movie night/s

I think I'm starting to be a fangirl of romantic movie comedies, after having watched and really liked the Patrick Dempsey movies 'Made of Honor' and 'Enchanted'...

We watched 'The Proposal' last year and it was sooooo hilarious we borrowed the video and watched it again over the long weekend. I'm the type of moviegoer who actually likes to read the book before watching the movie - if the book is good I will watch the movie (like Angels and Demons, Twilight...) but if the book in my opinion is too cliched or serious (My Sister's Keeper, The Time Traveler's wife) I will not even want to watch the movie. Also, I like to watch 'indie' movies so was really raving to watch 'Up in the Air' which was produced by the producers of Juno, which had a really nice, watchable vibe with great acting and scripting.

Thus was also raring to go to watch 'When in Rome' as I loved 'The Proposal'. Both shows also has cute, really tall guys... a really huge plus in my opinion! It's a nice show, the slapstick drama and humor really appeals to my psychotic side, hahaha...plus it's always nice to watch a light-hearted drama about love, isn't it?

I think beneath all the humor though, is a deep yearning for human relationships, especially that between a man and a woman. Which woman doesn't yearn to be courted by a nice guy, hopefully one who is well-dressed, nicely padded (not too thin nor too chunky), eyes you can swim in, a smile that 'stuns' you, preferably owning a nice ride (for the more 'mature' guys), a stable and prospectful career... yes... there are such men here and I do know of a few... I can sense their yearnings too. Some just attract (or are attracted to for that matter) the wrong types : the 'still don't know what they want' types, the 'not into commitment' types, the 'just so wrong for you' types. And with each passing year they wonder silently, what is wrong with me... Yes, I can sense that... the silent yearning in their eyes as they witness their friends moving to the next phase of life while they remain single. And while constantly attracting the wrong types.

So, what is the answer? I, too, never expected to be attached and sometimes still wonder, what have I done to be so blessed (of course, some other areas of my life are not so blessed, like my work life... it's fair, haha) there are other girls with better attributes than me, more worthy of such a romance. Maybe I'm also not so grateful to be attached as I have had my fair share of relationships - not that it's a number game, but surely, for those who have yet to have their 'first times', they will treasure the sweet blush of first romance more, non?

Sure wish I could save all of them! (By matchmaking, not having relationships with) Haha!

Meanwhile... I will anticipate my first one year anniversary 2 months' time... my first proposal, my first wedding (not my first time in a wedding dress but long story), my first diamond... my first home, my first kid... Hmmm... some of them not-very-anticipated...

going to the movies

There's a thingy going on where you can catch Singapore films at Cathay Cineleisure. Sad to say, I've never really caught many Singaporean films. In fact, I was a hollywood-kinda girl all throughout my teens, being entertained with teen horror flicks most of the time. Remember the Final Destinations and the Urban Legends... ...I also caught most of John Grisham's books that were turned into movies. The best of that genre was 'What Lies Beneath' which was the only one which scared me from beginning to end.

Later on, probably due to the much-improved subtitling for chinese shows, I found gems in HongKong productions like 'Golden Chicken', and slapstick styled shows like...the mahjong ones and Stephen Chow, of course. There was also a craze in time where Thai shows were all the rage and through watching their shows we could catch a bit of their life and times. Thai shows usually had a bit of horror, with human drama interspersed in them. Thai movies are quite deep that way - at first it seems to be just about the scary feeling, but later you realise... the overarching theme is about family love, or friendship, or some issue.

I also caught many Japanese and some Korean movies - those days, all the Japanese ones were post- 'The Ring' so those that made it to our shows were horror genre types - and Korean shows ultimately involved cyborgs or bio-terrorism warfare. French films were always interesting - my favorite of all time are those by director Jean Pierre Jeunet ('The City of Lost Children', wow!) - unfortunately, no one seems to want to take the risk of showing foreign films here - cannot even get the DVD.

One of the...only...Singaporean film I caught (not counting Jack Neo's shows and the recent 'Wedding Game' Oh wait, I watched Royston Tan's one too)...was 'Leap Years' - Captain Zero dragged me to it! I was reluctant at first, because... I think I am the only one in the nation who has... read the book. Honestly, have you heard of the book before watching the show? But yes - although not really a fan of Catherine Lim, once I've found a good author, I NEED to read the rest of his/her stuff. The book was unexpectedly bad... but the movie, unexpectedly good!

