[AMBIENCE] Magical Night in Fairy Town - Music & Ambience

 

[SHORT REVIEWS] #2

 男神黑化之前[快穿]

(mtl: Before the male lead blackens)

Author: 唐宓. BG. First reaction is - unhh what? Because it's pointless, takes itself too seriously. Ridiculous to the max. I spent time only on reading arc 1, I can tell I won't really like the rest of it.

Arc 1 tells this: Wen Nuan (our heroine) gets hired as a nanny for the heir of Feng group - Feng Yue, who is in the state of paralyzed with meds person. He was planned by his "best brother", a friend who was fed since childood by his father that if it wasn't for Feng father he would be successful, though he simply did not manage to invest correctly himself thus failed in business and this failure basically broke him mentally, he abused his wife and son. Thus his son grew up hating everything, he was poor and shunned by everyone, so he hated Feng Yue, in the end he managed to plan him and not after accident Feng Yue was fed meds that kept him from moving. His "fiance" was an orphan who was brought in by Feng mother, but she basically did nothing and played victim to jastify her immoral behavior when this good brother used her as a bed partner (even in front of Feng Yue). Anyway Wen Nuan comes here and basically changes the situation slowly. My pet peeve number one, FY feels good towards WN right away, though always was more on a suspicious side. Next pet peeve is how in these novels you can't really get if the heroine is good or bad, she plays a character or she is really this silly white. She basically did nothing, only accompanied him and changed meds to vitamins. But it was all sunshine in this dark world of course. Anyway, the disgusting part that almost entire arc it's all fiance and good brother humping in every corner, basically good brother wants to get a reaction from FY. When he realized that FY doesn't really care about fiance then he switch to the bunny, though he didn't say he would make a move. It's so tasteless, like it's a short arc with only 12 chapters, most spent in a villa, few scenes that should bring the warming up (not only emotionally but physically too), but they feel gaudy, the situation is simply unimaginable that a heir to a huge group won't have any decent loyal assistant or other person smart enough to see the design, that he was like this. And only his friend doctor found out his situation and helped him, but it was all like help in secret...what? The finale is stupid af, where during fiance's b-day dinner good brother proposes to WN thinking no sane woman would choose person in a wheelchair, but he miscalculated, also suddenly the band that was playing while all fuckery was going on are police who wanted to witness firsthand before arrest. This is so stupid that I'm speechless. Like before that if one knew that meds are changed, that's the evidence. You can force him out and recuperate. It's so pointlessly written. I'm simply shocked, good thing arc is short with all the happy ending etc. But I just wanted to drop it into book hell where it belongs. Haven't read something so stupid in a long time. I join everyone who was confused in comments under this novel on jjwxc - why is this in recommended. And also where are the ratings coming from? RATE: 1/5.

为了吃饱我嫁给了新帝

(mtl: To get a meal ticket I married the new emperor)

Author: 逸烛. BL. Dropped this one after several chapters. I might be wrong, but honestly, I have prejudice towards novels that have characters traveling from end of times to ancient or modern times that have abundance of food. What I do not believe is their reaction. Because it's always the same, I met several novels like that and they all start the same, MCs start gobbling food and they kept eating and it became their daily activity, which isn't anything fun number one. But also they act to me like people who saw oasis in the desert. I can accept their oversaturation with food within the first contact, but I can't completely believe how they consume food constantly after that. First of all, at first they can consume psychologically, but physically they overstrain the body they travelled to, by far haven't seen one author who would actually describe a stomachache from overeating. Secondly, I think there's part of adaptability to new environment. Anyway, it's my take on it. Authors can write as they want, but they all write the same.

As for the story itself, well, MC goes back to his first life, if I'm not wrong I stopped paying attention. He can't remember shit though. He is married to a king who in the future will be new Emperor, also has a pretty notorious reutation, but he actually wants revenge on his family who were falsely accused by the emperor who was simply afraid of the military power. This king witnessed the aftermath of the execution and went berserk, met a cute child who helped him and figured out the child is MC because the sachet with crokked embroidery was the same. I know it should be interesting and I was also hooked up by the summary, but honestly it was eating, eating and almost always eating at all times, I can't handle it. I don't even want to figure out that MC might be really cool at other times, but so far he had no redeemable sides to him, just eating. Bye.

