Initial D - not too bad ... if not a bit flat .. 71%

Watched Initial D over the weekend. I went in with zero expectations. I have never read the comics. I am not a car fanatic. I didn't really plan for the movie until a few friends wanted to watch and asked me along.

Well, simple story. This kid is the son of a car racer legend. He turns out to be better than his father. And the along the way he fell into love, and out of love. But 2 characters who stole the show, are the father "Bunta", and his best friend, Itsuki" who brags too much. The kicker of the movie are the racing scenes. They are very compelling, and really cool to watch. But somehow, the focus on "drifting" seems to have been over emphasized, that makes it seems like who ever can drift better will win the race. The races are well choreographed and considering that the story is running around 1 single track, and the fact that they can make it interesting enough for more than 1 hour is quite an achievement already.

But how about the flaws? I am not sure about how the actual character is supposed to be, but watching Jay Chou's interpretation, it seems like Takumi's a rather boring dude, who really doesn't have much way of expressing his own feelings. Like I said, I didn't read the comics, but while there are overacting seen in actors, he's a case of underacting. I didn't understand how the girl could get so excited over him for? And it wasn't explained what she sees in him. Also, she mentioned that she has known him for years and they always talked, until recently. Why? Did the main character go through something that turned his personality into the passive, quiet type?

The father "Bunta" played by Anthony Wong is the character to watch. He's dynamic and it seems like he's having fun playing the role. Same for Kenny Bee, but he's not having the most screen time. "Itsuki", played by Chapman was the usual, having all the loud talking always seem by him in other movies, maybe he's chosen because he is ultimately just natural at being a loud mouth brat.

What I learnt, Initial D was a Japanese Comic that got translated into Chinese and then made into the movie. What I would truly like to see, is whether the script was written originally in Japanese, then translated and localized, or was it the other way around. I would wanna watch the Japanese dubbed version to see how it works out. It would be kinda weird to see a bunch of Chinese acting as Japanese - if I were a Japanese. And the fact that those "gang" members who are so blatantly "lineless" just made the movie kinda flat to a certain extent. The inability of the main chinese characters to interact with the rest of the obviously Japanese team members (for instance, the relationship between "Ryousuke" and his gang") is strikingly obvious.

the Box that will be ....

EDWARD (To BRUCE WAYNE)
Why be brutalized by an uncaring
world? My RES Box will give Joe Q
Public a realm where he is king.
(sultry)
Not that someone like you would need
it. Someone so intelligent. Witty.
Charming. But for the lonely, the...

STICKLEY
Paranoid? The psychotic?

EDWARD
(didn't miss it)
...The Box can change their lives.
(looking around)
Our stock coupons will spike.

Edward turns, actually CLAPS Stickley on the back.

EDWARD
Hell. Might even bring old Stickley
here a few extra bucks. Huh, Fred?

STICKLEY
Fred?

Bruce takes off his glasses, rubs his eyes in vague
disbelief, cleans the lenses.

EDWARD
Wayne Enterprises will spearhead an
entertainment revolution.

Later in the movie

RIDDLER (EDWARD)
"How fitting that numbers lead you to me. For numbers will crown me king. My Box will sit on countless TV's around the globe, mapping brains, giving me credit card numbers. Bank codes. Safe combinations. Numbers of infidelities. Of crimes. Of lies told. No secret is safe from my watchful electronic eye. I will rule the planet. For if knowledge is power then tremble world, Edward Nygma has become a God."

TAKEN FROM "Batman forever" (1994)

1994, Riddler (Edward) aimed to take over the world with his little green TV boxes.

2001. Gates did the same with his hugeass Xboxes.

Long Live Blogs

"A strong and confident government may not like its critics, but it should be able to withstand a robust public debate. The right to be who you are and express what you feel is one of the most fundamental of human existence, and governments who lock up dissenters are showing contempt for all their citizens.

Freedom of belief and freedom of expression are far from universal. But in the words of the Declaration of Human Rights, they are the 'highest aspiration of the common people.'"

Long Live Blogs :)

Bush's stance on Global Warming

Finally ... after rejecting that Man has any role to play in warming up the planet ... he has finally given in ... a little bit ... this time .. the answer is "to a certain extent"...

"I am sorry ... US economy is more important ... the rest of the world will just have to burn in hell with the warming issue, we can't fix the CO2 issue if we can't make mo' money"

So .... let the selfish leaders of the world decide what's more important. Money or the Health of the planet. Yes, money can help to heal the planet to a certain extent ... but there's one thing it can't buy .. Time ....

