Rain Rain Go Away……

(Poster of Ninja Assassin which showed a furious ‘Rain’. The Fury was only in the posters.)

What could be the title, if any one attempt to write a review on the 2009 Ninja Movie; much hyped-up ‘Rain’ starrer, the ‘Ninja Assassin’? ‘Cuts, stabs,flying limbs and a bath in the blood’? ‘Ninja Assassin’, no doubt is another miserable product from the age old ‘you-killed-my-father-I-take-revenge’  school of martial arts movies. Who was that, who defined martial arts as, “People Train hard for years to make the worst movies in the world”. I guess it was a witty pot bellied couch-potato's take on ‘Karate’.

Anyways, who’s going to blame the cast of this movie, when there is no story to be told in the first place. Did the movie succeed in showing the legend of ninja terror and their bloody way of life? I don't think so. Ninja Assassin portrays Ninja clans close to a comic cartoon strip. There’s a scene where the lead lady (A clichéd Caucasian female character, ignorant about Asian ways) is asked to change into a new cloth to escape from the chasing Ninjas; She asks,

( Sho Kozugi as Ozunu,  father of the Clan, in one of the beautifully shot scenes in the movie)

“You mean they sniff like dogs?”
    All what Ninja Assassin got is a pathetic cast. Except the Baddie ‘Ozunu’ played by the Jap Action Movie legend Sho Kosugi, every one acted so miserably. Lead man Rain, who won the MTV’s  ‘biggest badass star’ award for his performance in this movie was amazingly emotion less in every single scene.On the female lead (Naomi Harris)? She’s in the wrong company here, and also helps to reduce the glam quotient of the whole movie. In another words, a better looking glam-dole in her place,wouldn't have hurt.

”Expression of No-Expression” (Al Pacino in his iconic role as Michael Corleoni in Godfather 2.)

When asked about his brilliant performance  in one of the greatest movies which Hollywood ever produced, Godfather II; Al Pacino reportedly told that, it was hard to emote emotionless. He had to play a ruthless but diplomatically calm underworld don ‘Michael Corleone’ who would not hesitate to kill his own brother, in order to protect the dignity of his crime-family/Mafia.

   Al Pacino said, he tried to listen to Beethoven during the shooting of movie, to keep a calm composure to express a non-expression.
   Rain had no such problem to be expressionless as he never tries to emote anything at all. Being  one of the most influential popular Music Icons from Korea, he had had tremendous  experience in appearing in the music albums and he probably took this as one of them.
Ninja Assassin shows, how an orphan named ‘Raizo’ from a Japanese clan of assassins turns against his own family. Movie unfolds in violent details, how he grows up to become a Ninja assassin with it’s painful training methods and how he matures into a Man who would dare to turn against his ruthless mentor and say, ‘This is not my family and you are not my father’.  And there are plenty of cuts, stabs, sword play, flying Shuriken, Swirling Kusarigama and lots and lots of blood. And to summarise, that's all about the movie.
Ninja Assassin has got no grace even in depicting graphical violence. Compare this to Quentin Tarantino’s style in Kill Bill. Kill Bill had all those scenes of gory but with a class of its own.

(Christopher Lambert on the poster of ‘The Hunted’)

The 1995 flick ‘The Hunted’ was a much better effort on portraying the myth of legendary ninja assassins.  Again, despite having a regular weak-turns-strong-beats-the-evil climax, it was thoroughly enjoyable; thanks to the cast of very talented actors like, Golden Globe Nominee John Lone and Japanese Academy Award Nominee Yoshiro Harada and also to a very good extend, the lead played by Christopher Lambert with that mysterious and famous myopic stare of his.

John Lone’s negative character ‘Kinjo’ had certain depth and definitely memorable along with Harada’s Character ‘Sensei Takeda’. Remember the scene where he cuts his samurai sword with his bare hands when the Airport Officials stops him from carrying it on the air plane. Who can forget his magnificent sword play as his character massacres a big group of Ninja Assassins in a moving train, which was definitely the biggest attraction of the movie.

(yoshio Harada:Hunted: What a screen Persona!)

