Category: Lifestyle

Now You See Me Movie Review

Posted by Rochelle Sy Chua On June 5, 2013

Now You See Me Movie Review

My friend wanted to watch Fast & Furious 6. However, I watched it already so we ended up checking out Now You See Me. The poster looked good but what really caught my attention was its plot. I got to read a short description of the movie while deciding which movie to watch. I didn’t really have high expectations as Now You See Me wasn’t packaged the same way as movies like Fast & Furious 6, Into Darkness and Hangover 3.

Before I say anything further, I would like to convince you to go catch Now You See Me. I know reviews online weren’t good. In all honesty, I think the professional movie reviewers are doing injustice to the filmmaker of Now You See Me. The film was awesome, exciting, entertaining and unpredictable! The actors were amazing and perfect for their roles.

If I have to criticise the film, I would say that they should add another hour to build on some characters on Now You See Me. Otherwise, the 2-hour movie is a must-watch! Don’t be swayed by the naysayers. Let you be the judge!

Now You See Me is about the Four Horseman, a group of magicians who rob from corrupt businessmen during their Las Vegas high-tech live shows and give the stolen money to their audiences. The Four Horsemen aren’t just magicians but they are highly talented individuals with specific specialty.

J. Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg) – a brash magician with motto: the closer you look, the less you see. He’s arrogant & egotistical cardsharp professional. He serves as the leader of the group.
Henley Reeves (Isla Fisher) – Daniel Atlas’ former assistant turned sexy escape artist & illusionist.
Merritt McKinney (Woody Harrelson) – a mentalist who can flesh out secrets of people with specialty in hypnosis.
Jack Wilder (Dave Franco) – a street magician who is also a pickpocket, con man and skilled lock picker.

The four magicians are brought together by a mysterious person who offers a reward if they team up and carry out the deception. Also watching the shows are Arthur Tressler (Michael Caine), an insurance company tycoon who acts as the horsemen sponsor and Thaddeus Bradley (Morgan Freeman), a former magician who now exposes professional illusionists for his own reality TV show.

After the Four Horseman first performance, FBI agent Dylan Rhodes (Mark Ruffalo) and new interpol agent Alma Dray (Mélanie Laurent) started tracking them down. The chase started from Las Vegas then to New Orleans then to New York. Will they be able to catch the horsemen?

Now You See Me has an all-star cast and each one of those stars performed perfectly well! Imagine combining Mark Ruffalo (Avengers), Woody Harrelson (Hunger Games), Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network), Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman!

Funny to say but I kept imagining the Hulk to come out of the movie. It’s just hard to separate Mark Ruffalo from his hulk’s character in the Avengers. Having said that, I must say Mark Ruffalo performed brilliantly again. He is now becoming one of my favorite actors in Hollywood. He’s such a believable actor and very funny too without trying so hard! I enjoyed watching him and would probably watch out for any future films that he will make!

Storywise, I was totally surprised at the ending! I guess the story went by too fast that it didn’t give me enough time to analyse. Now You See Me blew me away upon knowing who’s the mastermind and how all the pieces connected together. I had a great time watching it!

My rating for Now You See Me: 4 out of 5 stars.

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Fast & Furious 6 Movie Review

Posted by Rochelle Sy Chua On May 27, 2013

Fast & Furious 6 Movie Review

It’s a good thing that I was on leave last week because I was able to watch Fast & Furious 6 on its first day. I caught it when most of the folks were at work. When evening came, the only words that came out of my mouth were, “Do watch Fast & Furious 6!”, “You should watch Fast & Furious 6”, “Fast & Furious 6 is the best among all Fast & Furious movies!”, “Do not miss Fast & Furious 6 or else you’ll regret it” and “Fast & Furious 6 is soooo good, you should make time to catch it”.

I was really like a broken record convincing every single friend to catch the movie. Suffice to say, I enjoyed the movie tremendously. In fact, my jaw dropped almost the entire time I was watching it. It was that good.

Fast & Furious 6 follows after a successful $100 million robbery from Fast Five. The group are now enjoying a comfortable life as multi-millionares and have retired from their old life. However, U.S. government agent Luke Hobbs (Dwayne ‘the Rock’ Johnson) approaches them to seek help on tracking down a group of criminals led by Owen Shaw (Luke Evans) and Dominic’s assumed dead girlfriend Letty Ortiz (Michelle Rodriguez). Since Dominic’s gang are family, the Fast Five team regrouped.

