High school's sweethearts are the sweetest

"..... Memory is the gift of time and is enough to bring a smile on your face ...."

I just watched "One Day", the movie about a couple who knew each other during their graduations' days in a potentially one-night stand situation, which both agree to just become friends. They agreed to keep in touch with each others and this lasted over a period of 20 years, which they met only one day a year throughout, due to their different locations.

You can imagine how hard this is going to be. However, given that both characters knew each other from their students' days at University, it became one of the "purest" relationships one would expect, and therefore the strongest to survive. Jim Sturgess played the main male lead role, Dexter while  Anne Hathaway played the main female lead role, Emma. Dexter was the one who travelled the world and enjoying affairs all over the places he went for work purpose. Over the years, both experienced changes in their life and they also met people along the way. There were little heartbreaks, but both still remain friends. What touches the heart is at the end, the movie gave a flash back on how they all get started knowing each others. You realized there was a very strong sense of friendships, making you believe whatever happened, both will be supportive of each others and never will that fade away and die.

"One Day" is a type of love story, purest in its own way, standing the test of time and distance all because both involved knew each other from their students' days. I had reviewed another similar movie, As good as it gets (see here). That movie told another type of love story. That was about baggage and personal issues that affected people way of communications. The couples in "One Day" has different issues, but it seemed "easier" when both knew each others from the students' days, because you will just trust it, not that you take it for granted. You gave it time and put efforts to see it worked out. You can also be open about it and share your views, express yourselves with trusts in the other person. I guess if one has baggage issue, things are perhaps just too much to take on, and even being open could easily make you lose your composure and hence affected the quality of the relationships, which sadly is quite a realistic issue these days.

A friend told me he knew of a couple who knew each other since 10 year old, but only re-connected after 40 years. Time never stops down, as it passed us by, it made changes in our perceptions of relationships with people.Someone whom you knew before, after many years may become strangely a "right person" when you re-connected again. Memory is the gift of time and is enough to bring a smile on your face and all those in the memory become the sweetest . And yes, if nothing else happened, you would still have the friendship and still, the sweetest! :D

"Half life" gone, and it's time to go home...

"..... a place only you know where....."

Why do people have to live their life as if it is an epic story. Perhaps in the modern day, it is already a little confused what made us live the life the way we live it. You have movie that idealized the scenario and then you have people chasing after those ideal and then "live life to the full", is there a lacking of originality of some sorts. Have people already forgotten how to live life from their hearts? But then we are often haunted by insecurity. This could be what we see in ourselves and how we see it, perhaps a little close to identity crisis, but still you keep "running away". running away like what Aruna did in "half life", a story about "running away" and then later "coming home".The story builds its plots in three locations, London, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. There are a lot of flash backs and reflections in the story, you felt at times you were watching a movie. It is the sort of structure that is not easy to build upon. There is certain subtly and precision that are essential in each important section, which is self-contained, since the development of the story is non-linear.

Putting it in a linear or straightforward sense, it is about the story of Aruna, a young Bengali woman living in East London, but suffered from bipolar, and how she decided to walk out of her marriage one evening. A story like this seems very familiar to most. It is about "looking for oneself", "looking for true love", etc. "Half life" is in fact a story like this. It has a plot that built up following one to the next, until at the end you found everything falls back together. Taking the journey that Aruna began, she first left London, went to Singapore to meet her former boyfriend,and then both went to Kuala Lumpur to meet the ex-boyfriend's father, where the ex-boyfriend has some issues.

At the end of it, all get sorted and Aruna, with the encouragement of her ex-boyfriend, thinks she needs to get on. Aruna found that for her, "half life" has gone, but it's time to go home, the place where her heart belongs and only she knows where, as Aruna began to listen to her own heart, taking a step back and taking things slowly. In the novel, the story ends, but in a real life, for anyone, it is actually just another beginning. The beginning of the next "half life".......

When two "sick" people try to fall in love

 "..... they battled against their own demons to bring out the deepest sincerity hidden in there...."

I own a small 14" little black box that come with a VHS function. This is one of the oldest  TV model you would ever see in the world now. I have a few classic movies in VHS in my collection. One of my favorites is  "as good as it gets" by Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt.

