Godzilla Minus One (2023)

Godzilla was a metaphor for whatever the audience wanted it to be, natural or humnan-made disaster.

This movie was about a kamikaze pilot that survived.  Huh?  Wasn't he supposed to die?  Then he survived the first time Godzilla appeared.  Then he survived the second time Godzilla appeared.  The survivor guilt was eating him alive.  Was he going to live or die when Godzilla appeared the third time?

This Godzilla was awesome, especially when it powered up to shoot the radioactive ray.  It would've been great to see the special effect in a movie theater.

I thought the movie would explain why it was called "Godzilla Minus One".  A lot of Japanese brands were named strangely, for example, the clothing store "Niko And...", but the movie never explained.  Oh well...

Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard (2021)

Still very funny with over-the-top action scenes.  The chemistry between Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson was still very good.  They threw in all the action tropes, but after awhile it felt too much.  There were some unnecessary parts, such as the two Interpols arguing.  One Interpol was enough.

Trader Joe's Easter Joe-Joe's review

Easter is almost here.  Pastel colors on bunnies and eggs are everywhere.  I saw these cookies in Trader Joe's, and I just couldn't resist.  They're too cute!

Turned out they were Oreos covered in a thick layer of chocolates.  Too sweet for my taste.  If I wanted Oreos, I'd get Oreos.

Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993)

I finally finished filing taxes; it was exhausting.  So I needed something to relax.

I was surprised Math Teacher never saw Robin Hood:  Men in Tights.  It was a perfect post-tax comedy.  It was so over-the-top ridiculously dramatic that we laughed until our sides split.

Math Teacher pointed out several parodies to other movies, e.g. Godfather.  He didn't know there were so many funny references.  He enjoyed it quite a lot.

Happy Pi Day 2025!

Happy Pi πℼ𝜋𝛑𝝅𝝿𝞹 Day 2025!

A friend's homemade lemon meringue pie.  The crust was so flaky; the meringue was so bouncy; and the lemon curd was so lemony!  Heaven!

🥧🥧🥧🥧🥧

Horror short story, #3

I might have watched too much vampire movies!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My parents, my brother, and I were touring somewhere. Europe, for sure. The hotel had a tour to go to this old castle. Many hotel guests signed up, including us. We were bussed to the castle. It was old, with stonewalls and metal spikes. It was cloudy and cold. I was feeling weird and said we had to go. We didn't see Mother. I kept insisting to Father and Brother that we had to go. Next thing I knew, Father went looking for Mother. I told Brother we must leave now. It was getting dark. Brother said no; then he went looking for our parents.

The tour guide now insisted we all had to go. I got on the bus with the other tourists. Strangely, multiple buses came; only one bus was full and returning. So I was in my seat, completely freaked out. Then this woman in the seat behind me elongated her neck, like a snake. Her head hovered on top of me, then she shot towards me to bite my neck. Blood everywhere.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Fin ~~~~~~~~~~~~`

I know that long-neck woman was Rokurokubi (ろくろ首, 轆轤首).  I don't know why I dreamed about her on a tour bus to an old castle in Europe.  Rokurokubi does not kill nor drink blood.

COPYRIGHT!

Contact me at NaNaKo Sai Gwin's Dreamscape if you want to turn this into a complete story!

Married Life / 婚姻生活, #7

Home alone to clean up two-days-old roasted broccoli and carrots. I put them in a pretty bowl to make myself happy.

即使一人在家
即使是剩菜
也要用漂亮的碗
讓自己心情快樂

Titanic (1997)

I was surprised to learn Math Teacher never watched Titanic. He was never going to sit through a 3-hour-14-minute romance movie.

So I watched it for him, and called him over to watch the important part, e.g., Jack drawing Rose in nude.

When Titanic started to sink, Math Teacher finally sat down to watch. Oh, it was a disaster movie. This he could get onboard with. 🙄

Thanks to internet, Math Teacher actually saw clips of the movie and tons of memes, such as "I'll never let go, Jack". Now he finally understood those memes.

Controversial topic:  Math Teacher and I agreed. Jack couldn't fit onto the door. The movie obviously showed that when Jack tried to, the door was going to flip over.

As for me, I watched it twice and cried twice in the theater in 1997. Twenty eight years later, I still got misty eyes.

Math Teacher wanted a Titanic and Terminator crossover from James Cameron. Hollywood, call us!

Nosferatu (2024)

SPOILERS!!!

The first 1/3 of the movie followed Bram Stoker's Dracula loosely.  Thomas went to Count Orlok's castle to sell the Count real estate.  He saw peasants afraid of a certain supernatural being.  Count Orlok locked Thomas in.  Thomas went crazy, got out of the castle, made it home.  Count Orlok got on a boat to arrive at Thomas' hometown.

This was where everything went wrong.  Count Orlok came to the town looking for Thomas' wife, Ellen.  He wasn't the terrifying vampire that wrecked havoc.  Sure, he brought disease and killed some people, but he actually just wanted Ellen.  He couldn't even take Ellen forcibly; he needed her to say yes.  If he weren't a lovelorn little boy, I didn't know what he was.

SPOILERS!!

SPOILERS!!!

They burned Count Orlok's coffin so that he didn't have a place to return to.  Well, Count Orlok didn't even want to.  He and Ellen had sex all night long and well into day time and then he burned on top of her.  As a terrifying creature, I thought Count Orlok would choose his own life instead of a silly girl.  Well then, why did they need to burn his coffin?

This movie sacrificed the plot and logic so that it could be "artsy".  Masquerading sex as art was silly.

Everyone in the movie moaned like sex when they were in physical pain.  Ellen looked like she was in actual physical pain when she and Thomas were making love.  I think it was to contrast that Ellen loved Count Orlok more, but that was plain dumb.  

The original story had a final chase scene to kill the vampire.  It was action-packed and emotion-wrecking.  This Count Orlok got himself killed by having sex with a woman far too long.  Meh.

Everyone thought they could make a better adaption of Dracula, but they couldn't.  Bram Stoker already thought of every logic and plugged every plot hole.  There was no need to re-invent the wheel.  See my review of Bram Stoker's Dracula.  The story cannot be shrunk into a movie.  It needs to be a full-blown TV series.

The cinematography was beautiful.  The set design was amazing.  The acting was great.  I like Nicholas Hoult, Bill Skarsgard, and Willem Dafoe already.  Lily-Rose Depp is a surprise.  Looking forward to watch more movies by these talents!

⭐⭐⭐

蛇🐍年快樂！Happy Snake Year 2025!

新年快樂！大吉大利！！Happy Chinese New Year!!!明けましておめでとうございます、令和７年！！！！