round up the week .. and a day (movie journal: letter from iwo jima)
Sad news today... Demi left us back to China. While it's expected for a while now, the event still stroke me as both sad and sentimental. Cousin was a complicated woman. both mature and childish, inspirational and traditional. There is great sorrow in seeing her depart physically, but i'm sure we would never be too far away. All the best for the rest of your life journey, my dear cousin, for whatever life throws at you. make that journal an interesting one, a grand one, and a good one.
in other news, we finally watched the critically acclaimed letter from iwo jima today, and i'm happy to report that the experience has been different and memorable. while the production has a very heavy american flavour, the core story is still about the emotions and choices that the japanese soldiers went through in the dying days of their empire. without checking facts, it is highly doubtful that such a lenient general ever was in power for the japanese force in the pacific island battles, it nonetheless showed the cruel and brutal side of the war that we are increasingly coming to appreciate these days. i couldn't help but imaging the effect of this movie on current serving soldiers in iraq from the american perspective, how a mum of the soldier would react after watching this film, of the brutal consequences they are required to face when their letters are returned by a dressed army administrator on their doorstep. I would pray that in generations that follow us, such choices and consequences would never again have to be presented to us, however that experience will enrich our cinematic works.
Also had the opportunity to test drive a few cars lately. falcon straight 6 has been making favourable impressions on me ever since the refreshing launch of BA falcon a few years back. i can recall the excitement in the press and in ppl about the revival of ford after the dreadful and tasteless AU and AY falcon. i'm especially interested in sportier variants of falcon XR6 and FPVs, personally judging by the look alone i would choose a falcon XR6 over a commodore SS anyday, so that brought us forward to a sunny afternoon at our local ford dealership. previous experience with ford has been mixed. their partnership with Mazda has produced some good global vehicles such as my first laser, but that car, while robust, is a bit agricultural. it's not very modernised and the suspension basically gave up. a far while back i also tested the acclaimed focus, but its heavy steering put me off somewhat, and that car isn't such a stand out star to me comparing to the stellar Gold TDi performance or the price of a Astra CDi. its probably not as reliable as a plain vanilla Corolla too for my money, so it was left out of consideration early. plus ford brand isn't such a rarity to us anyway. but once again i've mustered enough respect for the blue oval to taste its latest incarnation of family car the falcon BF series 2. the test day was an especially hot one, searing temperature. the most stand out feature of falcon, to me, is its brilliant, brilliant ZF 6 speed transmission. how good is that tranny? in every gear and any speed, it's never coarse, never jerky, always silky. while the NA 4 litre engine didn't have the oomph i expected, it didn't lack in power enough. however the brake wasn't holding the car up too good though, i almost make the type skid at an intersection, which surprised me a lot because it wouldn't happen in my Swift. but that could be due to falcon's size and weight. steering wise not much to comment, as as light as mazdas and has some connection to the road i guess, that's the most i can tell.
once again it shows how good the swift is though. i can't really tell which chassis/suspension setting was better for normal use, the falcon or the swift. in terms of power it probably didn't matter that much given the power to weight ratio and how heavier the falcon must be over Swift. but if i'm ever sold on the falcon, it would be for that ZF transmission. next time Cadbury makes another chocolate ad, it should put that ZF 6 speeder in the back, running voice-over: Cadbury chocolate, smoooooth as a ZF.
Mazda has been selling its 3s like cheap ice creams on a hot day. i think it's gonna be in top 3 if petrol prices keeps increasing (which incidently it is going to given the recent hike by OPEC, AGAIN). took a spin in a 3 this afternoon since i've got nothing better to do at hand. plus talking to a car salesman is always my favourite weekend passtime. 3's brake certain doesn't have falcon's undecisiveness, and its steering is light and pointy, good for making fun thucking the car around corners at highspeed. 2 litre engine actually didn't feel that much power over the good old astra's 1.6. and it's only a 4 speed. who still use 4 speed in a medium car these days? Golf has 6 speed DSG for goodness sake, even the civic has a respectable 5 speed auto, 4 speed is just not good enough. i'm sure that will be addressed in the next mazda 3 update.