"As good as it gets" is a love story, about two sick people. One with Obsessive Compulsion Disorder (OCD) and one other loaded with baggage. The moving part of the movie is that Jack Nicholson, while suffering from OCD, tried his very best to woo Helen Hunt. It was never easy, and he never quite get it right, either finding himself too lost for words or express the wrong thought. It all appeared like a comedy, but not funny at all if it is in real life. Obviously, Helen Hunt, who is the single mom in the movie was all too hung up over finding true love in her life, to the extent, putting all her heart and soul in her young kid becomes her top priority and she became over-anxious with tiny details.

It's an old movie and I guess most would have known the ending or the story for sure. The ending of the story does not necessarily imply that both Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt will live happily ever after. It only showed both finally able to reach the same frequency and thread of thought and communicate properly. There were some awkward moments of expressing love to each others. Those scenes where both kiss were very hard to watch, which is not surprising. Love is not necessarily romantic, especially if two "sick" people try to fall in love. They have to try again and again, until they get it right, which is why Helen Hunt must remind Jack Nicholson, "Try not to ruin it by being yourselves" each time the latter tried to "say something nice". It is very moving because they are battling against their own demons to bring out the deepest sincerity hidden in there.There is quite a substantial degree of resilience and endurance in there in this rather intense love relationship. This is something quite realistic, it might take a lifetime for someone to overcome that.

The ending of  "as good as it gets" implies that life is not all about getting married and have kids (not that if you do that, it will be a bad thing). Perhaps this is not something my parents' generation will understand. They seem to believe once marriage is on the card, things will sort itself out. There is an implicit fear of staying alone all your life and people are reacting to the fear by resorting to marriage, putting their issues about relationship aside, causing potential problems later. No one should be in a hurry to reach an ending, thinking all will end well in a marriage. because things never end, it only comes in stages, one after another. The question is what is the next stage.

In "as good as it gets", coming to the end of the movie, you never quite feel Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt will be together forever or they will become a steady couple. You only see that they resolve their conflicts they have with each others and they are able to communicate properly, and that is a good step forward. Whether they will marry or not, that however is not important anymore. One step at a time, one stage to the next, up until the day you die, you are only reaching at a certain stage, that still does not mean the end. That is why life sometimes feel like a journey, even in our love life, whose next to you, married to you or not, in a relationship or not, they are not quite as important. The important thing is they are THERE in the current stage of your life They are THERE with you, at least they live in your heart, in that special place.

How to read a novel

"....like reading a person..."

I have decided that reading novel has a different meaning to me. It felt like getting to know someone from the beginning up till the end, and this someone gives you his or her trust in you, and willing to share everything. Reading a novel really feel like getting to know a friend. You may say finishing a good book is like losing  a good friend, but then this means you start looking for another "good friend", and this goes on, at the end of it, u r looking for "someone" that feels and thinks the same way as you,and to be related to them in some ways.

I want to reference a book I read recently, "nothing to lose",which states that "...life has no narrative, it is random and inexplicable and formless, and that's why people want to believe in something, because it makes the unbearable meaninglessness of it explicable. Fiction does that: it soothes a deep searching part of you, because you can take the chaos of the world and give it shape, give it sense." This sums up nicely as to why I can feel "related" to the story I read. 

"Nothing to lose" is a story about Maude, a ghost-writer facing her guilt and regrets over the death of a young boy caused by a car accident involving her, given that she was not charged for that act, as approved  by the court. You can imagine how one could be engulf by such thoughts and almost breakdown a normal way of living one's life, until one day, a stranger's knock on the door and an unlikely escape to Scotland begins to convince her that, almost in spite of herself, that she may have something to lose. To keep this short and not to give too much away, it's a story with a happy ending.

In "nothing to lose", the superb writing style of the author is able to let me find traces of me in it, especially when facing one's fear, one's guilt, the power of the "narratives", it makes sense and it shapes up things, it helps me see the source of all the problems and then see how to go forward from there. The ending though is a happy one, does not often mirror how it looks like in real life. But then life does not stop there but in novel, in movies, it stops. That is the point where you "lost" a good friend. The important thing, however, lies in how the good friend get to that state. It's the direction, it's the journey the good friends take. The ending or rather the final destination, may not be as perfect as those in real life, but we are our own writer/director in the reality and only we know what makes us happy. The novel or movie only gives as an ideal and perhaps that is good enough as a source of "hope", all else, it's up to us to write our own "happy ending".

