Watched Old Boy yesterday. I have to say that this film is TOTALLY AWESOME. It's difficult not to compare this to Se7en, coz both film involves meticulously planned act of vengeance. Se7en is a great film, but it really pales in comparison to Old Boy. Perhaps the comparison is not too fair, as Se7en was realistic, while Old Boy sometimes go into the realm of slick editing, arty settings, and surreal flashbacks. The most detailed crime in Se7en took 1 year to execute; Old Boy's took 15 years.
Oh Dae-Su is the unlucky man who got kidnapped and placed in a locked appartment for 15 years. There's no window, and the only thing moving in his prison was the TV's images. He was fed well, and when he tried suicide, he'd be rescued by his captors, only to live longer in his prison. They even drugged him so he cannot become INSANE (which can be a good way to escape from his living hell). From the TV, he found out that his wife was murdered, his daughter's missing, and he's the police
s prime suspect. He dunno who kidnapped him, how long is his sentence, and what he did to deserve this. So he started guessing who did this to him, and jotted down the names of people he wronged in his life in a notebook. Before he knew it, he filled volumes and volumes of notebooks with names. Only then he realized his so-called 'innocence' is not so innocent after all. He wanted vengence, and started training his body for the task by punching the walls till his knuckles peel off.
15 years has past, and he woke up one day on a rooftop, OUTSIDE. The world he knew was gone. His family was no more. The only thing keeping him alive and sane, then, was REVENGE. Little did he know that his captor was not yet finished with him. In fact, it has only just begun...
A plan that takes 15 years to accomplish? Just how deep is His hate? What did His target do to deserve all this?
Really makes you start thinking who you have wronged so far in your life, and what consequences would come out of it. Be careful of how you treat other ppl. Be VERY careful.
Sunday, October 31, 2004
Quote / Unquote
"There's a right girl out there for every man."
-- I just happened to like the WRONG ones.
-- I just happened to like the WRONG ones.
Friday, October 29, 2004
The ULTIMATE Temptation!
December 14th. Never have I loathed the long wait between now and that day. On that day, things will come full circle, and my collection will be complete. Get ready to drool :P
Exhibit A)
4 DVD. 50 mins of extended footage. Over 4 hours of supplementary materials. WHOA!
The Return of the King DVD (Special Extended Edition)
Exhibit B)
5 DVD. Miniature of Minas Tirith. Exclusive box artwork. 50 mins of extended footage. Over 4 hours of supplementary materials. WHOA WHOA!
The Return of the King DVD (Special Extended Edition) Collector Gift Set
Exhibit C)
12 DVD. 120 mins of extended footage. Over 12 hours of supplementary materials. WHOA WHOA WHOA!
The Lord of the Rings - The Motion Picture Trilogy DVD (Special Extended Edition)
Exhibit A)
4 DVD. 50 mins of extended footage. Over 4 hours of supplementary materials. WHOA!
The Return of the King DVD (Special Extended Edition)
Exhibit B)
5 DVD. Miniature of Minas Tirith. Exclusive box artwork. 50 mins of extended footage. Over 4 hours of supplementary materials. WHOA WHOA!
The Return of the King DVD (Special Extended Edition) Collector Gift Set
Exhibit C)
12 DVD. 120 mins of extended footage. Over 12 hours of supplementary materials. WHOA WHOA WHOA!
The Lord of the Rings - The Motion Picture Trilogy DVD (Special Extended Edition)
Wednesday, October 20, 2004
Freak Nation!
Well, just when you think Singapore Idol's reject "Banana Man" was a sight to behold, get this: the song he sang at the audition is REAL. Check out the flash clip HERE! (Requires Macromedia Flash Player)
Check this out! Remember: this is a perfectly still picture... but are your eyes telling you that?
Freaky...
Check this out! Remember: this is a perfectly still picture... but are your eyes telling you that?
Freaky...
Sunday, October 17, 2004
The days went by...
On Friday night, I had dinner with Weelee and said that I was happy because I'd get to see Ms N again the next day during our NIE course.
On Saturday morning, I did see Ms N, but I was not happy. That's because she's sitting with another guy. There's only 2 of them in that row of seats. And she looked happy.
