Moving

This blog is moving to http://windchym3.multiply.com

The new homepage is under construction, but you'll see more activity there than here! See you there!

It's been a while

First of all, it's good to know my silent readers are still out there. :P

So, some updates. First of all, my month-long Asian Adventure was an overall success -- in chronological order, I spent 3D/2N in Hong Kong, 3D/2N back home, 3D/2N at Perhentian Island, 3D/2N back home again, 9D/9N in Japan (Tokyo, Kyoto, Hakone National Park) and 7D/7N back home again.

A picture says a thousand words, so here they are: http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLandingSignin.jsp?Uc=15zvyjvz.8vftt3b&Uy=-oe7xa4&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=1&UV=294737678304_55382986111

Returned to Toronto with Shereen June 18 and proceeded to spend every weekend out and about! The first weekend, brunched with Bong at Eggspectations then to Eatons Centre. Later we joined Lis, Mirchan and DLee, JCh and gf with the aim of checking out Pravda Vodka Barbut it was unfortunately closed for a private party!! Headed onward to the College St area but parking was impossible, so ended up at Flow Lounge in the Bloor-Yorkville area -- it was classy but the crowd was sparse by the time we got there. The next day, brunched at Frans and checked out Ontario Place with SH, JWL and LW courtesy of SH and JWL, who got us free tickets! They'd volunteered for an event held in the morn, and got us the extra admission bands left over from that. Ontario Place was fun but generally appealing more to kids. I have to admit though that the waterpark part looked tempting in the heat! The Maze, with it's Hall of Mirrors and weirdly decorated rooms (think Alice in Wonderland but without the bright cheery colours) was pretty scary too due to the fact we were the only ones in it at the time we went in. :S

Second weekend, we had curry chicken dinner with JCh and Boon at JCh's place, followed by a trip to the Toronto Zoo the next day. In the evening, went to my first NAAAP event with LW and Shereen. It was an eye-opening experience -- not really sure if I want to make it a regular thing though. The next day, we had lunch with Bong again at Jerusalem Restaurant just down the street from my apt, then to the Loblaws for groceries.

Third weekend, off on our 3-city, 4-day road trip to Ottawa, Montreal and Quebec City! LW rented a car and both of us took turns driving -- it was empowering to get behind the wheel and be able to drive smoothly, esp since it was left-hand drive (*shudders at memories of the Atlantic Canada road trip last summer with Josh's manual car*). Shereen was along for the ride of course, and so was LW's friend Howard.

It was Canada Day the day we arrived in Ottawa and the atmosphere was awesome. Everyone was wearing red, white or red-and-white, and even dogs had red maple leaf stickers on them. Everyone was cheering and blowing whistles and singing -- it was just like when Italy won the World Cup. Sightsaw the Canadian Museum of Civilization and of course, Parliament Hill. Lunch was at Byward Market followed by Oh So Good for decadent cake, then crashed at the Uni of Ottawa's dorms for the night.

Next day, onward to Montreal! Breakfast at The French Baker with it's 20cents worth of real butter in each croissant. Lunch partway through at a casse croute, which literally means "break crust", but which seemed really to be a kind of fast food place where you could get fries and burgers and sandwiches. First sightseeing stop after arriving was at the Biodome and also Montreal Tower. For dinner, had crepes at Jardin Nelson (always my fave when I stop in Montreal!) then checked out the Montreal Jazz Festival for a couple of hours (bought a sampler CD!) before spending the night at the McGill Uni's residence. We actually panicked when we realized that check-in closed at 10pm and we'd gotten there past midnight, but there was actually someone still waiting for us! If nothing else, that was the dorm's shining factor.

Next morn, sightsaw the Notre-Dame Basilica and then St Joseph's Oratory before waiting a good 1/2 hour at Schwartz's for their smoked meat sandwiches. It was sooooo worth it though! Nowhere else have I tasted Montreal smoked meat that yummy -- although it being slightly fattier and warmed might definitely have enhanced the taste. :P Shereen even had another!

By nightfall, managed to get to Quebec City -- checked in at the Auberge Internationale du Quebec then spent the evening exploring the old city within the fortress walls. Saw the Chateau Frontenac of course, then just wandered around till we ended up at a little cafe where I had croque Monsieur which was an open-faced French baguette sandwich with ham, cheese and tomatoes. Sounds simple? But simplicity was executed perfectly in that sandwich. Also shared maple syrup pie with the girls and realized that it's extremely similar to Young P's tarte et sucre. Gotta ask him about that.

