Lili’s bloggy

I have seen many Indonesian movies such as "mengejar matahari," virgin, brownies …. etc. (I forgot the titles already.) The reason I watched most of them is because of my curiousity after reading news from Kompas regarding how good they are. However, after watched all of them, I am so disappointed with the stories and the acting - it seems they just try too hard, causing it to become unreal and totally not funny, not romantic enough etc etc.

I dont say they are bad actresses or actors, or bad storylines or bad directors etc, but I was not attached to the movies while watching.  I was able to finish some of my assignments and even fell asleep during some.  Always a lot of distractions.  Maybe after you get used to watching Hollywood movies, the Indonesian movies becoming amateurish, something not interesting and sometimes obviously copying the stories from comics, and other love stories.

But yesterday I watched "Janji Joni", the storyline being so simple, but I really liked it!  : ) And not because "Nicholas Saputra" is really cute.  Basically I learned something I have never known regarding the job of a "movie reel delivery boy", and never knew there even existed a job like that. Even though some of the jokes are old jokes or copied from American movies, there were lots of moments that would make you remember about typical Jakarta.

The story was about a guy named Joni who promised that he will not disappoint movie watchers when they watch the movies because - it turns out that for a movie to be played in a cinema, there are 6 reels (for Indonesian movies) - however to reduce the production costs, each set of 6 reels is always being used by 2 cinemas, so they have to have a delivery boy to take rolls to exchange between the cinemas *while* the movie is playing!  The way they illustrated it was really good

Of course one day he meets a really cute girl (I have no idea what her name is… do I have to know her?  NAHHHH…  as long I know the guy’s name that’s enough for me actually, just go watch the movie, otherwise I will spoil the story. It looks a bit like the "Serendipity" story, but little bit more funny, and less romantic (I admit it).  If you are going to watch it, do not expect too much - I realized if you expect the movie to be really good, you will end up disappointed

But seriuosly the movie is a good one (8/10 rating).  Btw I liked the Final Fantasy 7 movie too : ) , I mean I was not interested with FF at all before, but now really curious thanks to the brothers Goh. Still too lazy to play the games though, so I used my online cheat sheet to know the story.

Let me know if you want to borrow "Janji Joni".  It’s $59.99 per day ONLY!*

*Some late fees may apply.  See store for details.  Batteries not included.

I read the book before I went to watch the movie. Lani told me that it was worthless to watch it since we both had read, but after I finished the book, I was so obssessed to see the movie (same as the kite runner)…  I like to compare between the book and the movie, which is better, and to imagine how they actually illustrated the book into a movie, where exactly inside your brain you had little pictures of everything and felt you knew each character really well. The movie was not so bad, but there were several scenes I wish they had changed, and still hate the ending, I always wish it would be different. I like Gong Li’s acting as Hatsumomo, just think she is not mean enough, I imagined she should be the devil someone who made someone’s life really hard daily, but the movie lacked sympathy, love, emotions etc.  For sure it lacks the full story about Geisha, the book explained it much better. But overall, I am ok with the movie.  I  give 8/10 for the novel and 7/10 for the movie

I didn’t forget about my blog, I just had a really looooong vacation, starting with parents coming for graduation, taking them around east coast (washington dc, philadelphia, atlantic city, new york, boston, providence and niagara falls), all the way until now, when i ran away with my friends to florida.

To start 2006, i had 2 vacations to florida (since i guess one was just not enough). The first one was cold and so was the second. I though we could avoid the cold weather in Atlanta but it turned out that Florida was NOT as hot as it’s supposed to be.  The second vacation was crazy since we went to the beach and all the windy-ness of the beach blowing through me had added to my sickness (sssneeze, sneezeee!).

Lots of gambling moments and "talking big" from Han2 during the trip. I was a bit quiet - hehehehhe really!! I know that you couldn’t believe that, but I was quiet … sickness caused me some dizziness.

The most memorable moment from the vacations was my fight with Vietnamese lady in Atlantic City, she is a total crazy %#$&$#%@# lady @#*^&%!!! All started because I had put some gambling money on top of her money, and she told me to take it away because it gave her bad luck and this long long lecture from her made me lose my temper a bit and i said to her "shut up," and after that there was lots of talk back of FFFFFFFFFF—- Chinese this, Vietnamese this, beep beeeps beeeeps, lots of censoring there. I had never had fight this big which almost caused me being kicked out of the casino - heheheh.  Not a really good way to end and start a year, but whatever, accidents happen. Stupid lady.