There are a lot of things I loved about Fast & Furious 6:

My favourite stars in the Fast & the Furious franchise are all in the film – Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Dwayne Johnson, Ludacris, Tyrese, Gal Gadot, Sung Kang, Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster & Elsa Pataky. The new stars (Luke Evans & Gina Carano) were awesome too!
Fast & Furious 6 was action-packed. Trust me, from the first scene to the last scene of the movie! It was just so full of stunts, fast cars and unbelievable action scenes! Other movies will have only one of those stunts as highlight in their movie. However, Fast & Furious 6 are jampacked with all those awesome sequences!
It’s a combination of car racing (Fast & Furious real theme), WWE (yes, wresting!) and non-stop action! Fast & Furious definitely grown from being a car racing movie to a full-blown action film with characters not only good at driving but also learned to fight and use guns.
The movie connects the story of all other Fast & Furious films. We finally are able to connect and understand the storyline. I had to watch Tokyo Drift again to understand Sung Kang’s character more.
The humor wasn’t forced at all. When the characters delivered those lines, it was genuinely funny! Something that normal people would utter as well.
The action isn’t limited to the male leads but also equally to the female characters. It shouldn’t be a surprise considering Fast & Furious had former MMA champion Gina Carano onboard. They all kicked ass!
I love how Fast & Furious 6 built each character’s story. Everyone had their moments and we empathised with each of them especially Sung Kang… I miss him :'(
The spoiler article that I read last February 2013 is actually REAL! It’s now confirmed who the villain is for Fast & the Furious 7 and I loved it! Actually, I wanted to watch Fast & Furious 7 right the minute that Fast & Furious 6 ended. If movie theaters sell those tickets right now, I would buy it in a heartbeat!

My rating for Fast & Furious 6: 5 out of 5 stars.

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Izumi Sake Bar & Restaurant

Posted by Rochelle Sy Chua On May 22, 2013

Izumi Sake Bar & Restaurant

One of the things I should learn whenever I go to a place is to make sure that I walk around and check out all the establishments. If it weren’t for an invitation to try out Izumi, I wouldn’t have discovered it. There are a lot of restaurants in Burgos Circle Taguig but I didn’t realise that there are also restaurants at the side. Good thing I now know about Izumi Sake Bar & Restaurant. It was a good discovery considering Izumi serves good food and surprisingly, very cheap!

Reinventing Izumi

izumi chef

After ramen, curry is the most loved food by Japanese people. Knowing this fact, Izumi Sake Bar & Restaurant recreated their menu and focused it on curry.

They brought in Chef Him Uy de Baron as consultant. With the famous chef on board, Izumi made four unique curry sauces to pair with different cuts of meat and seafood. Izumi definitely knows that curry holds a special place in the hearts of Japanese cuisine fans. I felt that they made it right considering that it’s a very unique way of using a well-loved ingredient as a theme in a restaurant’s menu.

Izumi Curry Sauces

House Blend Curry Sauce – most neutral, slightly spicy, creamy with hints of ginger and honey.
Spicy Peanut/Pork Curry Sauce – similar to a Tan Tan Men but laced with Curry and Sesame.
Dark Curry Sauce – balanced by the dark chocolate, chili, apples, and three Curry blends.
White Curry Sauce – Japanese Bechamel, with just a hint of curry, it lends itself well to the seafood dishes it’s usually paired with.

I love how they came up with the “Have Your Own Style Curry“. You choose the sauce that will come with your meat. It gives diners variety and flexibility as to how they wanna enjoy their food.

Izumi Ambience

Izumi ambience

Izumi Bar

Izumi Sake Bar & Restaurant has a cozy ambience and well-designed layout. The bar definitely takes the spotlight with its display of premium sake beautifully arranged. It makes it hard for diners not to order sake with their Japanese curry.

Izumi Exclusive Party

Izumi stairs

Izumi 2nd floor

The surprise for me was the private function room at the 2nd floor. I was blown away when I saw the reddish room with a pole in the middle. The place is perfect for bachelor/bachelorette parties or any good ol’ fun parties in general! You have friends who pole dance? He/she can flaunt his/her talents there!

Izumi Food

Spicy Edamame (Php 185)

izumi edamame

Boiled beans sauteed in spicy butter.

I’ve never seen edamame cooked this way. Usually, Japanese restaurants serve this boiled, that’s it. So Izumi’s edamame was a pleasant surprise. There were two orders of this in our table. However, one of which I finished by myself hehehe! 😛 I just love the seasoning! You have to be ready with your alcohol to wash your hands afterwards though.

