

I admit I have never finished the game in one setting though I have tried twice already. The first time was already late at night and I stayed up until 3am but when sleep got the better of me, I stopped. The second one was when I played for 5 consecutive hours and then I had to call it quits because because of my need to sleep.

I hope there's an offline version of this game. I really like it.

And come to think of it, it's been a while since I last played something. I really need a new laptop, a gamer's laptop, so I can play Diablo III, Diablo II, Starcraft, and Warcraft again. And sometimes, I feel the urge to resurrect my account in AdventureQuest. And am on the lookout for more digital games.