e attack of e clones...

OMG... wat's up with all the taiwanese artists nowadays....
can't they create their own stuff???
y are they going ard copying other ppl's creations and making it their own...
and one more thing...
if u wanna copy something good...
at least have e decency to make it uniquely your own...
not let the public have one look or one hear and immediately think of the original...
it's not very smart of them...
some examples...

EXAMPLE ONE:
K-One - Turbo (The copied version)


TVXQ - O Ban Jung Hap (The original version)


* as u can hear... the song, e melody... e mix... is all too similar... even down to e OH parts... this songwriter is in big trouble... cos if i am sm entertainment... i'll be sueing them for infringement of copyright n intellectual property... they're lucky i'm not... to make things worse... K-one's clone kinda sounds really bad... when compared to the TVXQ original...



EXAMPLE TWO:
F4 - 在這裡等妳 MV (Waiting for you) (The copied version)



TVXQ - Step By Step (The original version)






* if u can't tell from the mvs... i've taken e stills of wat i mean to make my point clearer... as u can see... e parts where F4 r walking in e city n e peach blossoms.... is e same as TVXQ's Junsu n Yoochun walking in e night city n peach blossoms... gosh... can have some basic common sense to change e bg so ppl dun think of e original one immediately when they see this!!! this is not a good start for F4's re-emergence... cassiopeias will not be happy abt this... and again... if i am sm entertainment... i'll be sueing the director n e music label for infringement of copyright n intellectual property... cos it doesn't matter that taiwan's version has better animation backgrounds... e idea is still e same... ppl will notice that they copied someone else's idea for their video... n not that they have better animation...

☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
专属天使の悪戯なKiss　m(~_~)m

Transformers - More Than Meets The Eye

juz caught the movie and i thought optimus prime looks different cos he didn't have his face mask detail at his mouth area, thats why i kept feeling that something was missing...

but it was cute seeing how they were trying to hide themselves in e garden...

ha ha ha...

but ended up destroying the pathways and plants...

i think my fave transformer isn't in this movie...

but i think there'll be a sequel...

cos this movie is too good to end in just one movie...

bumble bee is sooo cute...

loved the fighting sequences... u can literally feel like u are there... cos they were fighting amongst the crowds on the streets... and falling down around the people and cars... soooo... exciting...

always used to wonder how the autobots can ever defeat the decepticons as they were only normal harmless vehicles, like trucks, cars, etc whereas the decepticons were like armed fighter planes, tanks, etc...

such a miracle they can survive for so long...

but then again...

thats e point of movies like these...

good always triumps over evil...

Cool 3D Animated TVCs

Never would you guess that it's an anti-AIDS commercial...

The song is so nice... And it makes you feel like you're watching a music video...


This is the homosexual version of the same anti-AIDS animated commercial....

Such brillant storyline...

Cheerio,
Same Old

My Dramatic Lunar New Year Holidays

As I bask in the leisurely and relaxed life of the Lunar New Year holidays...

I've managed to "clear"/"杀青" a couple of movies and drama series...

Here are the drama series....


1. Queer As Folk - Final Season　（USA)
The Final Season of QAF. I think Gale Harold did a fantastic job as usual as Brian Kinney... Ever trying to hide his own insecurities towards commitment, etc under a arrogant and tactless front...

If you don't have a clue what this show is about at all... Here's the synopsis of the series just to get things moving...

"Queer as Folk" is about the lives of a group of gay men and women living in Pittsburgh who, like anyone, are focused on their relationships, careers, loves and ambitions.

The series is a realistic, funny and sometimes graphic portrayal of a minority community living in present-day society. It's not West Hollywood, it's not the Castro and it's not Chelsea. It may be a small world -- a gay Main Street with a couple of bars, a disco, a few shops and a diner -- but its reverberations are universal.

"Queer as Folk" is an unapologetic celebration of life in its varied forms. And as always, in the differences we discover the similarities that make us all human.

Brian Kinney (Gale Harold), is a sexual animal, always on the prowl for his next conquest.

Michael Novotny (Hal Sparks) is his best friend.

Justin Taylor (Randy Harrison) is a 17-year-old boy whose life is changed one night when he experiences sex and what he thinks is love, for the first time.

Emmett Honeycutt (Peter Paige) is the most flamboyant of his friends and wears it with pride.

Ted Schmidt (Scott Lowell) is an accountant whose fatal flaw is a lust for 20-somethings who don't return his interest.

Debbie Novotny (Sharon Gless) is Michael's eccentric mother -- vehemently proud of her gay son.

Lindsay Peterson (Thea Gill), an art teacher and Melanie Marcus (Michelle Clunie), a lawyer, are a loving lesbian couple who decide to have a child sired by Brian (whom Melanie despises), not realizing exactly how complicated and entwined their lives will become.


I think this is an amazing drama series as it's really considered a benchmark in terms of content production worldwide... The issues discussed are sooooo controversial, yet relevant to the modern day society...

