Film Review: Downsizing (2017)

Synopsis:

American researchers successfully conduct experiments called downsizing. Humans have choices to be downsizing and have a new life.

Review:

I think this film has very unique idea, where humans have choice to be shrink in size or just having current life. There is new world called leisureland, where downsizing humans can have new life. If in real life they can't afford to buy a house like Paul Safranek and his wife Audrey Safranek. Both of them tired of their stressful life in real bigsize world and wants to enter downsizing world. Apparently when Paul already done the procedures. His wife, Audrey called off in the last minute and  left Paul alone. One year later, they have divorced and Paul stucked in his new downsizing world. Later, he meet disabled viatnemese woman and falled in love with her and they ship together to Norway and he wants to live with her.

The ending of this movie is pretty hanging for me, where Paul brought food for old man at the poor district in downsizing world. I am not sure what the messages of this film. Paul seems happy with his life in downsizing world. Paul was stressful with his real life because he and his wife got the house loan application rejected and they feel frustrated of their job too. So, Paul decided to have new life in downsizing world and he seems happy with the vietnamese lady that he helped and meet later. I don't see the good points of this film, it's just an adventure of human who downsizing and have a life beyond he can ever imagined.

If you look for weekend movie or if you interest in adventure film, you can try this one.

Rating: 5/10


Kind regards,

Selene.

Choice

Once 
I thought I was perfect
Live a good life
Plan for good future
Dream for the star
Everything was simple

In fact
I am just being ignorant
Close my eyes
Choose the easy way
Let others do the heavy work
Ignore the sacrifices

The price of not knowing
The price of standing still
I thought there's none
The truth
I cannot pay for it
I cannot accept it
Ignorance is not bliss

Making decision
One over another
You have to find the courage
To accept the pain and regret
To live with the mistakes



Regards, 
Angela

Book Review: From Lukov with love (2018)

Synopsis: 

Jasmine Santos has dedicated her life for figure skating until she meet Ivan Lukov, the arrogant idiot that made her angry, hated and reconsider everything in her life, including him.

Review:

This is the love-hated love story between Jasmine Santos and Ivan Lukov. This is the figure skating love story that is beautifully written by Mariana Zapata. Jasmine is Ruby' little sister. Ruby' love story can be read in Dear Aaron book that I previously reviewed.

Jasmine is strong, stubborn and strong willed girl who dedicated her whole life to figure skating. She hated Ivan because his arrogant and smug behaviour. One day Jasmine get the chance to be Ivan' skating partner and she accepted it because she wanted to win the championship for the first time in her life. During the process and her heart brokenness because she felt she lost many things because figure skating and still won nothing, she falled in love with Ivan and Ivan loved her as well.

This story is emotional, slow burn love story that is well written and have nice plot as Mariana' writting style. I liked this book. This book tells many things about family relationship like Jasmine and her dad nad her mother. This book will make you laugh too, because Mariana always know how to make joke about something without feeling too much or dry, that's what I liked about her writting style. I can feel her sense of humor in her writting and at the same time still feel the bittersweet love feeling that she wanted to deliver it too. It's just a good romance book that you really should read this year. If you liked love-hate love story, this book definitely should be in your bookshelf.

Rating: 4.2/5



Regards,

~Selene.

Game Review : Himawari Sunflower

You can't forget

Beautiful dream

Dear all, 

At last I managed to finish another great game. I thought I won't find great moege game. Actually I wonder whether Himawari Sunflower is pure moege game. I think it was combination between moege and chunige. Anyway, this is one great game that was published by Frontwing. Well, I can say that Frontwing game is quite great like Sekai Project. 

To be honest at first I thought this is gonna be action visual novel. But it looks like that I am wrong. It was romance game with sad and mystery theme. I supposed this combination is quite good in itself. Especially the way it lay the story. Remind me about Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni in which you will only get complete answer after you complete true ending. It was quite long game but it really worth it. I know for some people amnesia story is cliched but I really like it. It makes you feel there's much more things happening behind the scene. And you kind of anticipate how it will unfold. Well, let's go to the story. 