The next day, time to head back. Despite a 2-hr break for lunch at Chez Cora just outside Montreal, and a horrible 45 mins spent covering 1 km along Highway 40 (stupid construction work), we actually made it back from Quebec City to Toronto in approximately 10 hours! Given that we were estimating 8 hours or more given smooth traffic...I guess you can do the math in terms of how fast we were driving. *Shh* In any case, I can say confidently that LW and myself both drove extremely steadily.

Fourth aka last weekend, went to Astoria on the Danforth on Fri bcos Mishy came to visit from Waterloo. Then to the Yonge-Dundas Square for the opening ceremony of the Toronto St Festival but it was still warming up, so we decided to get some gelato from Solferino's on Wellington St. Made it back to the Square just as the act named Tricycle was closing things with a bang (fireworks and all), then walked Mishy to the bus terminal where we sent her off home.

Next day, St Lawrence Market for Mustachio's veal and eggplant sandwich (extremely huge!) and also Carousel Bakery's peameal back bacon sandwich. Browsed the stalls around the market, picked up some fruit and listened to a father-and-two-young-sons busker team playing the blues just outside the Paddington's Pump restaurant at the market. One of the boys was playing the electric guitar -- and despite his bored-looking face, I have to say he's darned good for a 9 (?) year old.

Later in the evening, met up with Andrew K and gf and his two friends Andrea and Tanya for the Summerlicious prix fixe menu at Acqua Ristorante;. The idea is to be able to taste items from the higher-end restaurants for a fixed price during this event, and I have to say the portions were just nice and the dishes were the right balance of presentation and taste. Shereen's roasted honey mustard crusted pork loin with crisp nappa cabbage yam hay and apple sage butter was particularly surprising, as was her Acqua’s Seasonal Fruit Crumble with Crème Anglaise and Tahitian Vanilla Ice Cream. I enjoyed my Acqua’s smoked salmon, arugula, shaved onion and crème fraiche pizza and while the dessert of White Chocolate Parfait, Espresso and Crushed Biscotti turned out to be more of a light-ish pudding/ice-cream (I was expecting something heavier), I appreciated the airy taste of it. Altogether delicious!

Still later in the evening, caught the casino bus to Niagara. It's a pretty good deal if you consider that you only pay a net of $5 for a return trip there -- how it works is that you pay $30 up front then get a voucher redeemable for $25 cash (or casino tokens). We arrived there in a little more than 1 hr, then headed straight to the Lyons House Hostel for the night. Unfortunately they forgot we were coming (we were coming past check-in closing time) and our room wasn't in the most prepared state. It was hard to get too angry at the elderly couple though -- they were super nice to us (albeit in a dazed, slightly bumbling kind of way) and the cost was cheap. Plus we were walking distance to the Falls!

Next morn, walked to the Falls where Shereen went on the Maid of the Mist boatride up to the thundering water, then cabbed it to Niagara-on-the-lake. We happened upon a trio of Scots on vacation, and serendipidiously, the cab they sent us was a van, so we could all fit into it -- we ended up paying almost $10 less per person than originally expected. We also got a nice driver who knew a lot about the area, and he gave us a mini-guided tour as we drove along, even stopping by at certain spots so that we could look out.

Niagara-on-the-lake was quaint as always; got some Greaves' jam there and browsed the shops -- there was one called Cow's that had all manners of cow-puns, especially with T-shirt captions saying things like "Moopolean Dynamite". Cabbed it to the Canada One Outlet Mall, closer to the Niagara Falls area, then to Red Lobster for dinner. Wandered around Clifton Hill area till it got darker and then it was time for the fireworks over the Falls, which were already illuminate by colour floodlights! Definitely worth staying till evening for.

Pictures upcoming! Stay tuned!

Everything in one

One of the reasons for the existence of this blog was to "not forget". But what can you do when I'm on a tight deadline like now (more on that later)? So in brief...

Three weekends ago (weekend of Apr 29)...

- Feeling kinda blue, so called JCh up and decided to join his gang for their (apparently weekly) Friday night cookfest. Had nasi lemak with homemade prawn sambal.

- Dinner on Sat night at GVP's place with his co-workers. How can I turn down an offer of Mexican-Italian food?? We had tuna biscaina which was basically avocado halves stuffed with tuna salad, beef patties and also a mixture of potato and chorizo (a type of pork sausage). Washed down with red wine and plenty of stories abt Peru, Hungary and of course, Mexico.

Two weekends ago (weekend of May 6)...

