My Brain.. My Brain.

My brain simply loves Ryan Gosling too much. I watched "Quantum of Solace" yesterday, and was beyond happy to see Daniel Craig in suits and getting dirty.

And then my brain gave me a Ryan Gosling dream last night. I dreamt that we were in some game where we have to take care some traditional Japanese house, and avoid ourselves getting killed by the Japanese Samurais in armour O_O And then there were some parts where he introduced some book on flowers to me! Hahahaha. But then again, unfortunately I didn't really get to experience lucid dreaming. When I told myself, "Kiss him!" I sort of woke myself up. Hahahaha.

I guess my brain had dedicated itself to Ryan Gosling a long time ago.

By the way, Quantum of Solace was simply brilliant. More action-packed and fast-paced than the first story. Whether you would like it more than the first one depends on whether you are looking for more action from Bond, or for more in-depth story of personality from Bond. After the great origin story from "Casino Royale", I was expecting more action-packed Bond. Like my friend, Steph, said, they covered water, air and foot chase. Hahaha. The front sequence sort of reminds me of Bourne: the car chase in the tunnel, then the foot chase on the roof. I love especially the opera sequence, was not expecting something like that in an action-packed show. Anyway, as I said, you will either like or hate this movie :)

I simply have no current movies to watch left haha. It seems more interesting movies will come out the beginning of next year, which I am fine with. Maybe it is time for me to catch up with my DVD watching again hahaha.

Voom... Doubleness.

Though it could have ended on a better note, examinations are still over! OVER! Yay. Now, with the holiday, I am looking forward to doing things outside schoolwork! I had the privilege of sharing this with Zita today... since we went to the National Museum to visit the two ongoing photo exhibitions, which are part of Season of Photography. The first exhibition was Voom Potraits by Robert Wilson, while the second one was Doubleness by Chang Chien-Chi. These two exhibitions are rather contrasting, but they are appealing in their own unique way.

Robert Wilson is an artists whose works are mainly on the fine arts and operas. His Voom Potraits works contain videos that represents portraits. The subjects of videos include personalities like Dita Von Tesse and Princess Caroline of Monaco, and actors such as Johnny Depp, Robert Downey Jr, Brad Pitt and Steve Buscemi. In each video, the subject was very still, or performed little actions. Somehow, these little actions broke the barriers between the flat dimension of a still potrait and a life action potrait. When the subject is still, it only seems that you are staring at a potrait. But when the subject begins to perform his or her action, you realise that there is something more to the potraits. Another thing that I find intriguing was what was the cutoff point of these videos? These videos seem to loop seamlessly and endlessly. I don't know where is the beginning and ending point of the potrait. Was the person supposed to move at all? Was there more story to the potrait that I don't know of? These interesting questions kept coming into my mind.

From the fine art side, we move on to documentary style of photography. Chang Chien-chi's potraits are intimate and truthful works. In this exhibition, he covered three themes. The first was on the illegal migration of Fuzhou's villagers to work in New York City. The story was really heartbreaking and surreal in some manners. Yes, these men living in New York City are living their American dreams of earning more money, but because they are smuggled into the country, they have no way back to Fujian to see their families. I found the most depressing part was when I saw the video and photos on these men relying on porno and sex doll to satisfy themselves. Masturbation is not funny at all in this sense.

The second part was on a temple-cum-mental-institute in Taiwan, where each insane person was chained to another person considered less sane. The pair would do their routines chained together for the whole day, except for when they sleep. It is believed that this method would help to cure these mentally-ill people. From some of the pictures, you can tell which ones are of the less sane. Somehow I get a sense that these people have been used to being chained to another person. But at what point would one consider both of these people to be cured? And what do the saner think of less sane, and vice versa? Do they get chained willingly everyday?

The last part of the exhibition was on the wedding match practice in Asia. The part where I found most intriguing was when each of the couple pose in front of a mock bouquet with mock champagne... to create a mock celebration of their wedding. Another set shows the couples reading the legal requirements. The relationship between the couple was obvious in some. Some were more intimate while others are more distant (with obviously no connection yet). When I was in this part of the exhibition, I do realise that this practice was only prevalent in Asia. It's not really prevalent in Western countries. There's this one photo where the women are sitting down in groups, and I somewhat felt these women are commoditised in this practice!

