A 15-star cast ensemble! Beating The Mars Attack's 9 stars. This is the largest gathering, i think.

Emilio Esteves, Anthony Hopkins, Demi Moore, Elijah Wood, Lindsay Lohan, Sharon Stone, Laurence Fishburne, Heather Graham, Helen Hunt, Martin Sheen, Shia Labeouf, Ashton Kutcher, William Macy, Christian Slater and Joshua Jackson.

I am going to re-watch and write my full review of this marvelous movie on 2010 presidential election.

Do not worry though. this is not entirely a political movie.

i didn't like the movie, right after it ended. maybe, it was too complicated to understand coupled with unexplained patches of scenes (e.g how did Harvey Dent end up strapped?).

transition is too slow, i thought the movie would end at 2am. i was somehow restless in my seat the whole time and just waiting for the action scenes..and JOKER..to prop up. ye! the Joker was phenomenal. Heath Ledger stole all scenes--the movie must have been about the Joker. He was crazy scary. Though Jack Nicholson (the original Joker) was also scary with his frequent sharp guffaws, Heath was different. He was the darker Joker without laughing much. No one, i guess, could equal Heath's performance here. Maybe, "The Crow" will but he was not funny.

Batman, on the other hand, was confused and so are the viewers. Director Christopher Nolan could have exposed a clearer way of a confused hero like in Batman Begins, but i think he failed here.

The Dark Knight has a good philosophy though, in depth—how "good" man turn to be bad and how they remain to be good in a cruel world.

I instantly remembered Edward Norton in Fight Club, Matrix, Trent Reznor, the Jedis, Mr. & Mrs. Smith and the Wachowski Brother when I watched this movie. I thought I am going to see another recycled action movie until cars somersaulted over cars and bullets swerved.

Now, this is new!

The story of The Fraternity was unpredictable that it made the movie more than just defying stunts, cool gadgets and graceful choreographies—yes! the word is grace and Angelina Jolie pulled it out again.

If James McAvoy and Christian Haydensen (the Jumper) could only team up, they would be my new superheroes.

Who said you must have watched the TV series to appreciate (or follow, maybe) and that men would prefer to be shot than watch this movie?

The movie is about LOVE.

Yes, love and not the other big Ls—labels and lust. Who else who could not relate? Though an overly recycled theme in telenovelas, love, here, is not corny. Not oversimplified, not tearjerking, just…love [heave a good sigh] in between and “little miss drama” (Fran, love your shirt). Ok, I almost cried when Miranda and Steve met in the bridge.

Most (I think, all) scenes were not o-v-e-r-l-y acted but absorbing. How do you keep love when you found it? Is it really too crazy to get married? When do you forgive? Is 40 the marrying age for women and 50 for men? Is regularity of sex (and sex itself) really necessary? Are men really polygamists? Can Filipinos really do away with BIG and grand wedding, considering the BIG family ties?

Love indeed draws a tall order of questions, but no matter misbehaving it is, we still get carried away.

M. Night Shyamalan wowed-disappointed some-us with near-end twists in all his movies. the dead Bruce Willis in Sixth Sense, aliens in The Signs, a super conservative community in The Village and Paul Giamati and tenants as Narf's protectors in The Lady in the Water.

in The Happening.............[with a sinister joy of spoiling M. Night fans].....it's the PLANTS who are causing the harrowing scenes we saw in the trailer. yes, it's the plants' turn to surprise/shock/scare-but not anymore hehehehe-moviegoers.

plants decided to wipe out humanity and release NEUROTOXIN that makes everyone spontaneously attempt violent suicide!

Al Gore could have produced this as a second installment of his The Inconvenient Truth but naaahhh he still has imagination well-grounded. though probable but not nearly possible, i still merit M. Night for posing this possibility at the height of green crusade. what if nature would really release neurotoxins when nature becomes intolerant of human abuses?

