some reviews and comments

So I've been having a pretty interesting month to say the least. From having yet another reboot (sort of) to seeing new movies and catching up with friends and video games, you can say things are different and for the better.

I'll start with my review on The Skin I Live In, starring Antonio Banderas. Yes, he is aging but like fine wine, his acting improves. The entire movie is in Castilian Spanish aka the Spanish they teach you in college and high school. As my friend and I watched it, she didn't understand a lick of Spanish but the movie's biggest strength isn't just in the twist and turns but in its ability to tell a story by visual means. A deaf person can get the essence of the story through the action and body languages. It's about a doctor that is researching on developing new synthetic skin for patients that need reconstructive surgery. He manages to engineer skin that repels mosquitoes and high resistance to fire. The twists begin with him finding a girl who almost became victim of rape in a party he attended. He knew the guy that had attempted. Things happen where she goes nuts and as revenge, he kidnapped the guy and gave him a sexual reassignment surgery aka complete sex change. This even included the new skin he had been developing with research. The surgery was too much of a success as there isn't even a hint that the girl was once a guy. Later on, some guy in a tiger suit makes a run and tries to hide in the place where this guy/girl is held as a guinea pig to observe. He ends up raping her, gets shot and killed by Banderas and the subject goes through rape trauma. The part where even I got all "what the heck is happening" was when Banderas has sex with his subject twice in the film. I can't help but conclude that Banderas, like Jim Carrey, has finally played his first gay role. Had the sex change detail never been addressed, you would never think how really crazy his character was. Eventually, the subject remembers who he used to be when he saw articles of his disappearance. Upon remembering who he was, he kills Banderas and his mom and walks out. The acting was good and for a movie done entirely in Spanish, I enjoyed it for the psychological thriller that it was.

I recall reading an article from IGN complaining about how Metal Gear Rising will destroy the legacy that was Metal Gear Solid. Why? Because Raiden, in his new form and glor, makes all of Snake's work in getting rid of Metal Gears look like a pathetic joke. Solid Snake was just a man, let alone a soldier, taking on, through military tactics, large and very gigantic military robot monsters. Raiden? He flings the Gears around like really light stuffed animals. Does it give Snake a slap to the face? Definitely but you know what? It enlarges the opportunity to repackage and re-present Raiden as something more than a footnote to Snake or even as Snake's little apprentice.

3ra is going forward. I can say that I'm renewing my perspective on life so it's helping me write newer things or at least from newer and fresher perspectives. It won't have the dark under and overtones my first two had. They served their purpose and were relevant to certain moments of my life and now are over and gone. If you need to ask, to some extent, my books are like metaphorical/autobiographical poems -- telling my story through images created by words. I believe having watched the conclusion of Soul Eater and re-watching Limitless kind of woke me up about things too.

As for where am I in life? I'm just living and moving on in life. My aim now in free form. Meanwhile, I'm also stepping back and seeing things for what they are, were and will be, whether it's pretty, ugly or pretty ugly. All in all, though, I won't let anything take me down.