sakuma drops / hotaru no haka

Dear Sumire,

Have you ever heard of the 'Sakuma drops'? I know that's so random, or maybe I ran out of things to blog about. I realize all my entries are mostly rantings nowadays. Loled.

According to Wikipedia:

Sakuma Drops (サクマ式ドロップス Sakuma-shiki Doroppusu) are a hard candy from Japan. They are flavored with real fruit juice and are made by Sakuma Candy Co. based in Ikebukuro, Tokyo. The candies are not as popular as they were in the past, but they are an easily recognizable icon in Japan as they have been available since the Meiji period. The candies are sold in 4-by-3.5 inch tin cans with a tin pull cap. Sakuma tins are collectible items, as the design frequently changes.

And here's my first can of sakuma drops!

What I learned from the internet was this green can is the 'normal edition'.

Well, the first time I ever had this candy was when Lucas had a can in his bag. I was immediately hooked by the design of the can. The one he had was the red colored can. But never had I thought that the candy itself had such a long history.

It was even featured in a Studio Gibhli 1988 animation titled Hotaru no haka (Grave of Fireflies). I watched it, and I will never be able to look at Sakuma Drops the same way ever again. It's undeniably the saddest movie I had ever watched.

Seita and Setsuko

The film speaks of Seita and Setsuko, a pair of siblings living/surviving the end of World War II. It's a saddening story of how harsh life can be during wartimes.

The film begins with Seita dressed only in rags, dying of starvation. All he was holding on was a can of Sakuma drops can. After given up his last breath, he drop the can. A janitor picks it up, looking for anything valuable. He toss what seems to be a worthless candy can out. The can's cover breaks open and sprung out the ash and bones of Setsuko. But that was not all. Also coming out of it was a cloud of red fireflies, and Setsuko's spirit.

Upon seeing her brother Seita's lifeless body lying on the floor unattended, Setsuko was about to run towards him, only to be stopped by Seita's spirit, now dressed handsomely.

Seita and Setsuko's spirit then travel back to the place they belong: Kobe. As they travel, they are seen to face their own flashbacks. They were the children of an Imperial Navy sailor. During the Kobe bombing, they lost their mother. It was then an empty Sakuma drops can in Setsuko's possession was used to store their mother's jewelries.

They rely on their aunt for a while, until their only relative left begins to think of the two of them as a burden. Seita decided that they can live on their own, converting a shelter into their home. But living on their own was a grave mistake that Seita made.

Seita had to steal and trade in order to get food, but it was never enough. Unable to get enough food for the two of them, Setsuko begins to suffer from malnutrition and eventually dies from it. Before dying, Setsuko was sucking their mother's jewelries from the candy can due to hallucination. She also ingested the 'rice balls' she made out of mud.

Seita cremated his sister with sorrow. He store her ash in the candy can and never went back to the shelter ever again. The film end with the pair of siblings sitting beside each other, watching over modern Kobe cityscape nightview.

Seita trying to get the candy out of the can when Setsuko cries... *Cute*

The way I see it, at least they're still reconnected at death. This is a film you should never miss. It's a masterpiece. My review? I give it a 5/5.

loving both of it: sakuma drops / hotaru no haka,

jin

riding hood review

Dear Sumire,

So they said, 2011 is a year of great movie. Too many anticipated movies, too many great movies throughout the year.

What I couldn't bring myself to believe is that Red Riding Hood is in the list of 'The Most Anticipated Movies of 2011'. I was fooled!

Lining up at TGV Sunway, I was torn between the choices, whether to watch The Roommate or Red Riding Hood. Since Red Riding Hood was in the list of anticipated movie, I thought I would be smart to choose that title over The Roommate, a movie totally didn't heard before until I was in front of the cinema. So Red Riding Hood I chose.

And so, I wasted 100 minutes of my life.

The movie was so awful I can't even catch what genre it was. I read in the papers that it is supposed to be a dark fantasy. Was it? Because I definitely don't feel any kind of fantasy in it. And the only reason it is dark is because most part of the movie was night scenes perhaps?

