The City Never Sleeps

Had never expected that George Michael would release his compliation of songs he performed for the past 25 years, and in the end, die hard fans who supported him (like me) were rewarded with TWENTYFIVE, a compliation of songs for the past 25 years.

And so far, only Lawrence, Ross and some of my close friends knows that George Michael is my favourite singer, and i doubt Jeremy would see the point why i go gaga over 25, and over the moon when i bought myself 25.

I must admit that it is a fact that Georgie boy is a gay, but at least he is happy with what he had, right? And that is not a good reason for anyone to condemn his singing talent for that 25 years right? At least i would pay $488 (max) to watch George perform in S'pore Indoor Stadium, over some teeny booper Korean celeb who simply only had the looks, but a $200 tix can't even let you see his 6 pec. Or even his face clearly.

As promised, you get 44 songs from his 25 years of career, from songs in his early Wham! days to An Easier Affair and This is Not Real Love. This is Not Real Love is a duo with singer Mutya, where it talks about a love that is not real. An Easier Affair, on the other hand, sings about his life of becoming a gay, and how he finds acceptance in the society.

If you had a full collection of George's album (from the days he was a singer in Wham! to his last album, Patience), you might find this album slightly disappointing. From my observation, he moved all songs from his last album, Patience, into the 3 disc edition. (Note: there are 2 disc version available, but for starters, go for 2 disc version, while die hard fans, please get yourself the 3 disc version, by hook or by crook.) Also, don't expect his I Want Your Sex to be featured in this compliation, even though I Want Your Sex is one of his classics in the late 80's, which leads to a ban in Singapore during the early 90's.

In a nutshell: Grab the album before the album go-go and never return. =P

Thurs night was a lovely night that Lawrence and i enjoyed.

We met for a coffee at Gloria Jean's Vivocity before heading to GV Vivocity for SAFRA Free screening of James Bond's 21st installment, Casino Royale. I had a double shot low fat latte while he had a large mint chocolate bomb ice blended.

It was a table filled with coffee and chocolate, work and discussion on future studies. He was tied up with work, while i was still indecisive with Jeremy's recommendation of getting a part time degree next year before ORD.

After drowning ourselves with a latte and a chocolate ice blend, we went up to the theatre. To our shock and disappointment, the letter issued to us did not adhered to their promise. While the movie was supposed to opened at 9.30pm, it ended up admitting the audience at 9.25pm, and the movie opens at 10pm.

My observation from the theatre: GV Max has one of the largest screen in town, but the hall doesn't seems to be large, compared to Prince 1 in Beach Rd. Lawrence says: it doesn't look really that big. And by issuing us with seat No 35 & 36 at Row D, watching a movie on the giant screen is simply a disaster. And worst of all, it seems that the seats in GV Vivocity weren't really that comfy afterall. So the 145 min entertainent (if i were to count in entrance at 9.25pm, it would be 180mins.) turns out to be a torture than a pleasure. Worst still, no toilets at all! Does a cinema operator need to be reminded to build a toilet that is near a auditorium's convenience?

Daniel Craig looks handsome, and younger. Just simply don't see the point of having the big hoo haa when Pierce Bronsnan decided to quit James Bond and having Craig being the replacement. And the movie is not bad too.

The show ended at 12.25am, and that simply means there are no night bus/train services in service. Since St Jame's Power Station is located just beside Vivocity, i suggested to Lawrence let's go and have a peek at St James's.

It turns out that some pubs were not ready for operation, some closed for private events. What's left for us was Movida . Entrance to Movida was $12 for guys, including 1 housepour. Initially i was thinking of having only a drink at the sofa outside Movida with a chat, but Lawrence asked me if i wanted to go in and explore. I said yes...

And that begins my Thurs late night/ Fri early am rendaevouz with Sex and the City kind of lifestyle. Though i wasn't dressed in shirt (my Nike tee, Topman windbreaker, Unionbay jeans and a blue Converse canvas shoes + Kappa leather sling bag) while Lawrence does, i am still elegible for admittance to Movida. What invites us was a night of house mix followed by Spanish/Brazilian live band performance.

The crowd? Caucasians and some Spanish makes up the crowd. While one of the lead female singers sings and shows off her hot figure to the crowd, another was friendly and cheerful. Oh yes, one of the male lead singer looks like Gael Garcia Bernal! Woo!

After 2 Heinekens and some peanuts, we go down to the dance floor and drink, merry, mix with the crowd. With non-stop 2 hours live performance of Spanish and Cuban pop, night has never been so fun before. Imagine that 24 hours ago i was thinking of sleeping in the bunk...

We left around 2.15am, and Lawrence told me he really enjoyed it. We took the cab and enjoyed the night scene of S'pore, where the cab passes through PSA port. I exclaimed: night has never been so beautiful before.

