| seen on a tee shirt: Surfers' dreams are wet
- overheard during a discussion-turned-into-an-argument this morning: "me playing politics? you should look yourself in the mirror. you are the one playing politics ok?". ouch! bitchy.
- now that everybody had, more or less, watched or knew about The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, wouldn't it no longer be curious?
- more weird dreams this past week. this time it involves some mutant powers of absorbing another person's character and traits. oh and some porn scenarios that should not be repeated in a public post. ahem.
- how often do u have a boss that, besides work, talks to you about politics and bureaucracy, conspiracy theories, and how much he hated the company that we are in. surreal or what?
- new obsession: homemade ice cream. that and the various unbelievable flavors that look DUH on paper but taste so heavenly when you tried them.
- "我身骑白马 走三关/我改换素衣 过中原/放下西凉没人管/我一心只想王宝钏" 身骑白马 - 徐佳莹
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| Term of the Day: 马后炮 or Monday morning quarterback
one who criticizes or passes judgment from a position of hindsight
- it's safe to say that i am a magnet for really weird dreams. the latest one (read: last night) had me visiting 3 army friends at NUS, or i think it's NUS. somehow they are still students there so they brought me around the campus and show off their ultra-spiffy lockers which also act as a larger pigeon hole of sorts. Chee Kuan, one of my friend, showed it off by opening his and taking out 3 library books which he earlier on requested on-line, and had it delivered straight into his locker. then as i was leaving, i realised its already turning dark, and somehow i managed to walk from NUS to Holland Village with a goodbye. there i bumped into Sean and Anderson, another 2 of my army buddies. i was waving to Sean but noticed Anderson is ignoring me by turning around and walking away. i was furiously asking Sean why, and he merely replied that Anderson is rushing off to meet someone. i wanted to go after him but somehow he always stayed at least 400m ahead of me. soon i gave up and decided to go home but i discovered i cannot remember which direction is the right one, and i kept coming back to this same slope that leads to a small open area. WEIRD.
- after watching both trailers, i realised that i am genuinely more interested in "I Love You, Man!" than Micheal Bay's "Transformers 2".
- my credit card bill ballooned to an amount so atrocious that i subconsciously left it in my other bag - for a whole week now. damn the British pound exchange rate.
- i don't get it. you are a self-proclaimed foodie. because i know that you are, i let you have the pick of the place. somewhat, you chose something that you know you won't like, and then spend the entire dinner time making faces and criticizing everything. if there is point to your elitism, i don't get it. i'm merely a lowly peasant you obnoxious #@X%*&!*.
- French New Wave turned 50 several days/weeks back. Happy Birthday French New Wave! i still love you - you know i do.
- "Let the right one slip in/And when at last it does/I'd say you were within your rights to bite/The right one and say, What kept you so long?" Moaning Myrtle - Morrissey
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my messy bed or what i did this past sunday:
(left to right)
如果有一件事是重要的 - 陈珊妮 (CD)
my Grindhouse notebook
Hana yori mo naho - Kore-eda Hirokazu (DVD)
Downtown Owl - Chuck Klosterman (book)
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| geek moment
Posting this via wifi with iTouch - fun but the battery kinda sucky!
prob should make more use of the wifi capabilties but another drawback though......
FAT FINGERS!!! | | comments: Leave a comment |
| probably i need to blog this down before the feeling went away.
still tired. cant hardly keep my eyes awake during work time. guess the funeral is putting its toll on me. i did cry in the end, a little, even though i told myself not to. after all at the ripe old age of 94, me grandad has seen enough, hear enough, experience enough. and its a relief for himself and my uncles and aunties too. the illness and the subsequent fall has put enough pressure on me youngest uncle. but yet the love for his dad made him travel from house to the ward to work and back. cant say much about the rest though. dirty laundry better stayed indoors i suppose.
but yet, in a rather serene manner, my sister and i shared the same vivid memory of my grandad. that one time when he, on a whim i suppose, took us out for tea with me late grandma. and the most funny thing is that me and my sis got chased by a really huge black dog, and me grandad, for the love that he had for us, chased after the dog with a huge stick. that sort of imprinted into our young minds.
