The City Never Sleeps

Catched Les Poupees Russes aka Russian Dolls at The Cathay yesterday. Gosh! The last time i visited The Cathay was close to 6 years ago. Oh well, i didn't catch a movie at The Cathay, but at The Picturehouse. (Come to think of it, the size of Picturehouse has shrunk terribly from 273 seat hall with a big screen and a small stage to a mere 82 seater tiny winny lecture theatre, with the size of the screen so small, that it is comparable to the screen at LT19 of TP Biz.) I catched Sausalito, a HK romantic drama with director Andrew Lau paired Leon Lai and Maggie Cheung together, as a IT specialist and a female cabbie seeking true love in Sausalito, a small town in San Francisco.

6 years later, Shu Qi and Chang Chen takes the lead in the New Picturehouse. Instead of paying them a visit in their 3 Times, i choose the land with tonnes of Euro babes. I got Audrey Tautou (as usual) with a new target: Cecile De France, Kelly Reilly and Evguenya Obraztsova.

Well, to know the show better, you must first catch L'auberge Espagnole aka Spanish Apartment, which features the same dudes and babes in Russian Dolls. While Spanish Apartment talks about the life of a group of teens who came from different cultural background lived together in an apartment, Russian Dolls shines them on adulthood, where all becomes working adults. Xavier, the main character of the film, still finds himself single at 30. After breaking up with Martine, his ex-gf, he is involved in an entangled relationship between Isabelle (a lesbo), Wendy (his UK hot chick), Ceila (a model) and Natasha (a Russian ballet dancer.) At the same time, he laid on strangers who he fancys, and thus inviting disaster for himself.

Eventually, he had Wendy, while Wendy's brother William marrys Natasha. The End.

Viola, you got: Xavier in the middle. Isabelle on his left, Wendy in the middle bottom, Celia on bottom right, Natasha right, Martine top right hand corner and finally Kassia, a sales assistant whom Xavier dates in Kookai, a boutique.

While Audrey Tautou reminds me of former Mediacorp actress Lin Mei Jiao in her younger days, Cecile De France can be my beautiful wife, Kelly Reilly as my tea time khaki and Evguenya Obraztsova...as my younger sister. :)

Only if i am fortunate enough for my wish to be fufilled.

Damn, gotta pretty serious insomnia lately. And i do not know why i am suffering from that.

If Al Pacino is unable to track down the murderer in Alaska, i doubt he can have a good sleep. Emotionally, the case he is handling stressed him. Physically, the weather of Alaska makes everyone only have 6 hours of darkness. Who can sleep under the bright daylight without the help of curtains and eye covers?

I'm sick and tired of being a househusband. It is not fun at all. Eat, sleep, housework, TV, housework, TV, housework, TV, endless boredom....

Known 3 friends of mine who is living like a househusband aka my new definition of modern bummer:

1. Mr A laze at home and do nothing but glued himself to the computer for 14/7, close to the verge of selling his soul to the computer.

2. Mr B smokes his life away and lament on how hard life is.

3. Mr C is entering the army soon. Been wondering how is life like in the army, and feel that he could not make it.

My recommended remedy:

1. Go take some fresh air for Mr A. It is unhealthy for him to glue himself to the computer for 14/7.

2. Go do some community work for Mr B and see how many people are living in misery, but they do not lament on the hardships of life. And oh yeah, quit that addiction as well. It's not worth to smoke your life away.

3. 2 years is a short time, Mr C. Just try to adapt the lifestyle in the army. Even i who was given a choice of serving NS for 3months in M'sia choose to serve 2 years in S'pore. 2003 in TP was just like yesterday.

Anyway, my life of househusband is coming to an end soon. As what Gong Li says in Eros:

'Yao qu shang ban le.' (Going to work soon.)

You Should Learn French

C'est super! You appreciate the finer things in life... wine, art, cheese, love affairs.You are definitely a Parisian at heart. You just need your tongue to catch up...

What Language Should You Learn?

Samuel wish to watch some movies that i had at home, so i couldn't say NO. Cos this was the first time we met each other in person after months of chatting and laming on line, where it all begins when we lame each other while he was in Brunei serving his NS. Now? He's working.