in other news, we finally watched the critically acclaimed letter from iwo jima today, and i'm happy to report that the experience has been different and memorable. while the production has a very heavy american flavour, the core story is still about the emotions and choices that the japanese soldiers went through in the dying days of their empire. without checking facts, it is highly doubtful that such a lenient general ever was in power for the japanese force in the pacific island battles, it nonetheless showed the cruel and brutal side of the war that we are increasingly coming to appreciate these days. i couldn't help but imaging the effect of this movie on current serving soldiers in iraq from the american perspective, how a mum of the soldier would react after watching this film, of the brutal consequences they are required to face when their letters are returned by a dressed army administrator on their doorstep. I would pray that in generations that follow us, such choices and consequences would never again have to be presented to us, however that experience will enrich our cinematic works.
Also had the opportunity to test drive a few cars lately. falcon straight 6 has been making favourable impressions on me ever since the refreshing launch of BA falcon a few years back. i can recall the excitement in the press and in ppl about the revival of ford after the dreadful and tasteless AU and AY falcon. i'm especially interested in sportier variants of falcon XR6 and FPVs, personally judging by the look alone i would choose a falcon XR6 over a commodore SS anyday, so that brought us forward to a sunny afternoon at our local ford dealership. previous experience with ford has been mixed. their partnership with Mazda has produced some good global vehicles such as my first laser, but that car, while robust, is a bit agricultural. it's not very modernised and the suspension basically gave up. a far while back i also tested the acclaimed focus, but its heavy steering put me off somewhat, and that car isn't such a stand out star to me comparing to the stellar Gold TDi performance or the price of a Astra CDi. its probably not as reliable as a plain vanilla Corolla too for my money, so it was left out of consideration early. plus ford brand isn't such a rarity to us anyway. but once again i've mustered enough respect for the blue oval to taste its latest incarnation of family car the falcon BF series 2. the test day was an especially hot one, searing temperature. the most stand out feature of falcon, to me, is its brilliant, brilliant ZF 6 speed transmission. how good is that tranny? in every gear and any speed, it's never coarse, never jerky, always silky. while the NA 4 litre engine didn't have the oomph i expected, it didn't lack in power enough. however the brake wasn't holding the car up too good though, i almost make the type skid at an intersection, which surprised me a lot because it wouldn't happen in my Swift. but that could be due to falcon's size and weight. steering wise not much to comment, as as light as mazdas and has some connection to the road i guess, that's the most i can tell.
once again it shows how good the swift is though. i can't really tell which chassis/suspension setting was better for normal use, the falcon or the swift. in terms of power it probably didn't matter that much given the power to weight ratio and how heavier the falcon must be over Swift. but if i'm ever sold on the falcon, it would be for that ZF transmission. next time Cadbury makes another chocolate ad, it should put that ZF 6 speeder in the back, running voice-over: Cadbury chocolate, smoooooth as a ZF.
Mazda has been selling its 3s like cheap ice creams on a hot day. i think it's gonna be in top 3 if petrol prices keeps increasing (which incidently it is going to given the recent hike by OPEC, AGAIN). took a spin in a 3 this afternoon since i've got nothing better to do at hand. plus talking to a car salesman is always my favourite weekend passtime. 3's brake certain doesn't have falcon's undecisiveness, and its steering is light and pointy, good for making fun thucking the car around corners at highspeed. 2 litre engine actually didn't feel that much power over the good old astra's 1.6. and it's only a 4 speed. who still use 4 speed in a medium car these days? Golf has 6 speed DSG for goodness sake, even the civic has a respectable 5 speed auto, 4 speed is just not good enough. i'm sure that will be addressed in the next mazda 3 update.
Labels: ZF the chocolate
posted by Rich8rd | 7:03 AM
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