Is Esquire Philippines a Sotto Copy?

Philippine senator Tito Sotto has made plagiarism a hot topic, but to me it seems that there might be a problem. Are Filipinos out of ideas, or are they just lazy, resting on foreign compliments of hosptability and being hardworkers?

Esquire Philippines has been criticised several times for copying shoots from its American counterpart, but this time it seems, they've expanded their inspiration vault. =)

If you're not familiar, see the previous original concepts below:

Thanks to allanistheman.blogspot.com, check him out. he wrote to esquire ph, but didn't get a response. maybe even chuvaness didn't. lol

REVENGEANCE (Park Chan-wook's Vengeance Trilogy)

Just this past semester, I did a reaction paper on "Cidade de Deus", which we viewed in class. I focused on the aspect of revenge in the movie, and described it's cycle.

In the past weeks, I'd heard from several people of the movie "Oldboy." Now I know this film, it's quite old, and I saw it when i was really young. There were no downloads then, haha.

"Oldboy" is part of the so-called "Vengeance Trilogy" of films by Park Chan-wook, since they all have the theme of revenge, despite not having any real connections.

  

Now for most of the people I've heard talking about "Oldboy", many really like it, and a lot are also aware of one other film in the series, "Sympathy for Lady Vengeance." But what I find odd is that almost none of them are aware of the first and most bothering movie of the series, in my opinion, "Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance."

 

"Oldboy" is about a man who is imprisoned in a room for 15 years, after which when he is released does he realize what he had done to deserve what had been done to him. In his youth, he told on a brother and sister who were having a sexual relation, which led to the girl's suicide. The brother plots his revenge, and Oldboy ends up having a sexual relationship with his own daughter.

"Sympathy for Lady Vengeance" or "Kind-hearted Geum-ja" in the original Korean, is about a high school girl imprisoned for a child murder committed by her lover, her teacher, who is saving up money to buy a yacht. Using all the connections she made in prison, she plots vengeance, more so when she discovers that he killed more children after she was incarcerated in his stead. She gathers the parents of all the children and they take turns taking it out on the guy, with all sorts of weapons, but not enough to kill him, which is for Lady Vengeance. 

 

Now, "Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance," or "Vengeance is Mine" in Korean, is about a deaf-mute guy who was swindled out of money and a kidney by organ dealers, when he was trying to save his sister. He ends up kidnapping his boss' daughter (after he got unjustly fired), just to get money for his sister's surgery. His sister finds out and commits suicide, and the girl drowns accidentally while he was burying his sister, after he had collected the ransom. What ensues is so surreal and f****ed up that it's stupefying. The girl's dad vows revenge, kills the deaf guy's girlfriend (who helped in the kidnap), deaf guy finds the organ dealers and kills them all, and the two end up camping out to kill each other. The father wins over and ultimately kills deaf guy too. However, the father is fatally stabbed by a group of men while he was trying to dispose of deaf guy. They were from the terrorist organization that deaf guy's girlfriend warned him about. She told him if she died they would kill him, but he didn't believe it and killed her anyway. So there was this disbelief in his final moments as he didn't expect such twist.

It's a little tricky to say who's Mr. Vengeance, though I would say its the both of them. But it was really annoying how the father acted in vengeance, and committed more crime. He even killed the noodle delivery boy unnecessarily. His daughter died accidentally, and in a vision she established it was his fault that she died, since he never taught her to swim. Deaf guy, on the other hand, was two-timed, lost his beloved sister, and was really nice to the daughter. In the end his body was chopped up by the father, in such a display of unfairness. But that's life I guess. 

Of the three films, I believe Mr. Vengeance is the best, and i wish more people saw it, not just Oldboy or Lady Vengeance.

days gone by

i've been pretty down the past days. well, i can actually say i've been down for the past years. i try to be happy, do happy things, clear my mind of that which makes me sad, but the pain still catches up no matter what. i don't exactly, but i kinda miss my dad, despite being the jerk he was. i miss korean food everyday. i miss hanging out with my hyungs (elder brother) paul and kenny. i feel so detached in the philippines, people assume a lot. i can, but at the same time i can't speak filipino all the time. it's already painful that there's no one to speak to in korean that doesn't think i'm a kpop fan, and it's just as hard to find someone i can converse with in English that doesn't think i'm trying to be cool or anything. 

there's so much i want to say, but i know nobody's listening. i feel so alone, but i have to survive here. 

i'm kinda learning the hard way how this guy i was going out with was playing me. right now i don't know where we are. he said that i should be patient. he spends most of his time with his non-chinese girlfriend - i hope they get married because i'll be very disappointed that he threw me aside for such a waste of time. he said it really hurts him that i'm not a girl, and his family expects him to marry. but his family won't let him marry non-chinese, that i'm sure of. so if he's going to be disowned by his family, i don't get why he chose her instead of me. i don't know. am i just bitter? all they do is fight, and we almost always have happy times together. i don't understand why i wasn't the better option, if he were going to go against his family's wishes.

also, even before we started going out, people have been whispering that he's gay. people think he's gay more than they think i'm gay, even if i'm the weirder person. people have been telling me about his supposed playboy ways, toying around with guys around school. it's okay with me, i accept that part of him. but now he's left me hanging onto an imaginary cliff. 

i don't know what to do.