For now, I am enjoying the spoil hehehe

O-MY-GOSH im hooked! [finger pointing to Greta]. i admit, i first denied the frills of being strapped on this teeny bop tv series. but after i watched the 12 episodes, i started pushing (still, with macho pretense) Greta to re-play the whole series.

i particularly relate with Dan. shet! and i already shared my partial likings on Dan with Greta (eyebrows down, please). but Blair...and even Chuck became my secret favorites. their dark scheming characters are the bonus pitches of the tv series next to the gossip girl's sinister one-liners.

i love the scripts and punchlines, undisclosed character of the gossip girl, fast relay of stories and the consistent nature of each character and episode. though some spoilers (yes, i unbelievably did skim on some sites to know more) claimed that Gossip Girl is not entirely grounded. i don't believe on them! all characters and ploys are closely unfictional; packed with realistic behaviors....and high society gossips. if you happen to skim through http://delfindjmontano.blogspot.com and love the Gucci Gang, then you would definitely be hooked on this series.

im not particularly interested in the Soho society, but knowing them is an intriguing pursuit. do they also experience similar life that the impoverished live?

o well, enough of the social analysis, "gossips" naturally have us in any way; no matter how masculine and stiff we are.

until here...X-O-X-O.. gossip boy hehehe

It is simpler than you think.

Though it is a hard issue, Juno really banked away from the moral circle of teen pregnancy and refocused instead on the mystical charm of bearing a child and LOVE (note: in BIG LETTERS). The movie seized us Greta with resounding theme of unconditional love that we became Juno and Bleeker after the movie and adopt their "Anyone Else But You" song to our wedding.

Without digital fill-ins, perplexed plots, brainy scripts and larger-than-life fliers, Juno pulled off to draw Oscars to notice them with strings of nominations. Oscars historically was engrossed into musicals and recently into gruesome murders, so, Juno just celebrated with $100B gross sales - and counting.

The movie is really simple but moving, so as, love.

Pounding my fist, i repeatedly begged to Greta, "i wanted to be a jumper! i wanted to be a jumper! i wanted to be a jumper!"

I wanted to be a jumper. This is finally what i wanted to be. Nothing else, not even Greta. I wanted to freely travel. Jumped from one place to another without jetlags and bus stops. I wanted to travel to Eastern Europe, Norway, Pacific islands, Rome and all unimaginable tos. I wanted to live beyond boundaries and see all the arts, music and beauty of the world.

I wanted to be a jumper and i really yearned it. But id still live an ordinary life. Id still work, walk and live in a small house. Id still take the jeepney, bus and plane-frequently, not often. I wont rob unless im flatly impoverished.

Id take Greta around though. Id surprise her everyday before we both report to work. Id daily collect her things from all countries. Id share, literally, all the good things that the world could offer. And if you are a patriot, environmentalist and an ultimate player, Id take you too on occasions.

Believe me, you too would incredibly ask to be a jumper when you watch this movie. You too would foolishly say, "i found my superhero and i wanted to be a jumper and not anything else."

Until then because for now, id jump to Hillary Clinton and Obama's strategic campaign meeting :D

Must be Nine Inch Nails wanting to be a postpunk Smashing Pumpkin. More probably be sensational for digital blasters, playful synth tweaking, twitching and turning but matched unimaginably with plain guitar.

Truly industrial pophop!

They must be the local Justice or Daft Punk, but they are noisier yet roughly smoother to the ears. And I am awed at first sight of their (often) wordless poetry due maybe of vocal and lyrical handicap.

Wondering though whose on humble guitar. He couldnt be the most playful Diego Mapa of Pedicab on stationary and un-electronic performance. But indeed he was after going home. Even then, if it wasnt him, Dayuhan still is phenomenal in the local scene with one of its synth guys drinking Pilsen!

atone●ment \n\ 1: reparation for an offense 2: act of making amends for a wrong

Pride and Prejudice intrigued me after this movie. Not that Atonement is a sequel of the former, but how Director Joe Wright selected, adopted and translated novels into magnificent films. Pride and Prejudice could definitely possess similar magic because Wright worked with the same team in Atonement, that is wondrously cinematic, original by plot and musical thrill and immaculately faithful to the title's essence (I haven't read McEwan's novel. so, the book-film analysis is far clear in this review).