The script is fantastic cos it has us holding on to our seats trying to figure out what's going to happen next... yes, the script is that unpredictable... Something that is not very common nowadays, as we are usually so attuned to watching TV programmes and movies that we KNOW what's gonna happen next... Just when you think the show's gonna end with the leads living happily ever after TOGETHER.... something else happens...

And though I really HATE shows that end with no ending... alas what they call open-ended storyline... So there's always a possibility to continuing the series in future... I think this final season presented an open-ending which could be considered as a proper ending... but then again, not so FINAL and the story could carry on if the producers wanted to...

Sign... This is similar to the Korean drama 《我叫金三顺》/"My Lovely Samsoon" which also ended similarly... Life goes on... Many possibilities ahead... Don't know what will happen next.... But you (the viewer) know/hope that it'll go someway that you would like it to...

So that's the beauty of this kind of ending...

Sweeter than parting.... Yet not as sweet as living happily ever after together forever, which we ALL know is very far from reality...


2. 恶作剧之吻　（台湾）
The Taiwanese version of the Japanese manga 《悪戯なKiss》 (Itazura na Kiss), which was also dramatized into a Japanese Drama in 1996.

悪戯なKiss (Itazura na Kiss) is a drama produced in 1996 which was adapted from the same-titled manga series by Tada Kaoru. The drama stars popular idols 里愛子（Sato Aiko） and 柏原崇（Kashiwabara Takashi） alongside with veterans like Naito Takashi.

相原琴子（Aihara Kotoko）, a third-year student at St Tonan Gakuen is in love with the top student in the school, 入江直樹（Irie Naoki）. The main problem is that Kotoko is from the 'F' class while Naoki is from the 'A' class which is the cream of the crop. On her 18th birthday, Kotoko decides to come clean with Naoki and express her feelings for him. However, Naoki looks down on Kotoko and rejects her. To make things worse, a fire razes Kotoko's house and she is forced to live with her father's friend's family. To her surprise, she finds that she will be staying under the same roof with Naoki, the love of her life. The story between the unlikely couple begins there ...

This is a story full of laughter and tears and you will be amazed at how 里愛子（Sato Aiko） manages to make the character come alive with her antics. For fans of 柏原崇（Kashiwabara Takashi）, it will be another chance for you to drool over the cool Takashi. Although 琴子（Kotoko） gets spurned by Naoki repeatedly, she is able to pull herself together. The courage and unrelenting spirit of Kotoko should be one fine example which we should learn from.

Personally I watched the Japanese version first when I was in Higher Sec or JC. And I've only just finished watching the Taiwanese version recently, in two days' time... Having not read the manga before, I am not sure which one is closer to the original manga. So I'm basing my comments on the Japanese version that I've seen first...

I think the male leads did a fantastic job portraying the characters in the Taiwanese show - i.e. 郑元畅（Joe Cheng） & 汪东城（Jiro Wang）. Not that the female lead 林依晨（Ariel Lin）didn't do a good job as 袁湘琴 (Kotoko), but I think the guys were better as compared to her as the cool 江直树 (Naoki) and comedic 金元丰(Kin-chan) who is ever so madly in love with 湘琴, respectively...

Moreover, once you've seen 里愛子（Sato Aiko) as Kotoko, you'll never think anyone else can be better than her as Kotoko... Cos she totally fits the character to a fiddle... The portrayal was soooo convincing that my mum and I still can remember her as Kotoko when we're watching the Taiwanese version... Even when it's after a period of so many years... In every episode, there'll be scenes where she is always calling for Naoki in her comedic and pestering tone "Irie-kun....Irie-kun..."... You kinda pity her for she's always trying so hard to get him to accept her, but he's always so cold towards her.... Even his brother, Yuki starts to show signs of acceptance... But he remains so cold as usual....

Until the point where she finally makes up her mind to leave for good then he realises that he cannot do without her... I think the script when he tries to persuade her to stay is very touching... If my memory doesn't fail me... It's something about him being already used to having her get him in trouble, having her call after him everyday, having her follow him around everywhere he goes, etc... And he can't imagine life without all that... Without her in his life... So he wants her to stay with him, by his side always and forever...

The Taiwanese version apparently follows closer to the manga's plot, which is why there are more episodes, 13 instead of just 9 (Japanese). In the Taiwanese version however, the strong father-daughter bond is not fully expressed in the show, and most of the time 湘琴's dad is not around... And 直树 shows his growing affection for 湘琴 appears rather early in the show, despite the way he disguises his feelings for her by treating her coldly and tactlessly, which makes it much more predictable that he will end up with her eventually... Which is why I also prefered the Japanese version compared to the Taiwanese one... As it was less predictable...

