bethgstories

When I say I sometimes like exploring the science fiction genre, I mean a 400-year-old alien looking like a 25-year-old tsundere professor falling in love with her celebrity neighbor. Parallel universes are okay, but only within the Kingdom of Corea and Seoul. I didn’t have to listen to how it works. But somehow, To Every You I’ve Loved Before and To Me, The One Who Loved You explained what a parallel universe is and my brain could only contain so much geeky science stuff. The two movies don’t have to be watched chronologically, you’d just get a different ending depending on which movie you saw first.  And that got me curious.  So Nicole and I watched the movies simultaneously, me seeing To Every You I’ve Loved Before first, and this is my experience.  What is it about Our main guy is Koyomi Takasaki , whose first huge life decision happened when he was seven. His parents were divorcing and he had to choose with whom he is going to live. In the first movie I saw, he chooses to live

Spoilers ahead. You've been warned.  The creative reset I did over the long weekend has definitely ignited my passion for all things art once again. So much so that I wanted to marathon this year's Summer Metro Manila Film Festival (I had no idea this is a thing now as it always happens in December). Anyway, we have time on Tuesday mornings to do whatever's not on our work task list so Kim and I went to the cinema to see Bela Padilla 's Yung Libro Sa Napanuod Ko. What the story is about The movie is about Lisa ( Bela Padilla ), a young woman living alone who likes watching Kdrama. She's also a book writer, but until now I am still wondering what she does for a living to be able to afford a decent-looking apartment in the Philippines and to be able to stay for more than 50 days in South Korea. It might be good to know because I am totally down to shifting careers. Then there's Kim Gunhoo ( Yoo Min-gon ), the nice Korean guy who introduces himself as a fan of Li

The movie talks about racism in the 60s - too harrowing, especially in the deep south. Hilly deserved the pie and should eat more.  I felt sad for Abileen Clark ( Viola Davis )when she couldn’t do anything else but go when she was dismissed by Hilly ( Bryce Dallas Howard ) on behalf of Elizabeth. It really felt extremely annoying and disgusting - Elizabeth Leefolt ( Shane McRae ) is a traitor to our name. The Elizabeths speak up their minds, and she could have told Hilly to stop the nonsense because she clearly felt sorry for the way her friend treated her maid, the “real mom” for Mae Mobley. Shame, that little kid looked beautifully healthy and too well taken care of. Skeeter ( Emma Stone ) did good, but I’d appreciate the story more if it wasn’t for the white girl that the oppressed group of black maids had their voices heard. Granted, one of their people was slayed by the KKK (yes, it looked terrible and scary the way the movie demonstrated it) and it scared the wits out of all of t

Disney movies played a big part in my childhood, and I guess everyone who was a kid in the '90s can pretty much relate to this. In all honesty, I could barely remember the animated Aladdin of 1992 so I decided to Netflix it again before seeing the live-action version. I was actually looking forward to the Genie played by Will Smith, and hoped that maybe there could be some sort of '90s vibe to it, back when I was a tweeny bopper. Surprisingly, nostalgia didn't hit me (at least not that hard), instead it gave me a totally different realization on what this Disney movie is all about. Image Source What is it about "Sometimes you just have to see it from a different perspective," says Aladdin, and this is exactly what I tried to do to understand that not all of my expectations can be delivered by this film. It's just that, it didn't take long enough for me to see myself sitting inside the cinema in my 3D glasses thinking that the movie is pretty m

I saw Five Feet Apart last week, and I've been wanting to see it ever since I saw its trailer back in January. Cole Sprouse is devastatingly handsome, that I must say, but it's their nasal cannulas that sold me. Living with an autoimmune disease for more than six years now has made my heart ache for sick flicks, and live precariously through the characters' triumphs and misfortunes in romance.  Stella (Haley Lu Richardson) has been spending her teenage life in the hospital as she's a cystic fibrosis patient, and despite that, she's trying to live life as much as she could. She was under a medical experiment along with her fellow patient/best friend Poe (Moises Arias) when she meets Will (Cole Sprouse) , another cystic fibrosis patient--a rebel and without a hint of care in the world. They try to survive their romance by defying the six-feet-apart rule, by making it one foot short, hence, the title. Cystic fibrosis is different from myasthenia gravis, apart from t

Comicbooks are expensive--at least that's what I believed growing up, so I left them to the more privileged kids. Besides, I've had my own share of excellent childhood memories. The past few years have been cruelly advanced though, and while most people my age get all hyped up and excited in social media about the upcoming sci-fi films based on the comicbooks they religiously followed over the years, I don't have a single clue about what's going on (thankfully I don't feel like an idiot because I know I don't have to). So when I received the email announcing we're going to watch Captain Marvel last Thursday as a treat from the office (they do this every month), I reluctantly hit the Yes, I'm going! button. And I hit it because who says no to free popcorn and hotdogs and Coke? I perfectly understand that I'm in no position to talk about how marvelous or superb the movie adapatation, or even how accurate it is. So this is not exactly a review, but basi

