Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in chendabao's LiveJournal:

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Friday, May 25th, 2012
12:31 am	跨界 Crossover. An easy way to make money, coz you can combine 2 or more existing fanbases into 1 huge group. But what if you have crossovers across crossovers? :D The Avengers - crossover across films produced by Marvel Studios Super Hero Taisen - crossover across 2 of the longest running tokusatsu series, Kamen Rider & Super Sentai. Crossover across crossovers trailers double-bill :D tho i'm abit sadded that my widescreen videos got compressed into 4:3 ratio after i upload them :\ ( Here are the originals ) Current Mood: bouncy (Comment on this)
Wednesday, December 28th, 2011
11:30 pm	特撮 2011/12 seems to be a big year for tokusatsu shows. Super Sentai 35th anniversary, Kamen Rider 40th anniversary, Metal Hero 30th anniversary, and Toei Company 60th anniversary. And so we have a series of anniversary and cross-over films to commemorate them. Finally got to watch a couple of these films (with more coming up next year!), and I thought I should note down some thoughts. ゴーカイジャー ゴセイジャー スーパー戦隊199ヒーロー 大決戦 Gokaiger Goseiger Super Sentai 199 Heroes Great Battle Super Sentai's 35th anniverasry movie. I must first say that I have not watched Goseiger before, and I feel Gokaiger has an extremely weak storyline and extremely bad acting. The only reason why I'm still watching it is for the cameo appearances of past characters. And it seems to be the same for the movie. I sustained through the 1.5 hours by cheap thrills from cameo appearances, climatic scenes of all 199 heroes and all 35 mechas. But for now, let's look at what issues I have with the movie. Firstly, cameo appearances of past sentai warriors. Leaving out the Goesigers (who technically are lead roles in this movie as well), the cameos can be classified into 3 groups: (1) voice overs during the Legendary Great War at the start of the movie, and the few who remained at the battle scene after the War was over; (2) Daigoro/Denzi Blue, Ryo/Ryuu Ranger and Umeko/Deka Pink, who kinda had their own side plot while the main events took place; (3) misc assortment of sentai warriors who randomly appeared when the Ranger Keys started glowing with power. I have no issues with the 1st group. I actually like the idea of the 2nd group, having a few of them meeting each other just to see how they have been after their respective series (gosh all 3 of them really look much older... gosh Daigoro's white hair!). But the part where they met this random salaryman and tried to inspire him was, well, uninspiring. All they made were shallow (if any) references to their past experiences as sentai warriors (compare that with Joh/Yellow Lion's cameo in episode 30 of the series). Rather disappointing. As for the 3rd group.... it was just weird. It would be fine if they just appeared to encourage the current teams, but according to subsequent Gokaiger episodes, those who appeared in this scene actually gave their teams' Grand Powers to the Gokaigers, without actually meeting them. Compare to all the other teams, who had to meet with the Gokaigers persoanlly and train them before granting them their Grand Powers. I guess these few sentai warriors featured in this scenes are just more chin-chye than the others. I like how they resurrected past villians in the movie too, but it's saddening to see Dagon from Magirangers, who used to be such a fearsome Hades God, become a noob puppet of Kurojuuji Ou. Oh, speaking of Kurojuuji Ou, he seemed to be the only villian in the Gokaiger series to actually make the common people feel that the world is coming to an end (for whatever reasons). It's kinda hilarious, especially when we see the Gokaigers experiencing even worse thrashings in the TV series and the common people did not utter a word about losing hope. The only reason I can think of is... perhaps Kurojuuji Ou's sheer size. I guess Zangyack didn't learn well from this. All in all, Gokaiger was a rather disappointing series (not just the movie). Let's hope Go-Busters will be better. オーズ・電王・オールライダー レッツゴー仮面ライダー OOO, Den-O, All Riders: Let's Go Kamen Riders Kamen Rider's 