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-warming5jul05,0,7451975.story?coll=la-home-headlines

MJ

Man i love Michael Jackson. Recently I have been going through some sort of a MJ renaissance, going around looking for his CDs and snapping up the old discs that I missed. Listening to his music again suddenly brought back memories of my teenage years when I was so crazy crazy over him. Yes, yes ... I admit i did practice the moonwalk behind my closed doors. :P I bought every single, and taped all the TV shows with his appearances .. and of course, I went to his concerts. :)

Now, again looking through the collection of all the MJ stuff I have, I am suddenly amazed again at how wonderfully talented this singer is. He's lived his entire life providing entertainment to people, and if you think about it, it is a very scary thought. I mean, I hardly remember anything from 5, 6 years old, but that is when he started. For 4 decades. 4 freaking decades. His life is like a movie played out 40 years for people to watch. The recent trial was probably one of the biggest thing in his "History" when one looks back from the future. I just hope that his musical/entertainment journey doesn't just end here.

Here's hoping to many more years of Jacko's Wackiness, and great music. :)

Are Singaporean pampered?

My observation, would be "yes", and I didn't realize that about myself too until I have spent a few years overseas. It is funny how we cannot see our own faults until we step into other people's shoes. It is always tough to take criticisms, but it is like bad tasting medicine - they are essential to making us better.

But another problem with Singaporeans (generally speaking, again), is that, they want to rebuke, explain, and use excuses to justify their actions, without first considering why the criticism are raised. They are too eager to offer a response, that they refuse to look at things from the critics' perspective.

Back to the pampered issue. Why do I say so about Singaporeans? Well, we're too sheltered, having the system spoon feed us in every way, always having rules to control our behavior in the society, etc ... these in one way or another, resulted in a parental disciplinary kinda of attitude the government has towards us, the children. And as a result, this kind of attitude gets filtered down to the kind of upbringing we're subjected to - the parents who never allows the kid to do anything unless permission is given, in a way to protect the kid - thus the kids will grow up teaching their kids the same thing. A vicious cycle. They see that the kind of "sheltered upbringing" is keeping them safe, and prosperity. They see that by believing what the government tells them to do, our economy will prosper, our children would be safe, and everything would be great.

The system works, so everyone in their own comfort zone, learn to obey the rules and see everything else (outside Singapore) as not as good as what you got at home. "We are Singapore. We are Singapore. We're a nation strong and free forevermore" sings the children. "We have the best airport, busiest port .." as we are taught. The system has instilled in all of us a sense of elitism that we close our minds to the fact that "we're not No.1 in everything".

But reality now comes back to bite us. We are not as dynamic as we should be in a slump of the economy. The people are inflexible. Now the pampered Singaporeans who follows the rules are realising that following the old rules doesn't seem to pull our economy back on its feet ... and the now a few crazy ones wants to revolutionize and make things better. But the "crazy ones" are the, minority. But they are ones who wants to create, and inject changes - something the pampered system would resist.

However, the system understands that it needs the crazy ones to work with and improve the system, and not to shut them out entirely. The system understands that it is the crazy ones who will create new markets and new opportunities.

But the crazy one says ... "I am a quitter. I can't fight the system alone. I will leave and find my opportunities elsewhere". So the system will have to find a way to work with, and not fight the crazy ones. Or the system might one day drown in its own delusional elitism.

War of the Worlds (2005) - 75%

Yes, finally caught it. Like many of Spielberg's movie, there were so many of his signature shots in there. He loves to do long continuous shots of conversations and do the panning around the characters maneuver. You see quite a number of these in War of the Worlds 2005. Actually I only noticed this style of his from his last film "Minority Report" and I realise that he has repeatedly used this again and again here.

One scene one might not notice, is the shot of Cruise and kids in the car for the first time, and u see how the camera is flying around them while the entire conversation is taking place. Awesome awesome awesome ..... For those who didn't notice, watch the show again and discover this. It is totally impressive.

Ok, enough of the technical stuff. How about the story? It is basically the same as what novel and the previous movie were about. Aliens arrive, aliens attack, people run, people die, people go crazy, then aliens die. Nothing unexpected, but the effects are very very impressive. There's a very simple setup, and within 15min, the action started to roll. And it is a rollercoaster ride all the way from start to finish. It is intense, and unforgiving. No holds barred aliens bent on human extermination. This is not a kiddy movie, and it does not serve to explain why things happen the way they do. It is like a documentary of what happened in the history of mankind in a few crazy days. As a result, you leave the theater with lotsa of unanswered questions. But the movie reminded the audience, that in the heat of emergencies and destruction, it is the people around you that matters. Basically, you do not stop to think, for you may die if you do, you'd just run and survive first.