Steak and Onion Gyoza with Curry Sauce (Php 110)

izumi gyoza

crisp dumplings with chicken and mushroom filling on Izumi’s House Curry, topped with strips of nori.

Gyoza in curry sauce?? Yes, it worked! Crispy but at the same time flavorful!

Umami Pasta (Php 270)

izumi spicy pasta

Looks can be deceiving. The pasta might look like that but boy, it was soooooooooo good! The flavors were too rich. Every spoonful of this pasta was heavenly! It must be the bacon! Yes, bacon, cheese and shitake make up Chef Him Uy de Baron’s Umami pasta. This is a must-order!

Uni Cream Pasta (Php 550)

izumi uni pasta

Another successful dish from Izumi is this seared tuna with Mentaiko pasta. The taste was totally different from umami pasta and I could not pinpoint the ingredients that make them unique. The obvious difference was the tuna. Whatever the secret ingredients are, it worked great. Izumi’s pasta are definitely worth going back to.

Premium Seafood Furai with White Curry Sauce (Php 350 + Php 60)

Izumi seafood

Three premium seafood in one savory dish! The premium seafood furai is your dream seafood dish with salmon, soft-shelled crab and scallops. The scallops were just too yummy that I almost forgot that the white curry was there to give it more flavor.

Japanese Salisbury Steak + Curry Sauce (Php 200 + Php ??)

Izumi house

I love salisbury steak and I usually order that whenever I see it in a restaurant’s menu. Izumi has its own version with of course, curry sauce! We were served two orders of the Japanese Salisbury Steak. One with House Curry Sauce (Php 200 + Php 75) and one with Dark Curry Sauce (Php 200 + Php 90). You can tell the difference just with the sauce. For me, the house curry sauce won!

Beef Stew Curry + Dark Curry Sauce (Php 370 + Php 90)

izumi beef

How would you feel eating beef stew with dark curry sauce (Dark curry having chocolate in it)? For me, it was nice but I guess, I prefer the old, traditional way of eating beef curry. But that’s just me.

Kurobota Pork + House Curry Sauce (Php 485 + Php 75)

izumi tonkatsu

Tonkatsu is a staple menu in a Japanese restaurant. With curry added to it, you’ll love it more! This dish alone could satisfy your hunger. A complete meal in itself, no need for any appetizer or salad.

It’s rare to see edamame in main dishes but I see that in 80% of the food that we tried out at Izumi Sake Bar & Restaurant. Coincidentally, Chef Him Uy de Baron share the same fondness to edamame as me. With edamame in the food, it made me enjoy the meal more. I actually finished one order of spicy edamame by myself LOL!

I’m glad I discovered Izumi because now I know where to go for curry! Plus, I have Izumi to recommend whenever friends need a venue for bachelor or bachelorette party!

izumi group

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Izumi Sake Bar & Restaurant
29th St. cor. Rizal Drive Forbes Town Center, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig, Philippines
+63-2-8564090

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Evil Dead Movie Review

Posted by Rochelle Sy Chua On May 21, 2013

Evil Dead Movie Review

I came to meet a friend thinking that we would be watching Star Trek: Into Darkness. However, I was surprised when I saw that it was apparently Evil Dead. I’m a lover of horror movies. In fact, I used to watch a horror flick every single week. No matter if there are only ten people inside the cinema, it doesn’t matter as long as I was able to satisfy my craving for scary movies!

I must admit that I do not watch movies that much anymore. The high prices of cinemas made me want to just stay home and watch DVD. Also, my friends are all busy with their own families & dates that I ended up not having a movie buddy anymore.

Anyway, while I didn’t expect to watch a horror movie after a long time, I embraced it. I love scary movies after all!

Evil Dead is about five young friends who went out of town to help one of them cope with drug abuse. When they got into a remote family cabin, they found out that some people had broken in and left quite a yucky mess in the place. The youngsters discovered the Book of the Dead. As expected, one of them examined the book and unleashed a demon living nearby the woods and hell broke loose.

The story of Evil Dead is simple but watching the story unfold in the cinema was terrifying! In fact, I do not think I would want to watch a horror movie again. I watched Evil Dead last weekend but until now, I sleep with lights and TV on. I hallucinate that there would be ghosts or evil forces when I’m driving at night. Yeah, Evil Dead affected me badly that I didn’t appreciate it anymore.

Net, the film was uber effective! It was gross, brutal, terrifying and violent! To creep you out further, the first letter of the movie’s main characters’ names (David, Eric, Mia, Olivia & Natalie) form the word, D-E-V-I-L. Yea, scary, creepy, uuugghhh.

