The City Never Sleeps

Dedicated to a friend of mine who is far far away from Singapore, missing his good friend who had just left him.

Let me sing you a waltz
Out of nowhere, out of my thoughts
Let me sing you a waltz
About this one night stand

You were for me that night
Everything I always dreamt of in life
But now you're gone
You are far gone
All the way to your island of rain

It was for you just a one night thing
But you were much more to me
Just so you know

I hear rumors about you
About all the bad things you do
But when we were together alone
You didn't seem like a player at all

I don't care what they say
I know what you meant for me that day
I just wanted another try
I just wanted another night
Even if it doesn't seem quite right
You meant for me much more
Than anyone I've met before

One single night with you little Jesse
Is worth a thousand with anybody

I have no bitterness, my sweet
I'll never forget this one night thing
Even tomorrow, another arms
My heart will stay yours until I die

Let me sing you a waltz
Out of nowhere, out of my blues
Let me sing you a waltz
About this lovely one night stand

Here comes the year of the cute doggie. Hello doggie !!! Oh yeah, i should get some goodies for doggie as well. Hee.

As usual, people will flock to cinemas to catch any CNY hits in theatres. This year, we have a very exciting and rare showdown between Jet Li vs Jack Neo.

Its been ages since Jet Li kick ass in CNY hits, while Jack Neo has been talking about the same old problems Singaporeans face. Ass kicking VS Preaching. Haha.

Was chatting with Elias few days back and was asking him if he wants to catch Fearless by Jet Li, and he mistook as Jack Neo's I Not Stupid Too.

His response: arh? Jack arh? no lah. Not goin to pay $9.50 to watch locals where you can see it for free on TV.
Me: I am referring to Jet Li...
Elias: oh...mabey lah, but not going for Jack Neo.

Feel like going to conduct a survey among the youths, who will you suport this CNY: Jet or Jack?

The answer: no definite answer. Some prefer Jet kick their ass, while some prefer Jack to cook a food for thought.

My verdict: i go for Jet, cos i am willing to pay $9.50 to see Jet wave his parang, his sword, sticks and his fist that kills. I am not going to pay $9.50 to listen to Jack's force preaching on how to handle your kids. Mabey Almodovar's food for thought is more delicious with no force of gulping down your throat?

Asked Farhan to go for the 3.15pm show of Fearless at Lido, and have a good chat with him, since i've not met him for years.

Overall verdict: If you choose Jet's martial art swan song over Jack's preaching drama with a bunch of overgrown bengs and the Shop n Save ah soh aka Xiang Yun, you make the smart choice.

Not going to use the term such as exciting, breath taking, magnificinet... only 5 words to describe Fearless: Every fist hits the flesh (adapt that from the Chinese idiom, quan quan dao rou.) Jet Li has finally produced an A grade drama for the audience, where apart from the usual kick ass scenes, he has also included in his Buddhism thoughts and ideas from his one year break. I can only say, go and watch it yourself.

Oh yeah, what you see in this pic is the showdown between Jet Li and Shidou Nakamura. Just in case you do not know who the heck is Shidou, still remeber or at least heard of Be With You, the 2004 Jap box office hit about a man who had an 6 weeks encounter with his dead wife? That's him.

Apparently, Mediacorp has once again disappointed us with the TV programmes playing on CNY.

Ch 5: Rush Hour, Anna and the King ( the east meet west combination has make too much apperance on both Ch5, 8 and U. We get the version on both English and Mandarin. Think Jodie Foster who plays an English tutor and Chow Yun Fatt playing King Mongkut speaking S'pore accent Mandarin. Neo Swee Lin, Lim Yu Beng and Lim Kay Tong can do a better job on that.)Chicken Run (though it was cute to see Rocky and Ginger in clay, you will get tired of it if you watch too much.), Medallion (Jackie Chan in his nth Hollywood flick, with Anthony Wong making his debut in a Hollywood flick) and Coyote Ugly (TV premier after...6 yrs. My god. Who can still remember LeeAnn Rhimes' Can't Fight the Moonlight?) plus loads of B-flicks.

Ch 8: Fantasia and Cat & Mouse (where Cecilia Cheung rules the TV screen this time.)

Ch U: Honesty (Cecilia Cheung again! Wah lau, S'poreans are over-exposed to Cecilia after her flop The Promise and Shopholics. On CNY, she is making an apperance in My Kung Fu Sweetheart again. Is Dec and Jan the month of Cecilia?)