Seriously, I found myself laughing at the cinema. The sequence made no sense at all. The characters are poorly develop. The actors and actresses are over-acting, as if they were making a 19th century's staged play. Not to mention the script was so poorly written, and at the same time being way to cheesy.

How do I rank this movie, out of 5 stars? The movie was totally a piece of crap. I wouldn't even call it a bad movie, because it's obviously much more worse than that. The WORST of 2011. Maybe the worst of all time as well.

Red Riding Hood 0/5 stars

Seriously pissed,

jin

triple reviews while coughing

Dear Sumire,

Lately, I’m not doing so well. Sore throat, hoarse voice, no voice, fever, headaches and now I ended up with some really bad-ass cough. It’s like my lungs may come out from my mouth any moment when I cough. It’s terrible.

Maybe being sick isn’t the excuse to use for not updating this blog more frequently. So I’ll blame it on the 9.30a.m. to 7.30p.m. working hours’ basis! It’s so terrible that the only thing to do right after I wrap up after work is dinner and bed!

Anyhow, I still manage to fit in some movie time with my girlfriend. So, here’s some quick short review for every movie I’d watched so far!

The Mechanic 3.5/5 stars

It’s a gory shoot and blast movie. The whole film talks about two assassins avenging against the organization they used to work for. The Mechanic is pretty much a no brainer film trying too hard to be smart. It is a chase and kill movie at its core. The plot seems to be a little out of logic every now and the characters are acting irrationally for no obvious reasons.

It's not like this movie is not enjoyable though. So if you’re watching this movie, I assume you want to see sexy Statham, or you just want to see some exploded heads and some blood. Out of the 3.5 stars I gave, 1.5 come from the blood splatters.

I am Number Four 4/5 stars

I have to say that the film looks much better than the trailer have to offer. It was beyond my expectation! The movie talks about nine special alien childs from planet Lorien that have to be killed in a specific order, and obviously, the main hero of the film is Number Four in the list.

Number Four or John Smith obtained his special Lorien ability called Legacy, which is unique to every user. For John, his ability includes having torchlight in the palm of his hand. Number Six in the other hand have some very cool warping technique and anti-fire defensive barrier. If you compare their ability, Six makes Four’s ability stupid, period.

The movie itself had a good balance of romance and action which makes the movie an enjoyable experience. If you haven’t watched this movie, I would recommend this movie highly.

Beastly 1/5 stars

I watched the premiere screening of Beastly with my colleagues from Evo Pictures for free, since we make the short edit of the 10 secs, 15 secs, and the 20 secs Beastly trailer you see on TV. Since it’s free, I watch the film with joyous feeling while I almost shouted, “I’m lucky I didn’t pay for this movie!”

When I watched the trailer (and while I was editing it, I watched it over and over for almost a hundred times) I thought it would be pretty good. It ends up that the trailer’s good, the real film is not!

The trailer had very good sound effects, great visual effects which impressed me. The real film itself however did not employ the same visual effects seen in the trailer. Except for the blind tutor who called himself Mary Poppins in the trailer; the other characters had no depths at all and the dialogues are extremely boring.

Everything in this film is uninteresting, except if you’re like me, watching the beastly make-up for the main character of the movie. And to tell you the truth, he’s not ugly, just extremely punked. Nothing beastly in it at all. I rather watch the cartoon version of The Beauty and the Beast, because at least, it is enjoyable. So, in conclusion just 1 star: for the make-up.

So, that covers both my ranting and my movie review!

Until then,

jin

mystic river review

Dear Sumire,

So nowadays my life is hectic. Not entirely because I'd too much to do. It's just because of the way-too-long-working-hours. imagine, 9.30a.m. to 7.30p.m. I'll only reach home earliest by 8p.m. and after a short shower and dinner, the clock would already struck 10p.m.

No more time for cinema whatsoever. So I stick to a little online gaming and watching downloaded movies on my laptop.

So I'll just review older movies rather then some really new ones, and hope that whoever that might read my blog may pick up these movies themselves. But maybe I might give a little warning beforehand. I'm no professional, so my review may a little biased towards my own opinion, and my review might have some spoiler in it that might ruin your movie experience. Anyway, let's start.