Lunch was chicken katsu don at Sumohouse, and whenever i brought a friend along, i would recommend them chicken katsu don. Cheap and good, and it seems that my friend dun mind going for it. At least, Shyam, Jeremy and Samuel takes the recommendation. Recommended that is because not only it is cheap and good, but also reminds me of how Faye Wong exclaims: Oishi! when having her katsu don in a police station in one of her Jap drama she acted in 2002.

After looking through the list of my collections, he decided to opt for Almodovar's La Mala Educacion, aka Bad Education. We spend 2 hours discussing the film, crap, debate and talk some serious issue. All of a sudden, i just found myself gaining another friend who i can converse well with. So, my social circle has widen again.

Samuel said that La Mala Educacion has a sad ending. Me as the host replies: such films do not have a happy ending. If the movie ends happily, then it becomes a crap.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Until today, i just found out that Gramophone Centrepoint (their latest outlet which provides an additional video rental service to their usual line of buying and selling new and used CDs, VCDs and DVDs.) provided a copy of Ang Lee's The Wedding Banquet for rental.

!

I thought: Wasn't Wedding Banquet banned on home video? The video was certified M18, but somehow, it was not recommended for M18 release on home video here.

Neverthless, i go ahead and rent Wedding Banquet. And i told myself: i will frequent Gramophone Centrepoint for video rental in future. At the rate of $3/copy for 3 days and new release at $4, it is far more better than Laserflair, where they just simply charge you $4/$5 for only 1 day and by giving you only the disc without the casing that comes along when you buy the disc, they have done their job.

Before Ang Lee makes his name with the gay soap drama about 2 cowboys with ill-fated love which shines at the Oscars, he brought us with a lighter fare of a gay Chinese-Caucasian couple and their Mainlander tenant faking a marriage just to achieve their goals, where the gay Chinese was pressurised by his traditional thought parents.

Wei Tung and Simon is a pair of happy couple living in Manhattan. Wei Tung is a successful businessman while Simon is a therapist. Coming close to 40, Wei Tung's parents pressurised him to get married. He rent his house to Wei Wei, a Mainlander artist who paints for a living. She have no legal documents to prove her reason for staying in Manhattan. Simon suggest that Wei Tung and Wei Wei gets married, so as to 1) Wei Wei gets her citizenship, 2) satisfy Tung's parent, 3) enjoy government benefits for the married couples.

Everything is done, and here comes the big day. Tung's parents are happy to see their son getting married, but things goes out of hand after the banquet.

Tung had Wei pregnanted, dad overhears the quarrel between Tung and Simon, and realised that his son is a gay, which leads to high blood pressure attack, Tung comes out of the closet, Wei wants an abortion.

In the end, it is a happy ending. Wei decided to keep the child, mum and dad not only gain a daughter in law, but a son in law as well. The End.

Have i went to Centrepoint on Fri, Samuel could have enjoyed the award winning Taiwanese drama with a happy ending. =(

Well, he will get to see it next time. ^^

Attendd the free screening of V For Vendetta at Cine Orchard with YaoMing and Farhan. Gosh, Yao was late again, but thank goodness the show starts late as well.

Just in case you do not know what the heck is about, it is a free screening organized by M1 to the M1 customers, and i gotta used my soon to expire sunperks points to redeem the tix, since my points do not really qualifys me something decent. This is somekind of little reward to us, since we are going to be one of the first few to catch V For Vendetta ahead of the world. Opens in S'pore, M'sia and HK on Mar 16. US Release on Mar 17.

Nah, you see the botak gal and man in the mask? They are Queen Amidala from Star Wars and Agent Smith from Matrix ala Natalie Portman and Hugo Weaving. Portman plays Evey, a British chick who works for the local TV Station, while Weaving plays the hero V who achieve his aims through terrorism acts.

Set in England in the near future, people live in a life that is ruled by a Nazi-liked government, where the Chancellor looks 99.5% identical to Adolf Hitler. His name? Adam Stiler. The government imposes curfew, and if you don't mind losing your life, you are free to walk on the streets late at night. Evey choose to walk on the streets and was arrested, but later rescued by V. V took Evey's workplace hostage and spreads the message to the people, encourages the long suffering British to fight for Nov 5th: The day the Nazi-liked government perishes in the history of England. How to oppose the government? Terrorism attacks.