和死对头协议结婚后怀崽了

(mtl: Getting pregnant after marrying my rival)

Author: 森木666. BL (mpreg). I wanted to sigh when I started this. Again I see MC with no redeemable sides to him. I could not get why ML fell in love with him, but it was described as love at first sight and that's it, deeply rooted emotion. I started it and read last chapters and it was enough. This novel is short and is basically starting like this: MC's family is going bankrupt, MC's nemesis, as he calls him, offers help, which is accepted by MC's family. Their business is saved but also they have to get married. MC always hated on ML, but this hate to me is pretty childish. MC is basically a dude, no motivation, only acts like a cool dude and fights. He fell in love with a girl who friend-zoned him and said she liked ML, which sparkled hate. Basically it's like excellence of one person made you dislike them and MC went to fight time and time again, though was defeated a lot. That's why I think it's childish, he should be an adult by this time, he went to their family's company to work, but still acted like that, while ML was already handling a huge family business. ML is basically the one in love and that's why he wanted the marriage to be held, so he could tie the person he loves and slowly warm his heart. Well, actually the bed was warmed up first, but mostly thanks to MC, he forgot how he got drunk and so on. In general there is nothing interesting about such storyline, MC with his character doesn't help, I like more motivated MCs, like the one reviewed previously is full of love for life and wants to have his own business and works for it. Maybe it was mentioned here too, but I simply skipped the middle and went to the end. In general from what was said you could understand that most of the time was spent on accepting the baby and despite the danger trying to give birth to it, but also the whole situation was put out in public by a person who was in love with ML. 

It's the third mpreg novel (I was on a spree) which I read and it had similar situation of finding the MC is pregnant, the doctor says it's very dangerous that can endanger life. The rest is of course different, but what is similar like a template is the same danger to life, getting specialists from abroad etc.

Well, there is also this last one I'd like to mention - 豪门假少爷又炸毛了, but will continue reading it later, one day.. and it deserves a separate post actually, since it has a great character motivation and depiction of emotions.

[Video] Poolrooms

 

[Chinese BL novel] 婚后每天都真香[穿书] / Every day is fragrant after marriage

This was a really light-hearted novel, very easy to read, especially for those who prefer easy to digest content over drama. Lately I can't read or watch drama due to events, at most those are episodic here and there, but I can't handle the full-forced never-ending dramatic novels.

Anyway, this novel by 东风几许 tells a story about Yu Antong who travels to a book he read right before the crossing. In which a protagonist, who is more like a cannon fodder, with the same name as his was forced to marry a big guy. But their temperaments are too far apart. Protag in the book is cowardly and indecisive and as a result the readers were too dissatisfied with him and could not see the ending which was discarded. Yu Antong on the other hand was born with a sickly body, but he was lucky to be adopted by a rich man, in the end he also helped the parent get even more money, since Antong had a culinary talent and invented several popular sauces etc. He lived an accomplished life as far as his bdy allowed. But when he crossed and thought that in half a year he will be off the list he decided to live the full life in this healthy body. As a result he pestered his new husband who was pretty dissatisfied with the situation into bed, pestered and fooled him with cooking. And as the saying goes the path to mans heart lies through his stomach (yeah, not always through his groin). Xing Lixuan had no idea how the sleazy uncle Yu managed to talk his grandmother into this marriage, but because of grandma's health he agreed and proposed an agreement, that they will peacefully divorce in half a year. Both parties were happy about it. On the other hand Xing Lixuan with his pickiness truly enjoyed cooking of his new husband, but also was not against the bed part. Slowly but surely his negativeness evaporated and he started seeing this marriage as not a bad thing. So his heart was slowly opening up to feelings.

Antong actually was a bit of a detached person, due to his sickly phisique it was hard for him to have friends or lovers and he could not have someone's love knowing that he may not live that long. Lixuan was the one who with care and adopting his temperament brought him the sense of being cared for and love, that's why he fell in love too.

Both had no idea that uncle Yu, who wanted to aim high, shared with grandma one secret - Antong can have children. So they had load of fun (even joking about pregnancy too), but in the end Antong really became pregnant. He found out from Xing parents actually, he was clueless himself. So the two of them were happy to become parents to a wonderful smal bun.

The storyline itself isn't anything special, it's mostly because of the light-hearted feeling that Antong gives through dialogues that you go on pretty fast, you could say that there are some stumbles, but they don't appear again after being solved and they're solved quite easily.

The storyline itself is as follows. Antong crosses, has his happy life with new husband that hits all his aesthetic points. He deals with his uncle. This is his biological uncle, brother of his father, who took their custody and treated them badly, but also wanted to fully incorporate their inheritance. Getting the money he bought few restaurants and a factory and started operating them, getting back to his old business - cooking. In the end he got a bit of popularity and business started to grow. He also dealt with husband's peach bossoms, who tried to destroy his new business, but was smart enough to deal with it, afterwards Lixuan who started warming up to Antong helped him here and there, including this case too. Later for the growth and advertisment of his business he took part in the cooking show of his friend, he also found out that he wasn't dying but was pregnant. The show was a huge success. It's interesting that Antong wasn't always the first, even if he won in the end. Later he happily unloaded the goods with the help of professionals and got back to his happy family life.