On Sunday night, I tried to think back what I did since then, but I couldn't. I just didn't care. I vaguely remember hovering around Jurong Point yesterday. Went to choir practice today but then found out there's audition and no practice, and I couldn't leave coz it was raining heavily. Went for dinner alone at JEC after the rain stopped, then had coffee at Jurong East Library.
I stoned there from 5.30pm to 7.30pm, not really paying attention to things.
I was in a state of utter indifference to the world around me, and I guess I looked kinda scary, coz people were looking at me funny. I can't say that I feel sad, coz I dun feel like crying. I guess I'm depressed, deflated. There's a constant gnawing feeling in my heart, like a bag of hungry rats is eating me away from inside. I felt nothing, coz I have nothing to feel for anymore.
No books were marked today. And I think I'll just hover around like a ghost for the rest of the week.
That's how the days went by.
On Saturday morning, I did see Ms N, but I was not happy. That's because she's sitting with another guy. There's only 2 of them in that row of seats. And she looked happy.
On Sunday night, I tried to think back what I did since then, but I couldn't. I just didn't care. I vaguely remember hovering around Jurong Point yesterday. Went to choir practice today but then found out there's audition and no practice, and I couldn't leave coz it was raining heavily. Went for dinner alone at JEC after the rain stopped, then had coffee at Jurong East Library.
I stoned there from 5.30pm to 7.30pm, not really paying attention to things.
I was in a state of utter indifference to the world around me, and I guess I looked kinda scary, coz people were looking at me funny. I can't say that I feel sad, coz I dun feel like crying. I guess I'm depressed, deflated. There's a constant gnawing feeling in my heart, like a bag of hungry rats is eating me away from inside. I felt nothing, coz I have nothing to feel for anymore.
No books were marked today. And I think I'll just hover around like a ghost for the rest of the week.
That's how the days went by.
Monday, October 11, 2004
How to make a B-movie?
Being one who watched countless B-movies since young, my feeling for B-movies has changed more than once. From being excited and interested when I was between 10-16, to being jaded when I was between 17-24, to being amused by it right now. B-movies have a tendency to become formulaic, so it doesn't matter whether the movie was made with $1,000 or $1,000,000. They've become so predictable that I can roughly type out a "primer" where you can just plug any B-movie in and it'll all fit just fine. This list is by no means exhaustive, and will be updated once I think of something new.
1) The cop is always late.
You hear me right. The police always show up AFTER our hero has fought till near-death and made a miraculous come back to clean up the mess.
2) If the hero has a team, there'll be at least 1 female and/or 1 Black. America being America, it would want its audience to believe that sexism and racism don't exist in films. But hey, we're talking B-movies here, so who are we trying to kid? This leads to the following points:
3) The Black dude will die/be wounded/be rescued by the hero like a helpless puppy. Reference: Deep Blue Sea, Predator, Alien, Aliens, Alien 3, Alien Resurrection, Terminator 2. Let's face it. If the Black dude is not the hero, there's no point letting him become anyone heroic, hence this point.
4) If the Black dude is the hero, then everyone from the other races MUST die. Reference: Blade, Predator 2, AVP, Spawn. Whenever the Black dude gets his just screen time, the director overdoes things and let everyone else who're not Black die.
5) The hero gets to bed the only female in his team with a lame joke. Reference: ALL James Bond movies.
Bond: (insert lame joke here)
Girl: Haha. You're lame and funny. Let's have sex now.
6) All action movies MUST have an action sequence within the first 15 mins of the movie. Before Speed, all action movies took at least 30 mins for anything remotely exciting to happen, such as The Poseidon Adventure, The Towering Inferno, Earthquake etc. After Speed, every action movie tries to up the ante by bringing forward the action earlier. Even the latest Exorcist tried this trick just for the sake of it.
7) Jean-Claude Van Damme, Steven Seagal, Chuck Norris, Dolph Lundgren, Hulk Hogan. Any movies starring these stars are sure B-grade disasters. The new celebrity added to this list is, unfortunately, Jacky Chan.
8) Shameless hint of a sequel. The villain lays eggs! The villain has a twin! The villain's belongings are shining! The villain is the hero's father/son/sibling! Whatever it is, the villain always come back, in one form or another.
1) The cop is always late.
You hear me right. The police always show up AFTER our hero has fought till near-death and made a miraculous come back to clean up the mess.