One thing I thought was better in the Taiwanese version was that there was a better closure to
金元丰(Kin-chan) 's unrequited love for 湘琴. In the Japanese version, I just remembered that he ended up with the female staff in Kotoko's dad's restaurant, and there wasn't as much emphasis on him. I mean having spent the same amount of time and feelings on Kotoko for 5 years (like Kotoko for Naoki), it should be as hard for him to give it up as Kotoko. And he wouldn't be able to move on to another relationship so hastily... I mean is he could, that means he doesn't love Kotoko that much to revolve his entire career and life around her right??? In the Taiwanese version, you actually feel more for him as a person, who has lost the love of his life, and struggles to accept reality.

And the wedding is sooo funny for the Taiwanese version!!! 直树 and all the men dressing up as ladies, and the ladies as men... Ha ha ha... And the rain.... Ha ha ha ha.... Poor 郑元畅（Joe Cheng）kept tripping on his wedding gown, and what seemed like he was going to break out in laughter (possibly a NG take) was actually used for the final cut... And the drenched hair... The slipping tube gown.... Ha ha ha... So funny....

I think 郑元畅（Joe Cheng）in real life is someone who breaks out into loud and uncontrollable laughter easily... As you can see in previous shows, variety shows, and NG takes... So for him to act as someone as cool and cold as 直树 is much harder for him than 柏原崇（Kashiwabara Takashi）, who's personality is already cool like 直树. So you can see a difference in the two 直树... One that's cool but yet cheeky when you know him well 郑元畅（Joe Cheng）, and the other who's just plain cool 柏原崇（Kashiwabara Takashi）.


Cheerio,
Same Old Drama-Mama

Life is a cabaret ol' chum so come to the Cabaret....

Just watched Cabaret the musical at Esplanade theatre yesterday, and boy was it a disappointment...

I'll list the +s and the -vs below...

+:
1. Fei Xiang - the emcee
- He was marvellous as the emcee

2. Fei Xiang - the singer
- He sang beautifully

3. Fei Xiang - the dancer
- He danced gracefully, even as Hitler in a pink tutu playing around with a life-size globe ball

4. Fei Xiang - the joker
- His character provided all the essential joy and laughter in his lewd jokes and punts at sex and the male anatomy

5. Fei Xiang - the star
- He was the highlight of the show (for a lot of his matured female fans I think, as this auntie sitting beside me scampered for her binoculars whenever he appeared and put it back down when he exited, AND started CHATTING with her middle-aged daughter)

6. Other Characters - non-leads
- I don't deny that there are a few good ones here. The dancers and back-ups I mean. The leads were alright, doing their usual thing. But nothing inspiring there. But the dancers and back-ups... they were pretty daring in their costumes, dancing, moves, etc. Much in the spirit of Cabaret. Decadent. Inhibited. Sexual. Something you don't see everyday here out in the public.


-:
1. LATECOMERS
- I don' understand why they allowed latecomers to come in after the show has started. If they can forbid them from entering the concert hall when the show has started, why can't they do the same for the theatre? They can stand behind the glass window on ground level and watch the show, like they do for the concert hall. Cos it's VERY VERY DISRUPTING for them to enter and make EVERYONE in their way to their seats move and WAIT for them to SLOWLY grope their way around to their seats.
- WORSE yet, the ushers SHONE TORCHLIGHTS to help them find their seats. What could be worse than having a torchlight shone into your face when you are trying to watch a musical where the audiences are in the dark? Yes, you are temporarily BLINDED. And you cannot see anything, except for blinding white, for five minutes. Please, this is a musical. The only light displays we like to see are those from the stage, and for the stage only.

2. Plot
- I personally haven't seen the award-winning 1972 musical from UK, but from sources that have, this is TOTALLY different from what they have seen from the original. I don't know what the director Beatrice Chia was thinking, maybe she feels that Singaporeans can't take too much of the explicit content of a Cabaret, so she toned it down. But so toned down was the plot, that it practically revolved around the love lives of Kit Kat Club's Sally Bowles and the landlady (called Fraulein Schneider, I think).
- I know it's supposed to have some elements of the greyness in life during the period where the Nazis were trying to conquer the world. But I think that there was over-reliance, or over-emphasis rather, on the characters' love lives to portray the human element in the musical, or to show that it ain't all fun and sex in the Cabaret, and that there is a dark and human side to the story too.
- The result is that the parts where the Cabaret is all about are cut down to a mere 5-minuter in every 15-20mins of love stories... And the parts where the plot tries to show that the Nazis are a growing threat are not clearly portrayed, and audiences are left wondering what the brief stint meant. E.g. In one in-between-acts transition, 2 men were seen in the back alley, while another was standing on top of a building singing a song about revolution. The two seemed to be having a rendezvous, when suddenly one starts hitting the other. And eventually leaves the injured one to die on the street. In the span of less than 5 minutes it was over, and no one, I mean no one, knew what it was about. Until much later, when the crowd started to sing that same revolution song at Fraulein Schneider's engagment party, where one of the guys were exposed as a Nazi.
- This was nowhere near what they were selling it as on Arts Central. The promo was so explicitly Cabaret, but yet the real thing failed to meet up to expectations. Expected something better from Beatrice Chia, being the rebel artist she is...