So here I'm gonna review a film called Mystic River. It's not a fantasy, and it's not mystical in any way. It's a pretty sad story really. It tells a sad story of how friends became strangers, and in a bizarre turn of event, reunite them, in the strangest way you can ever imagine.

The story started off with 3 young kids Jimmy Markum, Sean Devine, and Dave Boyle playing hockey on a street down their blocks in 1970's Boston. When their ball fell into the drain, they were left with nothing to do. Jimmy decided that they write their name on the wet cement in the walkway, so the names will remain there forever. When it's finally Dave's turn to write his name, a car pulled over and two man appeared to be cops claimed that the kids, especially Dave had committed a serious crime. The cops arrested Dave. Turns out the duo ain't cops at all.

Dave were captured by the pedophiles for a few days before he finally escaped.

Some 25 years later, Sean (Kevin Bacon; Hollow Man) is now a state police officer. Jimmy (Sean Penn; Fair Game)being the daredevil as he was as a kid, is an ex-con running a local sundry shop. Dave (Tim Robbins) is now a blue-collar man seemingly still affected by the horrible childhood experience. Dave and Jimmy are still neighbors in their old neighborhood, and is related to each other through marriage. Their wifes are cousins. However, it was revealed in the plot that the trio had not been close to each other since the childhood incident that troubled their past.

Celeste cleaning Dave up from his bloody wound.

The plot thickens when Dave came home with his clothes bloody and he tells his wife Celeste that he accidentally killed a burglar. His wife believed him, and got rid of the bloody clothes for him.

Jimmy learns about her daughter's death.

However the trust begins to wear off bit by bit when she learned that Jimmy's daughter Katie were found dead the very next day. The distrust was then supported with Dave's extremely weird behavior. Dave began talking about vampirism, about how a man can die and rise again in the very same body but a totally different soul; if a vampire still had one.

Sgt. Sean Devine and Sgt. Whitey Powers

Katie's death reunites the three childhood friend in a very gloomy situation. Dave and Sean somehow rekindled an old bond with Jimmy. Over the course of the movie, it is Sean with his partner, Sergeant Whitey Powers (Lawrence Fishburne) who tries to track down the murderer of Katie. Meanwhile, Jimmy runs his own underlings called the Savage Brothers to trace down the murderer faster than the police, so can have his vengeance.

Sean telling Jimmy that he got the real killers.

There's many plot twist in this incredibly dark film. Celeste who loses her trust decided to tell Jimmy about Dave's odd behavior. Jimmy began to suspect Dave and even ends up killing his old friend to avenge Katie. However, Dave turn out to be the wrong guy.

Dave were not completely honest however, even with his own wife. He did killed someone, and it was revealed that Dave was fired up seeing a pedophile in action, and he killed the man in rage. He decided not to tell his wife because he wouldn't want anyone to know he is still trapped in his childhood nightmares.

I like how this movie is presented, and the intense atmosphere worked really well in this movie, although at some point, too much talking and describing seems to bore audiences out a little.

4/5

jin

inception

Dear Sumire,

Recently I'd watched Inception. I'm a big fan of Nolan (the director) ever since I watched one of his earlier work entitled 'Memento'. If you'd watched it before, you'll understand why. If you haven't watch it before, go buy the original DVD. Or see see if you get it from your local pirated DVD stall. or just download it. That's what I did anyway.

'Inception' is Nolan's latest work, and i can tell how much different it is from his previous lower budget works. Nonetheless, Inception is a great film. The cast includes the Titanic's Leonardo DiCaprio and Ellen Page whom previously starred in Juno.

The film dwells around entering and sharing another person's dream. If the technology truly existed, how do you think people will use it? Well, the film suggest that it could be use to steal information from the dreamer. The device would turned into a hacking machine to steal precious information from people's brain. Or otherwise; to plant one instead.

Although the core concept of this movie is a little far-fetched, more abstract and extremely difficult to explain in detail, Nolan executed the explanation pretty well. This movie is kinda like Matrix, but less green and much more brain-teasing. It will keep you at the edge of your seat, and trust me, it's worth your money to watch 'Inception' in the cinema. Should watch it. Must watch it.

