Movie: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

My sister and I rushed to catch the last day of showing of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug this year. The last because on the 25th the cinemas will be showing nothing but entries to this year's Metro Manila Film Festival.

The cinema is packed.  I didn't mind.  I didn't want to mind anything.  Not even the shrilly toddler in the row in front of us that her own mother doesn't seem to notice.  But then it was hard to ignore this:

Why on earth do people insist on watching movies that are part of trilogies, or prequels to other movies, then ask for the back story inside the theater?  Why do you do that??

So this middle aged man sits in between a teenage girl, who was next to me, and a boy of about ten.  The odd thing was that the kids knew jack shit about the story.  Seriously, in this day and age I would have thought the kids are always on the pulse of popular culture.  Every ten to fifteen minutes one of the kids would ask a question about the story, what's already happening in the movie, or what's going to happen in the movie. If you want to know what's going to happen could you just watch the movie?  This movie is PG, but this is ridiculous.  And they do this, all three of them including the adult, without even trying to lower their voices.  Does this look like your living room?!

While the first movie feels a bit stretched thin, The Hobbit:  The Desolation of Smaug feels a bit 'meatier'.  It explores new characters, history and places, giving more life and dimension to Middle Earth.  Through backstories, we are given an idea of how the inhabitants of Middle Earth lived and how they related to other races.  There are also new places shown like Mirkwood, where Legolas comes from.  Before this movie, I always sort of just lumped the elves together. I've never really looked at them as different groups possessing differences in attributes.

I liked how this film constantly teases Bilbo, and the audience, with the Ring.  Will he use it or won't he?  Will he fall prey to it's temptations and it's power?  Will he tell Gandalf about the Ring?  With the Lord of the Rings Trilogy behind us these questions don't really matter as we already have a pretty good idea of how the story of the Ring would end in this trilogy.  It's like an open secret that you still want to hear the nitty gritty details about anyway.

The movie has nice pacing with lots of action, and a love triangle.  I definitely did not see that coming.  It's amazing how they managed to fit that in but I like it.  The visuals are good but it still find it weird sometimes how ridiculously smooth the orcs are (since they're computer generated).

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire Movie

So I went out with my sister to finally see Catching Fire, the second installment in the Hunger Games trilogy.  Because it was already evening there were really no plans to do anything else.  Except eat.  Hahaha! Hunger Games is making me hungry.   Seriously, there is so much food listed and described in that book I've now added Lamb Stew with Dried Plums to my bucket list.

Popcorn and sugary drinks while watching the starving citizens of Panem. 

I don't have a copy of the books, only the audio books, and only 'read' the beginning part of Catching Fire before watching the movie.  I did this because 'reading' the first then watching The Hunger Games only left me disappointed.  Not only were a lot of elements from the book missing from the movie, but the movie left out key points that were essential to the story.  If you didn't read the book, you'd be confused at what was going on or why the characters acted like they did.  The movie felt choppy; it was like the scenes bounded one after the other and didn't flow too well.

I was much more satisfied with Catching Fire.  I didn't feel like I missed much in terms of detail even without reading the second book.  I was pretty much able to follow what was going on, the scenes flowed well, and it didn't feel like I was missing something that I should have read first in the book. Of course, I had the basics down from reading the first book so I had a very good idea how everything worked but still, it wasn't like Harry Potter where if you missed reading the book you'd be somewhat confused by something when watching the movie.

I'm so glad they decided to make use of Jennifer Lawrence's acting skills in this movie.  In the first movie she looked like she was trying to channel Kristen Stewart with that poker face, sometimes missed, and went Lucy Lawless instead.

For a bit I think Kristen Stewart would've fit as Katniss Everdeen for the first movie.  And I know that's a sacrilegious thing to say for a fan of- anything, really.  But the nearly blank, bored face, the dismissive air, it's just like how I see Kristen Stewart in every red carpet photo or interview.  Good thing she wasn't because Catching Fire had Katniss showing a whole range of emotions, from fear, to pain, that she might not have survived.

I'm so glad Josh Hutcherson's Peeta looked hotter in this movie.  I didn't think it was fair to have Liam Hemsworth be Gale because of course if you didn't read the book you'd instantly root for him instead of dear, dear Peeta.

Effie Trinket still as adorable as ever!  I couldn't stop thinking how amazing it would be to recreate her outfits, but probably shouldn't since they're Alexander McQueen.

Haymitch was a character I liked better now that I didn't read the second and therefore have no preconceived notions of how he's supposed to be.  Same goes for Cinna.

Catching Fire had several new characters and touched them briefly but it didn't feel too little or too out of place.  Nice pace and great visuals, combined with the story, made for a very entertaining movie.  I think the rest of the theater would agree, because apart from typical reactions (ahem, Jena Malone!) everyone was pretty much silent, obviously glued to the screen.

The JLPT N5 Experience - The Epic Fail

I did something yesterday I probably shouldn't tell anyone I did, in the same way that a child who broke a glass knows to slip away quietly before he's found out.

I took the JLPT.

In a way this is embarrassing for me.  Like, how can a person flunk the easiest JLPT level?  Sheer talent, lol.
In a quick google search, what I found were positive reactions to the experience, mostly underscoring how ridiculously easy it was.

Could've been.  Maybe.  I wouldn't know.  I didn't study for it.  I went over my notes and a few days before the test but obviously that wasn't enough.  Especially since in between that time I had close to nil exposure or practice.

In the time that I passed my application form I already knew I wasn't going to be able to study for it.  (It was one of those days... )  But I did it anyway because I felt I needed something to somehow keep me going.  I was afraid I'd give up on the language entirely.