3. Characters - non-leads
- Despite being a + point, it was also a -, as amongst the "girls" there were "guys" there dressed like girls to make up the numbers. And boy there was this girl that was so plump, she didn't seem to belong anywhere in the line-up. (No fat jokes here, but she really looked out of place in those skimpy outfits, along with the other skinny model-like girls)


CONCLUSION:
So my conclusion is that it was still worth watching it for the experience of watching a world-class musical lead aka Fei Xiang in the Esplanade Theatre. For my next experience it'll have to be something classical and world class like Phantom of the Opera, wouldn't it be insteresting to watch that in the Concert Hall? With all the organ pipes, etc... Wonder what kind of surprises can pop up... But the Theatre will do fine too I guess... Minus the disruptive latecomers...


Cheerio,
Same Old Brand New Moi
_____________________________________________________________
Can miles truly separate you from friends...
If you want to be with someone you love, aren't you already there?
Richard Bach

Three Colours Trilogy: (Blue/ White/ Red) Review

NOW I KNOW THE REASON THE OLD FOLKS WITH THE BOTTLES ARE PLACED THERE!!!

"High-concept filmmaking can be a dangerous endeavor. Too often, directors get overly bogged down in their own ideas or alienate their audiences with over-the-top stylization or sheer pretention. However, The Decalouge (a ten part television series dealing with the Ten Commandments, released in Poland in 1988) proved that Krzysztof Kieslowski was one of a rare breed. Along with writing partner Krzysztof Piesiewicz, he's able to fully dramatize his ideas and frame them with such visual and aural flair that harkens back to the golden age of filmmaking. So it fits that for his final project, he took on the unusual task of creating three films for France's bicentennial - each dealing with one of the colours on the French flag, and its corresponding attribute.

The first film in the trilogy is Blue, which is meant to represent freedom. Blue is the story of Julie (Juliette Binoche), the wife of a famous composer who had been creating a piece to commemorate the unification of Europe. However, at the beginning of the film, her husband and five year old daughter are killed in a car crash. Unable to bring herself to suicide, Julie instead leaves her former life behind in an only semi-successful attempt to reinvent herself, despite the love of a colleauge of her husband's, Olivier (Benoit Regent).

The second film (often argued to be the weakest) is White, symbolizing equality. White tells us of Karol (Zbigniew Zamachowski), a polish man living in France. His french wife Dominique (Julie Deply) divorces him after only six months because he is impotent and even frames him for arson. Having lost everything, he returns to Poland, where a suicidal friend named Mikolai (Janusz Gajos) helps him create a strange revenge against his lover.

The final film (and by far the strongest) is Red, representing the ideal of fraternity. In Red, Valentine (Irene Jacob), a Swiss model living in Paris stumbles across an elderly retired judge (Jean-Louis Trintignant) who uses surveillance equipment to eavesdrop on his neighbours. Instead of being repelled, her nature causes her to form an unlikely friendship with this man, and their bond has echoes beyond themselves - most notably with Valentine's young neighbour, a fellow Swiss citizen named Auguste (Jean-Pierre Lorit).

Stylistically, each entry is unique. Blue is a stark tragedy, laced with long visual takes and very deliberately spoken dialouge. The score of the film - a haunting and delicate affair by Zbigniew Preisner - was written before the film was shot, so that the action could move to the pace of the music. This is an unusual technique, but it works gloriously and fits in context of the story, since music is this film's "MacGuffin," if you will - it's the way the characters communicate what they are unable to say. Juliette Binoche is really the only STAR of the film - she gets almost all the screen time and her performance is nuanced and restrained. She reveals Julie very slowly and very strongly fleshes out the grieving process one goes through in reaction to such a devestating event.

White, on the other hand, is a comedy, albiet with the blackest of spirits a comedy could have. Karol's antics are sometimes almsot Chaplin-esuqe; witness the scene in which he attempts to hide a gun in his pants. Zamachowski's Karol is both a fun, intruigiung character and a bitter, unsympathetic anti-hero, often at the same time, and he's matched by Julie Deply's performance. Her icy beauty belies a chaotic underside that manifests itself occasionally, as when she torches her salon to get Karol out of it. Edward Klosinski's cinematography accentuates the subtext of the film - the bright idealised colours of the Parisian streets are contrasted with the cold, but somehow more real browns, whites and grays of Poland.