40th anniversary movie (plus a brief link to Toei's 60th anniversary). I must say that this is perhaps the best tokusatsu anniversary movie I've seen (probably on-par or even better than Gaoranger vs Super Sentai), and definitely much better than All Riders vs Dai-shocker 2 years ago. I've not watched Kamen Rider OOO, but I'm all too familiar with Den-O. I think the best part of the movie is when Owner appeared from the crowd and mentioned how time is created from memories, and as long as people's memories of the Riders exist, the Riders will exist. The way they adopted Den-O's original plot device to honour the Kamen Rider series is just.... epicly awesome. I thought it might be even more interesting if it had been Kamen Rider W and not OOO, since the "Memories" from the W series can also be used in a figurative way. Speaking of W, I have no idea why Shoutarou and Philip were the only Kamen Rider other than OOO and Den-O to cameo appear in their non-henshin form. Not that I'm complaining though. I like how the movie has a strong plot on it's own, not merely focusing on Den-O, OOO or the Taros or their battles. There was ample character development for Koutarou and Teddy, Kamen Riders Ichigou and Nigou, and even the kids who were not from any series but only introduced in the film. The writers seem to have given all out for this film, having the DenLiner thoroughly destroyed (I held my breath throughout that scene), Teddy's brief death and the Riders captured or brainwashed. Really doing everything they could to destory every hope available, so that the final climax will be epic enough. If only Ichigou and Nigou appears in their non-henshin human forms and did their signature henshin, it would have been more epic :D The most hilarious part of the movie isn't the Taros, but the appearance of King Dark. I have no idea what is the purpose of letting King Dark appear (both in this movie and in All Riders vs Dai Shocker). In both films, he appears for only a few minutes before getting pwned totally (this time by his comrade some more) before he could do any proper attack. Inside joke, perhaps? But I find it a pity that Hana and Ryoutarou have disappeared completely from the Den-O storyline. They were not even mentioned at all D= (Momotarous just henshin-ed into Den-O himself) Oh wells, can't be helped when a series drags too long. This is Den-O's... 8th film already? Gosh. Upcoming films 海賊戦隊ゴーカイジャーVS宇宙刑事ギャバンTHE MOVIE - not for the Gokaigers, but for even more cameo appearances of past sentai characters, and of course, Gavan! The first Metal Hero from 30 years ago. スーパーヒーロー大戦 - rumoured cross-over for Super Sentai and Kamen Rider. ZOMGZOMG MUST WATCH. (Comment on this)
Thursday, December 22nd, 2011
3:57 pm	救命 Haven't been here for a while, my apologies. LJ seems to lag here as much as renren.com now lol. Anw here's a new video to repay all you people who have been wondering where I've disappeared on your friends list :P this is just one of the many many things that I've been doing lately. Current Mood: accomplished (Comment on this)
Friday, June 17th, 2011
8:34 pm	完结 Cardelo Studios presents yet another trailer: the epic conclusion of not one, but TWO movie phenomena! Here's the original: Current Mood: accomplished (Comment on this)
Wednesday, April 27th, 2011
2:51 pm	哈利 Can't believe it's been 10 years since I first heard of the apparently very popular and very interesting "helicopter" book series. Ever since then it was one book after another and one film after another. And now, 10 years later, this worldwide phenomenom will come to an end with the final instalment of the film series. And here, is a trailer featuring all 8 films, brought to you by Cardelo Studios. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, April 6th, 2011