My rating for Evil Dead: 3.5 out of 5 stars

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Vietura at Sofitel Manila

Posted by Rochelle Sy Chua On May 7, 2013

Vietura at Sofitel Manila

Apart from the news that Sofitel had a huge renovation of the hotel, comes a new aesthetic lifestyle center named Vietura. Vietura is a great place to visit at Sofitel Manila. I’m not saying this just because it’s new but because I experienced it myself and I enjoyed every minute of it!

Vie is the French word for life while Tura is a Latin word for natural. There is a whole lot of meaning to that name. Vietura’s ambience and services are all connected to nature and life.

When I entered Vietura, I was immediately greeted by beautiful smiles from the staff.

Vietura Sofitel Reception

I also noticed the vertical garden which is composed of real plants. It made a lot of sense considering the name Vietura which means we are in commune with nature.

Vietura opened last March 2013. It is an aesthetic lifestyle center that introduces a comprehensive and holistic approach to wellness. It’s about going beyond cutting corners and quick fixes with non-invasive procedures that still present you with results that satisfy your goals. Vietura is about finding the interconnection between aesthetic procedures, integrative medicine and lifestyle coaching. In short, Vietura is really about us. Whatever we really need or want to feel, Vietura is there to fulfill it.

The ambience

Vietura Sofitel Hallway

Vietura has three Consultation rooms, nine Treatment rooms, two Colonics rooms, two IV rooms, two Doctor’s rooms and one Dental room. The colors are all neutral which means that Vietura is not only catering to a certain gender. Everyone would feel at home and comfortable while having their treatments at Vietura.

Even the room names have a certain meaning! I loved it!

Vietura Sofitel Room Names

Consistent to the design of the whole place, each room has a vertical garden. I just love the ambience. Being inside Vietura is like vacationing in a beautiful place of nature. It’s so relaxing and I love the things that I see!

Vietura Sofitel Rooms

According to the manager that I talked to, Vietura taps into our five senses:

sight – neutral colours, beautiful lighting, vertical garden, clean interiors
hearing – peaceful and quiet
taste – welcome drink which I really loved (more to that at the latter part of my post)
smell – special aroma inside Vietura
touch – soothing touch

My Vietura Experience

I tried out Resolift/Resodepth, a 15-minute procedure that uses electrodes to tighten the skin on the face. I’m not really into facials but I gave it a try.

Vietura Sofitel Resolift Room

I was asked if I want to have juice or tea. However, I was lucky enough to have tried both the blooming tea or blueberry sensation and I loved each one! My golly, I wish I can make those for myself!

Vietura Sofitel Juice Tea

The Vietura technician then asked me to wear the Vietura wardrobe and lie down on my back at the bed. She asked me to put the metal thingy under my knee. The metal has to touch the skin for the resolift machine to work.

Vietura Sofitel Metal

She then started the procedure by putting cream on my face and using the machine to spread it out. The feeling was warm but it was manageable.

Vietura Sofitel Resolift

Halfway through the procedure, the technician asked me to look into the mirror and see the difference between the two sides of my face. Apparently, she applied it on one half of my face first for me to appreciate its effect.

Vietura Sofitel Compare

At the latter part of resodepth, my face was wiped clean.

Vietura Sofitel Resolift Experience

I definitely feel refreshed. Of course, I was positive that I had a clean face. That was a good 15 minutes.

Vietura Sofitel Roch

If you brought a friend with you who is planning to just wait for you to finish treatment, they can have a soothing experience while waiting at the Vietura lounge. Vietura really thought of everything that could satisfy their client.

Vietura Sofitel Lounge

There are a lot more that I appreciate about Vietura:

You can check out and pay inside the room. How convenient isn’t it?
There is a secret exit for clients who do not want to be spotted availing aesthetic treatments.
Vietura is good for both male and female. The ambience of the place definitely proved it so.
You can book any of the treatments prior to visiting Vietura. Once you arrive, you can go straight to your room.

Vietura is not our usual beauty center. You get pampered just the way you like it. There are currently promos ongoing at Vietura which are really tempting: Laser Hair Removal at almost 90% off and Mesocellulite for Legs at 50% off.

Visit Vietura Aesthetic Lifestyle Center’s website for the complete list of services.

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Vietura Aesthetic Lifestyle
G/F Sofitel Philippine Plaza, Manila, CCP complex, Roxas Boulevard, Pasay City, 1300 Metro Manila, Philippines
+63-2-5515555 extension 1656, 1658
info@vietura.com
http://www.vietura.com

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