Don't be a stranger to your past

 "forgiving" one's past is one thing, recognizing and acknowledging its significance is another

 I make it a habit to read a good novel once a year on my holiday. This year, I read Louise Dean's "Becoming Strangers" while holidaying in Singapore. This novel is so depressive that it is inspiring. The first sentence of the novel read, "Before he 'd had cancer, he'd been bored with life.." You can imagine as this gets one, how depressive it gets. The novel is about two couples meeting on a holidays in the Caribbean island. Jan (the one with the cancer) and his wife met George and his wife. The latter is the older couple. Alongside, they met other visitors on the holidays and through their interactions, having meals, drinking in the bars, going on sea cruising and BBQ, all the background and pasts of the various characters slowly uncovered and following the end of their holidays, most of them seemed to have found lights towards the other end of the tunnel as they left their holidays and got on with their lives.

The main plots of the story central on Jan and George and issues facing their lives.  I found a common theme floating between Jan and George's lives. It's about one's past and whether you want to forget or not. There is a saying, "forgive but not forget". It means thinking of the past that haunt us, we can face it and not affected by it, so we "forgive" it, though we cannot forget it. In this novel, it re-addresses this issue. Jan has a problem in his marriage, he increasingly felt indifferent and even more so after he had cancer. His wife didn't feel love in the marriage and allegedly having affairs and it appears Jan knew of this, but just "keep one eye closes". His past increasingly has no meaning, with regards to his marriage, but he just want to "forget" and "get on with life". George, on the other hand, has a wife suffered from Alzheimer. She involuntarily "forget" things. George faced his wife rather helplessly. However, the past to George, is a meaningful one, unlike Jan. At the end of it, George decided that he want to jot down his past in writing, while he can still remembers. Some memories are worth recording down before one forgets.

The novel inspired me because it prompt me to re-think about the way I dealt with my past. There were some that I want to voluntarily forget, the bad one, for instance. There were also good ones, those worth recording down like George did. All in all, "forgiving" one's past is one thing, recognizing and acknowledging its significance is another. This is the key that bring meaning to our lives, in which we will always have a choice to choose to how to live.

What is the "attraction" of 阿娣

"At times, less is more.."

I seem not able to do without watching "Devotion" (阿娣) while in Singapore. Okay, mediacorp drama series is one of the most least favourite among some friends I know. But, sorry, I am actually quite interested in it. Some early critics had it that the storyline is very unrealistic. Ah Di, the main character, played by Zoe Tay is too good too be true. Her adoption of unwanted kids was criticised to be over exaggerating, as no one can be that kind in the real world. 

If we look at how Zoe Tay played this character, she is doing a good job, though the storyline sometimes has its problem. Having said that, I see something in Zoe Tay's character, that is, the attractiveness. Interestingly, one didn't find Ah Di to be a very outspoken person. She is quiet, introverted, but she has a way with things. I would describe Ah Di's type of personality to be effective, rather than efficient (other than her "efficiency" bringing up all her adopted kids). 

People attract people. Indeed, you find some characters slowly attracted and "glued" towards Ah Di as the story developed. The interesting thing is, you didn't find Ah Di to be "doing a lot", as in her sort of character, more of the inward looking type, you would have thought to be more on the "soft" side. But, why is she so "attractive" like a magnet?

Some people don't have to do a lot to win the hearts of others. It all based on their true nature and unpretentious personalities. At times, less is more, this just helped one to channel and focus every source of energy one has in the right direction, enabling one to take things in their own strides and slowly making things happened, given with some time, determination and more importantly, patience. Zoe  Tay, as an actress, has successfully portrayed such unique, distinctively different quality in the character. Her acting is great, though I think the story could be better written.

How "dark" is a dark comedy?

"It's life and you got to take it or leave it, you either laugh or you cry......"

Have you not wondered before why this is so? We might be too concentrated on being entertained and forget about the meaning and implication behind those laughter. I especially felt about this when I watched "desperate housewives" this week. In this week's episode, Gaby was asked by Carlo to go for therapy, in which she is dreading it. Watching her trying to find all sort of excuses not to go for the therapy and not let Carlo know about it, was a bit of a good laugh.

Let's face it. Perhaps among the Americans or more precisely the celebrities, seeing therapy is no big deal. But then it could be a luxury for some. It was really funny to see that, Gaby, the character played by Eva Longoria, exclaimed to her husband that, "I like therapy, it's like a talk show". Obviously, she is saying this only to make her husband thinks she is obeying his instruction to go and "get some helps". Surely, therapy is not a joke and under normal circumstance, people would not see it as a laughing matter, perhaps people will talk about it or discuss relatively more openly these days, but won't be a joke (if you want to know the background with regards to this, you may watch the clip here. That comment was made in the 18th seconds).

