Zombieland (2009)

the story took place in a time when the world was taken over by zombies. a college student managed to survive by being extremely careful while avoiding public places. he decided to travel to Ohio to see whether his parents are alive. he met with a wandering survivor on the highway. then another 2 girls at the grocery store, who tricked them into surrendering their weapons and taking their vehicle. a truce was soon formed between the 4 and they traveled together while taking down zombies.

the film wasn't brilliant but it was entertaining enough. it stood out for being different, especially for being one of the very first zombie comedy we came across. unfortunately, we weren't able to find ourselves enjoying it. flesh-eating zombies had always been one of the best characters used in horror, sometimes even difficult to make believable. with a little blood here and there, the zombies in Zombieland (2009) felt like an insult. the plot random and lacked of depth.

Angela 张韶涵: Visible Wings 有形的翅膀 (2012)

3 years after her previous album, Angela came out with her 5th album Visible Wings (有形的翅膀). it was released in October 2012, together with the released of multiple MVs, including 最近好嗎 in Sept 2012, 淋雨一直走 and 有形的翅膀 in Oct 2012. the first single for Visible Wings (2012) was That Girl (2012). despite her daring outfit and change for That Girl (2012) MV, she returned to her innocent self for the remaining MVs. all 3 MVs were taken in Rome, having either the theme of heartbreak, romance, or just plain cheerfulness.

Tantei Opera Milky Holmes Dai 2 Maku (2012) 探偵オペラ ミルキィホームズ 第2幕

taken place in a future world, humans used Toys that granted them superhuman abilities, such as telekinesis and mind reading ability. this led to some minor crimes and the Toy-using detectives had to track down the offenders and bring them to justice. Opera ran a detective agency named Milky Holmes, together with 4 cheerful and energetic girls to help her out. Sheryl, Nero, Elly and Cordelia were the most popular students at Holmes Detective Academy. using their Toys and teamwork, the four girls were able to solve many cases.

there were plenty of random humor in the anime, some unfortunately, were not so funny at all. as suspected, the plot was far from being too serious with itself, mostly spontaneous if not redundant. the unique personalities of each character was what made the anime interesting. however, the repetitiveness of the humor only furthermore killed the already lacking storyline.

The Raft (2012)

Robie often flew between Midway Atoll, where her biologist parents lived, and Honolulu, where her aunt Jilian lived. her trip was cut short when aunt Jilian had to travel to LA for work. decided since she knew the pilot Larry personally, she would get on the next flight home without contacting her parents, since the satellite phone was down. she got to know Max, the new co-pilot on board. but during their flight, turbulence hit and the plane crashed. being thrown into the sea, Max pulled her onto the emergency raft and they were set adrift with no sign of help on the way.

despite the limitation of its plot, The Raft (2012) managed to hold my interest until the very last page. there were points where Robie would go on and on about some birds, or sharks, or even a dinner at home. but it wasn't too much or unbearable since these scenes and knowledge sort of bound us to Robie, grounding her as a real person, which eventually grew on us. the moment an unexpected twist was revealed, it was so creepy that i had to recall everything that happened to see if it make sense. when it did, it sent goosebumps all over my body. that was deliciously good! i got immensely absorbed into the book, especially the emotionally helpless parts, yet she would do something out of our expectation and somehow survived.