Was dead drunk by the time i reach home at 2.45am. Drunk, but still remains some level of soberness.

And with a touch of fun that i never had before.

It seems that anything around us is an evidence of time. They come in the form of perishable (think items that comes with an expiry date) and non-perishable.

Kevin once taught me to preserve a piece of mooncake by pouring hot wax over it to preserve it forever. Newspapers can be printed on microfilms for permanent used, where one do not flip the papers, but scan and rolled over it, just like a movie projector used in cinema.

See that? I could still get to know the timing of Basic Instinct printed on Straits Times. What's the showtime for Basic Instinct playing at the former Majestic Cinema in Chinatown?

And sometimes newspapers on microfilm gives us little surprises. Tom Cruise's 1983 leading debut Risky Business opens at Lido Cineplex in 1993, 10 years after it was first banned in S'pore for discussing immoral themes aka prostitution as a final year business school project.

And last friday's ST surprises me. GV decided to bring back Roger Mitchelle's The Mother, 2 years after it was first screened in GV Plaza.

Before Daniel Craig replaces Pierce Bronsnan as the next James

Bond, he first appared in a movie that not only make the audience dropped their jaws, but also make one realised how he/she should look into the wants and needs of their mother.

Sad to say, The Mother was one of the few little rare jems that was forgotten by time, for it does not have a strong cast (how many people knows Craig and Anne Reid then? People will know Reid if they pay attention to those British and American drama series that they watched, for Reid is no stranger to drama series.)

And The Mother was totally out of my mind for the past 2 years, until it reappaers on GV's timing schedule printed on ST, that it will have a re-run for a limited period.

Re-run after 2 years? That was not really surprising, for Apollo 13 makes a return on IMAX format 8 years after it first make it to the big screen in 1995.

And let's not forget movies with super long run in theatres.

In 1991, David Lynch's Wild At Heart, the 1st R-rated English movie in Singapore, has been playing in various cinemas for a year.

While Tsui Hark and Jet Li worked and released 3 Once Upon A Time (Wong Fei Hong) series from Dec 91 to July 92, Philip Kaufman's The Unbearable Lightness of Being has becomes the only English R(A) film that has been playing in the then Jade Classic, Yangtze and President (the location of the current Balestier cineplex) from Dec 91 to July 92.

James Cameron's Titanic has been sailing in the then Cathay Cinema from Dec 97 to July 98.

And far away in India, Shah Rukh Khan's Diwale Duhainya Le Jayagne played in a particular cinema in Mumbai for 10 years, and still running strong today.

The Mother brings back the sting that still pricks my heart 2 years ago. I throw tantrums at Jeremy for some personal reason when The Mother played in GV Plaza 2 years ago. 2 years later, when GV Vivocity resurrected The Mother, Jeremy asked me if i am interested in getting a part time bachelor in business degree from University of California.

In some way, time has healed the wounds of him (i supposed so. mabey he had forgotten the whole drama about it.) but till today, i still could not forgive myself from shouting at him.

Now playing: Why - Annie Lennox

Once told myself i would, and will not step into the theatre to watch a Korean movie, or touch a Korean movie again, since i personally feels that they arebest in making crappy comedies (think My Sassy Girls and those lame comedies.), dumb horrors (those dumb horror films can tell you why) and loads of cheap X-rated films flooding Golden and Yangtze cineplex, satisfying the constant craving of the ah peks. This makes me agree no more when i catched Art of Seduction in April with mum in The Cathay.

There are 2 Korean directors in the namelist of the list of directors in the mind of Ding Tai Wei. They are: Park Chan Woo and Kim Ki Duk. Ying Xiang, my platoon mate in Tekong, once asked me how come i did not watched Park's Sympathy for Mr Vengence and Old Boy, while i had already catch Lee Young Ae's Sympathy for Lady Vengence with Choi Min Shik. Worst of all, how come i do not like Old Boy, since he finds it one of the best film ever watched.

Kim Ki Duk, on the other hand, was named Korea's David Lynch by the American and European critics, for Kim's fetish (is fetish the right word??) of throwing in sex in his films. While Park loves violence, Kim loves sex. Bad Guy, The Isle, 3-Iron, The Bow...and now, Time.

Kim's films is not your typical kind suitable for parents and kids family drama. You will never see a movie directed by Kim talking about a happy family facing some problems and how they solved the problem and happy together in the end. Kim's movie discuss weird and dark side of human beings. Bad Guy is a dream or fantasy of a single man who forces a woman into prostitution, Isle binds a mute girl and a coma police on-the-run through sexual fetish, 3 Iron explores a menage a trois between a newspaper deliveryman and a couple living in a house that he breaks into, and finds himself in love with the wife...