The references to war are also there. Or at least if you bothered to make the references. To me, it didn't matter if it was the aliens who attacked or not - survival was all that mattered. "I don't care if you hate me .... think of your sister ... I love you", said Ray, the character played by Tom Cruise, to his son in a pivotal moment in the movie. It is the sacrifices you're willing to make to protect the ones you love, and what truly mattered or not in war. Or should I say, what didn't matter, when all you got to lose, are all the loved ones around you.

So does the ending suck this time? Hmm ... it is basically still the same as before, but I thought in light of how the movie is setup (no explanation how/why things started), it is alright that they ended with no full explanation. Maybe there will be a documentary in that world that would show on their History channel few years after the events that happened in the movie, that would explain what they found out. But we will have to satisfy with at least the scenes of how the events unfolded - and leave the rest to our imagination.

Come on, help me out

Ok guys who are reading this ..

I have a friend's wedding coming and I wanna do a special stag night for him. Been to those typical KTV, health center, Pubs, transvestite shit .... now I am looking for a "Thai-girl show" equivalent in Singapore. Where can I find such?? Anyone heard of anything like that locally?

War of the Worlds (1953) - 72%

Now that the War of the Worlds 2005 is upon us, let's do a quick review of the original 1953 Classic.
When the original 1953 was released, it was a sci fi megaton. The special effects (then) were groundbreaking and the "forcefield" effect they did with the miniatures were very impressive. The scenes of people going chaotic and crazy trying to flee the city and how looting started occurring when the city was under attack, were done pretty realistically. I realised that you as an audience, would just watch the chaos unfold, but you never question why people would turn mean and uncivilized the moment foreign attack was upon them. And in a way, we understood, that human nature is in its very roots, selfish and cold.

And had I watched this film earlier, I would have noticed all the references made by the movie "Independence day" to this classic. One scene blatantly ripped from the original was how nuclear bomb was unleashed upon the enemy but to no effect. It goes to show that in more than 4 decades, the nuclear bomb is still the lingering threat that exists in all the major superpowers' crackheads. I guess in these recent years, terrorism is the new threat, and I'd be interested to see how the new movie would play to exhibit that.

The original story was written by HG Wells, with a political reference to the British Imperialism in the 19th century. The movie in 1953, was obviously a knock on US's then "superiority" with their Nuclear bomb. I guess in these recent years, terrorism is the new threat, and I'd be interested to see how the new movie would play to exhibit that.

What to expect from the 2005 version?
Now the original 1953 classic was groundbreaking in the special effects department. The movie also garnered an Academy Award for Best Special Effects. So I would expect this 2005 version to be visually impressive as well. What I didn't like about the original was its ending. Maybe I shouldn't give it away for those who hasn't seen it, but let's just say that it felt like they had ran out of ideas or budget to kill the aliens so they made one pretty lame excuse for it. "Independence Day's" ending was pretty damn ridiculous too. So was "Mars Attack", but at least they made it funny. I hope they would make this ending a satisfying one.

Crime fears.

Straits Times. Home Section. June 25, 2005.

Debate in court over accused's access to lawyer.

A recent brutal murder case has rattled the island. In case you're not aware, a 22 yr old lady from China, is found dismembered - body severed into 2, upper and lower torso wrapped in plastic bag, head severed, feet still missing. The suspect, her supervisor at work, is arrested while investigation is still undergoing.

The case is definitely gruesome and disturbing. The suspect, in almost every certainty at this point, looks to be the most likely killer in this case. However, no matter how the case at hand is going to unfold from this point, the suspect is still unconvicted, and dare I say, innocent until proven otherwise. That's why he's named, a suspect. He's in custody, and arrested based on suspicion. He is not yet convicted.

What boggles me is why the question of him having access to his lawyer is even mentioned. Why should he not be given access to the lawyer, and most intriguingly, the block was done by the DPP (Deputy Public Prosecution) and even more surprising, upheld by the Distric Judge.

The DPP's reason for the block was that the police had to expend much time and resources to locate and verify parts of her body. DPP Koh told the courts yesterday "the scope of an order of investigation necessarily excludes any external meetings or conversations". Honestly, I do not understand what the hell that means nor does it seems like it made any justification for blocking an accused access to his lawyers.

The Judge said that the court has a duty to balance the rights of the accused and the obligations of the police. Why would the rights of the accused to have access to his counsel be in danger to or jeopardize the obligations and the investigative work of the police? Makes no sense to me, and if anyone who is a lawyer could help enlighten me, I'd truly appreciate.

District Judge also says "I am also aware of the view that the interests of the accused will not be compromised by the lack of access to the counsel at this stage". This puzzles me even more. His rights as an unconvicted accused to a lawyer is being compromised, and why wouldn't his interests be?

HDB owners??