10:55 pm	Power Rangers VS 爱 Yes your eyes are not playing tricks on you. I've placed these 2 seemingly unrelated TV shows side by side. Why? Coz among all these differences I actually found some striking similarities to the way the shows were designed and produced. Background Info... Power Rangers is a TV superhero franchise that started 19 years ago, adapted from the highly successful Japanese tokusatsu series Super Sentai. The first 6 seasons featured a continuous storyline (but with yearly costume/theme changes that correspond to the Sentai season of the previous year). From the 7th Season onwards, each season has its own storyline, with minimal references to previous seasons except during team-up or anniversary specials (similar to the system adopted by Super Sentai). This discussion will primarily focus on the first 5 seasons, i.e. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers till Power Rangers Turbo. 爱 is a Taiwanese longrunning drama that aired from 2006 to 2008, and subsequently found its way to Singapore (and has been airing till NOW and beyong). The characteristics that will be mentioned are probably applicable across all similar longrunning Taiwanese dramas, but since 爱 is the (in)famous one that has hogged our weekday primetime 7pm drama slot for almost a year, it's chosen as a “代表作” lol. And the key thing is that I managed to get all these information on this show WITHOUT watching it (refer to below for how I did it, and how you probably can too). Repetitive Plot Even different drama serials may bear similarities in plot with one another, let alone a super long drama like 爱. There are bound to be times when the writers ran out of ideas and had to recycle them, causing plots to repeat themselves even within the same show. The framework is even easier. The good guys are introduced, then enter the bad guy(s). They fight it out, and the bad guys either die or turn good. Meanwhile new bad guys appear, and the cycle repeats itself... This framework is even more structured in Power Rangers. The minor villian will appear at the start of an episode and die at the end of it (if it's a 2-part or 3-part story arc, the villian dies at the end of that 2 or 3 episodes). The major villians will be renewed yearly. Write as you Film, Film as you Show Probably the only way you can film a longrunning show I guess. If you wait till you finish filming the whole thing, the starting episodes would probably be covered in dust already... Furthermore, it allows writers to actively refer to viewers response or current trends, allowing the focus of the show at the time of airing to remain relevant enough. The End is NOT in Sight... ‘Nuff said. Popular Character Strikes Back Benefit of the previous 2 points I suppose. Tommy Oliver (aka THE GREEN RANGER) was supposed to lose his powers after the "Green Candle" saga and never return. But the writers got him back. Because he was so freaking popular. So popular that he went on to become the Ranger character that has the most air time throughout the whole franchise. And how can we not mention 郭聪敏, who was supposed to die of some cancer, but some legendary petition or something convinced the writers to do a medical miracle, let him survive and stay till the end of the whole serial. He's probably the only character to be present both at the start and the end of 爱 I think. Boss, I'm Quitting What happens when an actor quits? Simply write his character out of the story. Either go overseas, or DIE. When I watched Power Rangers back then loooooong ago, I always wondered why Jason the Red Ranger, Zack the Black Ranger and Trini the Yellow Ranger had to leave suddenly. Now, we know it's because the actors quarrelled with the producers and left. I didn't even realise those 3 characters didn't appear unmorphed at all (and spoke with funny voices when morphed) for a few episodes before they left. Things were apparently a bit more peaceful at 爱 (probably coz Power Rangers actors were severely underpaid at that time while 爱 actors earned big bucks). Actors usually leave the show because they need to go film another strikingly similar show (like 娘家 lol). Missed an Episode? No Worries! One thing people hate about watching TV serials is that everything goes haywire if you miss an episode. But 爱 overcame that! By having super draggy scenes and characters who recap what happened every few minutes, it's easy to catch up after missing one month's worth of episodes (and mind you, that's quite alot, considering that Channel 8 showed up to 10 episodes a week at one point in time). The scenes are so draggy that I can go watch an episode of Power