#Kingsman: Matthew Vaughn Confirms Sequel May Involve An American Agent

Earlier in April, TheWrap reported that a sequel to Matthew Vaughn’s surprise hit “Kingsman: The Secret Service” is currently being developed by 20th Century Fox. The report came after Vaughn revealed in an interview with US Today that the 2nd “Kingsman” movie could be happening if the 1st film does well in America.

Well, it seemed like the film did really well in the States as the director, who recently invited Yahoo Movies to his house, finally confirmed that the sequel is indeed in the works.

Directed and co-written by Vaughn, “Kingsman: The Secret Service” is based on “The Secret Service”, a comic book created by Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons. It starred Oscar-winner Colin Firth as a master secret spy who mentors street kid Gary Unwin aka “Eggsy” (played by Taron Egerton) into a super-secret spy organisation just as a global threat emerges form a twisted tech genius.

The movie received mainly positive reviews from critics and has grossed over $401 million at the global box office. It is also Vaughn’s most successful movie to date. Despite its success, many fans assumed that Vaughn won’t return to direct the 2nd film as he has a tendency of avoiding sequels.

But now, he’s going to break his “rule” for once as he confirmed with Yahoo that he’s currently writing the script for the “Kingsman” sequel.

When a fan asked via Yahoo whether he’ll return to the sequel, he said:

Well, the good news is that I’m writing it next door at the moment. If I think I can get the script good enough, then we are making it. So again, stay tuned, but we are doing our damndest to make that happen.

It is unclear whether the original cast members will also return, but Vaughn hinted that an American agent may appear in the sequel, which could be released in 2 years.

Vaughn is currently producing “Eddie the Eagle”, an upcoming British-American sports comedy drama film that stars Egerton and “X-Men” actor Hugh Jackman. He was recently lined up to direct the reboot of “Flash Gordon” for Fox. He is also developing “The Golden Age”, a film adaptation of a comic book about superheroes in a retirement home at 20th Century Fox.

“Kingsman: The Secret Service” is now available on Blu-ray and DVD.

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Super Junior-M’s Beijing PC A Success!

On 7th January 2013 (Monday), Super Junior-M held a comeback press conference at Beijing’s CGV International Cinema prior to the release of their official second album, “Break Down“. At 2pm, a huge amount of popular local media such as MTV, HuNan TV, DongNan TV, Sina, Sohu, WangYi, and YinYueTai flocked to the venue to catch a glimpse of the popular boy group.

In fact, 200 lucky fans were given a special chance to attend the press conference. Other local Chinese fans caused chaos when they waited in front of the cinema in the cold weather to see Super Junior-M. The crowd was so massive that security reinforcements were needed to control the turnout.

During the press conference, Super Junior-M showed off their fluent Chinese language skills, won the attendees over with their friendliness, and also talked about their title song, “Break Down”:

[youtube id=”Nz8t3vNo8″ width=”600″ height=”350″]

After that, the boys revealed episodes of their music video filming. Super Junior-M members Donghae and Kyuhyun then went on to perform “Break Down”. Live! Needless to say, the boys’ press conference was constantly interrupted by the endless screams from their fans.

Super Junior-M will be holding a fan meeting in Nanjing on 19th January 2013 (Saturday) which will be the first leg of their largest Asian fan meeting ever. They are also currently planning various promotional activities all across China.

For more information, visit their official website.


Contest: Win VIP Tickets To AIA Generasi Malaysia Concert

AIA celebrates Malaysia’s unique identity!

AIA Bhd. is once again harnessing the power of music to unite Malaysians by organising the AIA Generasi Malaysia Concert. The concert, happening at Putra Indoor Stadium Bukit Jalil on 12th June (Friday) will feature 3 of Malaysia’s hottest internationally acclaimed artistes.

Performing together on stage for the first time are Asia’s sweetheart and Asian Wave Season 1 Grand Champion Shila Amzah; multi-award winning singer-songwriter Reshmonu and Gary Chow, who’s also known as Cao Ge, who’s known for his powerful vocals and dubbed one of Asia’s best male singers.

The 3 artistes will come forth to entertain fans with their own brand of music and style and they will also perform their chart-topping hits to make it an unforgettable Malaysian music experience!

Now, thanks to our buddies at AIA Bhd, we’ll be giving away 10 pairs of VIP tickets to the concert. All you gotta do to stand a chance at winning a pair of tickets is answer the following questions:

E-mail your answers with your details (Name, IC, Contact number) to submit@hype.my.

We leave you today with Reshmonu’s “It’s You That Matters”:

For more information, visit AIA Malaysia’s Facebook page.


#LEGO: This DIY Gummy Candy Is The Only Reason To Play With Your Food

Just when you thought LEGOs couldn’t get any better, somebody comes along and creates a recipe for edible homemade gummy LEGO bricks and pieces that you can actually build with. Yup. They’re custom gummies that are snack-able and stackable as well ;)

Grant Thompson, the genius behind the “King Of Random” Youtube DIY channel, posted a step-by-step recipe for how to make your dreams come true. The best part is that there are only 2 ingredients – gelatin and water (though you can use flavored gelatin or Vitamin C, too).

According to Grant, his recipe ensures that the candies come out crystal clear, firm, don’t stick to your fingers, and taste amazing. They are also very sweet, but don’t taste as sugar-loaded as gummy bears. And if you’re a practicing vegan and don’t want to use gelatin, there’s even a vegan option.

Grant also noted that the LEGO gummy candy’s texture is a little different than the average gummy bears.

In his YouTube video’s description, he elaborated:

5 years ago I was fascinated with it, wondering how it was made, and what gave it its gummy texture. It feels so good on the teeth to bite into it, and my kids go crazy for them .. so I spent a bit of time researching how they’re made commercially.

My biggest motivation for doing this was to see if we could make our own at home, and I’m actually still trying to figure out how to make gelatin and corn syrup from scratch, so if I can figure out how to do that, maybe I’ll show how to do it in another project video.

Now I wanted to make candies that made people look twice, and LEGO bricks instantly came to mind because what’s more awesome than LEGO and gummy put together? But I wasn’t sure where could you get a mold for making LEGO bricks.

Surfing around the internet, I stumbled across an awesome Instructable by SFHandyman: http://bit.ly/IBSFHandyman

To my amazement, not only had he shown how to make a mold for making LEGO candy, he also made LEGO gummies as well!

I played around with loads of variations in recipes to see what texture and tastes I liked the best. And I’ve kept experimenting off and on for the last 4 years, using my kids and wife for feedback. They gobble them up no matter what variations I use, but I’ve finally settled on 1/2 cup of very cold water, 1/4 cup of corn syrup, 2 packets of unflavored gelatin, and 1 pack of Jell-O. I’ve found that the corn syrup seems to help smooth out the texture and the taste.

There are also separate links for creating a silicone LEGO candy mold, which is also relatively simple. The cherry on top is how Thompson closes his mold so that you can actually build with these gummies!

The downside is that if you have very young children at home, you might need to consider waiting until they’re older – these gummies may encourage young children to eat real LEGO parts.

Watch the DIY LEGO gummy candy tutorial video here:

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Fun Facts: Things You Probably Didn’t Know About #BigHero6

“Big Hero 6” is a 2014 American 3D computer-animated superhero-comedy film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. Inspired by the Marvel Comics superhero team of the same name, the film is directed by Don Hall and Chris Williams, and is the 54th animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series.

And yes, you’ve previously seen “Feast”, the short film that was released to whet your appetite for “Big Hero 6”.

Now feast on some movie fun facts for real:

1. “Big Hero 6” is the first Disney animated film to feature Marvel Comics characters, whose parent company was acquired by The Walt Disney Company in 2009.

2. Although it is based on a Marvel comic of the same name, there are lots of changes: the names, the setting, the ethnicities of characters, the backstories, and several plot points.

3. For “Big Hero 6” producer John Lasseter, story is king, and nothing is more important to get right in a film than story. He stressed to the writers that “you don’t know how a movie starts until it ends”. So he wanted the writers to work backwards, from the end to the beginning.

4. Luckily, Marvel was supportive but not possessive about what they wanted to do with the property. Joe Quesada (Marvel’s chief creative officer) and Jeph Loeb (head of Marvel TV) went to screenings and became a part of the “Story Trust” meetings where they would give notes, but they were only ever suggestions and not directives.

5. The “Story Trust” is where other directors from previous or upcoming Disney films, as well as story editors step in to criticise a movie’s flaws more than any filmgoer might. Rest assured, they are not back-patting sessions.

6. This film is a superhero origin story and even though there is potential with these characters and this world to do many more stories, they really wanted to put everything into this movie without thinking about possible future films. However, several “Big Hero 6” characters won’t appear in the film due to copyright issues.

7. As a life-long fan of comic books and of Disney animation, director Don Hall started imagining what a combination of those 2 things would look like. When he came across the lesser-known Marvel comics series “Big Hero 6”, he was inspired to create an original story set it in a new, unique world.

8. The film might also draw inspiration from the “Big Hero 6” mini-series, where Wasabi and Fred first appeared, replacing Silver Samurai and others. Since Disney took Wasabi and Fred as characters of the film, it’s likely that Disney also took inspiration from the series’ setting: America.

9. The setting for the story is a city in the near future, called San Fransokyo, that is a mix of both San Francisco and Tokyo. It is a high-tech city that blends both Eastern and Western culture.

10. To create the city, they took a research trip to Tokyo to get a visual sense of what it was like, and they paid special attention to the light in the Bay Area.

11. At it’s core, “Big Hero 6” is a story about a young man named Hiro and his robot, who helps him recover from a devastating loss and help him become whole again. A family tragedy was always the catalyst for Hiro’s journey, from the first pitch of the film. Through the eyes of this young man we see this process is filled with tears, surprises, thrills, and lots of laughter.

12. The villain’s name, Yokai, means “demon” in Japanese.

13. Filmmakers typically screen an animated feature 8 or 9 times during the development process, and they bring the voice cast in around the third or fourth screening. There are generally about 12 weeks in between iterations, which gives them the ability to actually start molding the character to fit the actor.

14. Hence, about a year into the screenwriting process, they hired actors to come in and do a radio play of the script to see what’s working and what’s not.

