A Squiggle’s Logic

Co Gai Xau Xi is an adaptation of the Colombian soap opera Yo Soy Betty, La Fea, from which ABC’s Ugly Betty also gets its start. It stars famed actress Ngoc Hiep as Huyen Dieu, a smart but unattractive young girl working for a fashion design company. Her hideous appearance begets many problems for her both personally and professionally.

Though I haven’t followed the series in its entirety, I am quite impressed with the cast and their skillful portrayal of the characters, most notably Ngoc Hiep. However, the Hanoi dialect is a total turnoff for me. Even Ngoc Hiep’s natural “mien Nam” accent has to be subbed with Phi Thanh Van’s voice.

With 169 episodes in total, Co Gai Xau Xi is the longest running series in Vietnam. If you have a passion for Viet series and enjoy a good laugh, you should definitely check it out.

Theme Song “Cho Em” performed by Lam Truong.

Actress Ngoc Hiep

After over a year hiatus, Mui Ngo Gai is back with the last 33 of its 105 episodes (originally 100 episodes).

The drama centers around Vi, an intelligent and respectful girl whose mother dies during labor. Her biological father, a wealthy business mogul already married to a woman of prestige, allocates a large sum of money to an indigent couple to raise her as their own on the countryside. The highlights of her childhood comes when a rich man from the city relocates his family to the neighborhood. Unbeknownst to Vi, that man is her biological father. She quickly befriends his 2 children, Khanh (who adores her) and Phuong (who envies her), as well as their friend from the city Truong (whom she fancies).

Several years later, Vi’s mother discloses the family secret that she’s adopted. Feeling betrayed, she moves to the city and is soon reunited with Khanh, Phuong, and Truong who attend the same college. Khanh’s feelings for her re-emerge, and he quickly wins her heart. Upon graduation, the four accept a job at her biological father’s company.

By twist of fate, she learns of her father’s identity. Realizing that Khanh is her half-brother, she abruptly ends their innocent courtship. As a revenge, she resigns from her father’s company, steals his business plan, and competes with him directly for an international business contract.

The series picks up with many unanswered questions. What will become of Khanh? Who will end up with Vi? How will the truth adversely affect each character?

I became addicted to Mui Ngo Gai for its intriguing plot and talented cast. The storyline is anything but predictable. The role of Vi’s adopted father is brilliantly played by NSUT Viet Anh. His sleazy facial expressions and drunken demeanor bring the antagonist to life. NSUT Thanh Loc perfects his role as a benevolent Pho Hoang owner, while NSUT Kim Xuan skillfully portrays a sensible wife and a loving mother. Ngoc Trinh brings charms and energy to Vi as a student, although she seems less believable as an unyielding business woman. Due to an illness, she did not reprise her role in the last 28 episodes. Instead, Hong Anh was casted, an extremely poor decision on the casting director. The dimpled face, soft spoken actress is even less convincing than Ngoc Trinh as an emerging business woman.

With 105 episodes, the series drags on like a soap opera, which at times becomes extremely boring and frustrating. Nonetheless, it peaks my interest in Vietnamese drama series. Plus it’s a great way for me to spend quality time with my parents, who enjoy watching it just as much as I do and whose color commentaries make it that much more interesting.

I have never seen the animated version of Alvin and the Chipmunks. Therefore I approached the CGI adaptation like a virgin on his first lay, expecting nothing more than an experience to remember; good or bad, long or short doesn’t make much of a difference!

I know, I know! It’s a bit twisted of me to associate a children’s classic with sexual connotations. Actually it’s more than twisted, it’s the Olympics of perversions, the Super Bowl of delinquencies, the World Series of aberrations. Ok, now I’m degrading the IOC, NFL, and MLB! But who cares, it’s my blog!

Anyways, Alvin and the Chipmunks turns out to be just that, a cinematic experience, nothing more and nothing less, although their high-pitched, helium-distorted overdubs draw much giggles.

The movie chronicles the rise to rock stardom of three delightful talking chipmunks: mischievous group leader Alvin, brainy Simon, and cuddly Theodore (apparently they were named after the executives at Liberty Records, the label that originally produced their songs.) As their habitat on the evergreen is cut down to become a Christmas tree, they find themselves in the home of Dave Seville (Jason Lee), a deadbeat songwriter who agrees to manage their mayhem if they sing his songs. The song’s a hit. The chipmunks are hot. Fame fluffs their fuzz with booze, drugs, and chicks (actually it’s waffles, toys, and tours), and exhaustion eventually drives them back to Dave’s nurturing hands. Awwww!

The majority of the laughs come in the first half, particularly in the opening scene where the chipmunks store their nuts for the winter, singing and synchronizing in squeaky unison to Daniel Powter’s Bad Day. More laughs are ensured when the beasties tear Dave’s house (and life) apart and make rodent use of his appliances.

Although the trio’s voices and mischiefs are adorably entertaining, the humor embedded in the movie comes short of laughable. Maybe it’s me, but flatulence and animal droppings just aren’t that funny. Resorting to such banter overtly displays the writers’ bland sense of humor.

As the movie progresses, the weak plot becomes more expected and the human actors become more dead. Jason Lee’s dull acting sucks the life out of the movie as he sleepwalks through his role with no sign of emotions, even when he screams that famous one-liner. David Cross, who plays the label’s executive Ian Hawke, is not cynical enough as an antagonist. And quite frankly, watching full-grown adults dancing to the chipmunk song is just weird.

Alvin and the chipmunks are cute, jazzy, and charming. However, the flat plot, dry humor, and lifeless acting are disheartening and severely depreciate the entertainment value of the flick. It’s a tragedy when CGI actors are more lively than the human ones. Luckily for Fox, kids are too naive to realize it and get suckered in nonetheless.

Logic Rating:

Know Your Ratings:

1 - I’d rather download fake torrents

2 - Not worth my HD space

3 - Queue it up

4 - Delete the porn (maybe just the softcores)

5 - Definitely download it, even with dial-up

Chipmunks Technology

In an interview with Fox News, Ross Bagdassarian Jr., son of the original creator, discloses that to generate the chipmunks’ voices, the actors must speak and sing at an extremely slow rate. The recordings are then sped up to produce the high-pitched timbre.