(‘Kinjo’ Played John Lone: Hunted)

If I could recollect, ‘The hunted’ also exhibited the much exploited sensual charm of Japanese women in a Hollywood angle.   (Kusarigama:Sickle and iron ball fixed on a metal Chain- a dreaded Ninja weapon)

A worst Ninja Movie similar to Ninja Assassin that I can recollect is ‘Way of the Ninja’ (?) which was more like a regular American Karate movie which would remind you of those old ‘Chuck Norris’ type. Here, the American hero is trained in Ninjutsu and he cleans off the baddies with this special skill for his friend; and the plot thickens when the Villain goes to Japan to hire another Ninja to wield against our man.
Lets come back to ‘Ninja Assassin’ from the memories of better/worst Ninja flicks and end this with a little nursery rhyme…
“Rain Rain Go away…”

‘A dosa that almost ate me’ or ‘The Great Kovai Surprise ’

It was beyond all my imaginations. None of those wildest surrealistic dreams of mine,  took me to anything closer to this, (Exaggerating: Never mind) which just happened in a yummier, crispier and filling manner.
  This part of Tamil Nadu was new to me though I stayed years together in other parts of it. I never imagined, a city, where most of the people spoke my language, just few miles away from my state; could give me this shock on the breakfast table.
I was driving to cochin from Bangalore and hungry like hell when  stepped into this Place in Coimbatore. Having skipped the dinner previous night,  I didn't had to think twice for placing my order for my favourite ‘Paper plain Dosa’ for a crispy and filling breakfast. I kept smiling while the waiter tried to warn me that it could be slightly bigger than what i probably imagined. At the least,  I should have realised when they placed two banana leaves instead of the regular single. 

 
    (my mother in law giving me an emotional support; sharing the question marks)


It took two waiters to bring it to my table, ensuring it would not even have the slightest damage possible,before their privileged guest touched it. The whole scene started to turn bit of embarrassing to me,when I could feel some eyes were turning to our table, probably to see, how this silly looking guy was going to devour that huge piece of edible wonder.

                              (Anandhas, Coimbatore where I had my Dosa Surprise! )

The Curse of being on ‘Bench’

You belong to the big community of IT folks and you call yourself a Software Engineer. Though most of us know what we do, and what we did so far, or even what ever we aspire to do in the future cannot even come closer to the word ‘Engineering’ , we still prefer to call our self an Engineer. I think, I am a modern IT clerk who loves the engineering side of his big clerical side of work.That's the ‘You’ and ‘I’ about that.

And here goes the ‘Bench’ Part and the main part of this post.(‘growing roots part’)

(How bored a human being can get at. ??  (double question mark points to a massive blunder in chess.) (that's a bracket inside bracket thought: the ‘inception’ perspective))

‘Bench’ (you are a resource doing nothing or unbilled) changes everything. One fine day you realise you don't need to go to your work place, you got all the freedom in the world, and most importantly you are all yours for the whole day. The Possibilities are huge. Consider the following.Browse for an interesting movie with the cheapest ticket in your city from the ‘Now Running’ website and find another ‘doing nothing’ pal of yours to go with. Find out a musical concert (even if you don't  understand the very word ‘Music’) or the latest art exhibition in the town (who cares the ‘Art’ when the need of the day is to kill time) and hit them. Recollect all your plans related to your hobbies which you preferred to  bury with in the rustic walls of your collective unconscious. Say, you go and take chess coaching from some one who is ready to teach even a moron like you and prepare yourself for a rated tournament which is to be started in the coming month. Another idea is to start blogging for yourself and read it yourself when you have lot of time. Try moving around your home with a handy camera to capture those breath taking picturesque like the sewage line behind your kitchen or a crow sitting on the fence or a dusty train which goes on the track near your home. Just imagine, what an uproar you may create by uploading such magnificent visuals mixed with Beethoven or Bach into YouTube. Thus the possibilities of a bench day are amazingly rich and interesting.
Unfortunately, in most of the cases Reality doesn't get along very well with the pretty side of potentiality.  You being a bencher realize the next morning that, all the crows and fences, the train, the sewage, (Even if they are mixed with Beethoven, Mozart or Bach) , the art exhibitions(or the visuals of somebody’s well kept inhibitions), those cheaply bought tickets of some contemporary crap, cease to be appealing to you and you are deserted with all your insecurities and all your disturbing emptiness what those gurus call ‘nothingness’ and you observe deep mourning watching silently that all your hobbies and pastime fantasies dying so fast before your eyes.
Coming Soon: ‘Nothingness: Myth or a reality? The Bench Side:’