15. This cast is the largest cast of characters ever in a Disney animated film. There are about 15 main characters, but 701 unique characters, which all have to be animated. 1,300 animation cycles were created, which is about 600 per gender, and allows them to populate the world with characters who are standing, sitting, talking, texting, talking on the phone, carrying a shopping bag, etc., to really fill in the world and make it rich.

16. During pre-production, in the long tradition of Disney animation, everything starts with a drawing that then provides the animators with the emotional range of the character from multiple angles and keeps a consistency of look with the characters, through the rigging process.

17. Each control moves a specific part of a character, ranging from very broad pieces of the body, all the way to the most finite pieces, like fingers, eyes, lids and lashes, and there are hundreds of controls for each character.

18. Another challenge was the breadth of animation, which ranges from very subtle, nuanced performances to very heavy action sequences. With 7 action sequences, many on a much larger scale than we’ve ever done before, there is more action in this film than in any other Disney animated film.

19. A sequence can be up to 1,000 drawings.  If a 9 minute portion of the film doesn’t work as the writers would have hoped, up to 30,000 boards can end up in the garbage, and the team will have to work on a blank board again. Conceptual things will remain.

20. To create the look of Baymax (essentially a personal health care companion robot who’s programmed with over 10,000 medical procedures), the character design team went to Carnegie Mellon and learned about soft robotics, which led to him being an inflatable robot. Bells inspired the look of his eyes.

21. They looked to penguins for inspiration in animating Baymax because they don’t really use their arms and a robot doesn’t need to move anything that doesn’t necessarily have a function. That simplicity to Baymax really allows the audience to be a more active participant in his performance because you project onto him what you think he’s feeling.

22. Costume and colour supports the character’s personality, and you should be able to tell who they are by what they’re wearing. Like the Power Rangers, they wanted the colours for each member of the team to be very iconic.

23. Each superhero has a superpower, in the form of effects, that reflects their individual personality. The effects department works very closely with character animation to achieve those effects.

24. The effects department, which has grown significantly over the last few films, is a balance of the creative and the technical. To put that into perspective, for “Tangled”, there were 13 effects animators, and for “Big Hero 6”, there were 40 effects animators.

25. In total, there were 85 animators responsible for all of the characters’ motions in “Big Hero 6”.

“Big Hero 6” will be released in cinemas nationwide on 13th November.

For more information, visit the movie’s official website.

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Hype’s Now Playing: Marina And The Diamonds – #Froot

No longer the “Primadonna” girl, Marina and the Diamonds is now the “froot” lady!

She has finally released a new song in conjunction with her birthday!

It has been a while since Marina Diamandis (or better known as Marina and the Diamonds) has released anything, especially after sweeping the world with “Primadonna”. But on her 29th birthday, the singer has finally returned to the music scene with a new song, “Froot”.

Best known for her hit songs “Hollywood” and “Primadonna”, Marina earlier announced that she has begun writing material for her upcoming third studio album in February 2013. After working on the album for more than a year, the Welsh singer updated her Instagram with a a snippet of her new song “Froot” in September 2014:

Together with David Kosten, it seems like the singer has produced yet another masterpiece album that is filled with her dreamy pop style.

The singer has also earlier teased the fans by revealing the full lyrics to the song prior to the release of the album:

Set to be released in early 2015, “Froot” is the title track of the album of the same name.

Although this is just a lyric video, we must say the music video is filled with fun and quirky elements that matches her new song. The song reminds us of theme songs that we typically hear in a video game but with some 80s pop style and her dreamy vocals.


#HowOld: Microsoft’s New “Toy” Has Gotten People Of All Ages Hooked – Including Us

We know, right? Who better to judge your age and gender than Microsoft’s powerful “How Old” machine?

If you haven’t been spammed with a flood of orange screenshots of your friends’ faces tagged with a number and a gender symbol, the you obviously haven’t been lurking around your social media platforms enough in the recent few days. You see, Microsoft has created a powerful machine that will judge you (or rather, your age and gender) using algorithms.

How it works is that you upload a picture and it will judge you. Let us demonstrate:

The question is, why is Microsoft suddenly doing this?

According to The Verge, behind the scenes, Microsoft is using machine learning to better churn through the untold number of photos on the internet. That is not an easy job, and one just about every search company is trying to get just right. Also, Microsoft says it’s for “obtaining real time insights” on the data it’s gathering about people’s gender and age.

It also means you can give it countless photos of your friends, family, celebrities, and mythological creatures and see how badly they get mangled, as long as they’re less than 3MB a pop.

Also, the site originally started out as a small and quiet test, as Microsoft said that they only sent 50 people e-mails to about it. But those 50 e-mail recipients managed to proverbially blow up its spot.

“We were shocked,” Corom and Santosh, 2 members of Microsoft’s machine learning group wrote on Microsoft’s technical blog. “Within a few hours, over 35,000 users had hit the page from all over the world (about 29k of them from Turkey, as it turned out – apparently there were a bunch of tweets from Turkey mentioning this page).”

A Fast Company article highlighted that you should probably check the fine print before you upload your photo, because your face could end up in a future Microsoft advertisement. In fact, if you checked how-old’s terms of use, it clearly states:

However, by posting, uploading, inputting, providing, or submitting your Submission, you are granting Microsoft, its affiliated companies, and necessary sublicensees permission to use your Submission in connection with the operation of their Internet businesses (including, without limitation, all Microsoft services), including, without limitation, the license rights to: copy, distribute, transmit, publicly display, publicly perform, reproduce, edit, translate, and reformat your Submission; to publish your name in connection with your Submission; and to sublicense such rights to any supplier of the Website Services.

Yup, true story. But if you’re not worried, we say go have fun with it while it lasts!

Sources: The Verge, Fast Company, Microsoft.

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Muslim K-pop Fans Slam Jay Park For Mentioning “Allah” In Song Lyrics

Jay Park (real name Park Jae Beom, 박재범) has become a trending topic in Malaysia this week – due to some controversial reasons!

The K-pop rapper sparked criticisms from Muslim music listeners after he included the name of the Muslim God Allah in the lyrics of his song, “Mukbbang (Remix)”.

The fact that jay park also wrote this song just shows how disrespectful he is ,, when will these artists stop using islamic things for their aesthetics and hv a basic decency for our religion ? Its too normalized and got swept under the rug everytime :( pic.twitter.com/yyfuPIsyFP

Many were angered after Jay proclaimed himself to be a “young God” and called for everyone to “worship me like Allah” in the song, which was released back in December last year. In this case, not only was he heavily bashed for allegedly disparaging the Creator, the production team were also slammed for disrespecting the religion.

As a result, a lot of fans, especially Muslims, have taken to Twitter to vent their frustration towards the former 2PM member. “Jay Park is cancelled. Please block or unfollow me if you still choose to follow him. Thanks,” one Twitter user expressed.

“This is the nth time Korean artist disrespecting our religion, and now Jay Park too? What the f**k is wrong with y’all can you respect us at least? We’ve had enough,” another commentator chimed in. Apart from that, there were also a few who called local rapper Joe Flizzow out after they discovered that the former had recently collaborated with the “Girlfriend” singer.

Based on our checking, Jay hasn’t bothered to address the controversy on his official social media accounts.


#RRC: Foreign Vehicles Entering Singapore Will Be Charged RM20

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) of Singapore has announced that all foreign-registered cars will have to pay a reciprocal road charge (RRC) of RM20 (SGD6.40) when they enter the country via Tuas or Woodlands checkpoints starting 15th February.

It was reported that the RRC mirrors Malaysia’s road charge of RM20 per entry for foreign vehicles entering Johor. According to Yahoo! News, almost RM14 million (SGD4.48 million) was collected from Singapore-registered cars between 1st November (when the new road charge was implemented) and 20th December.

“The RRC will be collected together with the Vehicle Entry Permit (VEP), toll charges and fixed Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) fees upon departure at the Tuas or Woodlands Checkpoint,” added the LTA.

Motorists who evade payment will face a SGD50 (approx. RM156) fine for their first offence and SGD100 (approx. RM312) for a subsequent offence. Failure to do so may be charged in court and face a fine of up to SGD1000 (approx. RM3120) or a jail term of up to 3 months

“We have a long-standing policy of matching any levy, tolls or fees charged by Malaysia for using the road links between Singapore and Malaysia. This is to ensure that Malaysia takes into consideration our response whenever they raise their tolls or levies,” said Singapore’s Minister for Transport Khaw Boon Wan in Parliament on 9th January.

What do you think of the road charge? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

Sources: NST, Channel News Asia, Yahoo! News.


Local Female Celebrities Charging RM40K Per Night In High-End Prostitution Ring

A few female celebrities and Instagram influencers have gotten themselves involved in a high-end prostitution ring, reportedly charging between RM20k to RM40k a night.

The reason behind this is these household names are willing to put dignity aside just to portray a lavish lifestyle.

According to Utusan Malaysia , a spokesperson from The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) said that “high-end” prostitution has been in the entertainment industry for a long time. They also reported that the usual customers for the escort service are people who are quite well-off.

The MACC recently arrested a local celebrity to aid in their investigation on the “Macau Scam” syndicate, and they’ve found out that this individual is the middle man in this prostitution operation. The middle man’s role is to set the prices and arrange the meetings between the girls and their customers.

The source also reported that they have a list of local celebrities and Instagram influencers involved but will not be able to reveal the list for now. “This high-end prostitution ring charges up to RM20,000 to RM40,000 per night and we are not surprised. However, we will not reveal the list for now,” said MACC Chief Commissioner, Datuk Seri Azam Baki.

As of now, the MACC is keeping an eye on celebrities who are living an opulent lifestyle despite having a source of income that is disproportionate to their way of living.

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Shroud Of Choking Haze Hits Malacca Hard

Many locals and tourists were seen wearing face masks as the historic city was shrouded in haze. Low visibility also slowed down traffic to the major tourist areas in the city.

However, activities that were planned earlier, such as the dragon boat race, held in conjunction with the annual Malacca River Festival, went on as scheduled yesterday.

Malacca Health and Sports Development executive chairman Datuk Ab Rahaman Ab Karim said the state government would consider cancelling outdoor, sports and co-curriculum activities in schools if the situation worsened. “Classes will continue as of now but we will stop all outdoor activities in schools if the need arises. In the meantime, we are monitoring the Air Pollution Index readings closely”, he said.

Ab Rahaman also added that the state Health Department would also consider distributing free face masks to all students and civil servants.