Anyway, coming back to "dark" comedy. So, why do you call it a "dark" comedy then. I guess there is some therapeutic element here. Though some critics had claimed that "Desperate Housewives" is a bit too dark and sometimes a big exaggerating, I personally like the character of Gaby. She is calculative, attention seeking and argumentative. She was often portrayed as someone who like to take things the easy way, and a little selfish at times. In this episode, we learned that there's a reason as to why she is escaping the therapy. It is, to me, a very sensible reason, but you have to watch to find it out yourselves. All I can say is that, "dark" comedy brought out the problematic or sad parts in life, dramatize it and at times, though exaggerating, is worth a laugh. What left behind after the laughter is a reflection upon your own life, make you think, and you asked yourselves if that happened in real life, what would you do, would you laugh or cry. Well, a matter of choice.

When "being focused" is taken to the extreme...

".... you forget to return to the real world."

I finished watching "Perfume: The Story of a Murderer" from the BBC Iplayer tonight. This is not a new movie. It was shown in 2006. It's a different sort of Thriller movie, as you would expect with blood, murder and dead bodies. However, I like the story telling. It is stylish and it also subtly touched on the human side. I cannot help but develop empathy for the movie's main character, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille played by Ben Whishaw. because of his rough upbringing and how he survived in tough situations. He has a gifted sense of smell, which in the end motivated him to invent the most uniquely formatted perfume, and even to the extent of extracting and formatting perfume from unique human body odour, which means he needs to possess the whole body and how it leads to him going a step further.

It is rarely that movie relate human killing in this way. It is stylish because like all movies on human killing, which treats murder as a mean to an end, this movie shows the character's need for a unique smell, something that viewers can relate to. It is not like you kill human body part because you like to torture or you enjoy bloody gore. In a way, while the killing is brutal, the story telling was good. It is just a classic case of "being focused" is taken to the extreme, which develop quite naturally following the upbringing of this main character. You thought of him being nearly abandoned by his mother as soon as he was borne, and how he sold from one trader to another as slave, you almost forget this boy needs to find something he can identify or belong to. In fact, he has nothing, not even the slightest sense of freedom. That gift of smell in him saves him. He went after that, chased after it at all costs to pursue it. You just feel heartbroken at the look of Ben Whishaw in his portray of the character, showing much of the vulnerability and innocence, feeling all sorry for his destiny.

Dustin Hoffman who played the washed up perfumer, Giuseppe Baldini and who bought Ben Whishaw over from his master, taught the latter technique on perfume making. He told Ben Whishaw, "Talent is next to nothing, while experience, acquired in humanity and hard work, means everything". However, the obsession of the gifted sense of smell in Ben Whishaw drives him to the extreme to pursue further in finding the unique odour. As brutal and cruel as he may seem, he has tears in his eyes, when he realized how he accidentally put a young woman to death all because he wanted to possess her because of her odour. Unfortunately, his obsession has taken him so far that he just could not bring himself to love and be loved like most could. I just wonder how many of us are just the way like this, never mind if you are a murderer, as long as you let your secret obsession took over and when it went a little one step too far.

I give up fighting altogether!

"What an idea, giving up? what a disgrace! But it's a quite BIG thing to do, i.e., giving up. The underlying of giving up fighting is to simply, follow the flow"

Today I followed the flow in my ipod. ipod is an interesting invention. Firstly, the lazy technology simply resort to shuttling your songs as a mean of saying "it gives you different experience" as every time you shuttle your songs you gained different experience. The truth is, there is no technology on ipod to incorporate a choice option to pick songs, perhaps the later ipod, but not the earliest ipod, which is the one I used at the moment.

Thanks to the shuttle option, it allows me to "follow the flow". I normally walked to my office with my ipod shuttle on, and each time I had an expectation of the next song that is going to be played out and if it turned not the song I was expecting, I "fight" it by clicking on to the next song. People have the habit of loving things new and latest, so is my choice of songs, the latest the better, even you may put all new and old songs as BIG mix in the ipod shuttle.

This sort of "follow the flow" helped you build up "quality time" for that 20 minutes way to the office. Let the songs play and let the feeling associated with the song come naturally, remembering what the songs meant to you, and enjoy that unique moment of connection, it makes that beginning of the day a whole new experience.