- Fri night at JCh's where we had cookfest again, incidentally it turned out to be an impromptu Iron Chef 'competition' (with only one participating team) as all our dishes turned out to contain some kind of cream in them! On the menu: cream of asparagus and cauliflower, fettucine carbonara (does NOT taste anything like the usual creamy carbonara! this version is awesome -- spicy and not too heavy) and cream puffs filled with ice-cream to finish off. And yes, everything from raw ingredients -- no canned stuff. Also, homemade sourdough bread with olive bits, courtesy of guest Ed.

- Went to Canada's Wonderland (theme park) on Sat with GVP and friends, but it was blisteringly cold. Not much fun at all. However, tried some rides I don't usually go on (due to lines) and for now, I think I'm going to be staying away from theme parks....

- Sat night dinner at Via Allegro for Mirchan's bday! Now that was worth going all the way out into the suburbs for. Then went to a bar on College St that Dlee liked... it was kinda pricey though. Well, got bought drinks, so I guess my wallet didn't hurt too much... Can't really say the same for the guys tho.

- Sun brunch at Fran's. The goat cheese omelette I had was a little strong tasting, but it's a nice diner. No idea why Boon says it's a little bit dingy -- looks perfectly normal and brightly lit to me. Maybe he's looking at it through caffeinated and/or boozed-up eyes.

One weekend ago (weekend of May 12)...

- Sat, dinner at JCh's -- aragula salad with strawberries and truffle oil, seafood boullaibaise (basically a kind of soup with mussels and fish and whatever seafood you like), homemade sourdough bread courtesy of Thuet bakery, rabbit stew, olive and raisin tomato-flavoured rice, green tea souffle (courtesy of surprise guest ML!!!). Then followed by late-night MI:3...it wasn't a bad movie, altho at certain spots I felt like I was watching Minority Report and Mr and Mrs Smith again....

- Sun, catch-up dinner at Sushi on Bloor with Michy and NM -- been ages since we co-workers hung out. Mostly girl talk about relationships, feelings...things that scare guys. :P

From then till the next time....

- King's Noodle in Chinatown with Nic, Des, JB and JCh on Tues.

- Crocodile Rock with Nic, Des, JB, Jits, Jess L and friend Will on Thurs for cheap drinks and 1/2 price appetizers -- not a bad place really in spite of all the reviews we found using Google...

- today, flight to HK to meet Jas and Hil!! Will be there for 3 days (Sun till Tue afternoon) then back to Msia, then off to Pulau Perhentian with Jas, Hil and Sands... then off to Japan on May 29 late night with sis!!

Hopefully I'll last thru it all!

Signing off... 

Easter weekend in Chicago

Finally, exactly a month after I departed to Chicago .... the long awaited Chicago trip blog entry!

My company gave everyone the day off for Good Friday, Apr 14, 2006. So I decided to fly out of Toronto on Apr 13. Unfortunately, I also had to work on that day, and altho I planned to leave work a bit earlier to get to the airport on time, I was delayed...and so I had to rush to the airport.

I arrived there on the dot of when the check-in counter was about to close, but there were abt 8 travellers in front of me. Despite me asking loudly and repeatedly if the counter was closed for the Chicago trip yet, no one answered me (awful AC ppl!)...and when I was the next one in line, some other attendant came over and said to my counter attendant that the baggage check-in for Chicago was closed already...

A light bulb went off in my head ("Here's someone who will listen to me!") and I said to her, "I'm on the Chicago flight...can I still get on?"

They weren't too happy about that. Said that even though they check me in, I might not make it to the plane on time...luckily I had a bag small enough to carry-on, so they let me through anyway. Then Customs got kinda mad at me for not filling my forms out (I was kinda flustered and forgot) so I had to step out of the line, and then when the usher directed me to him again, he got mad cos the person before me hadn't left yet.... -_- After running all the way after passing Customs, I finally arrived at the boarding gate...where no one had even started boarding yet. Bleah.

Lesson learnt: never think that checking into a flight right on time will always go as planned. I did so much grovelling and apologizing that day, that I was entirely glad to be going to Penang Restaurant in Chicago's Chinatown, after Johnny picked me and Jin up. Jin was being a vegetarian for Lent, so she had the vegetarian char kuey teow, while Johnny had the same, but with meat. I had the claypot seafood noodles.

