House of Memory

I never expected that 'Upcoming Summer' would leave such a lasting impression to me. It has been nearly a week since the credits rolled, yet there are moments when my mind replays Coldplay and The Chainsmokers’ “Something Just Like This,” instantly transporting me back to that scene. They stood side by side amidst the pulsating crowd—people hopping to the beats, neon spotlights painting the air, and breaths echoing with so much euphoria. And there they were, leaning into each other, exchanging hushed whispers, and sharing their deepest secrets. After that, the credits were rolling. My eyes remained fixated on the fading black screen until they filled with words: We hope we can face ourselves with more honesty. We hope we can be braver.   I was almost convinced that ‘Upcoming Summer’ would be easily forgettable. After all, I only gave this film a chance because I wanted to see Leo Wu once again after ‘Amidst a Snowstorm of Love.’ However, I remained confident that anything with

Having recently completed a 30-episode drama series, I thought it would be some time before I could immerse myself in yet another Chinese drama. Spanning 36 episodes, more than two regular K-drama series combined, Lighter & Princess literally had me skeptical. There was no way for me to finish a series that feels like a lifetime to watch UNLESS it would be something truly spectacular, even greater than my then current C-drama favorite, Amidst a Snowstorm of Love.  First Impression Debating whether to invest 65 pesos for a month’s worthy subscription on Youku, I clung to the uncertainty.  Would this series captivate me as much as AASOL, or would it fall short of my expectations?  Initially, I jumped into this drama with only a vague notion of its premise.  The title itself led me to believe it was a fantasy romance drama. The opening credits reinforced this impression, playfully hinting at magic and fairytales. From the title, I envisioned “Lighter” was a prince of lightning, while 

Along with the queue of all the Oscar-nominated films this year, the Sound of Metal was the first one I got to see. Having no heightened expectations at all, perhaps just a little exposure from Lou’s eyebrows on some Twitter posts, I got to watch the film with such an unfamiliar ease. I like to believe that since I haven’t seen the actors starred in any films I watched before, it helped me to see the Sound of Metal as what it was, with no influence of any existing attachment from their past roles, just from the film itself. With the scene opening with Ruben, the noise seems all over the place when you have your earphones plugged onto your ears. Ruben was gripping his drumsticks and pounding its weight against the drum, his eyes were afloat but protruding with fixation. After seemingly staring at nowhere, his eyes from time to time keep coming back to Lou’s back whose vocals are madly screeching in the air. For an opening, this rather gave off a strong impression driven with all the a

It was Heath Ledger, not exactly him but his strikingly-handsome Aussie accent, which made me watch 10 Things I Hate About You   last week. But even before that last-minute decision, there's already a few signs lurking here and there, somewhere lowkey, across my consciousness, that was telling me to go and watch it.  The first sign was probably when I was dead scrolling through Twitter. It was a weekend afternoon and I was set to slouch in and do something unproductive. This only means that I can switch from one application to another and just keep scrolling aimlessly until I could finally feel my eyes shedding tears on its corner. But that day I was not crying when I was stopped by this retweet of a follower of mine. There was no actually a comment above the post but just pictures of that scene in 10 things I Hate About You which have captions on it. But, no, it was not that caption particularly that has me convinced to at least be curious about it. It was the eyes of Heath Ledger

Whenever I get the feeling of watching something again, there's always a tinge of uncertainty that comes along the same moment. Like last month, I felt like I had been a bum for wandering up aimlessly on Netflix for almost some time. I was literally doing nothing but scrolling here and there on the platform and always ended up lost in the long run of searching. I was not exactly planning to consume another Korean drama series since I already did it with One Spring Night   which I never intended but just so happened that it was followed not long after then by Once in a Summer . I actually considered the thought of exploring some other Asian films especially a Taiwanese film, however, I could not find any among the bunch that could match my mood well at that time of drought.  Basically, I was like on a trial-and-error phase for days. This could also mean that for days I was sleeping my worries away for hardly settling on something to watch. I was not sure if I was just extra picky at