Au Revoir Taipei (一頁台北)

I will postpone today's interesting meets with my friend till tomorrow. This is because I cannot forget the movie poster I saw yesterday while visiting the Cathay Cineplex with M. It seems delightful and sweet. It says on the poster, the title to be "Au Revoir Taipei" (i.e., Good bye Taipei)

I quickly check this up online and find more information about this film. This movie has won a few awards already including the Best Asian Film in the latest Berlin International Film Festival and another award in Paris. I often look forward to what the Taiwanese film maker produced in their latest movies, especially the young and the up and coming ones. They normally made films without much of a baggage and can handle the theme in an orginal way and so is this film. I don't want to give too much away, but the following gives the trailer and a brief film review provided here



Oh and I like the theme song too. It nicely integrated guitars and piano and reminds me of a comptenary jazz and also felt very European. Here's the theme song (not an MV though, but you will like it, I am sure)

The Coolest Summer Breeze

I was pleased the other day for completed 100 posts, YAY! I took a break to slightly reflect and "celebrate" hehe. I found that now, I decided to follow my heart. If my heart say, yes I am still keen with writing the blog, I will go on, if not, I will just stop and reinvent myself somewhere in the cyberway with another identity and finding my new mates again.

Well, today is the hottest day of the year in the UK. It was 27 degrees mostly throughout the day, and at this moment 19 degree. I didn't work too much, only in the morning where I tried some literature search/reviews on certain new areas. Not bad, I had some nice "findings". I went swimming in the afternoon, which was really really nice. The water was so cool, except that I wish the pool could be outdoor. Then in the late afternoon, I was mostly cleaning the kitchen and the bathroom in preparation for the home visit by the agency next Tuesday.

I felt so relaxed after that, finishing the cleaning, doing my laundry, and then watched "Britain Got Talent". Surprisingly, "An Audience with Michael Buble" was up next and I stayed on to watch. I always think Michael Buble is a very talented artist. He sang so gently and charmingly and his performance never disappoint. His sense of humor often impressed me and his effortless style make him forever so unforgettable. He did come across as the coolest summer breeze. I like to finish this blog with one of my favourite tune of his, "You don't know me" originally sang by Ray Charles. Enjoy! :D

Here come "Kick Ass" the superhero

"... and only if being nice and helpful can be that straighforward"

I cannot understand the joy of comic book because I don't get it. I cannot see how the world of comic book characters lived their life, yet I had just watched "kick Ass" and I am enjoying it. "Kick Ass" is adapted from a comic book story and it seemed the copyright was sold even before the actual comic book was published.

I had heard good review of the movie and that prompted me to watch it. Interestingly, the main lead character of the movie was not the superhero, "Kick Ass", it was the purple-haired hit girl. I think there is a deeper meaning for putting "Kick Ass" as the main superhero role. Like some superheros in the past we knew of, such as batman, "Kick Ass" can be seen as a "reluctant superhero", whose intention of wanting to be a superhero was partly motivated by the fact that he was being bullied by friends surrounding him. That comes quite natural in a person from that age, and perhaps to some extent similar to spiderman.

Thanks to the excellent editing, I enjoyed the gun fights and violent scenes in the movie, which are brutal but also clean-cut, neat and tidy. I also like "Kick Ass" self-promoting on facebook and myspace, like most of us wanted to get the shortest route to fame, this is so true! :D Still, back in my mind I was asking myself what is it in the superheros that appeals to comic readers, is there anything in the world they want to change and cannot change, and they use superhero as a messenger to convey the ideas? at least what I can see from "Kick Ass", his motive seems to be like that.

"Kick Ass" himself, however, also knew his shortcoming and weakness, so has he chosen to be a superhero too fast too soon? And here comes the next question, forget about being superhero, are you a helpful person? if you are, have you overestimated your ability? is helping people all about YOU? Obviously not and that perhaps it led to interesting issues to be addressed as we seen in "Kick Ass".

In the movie when it ended, "Kick Ass" finally fulfilled his ambition to be "superhero" and did a "brave act". In the real life, perhaps it is not that straightforward, "being helpful" can sometimes lie in the "grey area", and it could become tricky, if you put your interest in the hand of others. Be very careful.

When reality TV "gets it right"

"Is it worth the while to get humilated and then walked away with your head held high?"

Tonight "Britian got talent" is interesting. This guy called James Boyle who is dying to "break the record", used "that" as a "talent" to enter the program. Last year he attempted "eating the Ferreo Rochers" as a mean to break the world record of 8 in a minute, but he didn't beat that record. This year he came to "Britian got talent" again and wanted to break world record of "eating 9 "After 8" chocolates" in a minute and he failed again. I thought his persisence was charming, but used wrongly. The clip below show his "performance" in the show.



