Film, Television & Anime 映像

He's a Woman, She's a Man

Just watched the 1994 Hong Kong film “He’s a Woman, She’s a Man” (HK title: Gam Gee Yuk Yip; Chinese Title: Jing Zhi Yu Ye) on TV starring Anita Yuen, Leslie Cheung and Carina Lau. Excellent show and great acting. The story delves into the delicate issue of homosexuality, weaving comic elements into tense drama.

The story: A straight man finds himself falling in love with another man who, unbenownst to him, is really a woman in disguise. Homosexuality is taboo in Hong Kong society and the man is conflicted as he understands that the love he has is illicit according to the moral principles that have been embedded into his mind. What choice will this man make? To follow his heart’s desire and embrace the forbidden, or deny this love and conform to his principles.

Interesting isn’t it?

Subjects: Film, Television & Anime 映像

Mood: Raves and Rants

Tags: film, homosexuality, Hong Kong, Leslie Cheung, taboo

"Suspend" + "Belief"

I just watched Star Wars II for the second time. It was a free screening from my mom’s bank. HELL it’s so much better for me the second time around. The first time I was too focused on the wrong thing: the dialogue. So it kind of ruined the experience for me, though the Yoda part was really funny and the audience was great that time. This time, I decided to ignore the bad dialogue and certain inconceivable parts in the love story — the keywords are “Suspend” & “Belief” — and… WOW.

Subjects: Film, Television & Anime 映像

Mood: Raves and Rants

Tags: Star Wars, Yoda

Spidey Wins!

Spider Man reaps US$114 million over the three day weekend! Pretty cool huh!

Went out with my choir friends after my yoga class today as exactly as planned yesterday. Had lunch and dinner together. In between we went browsing DVDs though I never bought any in the end. Watched Spider Man again.and my feelings for the film are pretty much the same as the first time I saw it. Though, I find that I can better appreciate the jokes this time because in retrospect, the first time’s enjoyment was more like “I’M FINALLY WATCHING SPIDEY”. The audience today was more appreciative (different cinema) than the first time around and it helped.

BTW, it appears that today’s my ‘hiccuping’ day. I hiccuped 4 times earlier and now I’m doing it again as I type =(

Tomorrow I will be going to extract my wisdom tooth at the left corner of my lower jaw. Arrrgh. I’m kind of worried. I’m kind of scared of those injection needles they use to numb your gums. I underwent this sort of injection when I was about 6 if I recalll correctly.

Subjects: Film, Television & Anime 映像

Mood: Raves and Rants

Tags: choir, dentist, DVD, hiccups, needles, Spider Man, teeth, yoga

Spidey!

I just watched Spiderman today. Was supposed to be Saturday after my exams but we (family) just couldn’t wait. After all it is Labour Day and since the ‘sneak previews’ are screening from 2PM to 9PM in cinemas island-wide (what an irony), it is a pretty good excuse. Anyway, how did I like the film? I say I love it. It’s a huge bonus that Tobey Maguire is in it (my sis likes Kristen Dunst). Tobey Maguire has been one of my favourite Hollywood actors (others include Jude Law, Ewan McGregor, Jude Law and Natalie Portman) ever since I watched Pleasantville (I think that was the first Maguire film I watched), and was my top choice for the web-slinger role in a film that I’ve been following in its developmental process since the 90s. I’m definitely going to watch it again on cinema after my exams are done.

Speaking of exams, I’ve got one on Friday and I’ve barely begun studying for it.Shit… I don’t have the motivation to either. Maybe I’ll go to Mcdonalds tomorrow to concentrate properly =( arrrrgh…

Subjects: Film, Television & Anime 映像

Mood: Raves and Rants

Tags: cinema, examination, Perth, Spider Man, Tobey Maguire

Seisouhen

I just watched the second part of the Kenshin Seisouhen OVA today. It took me days to get a complete copy. the default server for WinMX was kind of frustrating, so many connection and download problems… until I discovered this website Anime Fantasia. Through their OpenNap server, I had no problems locating and downloading the file quickly. It occurs to me that the people using the server are all anime fans who are willing to file share and will not disconnect you just because you have nothing that they want to trade from you.

Kenshin and Kaoru

Anyways, about the OVA? All I can say is…. WHHHHYYYYY? I watched the first half of Seisouhen (that I got from Ketsugi and could already guess what was going to happen. But still…WHY IT HAVE TO BE THAT WAY?!

That’s the irrational bit of me acting up I guess.

Subjects: Film, Television & Anime 映像

Mood: Raves and Rants

Tags: anime, Kenshin 剣心

A Beautiful Mind

I just watched A Beautiful Mind. My God, it’s so much better than I had expected. The film’s well-crafted and wonderfully acted. The film never gets boring and is sentimental but not overdone.