Rangers and come back and see the same few characters sitting on the same positions discussing/quarrelling (usually the latter) over the same issues. Power Rangers, on the other hand, feature a mini story each episode. And there was severe lack of character development in the first 5 seasons. How do I determine if a show has unimpressive plot and character development? When you can jumble up the episodes and watch them and still find nothing wrong. Powerful Villians Villians are so powerful and resourceful that at times it takes another (ex-)villian to take him down. Because the good guys are usually righteous and good hearted and will not do bad deeds to bad guys unnecessarily. Probably occurs more often in Taiwanese dramas than Power Rangers though. Who Says 解铃还须系铃人? Watch the first and last episode of the respective shows, and count the number of common characters. I think only Zordon and 郭聪敏 LOL. Oh yes and Bulk & Skull. Funny and Retarded Duos Bulk and Skull VS 铁板 and 铁齿. The epicness of comic relief. Well, that's all I can think of for now. Anyway, since we're on the topic of Power Rangers, here's the opening of the nineteenth (which is the newest) season - Power Rangers Samurai, based on Samurai Sentai Shinkengers. Now that Saban is back in control, he can probably do better than Disney. Yes they are using the same old theme song once again :D and yes, BULK.IS.BACK. I'll probably have a look at it (out of curiosity) after I finish watching Shinkengers (10 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, March 20th, 2011
10:02 pm	荒唐 Some of the ridiculous things that I came across recently (and some not so recently)... 1) Singaporeans think it's too COLD here? And we're not talking about the weather. It's the air-conditioning. Awesome. So we've been depleting natural resources in order to harness energy for LOWERING our level of comfort? 2) In China, people rushed to stock up salt. Reason? When the news reporter interviewed one 大婶, she said 好像是因为台湾发生地震... I see you have a very reliable source of information, ma'am. 3) And they (those who actually knew the earthquake was in Japan) stock up Japanese brand milk powder too. In case new batches of goods are contaminated by the nuclear leak. But then, unknown to them, the Japanese brand milk powder is manufactured in Australia. 4) Aunties queued up outside the newly opened Serangoon Library... TO SNATCH BOOKS. Numerous copies of the SAME book. Books I doubt they even understand. I pity those school children who got shoved around when they were the ones who sincerely wanted to borrow books to read. 5) Serangoon NEX is full of surprises. It has the smallest 大食代 and the emptiest McDonald's ever, and a ramp that heartlessly cuts a tiny food stall into 2 tinier halves. My heart goes out to the poor auntie who had to man the smaller counter of the smaller tiny half of the stall alone. 6) One of the most ridiculous signs I've ever seen. Perhaps the best measure against terrorism is to put up signs saying "Thank you for not bombing here". (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, February 24th, 2011
11:10 pm	Rider Sentai War Initially I thought the "Rider War" from Kamen Rider Decade was spectacular enough. ( Rider War ) And then came the "Lengendary Great War" of Kaizoku Sentai Goukaiger =O ( Legendary Great War ) Seems that Decade was so successful that Super Sentai is koping it's idea. Both are anniversary seasons, both are the very first scenes of their respective shows, and both scenes featured a "war" of survival involving all the past warriors. Furthermore, both Decade and the Goukaigers have the ability to transform into previous warriors. But there are some differences as well. Let's see how these 2 compare. History Decade: 10th season of the Heisei Kamen Rider series (hence it's name) Goukaiger: 35th season of Super Sentai series Numbers Decade: Each season had a different number of Riders, but the mass-produced Riotroopers made up the number... Goukaiger: Each season has an average of 5 warriors, a few older ones had 3, the newer ones all had 6 or more. They can't even fit into the screen lol Backstory Decade: Riders from the previous 9 seasons team up again Decade