Living It Up

Went to watch the movie today.  It’s sooooo good!  The plot’s really simple - Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) was raised by her single mom, Donna (Meryl Streep) and has always wondered about the identify of her father.  She finds her mom’s old diary hidden in a trunk in the house and the entries in the diary were recorded the year that she was born.  Donna was involved with 3 men 1 summer 20 years ago and Sophie was born as a result of that passionate summer.  Curious to find who her real dad is, Sophie invites all 3 men to her wedding!

And that’s essentially the entire plot… and told using ABBA’s songs.  Like what my favourite English teacher, Mr. Booth, told me years ago in secondary school - the best story is often the simplest one.  When the author focuses on the characters and detailed development of the story - that’s what draws readers in.  You don’t need a complex plot with 101 sub-plots to capture the attention of your audience.

How true that is with Mama Mia!.  The movie had us (the audience) laughing really hard and I could hear people singing along with the characters on the screen.  Meryl Streep is a fabulous actress too!  She really outshone the others in the cast (especially Pierce Brosnan who looked a little stoned if you ask me).  When she sang the solos "Slipping Through My Fingers and "The Winner Takes It All", tears couldn’t help but well up in my eyes.  She was sooooo good. 

The movie’s really campy, yet sentimental and the lovely, romantic Greek island backdrop was absolutely beautiful.

Here’re my favourite parts in the movie.

Honey Honey (The really funny start… and I think Amanda Seyfried was the best singer amongst the cast)

Slipping Through My Fingers:

The Winner Takes It All

Oh… and a funny tidbit about myself… when I was really really young… a toddler… my parents used to play the ABBA record and I loved the song Super Trouper so much, I would cry when the song ended and wouldn’t stop till they played it again, and again, and again, and again. 

Enough said.  Go see the movie now!

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Watching this super old SBC/TCS show now called 傻妹情娇 (aka Sister Dearest).  It’s so dumb it’s hilarious.  Some of the scenes are so bad that they make my hair stand.  It’s serious cringe-worth material man.  The cast of the show includes my favourite TCS actor, Sean Say, Wang Yu Qing, Cassandra See and that Cheryl something… the one who acted in some shampoo ad and married that "remiser king", Peter Lim.

The fashion paraded in the show’s really bad too.  But I guess that’s just the style from the 80s-early 90s.  Hehehehe.  What I do like is the music.  Heh.  Maybe ‘cos I belong to that era too… hahahahaha.

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Managed to catch X-Files tonight.  It was a disappointment for me… the plot was thin and the pace slow.  I think you could probably put everything into a 1-hour episode and have it work quite well… but to stretch out the thin storyline into a 2-hour movie just didn’t cut it.

Even more disappointing  was how Mulder & Scully were suddenly an item in the movie!  Gosh!  How could the producers/scriptwriters/director just put Mulder & Scully together without showing how it happened?  After all, one of the things that kept fans chasing the series was to find out if Mulder & Scully would ever get together!  The romantic tension between the two leads was exciting and I think that forms a pretty big part of the whole X-Files package.

To finally make Mulder & Scully a couple just killed the emotional rollercoaster ride where we all wanted them to be together but for some reason they just didn’t get together.  To make them an item with no explanation at all?  That was horrible!  It’s like a double anti-climax!  Highly unsettling.

And if you thought it couldn’t get any worse… it did.  I think it’s due to poor scripting ‘cos you couldn’t tell at all that Mulder & Scully were together till 1/4 through the movie, you see them in bed discussing some problems they were facing individually and you go - gosh!  Since when did they get together?  Did I fall asleep?

Sigh.  I was quite looking forward to re-living a huge TV hit during my teenage years on the big screen tonight.  Sadly, I think this movie only shows it’s time to axe the X-Files.

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I couldn’t remember the plot of the previous X-Files movie so I did an online search.  If you read the plot of the previous movie, you’ll appreciate how it was deeply entrenched in the overall X-Files themes/plots, etc.  Sigh.  I miss the old X-Files.  I hereby conclude this latest movie is crap on comparison.