Red, however, is the masterpiece. Neither tragedy, nor comedy, it's a tale of the human spirit - Piesiewicz called it "a film against indifference." It uses such devices as telephones, dogs and carefully shot near-encounters to tell the story of isolated lives. Irene Jacob's Valentine is the idealisation of the modern woman (person, really). She lives alone, her boyfriend is across the channel, her work friends don't truly understand her nature, and yet she is optimistic, sweet and honestly believes in the good in people. Her connection with the Judge is important for both of them. The casting of one time hot-male-lead Trintignant is clearly conscious. Now robbed of the vitality he once had, Valentine gives him a second chance as much as he reveals herself to herself. I wish I could say more, but I really wouldn't want to give the awesome nature of this story away. Visually speaking it's also the warmest film of the three and the use of light throughout is magnificent - there's a scene in which the characters stand in the light of the Judge's old house that's absolutely breathtaking.

Although one could view the three films individually, it's only as a whole that they truly make sense, and noting the connections - both cinematically and symbolically - is one of the best parts of the series. For example, all three films begin with a sense of motion, shrouded in the colour the film deals with. Blue opens with a shot underneath a speeding motorcar on a cold, rainy day. White follows a particular suitcase of note as it moves down a conveyor belt at the Warsaw airport. Red moves us along telephone lines, tracing the path of a missed connection. Likewise, each film concludes with one of it's central characters looking at the camera through a glass of some kind.

The nature of all three films, however, is about love. Blue and White are both somewhat harsh in their treatment - freedom clearly comes with a price, and the power struggles inherent in equality can lead to more conflict than they're worth. Julie is shedding her past and Karol is getting revenge - both antagonistic actions, but Valentine - even when faced with a repulsive character, as the Judge originally seems, is willing to look for the best in someone. Fraternity is about forming real human connections - a deep form of love that's what's truly valuable. This is illustrated best in one of the most concrete connections between the three films: each of the main characters encounters an elderly woman trying to fit a bottle into a recycling bin she cannot quite reach. While Julie and Karol both only watch, even if with a real human interest, Valentine is the only one of the three who helps her. The end of Red, however, gives us all hope. Without giving too much away, three couples - one from each film - are united amidst the most tragic of circumstances - saved from doom by fate or chance or God or whatever you believe - and their meeting ties up the ideals of all three films into one amazing package.

Movies like this are the reason I love movies. They're visually beautiful, dramatically accomplished and honest-to-God moving. If you can only see one, Red is one of the best films of the 1990s, but all three are VERY highly reccomended."

The World in Three Colors (Blue / White / Red)

Recently I've managed to watch this wonderfully filmed movie trilogy which had really beautiful cinematography...

Here is some information on the trilogy:
Three Colors: Blue is the first part of Kieslowski's trilogy on France's national motto: Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity. Blue is the story of Julie (Juliette Binoche), who loses her husband, an acclaimed European composer and her young daughter in a car accident. The film's theme of liberty is manifested in Julie's attempt to start life anew free of personal commitments, belongings grief and love. She intends to spiritually commit suicide by withdrawing from the world and live completely independently, anonymously and in solitude in the Parisian metropolis. Despite her intentions, people from her former and present life intrude with their own needs. However, the reality created by the people who need and care about her, a surprising discovery and the music around which the film revolves heals Julie and irresistably draws her back to the land of the living.

Three Colors: White is the second part of the trilogy on Equality. Polish man Karol (Zbigniew Zamachowski) marries French female Domininque (Julie Delpy) and moves to Paris. The marriage breaks down when Karol is unable to consummate the marriage, and Dominique divorces Karol, forcing him into the life of a metro beggar and eventually back to Poland. But all along, he feels that the reason that he never got a fair trial is because he did not speak French. He never forgets Dominique and while building a new life for himself in Warsaw he begins to plot his revenge... He ends up as a wealthy businessman and makes a will to give all his money and properties to Dominique when he dies. Then with the help of his brother, a faithful friend, and his chauffeur, he fakes his own death to force Dominque to go to Poland. Upon seeing her weep at his funeral, he visits her and spends a night with her. The very next morning, the Polish police barges into her room on a warrant that she is suspected to have murdered Karol for the inheritance. She is jailed and Karol is seen visiting her in the prison. But he can only stand afar and look at her trapped in her cell, signing to him...

Three Colors: Red is the final part of the trilogy on Fraternity. Valentine (Irene Jacob) is a young model living in Geneva. Because of a dog she ran over, she meets a retired judge who spies his neighbours' phone calls, not for money but to feed his cynicism. The film is the story of relationships between some human beings, Valentine and the judge, but also other people who may not be aware of the relationship they have with Valentine or/and the old judge. Redemption, forgiveness and compassion... Valentine frequently crosses paths with Auguste, a law student studying to become a judge. Both of them are attached - Valentine to a boyfriend that frequently travels overseas and is rarely with her; and Auguste to a blonde law senior. Auguste's girlfriend meets another guy during the trial of the old judge (he sent letters admitting that he spies on his neighbours to his neighbours and the police). She cheats on him. He goes on a vacation cruise, where Valentine is also going on to go for a fashion show, and to visit her boyfriend. What they don't know is that what happened to the guy is exactly the same as what happened to the old judge. The cruise meets with an accident and only 7 survivors are found, amongst whom are Julie (Juliette Binoche) and Olivier from Blue, Domininque (Julie Delpy) and Karol (Zbigniew Zamachowski) from White, and of course Valentine (Irene Jacob) and Auguste...