For some, the so called hidden talent ones are really good and if done properly inspired others In tonight "Britian Got Talent", there is this 80 year old great-grandmother gave an amazingly good performance. Watch this, she is truly an inspiration. I can smell another "Susan Boyle" in the making no :D



In the 21st century, if there is anything that you can do to show you have the courage, is to go to the reality TV show, get humiliated (maybe) and still walk away with your head held high. Sometimes, however, reality TV does "get it right", and then it went the wrong way making people over estimating their capabilities and then ended up going for programs like "Britian Got Talent" and then they failed, not sure if that is worth the while, but they are certainly of high entertainment values and brought laughs to people, :D.

Best movie moms

"Moms also made mistakes, and they are also learning all the time, not an easy job, just like those who are their children.."

A lot of Hollywood movies have interesting and moving mother's characters. Strong mother, weak mother, happy mother, sad mother, etc. I came across this interesting site, best movie moms, that put together 9 movies about moms and put in one sentence, what make those moms so great in the movies they are being played. Here's three of the interesting and/or thought-provoking ones:

1) Forrest Gump—You can redefine your kid’s limitations
Forrest's mom insisted that Forrest Gump should be schooled and treated like a “regular” kid despite his learning disability. This mother helped foster the perception that Forrest Gump was just as capable as anyone else. No wonder, beginning of the movie, we heard Forrest Gump saying, "my mama said life is a box of chocolate".

2) Stepmom—Letting others be there for your children is part of really loving them
Stepmom is a real heartbreak and tear jerking movie. Susan Sarandon not only finds out she is dying of cancer, but her husband was divorcing her, and she has to come to terms with her anger at her kids’ stepmom. I think in this movie, it tells you that, GREAT moms need to learn to "let go" too.

3) The Blind Side—You can be a mother to anyone you open your heart to
I have not watched this movie. But the statement already made me feel so over-the-top, as fi to say, I am a supermom, I choose who I want to open my heart to. Sandra Bullock who played the main lead in the movie won an Oscar for her performance.

Moms are just human, it is their characters that made them. Moms also made mistakes, and they are also learning all the time, not an easy job, just like those who are their children. The movies showed moms to be close-to-perfect, sometimes it does give you ideas how to become a great mom, if you know what you want and which models to follow. Good luck to you! :D

Do you remember "告別" and "一條日光大道"?

This morning I routinely tuned into Hito Fm music station, a very familiar song came to my ear. That song, more than 10 years ago, back to my college/high school day, bring back memories, but this time, the song is sang with a different interpretation, a remake. I then checked out on youtube after hearing the DJ mentioned the name of the singer. The track can be heard below



I was a little surprise to know that the music video of "告別" (farewell) has cleverly incorporated a gay-theme. The original, however, was a duet between the composer,李泰祥 and his student, 唐曉詩. The original version can be heard here. The music video of the new version of the song was well made and edited, and the musical arrangement was great. I also almost believe this is a sequence of scenes from a full length movie. The lyrics was very generic and it seemed plausible for a gay-theme by the way the song describes it, though I don't think it was what the song originally meant to be about.

I searched a little into the singer, Leo Chen (陳永龍) and find that he is a Taiwanese naive singer, singing similar tune to those commonly known to be "folk songs". I heard that in Taiwan, the naive singers are strong excellent singer with very artistic talents. He seemed to have that talents too. I found another song by the same singer on youtube, it's called, 一條日光大道 (Sunshine Avenue), another remake of the sort of songs I listened to in my high school day.



I have not heard song like this for a very long time. It is so soothing and light-hearted, unlike some heavy metal, or "bad romance", "bad boy" sort of pop tunes, this song is so bright and sunshine-ish, you just get into the mood of the song and just by the tune and tempo, you can feel the emotion already, I am sure. :D

The talented Mr Ripley

I first watched "The Talented Mr Ripley" few years ago while living in Glasgow. I still didn't know Anthony Minghella was the director at the time. I enjoyed the film at the instance, particularly very appealed to the "storyline", the criminal plots and the clever twist of the development throughout the film. It was after few years as I took notice of Anthony Minghella that I began to see the uniqueness of "The talented Mr Ripley". Years ago, a friend gave me the video tape of this film. Now, I still played and watch it over again and again. Apart from Tom Ripley, the below are other characters that I liked in the film.