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been thinking very long and very hard about posting about my free IPTV lobangs ‘cos i don’t want all the legal eagles to swoop down on these free streaming providers and end my Internet TV bliss.

but there’re some things that’re sooo good that i guess i should share!  (plus the more people viewing, the better the reception ‘cos the more people to share the spreading of lurve!).

but i digress. 

i’ve been using TVU for a few years now.  was introduced by a friend during the last Soccer World Cup.  the visuals was grainy then… and laggy too.  but oh well, better than nothing for smoeone who doesn’t want to pay 2k+ for cable tv (that’s what starhub said they charge to link the cable from outside my house to inside my house.  duh!).

i stopped watching TVU after the WC but started using again to watch F1 whenever i can’t make it down to a secret haunt to watch.  (Iceman said before that i shouldn’t spread the word on this ‘cos we don’t want people swamping down on our haunt.  heh.)

unfortunately, after TVU failed me miserably just now, i started searching online for other similar programmes and i found TVKoo! 

am really happy about this find ‘cos TVKoo has lots of HK channels on it, it seems!  i even found a channel dedicated to streaming the Happy Ghost series!

looks like i’m going to be glued to my monitor a lot more often now.  will use TVU for my sports needs, and TVKoo for my HK cravings. 

now i just need to find a player that has free TVB dramas!  (actually TVKoo has some older TVB dramas lah.  heh… but not good enough!  :P)

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Read in the papers that the movie 881 has been selected as Singapore’s nomination for Best Foreign Film category.  I’m so happy.  Really love the movie.  Although the subject matter is something that is very local and foreign audiences may not be able to appreciate it, i hope they’ll be able to connect to the very simple storyline of friendship & love admist the colourful ‘geitai’ setting.  The movie has its cheesy moments… but i think that adds a fun element to it.  Way to go 881!  881 yo ah yo ah yo!

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I’ve been avidly following the TVB drama “Shades of Truth” (水浒无间道) on Channel U the past 2 weeks.  (Thank God for DVD players that can record onto DVD-RWs!  Woohoo!).  It’s an excellent show.  The premise is that Wu Song (played by Julian Cheung) and Lin Chong (Wong Hei) have reincarnated into this lifetime and Wu Song is now an undercover cop and Lin Chong is a senior inspector with the OCTB.  Wu Song regains his memory of the past life first.. and there’s a whole series of comical incidents as he tries to get Lin Chong to recall the past.

Lin Chong eventually does and (i haven’t watched finish the show yet) they eventually work together to bust a criminal organisation (i think).  Read a couple of reviews online and one of them mentioned that it’s a happy ending.  Yay!  I like shows with happy endings… not like the TVB drama “To Catch the Uncatchable”… such a happy go lucky comedy.. and the male lead dies in the end.  I was quite upset at that.  I mean, if the scriptwriters needed a twist at the end of a happy comedy but couldn’t find one, then just leave it lah!  Why kill off the male lead right?

Back to Shades of Truth, if you haven’t watched it (i’m assuming most people would’ve watched it since Starhub Cable Ch 55 showed it last year), go get the DVD/VCD!  It’s really entertaining!  The scenes where Wu Song meets with his police superior, Inspector Huang, to provide him with info are super hilarious.  Every meeting is in a different venue with a different theme.  Damn goot!

Love this show.  Thinking if i should buy the DVD/VCD for keeps.  Hehe.

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Just downloaded the FLV Player ‘cos i wanted to save the music videos of the movie 881 from youtube to my laptop and there was this bonus programme that came long with the package - the Freecorder Toolbar.  The Freecorder Toolbar allows u to capture songs from your browser in mp3 format.  Fantastic tool i must say!  Was searching yisou.com and baidu.com but couldn’t find the mp3 of the song Yi Ren Yi Ban (themesong of the movie 881) but managed to record an mp3 version from the youtube site using the Freecorder Toolbar.

Also, while the FLV Player only works in Firefox, Freecorder works in both Firefox and IE!  Everyone say cheers now!  Yippee! 

Here’s the music video of the song 一人一半.  Really nice song… the movie was good too.  Requires u to suspend your disbelief… but it’s all in good fun… and the themes of friendship, passion for music, kinship, never fail to inspire.  Royston Tan is a good director.  Am proud that he’s a Singaporean!