My observations and comments:
1. Beautiful Cinematography
One can literally see, feel, hear, smell and taste what the visuals were trying to convey in the scene to us. It was a sensory experience.

Clever use of lighting was blatant in Blue, where the opening started with a defocused shot of the blue crystal lamp shade that Julie had in her house, played against the light. It was iconic and symbolic, and yet subtle and beautiful at the same time.

The opening of Red caught me by surprise, as it reminded me of a scene in Royston Tan's '15' which also had speeded up shots of the camera running through the telephone lines, pipes, expressways, etc... I guess he might have gotten his inspiration from this movie...


2. Great Sense of Continuity through use of dominant and iconic colours
Needless to say the iconic colours were blue, white and red respectively in each of the movies, which shows that it is not that cliche a technique to use to create a subtle or blatant sense of continuity in a movie. You'll see the colours appearing in various ways in the form objects or costume.

In Blue, it appears as the lamp shade in Julie's house, and a blue light of various shapes and sizes shining on her when she goes into her own world. Further into the movie, the blue light shines in smaller and smaller shapes and sizes, until a black screen comes up whenever she retreats totally into her own world to flush out the past.

In White, I only can remember seeing white in the snow in Poland, and the pigeons present in many points in the movie, the white porcelain bust that Karol has, and Dominque's wedding veil. It is not as frequent as the other two movies. Maybe it's a hint or pun that there is a lack of equality, compared to the other two movies, as well as in the movie.

In Red, the colour is most prominant throughout the movie. Valentine is almost always dressed in red whenever she appears. And her bubblegum ad is blatantly set against a dominant red backdrop, down to the blood of the dog she knocked down, and even Auguste's Jeep is red in colour. Subtle, yet in your face.


3. Emotive Music that provided strong support to visuals and creation and maintenance of mood
The music in all three movies is very grabbing. It helped to get me into feeling the way the characters would have felt in the movie. I think Blue's use of music is the most grabbing, especially during the parts where there were only black on screen with heavy and strong music playing on.


4. Strong Storyline and Definitive Plot that drives home the themes
The first film in the trilogy is Blue, which is meant to represent freedom. Blue is the story of Julie (Juliette Binoche), the wife of a famous composer who had been creating a piece to commemorate the unification of Europe. However, at the beginning of the film, her husband and five year old daughter are killed in a car crash. Unable to bring herself to suicide, Julie instead leaves her former life behind in an only semi-successful attempt to reinvent herself, despite the love of a colleauge of her husband's, Olivier (Benoit Regent).

The second film is White, symbolizing equality. White tells us of Karol (Zbigniew Zamachowski), a polish man living in France. His french wife Dominique (Julie Deply) divorces him after only six months because he is impotent and even frames him for arson. Having lost everything, he returns to Poland, where a suicidal friend named Mikolai (Janusz Gajos) helps him create a strange revenge against his lover.

The final film is Red, representing the ideal of fraternity. In Red, Valentine (Irene Jacob), a Swiss model living in Paris stumbles across an elderly retired judge (Jean-Louis Trintignant) who uses surveillance equipment to eavesdrop on his neighbours. Instead of being repelled, her nature causes her to form an unlikely friendship with this man, and their bond has echoes beyond themselves - most notably with Valentine's young neighbour, a fellow Swiss citizen named Auguste (Jean-Pierre Lorit).


5. Attention-grabbing performances by cast
I think the cast did a great job in all three movies. Juliette Binoche was very captivating in her role in Blue and it won her an Oscar too I think. As for White, I thought Zbigniew Zamachowski was really grabbing. His performance made me start to feel pity for the character, and I found myself saying "Poor guy... so poor thing...". For Red, I think the old judge and Irene Jacob had a really good chemistry between their acting. You can sense something more that they feel for one another, be it father-daughter or maybe even man-woman relationship...


6. Funny add-on - Funny old folks trying to throw a glass bottle into a quirky looking recycling bin???
I noticed that in all three movies, an old folk (old lady in Blue and Red, and old man in White) were trying to throw a glass bottle into a quirky looking bin (which I reckon is a recycling bin). But even though they struggle for very long, and the shot lingers on them, the cast never offers any form of assistance. Well except for Valentine in Red, who helps the old lady push the bottle into the bin and we hear it crashing. I'm not too sure what it was meant to symbolise, but maybe it shows that the first two are too self-centered and focused on their own problems that they never show any concern or interest to greater things happening around them - i.e. social problems like ageing population, consideration, courtesy, etc. Or maybe he was trying to promote recycling efforts?? I don't know...


7. Use of Transnational Characters set in France - French, Polish and Swiss
Blue's cast is all French. Julie is French, Olivier is French.

White's cast is half French, half Polish. Dominique is French. Karol is Polish.