As you can probably tell, I found Chang's works really inspiring.

It reminds me of what I hope to accomplish if I become an artist. I want to bring into light issues that the society is not aware of. Through this, if there is the need, change could implemented for the better.

Strangest Thoughts and Happy Moments

I am on the brink of another start of an examination! Every time the examination preparation arrives, I somewhat keep thinking of those days where I would eat koko krunch milk supper while watching channel 5's late night movies at like 2 or 3 am during my O level examination 1-month study break. I do still study until about 1-2 am, but now I don't really have the energy to watch the late night movies on tv... or maybe now I feel contented taking a break by surfing the net... since most of my studies now are done on my laptop. I do miss turning to traditional forms of entertainment! TV and magazines! Mindless Internet surfing could really just let time pass by. I still prefer those studying on textbook days, since there is a clear distinction between study and play time. Now since the distinction is more muddled up, I have to discpline myself more... and not be tempted by Internet while studying on the laptop haha. So far thankfully it has been working :)

I had a very strange dream yesterday. I dreamt that Sir Alex Ferguson died of heart attack, and I saw him collapsed. Then Arsene Wenger and another guy immediately went to look after him and called for ambulance.

I don't know how on earth my brain works.

The second part of the dream was me going for a fortune teller session... and being told some coming year my life will be bad O_O and then the most outrageous part comes when Virgin Mary comes in the form of someone wearing a Virgin Mary paper costume. You know like Disney characters in Disneyland, but the costumes are made of a mix of cotton and papers. Then she kept asking me why could I not stay behind and look after the kids at the tuition centre, which is where the fortune teller works. And I kept saying I could not since I have exams to prepare. She was quite reluctant to let me go, but I managed to slip away when one of the kids approached her.

I don't know how on earth my brains works. I don't know what on earth it is trying to say.

Okie, I'm going back to study for a while...

Season of Mugging

Mugging season is back... and it took some time for me to catch the mugging bug. Only when I planned out what I had to study did I realise that I have such a short time to prepare for my exam. So I guess for these upcoming days, my 8-10 hours of studying mode will be back O_O albeit temporarily thankfully.

Today I realised how much my life depended on Ed's Fish Soup. I could eat Ed's Fish Soup 4 times a week when I lived in Leonie Hill. Well, it's healthy and cheap.... and most importantly tasty! All of the fish soups in my new home area tasted bland :( Some of you may argue that I could just take the Great World shuttle bus to town... but considering how much time school requires from me, it is not really possible for most of the time!

I caught two movies this week. One was Tropic Thunder, and the other was Cape No. 7, a Taiwanese movie. Watching Tropic Thunder was a spontaneous decision, since I was scrolling through the Cathay movie timings on its website, and found Tropic Thunder's timing to be perfect. Well, I found the movie okay. Some parts are funny, while others are way too lame. Ben Stiller was the sanest out of the lot (until the last part), Jack Black the lousiest and Robert Downey Jr. was the most ridiculous... but he stole the show! How on earth did he inhibit the character? O_O It's amazing. Anyway, since I watched Tropic Thunder alone, I kinda regret not watching Blindness instead, as I think it will be a more suitable movie to watch alone. But since I paid only S$6 for Tropic Thunder, I won't complain :)

This picture says everything:

Anyway, let me talk about Cape No. 7. I had read that it is a huge box office hit in Taiwan (and that has not happened for like ages). So when I found out I could go for its preview for free, I seized the chance! It was a great movie! The movie kinda reminds me of Japan, most probably because of some of the sceneries in the movies and the movie's colour palette. Giving a different potrayal from the normally bustling side of Taiwan, the movie showcases a laidback life in a less known city (when compared to Taipei), the northern seaside town Heng-Chun. I really love the dialogues of this films. They come naturally funny and witty. The humour doesn't come out forced. The development of the characters were really superficial, and the movie kinda loses its plot midway and gets cliche, but I was not expecting this movie to be the serious sort! Just let your hair down when you watch this movie, and enjoy it!

