.. to omoimasu

Kalo dipikir-pikir, kata “mengantuk” dan “tidur” gak ada hubungannya sama sekali ya.. Kalo di bahasa inggris kan “sleep” dan “sleepy”. Di bahasa jepang dan korea juga keduanya berasal dari kata yang sama. Lah kok di bahasa Indonesia nggak?? Padahal kan mengantuk itu berhubungan erat dengan tidur. Bahasa Indonesia memang ajaib.. Ada lagi gak ya bahasa selain bahasa Indonesia yang kata “mengantuk” dan “tidur” gak ada mirip-miripnya..??

I’ve been reading many noteworthy mangas lately so I guess it’s time for another manga review This time, it’s Belmonde Le VisiteuR (ini memang dari sananya r-nya selalu huruf besar, don’t ask me why), a shounen manga published in the Weekly Shounen Jump. First of all, I should remind anyone currently reading the manga that this review contains spoiler.

The manga is set in France during the time of Cardinal Richelieu and the protagonist, Belmonde, is a man who happens to be an illegitimate son of a noble man with a witch. His mother was executed for being a witch and so he was raised by the monks in the basement of a monastery, forbidden to ever set foot outside the basement. Inheriting the witch blood from his mother (FYI, in this manga the word witch applies to both men and women), he could see through anyone with his eye hence he was appointed by Cardinal Richelieu to obtain information from prisoners. One catch though, he can only use his ability on someone who nearly loses consciousness. So Belmonde drives the prisoner to the verge of losing consciousness by “torturing” him with a special witch sword. The “torture” is the main theme from the beginning of the story almost up to the end of volume one and is actually the fun part. It’s not scary at all (to the reader, that is) being funny and very enjoyable instead. The manga was set in a light mood so I honestly can’t see the prisoners as evil cutthroats. They’re just there for the author to show us the creative and ingenious methods Belmonde uses to extract information. Belmonde along with the other characters, the royal guard Roland, the noble girl Celine, and the peasant Chloe are amusing and the interactions among them make this manga very entertaining to read.

(SPOILER ALERT)

Unfortunately the fun doesn’t last and near the end of volume one it seemed that the author decided to start a new plot that regrettably made the manga less enjoyable and even a bit annoying. To me, Georges’ motive is not sufficient enough to make his actions plausible. Add this to the ridiculous event happening to Louis XIII which leads to D’Artagnan being the good-bad-guy, and the author had succeeded in making me want to throw the manga out the window.

Bottom line, the manga was good, up to the point the five assassins came, because that’s where the new plot starts. Unfortunately I cannot tell whether it gets better or worse to the end because scanlation is only up to volume two while the manga itself ends on volume three. Maybe I should look for the third volume in Book-Off (kayak ngerti bahasa Jepang aja.. ).

Setelah berkali-kali ngubek-ngubek itc kuningan dan gak pernah nemu dvdnya aku berhasil juga nonton Equilibrium setelah di korea.  For those who didn’t know, Equilibrium is a 2002 sci-fi action flick starring Christian Bale. Ceritanya agak -agak mirip Minority Report kurasa (walopun aku tak pernah nonton Minority Report ). Anak mudanya mulanya was a part of the dictatorship but then turned against the government and became the champion of the people instead. Kira-kira begitulah ceritanya. Standar sih but that’s okay, namanya juga film action, what did you expect?  Yang jadi andalan dari film ini ya apalagi kalo bukan actionnya. Actionnya mirip-mirip matrix (lah posternya aja mirip bett) ato dengan kata lain kerennn. Tapi yang sangat disayangkan adalahhh… tamatnya. Hayyah antiklimaks sekali kalo menurutku, soalnya kok kayaknya gampang kali selesainya…?? Tapi pas baca-baca di internet ada juga yang bilang tamatnya “a brilliant climax”.   Kesimpulannya, equilibrium pas untuk kalo mo refreshing dan lagi malas mikir berhubung nontonnya gak pake mikir dan actionnya cukup menghibur. 

Berhubung lagi libur, kegiatan torrent menggila jadilah banyak dorama menumpuk untuk ditonton salah satunya adalah last friends yang sebetulnya dah lama mo kutonton tapi malas karena ngeliat ada nishikido ryo. Akhirnya saking gak ada kerjaannya ya ditonton la tu dorama. Dan seperti dugaanku, tiap si jelek itu muncul esmoni jiwa awak.  Tapi ternyata, selain nishikido ada yang hampir sama menyebalkannya: Masami Nagasawa. Dia tu ya, kalo mengutip salah satu blog, “has the acting capabilities of a broomstick”. Aktingnya makkk jeleknyaa. Kerjanya cengengesan mulu sepanjang film. Ato kalo gak cengengesan ya nangis tapi nangisnya nampak kali palsunya.  Untungnya pemeran-pemeran lainnya aktingnya bagus. Terutama Eita nu kasep pisan  

Yahh sebetulnya belum siap aku nonton semua. Abis tiap mo nonton ilfil duluan ngebayangin bakal ngeliat si jelek nishikido. Dan yang bikin sebel, aku baca aslinya tuh si jelek tuh perannya cepet mati dan ceritanya bakal lebih fokus ke michiru-ruka-takeru. Ehh gara-gara banyak yang suka ngeliat si jelek jadilah tak mati-mati dia (matinya baru di ep. 10 ato 11 gitu kalo gak salah). Bahh menyebalkann.. Tapi aside from the lousy performances of those two, doramanya lumayan kok. Apalagi kalo kalian gak sentimen ma nishikido kek aku.

Just finished watching Prince Caspian (I know, I know, it’s an old movie but I haven’t written a movie review for a long time so there). The first half was surprisingly good. Compared to the first movie you might even say it’s very good. But the second half.. well.. it just seemed to me as if they’ve spent all their energy for the first half and by the time of the second half they’re out of steam. I mean, Peter is a High King for God’s sake. How could a High King let himself be distracted in the middle of a battle..!! The battle was not going in their favor so he was desperately looking for Lucy to save the day…?? Come ON!! And Caspian  was getting more and more annoying up to the end of the movie.

Sebetulnya filmnya lumayan sih. Lumayan lah untuk mengisi waktu. I’d say 7 out of 10. Eh ato 6 ya?