2009 was the year that I graduated.
2009 was the year some people didn’t graduate. (Oh well, better luck next year)
2009 was the year that I ate at some great, and not so great restaurants. (Shoutout to Kerim Satirli cause he accompanied me to quite a few)
2009 was the year I bought an iPod touch
2009 was the year I played some kick ass games
2009 was the year I saw some people hating on the next man. And that next man… was ME! lol
2009 was the year The Los Angeles Lakers became the NBA Champs
2009 was the year I watched some awesome movies
2009 was the year I got a “new” car, wich hasn’t broken down yet …
2009 was the year I heard some good music
2009 was the year I went to the Westcoast HipHop Festival
2009 was the year I’ve had some good laughs

All in all 2009 was pretty awesome. So to give y’all a glimpse of all the awesomeness I’ll write down my top 5 or top 3 of best games, movies, or music I saw & heard this year. Pretty simple. And anybody who doesn’t agree can do like Justin and cry a river (or just leave a comment and post your ‘Best of 2009′ stuff) lol. I’ll start of with the movies.

Red Cliff 1 / Red Cliff 2
John Woo’s return to Asia. And what a return it was. Woo brings you an epic story based on the “Romance of the Three Kingdoms” period. It’s a classic Chinese tale. I compare it to the “Chrouching Dragon, Hidden Tiger” & “Hero” movies. Don’t expect an all out action movie though. Woo’s known for action movies and shootouts but with Red Cliff he tries to focus more on the drama side of the story. Don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty of action just a little less then you normal John Woo movie.

Grotesque
Forget about Saw, forget about all the slasher/horror movies you’ve seen. Saw is a movie you watch when your lil cousin has a birthday party. If you like some REAL slasher type of movie go watch Grotesque. This shit is so freaking nasty. The movie doesn’t seem to have a story at all. It just starts with two people in a dungeon gettin carved up real nice by the good doctor. And that’s it. It’s 90 minutes of slashing, hackin and choppin on body’s. Throw some titties in there and you got yourself a great low budget gorefest. Watch the trailer below:

Ip Man
This is THE movie of 2009 for me. The return of pure martial arts. No wire work, no fireballs or ‘magicans’ or whatever. Donnie Yen stars as Ip Man, a grandmaster of the martial art Wing Chun and the first person to teach Wing Chun openly. This movies has some of the best choreographed fighting scenes of all time. Highly recommended if you a fan martial arts movies. If you a guy, PERIOD, you should watch this movie. (Can’t imagine chicks diggin this movie. If she does she prolly has an Adam’s Apple and she likes to be called Robert)

Now onto the games. It was a BIG year for gamers. COD4, Fallout, Batman, Uncharted 2, Infamous, Left for Dead 2. Didn’t play any of those. lol

BlazeBlue (PS3)
It was the year of the fighting game / beat-em-up. With ‘King of Fighters’, ‘Tekken 6′ and ‘Street Fighter IV’ all released in 2009 there was little publicity for BlazeBlue. The fighting system is pretty groundbreaking and takes some time to really master. BlazBlue feels like a breath of fresh air.

Street Fighter IV
We all like groundbreaking games but sometimes you just want to pick something up that feels so familiar and natural. That game, is Street Fighter IV. Apart from a graphical upgrade Street Fighter IV plays just like it’s older brother on the SNES.
QCF or 236 is still used for throwing a ‘Hadoken’. (If y’all don’t know what that means y’all really need to come outta that cave you live in.)

Song Summoner iPhone / iPod Touch
If you want a great Tactical RPG for your iPhone get this game. Nothing else to say about this game really other then it was made by Square/Enix. The same company that was responsible for THE greatest tactical RPG ever released in ‘Final Fantasy Tactics’. So uh. GET THIS GAME!

NBA 2k10
No Cuzz list can be complete without some sort of NBA reference in it. With 2k10 2ksports deliveres the greatest basketball simulation to date. Keyword here is ‘simulation’. If you want arcade go buy NBA Live.

