March 2020 – GUREZU

Are They Worth The Hype? “Crash Landing on You” and “Parasite” Review

Published on March 28, 2020March 28, 2020 by Gurezu14 Comments

Hi Friends! I am mostly stuck at home for over two weeks now as we mostly are because of corona virus outbreak. While I am pretty bummed out about it because we had to cancel our most anticipated dream trip this year, I must say I am seeing a light in this dark situation. I have more time to blog and to collaborate with my International Blogger Friends!

Jirah and I eventually chose this topic as we both have fondness over Korean dramas although not as much as her. Together we take a look on the two recent South Korean recent hits: Crash Landing on You, which somehow gave us smile amidst the nCOV-19 filled news. For the movie, there was “Parasite” which won “Best Picture” and was largely celebrated as the very first non-English movie to have won the “Oscars”.

Are they worth the hype?

(WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!)

Crash Landing On You

Yoon-Seri, a successful businesswoman, was caught in a paragliding accident and landed unknowingly in North Korea. Luckily a kindhearted , handsome and low-profile rich North-Korean soldier Ri Jeong-hyuk found her. He gave her shelter and paved ways to bring her back to South Korea secretly. Complication arises when they fell in love. (Awww…)

Gurezu’s Verdict

Before I answer the question if this series deserves the raves, I want to voice out my thoughts after finishing it.

I hated the ending! I felt so sad for the second couple. Why does it have to be so tragic? My Korean heart was crying. Seung-Jun’s death in the last episode is just heartbreaking. At the latter part of the drama, I became more invested in Seun-Jun- Seo-Dan love story more than the main couple. Although their romance was short, their dramatic scenes had more effect on me. To tell you the truth, I grew to love Seung Jun’s character more than Jeong-Hyuk. Why? Hyun Bin’s character is too dreamy, too good to be true. Such man exists in fantasy world. Unlike Seung-Jun’s character which has more reality in him (except the shootout scene. That was LOL)

He is not perfect . He is obviously a sinner and most likely a kind of person you won’t recommend to yourself and to your friends. But as the time went on, you see the kindness in him. He did risk his life to save the main couple several times even he won’t get something out of it. And his journey to desire in becoming a better person for Seo-Dan was just endearing to watch. It’s his unexpected character development that made him charming. I really wanted Seo Dan and Seun jun to be happy but well, the writer did not give it to them. So I really don’t like the ending but in a good way because it means the substorylines are also worth it.

I am not so crazy about the Riri couple. The acting is superb and they totally look good together. They have strong chemistry but for me it kind of fizzled out toward the end mainly because Jeong-Hyuk feel so unreal. What made me love this series was the unexpected camaraderie Ser-ri formed with Jeong-Hyuk’s subordinates and the nosy neighbors. Their antics and misadventures when they went to South-Korea made the overly-long episodes fun to watch. My favorite was the one who extremely loves K-drama.

To answer the question, do this drama deserved the hype? I would say yes! Though I’m not crazy about it, I understood why it was a hit. It has intriguing storyline and effectively made me laugh and care about their conclusion. The side plots are so good too. I also felt that people checked this out because of “North Korea” plot in it. Who won’t be curious right? We have read and watched news that North Korea is such a dreadful country. They launched nuclear weapons. There are rumors of inhumane and brutal execution there. Given that their country has military tension for years, I think the writer and the production just jump off the fence to create this series. According to what I read, it made positive reviews for humanizing North Korea and showed that it’s possible for North Koreans and South Koreans to be friends with each other. I guess the series was beyond love story and they tried to make a difference. So yes, it deserves the hype. I love it.

Final Verdict: 8/10, worth the hype

JIRAHLIZATION VERDICT.

WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!

Rating: 10/10

Worth The Hype: YES!

It was dragging at the beginning when Se-Ri and her family’s background are being portrayed. It is the usual feud of Rich Families over money. But it gets exciting when Se-Ri, a business woman quite known in South Korea accidentally paraglided in North Korea and met a reserved-yet-honorable-no-connection-Captain-turned-member-of-high-end-military-family. I thought the story would just revolve around Se-Ri trying to escape South Korea without going through Military Process. But that would be very dragging, right? Seri successfully went back to her home country with the help of Captain Ri and the rest of his team who have grown to love Se-Ri themselves. Then another half of the story unfolded when Captain Ri hasto s sneak into the South to protect Se-Ri from danger.

