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July 31, 2004

Dissecting Midsummer's Night Dream

A newspaper which comes up with a worthy discussion of the most light-hearted shakespheare play ever! Can Singapore ever be like this?

Posted by lainey at 11:35 AM | Comments (0)

The Funny House of Laughing Giggles

I watched Zhang Yimou's House of Flying Daggers last night against better advice. I decided to watch it because I liked Hero aplenty (except for Tony Leung's really bad hair) despite friends telling me it's really quite bad. How bad can a Zhang Yimou film be? Well...I was stunned into conviction it can be THIS bad.

Here are my random thoughts/unthoughts on the movie (spoilers ahead)

1. Takeshi Kaneshiro is very hot.
2. Every frame is like a pretty picture, Zhang Yimou can even enter a few of them to competitions and win. He's meticulous this way, but too much of a good/staged thing becomes a bad thing. Am I watching a movie or watching movie stills?
3. Takeshi Kaneshiro is very very hot. When he flirted with Zhang Ziyi, I had to blush too.
4. There is too much action even before the dialogue is set. It makes the movie rather dull. I mean, Zhang Ziyi dancing - yawn. Them playing that stupid game - yawn. Them fighting elaborately - double yawns. Them fighting like they are dancing tango - double yawns giggles yawns.
5. Takeshi Kaneshiro is very hot.
6. The theatre was hilarious too. Ok I admit I was a bad cine-goer last night and spoke incessantly to my sister. Mostly along the lines of "I don't believe it" when the dagger flies so...wunnerfully. But most of the cinema was laughing with me!
7. Takeshi Kaneshiro is very hot.
8. My sister and I spoilt the romantic scene between Andy Lau and Zhang Ziyi. Sis spotted Andy LAu's very flawed eyebrows (one higher and shorter than the other) and we giggled throughout the scene. Oops. Hope we didn't spoil the romantic moment for some..What romantic moment?!
9. Takeshi KAneshiro is very hot.
10. Andy Lau and Zhang Ziyi together = Father and Daughter scene. Extremely perversely sick!
11.Takeshi KAneshiro is very hot.
12. One member of the audience had delayed laughter syndrome. It goes like this - the entire cinema laughs - laughter dies down - continues atching movie - lady in audience starts laughing - entire cinema starts laughing AT her. So we were a jolly crowd. And the lady with delayed laughter syndrome is not sis or I.
13. Takeshi KAneshiro is very hot, even with blood all over.
14. Final scene is a total blast. Zhang Ziyi took more than 30 minutes to die. And for a while, she could even stand up and kiss The Hot One Passionately, before dying again. Bottom could do better anyday. And lady, just die.
15 The Hot One is very hot.
16. I'm not too sure if Zhang Yimou intended for Andy LAu's character to be so psychopathic but I suspect his acting range was the cause of the psychopathic character being so psychopathic no one can feel any empathy for him.
17. Takeshi Kaneshiro is very hot.
18. The final fight scene was supposed to be epic perhaps. But in a wide vast snowfield, two men bobbing up and down for a very long time - very hilarious. And they way the fought - forehead bangs foredhead - very very Mike Tyson.
19. Takeshi Kaneshiro is very hot.
20. Howw can a plot that started off quite well, with honour and revenge as its theme, spiral out of control so easily into a story TCS 8 is capable of. Girl meets new guy while in long distance relationship with old guy. Old(ooh pun totally intended) guy returns and turns psycho and kills girl. But repents eventually to show great love and got drunk and walks away into the horizon.
21. Takeshi Kaneshiro is very hot.
22. Yup. Andy Lau survived in the end. He was supposed to be fatally injured (c.f. long elaborate fight scene) then he walks away into the horizon. I guess Zhang Yimou wanted him to stagger off..but the only kind of stagger he knows is a drunken swagger. So it's really very hilarious. I was laughing hysterically by then.
23. Takeshi KAneshiro is very hot despite being in stupid movie.
24. I was laughing so hysterically, but Zhang Yimou placed one final joke. As Andy Lau swaggered off, the ENGLISH dramamama opera-like song came on and the entire cinema laughed one last time. Very inappropriate indeed.
25. Takeshi KAneshiro is the only saving grace in the movie.
26. Sister told me 8 Days gave it 4 stars. Perhaps 8 Days thought it's a comedy.


All in all...a totally hilarious movie quite worth the money cuz I hadn't laughed so hard in a long long while.

But Hero it is not.

Posted by lainey at 10:39 AM | Comments (0)

July 30, 2004

Hmm...

pilot.
You are the pilot.


Saint Exupery's 'The Little Prince' Quiz.
brought to you by Quizilla

Posted by lainey at 04:31 PM | Comments (0)

Bright Lights, Green Lights

I have no idea why I am posting this picture, except that I feel like posting it. Guess I'm attracted to all things bright and sparkling.

greenlight2.jpg

Posted by lainey at 03:23 PM | Comments (1)

July 26, 2004

oops. possible fako ..

oops. possible fako ..

Posted by lainey at 02:39 PM | Comments (0)

One mood - based on

One mood - based on delusion - can go soaring high up, idly cruising.
The other - comes crashing down when reality hits you right in the face.