GIVENCHY and RICCARDO TISCI (and some JJ PROJECT)

riccardo tisci has made givenchy so desirable these days, that even i could not resist liking his output. i never really dwelled on givenchy before. the rottweilers last time provoked me a little, but the birds of paradise and the robots really had me on a chokehold. however, like many people have asked, is a $785 cotton shirt really worth it? i'd say yes after donating the same amount to charity after getting the shirt. most seem to have just bought the shirt.

since i do not have $785 x 2, i have come up with my own solution. i have photoshopped the prints and will have them printed on regular shirts - strictly for personal use only. unless givenchy sends me a shirt lol.

btw, i will still be making a donation in the same amount that it costs me to make the shirt. =P

below are pics of the styles that i really like:

 here are some of the ads and runway pics:

 

and here are some really cool pics of jr (박진영) of jj project wearing givenchy ss 2012:

jj project's debut mv - "bounce"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yvic9sAg64

***all pictures from the internet***

big bang love: juvenile a

i stumbled across this movie while researching ryuhei matsuda, who played ren (meaning lotus) in the first nana movie.

ryuhei-sama plays one of the leads in this takashi miike film. for those who are unfamiliar, takashi-sama is responsible for many japanese cult films like ishi the killer and audition.

i read a lot of reviews about the movie before i saw it, and most reviews (from westerners) said it was confusing and left a lot to imagination.

it was a pretty short film, and after seeing it, it felt a lot shorter as the story became clear to me. it was as tragic as it was normal as it was surreal.

a lot of the central ideas were dealt with indirectly but they werent difficult to identify. i can say that this was a very emotional story, with surreal treatment from a male point of view.

in japanese, the movie is entitled 46億年の恋 (46 okunen no koi), or 4.6 billion year love.

Some interesting scenes from the movie (image from tumblr).

-a hole in the wall becomes a beam of light that pierces ariyoshi jun throught the heart

-he is taken aback and finds his hand on top of kazuki's

-a mayan temple in the fields of the penitentiary

-ariyoshi's hand wipes away kazuki's tears

-kazuki however strikes ariyoshi down

-a rocket ship just beyond the penitentiary fence

-horizontal spiral steps that inmates take to get to the fields

-ariyoshi comforting kazuki

***SPOILER ALERT***

There were a lot of memorable scenes in the movie, including the opening dance of an almost completely tattooed guy; next is the recurring butterfly that at one point alighted on ariyoshi's head; then you have the ever slanted warden's room - either the wall or the desk or the floor is at an angle to the other - a contrast to the wardens pale face; there is the laundry area where ariyoshi is assigned to and gets a lot of talk time with other inmates; the mayan temple represented heaven where there is peace but other people, and the rocket ship brings you to space where there are no other people.

what i think happened is that, since it was a question if kazuki was having sexual escapades with anyone, and the almost killer was in jail for killing his unfaithful wife - and he was told by another inmate that he and kazuki had done it - is that he treated kazuki the way he treated his wife, and tried to kill him.  that is aside from the statement he gave that he tried to kill kazuki - which he thought he could never achieve - so as to do a kind of suicide by provoking someone who can kill you, and gaining atonement for killing his wife. kazuki may have had sexual acts with this guy.

ariyoshi definitely liked kazuki as he saw in him the dancing guy at the start of the film, thats why he sees kazuki having the same tattoos, though there are none. they probably didnt have sex, based on what ariyoshi said that even the act of killing him, kazuki wouldn't give him the chance to.

when the beam of light seeped through the wall, and pierced ariyoshi, and made blood stream down his clothes, it made me see how much emotional burden ariyoshi had. he didnt seem to be the outgoing type of gay man. and the image of the butterfly being electrocuted at the end i see as ariyoshi killing himself after it was proven that he did not kill kazuki, mimicking the act of another inmate who got toasted trying to escape.

i'm really glad i got to see this film, as i can relate to it a lot, i guess i could write a more in depth review, but here's what i have for now. i'll probably watch it a couple more times.

kazuki has been in jail many times, ariyoshi jailed for the first time

 ariyoshi assumed the killer's position and continued to choke kazuki even if he was already dead. kazuki actually was the one who killed himself by making the killer strangle him.

 kazuki showed the same traits - seen by tattoos showing on him - like the man ariyoshi wanted to be like

--- all pictures from the net ---

woah, after more than a year i'm back on this thing yeah.

thanks to some fruit that don't look so good...

i'll take it slow, with a relaxed vibe, and here's the Summer Komikon 2012 swag!

 operasyon by macoy, an autographed pugad baboy bookmark, some cute diskette stickers, some prints and more bookmarks! >.<

 a trese kambal doll, specifically chosen by a fruit, and komikon freebies, i.e poster, fan and a newspaper :)

Still not... 아직은

After all this time, I'm still finding it difficult to find interest again in B2ST. I haven't seen or heard any of their new stuff, although I was a bit worried for 여섭 when he had an operation. he was really nice when I met them.

There's been a lot of new acts since that I've found interest in, like ZE:A, F.Cuz, and Infinite. ZE:A's 하루종일 is definitely one of the year's best for me. I really like Leeu's voice, from F.Cuz, though I find their name really, uhm, strange. Infinite is cool, I really got hooked on their MV for 다시 돌아와, and I like how they're so energetic!

However, the sleeper hit for me was MBLAQ. I really didn't like 'Oh Yeah', but 'G.O.O.D Luv' became one of my faves. 'Y...' was a song I liked, but the video was something I liked more. 'What U want' also became one of my faves up til now. When B2ST and MBLAQ debuted, B2ST won the competition, and I agreed back then. But now, MBLAQ seems a lot better.

G.O from MBLAQ was featured in that Nassun track 'O-IWI-O', and it was just the sexiest song!