Alone/Together is the first movie I've seen this year, and it's a love story that gave me a hundred feels. This shouldn't be unexpected, since the last movie I saw from the same director made me shed a hundred tears, too. This is not a review of how great or not the actors were, since this is also the first #lizquen movie I've seen (I'm not a fan of loveteams tbh, or I no longer am). This is more about the things I've reflected as I watched the film.    Life is not a race. I don't personally condone the idea of not finishing school on time--I sincerely believe that time is a valuable thing and in this case, it should be treated with immense caution, perhaps just like the truth. But I've said it somewhere in one of my previous posts, life is not a race . If we're more comfortable in finishing something at our own comfortable pace, then so be it. Because really, we never know what the future holds, and what other wonderful things could transpire in th

In all of the participating movies of Pista Ng Pelikulang Pilipino, 100 Tula Para Kay Stella is what intrigued me the most. It was clearly romance, a guy who writes poems for the girl he likes, plus, I saw the trailer more frequently than the others. Naturally, I wanted it to be one of the movies that I’d see on the first day. But then I realized I shouldn’t have expected that much—I was a bit disappointed. What is it about? Fidel is a stutterer, and he could only speak straight if he’d limit his sentences into three words if he’s reading what he’s saying or he sings. Freshies’ Night wasn’t going too well for him, and when he was about to go home, Stella found him and she saved the day. Since then, Fidel places Stella in that special part of his heart and started writing poems for her. What I think about it When I read romance books or see romance films, it’s usually the female lead character who’s having a hard time in the beginning. Then here comes the knight in shining armor (usuall

Die Beautiful is one of the MMFF 2016 entries that caught my interest because of the best actor award that Paolo Ballesteros acquired at the Tokyo International Film Festival. Besides his talent in the make-up transformation which he is now famous for, Paolo also proved to be a brilliant actor. Seeing this movie made me understand why he soooo deserves the title.  Die Beautiful is about Tricia Echevarria  and her struggles as a gay who aspires to be a beauty queen despite the constant losses in the pageants (he always sucked at Q&A) and an extremely homophobic father. I'd say the movie mirrored the big-time struggles of gay people, on how everyday is a constant fight against the judgmental society and the continuous justification of their place in the community. The choice of words in the script, and not to mention the superb acting of Paolo Ballesteros and Christian Bables (Barbs, I love you and I need a friend like you!) made the story real and relatable.  I liked the nar

First of all, I would like to salute all the graphic artists out there (especially my brother) for the great talent you share with mankind. I swear you make the world a little bit better.  So yesterday was MMFF 2016 movie marathon day, and so far, I've seen two. Saving Sally  is one of them - it was what I've been eyeing since the announcement of the official MMFF entries. The animation caught my interest and the fact that it took the filmmakers 10 years to finish it. The fact that I like Rhian Ramos also was a plus factor.  The story of Saving Sally   is just plain and simple - a friendship between a girl and a guy and the impossibility that they are really just friends because one is undoubtedly in love with the other. I've seen a lot of movies with the same storyline, but maybe the simplicity of it added to its appeal.  The cinematography is quite amazing. I mean, I have no idea how challenging, or easy a task it is to incorporate real-life people in animation in a moti

I haven't seen a lot of zombie movies. In fact, my only reference would be Walking Dead, and I didn't even finish all the seasons available. Train to Busan has become a phenomenal hit, and my FB timeline is full of raves about this Korean zombie movie. Since I am going gaga over Kdramas these days (#KimSooHyunIsLove), I thought I might as well see this controversial movie. I braced myself, because I knew I would be subjecting myself to a screamfest and shock, but when I was already in front of the screen, I must say Korean visual media has never ceased to provide me with a roller-coaster of emotions. The movie not only proved to be great when it comes to cinematography, it is also packed with things I've heard from my humanity class, and more. It effectively demonstrated how far people can go in being nice and kind, selfish and cruel all in the name of survival. Here are some of the things that made me gooey in watching a  zombie movie.  1. We do not have all the time in th

I know it's a little bit too late to be reviewing a film that's been out a couple of years ago. While all the people I know were talking about Disney's Frozen , I was probably tucked in the hospital else on my bed trying to defy my symptoms. And since Once Upon A Time includes this Disney story in its fourth season, I decided to watch it so I could relate. So what are the things I've learned? Like all fables, Frozen has plenty of things both young and old can learn about. It's always cool to be free. While Elsa was forced to be confined to the four walls of the castle, I believe that when the whole kingdom discovered what she was capable of and ran away, a sense of freedom was with her. Imagine a life of always having to hide and be shut off from the people you love. Nobody wants to be alone. Being alone sometimes is totally okay, but only up to the point when we feel lonely. We will always come to a point when we would totally need someone to talk to, to share our