I shall go back to mugging. Take care people... and good luck to those having or will be having exams too!

I Smell Tokyo!

Finally, I went to see a movie today (with a fellow random mate, Zita)! We went to see "Tokyo!" "Tokyo!" made us happy, confused, sad, touched.. and scared! "Tokyo!" comprises of 3 short films based in Tokyo: one by Michel Gondry (yay!), one by Leon Carax (not sure about his works) and finally one by Bong Joon-ho (the Host director). Out of the three, I found the Michel Gondry one the most enjoyable! First of all, Michel Gondry's short film was titled "Interior Design", and it told a story of a couple who was moving into Tokyo.. and was temporarily staying in their friend's one room house. One was unemployed, one was a (pathetic) filmmaker. Anyway, I found the storyline the most touching and logic out of the lot (though in first place you must overcome your logic to appreciate this short film). Michel used a very fitting metaphorism to describe how the girl feels and what she wants to be. Some people may find it very random, but once you see past that, you will be touched by this short film :) It's more of dramatic Gondry, not a whimsical Gondry sort.

The second short film was by Leon Carax, titled "Mendre", which turned out to be the name of the protagonist of this short film. The protagonist is a psycho and he lives in Tokyo's sewers, and likes to come out of his sewers to terrorise Tokyo habitants. It is quite funny how some of the props reminds me or represents to me something else, like the leprechaun coat that the psycho wore represents how the people in general don't notice him at first.. and when he starts to do the weird things and terrorise people he becomes more visible to the people in general! Towards the end, the story gets draggier.. and scarier somewhat haha. This is my least favourite shorts out of the 3, because I felt the story should be more precise.

The final short film was by Bong Joon-ho, titled "Shaking Tokyo", which is on the hikikomori phenomenon, where people choose to seclude themselves from the society and confine themselves in their homes. I can somewhat relate to "Shaking Tokyo", on how the world becomes more and more individualist and gradually loses its idealism, and only when major events take place (ie the earthquakes in the movie) then these people connect with the world they live in again, albeit temporarily. The short film was beautifully shot, and I found the washed out scene as the protagonist emerges from his home particularly beautiful! And I really really am fascinated with the empty Shibuya crossroad scenes. How much did they pay to stop the traffic? That scene was really really mystifying.. and terrifying in some ways.

It is really interesting how different directors are inspired in different ways by a city. Except for Michel Gondry's short, this movie doesn't really make me so eager with visiting Tokyo as much as Lost in Translation. But, that is not the point right? :)

Missing the Cinema Atmosphere

It really worries me that the last movie I watched was 2nd round of "The Dark Knight". What the heck what the heck what the heck. I know that 1 or 2 months after Batman, I felt I didn't miss anything, since none of the movies being shown in the cinemas interested me. But then, the past 1 month or so had been quite a different situation. Several movies that I wanted to catch were released, and due to my deprived social life in SMU, I missed a couple of them! And now, more has been released, but most probably I am going to miss some more of them :( I am desperate to go to the cinema and soak in the atmosphere. It has been way too long! Why am I missing the cinema atmosphere now? I guess it is because I am feeling more free with schoolwork now (with most projects over, and less homework).

Lol, where are the movie people in school? O_O

Dos

This is part two of my October recount.

I had two interesting encounters that were related to films. Firstly, and I still can't believe this, I had gone to Hollywood Film Institute's 2 Day Film School! Looool. It is really amazing to think that Guy Ritchie, Quentin Tarantino, Spike Lee and Christopher Nolan had gone to the same class... and from there started their careers! In short, the 2 Day Film School (by Dov Simens) condensed the nitty gritty of making a film of 4 year film school education to 2 days! After the course, I did feel like I can putting on a parachute, having a free fall and releasing open my parachute (in a literal sense)... until I came back to reality and realised I still need to finish my school properly first -.- Nevertheless, the course motivates me more than ever to make a film. I feel fortunate of being able to attend the class (and at such an early age! Majority of the class participants were working adults, and only 2 other people are of my age). I am motivated to write a proper script during the upcoming December holiday. I don't know why after the class I felt tears in my eyes. Maybe I just didn't want to the class to end? Maybe I just felt so inspired by Dov? When I thanked him after the class and told him I hoped to do filmmaking in the future, he said that I would be able to make it as long as the script is right. It still gives me chills to think of those words of his.