Go see the movie if u haven’t ya? 

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Sigh.  Just started watching Wong Hei in Shades of Truth (水浒无间道) and boy am i bowled over by him.  I’ve always loved Wong Hei as an actor… he has this indescribable charm… i mean, he’s ugly - small beady eyes, bad complexion (thank God for the good height 1.78m and great bod).  But he really entertains as an actor… whether he’s playing a clown (which always sets my heart aflutter), or playing some really serious role, he’s able to pull it off convincingly.

X-factor.  Yup.  Wong Hei is X-factor personified.  Was surfing the Net for a picture of him to upload here… and came across several forums that have threads saying that Wong Hei is rumoured to be gay.  He was apparently caught sunbathing with his partner before.  *Sob*.

Why?  Why?  Why?  Why are all the attractive macho men who exude endless charm and pure charisma gay?  :(  *Sniff*.  Pass the tissue please…

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Iceman has gone bonkers over Spiderpig.  Think bonkerity is contagious.  Had us both singing Spiderpig at UE Square last night… and that left WC, San and Ratz in peals of laughter.  Here’s another Spiderpig vid i found.  Hehe.

This is the version of the song i like.  Hehe.  It’s played during the credits of the movie.  Heh.

Look out!  He is a Spiderpig!

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Watched The Simpsons Movie last night.  It’s really really good!  Hahaha.  Highly intellectual… touching on issues like homosexuality, school bullies, politics, pollution, broken familes, alcoholism, among other things.  Really good.  Oh… and did i mention it was funny too?  Haha.

Here’s my favourite song from the movie.  Heh. 

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Was surfing Youtube when i came across this clip of the making of the movie Happy Birthday.  *Sniff*.  So touching.  :(  *Sob*  Did u know the storyline was written by Rene Liu?  Sigh…

I like what Rene Liu says somewhere in the middle of the interview - “I believe in love that lasts forever, but i will train myself to not believe that everything will last forever.  ‘Cos i believe if u adjust your expectations to something shorter, then if it lasts longer, u’ll feel like u’ve gained something” 

And something she says at the end is very touching too - “When we were young, our notion of ‘love’ may be heavily influenced by romantism in Qiong Yao’s novels, but in real life, that’s not what love is all about.  All those happy stories are but a ‘moment’ in time.  And a person’s life is strung together by many many ‘moments’.

Here’s the trailer of the movie.

Here’s the themesong sang by Rene Liu.

Really gotta get the movie.  Such a fantastic show.  Sigh.  Happy moments are often fleeting and hurting moments are also forgotten with the passing of time.  We can only cherish the happy ones and use the memories of it to mask the sad ones.

Here are the lyrics of the themesong:

仿佛你就在我身边
等待了一年又一年
对你的思念
三百六十五天
我只等这一天
勇敢地把从前
情人节快乐
变成
祝你生日快乐
i love you
说不出口的倾诉
i miss you
让挂念代替了相处
瞬间是永远感情变祝福
可惜甜言也带苦
i love you
是最完美的结束
i miss you
一辈子靠今天接触
瞬间是永远感情变祝福
可惜都于事无补
今夜有人陪你庆祝
不枉我一年的孤独
请你原谅我不多写一个字
像普通人紆糊
多一字多份痛
今夜我不想哭
happy birthday to you
happy birthday to you

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Saw the movie Happy Birthday starring Rene Liu and Louis Koo on my flight to Manila.  Amazing show.  Some parts were so funny that i had to cover my mouth hard ‘cos i was bursting with laughter… and some parts were so sad my eyes swelled with tears.  Was quite a torture trying to hold back my tears when lunch was being served!  It was like, “I’ll like the…” *sniff* “fish please”.

It was a simple movie.  Simple plot but beautifully shot.  Directed by my favourite director too - Jingle Ma.  His style is soooo recognisable… and it’s probably no coincidence that the other HK movie that i love, Summer Holiday, was also shot by him.