nevertheless, the impact still hits me days after the whole thing ended. being senile, he cant even remember who i am everytime i pay him a visit. makes me sad that thats not how i remembered him.
but thats how life is and will be. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| "Our obsession with spoilers has a diminishing effect, reducing popular criticism to a kind of glorified consumer reporting and the audience to babies. People outraged by spoilers should avoid all reviews before going to the movies or reading the book they’ve waited so long for, because the fact is all criticism spoils, no matter how scrupulous."
--- [Giving It All Away] by NATHAN LEE (The Village Voice) | | comments: Leave a comment |
| Desert Island Top 7
as inspired by Lucid Screening
the idea is "to pick the impossible: 7 movies to watch while you are trapped on a desert island with no hope of rescue". so the first thing that came to my mind was to pick films that i have repeatedly watched but still not be sick of them. plus if i were to be stranded on an island, i probably wouldnt choose films that will make me (a) cut my wrists (b)jump into the sea and (c)cut my wrists AND jump into the sea. so after much consideration, heres me not-too-heavy (out goes 侯孝贤 and 蔡明亮), not-too-depressing (Donnie Darko, 杨德昌, the Dardennes and even Ozu's Tokyo Story) selection:
蓝色大门 (Blue Gate Crossing)- 易智言
how can something so simple be so devastingly beautiful. everytime i watched it, the same feelings are being evoked. the shy and carefree 张士豪, the determination of 孟克柔 and the cowardice of 林月珍 transcended this coming-of-age movie to another level altogether. i was so moved by it that i made a mixtape several days later after the first viewing. (all thanks to ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.1) wurx for recommending and lending me the dvd.)
重庆森林 (Chungking Express) - 王家卫
blonde wig, rain coats, expired canned pineapples, No 633, 王菲's first movie acting stint, housebreaking, California Dreaming and of course, conversations with inanimate objects - all these blend into a romantic little number that feels like a breathe of fresh air. i have seen this so many times - TV, VCD and eventually DVD, that everytime i played it, my sister will exclaimed very loudly "not Chungking Express again?!".
太阳雨 (Rain Dogs) - 何宇恒 Ho Yu Hang
growing pains and self discovery so somberly captured with flickers of hope scattered all over.
Love Letter - Shunji Iwai
i still cry each time i watch this - even though i already know the plot by heart. damn i'm an emotional sap but this lovingly crafted masterpiece makes me go all warm inside. now that aint a bad thing.
Romeo & Juliet - Baz Luhrmann
fine - so it had a sad ending - but the exhilarating transformation to a modern setting is mind-bogglingly brilliant - not to mention a spot-on soundtrack, a very lovely Claire Danes and a drag Mercutio. classy.
Pulp Fiction - Quentin Tarantino
so i'm a Tarantino bitch - that is before he decided to go up his own arse. filthy language, lines and lines of philosophical theories and a non chronological narrative makes this a hell of a ride. and of course an overweight John Travolta doing his dancefloor moves again.