After a late night chatting with Jin, woke up all groggy the next day on her sofabed. Jin had to work and she even managed to wake up much earlier than me. Johnny came over and we took the bus to downtown Chicago and got off at the north end of the Magnificent Mile aka the north part of Michigan Avenue. We started walking...then it started raining! We dashed into Water Tower Place (a shopping complex) to wait it out for a while. Soon enough, it stopped and we continued on our way.

We walked along Michigan Avenue taking pics of the skyscrapers (they had some really awe-inspiring designs -- see my Yahoo! Photos collection), stopped by Nordstrom to get a Potbelly sandwich for brunch, then headed onto State Street, where the famous Chicago Theatre was. Then checked out Nordstrom Rack (the discount/stock overrun/old-season goods version of Nordstrom) on Jin's recommendation, and came away with a rain jacket from Weatherproof, a pair of cute wooden clogs, and a Timberland travel bag. So much for saving money... But at least I didn't splurge on the designer goods they had there. Aside from Jimmy Choos, they had the Stuart Weitzman Plexiglas pumps that Minnie Driver wore to the Oscars (the clear ones that look like Cinderella shoes) for abt US$80 only (down from close to US$500)!

On the way to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange though...I found out that my camera shutter had jammed! Quite possibly the worst thing that could happen on a holiday. No amount of fiddling with it could get the screen to show anything other than "System Error: MFC300C". Had to make do with my SE700i's phone-cam..which isn't much at all. :(

The Exchange had closed, so we decided to go to Millenium Park instead. How Chicago turned out to be such a showcase of architecture, I don't know, but I was more and more impressed by what I saw. I wouldn't mind attending a concert at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion, with the criss-cross trellis defining where the pavilion ended and the sky began. Kids played in the waters of the Crown Fountain, a block of LCD(?) screens on which a face was projected, and over which water flowed. The Cloud Gate sculpture didn't look like a cloud at all, but the mirror surface made it a prime target for photogs and kids (who were pulling funny faces) alike.

Via the BP Bridge, we crossed over to Grant Park which was the premier park in Chicago until Millenium was built to see the Buckingham Fountain. Unfortunately it wasn't turned on, so we headed back to Jin's apartment in North Halsted.

I had a chance to have Chicago-style deep dish pizza again!! This time, at a small little Italian place on the Uni of Chicago's campus (which is incidentally, totally awesome in its grandeur and historical-looking-ness (unlike conceptualized-by-engineers-so-to-maximise-space-make-everything-a-large-box UW)) and then off to acquainting Jin and Johnny to the world of swing. The meet was called Java Jive, and this time it was held at the Ida Noyes Hall of the U of C. The scene was huge! Many many ppl....but I guess that stems from Chicago having a longer and bigger jazz history than Toronto. :)

After that, went to the Blues Bar to hear some local blues. It wasn't the flavour of blues that I was expecting for the time of the night (around midnight), more of the hard driving blues as opposed to the 'late night blues', but it was good music all the same. Guess that their definition of "late night" is more like "early morning" aka 3am? The live music goes on till 4am (!!!).

Next morn, went out and bought a disposable camera, then to Ann Sather for bfast! This place specializes in Swedish food, so between the three of us, we decided to share the Swedish sampler (Roast Duck with Lingonberry Glaze, Meatball, Potato Sausage, Spatzel, Saurkraut and Brown Beans) and a dish of Swedish pancakes. On top of that, some breads were included (cinnamon buns, pumpkin bread and some danishes) so we were really full by the end of it.

Still, I could argue that we needed the energy. :P First we took the subway to the Chicago Public Library (very unusual exterior -- the walls are deep red while the roof has Gothic sculptures in copper tinged green with age) to see if there were any museum passes Jin could check out. I thought that was a very novel idea -- since you can borrow CDs and books to enhance your knowledge, why not "borrow" a day at a museum? I wouldn't mind seeing that idea become more popular.

We were out of luck though-- they were all checked out. Still, decided to go to the Shedd Aquarium and actually pay for the tickets. :P When we got there it was around 2pm.... but what a line!! It was at least 100 ppl long....and the museum closed at 5pm. We decided to go to the Field Museum next door instead. The 'star' of the museum is 'Sue', the most complete Tyrannosaurus Rex dinosaur skeleton ever found. It was named after the scientist who discovered it. The skull itself was so heavy that the real one wasn't put in display! It wouldn't have held up, apparently -- they used a cast instead.