Since half of the story rolled over into Se-Ri continuously escaping the North while staying at Captain Ri, it helped us understand the life of a community living under a restrictive and highly authoritative country. They were laid back, far behind from technology, follows rules strictly, and yet oozes with loyalty, care and love for each other. I am fond of how CLOY was able to make the scenes lighter and mostly fun. CLOY is unique as it is a story of hope that people in the North and South Korea can live harmoniously. It is not just a typical love story but a story of how a North fell in love with a South in a very odd setting. Their love story depicted how two seemingly divided country can also unite–someday.

PARASITE

This is a story of a family with no stable livelihood infiltrating the lives of a rich family household by posing as highly qualified employees.

Gurezu’s Verdict.

I have made a full blog entry on this entitled “Why Parasite Deserves the Best Picture Awards?” and I was the one who recommended Jirah to watch this. It’s obvious where I stand for Parasite. Since I already wrote a separate blog about it, I would like to re-state the gist of why it deserve all the love it gets.

1. Universal theme in a unique story.

2. No clean-cut good or bad characters.

3. Genre-bending movie

4. Technically flawless.

Aside from that I love how the director meticulously framed each scene and used the vertical lines to drive the imagery on the separation of poor and rich classes. Every scenes has meaning. It was deep but highly entertaining to watch at the same time. That’s for me the reason why it stood out in the academy even breaking the barrier of “subtitle-hating” audience.

And with the COVID-19 crisis, the movie proves to be more relevant. There was a heavy rain scene here in Parasite. Just like a typical rainy season scene in the Philippines, the poor family’s house got submerged in neck deep flood.They spent the night in a gymnasium with the other families that lost their homes. But for the rich family, it was just a minor inconvenience. It ruined the camping birthday celebration for the youngest member of the family. But the next day, they considered the heavy rain as a blessing to clean the polluted air. Unlike with the poor family, that event altered their life drastically. This build up the tension that lead to tragic conclusion of this movie. See? Just like in our situation today, you can clearly feel the contrast of the rich and the poor. It’s easier for the rich to comply for quarantine because they have the resources to live. But for the poor, it’s a matter of life and death. If they don’t go to work, they won’t be able to feed their families. It’s easy for the rich to criticize and call out the people who can’t comply. There’s a clash because the privileged can’t empathize enough. The lessons of this movie resonates in the society yesterday and today. And this is why I love it.

FINAL RATING: 9.5/10, totally worth the hype and the award

Jirah’s Verdict.

Rating: 10/10

Worth The Hype: YES!

Most of the people I asked who watched this movie said that they found this movie boring. It was because they thought it was a horror movie! That’s why you better read the synopsis before watching a movie to set your expectations. I wasn’t really planning to watch but since we are making a collab post for the International Blogger Friends, Gurezu recommended this movie. There were two families that depicts social status: Poor and Rich. The Poor Family: Kim’s, is living under the edge, struggling to make ends meet by folding pizza boxes.The Rich: Park’s. Their daughter needs an English Tutor. As they trusted the previous tutor’s recommendation, they accepted Ki-Woo Kim who posed as a graduate from a prestigious University. That’s when they infiltrated the Park’s.

It is cunning and devious how the Kim’s kicked out the current hires of the Park’s. Ki-Woo’s sibling, Ki-Jung, posed as an Art Therapist, and helped the Park’s son, navigate his trauma through art. Then they plotted ways to replace the loyal housemaid and the driver.

One word came to mind after watching the movie: TRAGIC.

It was all over the movie. The tragedy of how a poor mindset will really make you poorer. How they clung to the Rich and acted as if it is their own. The tragedy of how a Rich guy would frown and smirk at a Poor one because of their smell or standing in life.

Another plot twist is that the husband of the loyal housemaid is living under the basement the only the previous owner and the loyal housemaid know. When the housemaid was kicked out, she begged to sneak in the house when the Park’s were out of town.

That’s when the tragedy of tragedies happened.