In either way, the story, artfully supplemented with form, is superbly exceptional. Its one of the rare films that carries an enigmatic spell, leaving you reflecting for days or weeks: What are my mistakes, sins, offenses? What are my acts, responses to correct, amend my mistakes, sins, offenses? What are my.....atonements?

Well, the world is full of recycled atonements and preachy resolutions, but this movie offers you a fresh and inspiring one. It is a film that literally freezes you-thanks to postcard scenes, James McAvoy and Keira Kneightly's powerful strikes of acting (notably, in the library, coffee house) and lucid situationers of war.

I never watch films twice or more, but this one made me. Atonement will be my spiritual chant to continually do "acts of kindness" along with my and other imperfections.

Creep? outlandish
Ok Computer? brandly original

In Rainbows? REVOLUTIONARY!
Why? because....YOU (yes! YOU) name their PRICE for the digital download of its new album, “In Rainbows”

check it now @ www.inrainbows.com

It is a classic novel about the love-hate view of man on life, where Holden Caulfield, the lead, says and thinks of all the bad things in the world but says and does the other way - the good way. Gloriafic, ey.

It is a novel that constantly remind us of our social contract to do good to others despite being overly possessed by our vicious nature: dark, wild, carnal, nomad and self-centered.

Most of us are but not in my circle, as i currently see it or maybe the people i know are still boiling their dark side, ready to spill out the heater. Such viciousness is inescapable because in the pursuit of reaching ones potentials, we do face ego inflation and spiritual narcissism, as a ripple effect of ego trips for recognition and gratification.

Take Lucifer.

But when we are bounded of the social contract, our personal journey becomes spiritual. That is why seekers, like the Mevlevi dervishes from Turkey, need spiritual guides to deflate any inflation. To end almost perfect or at least alive, we act our truest self (our potentials) within that contract. It is hard, you would agree, but it is vital. The people we live with guide us not to be derailed in becoming vicious.

Ever tried saying "glad to meet you" to somebody when you are not at all glad? It is not kasipsipan or kaplastikan, it is telling you, you are good and human. And this is the message J.D. Salinger is relaying. Same true with Renee Descartes (or some other guy), "man is basically good".

The book was truly classic. It was worth a reread (though really not my second because i cant remember its story, just the idea that it was dark and cool). And this was the first novel and first non-school book I just remembered I read and not Jim Morrison's biography. It is the book that I oathed not to read novels because they are not worth collecting. But it is the same book that inspired me to read more.

At a literal setback, Holden was full of cowardice and lack a lot of will to do things. But in in-depth, it was real self-control, sensitivity and humility. He was fully aware of the Dr. Jeckyll inside of him, absolutely harmful if let out.

Either you are suffering identity crisis/split personality or too tempered or a virgin or tough, it is a must-read, must-laugh and Stabilo-worth. You'd learn a lot of pocket values and unconventional wisdom bananas - accepting punches, helping nuns, unhating people, good insults and sex.

Read it at dawn and you become absorbed in his principles. I became Holden one time. Holden was a gentle madman - mean by thoughts yet really kind by deeds. It was disagreeable he was only fun. He was damn so positive, you could sing and I think I’d be him sometime.

From afar, Plastic Butter beats flat. Step closer and you would sense the clean crispiness of their music. An immense spacey fill shyly infused in the background and Tj’s feminine drowsy tone added on Kristian-Omar-Phrixus raw gritty instrumentations and Anton’s beat make them a new crop in the rock mob especially in their third demo single “Corner”.

Plastic Butter sounded pure electro like they have synths geared throughout their songs. But their music is a mix of 2 mixes – slow and fast; digital and raw – that utterly shuns like New Order, only they are younger and feminized. Truly a bold experimentation that fuels their “dream to make something new”, their music has a twist of twee but danceable and happier like beach disco. So then they prided themselves to play electro beach disco. The sort of upbeat alt rock-o tunes that are best played in the morning for a good day-start. They are upbeat but not too techno-rock to top their music in your jogging list. Their music is more an aural breakfast that stimulates us full because of the appetizing buffet of new influences they stood for: Sonic Youth, Sandwich, Pedicab and Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Though not equally poetic and instrumentally tricky with their Sonic Youth forefather and Up Dharma Down, their music spills you glee.