The second film-related encounter is more weird (and, I realised later, profound). Helping out in organising my school's film fest reunited me with Singapore International Film Festival (SIFF) Festival Director. I never thought that this would eventually led to me having a more thought-provoking and in-depth conversations with him. Yes, he did ask me some critical questions during Film Festival, but not as critically as this time around. It all started with him recommending this film titled "The Art of Flirting" by Kan Lume as the Gala Night movie. I watched it, and thought that it would not really be appropriate for the opening night, though I liked the movie. The problem was, the movie was driven by dialogues, and it took a mighty amount of patience to see such types of movies (eg. Before Sunset). Most people are more visually stimulated than audially stimulated when watching films, as such I felt this movie may not provide enough hook as an opening night. I told him that the movie somewhat reminded me of the opening film of SIFF opening film, Princess of Nebraska, which was an unconventional choice. That same evening, he smsed me, saying on the line, "So the question is, should we have opened SIFF with princess?" That was the first time I was placed in a really awkward position of having to be honest but respectful at the same time. I had a lot of respect for him and his works, and was really afraid what I would say would offend him. But I decided I should just be honest (with "No offence intended" line added on the 5 sms reply, which took me half an hour to figure). Waiting for his reply was quite daunting. The reply came next morning, with a new question,

"So if Princess was that inaccessible, why did Golden Village ask him to come back and do restropective on him?"
I replied, "Princess may be a more experimental work of his. I have not seen the rest of his films so I cannot say much. But probably his other works are more accessible to the mainstream compared to Princess."

Another day wait, then comes the first cryptic message. It goes "'i've never seen a child who didn't want to build something out of blocks, or learn something new... And the only reason why adults aren't like that is... they've been sent to school n other oppressive instituions which have driven that out of them.' the lsson is that the arts need to be innocence. In your case u perhaps need to rediscover the "baby" in you." I didn't reply.

The next day comes the second cryptic, and last, message of this story. It goes "we social scientists would do well to hold back our eagerness to control that world which we so imperfectly understand. The fact of our imperfect understanding should not be allowed to feed out anxiety and so increase the need to control. Rather our studies could be inspired by a more ancient motive: a curiosity about the world of which we are part. The rewards of such work are not power but beauty." by Gregory Bateson.

What I derive from the last two messages was that sometimes it does take more effort to appreciate art. Or less effort, depending of how you see it. Now I kind of realised that having no expectations when watching films ('innocent mind') allows you to taking a stride as you watch a movie. So far I have tried this method once and it works. Somehow when I read the first quote, the first thing I thought of is the Michelangelo Antonioni's restropective, whose films I found hard to comprehend. I do think that one has to expose more to films of the same genre and era to be able to understand those films completely. I am willing to give Antonioni's movies another try a few years down the road. Yes the first time I saw it I had the conformed idea of how movies should work (mainly from school's teaching of story writing and current movies). I have to have a clean slate of mind when I watch those movies again in the future. The second quote reminds me of how scary the world is getting with humans trying to make everything they and the nature does perfect. It is this drive of making everything perfect that creates new problems, and kills our appreciation for flaws. I strongly believe that these flaws are the things that make us human, and these flaws are reminders of the good things that exist among us. Without these flaws, everything will be good, and then it will get tough to appreciate something. There are some films that one may perceived as flawed, but then again another person may perceive these flaws as beauty. With regards to film, I relate this quote as being as much as possible open minded towards films that are from different genres and eras.

The episode somewhat increases my respect for the Festival Director. I am thankful for him putting me in such a thought-provoking position (I think it was a more thought-provoking position than any of Margaret Chan's Creative Thinking class lol). Yes, the first time I got the messages I was kinda freaked out. But now thinking back, I see those messages of his way of advicing me on how to curate SMU film fest, and beyond that, how to perceive films of unfamiliar grounds.