In Muar, the clear weather in the morning turned hazy suddenly by mid-afternoon. Visibility dropped to less than half a nautical mile in most parts of the coastal areas. The Muar river estuary, the Muar Bridge and most of the areas in town as well as Tanjung Agas were covered by thick haze by 4pm.

Muar marine police chief Asst Supt Nordin Osman said as visibility in the sea was poor, all vessels plying the Malacca Straits should take precautions and navigate with utmost care. “Fishermen in small boats should refrain from going out to the sea for now and fishing trawlers must switch on their lights”, he added.


#DeathNote: Willem Dafoe To Voice Ryuk The Shinigami In Hollywood Remake

Willem Dafoe is set to step into the dark side.

The Oscar-nominated actor has officially been cast to voice one of the most important roles from Netflix’s upcoming adaptation of Japanese horror manga, “Death Note”. The fan-favorite character Dafoe will be playing is Ryuk the Shinigami (the Japanese translation for “god of death”).

For the uninitiated, the movie (which is based on Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata’s iconic manga, as well as the anime series) centres on high school student Light Turner, who stumbles upon a mysterious magical notebook (the Death Note) that holds great power. Any human whose name is written in the notebook dies and Light has vowed to use the power of the Death Note to rid the world of evil.

He also befriends the big creepy Shinigami death god named Ryuk. In the manga, Ryuk was the creature responsible for creating the Death Note and dropping it on Earth to see what would transpire when someone uses the book. Naturally, that’s the role Dafoe will be voicing.

The 61-year-old star will be joining a cast that includes Nat Wolff as Light Turner (aka Kira), Margaret Qualley as Mia Sutton, Keith Stanfield as L, Paul Nakauchi as Watari, and Shea Whigham as James Turner.

Known for his other voice acting films such as “Finding Nemo” and “Fantastic Mr. Fox”, Dafoe was also Norman Osborn/The Green Goblin in the original “Spider-Man” trilogy, and is now currently filming “Justice League” as the Atlantean Vulko.

“Death Note” will debut next year on Netflix.

Sources: AV Club, Screen Rant, Movie Web.


#Johor: Dead Whale Found At Sungai Sarang Buaya Same As The One Rescued In Pontian

On 8th February (Monday), a 4-tonne whale was found stranded in shallow waters off the Pantai Rambah Recreational Park beach in Pontian.

It instantly created a buzz on social media as locals shared pictures and videos of the rescue mission, which took more than 3 hours.

MMO had quoted fisherman Ismail Sirat as saying, “Our efforts to pull and push the whale began at 2:30pm. We encountered difficulties as the whale kept returning to the shallow waters after we had pulled and pushed it to the deeper end.”

A total of 6 attempts were made to free the 20-metre long whale using a boat with a 115 horsepower outboard motor while 9 other people, including 2 firemen, pushed the whale. Eventually, they managed to pull the whale into the deeper end of the sea off Pontian at about 5:30pm.

However, a day later (9th February), a dead whale was found beached at the river mouth of Sungai Sarang Buaya. The carcass was discovered by local fishermen at around 4:45pm. At that time, Batu Pahat Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency enforcement chief Lieutenant Commander Maritime Muhammad Zulkarnain Abdullah said the agency was not able to say whether it was the same whale which was found near Pontian waters.

But it has since been confirmed by The Star Online that the dead whale was the same one found and rescued in Pontian.

Johor Fisheries Department Munir Mohd Nawi said, “This is the same whale that was found and rescued in Pontian waters a couple of days ago. The carcass is currently being towed to the department’s jetty here for a post mortem and find out its cause of death.”

He added that the mammal is from the highly endangered Balaenoptera borealis species, widely known as Sei Whale. It is the third largest of its kind in the whale family.

Sources: The Star Online (1), The Star Online (2), NST Online, MMO, Brotherhood JOHOR.

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#TheFugitive: Adaptation Will Feature A New Take Of The Movie

Run, run as fast as you can, but you’ll forever be “The Fugitive”.

It seems like ’tis the season for remakes/reboots as Warner Bros. is looking to develop another instalment of “The Fugitive” for the big screens.

It is unsure whether the adaptation of the movie will be a remake or a reboot, but it is confirmed that it will feature a completely new interpretation of the movie. It is possible that the characters will change, or the plot will be taking a twist.

“The Fugitive” was originally an American TV series broadcasted from 1963 to 1967, with David Janssen starring in the titular role as Richard Kimble. He played a physician who was wrongfully accused of murdering his wife, and was sentenced to death as a result. However, he escaped and began to look for the real killer across the country.

The series was then adapted into an action film of the same name with the same premise. Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones starred in the movie.

There’s no word on whether any of the original cast members will reprise their roles.

Christina Hodson will be writing the screenplay for the movie while Arnold and Anne Kopelson, who produced the original movie, will be returning as producers.

Production is expected to start by early 2016.


The Wanted Leaves You Wanting More!

Move aside, conventional boy bands. You’ve been there, done that, and made your point. The world is now ready for “rebels right down to their cores”, Max, Siva, Jay, Tom, and Nathan. Also known as the five-member London-based boy band, “The Wanted“.

Just last week, they took the stage at Surf Beach @ Sunway Lagoon, Malaysia and wowed their Malaysian fans with their first ever full-length concert. We can’t say enough how much of a success their show was – it left their fans (and even us) wanting more. So we picked up a copy of their first, self-titled US release, “The Wanted (Special Edition)“.

We remember a time when “Glad You Came” was receiving lots of airplay on our local radio stations. It later evolved to being one of the clubs’ staple tracks to get people on to the dance floors. Apparently, it wasn’t that hard to get people singing along and dancing in a club:

[youtube id=”2ggzxInyzVE” width=”600″ height=”350″]

But the boys are no “one hit wonder”s. Soon after, it was revealed that the boy band had a bursting CV of other songs off their album which has nabbed spots UK’s Top 20 singles charts. They are, “All Time Low” (the lead single), “Lose My Mind”, and “Heart Vacancy”.

Our personal favourite is the sweet love ballad,  “Heart Vacancy”:

[youtube id=”0WUm0dN3Drs” width=”600″ height=”350″]

Yup. While they’re busy cashing in on face-paced dance-y music, they found time to squeeze in a little love song. Trust them to know how to pull at their fans’ heartstrings. “Heart Vacancy” was released as the album’s second promotional single and it has undoubtedly supported The Wanted’s rise to commercial success.

Other songs such as, “Chasing The Sun” and “Warzone” are also bound to get stuck in your head if you’re not careful. On an indefinite loop, if it may. Undoubtedly, “Chasing The Sun” sounds like any other catchy pop song – but we have to admit, it’s the repetitive “Oh, oh, oh”s that gets to us.

“Warzone”, on the other hand, is slightly slower. Plus point? It includes a slight element of dubstep:

[youtube id=”yMR382aefmQ” width=”600″ height=”350″]

“The Wanted (Special Edition)” is, quite frankly, a nice mix good quality songs. It has already made waves in the UK (platinum!), has made waves in the US, and it will continue to make waves as long as you’re willing to listen. Full track listing as follows:

Go on, pick up a copy of their album. It’s available at a record store near you. Alternatively, you could purchase the album online here. You won’t regret it!

For more information, visit The Wanted’s official website.

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7 “Toy Story 4” Characters Inspired by Real Vintage Toys

There are many reasons why the  “Toy Story” franchise is so well-loved by both animators and viewers alike. Not only does it have great story, animations and characters, it set off a trend for 3D animation as it was the first fully computer animated feature film ever.

Another reason why the franchise is so precious is because the movie is relatable and familiar due to all the various toys showcased in the movie.

As some of you may already know, there are many toys in the franchise that actually existed in real life. For example, Mr. Potato Head, Slinky Dog, Barbie, Ken, Combat Carl and more.

However, some of them were inspired from real vintage toys but were given different names instead. For instance, Woody, Buzz, Bo Peep, and Jessie are loosely based on real-life toys for obvious reason – they are the main and important supporting characters.

There are also cases when the side characters are based on real toys but they use a totally different name. This may be due to the fact that Pixar needs to buy rights to use the toys in marketing and promotion and they may not want to pay licensing fees to the original makers.

Anyway, here are some of the old vintage toys which actually inspired the characters in “Toy Story 4”.

Main character Woody is a vintage cowboy rag doll based on the Howdy Doody puppets from the 1950s. “Toy Story” director John Lasseter has also clarified that Woody is based on an old Casper pull-string doll which he used to have as a kid.

It is also believed that the fictional show “Woody’s Roundup” which appeared in “Toy Story 2” is based on marionette show “Four Feather Falls” featuring a cowboy named Tex Tucker.

Woody’s partner and best friend Buzz is a spaceman action figure based on John Lasseter’s old G.I. Joe action figure from the 1960s. Also, in the early script of “Toy Story”, G.I. Joe was originally going to be the deuteragonist but was later replaced by Buzz.

It is also reported that Buzz resembles the classic Hasbro toy Rom the Space Knight. Like Buzz, Rom is a Space Ranger in a suit of powered armour who fights a race of hostile alien beings with a special laser.

Woody’s love interest Bo Peep was not Andy’s toy, but a porcelain figurine that comes with a three-headed sheep called Billy, Goat, and Gruff. Both her and her sheep were originally adornments of the lamp in Molly’s bedroom. She is based on the nursery rhyme character Little Bo-Peep. Originally, Pixar wanted Barbie to be Woody’s love interest, but Mattel refused to license the character to Disney at that time because Pixar wasn’t famous back then.

New character Gabby Gabby, which seems to be the main antagonist of “Toy Story 4”, is believed to be based on the old Chatty Cathy dolls which were popular talking pull-string dolls in the early 1960s. “Toy Story 4” director Josh Cooley also confirmed that the character is also based on the creepy Talking Tina doll from “The Twilight Zone”.

Duke Kaboom is another new character in “Toy Story 4”. He is a Canadian daredevil and stuntman toy who seems to be a parody version of the famous Evel Knievel toy from the 1970s. Evel Knievel was an American stunt performer and entertainer who attempted more than 75 ramp-to-ramp motorcycle jumps.

Bensons are a group of ventriloquist dummies who take orders from Gabby Gabby – in other words, they are her henchmen. The dummies give a striking resemblance to another creepy dummy called Slappy the Dummy from the “Goosebumps” franchise. But they are actually based on a ventriloquist doll named Charlie McCarthy.