How does one pick up the pieces?
Face reality or go back into the deluded world?

Posted by lainey at 02:21 PM | Comments (0)

July 25, 2004

Ridiculous Politicians

Okay....basically, smoking marijuana without Inhaling is like drinking non-alcoholic beer or decafe coffee. Plain wannabe and ridiculous.

I have to say to politicians, don't be lame.

Posted by lainey at 08:02 AM | Comments (0)

July 24, 2004

She doesn't burn bras...

Interesting article on Germaine Greer

Posted by lainey at 02:47 PM | Comments (0)

July 21, 2004

This is fish number six

This is fish number six hundred and forty-one in a lifetime of goldfish. My parents bought me the first one to teach me about loving and caring for another living breathing creature of God. Six hundred and forty fish later, the only thing I know is everything you love will die. The first time you meet that someone special, you can count on them one day being dead and in the ground.

- Survivor, Chuck Palahniuk

Posted by lainey at 03:29 PM | Comments (0)

July 19, 2004

Feeling The Pain

In NYT's article on Elliot Smith's legacy, one sentence stands out the most to me:

Suddenly she starts crying and bolts from the room.

His girlfriend was interviewed and somehow, the writer of the article documented her sudden response.

It hurts, doesn't it? At a place, at a time when one least expects it - like when one is being interviewed by a leading newspaper.

We can't help it but hurt. Please cut us some slack. We are just normal people trying to breathe, despite the pain. Sometimes, we lose control and have to cry, have to run away, have to break down. But we are trying, and we will have to keep trying for the rest of our lives because the pain will always be there.

Posted by lainey at 12:03 AM | Comments (0)

July 16, 2004

Perturbing News

This is just not right.

Posted by lainey at 10:32 PM | Comments (0)

July 15, 2004

Keeping The Faith

Now - here is my secret:

I tell it to you with an openness of heart that I doubt I shall ever achieve again, so I pray that you are in a quiet room as you hear these words. My secret is that I need God - that I am sick and can no longer make it alone. I need God to help me give, because I no longer seem to be capable of giving; to help me be kind, as I no longer seem capable of kindness; to help me love, as I seem beyond being able to love.

- Life After God, Douglas Coupland

I need God, to help me live.
Amen.

p/s: I think this book is best read back to back with Graham Greene's The End of the Affair. The protogonist who staunchly believes he doesn't need God is a good juxtaposition with Coupland's protagonist who is desperate for God.

Posted by lainey at 11:42 PM | Comments (0)

Time Flying

Maybe the more emotions a person experiences in their daily lives, the longer time seems to feel to them. As you get older, you experience fewer new things, and so time seems to go by faster.

Life After God, Douglas Coupland

Wow..really? If so, I can't wait to get old.

Posted by lainey at 11:18 PM | Comments (0)

Sorrow

Brent then said that humans are the only animal able to feel the pain of sorrow that has been stretched out through linear time. He said our curse as humans is that we are trapped in time - our curse is that we are forced to interpret life as a sequence of events - a story - and that when we can't figure out what our particular story is we feel lost somehow. "Dogs only have a present tense in their lives," he continued. "Their memories are like those carved ice swans you see at weddings, that look good but melt in an hour. Humans have to endure everything in life in agonizingly endless clock time - every single second of it. Not only this, but we have to remember having endured our entire lives, as well. What a drag, no? It's amazing we all haven't gone mad."

- Life After God, Douglas Coupland

Posted by lainey at 08:14 PM | Comments (0)

July 09, 2004

Prayer

Dear Lord Father in Heaven,

I come to You. I can finally come to You. I come to You and ask for Your forgiveness. For the first half of the year, I had refused to yield to you, I had refused to think of You, I had refused to believe in You. I know You exist, but I just didn't want You in my life. Look what a splendid mess I made of my life. This is a far bigger mess than I've ever gotten myself into. And that's because I put so many things, so many people before You. Most of all, I put myself before You.

Father, I come to You now and ask for Your forgiveness. Please Father. Let everything I do be right. Not my wants, not my needs but let Your righteousness guide the way. I was blind and perhaps, I still am. Open my eyes, open my ears. I was a selfish selfish monster. Let me, Lord Father, be Your child again.

I pray all this in Jesus' precious name,
Amen.

Posted by lainey at 11:03 PM | Comments (0)

Cursed Since Birth

Chatting with FY about etymology of names - we came to the conclusion that my name is my downfall and curse.

We also come to the conclusion that for a change of luck, I should change my name to Venus or Diana or something...a name with more luck in love.

So, how does Diana Teng sound?

LOL

Posted by lainey at 09:52 AM | Comments (0)

July 08, 2004

A Beggar Case

I know I don't have the right to demand anything anymore. I can only make do with what is dished out for me.

Since when have I become so pathetic? Perhaps I've always been so.

Posted by lainey at 03:29 AM | Comments (0)

July 03, 2004

Bad Art

Seriously, don't use your angst and masquerade it as art. Worse, don't use art as an excuse for anti-social inconsiderate behaviour.

There are more subtle methods to proving your point.

Finally, don't bastardize art.

Posted by lainey at 12:18 PM | Comments (0)