Despite the fact that sometimes Antong can be a bit petty, demanding and unreasonable, so Lixuan has to almost always accomodate him, his personality is like a cheerful bird here and there, he can also act like a small peacock complimenting himself, bu he is also very loving towards his husband and also his son.

RATE: 4/5.

Getting 4 from me is already high enough, 5 I give only to amazingly cool novels. This was a good one, not outstanding, but good. Also, one thing that I openly skipped were gourmet/cooking parts. I still find those parts boring.

[Movie] dans FANTOMAS (1964)

Another dive into oldies of French cinema. God, when you look at it you think - they could do it, they really could. This level was shown back in '64, it's not just last year, but half a century ago. What Hollywood, French cinema was a thing back then.

Fantomas was a complete sensation as I remember it. The dubbing was done not only professionally, but also was stamped by the French party A, so all main voice actors had to receive a green light from original creators to dub. Also it's basically a highlight of my childhood. Since I'm quite old, let's be honest, when I was a kid there was no Internet, no broadcasting/cable, you could watch such movies on TV, but basically if you missed it you're out, there was no re-broadcast, which also highlighted the rating. You can imagine my fascination after I tell you that my grandma asked neighbors to let me watch it with them, since the electricity in our house malfunctioned. I was delighted. But only finding secrets of cinema you can truly appreciate the immense work that was put together. 

Fantomas is a notorious evildoer, he changes faces, while his original mask is this blue face. Blue face before all blue faces. I can imagine how hard it was to get into that rubber. He especially likes inventing all types of methods how to rob elegantly with charm, but can change style if it should follow some purpose.

At first he was like a myth, due to his change of faces, some people could not even believe him. Until one day the reporter who faked Fantomas interview was kidnapped and was given an ultimatum to change the content of the paper. Btw French were always advanced, just look at her they play lovers, she looks like his daughter, but how gorgeous she is and also that obvious outline of her breasts without a bra. In other countries this would be condemned, while I also think that's a bit erotic even for me, and I'm a woman and this gets me shy *^_^*

I like how they created almost a Bond car, I'm not sure who invented it first but with decades of Bond we got used that all his cars are modified. Anyway I like how they put these metal rods as a mean to trap a person. No matter how lame it would look today, for those years it's innovative.

Taking the face of the reporter Fantomas goes onto his next target, what supposed to be a trap for him, but became a chance to loot. What is amazing during the entire movies are stunts. You can see that actors done a great deal of physical performance themselves, although not without a stand-in, but still. Climbing ladders,

climbing the crane and hanging in the air,

flying off on a helicopter, again climbing the ladder.

Many things were actually achieved by smart editing of several scenes put together. Like for actions when the car chase was shot from outside with obvious stunt doubles, but also from the inside, which changed to main actors who were sitting in a safe place with the road shots pasted in. Plus the speeded up shots that simulated speeding car. Not to mention the shot of the road. All combined added to a thrilling chase.

Editing was also helpful when Fantomas changed his face. You could see how different he was, even if he was played by real actors, but their featured were exagerrated to give a plastic, unrealistic feeling. Same change of the shot gave the idea that he changed his face to another. Like here, he took off his wig

took another face/mask that he out on and

next shot you see him changed and doing all weird moves around his face, giving you the idea that he moves his face to fit. Again the make-up also gave this plastic and unrealistic feeling, which made you see the difference between one and the other.

Here are some shots from the car ride and change of shots from all kinds of angles, including aerial shots, but you could see the driver was a pro drifter.

I personally found this shot interesting, since the car basically hit the stone fence for real. And unlike anywhere else it's a real hit and a real fence.

Next driving was completely on another level. I think this car should be a really good one, since they easily drove on all different angles.

but also followed the off-road and it looked as amazing.

Two-wheeling was a bit too much though, but I'm sure viewers at that time were ecstatic :D

Judging from the storyline Fantomas is more of a blockbuster in comparison to the modern cinema. Since there is more action, especially several chasing scenes. The story of the movie itself is really easy. Fantomas was known as a thief legend, but the reporter and his lover decided to push things further, they faked an interview with Fantomas, which led to the reporter being kidnapped and given ultimatum to change it for better. Other thing kept the reporter from doing his part, but his editor published another paper which again led to reporter being taken to Fantomas lair. Fantomas is also like a mad scientist having many advanced technologies. He also wants to create someone who will be under his full command and loyal, wanting to get reporter's brain for it (lol))). As means of punishment Fantomas uses reporter's face to steal jewellery from the obvious trap laid by police, he also did not cover his face, so the commissar saw him in the open (which is why real reporter was detained when he got back). Same goes for using commissar's face, he basically set the both of them up, pushing the blame. The car scene was when reporter and his lover were helped out of the Fantomas lair, but were given a parting gift, a car that had faulty breaks. Second chase was already after Fantomas himself.