The story is about amnesia boy name Hinata Youichi. He is the sole survivor of Saionji first passenger test flight. 518 lives died in the accident. It was not explained what caused the accident and how could Youichi survive. But don't worry, you will uncover the mystery at the end of true ending. But I have to warn that it was a sad one. So prepare your tissue guys. Together with side story Komurabi and Kagerou. It can break your heart. Yes the story really that sad but also beautiful. The characters are quite amazing in its own. They are not extravagant but your typical visual novel characters. Still, it leaves deep impression for me. The graphic is quite great too. But I think what makes all of this amazing is the music. It is not very deep and catchy like G-Senjou No Maou and Muv Luv but still very beautiful in its own right. I doubt it will be this amazing if not because of the music. I cannot stop listening to the music. Not to mention the voice acting was done by well known seiyuu like Hoshi Soichiro, Keiji Fujiwara, Ayako Kawasumi, Mikako Takahashi, Katsuyuki Konishi, etc. No wonder, I feel their voice are familiar in a good way. 

Well, it may looks like perfect and good. But I have to admit that it could have been better. I think they can really improve with the ending. I mean basically there are 3 heroines in this story which is Aries, Aqua, and Asuka. According to the walkthrough Asuka route have the true ending. From my experience, true ending should be the most impactful and thorough but somehow I prefer Aqua ending. Or maybe because I have high expectation for Asuka ending after playing Aqua ending. So when it doesn't exceed my expectation, I feel a little disappointed. Last but not least, about the epilogue. It really need improvement. I understand that they want to make an open ending. But I think it's better if they don't because it was done halfheartedly. 

Anyway, this is one great novel. I really recommend it for visual novel fans whether moege lovers or chunige lovers. 

Rating : 9.5 of 10 stars

Regards, 

Angela

Wish

Once I had a dream
Dream that no longer can be fulfilled
Still I wish 
To fulfill my dream

You might have been right
There's the truth in my soul
The mistakes of the past
A path I could never turn back on
As long as I was shackled by ghost of the past
I wouldn't be able to fulfill my wish

I knew from the very start
I couldn't do anything for this girl
Still I wish to save her
To grant her the happiness she deserved
Even if that wish was doomed
I still refused to let go

Even if we are wrong
We should never give up
It might not be the right one
But we cannot always be right
We can only find the resolve to move forward

I know
This life will be paved with misery
It may not lead to the happy ending
But we can walk together
And forgive each other
Even if our dreams remain ever unfulfilled


Regards, 
Angela

Myself

I know
I am really foolish
Keep doing the same things
Keep following the same path
Keep making the same mistakes
I cannot escape

I thought
I can change
The regret
It was trapping me
Unable to break free
I keep hurting myself

I realized
So long ago
I reached my limit
Deceiving myself
Thinking I can change
In fact I am stay still

You know  
I am sinner
Leaving my conscience
Warping my mind
Clouding my heart
Unable to atone
Like shadow in the dark

Still I cannot stop
Everything I did
I did it out of love
Love give me power
To overcome the pain
To live with regrets
To sacrifice my soul
To accept my fate
Forever


Regards,
Angela

Book Review: Dear Aaron (2017)

Synopsis:

Ruby Santos join the HaS program (Help a Soldier), she previously joined the program and help two other soldiers. What she didn't anticipated is that she falled in love with the new soldier, Aaron Hall the new paired she get from the HaS program.

Review:

As my previous promised, this book is what keeps me going to read and read until 4 am in the morning. My bad, but literally I just can't put this book down. This book are well written and had a nice idea and nice plot too. This is basically one of the best book of Mariana Zapata I ever read.

The idea of the story is pretty simple and really is something that naturally happened surrounding us. Ruby Santos joined the HaS program. She joined because her brother joined marine military and she know from her brother story that a soldier can be bored and lonely, she had urge to reach for them and just to care for them during their deployment. At first letters, Aaron didn't replied but later after 2 months, Aaron started replying her mails/emails and the emails between them are getting intense and both of them feel the need of each other' email just to keep going. Both of them support each other through the correspondences. Until one day, Aaron asked Ruby to join his holiday to Panama beach city in Florida. Ruby flied away from Houston just to meet Aaron and after their love making, they promised each other to make the relationship works and at the epilogue, I get the impression that they both live together and expected Ruby to stop her birth control pills so they can have baby together.