Miniature plastic doll Giggle McDimples is inspired from Mattel’s toy line of dolls and accessories, Polly Pocket. She is a police officer set in microscopic Miniopolis, and is the smallest “Toy Story“ toy to date.

Woody has always been confident about his place in the world, and that his priority is taking care of his kid, whether that’s Andy or Bonnie. So when Bonnie’s beloved new craft-project-turned-toy, Forky declares himself as “trash” and not a toy, Woody takes it upon himself to show Forky why he should embrace being a toy. But when Bonnie takes the whole gang on her family’s road trip excursion, Woody ends up on an unexpected detour that includes a reunion with his long-lost friend Bo Peep. After years of being on her own, Bo’s adventurous spirit and life on the road belie her delicate porcelain exterior. As Woody and Bo realise they’re worlds apart when it comes to life as a toy, they soon come to find that’s the least of their worries.

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#NiallHoran: One Direction Member Debuts First Solo Single “This Town”

Rejoice Directioners! One Direction’s Niall Horan has just released his first single, “This Town”, as a solo artist.

In conjunction to his new song, the former 1D singer also treated fans to a black-and-white video of a stripped-down performance in a “1 Mic 1 Take” promo that premiered on his VEVO account.

Produced by Greg Kurstin (who has previously worked with Adele and Sia), “This Town” was co-written by long-time One Direction collaborators Jamie Scott, Mike Needle, and Daniel Bryer. The track’s acoustic gentleness bares similarities to the boy band’s ballads such as the Ed Sheeran-penned “Little Things”.

Take a close listen to the lyrics and you’ll notice that “This Town” is a sad song where the Irish singer-songwriter croons about having a difficult time after seeing his former flame moving on with a new guy. “I saw that you moved on with someone new/ In the pub that we met he’s got his arms around you/ It’s so hard,” he sings.

“To me the way I look at it, if you’re from a small town you’ll get this, every time you go back to your hometown you’ll see this girl in the bar, or wherever, and then everything comes back to you. And then the other part of it is the town itself no matter whatever you do whenever you live, when you go home, everything comes back to the town. That’s the way I kind of wrote it, as a double meaning,” explained Horan.

Although the 23-year-old singer isn’t done recording for his solo album yet, he stated that the overall sound of the record will be similar to “This Town”, adding that it will be “more upbeat but that kind of vibe — the acoustic guitar, that kind of feel to it, nice strings.”

At the moment, Horan’s solo LP is scheduled to be release sometime next year.

Sources: Billboard, Entertainment Weekly.


Baby #2 For Andy Lau & Wife?

Carol Chu, the 47-year-old wife of Hong Kong star Andy Lau, is said to be pregnant again. Major Chinese dailies are claiming that the former Malaysian beauty queen is pregnant with a boy this time.

A friend of the actor-singer said Lau, 52, had always wanted a son. The couple already has a one-year-old daughter, Hanna Lau Heung Wai. “He had sought advice from western and Chinese medical experts to help his wife conceive again. He even prayed to God to allow his wish to come true”, the friend said.

Apart from hiring three nannies and 10 bodyguards for the girl, Lau has also bought three mansions and a private plane.


Hype’s Exclusive: The Night We Surrendered Our Hearts To Sam & JP Of Cash Cash

Mixing electro, pop, and dance, the Roseland, New Jersey-based group Cash Cash began with longtime friends Jean Paul (JP) Makhlouf (producer, vocals) and Sam Frisch (producer, DJ). In 2007, a more solid lineup came together when JP’s brother Alex came on board (producer, keyboards).

The musicians spent a summer working inside JP’s home studio and emerged with a stack of demos, including a rough cut of the infectious dance number “Party in Your Bedroom”. They came up with the name Cash Cash in early 2008 and signed with Universal. But it was when they signed with Atlantic’s Big Beat subsidiary a little later and released “Take Me Home” (featuring Bebe Rexha) that really propelled them to being internet as well as club sensations.

With barely enough time to catch their breaths, the Cash Cash boys jetsetted around the world, in and out clubs as well as festivals to further promote themselves and their music. Lucky us, we got to catch up with them (Sam and JP) real quick when they were in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia as part of their Asia tour recently. Let’s just say that meeting them was an experience that we won’t soon forget because they were the absolute sweetest ;)

Welcome to Malaysia. What were you looking forward to most when you heard that you were coming to Malaysia?

JP: I think a little bird of everything kind of..from the food to meeting people, to the beautiful buildings.

Sam: It’s our first time and it has been kinda cool. We saw some pictures online before coming here. So far, we’ve seen the Petronas Twin Towers – that was really cool. We also got some good food.

JP: Some spicy noodles, satay..the satay is good.

So Cash Cash actually started out as a garage band. Why the shift to electronic dance music now?

JP: We started producing and recording when we were in high school so that kinda gave us the leg up in the studio you know, just knowing how to record, use different synths and keyboards and stuff. We were always very electronic, we did a lot of remixes that started to influence our sound, then our music started sounding more like our remixes, and then we started to work on different features and collaborations, and that just slowly brought us to where we are right now.

Do you think that you’ve really settled with this style of music or..what else do you want to dabble with?

JP: We always like trying different things. We just did a song with Busta Rhymes and B.o.B, that’s kinda hip hop and has a trap feel. We also have a really cool electronic ballad that we just did with Christina Perri so we’re always open to trying new things.

Between the 3 of you, what’s the music production process like? Let’s say..a standard day in the studio.

Sam: Nah! We all produce and stuff and since we’re travelling a lot, sometimes we get ideas on the road so we’ll work on it and we send it back to whoever who’s at the studio at the time, then we’ll start working on it to finish it up when we’re back together in that room. We’ll review the ideas, yell at each other (laughs), figure out what’s wrong, figure out what’s right, and then try to end up with something that we love.

You’ve had 3 albums so far but it was “Take Me Home” that really blew up and the response was crazy. Do you remember what you did to celebrate?

Sam: (laughs) It has been great because we got to travel around the world to play that song and we hear it play on the radio, and even at shows we hear people singing along to the song so it has been really crazy. It’s an amazing feeling and it’s kinda like a celebration every time we hear someone singing it back.

JP: It’s great because we actually wrote “Take Me Home” together with Bebe Rexha.

Sam: She came to our studio and we had some studio time together.

Having worked with some notable names thus far, who else is on your wishlist of dance music artistes that you’d like to work with?

JP: Um, for me personally, we definitely checked one off our wish list when we got to work with John Rzeznik for one of our tracks called, “Lightning”. It’s not out here, but you can get it off our SoundCloud. Yeah, I would suggest everybody go there to check it out ;)

Sam: Oh yeah I definitely got to work with one artiste that I’ve always wanted to work with – Tritonal for our track, “Untouchables”. They are amazing producers and that was awesome. There really are a lot of creative people out there and we’ve been meeting a lot of people on the road, just hanging out and talking about things that we have in common. And I’d like to someday work with them too.

Off the top of your head, can you think of any trance artistes that you’d like to work with? Would you want to work with trance artistes?

Sam: Someone like Armin van Buuren probably. He’d be an amazing artiste to work with.

Since you’ve been on the road a lot in the past year, who do you often bump into while touring?

JP: Hmm, we see Hardwell a lot. He’s nice.

Sam: Yeah, he’s always touring like a lot so we always bump into him. We see W&W a lot too because they’re also on the road frequently. In fact, we just played alongside them in Tokyo last week, that was cool.

What would you say are some of your guilty music listening pleasures?

JP: We like everything, you know, there are so many genres. I guess you could say that we like listening to a lot of pop stuff, someone like Katy Perry. We did a remix for her.

Sam: Some Celine Dion, maybe ;) That’s some good stuff right there!

Do you remember some of the best and most memorable moments that you’ve had in the past year?

JP: Definitely releasing our track, “Lightning“. That was really cool because growing up we were such big Goo Goo Dolls fans so to be able to get into the studio with John Rzeznik and write a song with him on an acoustic guitar, it’s pretty mind-blowing.

Sam: I’d have to say..it has to be the tonne of amazing shows and huge festivals that we’ve played at in the past year – we played at like Lollapalooza in the US and Ultra Music Festival (UMF) this year. Ultra was crazy! All of that have been amazing experiences for us, definitely.

What else is in the pipeline for Cash Cash for the rest of 2015?

JP: We’re working on full-length album, that’s the goal for us. Definitely a big, jam-packed album with awesome features. I would tell you who we’re featuring but we gotta work on in first ;) No, kidding. It would probably come out in the US first before it comes out here but you definitely can expect that from us this year.

Special thanks to our awesome friends from Zouk Club KL for making this interview happen ;)

We’ll leave you now with their latest release, “Untouchable” featuring Tritonal, as featured on Hardwell’s “Hardwell On Air” #215:

The full track will drop in a week so hang in there ;)

For more information on Cash Cash, hit up their Facebook page. They’re on Twitter and Instagram too, if you want to stalk them!

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Hype’s Throwback Thursday [Movie]: Goodfellas (1990)

“As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster.”

This week on Hype’s #ThrowbackThursday we have Goodfellas! Directed by Martin Scorsese and produced by Irwin Winkler, Goodfellas is a 1990 American crime film that is an adaption of the 1986 non-fiction book Wiseguy by Nicholas Pileggi. Following the rise and fall of Lucchese crime family associate Henry Hill and his friends over a period of 1955 to 1980, the film starred Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci, Lorraine Bracco and Paul Sorvino.

Gaining a gross of $46.8 million domestically, the two and a half hours film was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. Jon Pesci won Best Actor in the Supporting Role category and the film also won five award from the British Academy Film and Television Arts, including Best Film, and Best Director.

Dubbed Best Film of the year by numerous film critic groups, Goodfellas is considered as one of the greatest films of all time, both in crime genre and in general. Apart from all its brilliantness, Goodfellas is also known for the most use of the word f*ck at the time of its release with 300 counts of the word being used in the film.

Brutal, stylish, hypnotic and addictive, Goodfellas is arguably Martin Scorsese’s finest hour.

Hype’s Throwback Thursday [Movie]: The Godfather (1972)

Hype’s Throwback Thursday [Movie]: Schindler’s List (1993)


#SHINee: Save The Date Because The Boys Are Making A Surprise Comeback!