2) If the hero has a team, there'll be at least 1 female and/or 1 Black. America being America, it would want its audience to believe that sexism and racism don't exist in films. But hey, we're talking B-movies here, so who are we trying to kid? This leads to the following points:
3) The Black dude will die/be wounded/be rescued by the hero like a helpless puppy. Reference: Deep Blue Sea, Predator, Alien, Aliens, Alien 3, Alien Resurrection, Terminator 2. Let's face it. If the Black dude is not the hero, there's no point letting him become anyone heroic, hence this point.
4) If the Black dude is the hero, then everyone from the other races MUST die. Reference: Blade, Predator 2, AVP, Spawn. Whenever the Black dude gets his just screen time, the director overdoes things and let everyone else who're not Black die.
5) The hero gets to bed the only female in his team with a lame joke. Reference: ALL James Bond movies.
Bond: (insert lame joke here)
Girl: Haha. You're lame and funny. Let's have sex now.
6) All action movies MUST have an action sequence within the first 15 mins of the movie. Before Speed, all action movies took at least 30 mins for anything remotely exciting to happen, such as The Poseidon Adventure, The Towering Inferno, Earthquake etc. After Speed, every action movie tries to up the ante by bringing forward the action earlier. Even the latest Exorcist tried this trick just for the sake of it.
7) Jean-Claude Van Damme, Steven Seagal, Chuck Norris, Dolph Lundgren, Hulk Hogan. Any movies starring these stars are sure B-grade disasters. The new celebrity added to this list is, unfortunately, Jacky Chan.
8) Shameless hint of a sequel. The villain lays eggs! The villain has a twin! The villain's belongings are shining! The villain is the hero's father/son/sibling! Whatever it is, the villain always come back, in one form or another.
Sunday, October 10, 2004
I'm a sicko!
Yes, I am officially sick. Cough and sneeze. Went to the doc and was given an injection and slapped with a $50 bill. He gave me a 2-day MC to recover... but I don't think I'll use it... Got so many things to settle this week, how can I rest? Gotta slug it out, I guess...
Thursday, October 07, 2004
Saturday, October 02, 2004
Children's Day
Well well well... I finally got enough free time to update this blog. What have I been doing? Oh nothing much... besides setting an exam paper, preparing for a NIE assignment, marking books, preparing for Children's Day item, performing in a wedding, that is. My beloved PS2 has been neglected for a long time. I think she's gonna file for divorce soon. Darn...
On Children's Day, it was chaos for some of the items. Not all of us have time to actually run through our items. Someone in the group is always missing. My lindy hop item is the first item of the show, so we have the duty to raise the bar for this whole show, and I think we did quite a good job, and we actually had FUN doing it! :) The fun part about performing for students is that the younger ones just keep on waving their hands to their teacher on stage, like their biggest fan. For the other last minute items, some turned out to be quite good, while the rest, well, at least we hoped that the kids are too young to tell the flaws. :P
The supposed grand item is the finale, where all the spoof celebrities just went on stage one by one and just do whatever until the music ends (yes, it's THAT simple). We got Britney Sneers (spoofing Britney Spears), Buay Paiseh (Beyonce), Powder Bluff Girls (Powerpuff Girls), Bruise (Blue), Ta (S.H.E.), Front Stones (Flintstones). Too bad I got no photos for this extravaganza, as all of us were at backstage going, "Who's going out next huh? What's going on?". Well, what the heck? We're not out to win awards anyway. :P
My school's parents support group is always very impressive when helping us organize this kind of events. They actually bought KFC mashed potatoes and Pizza Hut pizzas for all the kids. Mind you, the pizza slices are bigger than some of the kids' faces! That led to some wastage, which was a shame, really.
I was assigned to look after my P1 kids, so I brought along my cam. :) When I asked them how was the show, all they could say was, "Eeee... you danced with a GIRL!!! Eeee..." It's a girl's school thing, I guess...
This gal is not bad in nature, but it's just so hard to teach her the lesson of communal living. Sometimes after I bark at her, she would stop talking/playing/fidgeting, but would be back doing it again after 2 mins. She would try to act cute to get away when I really looked mad. Then there are times when she would come to me to double check on the homework I've given out, or to let me check her homework corrections. Can't tell from this pic that she's a troublemaker, eh?
