The Departed - What? The Retarded?

As you read the title, you would go "WHAT?!" and probably think that I'm retarded (If you happen to love the film or the Director) or I'm actually sane (If you love the original movie - The WuJianDao / Infernal affairs.)
Well, this post is not to discuss what my current mental state is. I'm here to talk about this movie. The Departed.
I'm not saying Martin Scorsese has anything to do with the word "retarded". NO! This word just came to my mind when I first heard about the name of the movie. I was like "huh?! Retarded??" and thinks what are weird name for this Imported version of the movie.
After I read the comment on IMDB, the user Alwood said:

Please don't make negative comments like some of the aforementioned people have been doing if you haven't seen the film yet! I have seen it, at a press screening last week. Not only is it the best film of the year so far, it marks a return to form for Martin Scorsese, and ranks with the likes of GOODFELLAS as being one of the best in his canon of films.

I'm a fan of the Hong Kong film, INFERNAL AFFAIRS, upon which this is based. While THE DEPARTED keeps the basic structure of the original, it is very much its own movie, so much so that the screenwriter, William Monahan, didn't even watch the original film while adapting its screenplay, thus enabling him to infuse the script with his, and Scorsese's, respective visions.

All the actors are first-rate (yes, even Leo, for all you DiCaprio bashers out there), and turn in some of their best performances to date. THE DEPARTED is sure to garner a host of Oscar nods, if not wins, including (hopefully) Scorsese's long-overdue statuette for Best Director. Plus, with actors like Martin Sheen and Alec Baldwin playing supporting roles, that says a lot about the quality of the film they signed up for! THE DEPARTED is tough stuff, not for the faint-of-heart. That said, it is a must-see for adult viewers who long for intelligent, gritty stories to grace our movie screens once again.

Well, I personally don't know how good Martin Scorsese or William Monahan are. Then again, this post is not to discuss about William Monahan(may be not even Martin Scorsese). But just a little note, by not watching the original and goes ahead to "translate" the story is just wrong. Since you are working off from someone's idea, why not watch it and make sure you can improve on it? Or may be trying to make an exact duplicate and then say:"I didn't watch the original and it just happen that I wrote the same thing." Yeah, right. It's just the same as "I didn't copy XXX's homework/test/exam/assignment/etc. , it just happens that we did the same thing/mistake/error/etc." Yeah, right. I'm sure teachers from all over the world has heard something like that before in their long long teaching career.

The main reason that triggers me to write this post is that, after watching all the available trailer and related material on the movie's website, it gets me thinking. Just how much did Leonardo DiCaprio or Matt Damon or Mark Wahlberg knows about the original movie. Did they know that the ORIGINAL idea was from the Hong Kong movie Wu Jian Dao (Infernal affairs)??? And has anyone of them ever got a chance (or willing) to watch the original?! Or they are all so f***ing arrogant that everything that is from America is the best, even if they copy?!
(Now, don't come and shout at me saying I know nothing...yet.)

If not, why they all praised Martin Scorsese? To the extent that even they know it's a next-to-exact remake of the original, they still say that he is great with his idea and all that? It's just my feeling after watching the trailers, and compare it bit by bit with the original.

If you have watched or going to watch the original and the "The Departed", I'm sure you will find alot of the details are the same. Just one of the many things, in one of the scene, Leonardo's character's hand is in a cast. The cast will get broken to check to make sure Leonardo isn't hiding some recording device in it. This is exactly the same as the original. If Martin Scorsese is so brilliant, why can't he think of something good to replace that? Oops, that's because Martin Scorsese is just the director, not the writer. No wonder they can only from someone's idea. Well, then why would they all say Martin Scorsese has such a great idea to come up with this movie? I'm confused.

[FOOD] ICHIBAN @ New Kennedy Square

Let's not talk about blog for a change. (YOU ARE STILL TALKING ABOUT IT!)

Back in July, I have attended a wedding of someone. Got so damn drunk and couldn't drive home. Well, of course I didn't drink and drive. I'm not that stupid. Getting myself killed is fine, but what if I hit someone or something? No No No.... {>_<}

Woke up the next day early(like 7 or 8am), and still feels a little bit dizzy. Sat on my bed and watched TV for a few hours, and then the hunger kicks in. Oh yeah, you will feel unbelievably hungry after you are drunk, and especially you threw up everything, including the lunch you had before you get drunk. (I wonder, how can I threw up so much?!)

Anyway, since I got some red pocket from the wedding, I decided to use them all up for lunch, hopefully this will help me recover. After checking how much money I got from the red pockets, and to compensate myself for not eating good food at the banquet. (Well, the banquet doesn't have any good food IMO, so that's why I drink so much wine.)

$40, What can I have?! Hmm... an idea comes to mind. Since it's july, it's summer time; Traditionally in Japan, people would eat BBQ Eel for ENERGY! Which is something I needed at the time. But just a BBQ Eel rice bowl doesn't seems enough to compensate me for what happened, and it's probably just $10, what am I gonna do with the rest of the money?! I have to get rid of it. (HEY, it's not the money that you get from a funeral!! You don't have to spent them all.)

So I ended up with: a box of BBQ Eel rice(big pieces of BBQ Eel, nice~), a box of sashimi (I believe they have 9 pieces? They are thick and fresh and tasty!), and a bento box with many things. Inside the bento box, it has 2 large shrimp tempura, some veggie tempura(sweet potato, cauliflower, zuchini, and mushroom?!), a small piece of deep fried item(I think it's some veggie and pork meatball?!), and 7 or 8 pieces of charcoal grilled beef ribs!! (also rice and soup and salad.)

Of course I didn't finish everything in 1 shot. Some of the stuff actually became my dinner for the day. For less than $40 you can have all these food and the quality is really good. They would actually give you more side dishes if you dine in there. (I was too dizzy and thinks that I better stay home for it.)

Ichiban is actually all over Toronto, and they are operated by different owner and their menus are different too. This particular one is located inside the plaza at the southwest corner of Kennedy Road and Highway 7.

Address: 8360 Kennedy Road, Unit B2, Markham, Ontario.
Tel: (905) 474-3677
Fax Order: (905) 474-1575

Let's Blog - Yeah!

Spent all day (well..8:30 to 3:30...I would say that's one day already) at work, trying to get my other blog working. Earlier today, one of my many blog server did something stupid and pixxxx off alot of people. Lucky for me is that I was "going to" pay for the membership fee there. So instead of fighting with weird minded blog server operator, I spent time working on getting a new blog to function better than the old one.

Life isn't easy as we all know about it. I actually skipped lunch (I don't plan to eat lunch anyway), and I totally forgot to get a glass of water. Hmm...I'm too into this blogging thing. Orz...

After a few hours trying out the Blogger beta service, I found that it's not user friendly at all. (or I'm not a good user in some sense?) Why doesn't it have a few more template for us to choose? and these template here now, are they made by the Blogger team or just someone from outside being nice and put some there? If it's the latter, I wish Blogger team should work on some basic template. Ones that has nothing on, just simple title + sidebar + blogpost. (or may be title + left sidebar + Blog post + right sidebar??) May be a step-by-step wizard, guild people through setting up all the different things on the blog.

Well, may be it's time for a Blogger for dummies book. (or it's out there already? I don't go to book store. =_=|||)