Where he escaped on his personal submarine. This is basically the difference between this and "good guys win", since Fantomas it seems has many things under control, very cunning, smart and acts fast.

But this is also an open ending of sorts for possible continuation. And oh boy it sure got the continuation it deserved.

[Music] Kylie Minogue & Jessie Ware - Kiss of Life

Come on, baby

Prove your love for me

Feels so good, I'm falling free

I've been patient, I've been perfect

Promise I will make it worth it

If you prove your love for me

If you only knew

(Every time I get a little taste of it, I die)

You could only see

(I'm in the moment, it's so sweet that I could cry)

Give me the kiss of life

Kiss of life

All night dancing

Free your mind

Pay attention

Keep your eyes on my lips

Sweet sugar highs

Give me the kiss of life

Come on, baby

You know what to do

Ah, yeah

Ah

Give me the kiss of life

Has anybody ever told you

Your kiss is delicious?

Give me the kiss of life

Cherry syrup on my tongue

Ah

How about a little fun?

Ah?

And make it higher, baby

And make it wilder, baby

And make it hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, hot

I've been patient, I've been perfect

Promise I will make it worth it

If you prove your love for me

If you only knew

(Every time I get a little taste of it, I just want a little more)

You could only see

(Don't know how you do it, but you're made for giving my heart flight)

Give me the kiss of life

Kissing

Oh

Kissing

All night

Give me the kiss of life

Kissing

Come on, baby

Kissing

All night

Give me the kiss of life

Kiss of life

All night dancing

Free your mind

Pay attention

Keep your eyes on my lips

Sweet sugar highs

Give me the kiss of life

Kiss of life

All night dancing

Free your mind

Pay attention

Keep your eyes on my lips

Sweet sugar highs

Give me the kiss of life

[Chinese BL novel] 每次人设都是反派[快穿]

Every personal setting is set as a villain by 牧白

Summary: Sang Jiuchi is an entity that was enclosed for the longest of time, on the verge of exhaustion he is bound by a villain self-saving system and travels to worlds where he triggers a secret mission - road to become a god. Also each world he met a man, who he helped to survive in the first world and later uncovered his identity as the God of War, older than the universe. In these worlds he set foot on a road to undermine all conspiracies against them.

I'll be honest, this read is good only for one time. Also, if you don't know its' predecessor from 2016, you'll think it's an easy read (with several obvious flaws, but also has advantages). But after reading the previous novel I found that it's more profound and detailed and this one is more like a light version of it. It's funny considering that authors usually evolve in their writing and don't do opposite.

In short Sang Jiuchi wakes up from almot eternal slumber bound to a system, system has MC as a villain in introduction, but actually MC lived in a void not knowing emotions. He is definitely not some simple mortal, has a higher mental power not to mention a superb intelligence, which allows him to learn things in every world. He also unlocks the mission - road to godhood, as well as figured that each plane was originally not like the story introduces it, not to mention that memory of original owner and the plane differ. MC basically saves original owners from quagmires and strives for the pinnacle. Also due to God of War being a defender of these planes originally, MC helps him protect the worlds he crosses to. He basically takes upon himself a mission to be a best support in saving worlds.

Like in previous novel the perpetrators behind the fall of God of War (ML) are other gods, which tried to rob him of his power but didn't manage to kill him. In all honesty I really like the 2016 novel (快穿之主神归来) much better, despite some routines of those years, which are present here too, but it has more in-depth story of struggle, background and also big final arc.

Although worlds, stories and even entire outline of the story differs in both, but similarities with the novel of 2016 are as follows: 1) In both novels MC helps ML to come back to his former power and also pull his own glory, mostly through faith of others; 2) In both novels MLs are conspired against by other gods, while 2021 version deals with those and defeats them in worlds, 2016 one has a bigger showdown of defeating gods in the very end.

I consider this novel a bit like a re-boot, since the overall situation is similar, but characters and worlds are different. I think I've said already it's a lighter version. Also has less worlds/arcs. It's hard to keep under the wraps the fact that novel from 2016 basically got a continuation but in different genre.

This novel is absolutely not bad in any way and is worth the try. It sould say something when I saw that the first draft for this novel was created a year ago and now when a whole year passed I actually hardly remember what was in those arcs, I'm sure they'll resurface in my mind if I skim through, but still xD