The City Never Sleeps

This story will be told in 2 parts.

Goodbye Royston.

I am referring to the only Singapore director who had made himself to Time magazine, Royston Tan. Yes, he was in my unit for a filming of a short film. And after meeting him with Lawrence at National Library last year, i thought: that is a nice little session with the former TP Alumni who made himself a name in the world for his homoerotic styled Ah beng flick 15, which was serverly injured by the censors here.

Unfortunately, he came down to my unit for a filming, which has once again ignited my curiosity and passion for him and his film. So i told myself: OK, i shall see you in my unit today. Mabey we could say hi to each other.

Sad to say, didn't saw him when working throughout the day.

Until somewhere around late afternoon, while i was handling a call, he walked past the guardroom with his crew and they stepped out of the camp. My colleagues have no idea who was Royston. And yes, he left while i was handling the call.

A feeling of sadness and disappointment rushes towards me, and haunts me for a moment. The feeling was unspeakable, for i missed another opportunity to talk to him.

Just like certain films that comes with a sequel where it becomes sucky, it seems that this theory applies to meeting some people for the second time as well. A moment with Tsai Ming Liang was so so, and in the end, meeting him for the second time seems to feel so horrible.

Hello Shawn

Was taking a train back home from Bugis MRT Station, where there is a young man standing beside me. He looks familiar.

Later,

Man: Hey David! Hello!
Me: Shawn?
Man: Yes. How are you?

I've realised that time not only flies, but it has been advancing at the speed of... I do not know.

All of a sudden, it seems that everyone in TP has grown up, and living in an individual life. Should i say it is a good thing?

Shawn did not make it to the Commando school, and so does many of our peers who didn't make it to commanding school. Nevertheless, it's all about what you want at the end of the day, for you are living for yourself, not living for the others.

How are you, my friends from TP?

Now playing: Meltdown - Lisa Gerrard & Pieter Bourke (Extract from OST of Michael Mann's The Insider)

Oh well amazingly i didn't step out of the house yesterday, which makes me feel very very odd. (Can you imagine i've been spending so many lonely weekends in town for the past few weeks?)

The constant long hours of work for the past few days + remedial session with Captain Jack Sparrow yesterday has made me become equally kranky like Jack Sparrow ala Willy Wonka ala Johnny Depp. Couldn't imagine i've actually gave Pirates of the Carribean: The Curse of the Black Pearl a miss when it was in theatres in 2003.

When some of my female friends exclaimed to me how handsome Will Turner ala Orlando Bloom is, i didn't gave much thought to it.

Whatever it is, i will tell you more when i go meet Captain Sao Feng from the little lovely island later in the day. K??

To me, 颐和园 or Summer Palace in English, means 2 things to me.

1. It is a garden located in a palace centuries ago, before it was destroyed in some kind of revolution in China.

2. The modern China sex drama directed by Lou Ye, the Chinese director who directed Purple Butterfly and Suzhou River.

And when Singapore is the second country in the world to screen Summer Palace in cinema after France, fans of Lou Ye (and i believe that it only limited to a few, since Lou Ye is a familiar name to the modern 5th Generation China film makers.) and some Mainlanders living in Singapore would be delighted to see the film in Singapore, since it was banned in China. (Summer Palace discussed the Tiananmen incident in 1989, which is something the government is feeling sensitive about, so they rejected the film to be passed thru the censors. Director Lou Ye then take the film to Cannes film fest 2006 without the permission of the authorities. Thus it receives high accliamation, but angered the Chinese the government, where the prints and materials related to the film was confiscated, and Lou was banned by the government from making any movie in China for 5 years.)

And not forgetting that Summer Palace is China's first movie that contains explicit sex scenes with full frontal male and female nudity. Thus, the above 2 reasons makes Summer Palace making a big bang before hitting the theatres in Singapore. And i catch it twice: once in Golden cinema, another at Cine Orchard.

The story is based on the diary of a fictionous character named Yu Hong, a country girl who is a student of Beijing university. She befriends Li Ti, her nextdoor roommate. From there, she gets to know Ruo Gu, Li's boyfriend. And when Zhou Wei, a friend of Li Ti, was introduced to Yu Hong, Yu found the man who enters her life.

Soon they fall in love, and they spend their days drowning in sex and love. While Yu was in love with Zhou, Zhou was swinging in between Yu and Li.

1989 was the year where Tiananmen incident brokeout. Zhou and Li were caught by the administrative officials in the school dormitory for having casual sex. Yu was taken back home by her boyfriend for fear that she would lost her life in the constant riots that broke out every now and then.

Soon, the calender was fast forwarded to 1998. Zhou and Li migrated to Berlin, while Yu was still swinging in between other mens for sex.

Until 2000. Li commited suicide by throwing herself down a building in Berlin, and a devastated Zhou returned back to Chongqing, only to know that Yu was living in Chongqing too. They meet up, hugged at each other, without words.

And they go separate ways after that.

The End.

Now playing: Qing Chun Wu Qu - Dayo Lo

Am writing this blgo together with my hot Cadbury chocolate, a thick chocolate sauce coated icing on a blueberry muffin and Goldfrapp's Black Cherry playing on the computer.

The Comfort Food that i need for this week. Both physical and mental, body and soul.

The previous few weeks has been pretty hectic when it comes to work. Work is tiring, and it is draining my body...

And do u know that i've been spending the previous few weekends alone?? Attending the gala premier of I Don't Want to Sleep Alone on my birthday gives me the answer: I am not alone.

4 is a company, so i am not alone.

Not only do i have dark eye rings around the eyes (which makes me look like a protected animal from China), but also a sense of loneliness has been invading me for a long long time.

At work, i am feeling tired often. I always tell myself: hey, mabey i lack sleep. But, after reading an article on Lianhe Zaobao, i suspected that it might not be some genes or illnesses found only on the lazybums. Lack of sleep and feeling sleepy all times can lead to serious health damage if one fails to notices it.

Emotionally, i feel drained out, like a peaches removed from a can of peach soaked in syrup. I was wondering am i being ostracised by my peers just because i have unique preference when it comes to leisure. When my RP Spect asked me if i want to go for Spiderman 3, my buddy told him: David wants Summer Palace instead.

Yes, people would rather pay $9.50 to see spidey flying around the city to fight against the villians around him (including the darker side of himself) than seeing university students from China fighting for their freedom which ends with bloodshed during the Tiananmen incident in 1989. Give the choice of being entertained for 140 mins than thinking for 140 mins, which one would you choose? I, personally, opt for the latter.

While my peers says 300 is fantastic, i finds it average. Now, am i a martian from outer space?

Let me slash out summary of movies catched in cinemas during 07':

Borat: 7/10

Blood Diamond: 7/10 (Tsai Ming Liang almost puked at Edward Zwick's thought provoking drama)

Pan's Labyrinth: 8/10

Sex and Lucia: 7/10

Babel: 8/10

The Last King of Scotland: 7/10

Little Children: 8/10

Protege: 7/10 (could score higher if presented uncut.)

Volver: 7/10 (Almodovar could have done better)

Breaking and Entering: 6/10

I Don't Want to Sleep Alone: 8/10 (ordinary folks would fall asleep)

300: 5/10

20CM: 6/10

Nightmare Detective: 6/10