EDGE OF TOMORROW

Based on a Japanese novel, this science fiction movie starring Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt is about an alien invasion and how Major William Cage played by Tom Cruise repeatedly died more than a hundred times before he and Sergeant Rita Rose played by Emily Blunt managed to defeat the alien race.

The movie has quite an interesting storyline where a public relations Major William was knocked out and sent to the battlefield with a squad to fight the invading aliens known as Mimics when he opposed the General's orders. Unknown to them, the aliens behaved like the central nervous system when they were controlled by a central intelligence known as the Omega. William killed an attacking Alpha with a mine before he died, but not before the Alpha's blood spilled onto him, granting him the ability to temporarily take over the Omega's unique ability to reset time back repeatedly to a specific time frame. From a clumsy Major who never ventured to the battlefield to one who managed to gradually anticipate each and every move made by the aliens and avoided their attack until he was killed over and over again, he was able to reset the time loop every single time he died. He met the Angel of Verdun Sergeant Rita Rose in the process and learnt that she possessed the same ability until she lost it through a blood transfusion after getting injured in battle.

With their combined wits, they eventually realized that the Omega set a trap for them instead to reclaim its ability and sacrificed their lives to exterminate the Omega in one final attempt after William too lost his unique ability after he received a blood transfusion. Fortunately, the Omega exploded and spilled all its contents, including its blood, in the water and infused William once again before he died. The time line was reset once again to an earlier time frame when William and Rita were alive but this time with the aliens exterminated permanently. 

GODZILLA

They have made the Godzilla movie a number of times and I must say I was kind of bored throughout the movie.

Godzilla did not appear in the movie until more than an hour later and even then, it's role seemed more supporting than lead. The main cast includes Bryan Cranston as Joe Brody, Juliette Binoche as Sandra Brody, Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Ford Brody, Elizabeth Olsen as Elle Brody and Ken Watanabe as Dr. Ishiro Serizawa.

In short, two radiation-feeding moth-like monsters were unearthed from the ground through construction activities and were coming together in an attempt to breed and Godzilla was the only thing that could stopped them. Period.

Alright, the movie started off in 1999 with the discovery of some mysterious pods in Philippines which was followed by a radiation leak and an explosion in Janjira Nuclear Plant where Joe and Sandra were working. Sandra was killed, leaving behind Joe and his son Ford. 15 years later, Ford was an explosive disposal lieutenant living in San Francisco with his wife Elle and son when he received a call that Joe was detained after entering a quarantine zone in Japan.

Ford flew over to bail his father, just to realize that Joe has never given up on finding the truth behind the nuclear plant's radiation leak and accident that killed Sandra. He reluctantly accompanied Joe back to their old house in the quarantine zone and history repeated itself all over again in the form of a giant-sized winged alien-liked monster known as the Muto that hatched after feeding off radiation from a nuclear plant. Apparently, this was only one of two Mutos that were calling to each other and tried to unite together in San Francisco to breed their next generation. Their calls awakened Godzilla, which was nature's answer to restore balance in the ecosystem. The special forces were mobilized to put an end to these creatures but their efforts were futile against the monsters until Godzilla put up a strong hard fight against the two creatures and eventually defeated them. Strangely, I saw red lanterns in several scenes where the Mutos were striking mayhem during the battles and wondered if there was any significance to this.

The storyline was just very thin and the acting non-memorable although I like the following quote from the movie:

"The arrogance of men is thinking nature is in their control and not the other way round." by Dr. Ishiro Serizawa.

Joe Brody

Joe and Ford at their old house in Japan

Sandra

Dr Ishiro Serizawa wore this worried expression throughout the movie

the Muto

red lanterns were shown several times

47 RONIN

This movie starring Keanu Reeves, Hiroyuki Sanada, Kou Shibasaki and so on came across as a bit strange especially when the Japanese actors in an 18th Century Japan spouted perfectly accented English. I guess it is not really surprising that this movie did not fare well at the box office ratings and was nominated for the rotten tomatoes list.

A ronin is a samurai who lost his master by failing to protect him from harm's way. In this movie, 47 ronins, including the outcast Kai played by Keanu, were led by Hiroyuki's character Oishi to avenge their masters' deaths against Lord Kira, who was helped by a shape-shifting sorceress.

To me, what was interesting was the many different hairstyles of the ronins and comic relief came in the form of a plump ronin, who was both cute and drew much laughter and sniggles from the otherwise silent audience.

GARDENING WORLD CUP JAPAN 2013

A friend helped out the local designer John Tan, at the recent Gardening World Cup held in Nagasaki Japan, who won the top spot for his harmonious and fluid design of a wire sculpture lady overlooking a pool and lighting effects. The theme was World Peace and winning design was named 'Timeless Tropical - Peace with Nature'.

A big congratulations to all the well-deserved winners of this competition.

THE WOLVERINE

Since "X2: X-Men United" in 2003 when Jean Grey disappeared, a few other X-Men movies were made with Wolverine gaining more onscreen presence. "The Wolverine" made a decade later, is sort of a spin-off movie due to Hugh Jackman's excellent portrayal of the character.

After what appeared to be Jean's death, Wolverine went into hiding out of guilt. His recurring nightmares of Jean beside him, night after night, turned him into a recluse. That was when he was brought to Japan and met Mariko, his love-interest in the comics. I didn't quite like the storyline though, with the Yakuzas and ninjas and the Viper.

For me, the best part of the movie was the easter egg segment, where Magneto and Prof Xavier appeared, and hinted of a huge storm brewing ahead of them, thus uniting both forces together to fight what was coming up.

JAPAN

A friend went Japan recently and sent me these plant photos when he was back. I have never been to Japan before but what beautiful scenery and plants!

The blue flower plant is a weed there but it's so uniquely pretty. Known as the Columbine Flower where columbine means pigeon, or Aquilegia species in which the genus means eagle in Latin, it is a weed I would love to grow in my garden.

If a weed is so pretty there, I wonder how the non-weeds look like.