Short list huh. Well I wanted to make a top 5 but I’m tired of all this typing so I’ma stop now. Anybody complaining bout my list being incomplete you better run cause I’m spraying this on you when I find you.

Happy new year to all y’all!
See you in 2010!

PS: Cuzzinema comin soon! Y’all know what it is!

When you hear the name Jackie Chan you think kung fu movies, crazy stunts and cheesy Chinese comedy. Well, Jackie’s latest movie, Shinjuku Incident (新宿事件) contains almost nothing of that nature and the movie shows that Chan has much more to offer then ‘just’ Kung Fu movies. Right from the start you’ll know that this is not your typical Jackie Chan movie.

Chan delivers a standout performance, an illegal worker who tries to protect his kinsman by gaining respect by and protecting themselves from the Yakuza. Chan plays a character named Steelhead who is going to Japan n hopes of making some good money to provide for his family. He settles down as an illegal immigrant in Tokyo. Taking up shitty jobs just to have something to eat. At the same time, he has to watch out for the cops who are cracking down on illegal immigrants. Oh, and don’t forget about the Yakuza who run the underground of Tokyo so it seems.

The acting is above average with Chan doing a great job, same can be said about the Japanese cast. Only Daniel Wu did a lousy job here. I’ve heard people say that he’s a great actor. Well, he didn’t show any of that in this movie.

This movie is somewhat cliché though. The plot is obviously based on the Chinese people who migrated to Japan and their struggles and battles to establish themselves, mix in Japanese yakuza, turf war and old missing friends, and then to top it off depiction of human tendencies to be corrupted by power.

I also get the impression that this movie is a bit “Pro China” with the Chinese pictured as the “good guys”. The Japanese and Taiwanese are the bad guys. The Chinese go to Japan where they fall into chaos without the communist government to help them.

All in all, this is a nice movie. It’s great to see Jackie Chan in a different kind of role. The Shinjuku Incident is a movie that can be appreciated by most film goers. I feel as though many of the people who don’t like this film really just wanted to see Jackie Chan do back flips.

Not this time…

But Woo’s latest movie, Red Cliff, wasn’t about good cop vs bad cop. Nope. It was a historical piece set during the Han dynasty in the year 200. This nearly 5 hour movie was split up into two parts. In the first part we meet prime minister Cao Cao trying to convince the emperor to invade the southern lands. These lands belong to Liu Bei and Sun Quan. The two Southern forces are forced to work together if they wanna stand a chance to Cao Cao’s massive army.

And that’s the intro to a massive 30 minute epic battle scene.

It’s obvious why this movie ran over schedule and over budget, coming in at a reported “most expensive production ever in Asia” $80 million dollars. Woo goes a great length to explain every little detail. Thousands of extra’s in battle gear and awesome intricately choreographed strategic battles. There are three major battles, easily account for more than an hour of the film’s running time.

Fans of the ROTK period wil recognize the main characters and lead generals the moment they appear on screen. Woo gives us plenty of scenes where generals like Zhang Fei and Guan Yu just slaughter the enemy single handedly. And fans of kung-fu cinema will eat it all up.
Allthough the fight scenes are not shot in trademark Woo style. Sure there are some slow motion scenes here and there, but overal Woo really shows us the gritty side of ancient large-scale warfare.

Though the two movies have a runtime of more then 2 hours each you never get bored. Sure, there are some scenes that feel dragged out a bit but these scenes are the “oh so Chinese” moments.
The movie overflows with an all star asian cast. Led by Takeshi Kaneshiro as the great strategist Zhuge Liang and Tony Leung as Zhou Yu, the cast never dissapoints. Vicky Zhao does a great job, especially in the second part to bring some comic relief in the world of men and the war they wage.

As his return to Chinese cinema, Woo couldn’t have picked a better project. Red Cliff allows the Hong Kong director of gunfu to dabble in all of his trademark themes (brotherhood, loyalty, a resounding belief in fair play), while exploring new territory (the Chinese martial arts epic). With “Red Cliff”, John Woo has managed to re-invent himself as a director.