The Warrior's Way. Sword Play.

Last night at work, I was able to save the promotional display parts for The Warrior's Way. I guess management did not want to bother with setting it up. Their lost is my gain. 'Cause there was a sword included in the display. Er, my manager said it's a Kitana - not a sword. I mustn't call it a sword.

Anyways, here I am doing my ninja pose with Justin Bieber. Coincidentally, he's doing his ninja pose as well. The Warrior's Way starring Jang Dong-gun (Taegukgi) is on Friday, December 3.

Grade: B

Check out this movie Friday.

Moss. Why Would Anyone Want To Leave A Town Full Of People Trying To Kill You?

Moss, 이끼(I-ggi) a story about a man who goes to a village to attend the funeral of his father. But everyone is acting suspicious and odd. They follow his every move and they want him to leave. Instead, the man decides to stay and now the villagers want to kill him.

I thought this movie was awesome. The acting was superb. My favorite was Yoo Hae-jin (Truck) playing the chief's always pleasing right hand man. The villager's chief played by Jeong Jae-yeong was a scary villain. You'll be on the edge of your seat the entire time.

Grade: A

Check this movie out on yellowcinema.com.

Tako Chips. No Trans Fat.

I found these chips over at the Wahiawa Tamura's while I was hanging out in the Asian aisle. I was looking for Korean tea and ramyeon. The Asian aisle is quickly becoming one of my favorites in any store. You can always find goodies for cheap. This Tamura's only had two Korean snacks, the other was a bag of roasted chestnuts. I told myself that I would pick up the bag of chestnuts closer to the holidays. Thus, I settled on the Tako Chips made by Nong Shim. It's a brightly pink colored bag with a pink octopus in goggles and snorkel. Cute.

Looking to change it up as far as movie snacks go, I took this into the movie Burlesque with a friend. When I opened the bag, she said it was really smelly. Ooops. Yeah, I probably should have thought about whether it would be distracting to others. Haha. I did not think it smelled of octopus-ish all that much, but I guess when you're with someone who really hasn't been around many Asian things the smell could be more intense for them. The chip was bite-sized and shaped like a octopus, fish, bomb, or vase, depending on the way I held it. And there were ridges on it, it looked like fingerprints. As far as the taste, the flavor of octopus was mild. And it reminded me of shrimp stick-shaped chips.

Overall, I would say the chips were meh. But it was only $0.84, so that was a steal on experiencing some new Korean stuff.

Grade: C-

Check out this snack at Wahiawa Tamura's.

S.M. The Ballad Vol. 1. Hot Times. Hot Times Indeed.

S.M. The Ballad’s Vol. 1 was released today. And I was able to obtain the album. I’m not a big fan of the ballad genre but my favorite Super Junior Kyu-hyun (since Kang-in enlisted) was a part of this project group I decided to give the album a try. To my surprise I really enjoyed the entire album, which includes 5 tracks:

01. 너무 그리워 (Miss You)
02. Hot Times (시험하지 말기)
03. 다시 … 사랑합니다 (Love Again)
04. Don't Lie
05. 내일은… (Another Day)

My favorite being track 02. Hot Times (시험하지 말기).

Grade: B+

Check out this album on soompi.com.

Tasty Korean BBQ. Mililani Town Center.

Since rejoining the meat-eaters club just three days ago, I could not wait to partake in 갈비 (Gal-bi), marinated beef short ribs. So, I went to Tasty Korean BBQ in the Mililani Town Center to feed my hunger.

I thought the price was a bit steep for a regular plate of Gal-bi and chicken. The plate comes with 4 side dishes of my choosing, 2 large scoops of white rice, and to my surprise a fried 만두 (Man-du).  For my 반찬 (Ban-chan), I chose the cucumber 김치(Gim-chi), shoyu potatoes, bean sprouts, and long rice noodles. I also bought a large drink. In the end, the meal cost me $12.15. I know, pretty pricey. But there was so much food I was able to save half of it for dinner. So spending $12 for an entire day for food is not so bad.

The Gal-bi smelled great, but it tasted greater. The chicken on the other hand, although it did smell just as great, was a little overdone. The outside of the chicken was tough and dry. Lame. The side dishes and the surprise Man-du were all delicious. I wish I had more.

Grade: B-

Check out the food at Tasty Korean BBQ @ the Mililani Town Center.

The Warrior's Way. And SHINee's Way.

The Warrior's Way, 워리어스 웨이 (Weo-ri-eo-seu We-i) opens next weekend. I'm excited. It's a martial arts movie set in the wild west starring Jang Dong-gun (Friend).

And this week a music video on the behind the scenes look at the production of the movie was released. It features the movie's theme song "Obsession" by SHINee.