Sound the alarm because SM Entertainment’s K-Pop idol boy group SHINee will be making a comeback!

Formed by S.M. Entertainment in 2008, the group consists of Onew, Jonghyun, Key, Minho, and Taemin. They made their debut on 25th May 2008 on SBS’ Inkigayo with their single, “Replay”.

Since their debut, SHINee has released 6 full-length albums (2 in Korean language and 2 in Japanese), 5 mini-albums, 3 live albums, and various Japanese singles as well as Japanese remakes of their Korean releases. On top of that, they’ve also won many awards, held 3 concert tours, and starred in their own reality shows.

And just today, they’ve gone on to break the internet with a surprise teaser for a Korean comeback! In case you missed it, although we’re not sure how or why you could’ve, here:

The best part is that we don’t even have to wait that long for the boys’ comeback because, as seen in the teaser above, the date revealed at the end read, “18th May”.

Oh so exciting! Start the countdown, yo ;)

For more information, visit SM Entertainment’s Facebook page or SHINee’s Facebook page.


TGV Cinemas’ #EOTW “Celebration” A Success!

TGV Cinemas, Malaysia’s leading exhibitor and multiplex cinema chain operator thrilled cinema goers with a unique program called “End of the World” aka #EOTW. As part of TGV Cinemas’ mission to constantly entice the community with out of the box initiatives, #EOTW was a huge success gathering over 300 movie fans on 21st December 2012 (Friday).

Yup. 21st December 2012. The day/night the world was supposed to have ended. We know some of our contest winners were definitely there oh you know, just livin’ it up on a Friday night.

Taking place at the spanking new cinema in 1 Utama Shopping Center, the program also screened two blockbuster movies namely, “2012” and “The Day After Tomorrow”. Movie-goers took the once in a lifetime opportunity by participating in this double movie marathon taking place through the night. During this event, ecstatic participants counted down the final seconds of the night and marking their survival of the much hyped about #EOTW on the day of 21st December 2012.

The unique experience or having survived doomsday aka #EOTW coupled with a holistic cinema experience definitely gave moviegoers something to remember “the last day on Earth” by. And by that, we mean good memories, of course.

For more information, visit TGV Cinema’s website or hit up their Facebook page.

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#SMTOWN: EXO’s Luhan, f(x)’s Sulli, SNSD’s Sooyoung & Jessica Will Not Attend Concert

Oh boy. Not one, or 2, or 3, but 4 idol group members from SM Entertainment will not be attending this year’s SMTOWN concert in Tokyo, Japan.

According to Soompi, SM Entertainment reps revealed to Korean media outlets that EXO’s Luhan, f(x)’s Sulli, Girls’ Generation’s Sooyoung, and Jessica will be absent at SMTOWN Live Tokyo concert which is held on October 4th and October 5th.

Understandably, we know that Jessica will not be joining SNSD Girls’ Generation for the concert as she was kicked out of the group. Sooyoung will not perform concert as well due to the filming schedule of her latest drama “My Spring Day”. As for f(x)’s Sulli, the member will not be attending the concert since she has requested to go on a temporary hiatus following a string of bad, cold, and untrue rumours about her.

Unfortunately for Luhan, he’s forced to take a break from the concert again due to growing health concerns. It is not known how long his break will last but rumour has it that it might take a while for him to recover.

On a positive note, their fellow labelmate, Onew from SHINee will return to perform at SMTOWN Live Tokyo concert after recovering from his recent surgery.

As we’ve previously mentioned, this isn’t the first time a K-Pop idol is overworked and for some reason, we also hope that Sulli is not struck with any health problems that forced her to take a temporary hiatus.


Neelofa & Syed Saddiq Congratulate Dr. Noor Hisham On “Tan Sri” Title

Congratulations are in order for our Health DG Datuk Dr. Noor Hisham Abdullah! Our Malaysian hero is now a “Tan Sri” as of today!

Earlier today (Monday, 17th August), the Sepang-born medical surgeon was awarded the Darjah Panglima Setia Mahkota (PSM), which carries the aforementioned title. This was in conjunction with YDPA Sultan Abdullah’s birthday.

Dr. Noor Hisham remained humble in expressing his feelings after receiving the award. He wrote on his Facebook post, “Alhamdulillah. This is an honour given to all frontliners from the Health Ministry. This also symbolises the trust and appreciation given by the government towards the civil society.”

Many netizens took to social media, especially Twitter, to congratulate Dr. Noor Hisham over his outstanding achievement. In fact, a few local celebs also left their congratulatory remarks include Neelofa and also Muar MP Syed Saddiq. As a result, the term “Tan Sri” is currently a trending topic on Twitter.

Setinggi-tinggi tahniah kepada YBhg. Tan Sri Dr. Noor Hisham Abdullah, Ketua Pengarah Kesihatan Malaysia atas Penganugerahan Darjah Kebesaran Pingat Panglima Setia Mahkota (P.S.M) yang membawa gelaran "Tan Sri". pic.twitter.com/vzqe2XfWvd

— KKM Portal MyHealth (@MyHEALTHKKM) August 17, 2020

Congratulations on your well-deserved award, Tan Sri @DGHisham! @KKMPutrajaya https://t.co/Eg1yOHmVmo

— Dr Anwar Fazal (@DrAnwarFazal) August 17, 2020

Tahniah Tan Sri @DGHisham !You are a true Malaysian Hero.

— Syed Saddiq (@SyedSaddiq) August 17, 2020

Heartiest congratulations to Tan Sri @DGHisham on your well deserved award. Thank you for your contribution to the country. Our true Malaysian Hero!

On behalf of all the Australians in Malaysia, congratulations Tan Sri.

— Australian High Commission Malaysia (@AusHCMalaysia) August 17, 2020

You deserve this bcs you handle Malaysia very well💯 https://t.co/zkUOEd30TE

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Birthday Party Causes New Cluster In Johor, 28 People Infected

MCO, for many of us, meant staying inside, wearing masks if we went out and adhering to the SOPs. For some others, MCO was not a deterrent for daily activities; for example, throwing a birthday party.

A birthday party at an entertainment venue resulted in a new cluster when a Vietnamese woman tested positive for Covid-19. Currently, the number of people infected is 28, and this includes toddlers and senior citizens.

The birthday party took place on 28th February, at an entertainment venue in the Campbell Gardens, Batu Pahat. According to the Ministry of Health, patient zero of the “Jalan Setia Jaya Cluster” is a 29-year-old Vietnamese woman. She developed symptoms on 3rd March, three days after the party and was diagnosed on 8th March. Two others were tested positive on 7th March and on Tuesday (9th march), 11 locals and 14 non-citizens were also diagnosed with Covid-19. As of Tuesday, 56 people have been tested by the authorities and a total of 28 have tested positive.

DAP Batu Pahat District Councilor Gan Peck Cheng has taken measures to report the group to the police. She hopes they will investigate the matter and take further action. According to her, the group inadvertently infected children and the elderly. She also stressed that the county office and the Batu Pahat City Council should strengthen the law enforcement to deter further violations of the control order. “At present, the epidemic has not subsided,” she stated. “Although the authorities have deregulated, the people still (need to) have self-discipline and avoid attending birthday parties that involve gatherings and (are) difficult to (social distance).”

According to China Press, the virus spread by the group has caused the distribution of 30 new cases among the Batu Pahat residential area. This was apparently evident by the case distribution map. Simpang Kanan reported 26 new cases while Segenting and Linau reported 2 each. A case analysis table provided by the Batu Pahat Health Bureau showed majority of the people infected were 21 to 49 years old, 4 people were 12 to 20 years old with one person over 50.

Batu Pahat District Police Chief Ismail Bin Dollah stated that the police are currently investigating a video which may be related to the matter. The video, circulated on the Internet, showed a group of people holding a birthday party at what looks like an entertainment venue. The table was laden with food like roast pork. The group was not seen wearing masks. Some netizens claim that the video is from the party that sparked the “Jalan Setia Jaya Cluster” infections.

“The police will investigate whether this video is an old video or a video recently taken during the movement control order.” District Police Chief Ismail said. “If the violation is confirmed, the police will issue a fine to the offender.” As of now, the police have not received relevant reports, but promise to look into the videos thoroughly.

Source: China Press, Free Malaysia Today


#MalindoAir: Airline Company To Move Operations To KLIA From klia2

From 15th March onwards, Malindo Air will be moving its operations to the Kuala Lumpur International Airport’s (KLIA) main terminal from klia2. Thus, all its flights to and from Kuala Lumpur would be departing from and arriving at the KLIA.

However, the ATR72-600 turbo-prop operations from the Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport, Subang (LTSAAS – Subang Skypark) will not be affected by the relocation.

In a joint statement with Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB), Malindo Air said that the move was an effort to better serve its customers and position the airline for sustainable, long-term growth. It is also in line with one of the strategic priorities identified in its 5-year business plan, Runway to Success 2020, which is to assist airlines in increasing their connectivity into the Kuala Lumpur (KUL) Hub and enhance the seamless inter and intra transfers at both KLIA main terminal and klia2.

MAHB Managing Director Datuk Badlisham Ghazali added that the move would suit Malindo Air’s evolvement from a hybrid to a full service airline. “As Malindo Air evolves its business model from a hybrid to a full service airline, there are many premium services demanded by its business class passengers, which are more available at KLIA Main,” he said.

In the recent months, Malindo Air announced a handful of new routes including daily flights to Hong Kong as well as daily flights to Ho Chi Minh. Malindo Air’s Ho Chi Minh route marks the airline’s 10th country in its expanding international network.

“They also require a shorter turnaround time for the transfers in their cooperative engagement with the foreign carriers operating out of KLIA Main, (and) MAHB is pleased to facilitate Malindo Air’s change in business requirements,” he added.

The airline company has since urged their customers to make the necessary transportation and meeting point arrangements accordingly.

Sources: Bernama via TMI, The Edge Markets / Featured image from Aviation Voice.

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Michelle Yeoh Branded A “Traitor”

“Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” star and Malaysian pride Datuk Seri Michelle Yeoh has come under siege as of recent. The general Malaysian public are under the impression that she had allegedly chosen to support Barisan Nasional (BN) after she accepted a dinner invitation from a group of Chinese business tycoons and Gabungan Persatuan Keturunan Cina Selangor in support of PM Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

An unofficial Facebook page called, “We Fully Support PKR” highlighted a report from a local Chinese newspaper about Michelle attending the event, which then opened up the flood gates for a slew of fierce backlash. The page, which was set up in 2010 and has over 300,000 “Likes”, posted a message on 12th April addressed to actress, saying, “You were once the Malaysian people’s pride but now no longer”.