Suria: don't know what show is playing on Suria. Just feel that they are playing those gila gila shows again.

This is the only movie that is worth watching on CNY:

Arts Central: Paheli. World Premier on TV where the musical featuring Shah Rukh Khan and Rani Mukerjee played in India and S'pore 6mths ago.

As usual, i will get some latest release on home video to avoid those trashy films playing on TV during CNY. This year, i bring home 2 movies at a go:

殺破狼 - Missed the screening in theatres. Just catched around 10mins of the 'men rules' production. If you want to see the showdown of 2 martial arts expert - Donnie Yen and Sammo Hung over some pretty face boy kick a muscular hunk's ass, this is the show to go for.

La Mala Educacion - Oh yeah, i've gotten Almodovar's previous production before his upcoming arthouse chick flick, Volver. La Mala Educacion had a run at selected Shaw Cineplex for a mere 10 days, before it was kicked out by Jack Neo's boring flick, I Do I Do. Hey, pretty boy Gael Garcia Bernal takes the leading role as Ignacio/Angel/Juan, the pretty boy who becomes a transsexual in the end. Highly recommended by Ms Loo, with unexpected ending.

Guess i do not have to depend on Mediacorp to survive CNY.

Watched Elizabethtown by Orlando Bloom and Kristen Dunst few days back.

Well, actually, Angie, Jane and Gina has adviced me not to go and watch, cos they say the show sucks. But i couldn't bear to see the complimentary pass goes down into the longkang, before Jack Neo brings his bunch of grown up kids and the Shop n Save ah soh aka Xiang Yun into the theatres in I Not Stupid Too.

Elizabethtown is another average flick from the man who brought you Vanilla Sky and Jerry Maguire, Cameron Crowe. Bloom plays Drew, a shoe designer whose design of the latest sports shoe causes the failure of Mercury, his company, making a loss of a billion.

Drew attemps suicide, and just then, his phone rings. It was his sister on the line.

'Drew, dad's dead.'

Drew flew to Elizabethtown to settled his dad's funeral. In his journey, he met Claire (played by the grwon up Kristen Dunst) , an air stewerdess, who lightened him up, and both yakked on the phone for several hours, and they decided to meet each other the next morning.

They met, they kinda of like each other, they share the thoughts about love, they shop for an urn to collect his dad's ashes. He settled his dad's funeral, while at the same time, he decided to go for a road trip, since he almost cause his company to go bust.

Eventually, the road trip not only helps him to discover more about himself, his dad, but also, he found the love of his life.

Hmm...Dunst and Bloom looks so lovely here, but Crowe brings the boredom again. There are a few moments where i almost felt asleep on how Bloom handled his dad's funral. Yeah, seriosly speaking, it is rather dull and boring at certain scenes, that i almost fall asleep. Yawnz...

However, these are the few scenes that keeps me awake, or more rather, watchable:

He talks about his flashback on his failure of his career, how he missed his dad, going to a roadtrip to know more about his dad.......

And the apperance between both Dunst and Bloom. Didnt know that time flies so fast, that the girl who always mixed with Spidey now grows up to be a cute lovable air-stewardess. Oh yes, i've yet to seen her in 4 movies she acted in home videos, namely her 2 romance woith Spidey, her cheerleading comedy (Bring It On) and her relationship b/w Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet and Elijah Wood in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. The last time i saw Dunst on a proper film was her 10 year old look in Interview With the Vampire with her Elizabethtown prodcuer, Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt.

Overall, it seems that Crowe enjoys talking about the past of a person by including flashback scenes in his film. He tried that in Vanilla Sky, where Tom Cruise had vague memory of himself after the accident, with a touch of his past. Crowe now puts this onto Orlando Bloom, with him reflecting on his childhood days and how his dad dotes him before his dad flies to the heaven.

4/10. Watchable, but expect some dull moments.

that heaven is crying right now.

The quirky weather is definitely not a pleasant to your eyes and ears, especially when CNY is just around the corner. God, how i fear that it would rained during CNY eve, just like 2003 CNY eve, where heaven gives no face but to cry and cry and cry from 6pm till 1am.

Such a nasty weather is back right now, and how i wish that the rain would stop right now, cos i need to do some shopping for myself.

Oh yeah, to a friend of mine who is far far away,

Happy Birthday, Samuel.