When I was young, I have pen pals, either male or female. That time, internet is not something that easily accessed, so I use postage mail to reply their letters. So basically, I did enjoy the idea of the book. I kind of enjoy reading their email correspondences, stories exchanges and their instant message chats. Aaron is a gentleman that every girl could asked for. He is a hero role for me too. Ruby often had panic attacks, she even had heart surgery because she had those palpitations. I can understand what Ruby'd been through and Aaron is someone who's Ruby can relied. He always calm her and asked her to breathe and relax. He is affectionate, nice, responsible and had good military career. They falled in love through their mails even before they're meet each other. Basically they falled in love with the personalities first before physical contact.

The plot is really good, it leads slowly until reach its climax at the end and had nice epilogue. By the time the story finished, I ended up wanting more.. story of Ruron. Mariana Zapata done it again, this writing also really capturing, it's funny yet sweet and full of emotion. I really enjoy reading it until time passed like blink of eyes. I think I will put this book in my re-reading shelves, so yes I will read again this book in the future. If you never heard Mariana Zapata or read The Wall of Winnipeg and me or you interested in military love story, please pick this book. You won't ever regret it :)

Rating: 4.5/5



Kind regards,


Selene.

Confusion

This feeling I can't hold
The melody of madness
Coming from emptiness
I made one wrong move
And lose the whole world

Unable to think
Unable to choose
I were trapped
Between past, present, and future

Not know what's right
nor what's wrong
I can only embrace
Things far beyond my mind

These two roads
One lead to the future
And the other to another life
Creating divergent
Leading to confusion
It's dangerous things


Regards,
Angela

Book Review: Keep Her safe (2018)

Synopsis: 

Grace determine to clear her father' name after his death 14 years ago.

Review:

I was feeling not well, I had bad flu, sneezing and chesty cough few days back and now still I had been not really fit, I just drink paracetamol. During this time, I holed myself with this book and the other book I will review later after I finish reading it. But I think it will takes time to finish the other book because the book is thick enough and a slow burner one, so I takes time indulging myself in that book. As I ever mention, I have bad habit, I read that book until so late last night, because that book was good to keep me reading it, I will review it later.

I finish this book quite fast, I bought this book from amazon in kindle version. I was expecting this book something like Until It Fades that I review it here. Yet, apparently this book is far from Until It Fades. This book is more like suspense thriller rather than romance. I mean, I understand maybe the author tried to mix the romance and the thriller suspense, but in my opinion, this book just did not sit well with me. I mean I didn't get the romance feeling from this book. The suspense thriller itself is just too slow and easily guessed with me. About 1/4 reading, I already guess, Silas as Noah' uncle is someone who is behind Jackie Marshall' death. No surprise for me. The writting itself is good.

Noah tried to find out what happened to her mother death. Her mother Jackie Marshall is the one who responsible for Abraham 'abe' Wilkies' death. Abe tried to find Betsy (Betsy is Gracie' mother twin) in one motel. Betsy who is underage prostitute is together with Silas that night, Silas called his fellow canning who called Jackie Marshall to come that night. Jackie herself just wanted to save his brother, Silas who eventually killed her. It's all just set up between DA officer, Mantis and Stapey and FBI officers who had call record evidences about Abe Wilkes and Jackie Marshall. Ah really why the FBI agent Klein didn't show all they had and wait until the last minute to show what they're actually know. I think the story plot is just way too complicated for the simple point.

I hoped her next book is not something like this book, because this book just something I didn't enjoy reading it, I prefer it something more like Until It Fades. Its not like this book is too dark, its just I didn't get any romance feeling or any curiousity feeling of the suspense thriller itself. It's just bring me boredom feeling. I still recommend this book if you liked K.A. Tucker like I do. I still have some hope in her to write more books like Until It Fades. Until It Fades is the best book of her and I think is best romance and sweet antidote if anyone's looking into one.

Rating: 3.5/5


Regards,


Selene.

Existence

It cannot be true
But the truth's in there
I am not alive
I never alive in the first place 
No meaning for my existence
My crumbling heart was crying out

Being pawn in this rotten world
Played around here and there
I questioned my sanity
Even knowing I cannot quell my anger
My heart guide me to the future

Unable to truly live
Nor accept death 
I need to believe in myself 
Start over and find justice
Even when buried deep in the name of power 

It is not impossible 
To live with imperfect past
Even if it's not fair
And my life have been forsaken
I will keep moving on 


Regards, 
Angela