How good? When their music stops and silence alone takes the space, their music continues to resonate in your head with a good rush – ok! Let’s work!

Similar to most progressive bands, they too have a b-side undercoat for maybe mere pursuit of fun and experimentation of their original roots of alternative and punk. Kristian and Omar occasionally guised on their alter-ego: Tracybot, who wildly plays electro shit disco. Tracybot often do Pedicab covers but sometimes merge them with another song. Imagine Pedicab’s “Dito Tayo Sa Dilim” on White Stripes note. Creative indeed! So, dank (or dance punk, as Sir Raims quotes it) really runs in Plastic Butter. If their music fails you to dance – be it Plastic Butter or Tracybot - then you’re certainly punch-drunk.

They give free 3 demo-single CDs, titled Teaser, with perfectly designed orangey inlay that instantly fished an autograph from a DVD vendor and underway to complete a marathon recording of 12 pleasant tracks. Yes! The band is working for an album release and picking a good volume of local followings. They play Imago tracks, tail any Sandwich gigs in the city and are cool with Madonna and Paris Hilton.

Honestly, they are not really something new but the best try to do electro first in the durian republic. No! Their shy synthesizer is not their only asset, it is the whole blended pack of pleasant upbeat tracks and drive to be something new. Grab them while they are closer. They might just find the gold pot, hit the mainstream and become far from your reach.

Tease yourself with Plastic Butter even everyday in either morning or night. It will never bore you!

ever seen a CPU as large as a cigar box? a mini mac does. a computer with free software application? Apple also does. a PC susceptible to virus? undeniably Apple. a CPU without disk drive? hmmm.. without a fan? a computer that can save up electricity every month for PhP450.00? a CPU with more complete software application and free upgrade at only PhP4,500.00?

okay! let us disregard everything above and focus on just 1 greater demand. a PC with lower environment impact?

yes. even i would think of being in technological twilight. but there practically is a PC with such feature including those we disregarded above.

enter Zonbu!

an Intel-compatible PC, created by a Standford-educated computer engineer Grégoire Gentil and former Apple executive Alain Rossmann, that really revolutionizes modern computing because of its lightness, extreme simplicity (even easier than plug-and-play), economy, silence, complete software (from internet to office, publishing, multimedia and games that includes Sid Meier's Civilization. truly a jackpot software) and greenness.

aside from it is energy-saving, it does away from using hazardous substances in electronic equipment, including cadmium, mercury, lead, hexavalent chromium and certain brominated flame retardants. it has a free take-back program to recycle to address the growing e-waste, where they will dismantle and recycle all components. while the standard PC emits 1,134 pounds of CO2 and uses 59 gallons of gasoline, Zonbu emits only 97 pounds and uses 0 (as in ZERO) gallons of gasoline.

moreover, the device even has colorful and creative skins/dressings;
free Zonbu device replacement;
free from virus-attack because its system doesn't announce itself to the world every time it turns to the internet;
software applications that are readily compatible to existing applications and operating systems; and
all-file accessibility even if you leave your Zonbu device at home through Zonbu's private web space that back-ups all your file (just like Google Documents and remote access, but more of it) ...upon subscribing to Zonbu.

yes. subscription. a monthly subscription charge. this is Zonbu's ugly side. a service for a runner-up Linux-based applications and maintenance and online storage that definitely would shake privacy issues to greater media mileages. all beautiful things indeed have ugly sides. but at least, your device have automatic failsafe data backups and free upgrades to the latest version of all the applications, three-year free device replacement guarantee, and unlimited Internet support. Even if your home or office is struck by fire, flood, burglary, or anything else that may affect your Zonbu device, all of your data is safely stored at secure Zonbu facilities

At 25 GB-$12.95 for two years, you are billed at PhP16,692.75 (pegged at $1=PhP45) including the Zonbu device. not bad after all for a "second PC" at home, which is primarily Zonbu's market focus! In case that you are not satisfied with the service, you can keep the device and get a refund of your remaining subscription balance minus the prorated portion of your Zonbu hardware rebate. And once the subscription terminates, you have read-only access to your data for three months, both from your Zonbu device and from any other remote access PC, just enough to move your data from the Zonbu servers to the regular existing PC.

now this is truly a responsible business!! and i think, im buying after my mini mac :) visit them at www.zonbu.com

Many had already scribbled their praises on this movie. Without reading all the reviews and in-cinema frenzies, including mine, the colossal pile of reviews alone mean a must-see movie.