Ang Lee just did the Chinese proud again, which his latest gay cowboy romance melodrama, Brokeback Mountain, brings home 3 Golden Globes, including Best Director and Best Picture.

It is a triumph to the Chinese, especially since he is the 1st Chinese director to won a Best Director award in Golden Globes, which marks the prequel to the Oscars. He turns Annie Prolux's story within The Shipping News into an award winning drama (while Lasse Hallstrom failed to turn the Shipping News into a hit, though it receives several nominations.), which has once proven to the Hollywood that Chinese can do it.

However, just this morning, i am notified that Brokeback Mountain has been slapped with an R21 rating for homosexual issues in Singapore, while few days ago, UIP, the distributor of Brokeback Mountain in Malaysia, has decided to replace Brokeback with Steven Spielberg's Munich instead. Reason: even though Malaysians has no relationships with Israel due to some sensitive issues, they would rather bring in political dramas than homosexual romance, where Malaysia is a Muslim country. So Samuel, i lend you my eyeball, and u go and watch Brokeback Mountain for me in theatres okay? hehe. (p.s: unless i am able to fool the ah peks working at Lido cineplex or Balestier cineplex that i am 21. Hey, i am turning 21 soon, okay? I am not going to catch Brokeback at Yangtze. )

While at the same time, Memoirs of a Geisha has reached the theatres here, finally. Lost to King Kong, Narnia and Jim Carrey (in his upcoming Fun With Dick and Jane) on its opening week, me as a Malaysian, placed my hopes on the strong cast of Datin Michelle Yeoh, Zhang Ziyi, Gong Li and Ken Watanabe to score in the box office results in Singapore. An Asian Hollywood epic shoud not deserve the fate of box office flop, especially when Bernarto Bertolucci has create a phenomenon with his Last Emperor (1987) close to 19 years ago.

Will the miracle appears here again?

While Chen Kaige's The Promise is still having a run at EW Empress and Sun Plaza, the vcd and dvd of the so called million dollar swordfighting epic has hit your nearest home video store.

Bro rented the dvd of The Promise on the day of release (and damn! i was rushing my stuff! cos i have several deadlines to meet...) and i try to catch a bit of the so called epic, where the funny plot and the over-exaggerating CGI effects gives me a break from my schoolwork.

The million dollar comedy (to me, it is an over-exaggerating swordfighting film that becomes a comedy) gurantees you with popular cast from Asia. From left: Hiroku Sanada from Japan (seen in the 2 samurai flicks - Edward Zwick's Last Samurai with Tom Cruise and Ken Watanabe and Yoji Yamada's Twilight Samurai) as Guangming the General, Nicholas Tse from HK as Wuhuan, the evil duke. (Need i intro? not rite?)

From middle to right: Cecilia Cheung from HK as Qingcheng, the most beautiful princess. (my god. Cecilia chio meh? Gong Li looks even better. ) Jang Dong Gun from Korea as Kunlun the slave who can run faster than the speed of light, Chen Hong from China as Man Shen, the Goddess of prophecy and...

Liu Ye from China, who plays Lan Yu! Oops...sorry. He plays Lan Yu in Lan Yu, the award winning gay drama. But this time round, he plays Gui Lang aka The Ghost Wolf, Wuhuan's assassin. (Sad to say, the handsome looking Liu was given a horrible look.)

Given a strong crew of Chen Kaige as the director (the only Chinese director that brings home the Palm D'ors in Cannes Film Fest 1994 for Farewell My Concubine), Peter Pau (the cinematographer) and Tim Yip (the art director ) who brings home the small little Oscar statue for Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, the CGI crew behind 1998's Stormriders and 1999's A Man Called Hero plus various HK, Japanese and Australian crews and blah blah blah...

Eventually you are given a million dollar trash, where it stinks terribly, that Kong has thrown the film miles away on its opening week in S'pore.

The plot is lame. It's about Qingcheng, a poor little girl who steals food from the dead soldiers during the period of China 3000 years ago in the future. (?)

She drops her food into the river and here comes Man Sheng, the Goddess. Man Sheng promised Qingcheng that she will be given the best in everything in future. The best clothes, best food, luxurious home etc... at a very small price: giving up true love. She will never get true love eventually. Qingcheng agrees.