The Bow is the most bizzared movie Kim ever directed: about a 60 year old old man lives with a young girl in a fishing boat. He decides to marry her when the girl either 1) turns 16 or 2) her boobies fully developed. However, this girl falls in love with a guy few years older than her. Taught her with the skills of suing a bow and arrow to kill, the old man decided to kill the couple with a bow and arrow. Now, if you are going to put this in a moder day context, don't you think the 3 peole had made a pretty foolish decision in their life?? The old man seems to be the one that developes the most number of questions. Is there anyone who still defend themselves with a bow and arrow?? Any how to explain the large age gap between him and the girl??

Few hours ago, i catch the free screening of Kim's 13th movie, Shi Gan aka Time in Korean. Time explores another issue of human nature: beauty. Kim uses plastic surgery to discuss beauty and human nature. Here, we have Ha Jung Woo (a handsome looking Korean actor who looks like Robin, a friend of mine.) and Sung Huyn Ah (the leading actress in Lovers in Prague) playing Ji Woo and See Hee respectively. In fact, there are 2 actress playing See Hee, so please do not get yourself confused.

Ji Woo and See Hee are lovers being together for 2 years, but See Hee finds herself feeling guilty for not retaining her boyfriend because she feels that he is tired of her looks for 2 years. Thus, she took a drastic act that no one can ever imagined: she disappears after a quarrel and she goes for a plastic surgery. Bu going thru that nip/tuck, she hopes to retain the heart of Ji Woo.

6 months later, Ji Woo met a waitress in a cafe, who also names See Hee. Ji Woo, who still misses his previous See Hee, falls in love with the new See Hee he met in the cafe. But when the old See Hee returns with a letter and appears in the cafe with a mask of her old face on, Ji Woo thought that the new See Hee is playing a cruel joke on him. Sad to say, NO. That was the same old See Hee who spends her 2 years with Ji Woo. Apparently, her surgery doesn't seems to be successful. Thus, she puts on her mask so as not to frightened Ji Woo. But this is just the beginning of another tragedy: Ji Woo goes for a plastic surgery, despite having a very handsome looking face. The new See Hee was devastated when the surgeon showed her pictures of Ji Woo going thru the surgery.

Will not tell you the ending, for Kim will never give his audience a direct answer to the question. Pay attention to the twist at the end of the show.

After surviving 2 day 1 nite of outfield with countless cups of kopi-o and 2 packets of barley drink from Warrant Neo and Encik, i run to Sistic outlet at Bedok's 7-11 and get myself to the ticket of Between the Lines - India's Third Gender, which was the opening movie for The 10th German Film Festival held in National Museum. (Cathay Cineplex will be running the festival, where films played at Cathay will be more commercial based. National Museum, on the other hand, will be playing films that are more towards documentary based.)

Here's an intro to the documentary that draws 70% of the 200+ seating capacity auditorium:
(Note: if you are not feeling easy with transgender issues, you are not obliged to continue.)

German director Thomas Wartmann directs a documentary that explores the lives of hijras (eunuchs) in India, through the eyes of Anita Khemka, an Indian female photographer. Set in Bombay, Anita interviewed 3 hijras on why do they want to lead such a life, and life on being a hijra.

For the next few days, Anita entered the lives of 3 hijras. They are:

Laxmi - a dance instructor who prostitutes himself. He is the lucky one among the three, where he is more well off than anybody else. He did not go through the castration ceremony, for he beliefs that the body was given by his parents. Thus, he did not remove his manhood as he honor his father and love his mother. He chosen the life of being a hijra for he feels that he is a woman trapped in a man's body.

Asha - a street begger who bless amorous couples for a token sum of fees. Run away from his home at the age of 13, Asha was found on the streets by a group of hijras after not having sufficient food for 3 months. Since 10, he has been acting in a feminine way. At the point of time when he was found by the group of hijras, he knew the life he wanted in future. She was formally a prostitute, and told Anita a fact based on her experience: that man prefers having sex with a hijras than having sex with a woman. And their customers comes from all walks of life: workers, farmers, businessmen, rich, poor... (and towards the end of the documentary, it was mentioned that Asha was kicked out from her former group of hijras, but she was accepted by another group of hijras.)

Rhamba - she lives in a temple together with a group of hijras, where she earns a living by performing ritual ceremonies, such as blessing a new born baby and exorcism. Apart from working in the temple, she also perform dances at go-go bars, where she earns an extra income to support herself.

It is too much and difficult for me to lay out why is it that they had chosen a life of living a life of an opposite sex. Mabey is it becuase they feel that they are a soul trapped in a body that doesn't belongs to them? Or is it their culture that makes hijras a norm? Or is it just that being a hijra means one can solved a problem of their own?

I do not know, and i leave the theatres with questions.