Anyway, the movie was about how this pair of college lovers, Louis Koo and Rene Liu were together, and were not together, over the years.  They never officially “broke up” but somehow just as distance separated them, time brought them together again.  Rene Liu always had insecurities about herself and the relationship ‘cos she was deeply scarred by her mom walking out on the family when she was a child.  And Louis Koo was quite the ladies’ man, flirting around constantly though he knew that the only woman he would ever marry was Rene Liu.

Then one day, Louis Koo told Rene Liu that he was marrying someone else.  Rene Liu was devastated.  ‘Cos throughout the years, even during the times when they were “not together”, they were always part of each others’ lives… keeping in touch through sms, ICQ, etc.  Their exchanges may be about small little things like a blackout caused by an earthquake, or complaints about exam stress, the purchase of a new car, etc… but through these little things, it was as though they were never apart.

After Louis Koo supposedly “got married and migrated to Shanghai”, both of them would still send each other a “happy birthday” greeting during their birthdays.  This went on for 3 years.  Then this year (forgot to mention that the movie starts in the present but the story unfolds in flashbacks), Louis Koo forgot to send Rene Liu a birthday greeting and she’s very upset of ‘cos.  The greeting eventually comes… 2 days late (if i don’t recall wrongly)… and Rene Liu is happy again. 

But (here comes the twist), their group of college friends then find out that Louis Koo passed away 6 months before Rene Liu’s current birthday… and that he never got married.  Louis Koo was diagnosed with rectal cancer and went away for 3 years to seek treatment.  But he couldn’t be cured and so before his death, he instructed his sister to continue to send Rene Liu a happy birthday message on his behalf.  (Oh damnit… i’m feeling soppy again!).  So sad right?  :`(  Boohoohoo.  *Sniff*

Anyway, i could really identify with various parts of the movie.  Like how it feels to wait for an greeting on your birthday… that totally reminded me of an old old friend of mine.  When he went overseas to study (which btw, the first time Louis Koo and Rene Liu were seperated was ‘cos he went overseas to study), we would chat on ICQ, and IRC, and we would talk on the phone pretty often too.  That slowly watered down to a birthday card snail mailed during each others’ birthdays… then it became a e-greeting… which eventually downgraded into an sms… and one day, it just stopped.  Well, he stopped… i still wish him happy birthday as i do with most of my friends.  Sigh. 

Actually i always knew that the birthday greetings would stop one day… and every year i got an sms wishing me happy birthday, it made the wait the next year worse.  I would start thinking about whether the greeting would come like 1 week before my birthday?  And the anticipation and anxiety would grow as my birthday drew nearer.  Then came one year when my birthday came and went… and no sms greeting came.  That was when i knew i was out of his life, permanently.  Sigh.

Another thing that i identified with the movie was when Rene Liu suggested being “best friends” with Louis Koo, versus being in a relationship ‘cos couples break up but best friends don’t, and she wanted to see Louis Koo for the rest of her life.  Don’t you think this is so true?  Sigh.  I mean, this is something that has certainly crossed my mind many times before.  This is definitely one way of preventing future “collateral damage”.  (Not to mention not getting involved with your buddy’s ex-gf/bf, which is a topic for another time).

A third thing that rang true for me, and i believe this is the case for many of us, is how sometimes you might have this incredible urge to just send an sms to tell someone what you’re doing?  And even though whatever you write in your sms may not warrant a reply, the other party will nevertheless respond because it’s just such a natural thing to do?  Just touching base with each other?

Oh well, there were other issues / themes / whatever you call it raised in the movie that i really identified with… but it’s 2:58am now and i’m working tomorrow (though T.G.I.F!) so i’ll have to end the post here.  Here’s a song that i’ve heard before but never appreciated the lyrics till it was featured in the movie…