20 years later, Kunlun the slave of nobody becomes a slave for Guangming the General, after Guangming finds him able to run at the speed of light. The reason why Kunlun becomes a slave for Guangming: I have meat to eat when i follow you. On the other hand, Wuhuan lead a troop of army to demand the she-male king to hand over Qingcheng. (Oh yeah, the king has the face of a man, the hairstyle of a woman, the voice of a sissy, the figure of a man who dressed very flowery and colourful.) While earlier on, Man Sheng told Guangming that a man in crimson armor will kill the king, and Guangming is the owner of the crimson armor. Eventually, a man in crimson armor came to Qingcheng's rescue and have the king killed.

Qingcheng falls in love with the man in the crimson armor, who turns out to be Kunlun. She was captured by Wuhuan, but rescued by Kunlun later. (here comes the scene where Qingcheng flies like a kite and Kunlun is flying a kite.) However, Wuhuan came to arrest them and the man in the crimson armor came to Qingcheng's rescue again. Kunlun was eventually captured by Wuhuan, and Qingcheng falls in love with the man who came to her rescue: GuangMing.

In a nutshell: Qingcheng falls in love with the 3 men, and all 3 died for her eventually.

To be exact: Kunlun was stabbed by Wuhuan before Wuhuan died after he killed GuangMing, and he donned himiself into the lack robe, where it can bring a person from the verge of death to life. Time will reverse back and Kunlun brings Qingcheng out of the universe to change her destiny. The End.

What can i say more? The show is crappy, lame storyline with ridiculous scenario, over exaggerated CGI Effects, miscast of casts and waste of crews.

Chen now makes a promise to make The Promise 2. My god...

I would rather Chen breaks the promise and bring back his days of Concubine and Temptress Moon.

This week and next week are the 2 weeks that spares no Business students mercy. 4 projects, 2 tests, tonnes of reports and etc are to be completed in the shortest time. Failure to do so will only resulted in delay of your diploma.

Which is something i couldn't afford, 'cos the price is too dear for me.

Just came across this American independent production which has a very special title: Thumbsucker.

It is about a 17 year old young man named Justin who still have the habit of sucking his thumb, where his tongue sucking habit has disrupted his life badly. With the help of his mother, tutor, principal, psychiatrist and friends, he explore more about himself as a life of a teenager.

Sounds interesting, but just do not know when will we get to see Lou Pucci, the actor who plays Justin, sucking his thumb on Singapore's big screen.

This is not pronounced as Ah Gong, as in Grandpa.

That was the jargon used by me and my sis to describle Gong Li, the very beautiful actress who make her way from China to Hollywood.

And this is what happened during the PoE group meeting today:

Me (to Angie) : You look like Gong Li leh.
Angie: Siao lah u!
Me: Yah what! You look like Gong Li to me mah.
Angie: eh, Gong Li's face is round leh. I look round meh?

Elias came and explained that Angie do looks _____ % like Gong Li. (You fill in the blanks.)

My...can't take my eyes of Gong Li, even though she is in her 40's. Zhang Ziyi might look better, but i prefer Gong Li. Gong Li looks chio.

Just imagine she came down to TP business school in a kimono with a chopstick in her hair to promote Memoirs of A Geisha. I can imagine her roaming round the whole TP just to draw the sympathy tickets of the TP students to vote for heras the best geisha again, if one day Nitta Sayuri becomes the most famous geisha instead of Hatsumomo (the villian role played by Gong Li where she says to Zhang, who plays Sayuri: I shall destroy you.)

Was chatting with Samuel just now and we found a common topic today: female celebs with lovely boobs.

He finds Monica Bellucci chio.
I find Audrey Tautou and Julie Delpy sweet and warm.

And this is the picture of Audrey's Amelie plastic figure:

The plastic Amelie is cute, hor?

Prince, who is once the king of the 80's pop, directed and stars in a musical entitled Under The Cherry Moon in 1986. It's about 2 men (Prince and his bestfriend) plot to ripped off $$$ from a rich girl who has just inherited millions of dollars form her father. Prince gets close to her so as to achieve the goal of the scheme. However, he falls in love with the girl, and he told her about the plot as he do not wish to conned the girls wealth... (at least i suppose so.)

And just last night, Prince appears in my dream suddenly, performing the sequel of Under The Cherry Moon: Under The Black Cherry Moon.

This is the scenario: i was in the bus with the bus driving towards the mountain (and i do not know which mountain i am going to.) and just suddenly, Prince appears from my back, asking me where am i going to. I have no idea who was he then. And this is what he told me:

'My name is Prince.'

