A Mind of My Own

After watching Vicky Cristina Barcelona by Woody Allen, I have only one conclusion to make. Spain is vivacious. The people are passionate about art and enjoying the finer aspects of life. The beautiful buildings, streets and the lovely houses have made me want to visit Spain.

The movie is about Vicky and Cristina who were in Barcelona for a 2-month vacation. Vicky (Rebecca Hall) was to complete her thesis in Barcelona while Cristina (Scarlet Johansson) would tour by herself at times. During the art exhibition, both girls met Juan Antonio (Javier Bardem) who was recently divorced from a violent marriage. Cristina was instantly attracted to him and couldn’t help looking at him most of the time.

During dinner, Antonio approached them and proposed a weekend stay with just the three of them. Vicky was apprehensive but Cristina was raring to go. During the stay, Vicky was slowly charmed by Antonio but quickly regretted her passion.

As time went on, Cristina started to see more of Antonio and chaos began when the ex-wife, Marie Elena (Penelope Cruz) sought refuge with Antonio. The trio had problems at first as they were living in the same house but soon warmed up to each other.

I like the cute song that is being played during the start.

Trailer is embedded.

This would not have been made possible without Blog Aloud.

We were young once. We want to show the world that we are no longer kids and want them to acknowledge our presence. In our own ways, we wore Armani, Burberry or Moschino apparel, carried Issey Miyaki or Guess bags, and even perfume to school. We wanted to show them that we are capable of making decisions for ourselves and didn’t need any babysitter every minute.

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The boys would show off their powers by joining the big brothers who would say, “I look after you. Nobody bully my brother one!” They would often skip classes and sit at the coffeeshops or void decks and check out the pretty girls by wolf-whistling.

As time went by, they would get bolder, from stealing food to money. Each time, they weren’t caught, they broaden their “rewards”. The boys would also go to discos and Fire Disco was a popular place for seeing them dancing and playing with the girls.

The girls, on the other hand, would dress up and try to wear the shortest skirt that is allowed to school. Some would pull down the tucked in blouses as tight as possible into the skirt to show off their curves. Others would attempt to hide their hair highlights.

Yet other girls would continue wearing that threadbare blouse to show off what they were wearing inside. Or maybe it wasn’t to show off what they were wearing inside.

Those were The Days. I had the pleasure of viewing a Boi Kwong film made just for remembering those days. It is based on a true story about himself and his younger brother. It was a misguided attempt to ensure that his beloved brother would be protected that he pulled him into his world.

The movie captured the vulnerability of teenage years and their impression of being protected by the big brothers. Fighting and staring were often part of their lives. During the 1980s and early 90s, carrying parangs was part of protecting one’s life and to attack the enemy.

The Days opens on 11 Sept, 2008. The movie is just 100 minutes long due to cuts as it contains vulgar languages that were limited to the famous “Your father”. It’s a pity as I have heard far more colourful words being sprouted during my teenage years.

Stay tuned after the credits have rolled. To catch that handsome Zi Long a.k.a. Tai Zi, the cast will be at the stated places.

I have only one question for the director. How come Tai Zi wasn’t at the Cinema Europa one?

PS: This was made possible by GV Blog Aloud session. Thanks!

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This is a call out for Royston Tan and Eric Khoo fans. GV has an event called “Local Producer’s Acclaimed Films”. One is the screening of Eric Khoo’s past movies (Be With Me and Mee Pok Man) on Friday, 22 August 2008, 7pm and the other are Roystan Tan’s past movies (881 and 4:30) on Friday, 29 August 2008, 7pm. Both sessions are priced at $18 each with free flow of popcorn and drink. Tickets can be purchased on the GV website or at the box office at GV Grand, Plaza Singapura.

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Remember

Venue: GV Grand and GV Plaza

Date: 22 Aug 2008
Time: 7pm
Movie: Be With Me and Mee Pok Man

Date: 29 Aug 2008
Time: 7pm
Movie: 881 and 4:30

Having followed Sheylara’s blog for quite some time, I was happy that free tickets were going to be redeemed for the lucky bloggers who email her the details. DD read about it first since my RSS Reader didn’t update her new posts.

Thus, I sent her an email about my interest and surprise of all surprises, I got my free tickets to Money No Enough 2. A lady who is the contact for the event called me in the afternoon, a day before the actual movie and we spoke for a while. Nice lady.