Lyrics (English Translation):

My hands tremble more
I’ll lose my focus shortly
Why my broken legs standing here
I can’t even remember, I become scared
Where are you, who has laughing until just now

(Why) Have fun noises left me? You’re far away
(Why) Is it getting dim? These scars are like shackles

Curse me, curse me for letting go
Don’t leave me, my collapsed heart
Don’t leave me alone, I’m screaming
Want you, I want you like crazy
Your lips that left me shouldn’t love
Don’t love me, I threw you away

All I wanted was simply to give you an endless love
I had no idea that more excessive love would strangle you
Those days when I was torn from my wounded heart
A love that lost its way, I fill up with tears

(Why) Is it that I still only bring out sad hellos
(Why) Just until today, don’t push me away

Curse me, curse me for letting go
Don’t leave me, my collapsed heart
Don’t leave me alone, I’m screaming
Want you, I want you like crazy
Your lips that left me shouldn’t love
Don’t love me, I threw you away

I hope that you’ll catch on
That I’m a different you
I even embrace your
Nightmare from last night
Don’t let go of my hand

Curse me, curse me for letting go
Don’t leave me, my collapsed heart
Don’t leave me alone, I’m screaming
Want you, I want you like crazy
Your lips that left me shouldn’t love
Don’t love me, I threw you away

Your side, your side that has become cold
Don’t leave me, my torn heart
Don’t become even further away
Although I’m holding your hand
Remember, end it, I can’t forget you
I won’t forget my pain of being thrown away
I can’t forget it, you gave it to me

Even the reason I love became a sin
The deep wounds slowly
Burnt up and turned to ash
But to forget will be more painful than to lose it
As I kill my breath, I’m going to die
From the agony of goodbye
Bring it back to that moment

Don’t throw me away

Grade: B

Check out this music video on allkpop.com.

There She Is!! Rabbit Loves Cat.

There She Is!! is the first part of an animated short series about love that is taboo. It was recommended to me by one of my theatre co-workers. He had asked me one night if I watched it. I replied, "No, but I'll check it out." I asked if it was Japanese. He said it was Korean. To which I immediately said, "Done! Say no more. I'm there." And I'm glad I did youtube it. It's freakin' awesome.

Grade: A

Check out this animated short on youtube.com.

A Dirty Carnival. No Guns Allowed.

10 Things I Learned After Watching A Dirty Carnival, 비열한 거리 (Bi-yeol-han Geo-ri):

1. Hey, it's that guy. Jo In-seong (A Frozen Flower), Jin Goo (The ESP Couple, Mother, Truck), and Choi Jae-hwan (Baby and I, The Longest 24 Months, Pasta). These are some of my favorites.

2. Bring your aluminum bat, metal pipe, 2x4, knife, and/or fists. 'Cause guns are prohibited in brawls with your rivals.

3. When driving late at night, always be weary of the car that's following you. They could be the hired gangsters to put a hit on you.

4. A family is a mouth that eats from the same table. And the asshole who eats alone is a fucking stranger. Got it. I'm never eating by my seldom ever again.

5. Noraebangs are awesome. And sometimes they have live bands playing for you. The noraebang is definitely one of the first places I go to when I get to Korea.

6. You can never trust anyone. Especially gangsters.

7. The workers at the bookstore wear white gloves to protect the books from finger prints. Do they do that hear in America? I've never seen it.

8. Real gangsters don't do jumping round house kicks in the air. This ain't Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

9.  No one eats anything in the movie theatre. I thought this was very interesting, being that I work at a theatre.

10. Korean swear words are fun to say. Gae saeki. Di jillae? You can bet I'll be testing these out on my coworkers.

Grade: B

Check this movie out on yellowcinema.com.

Red Shoes? ...They Look More Fuchsia Or Magenta To Me.

10 Things I Learned After Watching Red Shoes, 분홍신 (Boon-hong-sin):

1. Red shoes makes you confident and put hooker makeup on. Which is exactly why I wear red vans.

2. Other women will kill for your red shoes. They'll also chop your legs off with a shovel for them.

3. Korean horrors always includes the decrepit, long-haired Asian school girl. You know what I'm talking about, The Ring.

4. Blame the Japanese. The occupying nation always looks bad in hindsight.

5. When you start scaring the creepy, hysterical hermit who lives in the basement, it's time to lose the shoes. Burn them. Bury them. Chop them up. Weigh them and throw them in the river. Put them in a box and FedEx them to that coworker you dislike. Whatever you do, the shoes need to go, ASAP.

6. Even though Seoul is a heavily populated city, there's never more than two people at the subway in the evening. I don't know how accurate this is. I've seen YouTube videos.

7. Possessed shoes do not have a particular size. Anyone can put them on and it'll be a sure fit. Your seven year old daughter, your overweight best friend, the Pro-Japanese Party's daughter, anyone.

8. Kim Sung-soo (Full House) is extremely handsome. Ok. Ok. So I already knew this from watching him previously in Full House. I just wanted to mention him somewhere in this list.

9. A severed leg will twitch. Odd.

10. Never pick up and take home cursed high healed shoes. No matter how pretty they look. Oh crap, I found these awesome nerdy glasses at the theatre. Maybe, I should put them back...

Grade: C+

Check out this movie on yellowcinema.com.