But ever reflected who really was the epic mastermind on this shock-and-awe entertainment: Spielberg or Bay? Ye. absolutely, Michael Bay. From The Rock to Armageddon, Bad Boys and The Island, Bay's common denominator of testosterone-pack actions with close-fast takes and in-between humor fill-ins were all again obvious in this movie. But nah! Transformer is Spielbergian. From E.T. to A.I., Catch Me If You Can and War of the Worlds, Spielberg's common theme of a child/son/daughter/kid-ET/robot/father/machine relationship with precise in-depth research of the material were too hard concealing.

Themes mostly make any movie epical, breakthrough fill-ins (i.e. CGIs, gadgets, women, etc) are just fill-ins of a bland movie. Substance over form, right? Take Spiderman and Fantastic Four. Are they epics? Averagely. How about 300? Ahoo ahoo! I admit it was exceptional and one of the rare cases of good movies banked on form rather on substance.

Well, Spielberg produces the movie and unexpectedly, producers always make the shots to re-earn the volume of Benjamins they have invested especially if they're PhDs in directing. Though Spielberg could direct Bayishly (War of the Worlds), Michael Bay - and his tools - is just the perfect director for Transformer to fill-in Speilberg's busy days with Indiana Jones.

And ye! id like to re-take my praise on Spielberg's research precision. He never made Bumblebee to transform to a beetle and never made to even show a Toyota/Honda/Nissan car - a must-have in the movie since Transformer is originally from Japan.

If you are torn tuning between 2 favorites (Up Dharma Down and Franz Ferdinand/Bloc Party), listen to Taken by Cars and really be prepared to be taken.

They are the next local new(er/est) age musicians!

Fusing extreme (or so the widest) genres of musicality - disco, punk, ambient, new wave, progressive rock, pop - Taken by Cars absolutely made "misfit" synonymous with "genius". They seamlessly tailored a new sound that seems impossible for our ears to love. Even if you are singularly focused on 1 genre, say progressive/classic rock, hearing them would still store your fixation pleasing despite the hullabaloo of their "other" influences like punk and swedish pop "crunching in" any particular song they play. Indeed, an unconfusing hubbub that is highly characterized by spacey and bubbly melodies, fast-slow rhythms and enjoyable harmony even without the dry vocals (their minor flaw). But what stirred my wonder was their flair to create danceable/ambient beats using progressive rock/punk. By then, I was instantly taken.

I viewed their myspace the day after the Saguijo night, even dismissing the urgent project budget i need to finish. They do stood faithful to their wide astounding influences. I missed buying their album but certainly i will have one this year because Taken by Cars is really worth listening and not just by shallow projection of coolness that 1-hit wonders usually expose. They have more walks to take (like vocal fine-tuning and honing more of their influences of disco, dank, trip-hop, jazz and blues) but they have undeniably taken-off.

Add them in myspace - http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=108940642 - even if you hate them. Heart Evangelista is 1 of their contacts. hehehehe

spiderman. oh. why am i making this review if peter parker only earns 2 stars? ah! because the movie was reeled in all cinemas in each mall on the first week and almost all on the second. intriguing, indeed. hmm. so what really is on the third part and what made it to reach 3?

and so i watched.

what i found are really startling: children were yawning and people afforded to walk out for pissing and miss some part and my seat was uncomfortably steaming. i was glued in the movie for the wrong reason - PhP75.00 ticket, not of the story ("sayang kasi.").

it was a flop except the computer graphics (CGs). when his "spidey" nick came out, i knew the movie was not going anywhere better but plain explosion of CGs, new characters, predictable revenge and melodramas.