1) Jude Law - He played Dickie Greenleaf. I also only get to know more of Jude Law through this film. His Spoilt rich kid, and playboy character in this film is very well acted by him. He teased each and every characters in the film with his charm. That is why Tom Ripley is so drawn to him and so "want to be him".

2) Cate Blanchett - Cate Blanchett played the character, Meredith, who is a brief encounter to Tom Ripley. She only appears in the beginning, middle and end of the film. But, Cate Blanchett is such a fine actress. She shows the eagerness for Tom Ripley, whom she mistaken to be Dickie Greenleaf, and able to express it just enough to maintain her subtleness, like any posh young lady would do in the 1950s.

3) Philip Seymour Hoffman - Philip Seymour Hoffman played Freddie Miles, the only character in the film that suspected Tom to be "involved" with Dickie Greenleaf. He is camp and show enough in his campness (which is just nice!) to imply to Tom of the latter "intention".



Overall the cast of this film is very good. Each and every character has a place in them and they are simply unforgettable. I also loved the "Jazz theme" in the film, using that as an element to show it as a "luxurious pastimes" of Dickie and enhance the 1950's feel of the film and even more so when it is set in Italy. How stylish that is! Just watch the clip above and see if you agree, :D

Gabriel Yared, who is the soundtrack composer, did a great job for the background music that often reflect the underlying emotion of Tom Ripley, reminded the audience of the irony of life facing Tom Ripley's sexualities. It left the audience engrossed in the underlying emotion embedded within the tracks (here's one of the tracks you can listen and decide it for yourselves) which so subtly captured the anxiety of Tom towards his own sexuality, which was made "unclear" in the film.

There was a short note on "desire" on a postcard shown in the film (and shown in the picture above), when Dickie was trying to write something back to his dad in New York. That could be taken as the theme the film is trying to focus on, and could be understood to go beyond sexualities and explain most of Tom Ripley's behaviour.

Look at him, Lin Yu Chun (林育群）！

I saw him this morning on GMTV, and then later on heard about him again on Radio 2's Steve wright in the afternoon. They called him the "Chinese Susan Boyle". His Chinese name, Lin Yu Chun (林育群）. The following youtube video perhaps give you some idea how he sang that Whitney Houston's song.



So, are you impressed at all and what do you think about him? I often wonder is there anything in the east that "made a name" in the west? In my most recent memory is perhaps the famous "karaoke" machine invented by the Japanese. We are still not in the stage for the western people to sing Chinese song as easy as Chinese(Taiwanese) singing English Songs. Interestingly, the "Superstar Avenue" talent show that "Lin Yu Chun" appeared in, is also a concept derived from the west. I told my British friends "globalisation = Westernisation" and we had a laugh at it, but I think it is true to some extent!

Anyway, the fast-moving consumption preference and culture is being made more wide-spread by the speed of information transmission via the internet, which spread news and heightened people popularity as fast as the way virus spreads from people to people. The news are always interesting and entertaining and always lots of fun. In fact, Report claimed that Lin's youtube video has now been hit over 150,000 views, and searches for "Lin Yu Chun" have gone up over 200% in the past 24 hours. They even expect to see this guy become an international sensation. They even speculate an appearance on an American morning show is almost certainly in his future! Well, let's see if anything new will come from this young boy and I am certainly looking forward to the next headline he hits the press.

Shutter Island

"In Shutter Island, you "forgive", but not "forget".."

Finally, I watched "Shutter Island". Martin Scorsese is one of my favourite directors. The last film I watched by him was "Gangs of New York", which was disappointing. He actually only directed 4 films since 2000, including "Shutter Island". These 4 films starred Leonardo DiCaprio, who gave the roles in all his films the best performance.

A friend of mine told me that her boyfriend finds "Shutter Island" boring in the first 30 minutes and perhaps too slow. The critics reviews were mixed and mostly considered it as average. It is about an up-and-coming U.S. marshal Teddy Daniels assigned to investigate the disappearance of a patient from Boston's Shutter Island Ashecliffe Hospital and the mysterious events following his investigation.

I like thriller and even more so if the plot is unpredictable and "Shutter Island" is satisfying in that sort of way. I especially like Ben Kingsley in the film, who portrayed the mental hospital's chief physician. His acting is effortless, easily bring across ideas to audience about the characters and very convincing. The best lines of the film as follows:

Leonardo said, "I think it's time we leave Shutter Island"
Ben Kingsley said, "who are we?"
Leonardo said, "me and my partner Chuck"
Ben Kingsley said, "No you came here alone"
(err. Spooky!)

