Refreshed my website!

All I can say is IWeb 08 is a life saver! I have completely reworked my site in record time, versus using Dreamweaver and manually add things. I have also added new pages and able to create a more dynamic layout. This software, like all Apple products is incredibly smart and well designed.

I have added new concept art and animation from the cancelled Universe at War expansion.

Ollie Johnston has departed

Its a sad news for the animation world, that Ollie Johnston has passed away on April 14 2008. He is the last surviving member of the Disney legendary animator group called The Nine Old Men. His animated film credits span from Snow White, Pinochio, Fantasia, Jungle Book and pretty much all the classics that we all remembered and loved. More info can be found in his shared website with Frank Thomas. Thank you very much for all the great inspiration and memories, sir!

New chinese movies and my 2 cents about these epic...

There are so many big budget films coming from China these days. I just saw two recently. The Assembly is an epic war film based on the China civil war between the KMT and PLA. Plot summary here. Most reviewers compare this film's visual to Saving Private Ryan, but today, which war film doesn't? The production quality is top notch, and the violence is pretty gory. Fyi, the director of this film is Feng Xiaogang, who has a really good eye for visual art in his films. His other film, The Banquet(known as Legend of the Black Scorpion here in US) was a great feast for the eye. The sets are usually very elaborate and over the top.

The Warlords, is the new Jet Li epic film. This is not a martial art film like Hero(which is still the best Jet Li film, imo), but tells a pretty intense story of a general's ambition to conquer the divided China during the Qing Dynasty. More info here.

I want to also express my opinion here regarding the Asian cinema. Although we are seeing a big surge of epic films coming from China, not many is trying to push the art of film making. Most of them are very similar, only repackaged with a different story. Don't get me wrong, these are all solid films that are well told, produced to their finest quality.

I just hope that we won't get flooded with too many war epic tales or gangster stories over and over again. I want to see more attempt at breakthrough films that define new genre and standard of film. Korean cinema however, has been very creative and aggressive at diverging their film industry. Old Boy, The Host, Tae Guk Gi are all very different. I think as soon as China films start to explore new frontier, we will see some very refreshing ideas that could challenge the best in Hollywood. Meanwhile they are working really hard to shape the film industry of the new China!

Appleseed Ex Machina

If you have not seen this, its definitely worth buying or rent. This sequel has improved in terms of visual design, action and cg technology. The rendering in this one is so much better. The character skin are more natural looking. I always hated the first film 'plastic' looking cel shading. I would recommend this just for its visual. There are stuff that were copied from other sci fi flicks. But having John Woo as a producer, you can expect a lot of familiar action choreograph in it. I need to watch this again in blu ray!

Also, check out the collectable figures here!

My xbox suffered the 3 rings of death!

What a timing, it happened after I posted UaW being released for the 360. So now it has been sent to the repair center. The funny thing today is when I walked in to the UPS store to drop off my xbox, the employee recognized my 'pre-sent by Microsoft white box' right away, saying, "Another fried Xbox?" I laughed. I hope Microsoft will replace it with the newer model, or else, I will be fuming...