When i turned back at him and take a second look, my! Isn't he Prince, the pop icon of the 80's?

And immediately i asked for his autograph. We took the bus that took us to... who knows?

For the past few days, i've been dreaming of people who i've not met for ages. Aloysius, Lawrence aka Zhisheng (who is my sec sch senior, aka my buddy.) and now, Prince.

Just wonder who will enter my dream tonight?

p.s: know the reason why it is known as Under The Black Cherry Moon? Cos the dream is in black and white, which Under The Cherry Moon is a B/W movie. :P

'Power to the meek, power to the speak, i got the power within me. Yea Yea'

- Eurythmics

And Dr William Tan, the polio stricken doctor who create several records on marathons using his wheelchair, is creating a world record in TP, by running round the trackfield for 24 hours. It just ended at 6.45pm.

There was no news about the outcome, but i believed, he has created a world record, and broke the record for myself.

I gladly participated as one of the runners this morning, andomne word to describe running round the track for 21 rounds (or 7kms) in a hour:

exhilarating.

Somehow, i told myself, i must run more than 3 rounds (cos in this event, runners must run minimum 3 rounds, which makes up to 1km.) and i told myself, do not give up.

As i thought my body will start failing me from the 4th round onwards, amazingly no. As what Annie Lennox performed in Power To The Meek, i feel the power has gotten into my body, and i got the power within me. From 3 rounds, i extend it to 6, then 10, then 15, and eventually 21 rounds.

It seems that the batch of TP Biz students who keep on cheering at themselves with slogans failed themselves with a mere 3 rounds.

I was wondering: what is the power that drives me to my extend? Could it be 1) Dr Tan's perseverance? We smiled at one another at some rounds. 2) the pretty chick who encourage me when passing me the ice cream sticks as a signal of running for a round or 3) the rain?

After checking out of the event, met Yao Ming (who is also one of the event orgainser) and he told me that he run for 24 rounds last nite. (gasp!)

24...if i know earlier, i will run 25 rounds by hook or by crook.

While reading Cindy's blog, she mentioned about her visit to Shaw Preview Theatre at Scotts Road, which is right above Lido Cineplex, for the screening of The Dark. Her comment on the Preview Centre: it is an old school theatre, where the seats are leather seats that is used thousands of years ago. Movie starts punctually, and no cup holders, so no snacks and drinks consumed.

Well, dearest Cindy, the preview centre is a place where if i not wrong, it is used for film distributors to have a preview of the films first before deciding to buy the film. So, no posh seats, no cup holders. hehe

Anyway, your valuable pics has given me an idea of how does the Preview Theatre looks like. Thank U Ciin. =)

Bye bye 2005, hello 2006.

That's what i told myself when i was in Orchard with Shyam last nite, to celebrate the arrival of the 1st day of 2nd half of the decade.

Celebration of countdown follows after we had dinner at Cine Orchard, and that's where i met Gina the Great (my team member actually.). Crowds spray foams on one another, and when the clock strikes 12, everyone cheered.

Decided to pull ourselves from the madding crowd by catching the 12.45am session of King Kong. Somehow, it is somekind of good choice to celebrate the arrival of 2006, but a bad choice for catching a 188min drama about a cheo bu played by Naomi Watts and her encounter with an ape named Kong, who eventually fall to its death at the Empire Building. The show is good, but draggy. Somehow, Peter Jackson had the penchant of directing long hour movies. Previosuly in The Frighteners by Michael J Fox and Heavenly Creatures by Kate Winslet wasn't the case.

Just wonder what will the director of LOTR do for his next step.

Traffic is a killer, asll night service bus is fully packed with youths who crowd themselves with the crowds. Finally, we managed to get ourselves into NR7 at 4.50am and enjoy a different view of Orchard at the wee hours. Starbucks are still crowded with coffee lovers who wants a piece of tranquility at the start of 2006. Perhaps a cup of hot chocolate and a cranberry scone would be nice, especially both of us would have to wait under the rain.

Eventually reached home at 5.30am. Perhaps i should told myself, go and sleep outsiden before going home.

Somehow, the weather has been pretty unsympathetic. It rained like as if there is no tomorrow.

Even till now.

Happy 2006. I opened my hads towards a new life, a new era of me, and a new phase of me.