Maybe the film's title already said something, "Shutter", as in "shut", so a thought that comes to the mind after watching the film is that, bad memories and trauma cannot be lost or totally shut away, it can only be placed in a safe place in our head and be there as long as possible, untouched, just like some say, you can't forget, but you can forgive. What has that got to do with the film, perhaps you are guessing now, but why not go watched the film, survived into the second half of the film, you will begin to see the darker side of the story and will enjoy it.

The winners and losers in Jack Neo's (梁智强) affairs scandal

"I may cry, but I will be the winner in the end."

Celebrities, such as Jack Neo who is considered as one of Singapore's most important celebrities in the film-making industry, are actually just normal people. They think they are different from others due to their status and then end up badly with their behaviours.

The video below is the 3 minutes press conference Jack Neo held to apologise about the affair. It saddened me to hear Jack's wife telling the media that she really needs their blessings. There is fear and insecurity in her words and tones. When she later asked for forgiveness from the media, not sure whether she meant that the media should stop speculate about her husband as she is willing to forgive and forget. The press conference was being criticised as being insincere and short, but it was later revealed in Jack Neo's blog he regretted his behaviours and willing to re-cultivate a happy and good family for his wife and children.



Love is no longer love when you find someone turns into a stranger overnight as you no longer know the person you share the bed with all those years. How much "value" can you forced down to help you maintain the union? I am not sure. I am interested in how Mrs Neo react to this, because similar cases appear to happen in the UK and US recently. In the US, Tiger wood 's affairs broke out affected his career. In the UK, one of UK's famous footballer, Ashley Cole, was separated from wife, Cheryl Cole, after she found him cheated on her, with up to 5 women. Mrs Neo is an Asian, but the other cases are in the western world. She is under immerse pressure and can be understood.

In Singapore, those girls who reported to media about the affairs with Jack Neo were being blasted, such as this one. Obviously, these unknown girls wanted to be famous arising from the outburst of Jack Neo's affairs. They might think they are the winners, but some call them sluts. In the UK, due to the interest in gossips and curiosity about people private life, tabloid's papers are often interested to pay lump sum for untold secrets to make story juicier. So as much as matters like this might be linked with "sluts", it is kind of "acceptable" over here. The readers read it like a pastimes, and not take it too seriously, it's not their life anyway. I am afraid Jack Neo's exes are not winners as in Singapore, people have different perception.

As for Jack's wife Irene, many think she should divorce Jack Neo and that she is the victim. But in the long term, she is the winner, she might win her husband back and get what she wanted a good and happy family. You can also call her a loser, because the way she deal with this, one day, as it is quite possible, she might accept the "way" Jack Neo is (given that if Jack Neo repeat his bad behaviour), and either she will be hated by most women or admired by other women, especially the wife of Jackie Chan, who seems to be having a similar fate like her. Of course, Jack Neo is a winner, he has his wife by this side, make him "feel wanted", boost his damaged ego and though he says he is guilty, want to make change, etc. It's really for all to see how far he can go.

As for us, the readers, we are the winner, free flow news, one after another, in front of the media, more exciting than Jack Neo's own comedy's film, what else can we ask for. The truth is, though it's his life, he will have his kama, and while we enjoy the story and have a laugh, perhaps it is also time we look more inside us, think more of our life, which are also often not as perfect (never mind Jack Neo's), :D

The beggar (犀利哥) who become "a model"

"In the age of internet, even beggar can be famous, never mind Susan Boyle"

犀利哥 means "sharp brother". This is a nickname given to the guy on the left based on a Chinese website for his "sharp look" and "sharp fashion" and here's a English version of the story. He is a beggar found on the street of Ningbo, the northeastern of Zhejiang province, China. The video below shows how he was being approached and asked about where he comes from and some people wanted to help to bring him home. He does not appear to be mentally stable.

He was being spotted all because someone found the sight of his "good look", took his picture and posted on the website. It attracted huge followings, even the Japanese.

Some admirers even "copy and paste" him on some contemporary outfit with a tie, like the one shown above. Sometimes, we don't know whether our good intention will bring good outcome. But I am just not too sure those who took pictures of him in the first place are of "good intention", but luckily it looks like the beggar has been brought to the attention of the Ningbo Municipal People's Government. Help is now on the way to get this homeless man a shelter. So, in the end, those pictures of his does serve some purposes and hopefully brings happy outcome for this poor man.