Aside from the dinosaur skeletons, we toured one of the permanent exhibits, "The Evolving Planet", which chronicled the beginning of Earth, the evolution of life from single-cells to human beings and everything in between. It was a very elaborate exhibit, with many interactive displays ("press this button to see what a single cell organism is comprised of"), to-scale models, and videos. In addition, the museum also had a shoe display -- we picked out a shoe from Msia, a kid's school shoe. :)

After that, went home and subsequently to a Turkish place near Jin's apt, where we sat cross-legged on cushions and each ordered braised lamb shank that came with veggies and rice. Fall-off-the-bone yummy! Then it was to the Signature Room on the 96th floor of the John Hancock Tower for cocktails. The view was awesome, even more so from the floor-to-ceiling windows in the ladies washroom. Apparently the guys aren't so lucky -- their loo has no windows at all.

After another late night of chatting (Jin and I never seem to run out of words, do we? ;)), headed to Chinatown for Sunday dim sum breakfast with Kiran and his two friends. The wait was long, but the food good. Jin and I tried to remember how to write Chinese characters on the paper tablecloth. :P It would've been nice to stay longer and talk more with Kiran, who arrived late (the norm, according to Jin and Johnny)...but I had a plane to catch! Didn't even get to take as many last-day-in-town pics as I would've liked... It was probably good that Jin and Johnny hurried me though -- the traffic to the airport was bad and took twice as long as when I'd first arrived on the Thursday night.

Arrived at the airport in time and then back in Toronto safe and sound though. :)

All in all, a good trip. The city was beautiful (at least the areas I visited), and the possibilities endless -- I can't see how anyone would get bored there. There's biking by the lakeshore, all the museums and bars, and even just strolling in the city amongst the many different skyscrapers. The weather would probably be the biggest downside to living in this city. It was humid-ish on Thurs night when I arrived, summery-hot on Fri when I was walking around town with Johnny, beginning-of-spring chilly on Saturday on our Museum Campus trip, and rainy on Sunday, when I was leaving! According to Jin, the winters are the worst -- well, given the variability during the 3 days I was there...I think I understand.

Most of all, the trip was good in terms of catching up -- Jin and I both agreed that it's funny how we're both so busy/pre-occupied and don't really chat during the year, but when we meet up we just pick up where we left off. I love that about us. *HugZ to Jin*

Photos from the trip can be found here.

Let's talk reviews, shall we?

Book read recently: The Samurai's Garden by Gail Tsukiyama

Ever come across one of those Chinese/Japanese gardens where everything seems to have been arranged just so, and there isn't a leaf or flower or rock out of place? Got a picture of that scene in your head? Good. To me, this book reads like the literary equivalent of that picture. It's beautifully detailed and gives off an aura of serenity as we follow the adventures of Stephen in the little village of Tarumi, Japan around the onset of WW2.

At the same time, everything is very controlled in the book, even at typically chaotic points like when a fire breaks out, or when Stephen's house is hit by a flood. Tsukiyama prefers to show chaos or distress more through describing the physical condition of the surroundings or the people involved (like the dirt on their faces or their hand gestures), rather than their emotions (whether said or thought).

Nevertheless, a nice short read centred around love: young love (involving Stephen), enduring love (involving Matsu) and complicated love (involving Stephen's parents). I found the descriptions of Japanese life and the countryside more interesting though.

Anime series viewed recently: Paradise Kiss

Another anime that has defied my expectations! I was honestly putting off watching this one because it sounded like it was about a girl succumbing to peer pressure (skipping school etc, changing her clothing style) -- and that seemed kind of pathetic. I should stop jumping to conclusions though, and remember that the Japanese-to-English synopsis translation is usually inaccurate and oftentimes downright wrong.

In a nutshell, Yukari is on the verge of graduating high school and trying to decide what she wants out of life, when she is noticed by a group of fashion students who want them to model their clothing line, Paradise Kiss for them.

It's true that the main female character, Yukari, skips school and changes her clothing style, but the reason behind those actions are her own -- she chose to change herself, for herself. In a refreshing way as well, the main male character, George, starts off appearing as a bad boy, but unlike a lot of shoujo manga (girl's comic) out there, he's not perfect. He doesn't mysteriously fall in love with a good girl. He doesn't just turn over a new leaf all of a sudden either. Instead, although we accept the view that he's the cool person everyone wants to be with, we are also shown glimpses of his insecurities, and his flaws, and the possible (and highly probable) reasons for his eccentrities and cruel actions. The reasons don't make the actions forgivable, but they make them understandable...I really appreciated them being written into the script because I was getting pretty pissed off with George after what he was putting Yukari through.