Troublemaker #1
Now this is a major headache. She displays no sense of remorse whether I talk sense with her or scold her. No homework ever come out from her. Then, she lies. Her classmates alienate her. She spits at them whenever they make the slightest remark about her. All teachers know about her. What annoys me is that during spelling, after I read the question, she'd say, "SO EASY!" Then her spelling would get less than 30. Her background is a sad story though. Parents divorced, now living with her dad who comes home late, and her grandma. Both can't help her with Chinese. Recently I've been calling her mom and dad, and I think she's starting to make progress. At least, I get to collect her work nowadays...
Troublemaker #2
Freaky Bunny (and kids love it!)
Kids with their pizza and mashed potato
Savouring the food...
Spot the BIG KID!
Clamouring for the camera!
Even I can't resist the camera :P
Kids will be Kids :)
My P3 Kids
The parents also prepared a sumptuous meal for the teachers after the children went home. Some of us were dead tired, but as you can see from this pic, there's a kid in all of us. :P
Even teachers become playful on Children's Day
I actually asked a friend to help me baked cookies for my kids as their Children's Day gift. It was phenomenal! I even gave out the crumbs to them. Hehe... now that's a tough act to top next year...
On Children's Day, it was chaos for some of the items. Not all of us have time to actually run through our items. Someone in the group is always missing. My lindy hop item is the first item of the show, so we have the duty to raise the bar for this whole show, and I think we did quite a good job, and we actually had FUN doing it! :) The fun part about performing for students is that the younger ones just keep on waving their hands to their teacher on stage, like their biggest fan. For the other last minute items, some turned out to be quite good, while the rest, well, at least we hoped that the kids are too young to tell the flaws. :P
The supposed grand item is the finale, where all the spoof celebrities just went on stage one by one and just do whatever until the music ends (yes, it's THAT simple). We got Britney Sneers (spoofing Britney Spears), Buay Paiseh (Beyonce), Powder Bluff Girls (Powerpuff Girls), Bruise (Blue), Ta (S.H.E.), Front Stones (Flintstones). Too bad I got no photos for this extravaganza, as all of us were at backstage going, "Who's going out next huh? What's going on?". Well, what the heck? We're not out to win awards anyway. :P
My school's parents support group is always very impressive when helping us organize this kind of events. They actually bought KFC mashed potatoes and Pizza Hut pizzas for all the kids. Mind you, the pizza slices are bigger than some of the kids' faces! That led to some wastage, which was a shame, really.
I was assigned to look after my P1 kids, so I brought along my cam. :) When I asked them how was the show, all they could say was, "Eeee... you danced with a GIRL!!! Eeee..." It's a girl's school thing, I guess...
This gal is not bad in nature, but it's just so hard to teach her the lesson of communal living. Sometimes after I bark at her, she would stop talking/playing/fidgeting, but would be back doing it again after 2 mins. She would try to act cute to get away when I really looked mad. Then there are times when she would come to me to double check on the homework I've given out, or to let me check her homework corrections. Can't tell from this pic that she's a troublemaker, eh?
Troublemaker #1
Now this is a major headache. She displays no sense of remorse whether I talk sense with her or scold her. No homework ever come out from her. Then, she lies. Her classmates alienate her. She spits at them whenever they make the slightest remark about her. All teachers know about her. What annoys me is that during spelling, after I read the question, she'd say, "SO EASY!" Then her spelling would get less than 30. Her background is a sad story though. Parents divorced, now living with her dad who comes home late, and her grandma. Both can't help her with Chinese. Recently I've been calling her mom and dad, and I think she's starting to make progress. At least, I get to collect her work nowadays...
Troublemaker #2
Freaky Bunny (and kids love it!)
Kids with their pizza and mashed potato
Savouring the food...
Spot the BIG KID!
Clamouring for the camera!
Even I can't resist the camera :P
Kids will be Kids :)
My P3 Kids
The parents also prepared a sumptuous meal for the teachers after the children went home. Some of us were dead tired, but as you can see from this pic, there's a kid in all of us. :P
Even teachers become playful on Children's Day
I actually asked a friend to help me baked cookies for my kids as their Children's Day gift. It was phenomenal! I even gave out the crumbs to them. Hehe... now that's a tough act to top next year...
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