I've read 90% of Agatha Christie books - or at least what is available here... most of John Grisham's and Amy Tan's. Jostein Gaarder's good too. Loved 'Sophie's World' but hated 'Vita Brevis'.

My current obsessions are Nicholas Sparks'; am swiftly building up my collection... and my favorite christian authors so far, John Ortberg and Eldredge. (Both Alkitab and Pianist had good reviews after reading their birthday presents which were Eldredge books! Am so happy to 'convert' them too haha!)

Christopher Paolini's 'Brisingr' was so good (I actually bought it because I read about him being homeschooled in 'microtrends' AND the cover was so nice, I like dragons) that I borrowed 'Eragon' and 'Eldest' from Dree. (And I've also finished reading 'Confessions of a Shopaholic' and 'Slumdog Millionaire' this, and last week. Haha.) I'm wacky like that. Now that there are so many books turned into movies and suddenly available at your nearest bookstore, I'm tempted to start a collection. Heh. Bookshelf + DVD shelf?

Back to Singapore films, I guess it's quite sad when you're a renowned filmmaker like Eric Khoo...he is always being interviewed on news and stuff... but no one has watched your films. Well, some people have... but, not many for sure...

Suddenly I am reminded of how blessed I am, without realizing - all my productions will be on a platform which will have... more than 6 million viewers in a year. (If everything goes smoothly!)

Sure, maybe most of them are doctors talking about boring stuff. And no one will know I produced 90% of the content (Although I appear as calefare in most of them, sigh.)

But I don't need them to know my name. I'm also blessed that my audience is not so critical since most of them are 'killing time' watching the screen, waiting for their patient queue number to be called.

So perhaps, in a way I'm so much more blessed than the other filmmakers out there! I was overwhelmed just thinking about that, today. 6 million viewers! Wow!

And that... I should also make an effort to catch more Singapore films.

imprisoned (the days)

Reminds me of a guy I used to like... From Z Sec Sch, one year older than me and always sits behind me in the morning bus from Bishan (53) Haha! Maybe he is!

Please leave me your pager number *jute jute*


Caught 'The Days' public premiere this evening. I must say that for a local film, directorial debut, I was VERY impressed! All the 'retro' stuff (movie is set in the 89-90s), they've got it down pat. Though it's not really my era yet, I was 'street smart' from a very young age and thus remember all those familiar memories that probably those in their late 20s till mid 30s remember! Like the tea dances, 'jute jute', scribbling your gang name on back seats of buses and beating people up, hey, those were the good old days!

Look out for scenes of those old childhood playground - the 'dragon' one not the 'bird' series...I wonder where they filmed it...old lifts that only went to the 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 7th floors, those days the lifts had whitish flower wallpaper which yellowed and the buttons always had chewing gum...REMEMBER? Remember the old MCDs and the MCDs cups which had small 'M's printed on them in varying shades of yellow and brown... and the pagers, the old 'telecom' sign printed on telephone booths which we would use to call the people who paged us... those awful clothes, bright yellow shirt with opened buttons, tucked into versace jeans and doc martens to kick people harder (steel toe boots protects feet)...and sneaking into the PE room to get your weapons of choice, those were the good old days! Now gangs are... not as 'brotherly' as before, this show is a really good quasi-documentary about what really happened in the past. I enjoyed every bit of it, perhaps because I can identify with some parts.


The two actors are also quite promising, though I would say the filming could be better if done in a sentimental korean style rather than the singaporean quasi-documentary style.

I hope this show gets more publicity and not be branded as an ah-beng show - but more of something that documents the lifestyle of the students who play truant and escape into gangs.

I wonder what became of my friends who joined these gangs? Now, these street gangs no longer exist in such intensities... I guess society as a whole is becoming more individualistic - the rise of personal sports (think golf, gaming) compared to the decline of group sports also shows that. - heck, except for church groups I hardly hang out in a group anymore. So... in a way, shows the societal changes as well. And what happened to the ah-lian way of highlighting hair in very obvious tigerish strips? Did it really die out or does it still happen in some obscure salons in sarawak? I love the glitter eyeshadow the ah-lian in the show wears...must go get some.


Like a really bad fashion memory...

Go watch!

www.thedaysmovie.com