I wasn't able to take my the practice tests because they ran out of slots so the actual exam was my very first introduction to the JLPT.  This was my practice test.  Awesome.

Where I took the test

The test was held at De La Salle University.  This was my first time to set foot in this campus.  (Ugh, I should have brought a camera.)  The line to get inside was ridiculously long.  The examinees were separated by levels, then divided into several rooms.  As I was walking towards the building we were supposed to be in I heard somebody say, "Lasallista na ako!"  Hahaha!  I recalled a similar reaction with an old schoolmate.  He told me he and a few others were told that they couldn't take a summer class for a certain subject in our school, but that they could take the same subject in Ateneo.

There was probably at least a thousand of us from all levels.  We weren't allowed inside the building until 12:30pm so everybody just waited outside.  There were books and notes everywhere.  One girl was standing with an open laptop in her arms.  Me?  Peg of the day:  Come as you are.  Hahaha!  I had no notes, reviewers, nada.  It's a testament to how I feel about the whole thing.

I saw somebody there from my Japanese class.  She said she hadn't studied either.  But she could already converse in Japanese so she'll probably ace the listening part of the test.

We got into the building and into our assigned rooms.  We were seated by registration number.  I found myself right in front of the proctor.  A little briefing, a little chit chat.  A lot of the examinees came from JSAT.  I have never heard of JSAT before this but from what I heard from their conversation, I assumed that they were prepped for this.

The test experience- where it all begins to crumble

We were given a set of three pages of answer sheets.  When I got mine I was a little confused thinking, 'Is this a practice answer sheet?' I had taken tests before with answer sheets that were nearly filled to the brim with those numbered circles.  This one looked like a rectangular box divided into sections of rows of circles.  It looked less than a fourth of the page!

The test answer sheets and test papers were in separate string-tie envelopes that were taped at the flap.  The first part of the test was Vocabulary.  Disaster.  Kanji was among the last lessons we had and I didn't really have a grasp on it.  I still don't.  So I am familiar with only 30 Kanji, ten of which are numbers.  Lol!  I think we were supposed to know about a hundred?  Yep, that didn't go so well.

Since I lacked practice, my reading skills and comprehension dropped.  And I'm a beginner, so that's terrible news.  At one point the proctor says, "Last five minutes." I look at my answer sheet and I realized I wasn't even at the last section of the test!  And before I could stop myself I blurted out, "Ang bagal ko!" Ffff.

There was a 30-minute gap right from the end of the first test to the start of the second test and another one at the end of the second test to the start of the third test.  The proctor packed the answer sheets and questionnaires back into their envelopes, wrote something on the envelopes, then took them out of the room.  Everything seemed very strict and systematic that it oddly felt like an election or something.  When she came back she had another string-tie envelope with a taped flap containing the questionnaires for the second test, Reading.

Going faster downhill

I thought my biggest hurdle would be the Listening part.  In one listening test in our language class I could barely follow what number we were in.  In one dialogue all I got were "refrigerator" and "shelf".  Wth am I supposed to do with that?  Afterwards, my classmates were discussing it and apparently there were food and drinks in a shelf in the refrigerator and you're supposed to answer what shelf it was on.  I didn't even get that far!

Back to Reading.  As I was saying, I thought my biggest hurdle was listening, but I was way, waay off.  In the Reading part, I couldn't even get past the instructions!  There was this section with that had sentences with four blanks and a star sitting on one of them.  I couldn't figure out what to do with it.  I couldn't even calm down long enough to actually understand the instructions because I was pressed for time and already reading everything at a grandmotherly pace.

Same drill after the test: questionnaires and answer sheets are packed and taken.  When the proctor came back she had a radio for the Listening test.  I think the cassette tape was also in an envelope.  The cassette tape itself was even wrapped in plastic!  Wow.  Who makes these things?

Anyway, I was bracing myself for the test when a girl asks, "Can we use a scratch paper?"  WTF?  What do we need a scratch paper for??  What? Are we doing computations? What?

Full-blown silent panic.

Then we start.  And surprise, surprise- I can somewhat follow what's going on!  I'm still missing words so my answers are questionable but it was definitely better than what I had expected.  Hell, I was just happy I was able to follow what number we were on!

I still don't know exactly why they need the scratch for. To write down what they hear?  I'll find out someday.

And that was it.  My very first JLPT experience.

Obviously, I'm not proud of what I did but in a way I was a bit glad I did it.  I don't think I'd be giving it up after all.

The test is divided into three sections:  Vocabulary, Reading and Listening.  There is a 30-minute gap in between tests.  I don't remember the exact numbers but there is probably no more than 50 questions per section.  In Vocabulary, part of the test alternates between Hiragana and Kanji: the word is in Kanji and you're supposed to find the Hiragana of that word, or the word is in Hiragana and you're supposed to find the Kanji.  The questions are carefully constructed so that the differences in possible answers are small and you can't simply guess the right answers.  In Reading, the sentences aren't that simple.  There are combinations of sentence patterns.  Knowing how to transform verbs is not enough; understanding transformed verbs at a glance is essential.  You won't have time to transform them.  In Listening, you must be able to follow the whole scenario.  Again, the differences in the answers are small and if you miss some words you might choose the wrong answer.  For example (this is not a question from the test, just to illustrate what I'm saying) Three people walked in the bar.  Two men and a woman.  Then two people walked into the bar.  A man and a woman.  How many men walked into the bar? 1) five 2) two 3) three 4) four