Stop reading, Go watch it!

jin

robin hood

Dear Sumire,

Wanted to watch the 'Losers' yesterday, but the last show was at 3pm or so. I reached around 4. :-(

Robin Hood

I am already at Leisure Mall anyway, and I browse through the now showing board and Robin Hood caught my eyes. I'd wanted to see this show since I saw the poster a few months back in The Summit. It's the same director that brought us the award winning 'Gladiator', and I know I won't be disappointed.

The last movie Crowe stared in is 'Body of Lies'. He gained a lot of weight and look a lot clumsier in that film. "He's no longer the fit Maximus in the Gladiator anymore," I thought.

AND I was wrong. He's back in shape to star in this film as Robin Longstride, an archer in King Richard the Lionheart's army of Crusade. And I'd say that he look exactly like how he looked like in Gladiator. Is it a make up special effect or what? Gladiator was a film made a decade ago!

I'm not gonna drag on with the synopsis of the story, but I'll tell you what I think of this film. It's unlike any Robin Hood's film I'd ever seen. This is not the tale of Robin's life. A story of how an archer pose as a crusader to go back to his birthplace and to Nottingham because of a Crusader's dying wish. A story of a nobody that became a leader of a united England's army. The story of Robin Hood becoming an outlaw. This is a story of the great Robin Hood in the making. The story how Robin Longstride became Robin Hood.

The visual effects are magnificent, but you won't feel that it's a show off in this film. I guess you already could guess that part on your own if you'd watched Gladiator before.

Although I'm a little disappointed that I did not get to watch the Losers, I'm glad I'd watch Robin Hood. I call this the best depiction of Robin Hood ever made!

A must watch!

jin

muallaf

Dear Sumire,

I thought of purchasing an original DVD if I did not watch it in the cinema. But last Sunday at Times Square, every movie and show time are fully occupied.

Me: Sherlock Holmes?
Cashier: Front row only left.
Me: Urgh.. What about Vampire’s Assistant?
Cashier: Front row left as well. All movies around night time is fully occupied.
Me: Oh.. Ok. Muallaf as well?
Cashier: Oh no. That’s available, AS EXPECTED.

He did emphasize his voice when he said the words which I capitalized. It’s as if Muallaf is a badly made film or such. And he was right, the Cineplex was almost next to empty with only ¼ occupied when I get my tickets.

If any of you haven’t watched this, please do. This is Yasmin Ahmad’s last legacy in our Malaysia’s silver screen. Although Talentime is her real last movie she’d ever made, Muallaf is the controversional movie that could hardly get passed our Malaysian’s censorship board, and thus delaying its showing for months. The reason of the huge censorship controversy is that it’d lots of sensitive issues on religion, and if all those scenes are cut, the audience won’t be able to make any sense out of the whole movie. In the end, they finally decided to mildly cut the film, and muted some of the scenes which they find controversional.

The thing is I didn’t find the movie really religious or something. It sure quotes a lot from the religious books and scriptures, but that’s it. They didn’t really convert anyone in the movie, like the English title might have suggested; “The Convert”.

This is a story of a teacher named Brian whom in some part of his life bumped into these two sisters, Rohani and Rohana whom ran away from home (or in their own words, ran away to safety).

Brian reading the Qur'an.

This is not a religious movie. To me, it’s more of a movie about a lost lamb. However, I must agree that how they portrayed the religions in the movie is quite close to the reality. People leave faith because of the skeletons in their closet. It’s all about dark past. For example, Brian’s character is a Catholic, and I can relate. About going or not going to church on Sunday, and how people yell “God will never forgive you!” to their sons. I saw the situations before (nop, no personal experience before ;-P) and I tell you, it’s pretty well portrayed in the movie.

Brian trying to understand how people can be so devoted to something so invisible.

What’s interesting about this two sisters is that they’re able to quote from the scriptures (the Quran, Holy Bible and even Tao Te Ching) down to the verse and line. What’s more spooky is that they live in a house haunted by “Uncle” the previous owner of the bungalow. And according to them, they’re running away from KL to Singapore, via Ipoh (check your map, lol).