The housemaid died due to head blunt trauma when one of the Kim’s kicked her to the basement so the Park’s won’t see her. The husband who is living off the basement for as long as he can remember plotted a revenge to the Kim’s and killed their daughter (Art Therapist Poser) during the Park’s son’s birthday party.

In the midst of chaos, Mr. Kim, killed Mr. Park, most probably because of bruised ego when Mr. Park continuously looked down on him.

It was a continuous struggle for both families. I can’t imagine how the families survived the trauma with what happened that day.

It effectively showed the wide gap between social statuses. It portrays the cunning behavior of the poor and the high and mighty entitlement of the rich. The movie effectively narrates the sick and gruesome details of the poor in Korea.

It was tragic. Real tragic. I and all 6 of us in the movie house was moved. We were laughing at some witty scenes and screaming at the thrilled and scary ones. I hope more have come to see the movie. It was tragic but full of real stuff and life realizations.

Here’s the trailer for the “Parasite” if you want to catch a glimpse.

And Oh before we end this blog, let’s take a look at the side by side pictures of actors that were both in “Crash Landing on You” and “Parasite”! Such great actors.

Mother of Seo Dan is also the mother of the poor family in Parasite. The uncle of Seo Dan is the basement man in Parasite. The contrast of their characters is just unbelievable.

In conclusion, Jirah and I agreed that they are worthy of praise and hype. How about you? What do think of these two South Korean hits? Let us know in the comment.

I’m inviting everyone to check out my friends blog Jirahlization.wordpress.com. She’s a Filipina writer based in UAE. She wrote the book ” The Book of Single (The Lost Testament)”. Get to know her more on her blog.

PS:

Hi JIRAH, I would like to thank you for accepting my International Blogger Friend invitation and doing this collaboration with me. I know are very busy yourself so I really appreciate the time. I hope you’re doing well in UAE. How’s the country holding up by the way ? I rarely see UAE in news amidst Covid-19.I hope it means you have lower case of the virus there. I hope this won’t be the last time we talk. Rest assured that I will support your blog. I hope to meet you personally soon!

***DISCLAIMER*** ALL PHOTOS and GRAPHICS here are not mine.

My February "Potty-Plant" Themed Bujo Set-up

Published on March 22, 2020March 22, 2020 by Gurezu11 Comments

My Bujo Flipthrough! Please follow me!

I started bullet journaling this year to lessen my bad habit of killing time through social media. Now this hobby and as well as writing my thoughts have been my refuge from this stay-at-home lifestyle. Join me as I flipthrough my February 2020 bullet journal entries.

Part 1: The Cover Page. To set the mood and theme of this month.

Part 2: My Habit Tracker. This looks like a beanstalk actually. I only decided to track 5 habits here. But they are hard to acquire habits. I draw leaves on the corresponding branch if I executed that particular habit.

Part 3:My Blog Plan Tracker. This is where I write my blog topic ideas. I don’t have problems with ideas. It’s the execution that is hard as always haha.

Part 4: Weekly Spreads!

FIRST WEEK. For the first week of February, I suddenly had this idea of combining a mood tracker and my daily thoughts in a comic strip format. Each leaves will have an expression depending on my overall disposition that day. With the comic balloon, it will narrate my thoughts. I also keep tracked of my estimate spending for each day.

For a closer look when the spread is not yet filled-up. So last Feb 3, I was hopeful that NCOV will be over soon because I heard that HIV treatment worked well in a patient. I was also hopeful that time that our March-April trip to South Korea will push through. But writing it now during a lockdown, it made me sad because obviously, it did not end so soon as I hoped it would be. And our South Korean trip was also cancelled. ***Sigh***

SECOND WEEK. I continued this concept on the second week. But the it’s the potty-plants with faces this time. I also continued to track the estimate spending for each day. The goals for this week is still in the same corner.

THIRD WEEK: I didn’t have time to do the same style so I just pasted stickers here and there then write whatever. It did not adhere much with Potty Plant theme. But I made sure the color will still be mostly brown. These stickers are vintage outfit stickers.

FOURTH WEEK: By this time, I already received my Paperang 2.0 that is why there are now images of each day of the week here in the fourth week. The images are captured and printed directly from mobile phone. I will blog my experience with Paperang soon.

Part 5: My Sunday Spreads. I decided to write a full-page Sunday journal each week. Also I set this as my evaluation day the things I achieved that week and my points to improve for the following week.