有多少爱可以重来

常常责怪自己当初不应该
常常后悔没有把你留下来
为什么明明相爱到最后还是要分开
是否我们总是俳徊在心门之外

谁知道又和你相遇在人海
命运如此安排总叫人无奈
这些年过得不好不坏只是好像少了一个人存在
而我渐渐明白你仍然是我不变的关怀

有多少爱可以重来有多少人愿意等待
当懂得珍惜以后回来却不知那份爱会不会还在
有多少爱可以重来有多少人值得等待
当爱情已经桑田沧海是否还有勇气去爱

music……

谁知道又和你相遇在人海
命运如此安排总叫人无奈
这些年过得不好不坏只是好像少了一个人存在
而我渐渐明白你仍然是我不变的关怀

有多少爱可以重来有多少人愿意等待
当懂得珍惜以后回来却不知那份爱会不会还在
有多少爱可以重来有多少人值得等待
当爱情已经桑田沧海是否还有勇气去爱

有多少爱可以重来有多少人愿意等待
当懂得珍惜以后回来却不知那份爱会不会还在
有多少爱可以重来有多少人值得等待
当爱情已经桑田沧海是否还有勇气去爱

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Heard about this M’sian horror flick from Iceman… supposed to be real scary so i wanted to watch… unfortunately, the run ends on Wed and my days are booked all the way till after my Manila trip.  Hence… although saya mahu tonton Jangan Pandang Belakang tapi tidak ada masa. 

Anyway, guess it’s not a bad thing to jangan pandang belakang (don’t look back).  One needs to always keep walking ahead ya?

Anyone got the DVD for the movie?

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Got a nice song from Ally McBeal / Vonda Shepard to share - What Becomes of the Broken Hearted.  The lyrics are a lot more forward looking (jangan pandang belakang - get it?) than what the title implies.  Haha.

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Just saw the movie.  Really funny.  Only Hugh Grant can pull off all those corny one liners and STILL charm.  Haha.  Though the themesong is kinda poppy-soppy, i like it! 

Here’re the lyrics. 

Various Artists Way Back into Love Lyrics

[Cora]
I’ve been living with the shadow overhead
I’ve been sleeping with a cloud above my bed
I’ve been lonely for so long
Trapped in the past, I just can’t seem to move on

[Alex]
I’ve been hiding all my hopes and dreams away
Just in case I ever need them again someday
I’ve been setting aside time
To clear a little space in the corners of my mind

[Cora & Alex]
All I wanna do is find a way back into love
I can’t make it through without a way back into love
Oh oh oh

[Cora]
I’ve been watching but the stars refuse to shine
I’ve been searching but I just don’t see the signs
I know that it’s out there
There’s gotta be something for my soul somewhere

[Alex]
I’ve been looking for someone to shed some light
Not somebody just to get me through the night
I could use some direction
And I’m open to your suggestions

[Cora & Alex]
All I wanna to do is find a way back into love
I can’t make it through without a way back into love
And if I open my heart again
I guess I’m hoping you’ll be there for me in the end

[Cora]
There are moments when I don’t know if it’s real
Or if anybody feels the way I feel
I need inspiration
Not just another negotiation

[Cora & Alex]
All I wanna do is find a way back into love
I can’t make it through without a way back into love
And if I open my heart to you
I’m hoping you’ll show me what to do
And if you help me to start again
You know that I’ll be there for you in the end

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There’s this Jacky Wu dancing competition variety show every Mon night at 1am which i really love to watch.  Recently, i’ve been rather fascinated by the pole dancing segment.  The reigning queen of pole dancing, Niu Niu has really left a deep impression on me.  Yeap… deep enough to almost inspire me to learn pole dancing myself.  Almost. 

What impresses me the most is that although this is the 3rd time i’ve seen her on the programme (i think she might’ve performed more times on the show just that i didn’t manage to catch the other episodes), everytime she does her routines, she has new stunts (yes, stunts… like fly in the air, swivel around the pole kind of acrobatic stunts), which is truly amazing!  ‘Cos this shows how creative she can be!

A lot of her challengers have shown remarkable difficulty in the stunts they’ve performed however, what stands Niu Niu apart is that she has this really gentle & feminine grace when she dances, which the rest lacks.  So far, all the other pole dancers i’ve seen just go for the “bam wham” aggressive kind of style.  Hence, Niu Niu’s gentleness combined with her stunts just makes her one class above the rest.

I really hope she comes back next week ‘cos i really want to watch her dance some more!  Just a littttttle bit worried ‘cos she’s been on the show for so long so the producers may deem it good to have some “fresh blood”…. and… tonight’s challenger was really good with her stunts… though she definitely lacked the feminine touch.

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