In a nutshell: The disappointment in Matrix Revolutions will be compensated here. I am not going to tell you what happens in the end, cos sneak preview only begins today. But fyi, you may be a bit disappointed in the version you are going to see in the theatres: V For Vendetta is bounded by the censors in Singapore for the idea of encouraging terrorism to overthrow the government.

Go for the pirated copy if you want a uncut, uncensored version. Or perhaps, fly to America if you do not want to support the pirates. =)

This entry came long overdue. In fact, one of the guys who have the dinner aka Elias should be in Tekong right now, beginning his 2 years of national slavery.

Cafe Cartel was the place where the 3 guys aka Elias, Yaoming and me had our dinner for the last time before any of us sold ourselves for the slavery with a measley pay of $350 per month.
The pork chop is nice, but i still finds that chicken is my favourite. Just too bad Cartel do not offer BBQ chicken with Jack Daniel's Sauce. That is one of my favourite from TGI Friday's (oh yeah, if they offer chicken salad that Tash had, it would be better.)

Dinner conversation is something that the trio had for the 1st time. I remembered once Ahmad, my sec sch friend, told me: 'Taiwei, the 3 guys in your class must be united always. If not, you 3 will lose your stand in the class.'

We are united, at least in some way or another. Thank god. The dinner is great.

Just wonder when is our next dinner? Where should we have? Brewerks?

Now playing: The Mamas and the Papas - California Dreamin'

You Are 38% Evil

A bit of evil lurks in your heart, but you hide it well.In some ways, you are the most dangerous kind of evil.

And i am only 38% evil. Sigh...bloody hell...

thought that i could be more evil than this stupid result.

Catch the repeat telecast of Love Is Not A Game, But A Joke on Ch 8 at 12.15am after Jeremy appears in my dream and i had an insomnia after the dream. Somehow, the 1997 romantic dramady brings me back the good o' memories when i step in BNSS in 1998.

The once forgotten rare little gem featuring Shu Qi, Andy Hui, Christine Ng and Theresa Lee was somehow, being allocated to poor timeslot at the wee hours (cos i don't think many would want to watch it rite? Anyway, Ch 8 always love to force feeding us with those old films from Jackie Chan, until we are questioning the purpose of paying that $110 annually TV license fees. Are we paying that $110 every year just to watch those same old stupid films from Jackie Chan and Stephen Chow? No offence to both Jackie and Stepehen, but audience are tired of watching the same old show every year.) tells the tale of 3 young men who starts a game of seeking a pretty chick named Karen, whom they met during their uni days in Canada.

The 3 young men, Eddie, Paul and Leslie, set a rule for the game: No seeking help from radio and newspaper, 1 month to hunt her down. Whoever found her first will be the winner, and the other 2 must be out of the game.

Eddie seeks Karen by taking bus ride everyday, and he befriends Sabrina (Ng), a bus driver who just recovered from a broken marriage.

Paul (Hui) seeks help from a policewoman aka his childhood playmate (Shu Qi), and she brings him around to cinemas and roadside stalls to look for Karen, while shares her theory of love and life and her affection with her ex-boyfriend, who is a gangster.

Leslie seeks Karen through phone calls in his motel room and a female thief Leslie (Lee) pops out in his life. She steals from him, and repays him by helping him in the search.

On the last day, the 3 guys still have no information on Karen. They bring their respective gal they known into the motel, and when a false fire alarm breaks out in the motel, they found out that each of them brought a gal to their room. Policewoman announced the whereabouts of Karen to the 3 guys.

They lost Karen in the game and become losers in the game.

Eventually, the trio met each other again 2 years later in the working society, and only Leslie seems to be the lucky fella, who is dating Leslie the thief. Sabrina remarrys while the policewoman still dedicate the song she previously sung with her in the KTV in the radio station where she did not know that her gangster ex was killed in a gang fight 2 years ago.

It is simple, but somehow all the memories with me in the usual Drama club practise during Sat morning was brought back to me. Oh yeah, all the pioneer badge seniors are...wonder how are they doing.

I've yet to met my Ms Right after 20 years of singlehood.

Hey you guys out there, how are you doing?