Red's cast is Swiss and ???. Valentine is Swiss. Auguste is Swiss. I don't know if the old judge is Swiss or French since it is set in Paris.

They are all in France. Although White moves to Poland when Karol returns home after the divorce.


Click on the link above for more reviews and information on the movie trilogy...

Cheerio,
Same Old Movie Buff

“霍元甲” / "Fearless"

你看了“霍元甲”了没儿？

若你还没看“霍元甲”，你听到了同名的主题曲了没儿 ?

是周杰伦写曲的。。。

MV 也是他导的！！！

真是不能不对他刮目相看。。。

独特的LOCKING扇舞。。。

配搭了中国嘻哈风格的编曲。。。

还有周董的招牌三节棍。。。

真是看得我只有“哇哇哇。。。"

Questionable Project Superstar Promo Trailer - Why Are You Voting For Them?

if you've seen this promo trailer, i think u'll understand y i'm writing this blog entry...

it starts in supers asking "why are you voting for them?" then it goes into some montage shots of e various contestants... for e more attractive ones, they placed the supers "their looks" with VO saying "because of their looks..." then for e stronger singers, they placed the supers "their voices" with VO saying "because of their voices..." then for Kelvin, Chen Weilian, they placed the supers "sympathy/pity" with VO saying "or becuase of sympathy/pity..."

i think this is totally unacceptable & its bordering on mean behavior on e side of e editors & producer who did this promo... yes e guy is visually handicapped... but if he can sing & ppl like his voice, y can't he b a singer??? this seems to be a ploy to remind ppl that he is visually handicapped, & a SUPERSTAR can't be visually handicapped... so we should just vote for e beuatiful, e gorgeous, e cute, e voices... even though he himself is a strong singer in his own right... i'm not an ardent supporter of any one of e contestants... but e least e channel can do is to let them have a fair contest by allowing each & everyone of them e same & equal platform, media coverage & publicity so that e public can REALLY COMPARE them & select their faves based on that, & not slanted media coverage like this...

i do hope they'll take out this promo trailer soon... cos its getting on my nerves EVERYTIME i see it...

peace out
Same Old Critic

scandals, scandals, scandals.... lifestyles of the rich & e famous...

i suppose everyone's threading on thin ice, been writing so much over the weekends that i kinda need to relax my brain now n do some none thinking things like watching TV, playing games, chatting online...

life as a writer is no easy task...

well but then i'm NOT a writer...

i'm an associate producer...

so why oh why am i writing so much???

i wonder why...

isn't it scandalous sometimes when we do simple comparisons in real life...

read e XXX scandal today n felt like a premonition or self-fulfiling prophecy was unfolding in front of me... u see i've filmed there before... n e HQ looks comparatively like a 6 star hotel lobby... complete with glass boulders/ panels, etc... clean white arm chairs, etc for the visitors... snacks n drinks provided for everyone FOC... well even hotels dun have such gd service...

i understand y they wanna make e place look nice.. it's their HQ... they wanna let e patients feel more comfortable when they come for consultation or treatment... all these are good reasons... we can accept that...

but y oh y do e CEO's office need to look like an expensive psychiatrist's office? with an entire floor to himself??? SG is a small island... we dun have tt much land left for our ppl to stay in... so y r wewasting precious land for an office for ONE SINGLE PERSON??? moreover... more space means more money & time spent on upkeeping and maintenance... isn't that a waste?? frankly speaking, i think e offices of some CEOs ard here might be even larger than some of e flats tt our ppl stay in... probably a few homeless souls can use the space better...

i shall not talk abt e bonuses reported... or even salary, which i think is more than 100x more than e average office worker or grad can get... pls... we're already close to killing for that 1 extra month's bonus already (e mandatory 13th month, not 14th month ok) ... much less to say a full year's bonus...

n using company... no i'll change tt... not even tax payers' money... its other ppl's hard-earned money meant to be donated to charity to help e less fortunate, to pay for one's own extravagance is just not justifiable... no matter WHAT u wanna say... its a sure lose case for them... there've already been rumours of misuse of funds... n with so many fund raisers going on... e public still dun really see where's e money going... so it's inevitable tt ppl will suspect... credibility will b lost... fund raisers won't be able to raise as much as before, cos of loss of credibility...

peace out...
Same Old Same Old Lines...

The After-effects of SUPER Size Me

OMG...

I dunno if things can get any worse than watching something and then feeling like you shouldn't have watched it as it will probably scar you for the rest of your life...

Has anyone else seen "Super Size Me"???

Anyone scarred by the images and messages that you'll no longer walk past the golden arch and not have flashbacks of images that you've seen in the movie???

I don't know if there are any statistical information that can give me the answer to my question... I mean, McDonalds doesn't usually publish its sales performance figures to the public anyway...

Did its sales plunge immediately after the launch of the movie and throughout the period when it was showing???

It's a mystery to me, and always will be...