I liked how the anime was edited/scripted. We can see why Yukari fell for him and his charismatic ways, and even with so much focus on the two, there is enough character development the other members of Paradise Kiss (Miwako, Arashi, Isabella) and other secondary characters like Yukari's crush Hiroyuki, her mentor Shimamoto and her mom and brother.

Characters and plot aside, the art is unusual -- the backgrounds are a mix of real-life pictures (of Tokyo) and random anime drawings (a UFO appears a few times). The characters are not drawn very symmetrically (especially in the lips) but the colours used are vibrant and befitting a show about fashion and style. When it comes to the patterns on the characters' clothing, it looks like they've employed select methods from Gankutsuou where the outlines move on a fixed background....very nice, IMHO. I like that they spent time thinking about clothing the characters -- I found myself looking forward to Yukari's outfits, and in the final episodes when Yukari modeled Paradise Kiss' final project at the fashion school's festival, her dress (although anime-drawn, haha) was breathtaking in the same way an Oscar dress like Kiera Knightley's would be.

The music is so-so...a little bit of rock (the ending theme is Franz Ferdinand's "Do you wanna?"), a little bit of synth-pop (the beginning theme is Tommy February(?)'s "Lonely in Gorgeous"), and almost no music while the anime is actually running. Kinda disappointed since the previous Noitamina (new anime slot on Japanese TV for young adults) offering I watched was Honey and Clover, which was chock-full of insert songs and generally suitable background music. Maybe the lack of music made me notice the voice acting, which come to think of it, was pretty good -- you could almost hear the thoughts of the characters as they said each line.

A bittersweet ending that I didn't expect however, as Paradise Kiss disbands, everyone goes their separate ways (including George and Yukari) and 10 years down the road, (surprise surprise!) Yukari ends up NOT with George. O_O I'm happy for her sanity (which would've been a gone case if George never changed his ways) but seeing that she really came alive because she met him...also a little sad. *sheds a tear*

Read a Paradise Kiss anime blog (summaries of each episode) here

Anime movie viewed recently: Full Metal Alchemist -- Conqueror of Shambala

The anime series Full Metal Alchemist is by far, one of the most engaging anime that's centres around non-romantic love. A brief overview: in a world where alchemy triumphs over what we would call science, two brothers tried to resurrect their dead mother, and failed -- the cost being the loss of two limbs for the elder brother, and the loss of the entire physical body for the younger one. Most of the series has to do with the brothers trying to find a way to regain their lost limbs/body while interacting with the forces around them who each have their own agenda. As the series completed, we saw the older brother, Edward, going over to a parallel world (actually our world, Earth) --giving up his existence and time with his brother, Alphonse, in exchange for his brother's life.

The movie picks up where the series left off. Edward is in our world looking for a way to get back. Alphonse is in their own world, with lost memories of his time spent 'without a physical body' (his brother attached his soul to a suit of armour and he spends all his time in the Full Metal Alchemist series in that state) training as an alchemist and looking for a way to get his brother back. Considering the point in time Edward arrived in 'our world' was around the start of WW2...it makes for some very interesting 'what-if' scripting involving Hitler and Nazis.

The movie was paced rather unevenly, as the makers try to fit a completely new plot (most of the movie is set in our world which didn't have much screentime in the series at all), explain certain question marks, AND develop the characters (both existing and new) in less than 2 hours. Ignoring that fact though, the plot is solid enough and the movie doesn't take sides at all... the reasons for the Nazis gaining power were shown (suppression by the Treaty of Versailles) and the (inadvertent) suffering caused by the fallout (entire towns destroyed when alchemy is used) from brothers' quest as well. It was nice to see many of the old FMA characters again, like Roy Mustang (the sarcastic colonel), Riza Hawkeye (the loyal liutenant) and my favourite officer, Maes Hughes (even though in our world, he turned out to be Nazi).

Music wasn't noteworthy -- the usual climatic at climatic points, lighthearted at lighthearted points stuff. The opening and ending themes kept with the tradition of Jap-rock, L'Arc En'Ciel style, which suits me just fine. Art was a little more CG than the series...not sure if I like that so much, but other than that, the character designs didn't change.

Although everyone was warning me about the ending being not a happy one...call me unromantic but I was just relieved that the two brothers ended up together in our world as they left Winry back in their own world. Oh yeah, I guess the makers decided to satisfy everyone who was even remotely thinking that Edward and Winry might look good together, and wrote it (the romance, not them ending up physically together) pretty much into the script.

Ah...wonder what should I watch next? :)