himself, who's fated to destroy all other Riders Goukaiger: Warriors from the previous 34 seasons team up against the Zangyack Empire. The Goukaigers themselves never even appeared Other elements Decade: Lots of other elements made appearances, among them (those that I can identify) Side Basshar, Castle Doran, DenLiner, ZeroLiner Goukaiger: Why didn't their mecha appear at all D: Outcome Decade: Decade pwned them all, which forms the onset of Decade's destiny Goukaiger: All the Sentai warriors sacrifised their powers to destroy (no they didn't) the Zangyack troops So I guess the Rider War seemed to fare better from my point of view, but then the Legendary Great War (they should really come up with a less cheesy name) had a greater sense of familiarity since I could identify more familiar "faces". But this is just a comparison of the opening scenes. Kaizoku Sentai Goukaiger has just started, and it's too early to give an overall judgement. (Comment on this)
Thursday, February 3rd, 2011
12:30 am	辛卯年 祝大家，兔年行大运，万事如意！ (Comment on this)
Thursday, January 20th, 2011
9:22 pm	Triangle Inequality As my life now has been boring beyond belief, this journal has been left to collect dust and spider-webs. Time to inject a bit of life here to remind everyone that I'm still well and alive :D but since there's nothing particularly interesting to blog about from my life, I decided to write about something that I've pondered over. It's not exactly a question because I've made some sort of conclusions of my own already, but just to share it and see if anyone has any responses (other than what I've already said... like how my life is indeed very boring). ( It's a long grandmother tale... ) (8 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, January 1st, 2011
12:12 am	贰零壹壹 大家，新年快乐 :D (Comment on this)
Saturday, November 20th, 2010
9:27 pm	被牺牲的艺术 礼物包装。 它存在的意义似乎就是为了被牺牲。 包装无论多精致、多完美，重点始终是包装内的礼物。而为了得到礼物，就必须将包装给毁了。 一旦包装打开了，就会被遗忘。 他的生命是短暂的，犹如昙花一现。 世上会欣赏包装艺术的大有人在，但是有多少人会为了延续这艺术的生命而小心翼翼的打开并保存包装？ 红花需要绿叶来衬托、来造就它的美，两者却能永久地共存，但包装却需要牺牲自己才能造就礼物的价值。 让我们向礼物包装致敬。 (Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 10th, 2010
12:02 am	Countries Apparently my best result was this. 89 Created by OnePlusYou - Free Dating Sites Actually I know a lot more but under "stress conditions" many slip off my mind. And I ended up typing very ulu countries =X [EDIT 10 November 19:32] I've finally hit the 3-digit mark, though I realise I'm still missing out obvious choices for some reason... 105 Created by OnePlusYou - Free Online Dating (Comment on this)
Sunday, October 24th, 2010
10:47 pm	Halloween BTW ANYONE WANTS TO GO FOR THIS? IT'S FREE ENTRY HAHAHA (Comment on this)
Friday, October 15th, 2010
8:09 pm	Do Re Mi - 山寨版 Doe, a deer, a female deer Ray, a drop of golden sun Me, a name I call myself Far, a long, long way to run Sew, a needle pulling thread La, a note to follow Sew Tea, a drink with jam and bread That will bring us back to Doe oh oh oh Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do So Do! 兜兜风去走一回 累了就在路旁睡 迷失方向无所谓 发现地图没准备 收拾心情找人陪 拉来朋友干一杯 提起往日真善美 结果还在原地兜噢噢噢 兜累迷发收拉提兜收兜！ (Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 13th, 2010
10:36 pm	是否 是否有些话，你一直想说却不敢说？ 是否有些事，你一直想做却不敢做？ 是否有些人，你一直想见却不敢见？ 是否有些情，你一直想爱却不敢爱？ 是否有些怨，你一直想放却不敢放？ 是否有些结，你一直想解却不敢解？ 是否有些是否，一直只停留在是否？ 是否没有“是”，遗留下的只有“否”？ (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, September 22nd, 2010
9:08 pm	中秋节快乐！ ( 吟诗作乐赏圆月！ ) (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, August 31st, 2010
10:26 pm	gothere.sg I don't know about you but I'm having serious doubts about the capability of this website... Current Mood: cranky (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, August 20th, 2010
9:33 pm	渺小的我 上个星期看了《雨季》，里头的歌曲好像离《天冷就回来》还差那么一些些（虽然都是梁文福学长写的）。不过其中一首歌里的一段话却让我印象深刻。尤其是最近在看 Kamen Rider Den-O ，所以感触特别多。 “如果有一天 我真消失了 究竟有没有人会偶尔想起我？” (Comment on this)
Wednesday, June 16th, 2010
9:39 pm	端午节快乐！ To quote from my current facebook status: 老天爷端午节送大礼，让我们在乌节路划龙舟…… Imba flood. Getting more common these years apparently. Anw more importantly, ANYONE HAS TODAY'S (16TH JUNE 2010 WEDNESDAY) STRAITS TIMES? CAN GIVE ME THE LIST OF FREE APPS WEBSITE FOUND IN DIGITAL LIFE? THANKSSSS IN ADVANCE. (2 Comments |Comment on this)