Do you know now we have a national debt of RM500 billion? Do you know we might not even have the freedom to pick the colour we want to wear? Do you know now the foreign labourers rule in your homeland? Do you know one risks being robbed on the street every minute? Do you know your homeland is a dangerous place for pretty girls?

Do you know that in your homeland, the ‘mata’ can frame you for drug trafficking and ask for money? Do you know in your homeland, you cannot sell expensive ice cream to a policeman? Do you understand the message behind the dinner? Or do you think it has nothing to do with you since you live outside Malaysia?

As at time of writing, that post had received close to 7,000 “Likes”, more than 1,200 comments, and was shared over 5,000 times. Most of the comments, however, condemned our Datuk Seri Michelle Yeoh for supposed political allegiance, calling her a traitor and telling her not to come home ever again.


Interview: Why Don’t We On Taking Charge Of Their Music Artistry

Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, musical artists around the world have still been churning out new music during these hard times. It has helped us listeners feel less alone and also lifted us up when things seem bleak. One such talent that has been inspiring us is Why Don’t We.

Consisting of five members, the boy band has achieved ongoing success since their debut in October 2016. The members include Jonah Marias, Daniel Seavey, Corbyn Besson, Jack Avery, and Zach Herron. Since their hiatus, these boys have been entertaining fans with hit after hit.

These boys started their musical journey in 2016, during the summer when Why Don’t We released their first single, “Taking You”, in October that same year. Moving forward, the five-member boy band has released four extended plays such as, “Only The Beginning”, “Something Different”, “Why Don’t We Just”, and their newer holiday EP, “A Why Don’t We Christmas”. For any YouTube enthusiast, Why Don’t We is well known for collaborating with popular 22 million subscribers YouTube vlogger, Logan Paul.

A boy band with a fantastic crew of talented young singers, fans tend to resonate with their youthfulness, which is something that is reflected in their music. Why Don’t We currently has 5.2 million Instagram followers and 3.6 million YouTube subscribers, proving that these boys are already superstars.

With their new sophomore album, “The Good Times and The Bad Ones”, we see the band returning back to their roots. It’s an album with a great combination of themes such as romance, accomplishments, and hardships, alongside an amazing use of instrumentals as well as catchy choruses.

1. Congratulations on the release of “The Good Times and The Bad Ones” guys. Was it challenging having to record some of these songs separately because of the pandemic?

Daniel: Yeah, because of the pandemic, this album took longer than we thought it would finish. We thought it would be done maybe in April 2020 at the latest. And then the pandemic hit, and another 6 months went by without us knowing if we could safely record again. That was tough, but it’s here now and that’s all that matters.

2. You guys have been getting mad respect for writing and producing the songs on the record. Was that a conscious decision?

Corbyn: Yeah, we kind of decided on this, when we went into our hiatus at the end of 2019. Going into 2020, we had a bunch of songs in the can, and we went into the studio, there was a plan for us to record some songs on an album that the label had started prepping for us and whatnot.

We ended up playing some of our music and they were like, “Damn, this stuff is actually really good. You guys have got something special here…”. We were expressing how we wanted to take a shot at writing and producing the whole thing just to prove to ourselves that we could be good. And yeah, it started working out that way, and then we wrote like the second half of the album during quarantine before putting “Fallin” out into the world.

3. You recently mentioned that “Love Song” kick-started this whole new journey. Could you share more?

Daniel: Oh man, “Love Song” is an old one, I remember when I wrote “Love Song”, I had a very terrible demo of it. But I was so excited about it, I raced over to Jonah and Corbyn’s house. I ran in and grabbed Jonah and I was like, “Bro, you gotta listen to this right now”. And rammed him in my car and played it for him and he was like “Oh, this is dope”. But it was such a bad demo, I don’t think he really thought it was that dope then. But it got way better and ended up finishing it around that time.

4. Daniel, you serve as a producer on this record. What do you enjoy most about this part of the process?

Daniel: Production is fun in a weird way to me. It’s equally artistic and like a puzzle – whereby if you can connect the lyrics to the melodies of the song, magic happens. I don’t know, there are certain rules that you gotta follow with production that I love and then there are certain times where there are no rules. It’s very freeing and challenging. I like it.

5. You guys collaborated with Skrillex (“For You”) and Timbaland (“Stay”). Could you talk about how it came about? Have you all met in person? What did you learn from them?

Corbyn: Unfortunately, we didn’t get to meet any of them in person because of the pandemic. Keeping everybody safe and whatnot. Our engineer Jason Joshua, who mixed and mastered the whole album, has a bunch of connections in the industry and brought them to work on “Stay”, which is the one Timberland is on.

We felt like that song was kind of like most R&B and needed a little bit more sauce on it. So, he hit up Timberland and was like, “Hey, would you hop on this”. It was dope and he said, “Sure”. Same thing with Skrillex and Travis Barker who played drums on “Slow Down”, “Lotus Inn”, and on “Look At Me”, which is also crazy. So yeah, we had a couple of really cool names pop on and add their little flavour to the tracks, which was really cool.

6. You’ve also collaborated with K-Pop group AB6IX for a remix. Was it different? Is there a certain K-pop group you guys are fans of?

Daniel: I love BTS. I wanna dance with BTS.

Corbyn: Yeah, they’re crazy, mad respect. AB6IX, I mean, they did really, really well too. It was cool to hear that they were fans. The group hopped on the record and did their thing. The K-Pop world has been loving it too which is really great and shout out to those guys because they were super cool.

7. What are some parts of the music industry you are excited to see change?

Daniel: I’m excited to see how crazy touring is.

Corbyn: Yeah, touring is gonna be wild now. I like watching the genre of pop music shift as it has over the years. Right now it’s very urban hip-hop driven which is really cool. But it’s shifting. There’s like some 90s rock, 2000s rock kind of back into the game and it’s kinda cool because you can see the whole industry, the circle of music kind of shifts around, which is fun.

8. What’s the best advice you guys received so far throughout your whole career?

Jack: Work hard in silence and let success be your noise.

Corbyn: Also, Shawn Mendes gave us some great advice. We got to see him backstage at one of his shows in summer 2019. He was playing in Atlanta and we were there for the day passing through the city. He and his team had to supply some tickets for the show that night. We got to watch his show and it was amazing. Huge production and he sounded fantastic. After the show, we got to chat with him for about an hour or so and it was really cool.

I was talking about industry stuff and wanted his take on it – where he is in his career and where we are and kind of comparing back and forth with our experience. One of the things he brought up was our commitment during the day, whether it’s meet and greets, interviews, visiting radio stations, children’s hospitals or the stuff that’s outside of the music. He’s like ‘you go and do all that stuff. Then at the end of the night, you get to go play the show’, and he’s like, ‘you do it all for that moment on stage where you feel all the love, but if you don’t love what you’re doing off stage, then what’s the point…’

We also told him how we play instruments but haven’t really got the chance to showcase that. And he was like “wait you guys play instruments”, and we’re like, “Yeah, we play”. It got us thinking that if he didn’t know, a lot of people probably didn’t know. H told us, “If you guys want to play instruments, then play instruments”. From that moment forward we’re like, “Alright, let’s put our foot down” and we wanted to play it so we started playing “What Am I” live at the end of our tour. So that really inspired the shift for this album and playing instruments when going live. I think it’s just going to take our show to another level and music is very instrument driven.

9. And for each music video you have in your album, can you maybe talk about the concept of each of these music videos?

Corbyn: “Fallin” was kind of performance-driven. We came out of the gym, and we were like, what visual and what sound will kick the door down. And the visual had a new look and a new sound, with us playing instruments. Few of us had changed our hair colours and hairstyles after being gone for 9 months. The song was super like glam rock-influenced so we wanted the most intense visual we could give to fans. “Lotus Inn” was kind of like a coming of age kind of video like Rockstar trash in a hotel room. The time loop sequence with Jonah being a lead actor, the love interest thing, and “Slow Down” is just like that feel-good vibe PCH California dreaming, visual, college party vibes, having a good time, not caring about anything in the world.

10. Will there be another single coming out anytime soon?

Daniel: Definitely, more music coming out, I can’t say when but I can say there’s more than just this album, so yeah, for sure.

11. Maybe a release of a deluxe album, perhaps?

Corbyn: We might steal that idea from you.

12. What are your plans for the rest of the year?

Jack: Well, probably keep making music, honestly. Now we’ve dropped our album so we got to go back into writing mode to see what we can make. See if we can top our album we just got.

Corbyn: We’ll have some more stuff coming, we’re just waiting to get out on the road by fall. But it looks more likely to be early 2022, so we’re keeping our fingers crossed. We want to get back on the road as soon as we can.

13. And honestly, we can’t wait to see you guys return to Malaysia if you guys have the chance.

Corbyn: Yeah, Malaysia is amazing. We’ve been there once or twice before, and we went and visited Batu Caves last time we were there, which was amazing. Yeah, we’re stoked to be back man. We’ll be back as soon as we can.

Why Don’t We’s new album “The Good Times and The Bad Ones” features 10 songs, with 3 of them being recent hit singles. You can check their music videos of them here:

Shoutout to Warner Music Malaysia for giving us the opportunity to meet these wonderful and talented singers virtually. Hopefully, we’ll be able to watch them live in the near future.

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#AMei: Mando-Pop Queen Returns To M’sia With “Utopia 2.0” Concert In 2017

Calling all A-Mei fans, are y’all ready to enter utopia with the queen of Mando-pop once again?

If you’ve missed her “Utopia” concert earlier this year, don’t worry, A-Mei (張惠妹) is returning to thrill her Malaysian fans with an updated version of her previous concert, aptly titled “Utopia 2.0”.

Born Amit Kulilay, A-Mei (or Chang Hui-Mei) comes from the aboriginal Taiwanese decent of Pinuyumayan tribe and is often referred to as the “Pride of Taiwan”. Ever since A-Mei made her debut in 1996, the pop diva has received the Best Asian Artist from Billboard, landed on the cover of Times, and was recently crowned the Best Mandarin Female Singer at Taiwan’s 26th Golden Melody Awards.