There’s one part in the movie that suggest that people stop you from talking because they’re afraid of the unknown. People stop you from talking because they think you don’t know what you’re talking about. That’s why you shouldn’t quote from a book you don’t truly understand. Yasmin had a point right there. If the people don’t understand, educate them! Or educate us! That’s the correct way of doing stuffs, not simply ban us from speaking!

The sisters are played by Sharifah Amani and Sharifah Aleysha are very caring of one another, although they kept calling names at each other. Brian is unwillingly sucked into their uncommon practice of visiting the sick, and helping others, and discussing about religion almost 24/7. Brian as a man who lost his faith and had found himself might be able to reconnect with God through the sisters. Brian who almost severe his relationship with his mother because of his unwillingness to go to church, tried very hard to understand how and why Ani and Ana cared for strangers so willingly.

oil-painting

You know what? I won’t bable further. Go and watch this movie. Just pay your last tribute to our late Yasmin Ahmad, and enjoy the show. It’s still showing in TGV the last time I checked. If you’re still worried that this movie is controversional, let me tell you, there’s nothing controversional about a movie which revolves around love interest, family and a black cat.

Signing off,
Jin

lazy

Dear Sumire,

I’m feeling so lazy lately. Super duper lazy! There’s a bunch of work to do, but my progress are as slow as slowpoke from Pokémon. To make it even worse, I dare to start playing all those lousy Facebook game which drain away hours and hours of time without me realizing! Damn.

Argh! Got to start working on all those assignments no matter I like it or not. I hope I won’t push it to hard till I fall sick, like what happened last week!
Hours and hours of headache and fever are not desirable.

Anyway, I watched Zombieland, Avatar, Storm Rider 2 and Holmes.

Zombieland

I expect it to be very much like ‘Sean of the Dead’, if not worse. You know, zombie movies are crawling cheap nowadays at cinemas. All zombie films feature fake looking slow moving rotting zombie with nothing but the desire to feed on living humans. When the first Resident Evil was out, I expect I bombastic effect since I’m a fan of the original video games, but I’m disappointed with the lousy looking make-ups. I must say I expect quite the same with Zombieland.

But Zombieland, like Sean of the Dead is really funny. Come on, in a world devastated with Zombies, the movie implies that fastening your seatbelts is the one of the keys to stay alive! (And that’s Rule#3, the top of the list rule) The zombie might have bad make ups like all the other zombie movies in the market, but what differentiate these zombies from the others are the way they die. They all die with style.
My rating: 2.5/5 stars

Avatar
I’d been expecting a lot from Avatar. And I’m not disappointed. It’s spectacular and the whole movie was so well made. Sam Worthington’s character in Avatar is an ass in the beginning, but he soon turn into a confused man. The movie questions our own morality when it comes to another living being. Would you stand for your kind, or would you stand for the one being taken advantage of?

Anyway, the movie is all about man, blue aliens and the USB where you can plug and play.
4.5/5 stars

Storm Rider 2
This is rubbish. I looked highly upon this movie and I’d a lot of reason to do so. Pang brothers, Aaron Kwok, Nicholas Tse and Simon Yam. But this movie is rubbish. It’s supposed to be a great sequel, but the movie turned out to be far worse than its 10-year-old-predessecor. The characters are badly written, with no depth or insights like the movie makers claimed. The storyline is rubbish. In the end, we don’t even know what they’re fighting for.
1/5 stars

Sherlock Holmes
Holmes turns out to be quite enjoyable. I like it when they make Holmes so miserable. I mean, many would’ve thought Holmes is a composed elegant detective. But the truth is, he’s not! The movie is really quite faithful to Holmes original attitudes in the books. Jude Law did a great job as Dr. Watson! He's really cool, and who said Watson always have to be a comical character? Watson solves his cases of his own in some of the stories ok!