Since the daily queues seem to be still very much the same after the launch...

Maybe people around this area aren't that particular about the food they eat, or what the food they eat does to their bodies, since the local delicacies aren't exactly the most healthy choices in the first place... I think maybe the increase in cholesterol, blood sugars, etc don't really make a lot of difference to them. They'll probably say that they don't have it that often anyway, so it's okay...

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As more and more of the stuff we eat daily are come in packaged form and are preserved for longer shelf lives, I guess it's difficult to really blame the fries to still look like freshly bought ones even after more than 10 weeks...

But I'll never be able to look at them again the same way, nevertheless savour the flavours of what we branded as fast food...

=============================================

Peace out
Same Old Brand New foodie-for-thought

The Queer Eye Syndrome...

WARNING: THIS IS STRICTLY NOT FOR THE MCPS, HOMOPHOBIC OR THE FAINT-HEARTED.

Isn't it a wonder how the men out there are sometimes so badly groomed that they look practically like the castaways on a faraway deserted island? While some can be so well-groomed that they put the ladies to shame?

Is it really a metrosexual thing or a SNAG thing to do - to be well groomed?

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If you've been watching the new Discovery Travel & Living channel, it'll all start to make sense...

Saviours come in the form of the Fab Five consisting of:
Kyan - The Grooming Guru
Jai - Culture Vulture
Thom - Design Doctor
Ted - Food & Wine Connoisseur
Carson - Fashion Savant

An elite team dedicated to extolling the simple virtues of style, taste & class.

Each week their mission is to transform a style-deficient & culture-deprived str8 man from drab to fab in each of their respective categories: grooming, culture, interior design, food & wine, & fashion.

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Queer Eye For The Straight Guy

Five gay men, out to make over the world - one straight guy at a time.

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Yes, it's not the men that do it... or the straight men rather... they've got help from the experts in the form of the queer Fab Five!!!

One episode later you'll find yourself addicted for more...

One simple reason... The Fab Five are so fab themselves to look at!!! Nevermind they're gay... who cares... they make for great eye candy for the gals!!!

And all that drama going on with Carson pouncing on every candidate & getting touchy feely with them, there are some episode where you'd know that the candidate's TOTALLY homophobic and they're like getting all freaked out when they get touchy feely... but it's all these that makes it so funny to watch... LOL...

Gals never get bothered by all the touchy feely stuff going on, cos we do it amongst ourselves too... so it's hilarious when you see for example, in one episode, a macho mucho cop being groped up and down by the Fab Five and you can see his hand going everywhere to sweep theirs away!!! LOL...

Moreover, some of the make-overs are so successful that you can't believe that it's the same person after the grooming... Kyan's doing a gr8 job!!! Some hideous looking ones at first, actually come out really fantastic!!! Bet they never even knew that they could look that good...

===================================

It's official...

It's become a syndrome... Many I know are now addicted to the series...

Well apart from the hilarious & fab Fab Five, there's also the draw of the usually quite cute straights every episode...

So... what are you waiting for?

Check out the site and catch some previews of what I'm talking about here!!!

Peace out
Same Old Brand New Me (with Queer Eye Syndrome too!!)

Criteria of a gr8 Horror/ Sci fi/ Thriller/ Slash Movie

the weather's kinda gloomy today, but my mood was like that yesterday after watching a day's of horror/ sci-fi/thriller/ slash movies... I've figurerd that Night is a gr8 film-maker... & i've got all the traits of a gr8 horror/ sci fi/ thriller/ slash movie...

Criteria of a gr8 horror/ sci fi/ thriller/ slash movie - the 5 less & 2 more theory:
1. the less details you give, the better
2. the less you see, the better
3. the less talking there is, the better
4. the less light, the better
5. the less people there are, the better
6. the more music there is, the better
7. the more body language there is, the better

if you don't believe me, next time you watch movies like these, take note of these criteria, I'm sure it'll be true for all. i'll explain it here...

Reasoning for the Criteria of a gr8 horror/ sci fi/ thriller/ slash movie - the 5 less & 2 more theory:
1. the less details you give, the better - u dunno anything, so u feel scared of e unknown
2. the less you see, the better - same as #1, less u see, less u noe, more u scared
3. the less talking there is, the better - builds suspense with lack of talking to distract from acting, anyway really scared people dun talk a lot do they?
4. the less light, the better - less light, less u see, less u noe, more u scared; moreover, e dark is scary...
5. the less people there are, the better - less people, less talk, less help, more opportunity for e unknown to strike...
6. the more music there is, the better - music is e heart & soul of it all, no soundtrack, no scare...
7. the more body language there is, the better - builds suspense oso, cos u dunno anything, u can't see anything, characters dun talk, u have to depend on body language to know what's happening, & it's very powerful indeed...

That's all for now from the movie buff...

till next time i'll give more info on other sorts of movies... when i do my movie marathon again...

peace out
Same Old Brand New Me
m(~_~)m