Continuing on the global success of the “aMEI | AMIT Utopia World Tour”, the 44-year-old music icon will be taking things to the next level with next year’s “aMEI | AMIT Utopia 2.0 Carnival 2017”. Expect to see dazzling visual effects, animation, live-action footage, and design, except this time, it’ll be on a grander scale. And yes, a “Utopia” concert wouldn’t be complete without an appearance by A-Mei’s alter ego, A-Mit.

Brought to you by Galaxy Group, the details for A-Mei (張惠妹)’s “aMEI | AMIT Utopia 2.0 Carnival 2017” world tour are as follows:

Tickets are available via Galaxy Group and Buy Tickets, or Hotline 03-2282 2020. For more information, hit up Galaxy Group’s Facebook page here.


Contest: Win Movie Tickets To Watch Ben Affleck’s “Air”

Ben Affleck declares the screening premiere of “Air” at South by Southwest Film & TV Festival (SXSW) as “the most important night of my professional life”. That’s a pretty bold statement coming from the Oscar winner, and with good reason too.

With a star-studded cast of Matt Damon, Jason Bateman, Marlon Wayans, Chris Messina, Chris Tucker, and Viola Davis, “Air” a new American biographical sports drama film chronicles the origin of the Air Jordan shoeline. It delves into the partnership when Nike struck a game-changing deal with basketball player Michael Jordan.

In speaking to Variety, Ben Affleck recalled a conversation with Michael Jordan that left a lasting impression. “(When) he talked about his mother. It was the first time I saw this look cross his face. It was a look of reverence, of awe, of love, and gratitude, and innocence. He said, ‘None of this would have ever happened without my mother.’ I said, ‘Who would you like to play your mom?’ He said, ‘Well, it has to be Viola Davis’,” the filmmaker said.

“Viola Davis is the best actor I’ve ever seen,” Affleck added. “I always felt that if i was a director one day, and I had Viola Davis in a movie, that would really be something. That would mean the world to me. And it does.” Viola plays Jordan’s protective, business-savvy mother Deloris. “Deloris and my mom were born in a generation of people whose dreams were their kids. It’s the height of Jim Crow. It’s the height of Black people being told that their dreams didn’t matter. So for her to have that big vision for her son, and to believe it wholeheartedly, is sort of miraculous,” the actress told THR.

Thanks to our friends at Warner Bros. Malaysia, we have 15 pairs of movie tickets to give away. Details of the screening are as per below:

“Air” will debut in local cinemas on 6th April.


5 Million Gmail Usernames & Passwords Leaked

Uh oh! It has been reported that nearly 5 million combinations Gmail usernames and passwords appear to have been published on a Russian Bitcoin forum. The passwords, which were published in a text file, contains information on English, Russian, and Spanish speaking users of Google’s services including Gmail and Google Plus.

On top of that, the leak also included thousands of user credentials for Yandex (the largest search engine in Russia). The publisher, named tvskit, posted the following screenshot and claimed that over 60% of the password were valid and working:

Following news of the leak, Google and Yandex representatives told CNews that while the credentials were stolen through years of phishing and hacking against individuals, their own systems were never compromised.

Google’s reps told Russian Media that much of the information is old and potentially out-of-date since the phished and hacked credentials were collected over the years. In fact, many of the accounts have long been suspended or are matched with very old passwords. It also seems that many of the passwords were taken from websites where users used their Gmail addresses to register, according to some of the leak’s victims as well as security experts.

For example, someone might have signed up for a website with the username “myaddress@gmail.com” and the password “mypassword.” The list exposed this week makes it look like “mypassword” is the password for the Gmail account itself, but the user’s actual Gmail password might be totally different. So if you’ve used a Gmail password that’s unique from other accounts, you might not have to worry.

That having said, if you want to find out if your account is included in the leak, input your address here to check. Also, as a precaution, you should change your password, choose a long one that combines both alphabets and numbers, and make sure you turn on the 2-step verification for your account. Aside from that, try to not use universal passwords for everything.

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Kuala Lumpur Featured In Vin Diesel’s New “Bloodshot” Trailer

Ready for some ground pounding and heart pumping action movie featuring a superhero? Of course you do, so prepare yourself for “Bloodshot” the new upcoming superhero film coming out next year, featuring Kuala Lumpur!

Yes, there have been a surge of Hollywood movie appearing in Malaysia recently with latest example being “Venom” and “Crazy Rich Asian”. This may be due, because of the FINAS incentive for which will provide monetary help for movies filmed in Malaysia. The intention of the program was to help improve the quality of local film industry and to make Malaysia as a desired destination for film making.

So can you spot Kuala Lumpur in the trailer below?

From the producers of “Fast And Furious”, comes a comic book adaptation of a futuristic superhero seeking revenge. The movie will feature the popular Vin Diesel, and he will be joined by Sam Heughan, Eiza Gonzalez, Toby Keddell, Talulah Riley and more.

The movie will be a cinematic debut for director Dave Wilson, who is known for visual effects, with his works include “Avengers: Age Of Ultron” and several video game’s cinematic.

Synopsis of the movie can be found below:

“After he and his wife are murdered, marine Ray Garrison is resurrected by a team of scientists. Enhanced with nanotechnology, he becomes a superhuman, biotech killing machine – Bloodshot. As Ray first trains with fellow super-soldiers, he cannot recall anything from his former life. But when his memories flood back and he remembers the man that killed both him and his wife, he breaks out of the facility to get revenge, only to discover that there’s more to the conspiracy than he thought.”

KL Tower and Petronas Twin Towers are featured in the trailer but with very little context. Still, it’s always exciting to know that our country is making a cameo in a blockbuster.

“Bloodshot” comes out on 20th February 2020.


13 Types Of Grab/MyCar Drivers We Have All Encountered

For those of us who can’t afford a car (or simply choose not to get one), MyCar and Grab are real blessings from the supreme leader up above.

Not only is it cheaper, it is also way more convenient. You don’t have to deal with the traffic, you can get work done while commuting, you don’t have to go round and round looking for parking, and you don’t have to worry about monthly payments and servicing and all that hassle that comes with owning a car.

Taking MyCar and Grab consistently also means that you meet someone new almost everyday. Sometimes the ride feels like a walk in a park, sometimes it drives you up the wall. If you’re someone who is a proud MyCar/Grab rider, here are some things you’ve probably encountered while getting a ride:

This really depends on whether you’re an introvert or an extrovert. Some people really do enjoy talking to their MyCar/Grab drivers, learning about their previous job and how they ended up here. Some people are not very chatty, especially when it’s still early, so a chatty driver could be a nightmare.

2. The “silence is golden” a.k.a Best Driver Ever

This is a blessing – especially when it’s only 8 am and you haven’t had your caffeine fix for the day.

We Malaysians love free stuff. Some drivers just know how to win our hearts with a free bottle of mineral water and FruitPlus candies.

Sometimes, the driver does everything right. His driving is good, he follows Waze impeccably, and he gets you to your destination on time. However, his car had such a bad odour that you have to hold your breath the entire time, and that can make the ride extremely uncomfortable for you.

5. The one who starts giving you life advice

It all starts with “Where are you heading?” or “What did you study?” And then the MyCar/Grab uncle launches into a long speech about what you should or should not be doing with your life. While he probably means well, you don’t need a lecture, you’re already getting one from your parents every day.

6. The ones who calls you and asks you to cancel

Um, no, I’m not going to cancel because A) I have to pay RM5 and B) It will affect my rating as a rider. If you don’t feel like driving, you shouldn’t have become a driver in the first place.

7. The one that cancels on you after you’ve waited for 15 minutes

First, the app said your driver is 5 minutes away. After a while, it says 7 minutes. You blink, and 7 becomes 15 minutes. You’re still willing to wait, because if you cancel and request and it will an even longer time. And then your driver cancels on you.

8. The one never follows Waze and then gets stuck in traffic and you’re already late

Y U DO DIS. WAZE IS THERE FOR A REASON. Unless you’re 100% sure where this place this, please use the navigation.

9. The one who is lost but doesn’t call you – and don’t answer when you call them either

You know how weird it is when you’re looking at your app, and the car is making 360 turns in a one-way street. And then it just doesn’t move for a solid 10 minutes, and you have no idea where your driver is. You try to call them, and they don’t answer. You text them, and there is no reply. What other choice do we have here?

10. The one who starts telling you about his divorce

11. The one who hits you with the “Please call me next time for ride to airport” text

12. The one who tries to convince you to join as a driver

First of all, why would I Grab or MyCar if I already have a car?

13. The one that tries to flirt with you

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WINNERS: Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day At Malones!

Thank you troopers for diligently sending in your submissions for our St. Patrick’s Day celebration at Malones Irish Restaurant and Bar contest. The week has come and gone and we’ve got our list of FIVE lucky winners who will be rockin’ out to Johnson’s Motorcar at their Malones outlet of choice.

Congratulations, peeps! There’s a pint of green beer/stout and and an exclusive Malones T-shirt waiting for you when you visit the outlet you requested for in your entry. To claim your prize, head on over to the Malones Irish Restaurant and Bar outlet of your choice on the date you’ve selected. Your names will be on the guestlist. We can’t say how much we’re so super jealous of you guys. Gosh!

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(UPDATE) Hype’s Now Playing: W&W – The One

One of the world’s most popular Dutch trance and house teams, W&W, is making their way back to the dance music charts again, it seems!

W&W’s new single ‘The One” has been officially released through Mainstage Music, sub label of Amsterdam-based record label Armada Music. By making use of the late Whitney Houston’s song, the Dutch DJ duo honours the famed vocalist and created a potential chart-topping record in the process.

“The One” was inspired by Whitney Houston’s classic “How Will I Know”, which has become widely known for being her 2nd song to top the Billboard Hot 100 Chart, as part of her 7 consecutive number ones in the chart of the U.S. Magazine. The family of the singer (who passed away on 11th February 2012) gave official permission for the use of the vocal sample.

Upon the release, W&W said, “We are really happy we got the opportunity use this iconic vocal sample. It’s simply special and we feel it goes really well together with the melody lines in the song. Already proven to work for us in the clubs and on the big festivals, we are excited to show ‘The One’ to the whole world now!”

W&W are expected to score big with the new single. They have previously ranked #1 on Beatport on more than 10 occasions, including the critically acclaimed single “Bigfoot”.