I can tell they’re making a sequel from the ending they gave. It makes me wonder who will portray Professor Moriarty; the ultimate nemesis that Holmes always fails to catch?
4/5 stars

That's all for today. Chao.
Sleepy,
Jin.

sUrrOgatEs

Before I came back from Shah Alam, I had the opportunity to hang out and catch ‘Surrogates’ with Hui Lin. The funny thing about us is that we’d been SMS-ing a lot, but we’d never really talked much face to face. I really had a great time borak kosong with her. All our topics revolve around our assignments and movie critics.

After movie sempat go dinner some more. I was the one driving, but she’s the one bawa jalan. I wonder when only I’ll know my way around Klang Valley? I’m always doing the wrong turn here and there. Hilarious.

But what i wanted to share here is ‘Surrogates’.
This movie is set in a near future, where humans are actually interacting using humanoid machines that they control with much liberty on a control chair from their respective home. All aspect of life is done using these machines they call ‘Surrogates’.

I wonder why the Malaysia version of the poster is so damn ugly.
This version looks neat and nice.

The movie actually had a pretty nice, neat and easy to understand introduction. The technology used in Surrogates was invented in order to help those who are physically impaired. People who’d lost their limbs in accidents or any other means are given artificial machine limbs in which they can control at ease. Slowly, the technology expanded so much that full humanoid surrogates are created. It’s then commercialized and the government allows its use in daily social life. This action is said to be the first step to generate the crime-free society.

Bruce Willis stars in this futuristic science fiction as Tom Greer. He is a police detective that conducts his investigation using his own surrogate. It was until his machine was destroyed, he is forced to investigate the bizarre case of a few people who actually died, when their surrogates are ‘killed’.

I would recommend this movie. Not 5 star la. Maybe 3 star the best. The special effects are really cool, but the plot, it is somehow too predictable. Still, it’s an enjoyable movie.
You might like it. ;-)

DistricT 9

Wow. District 9 looks interesting. I go through some trailers and I really got hooked. I can’t wait for it to be released in our local cinema. Basically it’s about some kinda aliens whom landed on earth and their spaceship is confiscated by human’s government. The aliens are then relocated at District 9 where they are away from humans’ general population.

Most humans don’t welcome the aliens.
The aliens just wanna leave.
But the government is interested in their weaponry technology.

This is all I can understand from watching the trailers. But it’s already enough to get me interested.
I’m not always a sci-fi fan, but this is a must watch me. You guys should really check it out bout this movie too.

TaLEnTiMe

Okay, I definitely understand if you say you have no confidence in our own Malaysian's local film. I'd my own bad experience. Remember the loud bragging of Kinta: the first Malaysian's martial art film? I haven’t stop cursing bout how that movie sucked even after months and months watching it. I don’t know what the hell the director wanted to portray. And frankly, I can’t even call it an action flick. It’s more like a comedy to me. Try imagining this scenario: one guy is trying very hard to beat his victim brutally, and the victim bleeds like Bugs Bunny cartoon. Yea, the CG blood looks like cartoon. God damn it, I rather see the actors spit tomato ketchup out of their mouth. Not just that, the film is filled with stupid flashbacks, forcing the audience to watch the same scene over and over and over and over and over and over and over again, until you lose count. And What the fuck was with the gawky romance?!

If you haven’t watch Kinta, DON’T. If you still insist on watching it against my suggestion, I hope you’ve prepare yourself beforehand. Pull yourself together and face the fact that it’s a comedy and NOT a martial art film. And be prepare, there’s NO conclusion to the plot in the film. The director, Mr. CL Hor blames the demand of western market by saying they only want to see actions and solid brutally choreographed kung fu. I blame him for his poor direction skills. I think no one (both western and local audience) will say this movie is worth watching. It’s a poorly edited movie with no strong storyline, and it sucked badly.

Seriously. Don't torture your eyes with this movie.
Like this remake poster of mine? ;-P

Eh, but now terbawa-bawa pulak. I didn't mean to criticize Kinta when I first started typing this entry. But now I say if you're a Malaysian, you should forget Kinta and support this new film by Yasmin Ahmad. Talentime is a must watch. Yasmin Ahmad is the same director that presents us with the touchy and catchy Petronas advertisements for every major celebration in Malaysia. She’s also the same director that gives us sepet. Her work is always so amazing. I’m a fan of her works. Still don’t believe me? Then watch this two Talentime’s trailer for yourself. =)

Although most of the stars of this movie is of newcomers of young stars, this film is truly amazing. Watch this film and learn from it, that we're not all so different anyway. This film is a tale in which I think every Malaysian can relate with. I really hope we can all put our difference apart and truly cherish each others like in this movie's conclusion. One true Malaysia!

