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January 05:
Post-Christmas mini-reviews.

Apart from a growing stack of bridal books and magazines, these are the things that kept Arn and me entertained over the holidays:

Hey, Wait by Norwegian cartoonist Jason. Highly recommended by Ramonra, the book is actually one of my Christmas gifts to Arn. The story is very heartbreaking but is told so beautifully, all in simple yet striking images, that you'll want to go through it again and again just to inspect details you may have missed the first time. Warning: it gets sadder with every read-through.

Spirited Away. What a charming movie! It's adventure + a little bit of comedy + fantasy in a Neverending Story kind of way (well the flying dog-beast reminded me of it) all rolled into one enchanting audio-visual experience. The shops in Japan were teeming with copies of the newly released DVD when we were there in October but I held off buying one until I got home, knowing I could get it cheaper here, heh. IMHO, it's Miyazaki's best yet (and today's his birthday!). You may read our pal Dimaans' more detailed review.

Dumped and Slow News Day by Andi Watson. After we read and fell in love with Watson's storytelling style via Breakfast After Noon and Geisha, we knew this double purchase would be a good idea. Both everyday-kind-of-relationship stories read so real that soon enough you'll feel that you're watching the characters right from your apartment window.

A Walk to Remember. We didn't get to see this film during its run though we got intrigued after Luis K told us that it was better than he expected (oops, did I just ruin your rep, Luis?). Anyway, Arn's brother Jing lent me the vcd a week ago so sige na nga, I gave it a chance. Being the mushmallow that I am, I liked it and actually cried at several parts -- wait let me finish -- also because I can relate (I have a brother who succumbed to leukemia when he was 6). Worth your 90 minutes of planet time.

Ang Agimat, the only MMFF movie we felt like seeing because (1) it's a fantasy-adventure movie; (2) we were not in the mood for melodramatic face-slapping finger-pointing hoohah; (3) the teaser actually "teased" us. Saw it the first week of its run and the theatre was packed with Jolo Revilla fans (the kid can't really act but the brooding pa-intense look holds promise). All in all? Better than we expected (we didn't expect anything much, really) but hardly what you would call "a good movie".

I'll be back with more soon.