Yoshitsune & Da Vinci

22nd May 2006, Monday

Still no confirmation of when my actual last day would be though my supervisor would follow up on that while the HR over the other side started probing me for the date already...
Of course with the fact that my supervisor so casually mentioning about my depature and all the covering of duties and additonal manpower, I am very sure now she had told the rest about my imminent depature...well at least JxMMy could start to count down the day for rejoice of being all alone once more...well it would be reciprocated in my case as well...

So Saturday was mainly hyping up for the show in the evening but took Mom's M'sia religious escapdade as an opportunity to go get some breakfast from BK..Of course knowing me, I wouldn't solely head out under the intolerable weather to just haul some food for my sis and myself..I went to take the passport size photos required by the HR department and boy I was hoping with a more well-chiselled face I would have finally a good passport size photo that wouldn't resemble those shown on "Crime-Watch" but boy was I wrong...
Now my photos would be the perfect picture to place beside CIA's "prospective terrorist suspect"...
By the way, I had given up on BK's breakfast which is running so short on choices but at the "abang" floor manager gave me an extra packet of coin harsh brown...

I was set to leave home after dinner that day and so occupied my afternoon by continuing my "Taiga" marathorn as I got more engrossed with the storyline which follows Yoshitsune and his Genji troop soundly defeating the Heike in the sea battle which the latter was bouyed on complacency that they would win.
In retrieving 2 of the Sacred Treasures (the the third, a sword sunk into the riverbed), Yoshitsune presented to the conniving monk-emperor and thus begun incurring the wrath of his brother, Yoritomo, enjoying his life at Kamakura with his obnoxious wife and her scheming father...

Before I got too engrossed I went on to work on my webpaged before departing for La Tendo and only saw the likes of Bryan, Chan, Eng Kiong and Tay-chan... the show was sparsely contained with customers, or prospective customers as it surely paled in comparison to other Saturdays in terms of sales I guess.
So it didn't take long to figure out to close at 8pm sharp while the rest started flooding in for the show which only began at 10 plus...
Matthew came and had dinner with the rest while handing out his wedding banquet invitations..I thought his absence for the past month or so had been preoccupied with his wedding arrangements and new flat...but later on Vincent annouced that he had decided to end the partnership with the rest but in an amicable fashion..I guess time is really not what he could offer and he would feel bad if he could not fulfill his duties to the shop.

Then we came to the Cathay Cineplex and it was still only about 80% done with a couple of retailers started business, otherwise 90% (make that almost 100%) of the crowd present on the boisterous Saturday night was there to catch a movie.
One aspect of this new Cathay franchise I don't get is that they actually offered cuisine restaurant-style such as spaghetti, steak, grilled fish etc. and actually had the service to deliver to the partons in the theatres...
Firstly in the case of the steak, while there's no propsect of a table in front of the seat, most probably one would have to consume using their thighs as a makeshift table (and having the prospect of sticking the knife into it as you don't have the luxury of light to see clearly)..Chan then made one of his "over the top" joke saying what if they actually offered steamboat? ooh..imagine the burnt one had to endure
Secondly doesn't the entire theatre would start reeking the smell of the food you consumed? I wouldn't wanna had the niggling black pepper sauce smell while enjoying a 3 hour movie, would you?

Ok..the movie itself is a close adaptation to the book and I was right about the actors performing their roles to a T though I'm not a big fan of a buffed up Tom Hanks... but Paul Brettany as the ghostly albino monk, Silas is a perfect choice..
2 main differences from the movie would be firstly Langdon was informed about the curator's murder at a book signing event rather than been woken up from sleep in his hotel like in the book.
Secondly, before realizing that Issac Newton was the knight in the riddle, they checked via the internet on a fellow passenger's handphone for clue rather than actually doing so in the library as written in the book.
Otherwise it was adhering strictly to Dan Brown's menuscript though blatantly missing out on highlighting some interesting points from Da Vinci's works, perhaps to not further incensed the Christian community further.
But the usage of some scenes to better explain the history is well appreciated but I was quite amazed they actually shot those scenes for perhaps seconds of showing in the movie itself.
I do feel the story got a wee bit too dry in the middle and too much talking might not be those craving for more Hollywood style action genre, maybe for people like Ferris...
Meanwhile I guessed Vincent was keeping himself awake till the show ended by 1am by finishing up almost half a bag of sweet popcorns...

I think I slept at 4 on Sunday morning and try to keep myself afresh by going back to sleep after waking at around 9 and wake up once more by 11.30am.
Dad and sis were already starting to paint her room the same tone as mine which would take up to mid afternoon when they were done.
I just spent a lethargic Sunday afternoon engrossed with the latter stories of Yoshitsune with him deciding to go on seperate ways from his brother's Kawakura shogunate and things were rosy with his vassals and soulmate Shizuka with him..
However too many evil people trying to put an end to Yoshitsune's legacy and without a real army of his own, he was cornered with few options at times and led a renegade life for the latter stage of his life...
He hd to bid his love farewell (an eternal one on a snowy mountain), hid like a prisoner in Kyoto, headed for Oshu, disgusing as mountain priests with his vassals (and was unwillingly beaten up by Benkei to conceal their identities when interrogated by a sharp manor), reluctantly seeking refuge under Fujiwara clan but his happy life there was cut short when the Fujiware lord died leaving the legacy to the incompetant eldest son who could not fulfill his father dying wish to shelter Yoshitsune from the capture of Yoritomo's army.
The 4th generation Fujiware lord, Yasuhira was way too fragile and succumbed to the threats of the Genji after a while and decided to serve Yoshitsune's head on the platter to appease the dominant force in Japan at that era.
This led to the progessive death of the admirable Yoshitsune and his vassals as even how great a strategist he was, he only had 6 up against the thousands of the Fujiwara regime...
It was painful process to witness the subsequent deaths of each of the vassals whom had grown so accustomed to.. (by the way Saburo the crab is actually one of Vivian Hsu's Black Biscuits buddy) and the eventual suicide of Yoshitsune in a shed, devastated by the fact that he could not actually see his dream country before his death..
Once again the Taiga series had put me in such emotional rollercoaster but ultimately the "nakama" kinship which I kind of yearn for was had a tragic ending...But more outstandingly, the fact that the evil basked in glory at the expense of the perishment of the good left me badly gutted...
Damn..gotta refrain myself from those lousy Taiga dorama for a while now...

Lastly got a call from my lass as she promised and with very little to update but a strong yearn to see one another persists if not just got even stronger...

Japanese word of the day: うんざりさせる ~u-n-za-ri-sa-se-ru~ (Disgusted) Aren't they any part of Japan's warring history that doesn;t contain an ending that leaves me disgusted?