I feel needless to comment on her direction because Yasmin have already proved to the world that she’s a great director/filmmaker. You must watch it yourself to experience her magic. And I must say, the soundtrack used in the movie is great! I fall in love with the song ‘O Re Piya’ which is featured in both the movie and the trailer. All the other tracks such as ‘I Go’ are very nice as well.
Well, what are you waiting for? Go watch Talentime, NOW!!!

KaMi ThE mOviE

I watched KAMI The Movie recently. It’s a story of 5 best friends (Ali, Abu, Lyn, Adii, and Sofie) lepak-ing around in the urban area, mamak area, playing gig, enjoying and partying, until something bad happen and they all move on with their own respective lives. Too brief?

KAMI The Movie Official Wallpaper

The movie starts with Abu running away from the juvie. He then met up with Ali, and they go get their girl friends, and then they go picnic. The first 45 minutes to 1 hour or so aren’t so important as they’re only meant to introduce the main characters to people like me, who did not watch the miniseries.



Ali is a Datuk’s son who had a bad past with drugs. He’s the guitarist and the vocalist of a band named The Disaster. Despite his bad history, he’s working at a tourism company because of the influence of his father.



Abu is Ali’s best friend, and was sent to the juvie because he’s a thief. He escaped after whacking up a bunch of seniors who tried to rag him.



Lyn is a girl from kampong and her past is unknown. In the movie, she’s revealed to have run errand distributing drugs for her ex-student (ex-student? That part was really confusing).



Adii a.k.a. Public Enemy had been dating guys from internet, but she haven’t get over her ex-cyber-boyfriend Vanilla Ice. So, she acted as if she’d moved on and dates other ‘cute’ guys, which often turn out to be extremely uncute and scare the shit outta her.



Lastly, there was Sofie who’s Ali’s ex, and cannot move on, even though she’s dating someone else already. And oh, she got an offer from a university that affers her medicine, but her mum his that offer letter because kahwin tak jadi, and want Sofie by her side.



So, everything got mess up when Lyn’s dark past came back and haunt her. Boy, which is her ex-student and probably also her ex-boyfriend is a small time drug lord in the town. Boy tried to talk Lyn into following her, and ends up fighting Abu and Ali in a subway.



In order to keep Boy away from her friends, Lyn agrees to deliver the drugs for a few last times. It so happens one of her customers is Ali (whom cannot cope with the stress that he’s facing; mum gonna remarry, and Abu hid the truth that he escaped from juvie).



And I’ve to admit some of the scenes in this movie just don’t make sense to me. Especially the scene after Lyn delivers the drugs to Ali. She took the payment, and crumbles the money she’s received from Ali. Then she cried in disappointment (by the way she developed a crush on Ali and vice versa on Ali’s side) and took up a razor. For a moment that scene really looked like she’s gonna cut her wrist or something. Guess what? She took the razor and confronted Boy, and that tiny little razor scares the shit out of Boy (WTF? For a drug dealer’s standard, he’s such a chicken).



It seems to me that Boy need to reclaim his pride as a man, so he appears before Ali and have a manly one on one fight - in which he loses again. He took out a knife and attempt to stab Ali: however in a split second, Abu pushed Ali away and took the stab. Well, Abu then bleed to death in Ali’s car.



This KAMI The Movie is quite an interesting teenage movie. I think the fans of the miniseries would definitely be watching this in the cinema because it was never concluded in the series. However for us which had never seen the series, the pickup of the story is actually really quite dull. Maybe only the last 20 minutes that things really got spiced up.



What I love most about this film is the ending, and the tagline of the movie.

Hidup ini memang pantat palat, tapi esok masih ada.