X-Men 2 - Bryan Singer
how can one be stranded on a island and not bring along a blockbuster? thats so unthinkable. i watched it 5 times when it was theatrically released and every single time i spotted something new. combining several threads of X-men storyline (Weapon X, The Phoenix Saga), Singer's retelling of the X-men gets me thumbs up for perfect characterization and great plot hatching. i even teared during that last act. told cha i'm an emotional sap. | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
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in order of preference
Syndromes and a Century (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
Ad Lib Night (Lee Yoon-ki)
The Bet Collector (Jeffrey Jeturian)
Before we fall in love again (James Lee)
Khadak (Peter Brosens & Jessica Hope Woodworth)
Opera Jawa (Garin Nugroho)
The Other Half （应亮）
Bamako (Abderrahmane Sissako)
Grbavica (Jasmila Zbanic)
The Boss of it all (Lars von Trier)
Things we do when we fall in love (James Lee)
Village People Radio Show (Amir Muhammad)
Fay Grim (Hal Hartley)
Gardens In Autumn (Otar Iosseliani)
The Family Friend (Paolo Sorrentino)
Black Gold (Marc Francis & Nick Francis)
Suburban Mayhem (Paul Goldman)
Scream of The Ants (Mohsen Makhmalbaf)
Like A Virgin (Lee Hae-jun & Lee Hae-yeong)
Slumming (Michael Glawogger)
M (Ryuichi Hiroki)
Aachi and Ssipak (Jo Beom-jin)
Don't Look Back (Kim Young-nam)
The Silence (Cate Shortland)
Prague (Ole Christian Madsen)
Fuck (Steve Anderson)
Container (Lukas Moodysson)
no surprises as Apichatpong topped my list as the favourite film for this SIFF - even though i have yet to grasp the full picture. also beautiful are the quieter moments on Adlib Night, the third feature by Lee Yoon-ki which resonates with an aching restrain and the human emotions aplenty in The Bet Collector.
right at the bottom is Fuck, which the whole purpose of making such a film is to utter that expletive as many times as possible. pointless but worth some laughs in a full auditorium. moving back up a little, Prague is too cold and unaffecting for me, The Silence has some good atmospherics but not very engaging. M is uninspiringly tepid despite a midly interesting storyline.
the biggest surprise for me was that i didnt hate Mohsen's Scream of The Ants as much as i thought i would, despite the Bruno Dumont-like pretentiousness and worthless mumbo-jumbo dialogue. the redeeming factor could be due to the unintentionally funny moments towards the end of the film. now thats something Dumont is lacking.
so far so good. will try to make a final list once im done with Opera Jawa and erm....the other shows which i missed. :p
updated as at 03.05.07
Opera Jawa was a lush and enchanting experience for me. watching the song-and-dance routines on the big screen is exhilarating but admittedly requires a lot of concentration and patience. most definitely worth the effort by the end - simply breath-taking.
also did 2 Korean films - the animated Aachi and Ssipak, whose crass humour and violent scenes, bogged down by an incoherent plot, becomes a bore by the half-way mark. Don't Look Back, the first feature film by director Kim Young-nam, made up of 3 different stories (an omnibus of sorts i guess) - each with varying degree of completeness. at times evoking the style of Tsai-Ming Liang, this overlong movie is too uneven, probably too wrap up in its arthouse notions.
updated as at 14.05.07
Grbavica won the Golden Bear in Berlin for first time writer-director Jasmila Zbanic. it evoked the same feelings i had when i first watched La Promesse by The Dardenne Brothers on big screen. in-yer-face reality full of grit and emotions that gotten more intense as we slowly uncover the supposed truth. a huge wallop of a film.
apparently centered around a woman trapped in an overweight man's body, Container is all about her monologue, played over monochrome images of an overweight man (deja vu!) and an asian woman and various settings like a hotel room. her monotonous baby-doll voice has a somewhat hypnotic drone and she talks about everything and anything, most irrelevant, unconnected topics, one after another. avant-garde is NOT an understatement. | | comments: Leave a comment |
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so i underestimate myself. i bought 5 of the above shelves from Ikea on an impulse. each one holds 180 cds, so i figured 5 would be enough since it amounted to 900 cds. i even took leave and did a huge amount of shifting and cleaning up but guess what? oh sure the shelves came out really neat and makes my room erm.....less like a storeroom. and sure it did what it says - 900 of my cds are up there. but then i have, oh i dont know, around 900 more lying around in boxes. me mum looked kinda aghast when she realised that the shelves i bought is not enough. i can almost hear the "why dont you sell some away" mantra that she keeps repeating when the subject of my storeroom comes up.
now im in the midst of counting how many cds i actually owned. Chuck Klosterman owns around 5000 pieces and i aint going that way. so my new resolution is to stop buying cds unnecessarily. just don't ask me whats unnecessary. | | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
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