Part 6: Payday Tracker. I started this last month. This aim to track how I divide my payday earnings.

Part 8: Filler spreads. These are my first prints in Paperang 2.0.

Just random full page calligraphy when I feel it,

Part 9: Monthly Evaluation. The part where I review my goals and if they are achieved at the end of the month. I also reflect on my habits ,pain points and improvements that I should carry over the next month.

That ends my February set-up! Introducing my March 2020 Cover Page as the ending. My theme next month is “Throwback Memories”.

Before I end this post, I also invite you to follow my youtube channel. I will post more bujo stuff soon.

Or maybe you’re interested to be my International Blogger Friend. The idea is to invite everyone in blogosphere and have at least one friend in each country so that means at least 195 blogger friends. It’s not limited to wordpress blogger, or to blogsite platforms. If you are a Instagram blogger, facebook , youtuber, tiktoker! You are welcome! For more details, you can check out my About Page here.

Thank you in advance!

Remember, you are awesome and wonderfully made,

GUREZU

For inquiries and collaborations, LET’s CONNECT!!!!!!

Facebook: https://web.facebook.com/Gurezu/
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How to Exchange Philippine Pesos to Taiwanese Currency (NTD)

Published on March 14, 2020March 14, 2020 by Gurezu2 Comments

Foreword: I’m publishing this blog in the midst of NCOV-19 crisis. I know it’s a bit untimely because I , even myself, cancelled my travel this summer and I advised everyone to do the same. But this blog has been on my backlog for a long time. And I’m publishing this with hope that few months after, this pandemic will be over and our medical experts would discover the cure to combat this virus. Few months after, we will be able to travel again without fear and this blog would finally serve it’s purpose. Let’s pray and be healthy wherever you are.

It’s been months after we went to Taiwan and I remember that on that time, I had a hard time researching for the best ways to exchange Philippine pesos to Taiwan NTD. There are youtube vlogger discussing one way another and I did find few blogsite but most of them were old. I don’t know, maybe I didn’t search enough. But just in case, you are having a hard time too, I decided to write my own experience and discoveries on the ways to exchange Philippine Peso to Taiwan NTD and compare it to one another. The process might apply to other currencies as well but this experience is particular for Taiwanese Dollars.

How to Measure if the Exchange Rate is Good?

To buy Taiwan Dollars, the lower the selling exchange rate the better. So we will compare these ways base on their selling exchange rate. Searching through google as of this writing, 1 NTD would be equal to 1.69 Philippine Peso. Let’s see which of the following ways would offer the best exchange rate.

TWD vs. NTD: Taiwan Currency

First of all, when it’s your first time to travel in Taiwan, you may be confused of the two currency being used which are TWD and NTD. They are actually the same in terms of Tawain Currency. It’s just TWD is being used more in more serious note like foreign exchange rates. NTD is more of international English name of Taiwanese currency. But their value is the same.

Option 1: Thru BDO Bank:

This option is one of the best because of low exchange rate. But this is only applicable if you still have at least a month left before your departure time. As of this writing the selling exchange rate for BDO is
1.71. If you want to check the current buy exchange rate, go to this BDO forex link: https://www.bdo.com.ph/mobile/forex

So if you exchange PHP 5000 to Taiwan Dollars in BDO, that would be 2,923.97 TWD. (Computation: 5000 divided by 1.71)

Here are the important notes on how to exchange by BDO.

1. Currencies other than USD are available in selected BDO branches only. Please click here to view list of selected branches.

2. You can only exchange money on the BDO branch where you have a bank account. So if your branch is not on this list here , it’s out of the options.

3. When you are ready to exchange your money at the BDO branch, you need to bring your passport and itinerary. It’s important to know that Taiwan dollars is most probably not readily available at your branch. So the estimate for your Taiwan dollars to arrive will usually take 2 to 3 weeks after you visited your branch.

PERSONAL EXPERIENCE: We only learned about this method within the week of our departure. I visited the BDO in Picadilly BGC branch and was informed that there were a lot of requirements. I don’t have a BDO account in this branch and we couldn’t wait for 2 to 3 weeks anymore. So we were not able to use this method. So I conclude, this is a good way to exchange PHP to TWD but it is inconvenient and would require a lot of time.