I’ll have to read the book when I get the chance. Maybe after my exams and during the holidays. I’m pretty sure the community library has it. Why? Because I’d heard about the book more than a year ago from my grandfather, before the film even began its preproduction stage. One day, while I was at my granddad’s house, he showed me this white, hardcover book that he had borrowed from the library, and he was telling me what an interesting character, John Nash, a mathematician who had won the Nobel prize a few years ago had been. How he suffered from schizophrenia for over 30 years and eventually overcame his demons while in the process producing other brilliant pieces of work despite his illness. I thought then, “wow”. But never thought of reading the book even though I never forgot the story in the abstract.

Subjects: Film, Television & Anime 映像

Mood: Raves and Rants

Tags: A Beautiful Mind, John Nash, library, Nobel, schizophrenia

Good intentions

I had meant to sleep early: my eyes are almost hurting because they are so tired and dry. Looking at the time now however — I guess not.

I wanted to mention something about this last year (actually, to be less vague, over a week ago) in my blog, but because blogger.com was down, I put off the update until I forgot all about it. Anyways, just wanted to say that I watched Miyazaki Hayao’s Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi last week in the best cinema in Singapore and totally loved it. I can’t wait for it to be released on DVD. I already have the Mononoke Hime DVD at home, so it’ll be the second Miyazaki film that I’ll purchase.

While we’re on the topic of Miyazaki films, My Neighbour Totoro was showed on TV on New Year’s Day morning. I only managed to catch the last half-an-hour of it. However, the version that was being shown was the Chinese-dubbed version of it, which as usual sounded awful. To make it worse, the broadcasters must have used an old copy of the film or something because the picture quality wasn’t too fantastic. The colours looked murky and the lines of the drawings were blurred.

Subjects: Film, Television & Anime 映像

Mood: Raves and Rants

Tags: anime, Avalon, DVD, Final Fantasy, Kawai Kenji 川井憲次, Lord of the Rings, Miyazaki Hayao 宮崎駿, music

I love the LOTR

This is a bit belated, but I just have to say: Lord of the Rings, what a great, great movie. The best fantasy movie in years, and a completely different cinema experience from what we’re used to seeing. This should be what movie-making should be about. And the score, damn, Howard Shore, you’ve convinced me to buy your album. What a nice present to get for your family for christmas.

The only thing that marred my viewing experience was the horrible audience who couldn’t appreciate the subtleties of the film. This bunch of women at the back just couldn’t shut up throughout the movie, even in the quiet moments of the film. How unfortunate for them that they missed out on one of the greatest movies ever, even though they had paid S$7.50 and were propped in one of the best seats of the theatre.

Right now, I’m done with re-reading The Fellowship of the Ring and starting on The Two Towers. I have the Alan Lee embellished hardcover edition that I got for Christmas a couple of years ago. I see the movie-tie-in mass paperback editions in the market right now, they just don’t do the book justice. Even though the prices of the hardcover editions have increased over the years (My book cost about S$70 four years ago, the same books now cost around S$105), I think they are a great investment if you can afford.

Subjects: Books 書物, Film, Television & Anime 映像

Mood: Raves and Rants

Tags: anime, Christmas, cinema, gift, Lord of the Rings, Miyazaki Hayao 宮崎駿

Anticipating the FOTR

I’m going to watch The Fellowship of the Ring tonight. =) Bought the tickets from the cinema when it opened its doors today. The blasted cinema… its first show was supposed to be showing at 10:10 AM in the morning, so I expected the booths to be open at around 9:40 so I was there waiting around that time. It made sense didn’t it? But noooo… it turns out the cinema’s run by a bunch of slackers and it only opened at 10AM sharp. *grumble* I guess I wasn’t the only one pissed because there was a bunch of people wanting to watch the early show with not-very-happy faces. I must admit one good thing about Singapore is that you can easily buy tickets to opening-day screenings/sneak previews on the day itself without having to queue up for a long time as long you go to book the tickets early. Alternatively, you can also book via Internet/Phone if you have a debit/credit card. Call me old-fashioned but I prefer the traditional means of booking.

Anyways, It’s the 8:15 show, that means the show will probably end at around 11:25.

Subjects: Film, Television & Anime 映像

Mood: Gratifications

Tags: cinema, Lord of the Rings

Amidala

I had a Star Wars photo reference for this. Basically did a sketch on a piece of paper, scanned it in and coloured with Photoshop. The hair details and face contours were drawn in with the mouse using the airbrush and paint tools. The picture could have been less blurry if I had given myself more time to complete it but I sort of lost interest after a while. ^_^

Amidala

Subjects: Film, Television & Anime 映像

Tags: Natalie Portman, photoshop, Star Wars

Syndicate content