spiderman 3 bores - a third movie that relatively follows a hollywood curse of blandness among other movies at their third installment. think... die hard, rocky, rambo, god must be crazy, police academy, star wars, godfather, scream, harry potter, lord of the rings, batman, xmen, matrix, back to the future. they all fluctuate after a grossing rich second sequel. die hard had better gunshoots in 2. rocky 2 had a better story. rambo 2 had more action and modern ammos. god must be crazy and police academy 2 were crazier. star wars had more rich dialogues and characters. godfather 2 explains more of the godfather's history, matrix 2 had better choreography and philosophy. xmen 2 had a stronger storyline. part 2s definitely blundered producers to do a third and fourth and more.

most producers could only do most at 3 because of the budding entertainment substitutes. nowadays, you can fiddle with internet, cable tv, mobile phone and handhelds to amuse yourself if there are no good movies. unlike during 80s, die hard, rambo, rocky, god must be crazy, police academy and back to the future all went more than 3 and succeeded because, back then, the ultimate visual entertainment was movie.

nonetheless, spiderman do have a good story to follow but in lump, not in installments. id still watch spiderman movies - producers surprisingly are still keen for fourth - for new characters and how the long complicated spidey stories go instead of collecting comics for my future child.....for bedtime stories.

Twisted yet organized narration on a murder of Veronica Dexter, sister of Harmony (Michelle Monaghan). It is a light detective story that needs hard following to understand because of rapid turns of events but ends with funnier humor even about spider and boobs, gay Val Kilmer kissing Robert Downey Jr., cut ring finger and the dog swallowing it, Genaros beer, unreasonable gun headstrokes, russian rollette, "faggot" gun, resisting destiny and sex, flying casket and funny way of dying with a eclectic delivery of last words through a mobile phone with an "I will Survive" ring tone.

The movie had bloodbath similar to The Departed, just minus the headshots and plus Billy Bob Thornton, Joe Pesci and Collin Farrell. It is a murder-mystery story, topped with an idiot shoplifter-turned-actor situated in a puzzling set-up. It has so much unreality but too flat. however, the good delivery of the story in the likes of but not too close to Pulp Fiction earned 4 stars from me. It is a movie that director could have been experimenting in his movie lab. Afraid of failing to come at equal par with Babel or Pulp Fiction, the director settled for a flat and somehow predictable story. Nonetheless, trying it on a big screen with a very cool trailer was a big click.

It was complicated!

We never understood enough even until we pre-dissected the movie. The musical scored least resonating to capture every emotion; speeches were too vague to follow (it was better watched on subtitles); cinematography was too bland to emulate "The Godfather." Director Ford Coppola must had his hands itching and tagged hard his forehead for only (executive) producing The Good Shepherd. The story could had been better if was not delivered in chaos.

Cast made a great ensemble; each perfectly portraying their acts that made them famous. Matt Damon relatively re-enacted "Talented Mr. Ripley" and "Bourne Identity" - mysterious and concealing. Angelina Jolie as both emotionally disturbed and disturbing like in "Girl, Interrupted." Robert de Niro as just 1 of the godfathers but only in intelligence ops, not in organized crimes. Joe Pesci as another blabbering informant like once in "Lethal Weapon." To them, Greta and I were honestly convinced to watch the movie along with my boss.

The movie seemingly reeled longer than "Titanic" because it was boring - or because simply we never understood it. Why was after all the movie titled The Good Shepherd?

But tracing back old literature made me take back my words against the movie: it was never complicated and boring!

Biblically (just like "Babel"), THE GOOD SHEPHERD WAS KNOWN TO HAD LAID HIS LIFE DOWN TO SAVE HIS SHEEP/S. The movie was a perfect motion picture of it. Taking the distinct quality of the good shepherd, you would realize....the movie was neither a story of war nor the lives of Matt, Angelina and Robert.

The movie was superb in parallel dimensions of its biblical inspiration: the quality of the good shepherd 1) was shortly captured in 1 precise moment and 2) was portrayed in a boring length of consequences by another shepherd if the shepherd was "not the shepherd" described in the bible.