Option 2: Thru a Money Changer

The second option would be the nearest money changer in your area. But this require a little research since money changer sites have different exchange rates. In our experience, I exchanged money in Kabayan BGC Branch. They update their Facebook page on the current exchange rates and respond quickly in our inquiries. At that time, we chose this because it somewhat lesser in other options that we had.

TIP: Message them in Facebook first to ensure when they have Taiwanese Dollar in the nearest branch . Unlike the first option, it only takes one day. This is the private message that I had with Kabayan. At that time, 1.85 is the selling rate. We exchanged 15,000 for me and my friends.

So for example, if you have PHP 5000 , this will be equal to 2,702.70 Taiwanese dollars. (Computation 5000 divided by 1.85)

Option 3: Exchange money in Taoyuan Airport

You can also bring your Philippine peso in Taiwan and exchange it on the money changer in Taoyuan Airport itself. There are two banks which has money changer kiosk in Taoyuan which operate for 24 hours. You can ask anywhere and they would consistently say this option has the least competitive rate. However, it offers convenience and security as it is readily available in the airport.

Personal Experience: My friend decided to exchange his P3000.00 in Bank of Taiwan Money Changer kiosk. At that time of our travel, the selling rate was 1.9354. So he got 1,550.00 Taiwan Dollars. You can also view this on my vlog at 00:11.

So for further comparison, PHP 5000 would be equal to 2,583.4 Taiwan Dollars.

To see the current exchange rate, this is the forex website of two banks in Taoyuan airport.
Bank of Taiwan: https://rate.bot.com.tw/xrt?Lang=en-US .
Megabank: http://rate.megabank.com.tw/bulletin02_02.asp

Take note that this site displays Taiwan to other currency rates so you should look for PHP buy exchange rate and multiply it to your Philippine Peso.

Option 4: Withdraw in Taiwan ATM

You can also bring your local debit mastercard or credit card in Taiwan and withdraw in Taiwan ATM. Since the pocket money I brought was not enough, I had the chance to use this option as well. The exchange rate depends of the bank. You should also take note that aside from the exchange rate, each bank has it’s fee which will be deducted on top of your withdrawal.

Some important notes:

1. Your card should bear a mastercard or visa card.

2. Before traveling abroad, call your bank to enroll your account in international withdrawal to avoid the risk blocking of your account. Here’s some details for BPI. https://www.bpiexpressonline.com/p/1/866/international-access .

3. There’a fee for every single withdrawal abroad. For BDO, refer to https://www.bdo.com.ph/personal/accounts/atm-debit-cards/limits-fees.
For BPI: https://www.bpiexpressonline.com/p/1/1916/fees. As of this writing, they were both 3.50 USD.

Personal experience: I used my BPI card to withdraw P1500.00 NTD. It’s not hard to withdraw in Taiwan as ATM have available English translation. When I checked my statement, it charged me a total of P2687.00. Subtracting a total of 180.00 from international withdrawal fee, then that would be P2507.

Computing the exchange rate I had with using BPI ATM card, that would be

2507/1500=1.67

And if we are going to exchange our PHP5000, it will be 2,994 NTD.

To summarize the exchange rate of four options:

Bank: 1.71
Money Change:1.85
At Taoyuan Airport:1.9354
International ATM Witdrawal: 1.67— the best

CONCLUSION

With these four options, I would say International ATM withdrawal is the best. But you should not rely entirely with ATM withdrawal. I believe it would be best to have cash on-hand as well before flying to any different countries. So for me the best is to exchange a lesser portion of you pocket money from Bank then for the larger portion withdraw it in Taiwan. In case something went wrong online, you won’t be empty-handed.

That’s all folks! I think we can all agree that the start of 2020 is a bit stressful. Let’s pray together that in the second quarter , the world will trample the pandemic crisis. I’m positive all of this will be over.

Before I end this blog I would also like to invite you to be my International Blogger Friend. The idea is to invite everyone in blogosphere and have at least one friend in each country so that means at least 195 blogger friends. It’s not limited to wordpress blogger, or to blogsite platforms. If you are a Instagram blogger, facebook or youtuber, you are welcome! For more details, you can check out my About Page here.