The Samurai-ffic Experience

Yesterday, I was able to attend the Advance Screening of Rurouni Kenshin Live Action Drama Movie in SM City North EDSA Cinema 7. I was very fortunate to be one of the winners of last week's promo made by SM Cinema North EDSA.

How did I join in their promo? Simply by following and mentioning @smcinema_north during the promo period. It can be anything! In my case I tweeted them about how much I really like to watch the movie, ever since I learnt about it.

Then come early Sunday morning. As I was waiting for the online streaming of some animes I was watching that time, I received an early tweet from the twitter handle. I was part of the winners' list!

They did DM me of the details. Of course, I got so excited for it, I almost had no sleep thinking about it and who will I bring with me.

I thought of having a contest, just like when I won some advance screening tickets way back in January but no one responded to it. I posted an invite to my first cosplay group, Cosplay Le Familia fb group. Jeff, a cosplayer I met during the Jerry Polence fan meet-up was the only one responded. After some minutes it was decided that he'll accompany me.

Around 3.30 pm, I went on my way to SM City North EDSA to find Cinema 6. Since I was not that frequent to that mall, I need ample time to find where to claim those 'golden tickets'. Luckily, I made it in their office around 4.30 pm. After claiming, I went to the nearest Catholic Church to give honor, praise and thanks to Our Lord, but well, that's a different story. Hehe~

The mass ended 5.45 pm, making me have some 'me time' in Uniqlo SM City North EDSA. Just as I was about to pay, Jeff called me up, saying he was already on-queue. Things got a little more exciting when we were able to meet [in my case, know] some cosplayers on line, so the queuing was not that bad. We even got a chance to be on-cam for some minutes. :D

When the clock hit 7.00 pm, they started to let us in. We chose the Orchestra seats, as per Jeff's decision. Then waited for the movie to start. Of course, it's not that easy. They had to show a bunch of sponsors during the waiting period. I guess they repeated the sponsors' ads for 10x or so.

And I, being not new to advance screenings, expected that there will be some prizes at stake. I didn't get wrong. In fact, I was able to grab a gift certificate from Paire [one of the sponsors] by answering the 2nd question. I really stood up for the 1st one but then a man got ahead of me for a few seconds. Talk about competitiveness haha!

Surprisingly, I saw some Rushers [avid listeners of The Morning Rush in RX93.1] in the house! Well, it was Elen who spotted me first. I don't know how 'coz the cinema was somewhat dim, or just because I was so loud talking to my friends. I was so glad to see Elen and Ron [Moja-jiichan], excitingly went to their place [which was just 2 rows in front of me] and greeted them happily! I was literally shouting and jumping for joy!

Of course, when the movie started, all was quiet... But everyone broke their silence during the fight scenes and the comedic parts! I really love their adoptation. It's really like bringing the anime into life. All were greatly done, even the actors and the stunts.

I really enjoyed the movie. Actually, I was craving for a rewatch upon ending the movie! The movie is really worth the wait! Every petition made was not wasted. It is really one of the best live action drama adoptation I have watched.

Also, I fell for Kenshin's actor, Satoh Takeru. I've been seeing and reading great reviews about him for the role since it was played on cinemas on August this year but little did I know that they were all true! He even surpassed my expectation of his portrayal as Kenshin. He even had the accent!

Good thing that SM Cinemas really made it possible for all otakus, especially the Rurouni Kenshin fans. We are really grateful for this offering. I hope this will open a new door of opportunity to have Japanese-Korean movies straight from their land of origin be played here.

This is a highly-recommended movie, not just for the otakus, but also to everyone. I hope everyone will get a chance to watch this highly-acclaimed movie.