I waited for the email for details. With the details, I proceeded to the place for collection. I was way too early since I had sent in my brother’s mobile for repair. Strangely, the huge group I saw were mostly queuing for the counter to buy popcorn and tickets.

I saw a table with the huge poster but the person to collect from wasn’t sitting at that place. Instead they were standing. I must say, they prefer to be close to the bloggers rather than just sit at the table and mark the tickets as collected. I’m impressed with the personal approach.

DD finally arrived because his training ended late. We rushed into the cinema and got our seats. Good seats. Thank you Sheylara. The show started on time without any pre-movie advertisements. I love it! Unfortunately, DD missed the first 2 minutes of the show because he needed to buy popcorn for me. I was hoping he would be back soon.

The movie’s main theme is about filial piety and I love the way it is being portrayed. Families with more than one sibling and the gap between rich and poor were shown with clarity. It also spoke of how a mother would give away her savings even if they were meant for her coffin to her children. A mother who doesn’t differentiate between loving a child more than the other.

The common quarrels between siblings is often about money after they started working. They will argue who earns more and should pay more for looking after the parents while neglecting the parents’ feelings. Parents may dote on one child more than the others but there are parents who won’t hesitate to help their children in whatever way they can without being biased.

This movie is a touching story about a family who learns filial piety and money values. A movie made from the heart. This heart part is from his speech.

After the movie, Director Neo arrived to speak about his experiences with the making of the movie. He gave a deeper insight of how budget works and thus, without speaking directly, it explained the constant reminders of the sponsors’ products which marred the movie’s flow to some people who would have preferred a visual reference instead of talking about it constantly.

I didn’t ask any questions because I have absolutely no idea what to ask. A few people asked about a sequel, whether his future movies would consist of more CGI and why he took so long to make the sequel. A lively session, I must say.

Finally, I would like to thank Sheylara and Blog Aloud for the chance to watch the movie and meet Director Neo.

I have been freed from the routine job. Perhaps I have reached my ends of the what one might call the boredom of routine job. It hadn’t been that routine but I needed a change of scope that I craved for. I wanted to do something else but there just wasn’t any slot for me at the time.

I was in my first job for 4 years. Hanging on because I was still studying for a degree that isn’t recognised in the end. I had the chance to shift my scope there. I had a chance to expand my knowledge at my second job. There I was so focused in that I got so wounded up due to the demands there. There wasn’t any change of job scope that was possible as there were more talents in the HQ.

After all these years, I am realising that I am looking for an ideal job. My criteria is:

• Allowing me to work from any time as long as I can produce results.
• Allowing me to work from anywhere.
• Paying me enough for my bills and insurance and enough to save up for retirement.

Perhaps what I need isn’t a job. All I need is to have a few roles or skills to juggle with so that I won’t be looking around every 18 months.

Since my last day at work was on a Thursday, I had an event to attend on Friday, the bag competition. On Saturday, I stayed at home scheduling my posts for my blogs. Sunday, I went out. Monday, I stayed at home to source for more money making schemes and I went to watch Hellboy 2 with DD on Tuesday.

Today, I will pick up the cosmetics from Pure Luxe from HY. I have activities on Friday and Saturday although I’m wondering if I have any activities on Thursday.

I have been thinking about the bags I have just bought. I think I would like to sell the black bag. It looks so odd when I hold it. The photo was taken by me, the background has been photoshopped out.

I’m seeing less clouds now. Although I am resisting the tendency to rub my eyes with each itchiness attack on the eye lids. Using the eye drops at regular intervals is a little difficult when I’m out. However, I have to be consistent for a month. This two weeks will be critical for my recovery from the operation.

The second review will be coming up next and I hope my vision is good for it. It’s no laughing matter when the operation concerns the eye. Either part of our organs being operated on is serious. I decided to take a rest for Monday as I think I still needed to let my eyes see more far away objects than staring at the computer screen for 8 hours.

Watching movies is ok as they are shown on the white cloth instead from the electronic screen. Watched The Hottie and the Nottie with DD. Not sure how to make of the movie but it’s like Shallow Hal. As for Paris Hilton, I can’t say for sure but I did notice something. Her breasts size changes with each set of clothes.

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Overall, I’m looking at things far away clearer than yesterday. Just still a little sensitive to fine words online and the sunlight. Sunglasses is my best friend.