“The One” saw its live premiere in March during Ultra Music Festival (UMF) in Miami and has been one of the most anticipated records ever since. For lack of better word, this is definitely “The One” single worth waiting for, and it’s progressive house at its finest.

The moment that you’ve been waiting for is finally here!

W&W has just released the official music video for their latest track, “The One”. Quite a stark difference from the duo’s usual style of music videos, this one features adorable animation that’s fitting enough for a love story. Aww :)

For moe information, hit up W&W’s Facebook page.


CMCO 2.0: Two People Allowed To Sit Beside Each Other In Cars

There was uncertainty amongst Malaysian citizens on whether two people can sit side-by-side in the same car during the Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO).

Senior Defence Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob has since cleared up the confusion through a live press conference yesterday (11th November).

What’s clear now is that there is no ruling that the passenger of a car must be in the back seat while travelling during the CMCO. The Defence Minister stated that the only SOP to take note of is the maximum number of 2 people in the car and both must be from the same household.

“I have said this many times, there is no rule saying that one person has to sit behind while the other person sits in front of the same vehicle. There is no rule preventing people from the same household to sit separately in the car. You don’t even have to wear masks if you’re from the same house and are traveling in the same car,” he stated.

Previously, social media was abuzz after a video of a driver getting fined because his wife was seated next to him emerged. According to the live conference, the Defence Minister said that he immediately contacted the highest ranking officer of Bukit Aman upon watching the video to ask about the situation.

“He told me that the video was deliberately made to defame the reputation of the police. The driver wasn’t fined because his wife was sitting next to him but because he was using his phone while driving,” Ismail Sabri explained.

Now that the ruling is clear, don’t forget the other SOPs such as sanitising your hands and practicing social distancing. May we break the Covid-19 chain together.

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“Avatar: The Way of Water” – Ending Explained; Kiri’s True Parents & “Avatar 3” Predictions

It’s finally here! The sequel to the cinematic event of the 2000s and the highest-grossing film in the world with Director (and deepsea explorer) James Cameron giving us “Avatar: The Way of Water”. The film picks up years after the events of “Avatar” with Jake Sully, Neytiri and their very big Na’vi family going up against the greatest threat to Pandora, one that forces them to make new friends and fight alongside their aquatic Pandoran cousins against the insidious humans.

“Avatar: The Way of Water” is but the beginning of a long war with Cameron promising at least four more sequels on the way, and with the third film being shot back-to-back with “The Way of Water”. Furthermore, there’s a lot to discuss in light of the film’s shocking reveals and cliffhanger ending. So join us as we break down the ending of “The Way of Water”, what it means for the future of the franchise and what fans can expect to see in “Avatar 3”.

Massive spoilers ahead obviously, you’ve been warned.

By the end of “The Way of Water”, we were expecting Jake and his family to go back to the Omaticaya Clan after bringing such devastation to Metkayina Na’vi. Surprisingly though, the Sully family are now officially welcomed into the Metkayina Clan after the passing of Jake and Neytiri’s eldest son Neteyam, whose soul is now part of the Metkayina’s Tree of Souls. The same tree that we see Jake and Neytiri link with to briefly visit their son. This makes us wonder though, do the Na’vi have different afterlives depending on which tree they join when they die? They probably all feed back into the planet’s god and biosphere Eywa anyway but still, we’d love to see the sequels explore more of the Na’vi’s spirituality.

Speaking of Eywa, one of the biggest mysteries throughout the film is the avatar Kiri, whose mother is Sigourney Weaver’s Dr Grace Augustine from 2009’s “Avatar”. Throughout the film, it’s shown that Kiri has a strong connection to Eywa and the flora and fauna of Pandora. This culminates with Kiri being able to control bioluminescent fishes to save Neytiri and Tuk from certain death. When she tries to learn the identity of her father from Grace in the Tree of Souls, her vision is cut short and she convulses. Mysterious indeed… We’ve got some interesting ideas on Kiri’s origins but we’ll get to that later.

By far the most shocking moment in the final act of the film is when Neytiri threatens to kill Miles “Spider” Socorro, the son of Colonel Miles Quaritch to save Kiri from Quaritch’s Na’vi Recombinant clone. We know at the beginning of the film that she never approved of Spider becoming Jake’s adoptive son but we didn’t think she’d go that far!

Oh but the twists don’t stop there. In spite of the fact that Quaritch nearly killed Spider’s whole Na’vi family, Spider still goes out of his way to save Quaritch before running away back to Jake and the Na’vi. This decision will come back to haunt Spider and the rest of Sully family. When Neytiri finds out that Spider saved the man who killed her son, all hell is going to break loose.

Finally, we get to the true main character of the entire film: Lo’ak. In spite of being a stubborn pain in the ass, the kid has got the makings of a great leader just like his father. His friendship with the killer Tulkun, Payakan is giving us big Toruk Makto vibes with him taming a seemingly untamable beast the way Jake did with the Great Leonopteryx in “Avatar”. The Na’vi will need all the brave leaders they can get with the coming war with humanity.

As mentioned by Eddie Falco’s General Ardmore, the humans of Earth aren’t just coming to Pandora to mine for rare materials. No, they fully plan on colonising and terraforming the planet since Earth is dying. If you thought the Resources Development Administration (RDA) forces we’ve seen thus far are bad, just wait until the full force of Earth lands on Pandora. It’s going to be a war the likes of which the Na’vi have never seen. We predict that in the next film, Jake will unite the Omayatican and Metkayina clans together to make war on the invading human forces as both species fight for their very survival.

War often has casualties and if we had to guess who’s going to die in “Avatar 3”, it would be Jake Sully. Think about it, the majority of “The Way of Water” has been focused on Lo’ak’s journey as an outcast trying to live up to his father’s image as Toruk Makto. By the end of the film, Jake finally recognises Lo’ak’s talents after losing Neteyam. Lo’ak will probably be hesitant at first about taking up the mantle of leader due to him blaming himself for his brother’s death but through some encouragement from his love-interest Tsireya, he’ll step up. And through his relationship with Tsireya, Lo’ak will be the bridge between the Omaticaya and the Metkayina Na’vi.

Another prediction we have is that Spider will eventually betray the Na’vi to join the humans. Now, some of us were expecting the Quaritch clone to perhaps have a change of heart and join the Na’vi with Spider convincing him. However, an interview with Director James Cameron confirms that Quaritch will in fact be the main antagonist throughout the next three sequels. So if Quaritch isn’t going to turn, then Spider will. Spider’s fall to the dark side will most likely come after Jake and his family find out about him saving his clone daddy at the end of “The Way of Water”.

Well, things are looking pretty bleak for the Na’vi but the tides could turn with the help of their secret weapon: Kiri. So let’s establish some facts before going forward. We know that Kiri is indeed Grace’s biological daughter, which means at some point Grace was impregnated and gave birth to Kiri. That being said, we don’t think Grace got it on with some random Na’vi and conceived Kiri. No, and hear us out, we believe that Kiri is born a virgin’s birth and that Eywa used Grace to bring create a physical, walking manifestation of her will on the planet. We believe that Kiri is Eywa’s avatar!

Think about it, how else is Kiri able to instinctually have a connection to all animals and plants on Pandora to the point of being able to even control them? It is said Eywa isn’t just the Na’vi’s goddess, she is literally the central intelligence behind all natural life on the planet.

According to Hindu tradition, the actual meaning of the word “avatar” is an incarnation of a deity in a bodily form. If Kiri is Eywa’s avatar it would not only explain her unique god-like powers but the reveal would also explain why Grace and Kiri’s conversation in the Tree of Souls was cut short. Eywa doesn’t think Kiri is ready for the truth. Mark our words, Kiri is the key to defeating the RDA and human invaders. Forget Master of All Four Elements, Kiri is the Avatar of Pandora itself!

In any case, what did you think of “Avatar: The Way of Water”? Do you agree with our predictions? Be sure to let us know!


#Sewol: South Korean Captain Of Ill-Fated Ferry Sentenced To Life In Prison

An appeals court has sentenced the South Korean captain of the Sewol ferry to life in prison on a murder charge, strengthening an earlier conviction.

Lee Joon-seok was at the helm when the ferry went down in April 2014 killing more than 300 people, mostly children. He had been found guilty in November of gross negligence and sentenced to 36 years, but relatives of the dead were furious he was not convicted of murder.

The appeals court gave 14 other crew members lighter sentences.

The disaster, which took place on 16th April 2014, was one of the worst maritime disasters in South Korea in decades, and triggered widespread mourning. It was blamed on a combination of illegal redesigns, the overloading of cargo, the inexperience of the crew member steering the vessel, and lax government regulations.

The judge in the appeal court was scathing in his verdict on the actions of the captain. He said abandoning the Sewol was like a doctor deserting sick and dying people in hospital. The captain’s actions, said the judge, left his charges on his ship in a state of fatal and indescribable suffering.

The decision is likely to be academic because the captain is nearly 70 and so was never likely to be freed under his previous sentence.

Prosecutors told the Gwangju court Lee deserved the death penalty. They had argued that he had abandoned his passengers, leading to the deaths of 250 high school students and “inflicted an incurable injury on their parents”, according to Yonhap news agency.

But families of the victims staged a protest outside the court, unhappy that the sentence was not even tougher.

“He should have received death penalty. Imprisonment for life? They want to give life sentence to a person so that he can peacefully die when he is old?” Jeon Myung-sun, father of Sewol ferry victim Jeon Chan-ho asked the protesters, according to AP.

As seen in the picture above, Lee had been captured on video and in photographs leaving the ship while passengers remained trapped inside. He had apologised for abandoning passengers but argued that he never intended to sacrifice their lives and had said he was “confused” during the incident.

On Tuesday (28th April) the court also gave new sentences to 14 other crew members, ranging from 18 months to 12 years in prison. They had previously received longer jail sentences of five to 30 years.

Jeon Il-ho, a judge at Gwanju High Court, was reported by Reuters as explaining that the new sentences took into account the fact they were acting on orders. He said:

We drew a distinction between the captain Lee Joon-seok who has a grave responsibility and crew members who took orders from the captain. And we considered health conditions of the crew members and actions they took in the rescue operation as well as how they boarded the ferry Sewol.

President Park Geun-hye has vowed reforms and also agreed to demands from grieving relatives to salvage the ferry, amid ongoing protests by South Koreans.

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