For this, Director Robert de Niro creatively made a breakthrough in the genre of twist movies. If conventional twist movies made you aaaahhhhh..... minutes before they end, this movie would light you minutes after ending. If I may be wrong with my review, please do let me understand. I would be more willing to watch it twice to clearly understand more just like "Syriana."

Ce! it made me re-think too - to be frankly open or tactfully concealing?

Imagination. Do not read the book if you do not have it.


Hard-boiled Wonderland is an exercise of imagination if you run out of daydream. An imagination that takes you out of your shell but later sets you back grounded. It is a book that requires sheer imagination, so you can understand humor in reality especially the ordinary ones.

Haruki writes 2 stories in alternate sequence - one seeming to be the prelude of the end of the world, another a wonderland - but likely to converge in one plot. It is only differentiated by conceivable metaphors and extreme imagination.

It is a book of split dimensions of 2 relatively similar events like eating and working, simultaneously narrated at one time but mystically connected by paperclips and animal skull. confusing, but truly playful. It is an arrangement that stretches your imagination and inquiries of Haruki's sole storyboard.

The book is both boring and amusing - but mostly amusing because it is only here where shadows have a dramatic part and are claimed useless, deadweight. You cant find such strong lines on even children's books. Only on this book that you start to check your shadow and be dramatic for awhile. then boom! you become re-acquainted with ordinary things in your life (they indeed too are important!).

If Haruki's good styles were to be enumerated, they would be:
1. imagination without displacing reality; and,
2. value of ordinary things;

Haruki perfectly interplayed 2 stories that would led you to conclude: the Wonderland is a dream; an extension of a reality made magical; Paperclips, animal skull, odd job, librarian, the gatekeeper and sequence of events....all relate to the Real world the narrator lives in. somehow, when stitched, you would end on a rewind on how Pulp Fiction and/or 21 Grams were developed. This wonder...would glue you reading, in substitute of Paulo Coehlo-like wisdom and philosophies.

Page by page, you are gradually presented with more clues on Haruki's split story. More bizaare things pop and characters of 2 worlds become alike to glue 2 plots together, serving you a conceivable surrealism that is more exciting than mystery, fairtytales and fictionalized facts. It takes you on a hype even at only quarter of the book. Every page is a jumanji of imagination and adventure; When Haruki stirs you, he lets you wonder more and be surprised and infer more: the book is like DaVinci Code (if you have read it). it also attempts to prove long discourses on some weird science and historical myths like unicorn and holy grail to "concretely" connect 2 worlds. The difference, Hard-boiled is really a fiction, not fictionalized. Moreover, the book didnt flare up a societal controversy.

As you further flip each page, you begin to rationalize more similarities and connections between 2 stories: unicorns, lost world, end of the world, the password, the wall, the system, shadow, the librarian, dreamreading, shuffling, etc are all making sense in one.

Haruki indeed must rank among the greatest living novelists. He really places you to a different world, unimaginable yet within the realms of reality. He drives you to his wonderland with precise navigation; describes new things that are instantly vague to the mind with simplicity and clarity. nevertheless, in his course of simple narration, he still manages to preserve the complexities of his worlds

Haruki narrates without even naming his odd characters with odd principles on elevators, shadows, sex, food and anything less discussed. Junior was my favorite. Haruki perfectly created Junior to start an irritating yet funny twist of story (and discourse on a door too).

Youll be delighted with detective stories, mind games and connections between 2 worlds. But as more connections convince you that the 2 worlds are 1, the worlds split apart again. The book resets and confuses your mindstate that hardboiled wonderland is indeed just a dream or worst, hallucination and other world is a tragic reality, where the world is going to end.

Danny Boy, glowing skull, the librarian all make the mystic in the story, like the Lady in the Water. But what will make you read more are the enumeration of old jazz musicians and novelist like the Doors and JD Salinger. Plus, a long line of wine brands. Haruki indeed is a realist weaving both his poetic emotions and surreal touches. It's a lovely push to let you love a salad of everything.

In the end, when you complete the book with a good grasp of the confusing story, you still are left with wonder and even skim back, trying to decipher one of Haruki's lines particularly the inverted, "gnal tone began, gra."

O yes! read the book even if you do not have sheer imagination. you would need it.