Recent survey shows .... 2.84 million singaporeans live in HDB flats (CNA report 21 june 05, HDB Household Survey). That's up 5.2%. The report does not show how many percent of the Singaporean population is that, but using 4million (2000 survey) as an estimate, it would make it about 71%.

Now the report also says ""buying" beat "renting" hands down - an overwhelming 95.6 percent of households interviewed prefer to own rather than rent a flat. ".

My question now would be:
1) How many of these people actually think that they "own" their 99 year lease hold flat?
2) How many of these people actually know that they are actually "renting" these HDB flats from the government, and not "buying" them?
3) Or are these people voicing their unhappiness that these flats are "leasehold"?

If they fall into (1) and (2), that means they need to be educated about how stupid they are, thinking that they "own" these flats. Thus more than 70% of Singaporeans are not home owners. And if we look upon houses as assets, then 70% of Singaporeans do not own any assets. Gulps ..... that truly sucks ....

Why HDB is a scam?
- They are 99 leaseholds.
- "lease" n. definition: A contract granting use or occupation of property during a specified period in exchange for a specified rent. Go read your HDB contract, you are a "leasee" and HDB is the "leasor".
- Assuming they cost between $200-$300,000 for an average unit, and assuming you are using 0% loan (only assuming) you are paying rent of $210 per month for a unit costing $250,000. In fact there are the new HDBs that costs more than $400,000 to "lease", so the monthly rent is even higher. But hey ... no one lives for 99 years, and in fact, I don;t think anyone even buys a HDB until they are at least married or 35 if you're single. So if u take that into account, the effective rental for the HDB per month goes up even more considering that you live there for only 30 to 40 years!! And at the rate of 30-40 years, the rental rate of a $250,000 zooms up to at least $500!! Assuming you'd still have to pay about $200 per mth for carparking, you're paying more than $700 for rent.
- I pay $500/mth for rental of a condo unit, with free parking and gym and swimming pool facilities. Compare that with the numbers above.
- Oh yes ... you are supposed to pre-pay your 99 year rent to the HDB for "leasing" their unit. I mean, the banks have to lend you the money to pay the HDB for renting their place! If you don't call this a scam I don't know what is?

Wait a minute? ... Isn't this supposed to be government property? And if it is, it is paid for by the tax payers money? So the government basically takes our money, builds some apts and we have to pay to use it somemore?

Food for thoughts ....

I LOVE it :)

This was a great weekend .... mainly cos I finished a wedding DVD for a friend and it was one of the prettiest. Man .. the look on their faces when they saw the DVDs, the packaging, the designs, the menus ....man I LOVE it ...

That's why i love doing wedding videos. Yes it is pretty good money ... but it is also pretty hard work.

I hope I can keep doing this until I die.

There's this movie called "The final Cut". About an unknown future, where people can implant a certain chip in their brains (or their child's brain) and then at their death, have it reedited by a "cutter" into a "rememory" for friends and family to watch. Or even have it on their grave for people to watch. Very interesting, and me doing wedding videos for people, makes me feel like somewhat a "cutter" of some sorts. :) nothing morbid about weddings of course.

I am helping people to "rememorize" their weddings :)

Power of inaction

Deep thoughts of a Singapore Critic

When people do not act, the power is given to those who do.

Quote by? Yours Truly :)

Grammar fixed :P

I promise

I promise .... these coming weeks. .... less play .. more rest ..

I will say with great resolve ... that I shall sleep more this week ....

I promise ....

MJ is aquitted

Well ... Wacko Jacko is aquitted. I am really not surprised. In fact if he was guilty, I'd be very surprised. I guess those who followed the case closely wouldn't be surprised either. I was a fan, but even I had my doubts. But as the case unfolded, the prosecution just didn't have a strong case. They had no evidence, only witnesses and their accusations. And the defense attorney did a spectacular job at gunning down every single one of the accusations raised, either through clever cross examination or introducing witnesses that destroyed the accusations of the prosecutions witnesses.

In the end, i guess, MJ did finally cleared his name, but at the same time confirmed a few details:

#1: MJ was stupid and gullible to pay those money to those blood suckers
#2: MJ is still weird
#3: MJ is really black by birth, but will probably die a white man.
#4: MJ is probably bankrupt by now

Batman ... finally begins ...

Last night ... Batman Begins premiere ...

Finally .... after all the injustice served to the fans (and creator) of the comic book Batman with the circus acts named "Batman forever", "Batman & Robin", this is a proper tribute to the Dark Knight. This is how Batman should always have been.

Batman was supposed to be a detective, with a dark brooding emotional baggage, with great acrobatic (and kungfu?) skills, and also, a great businessman.

For the Tim Burton and Joel Shumacher's outings, he became a "star", no longer mysterious, and worst of all "showy" ... Batman became sorta like a fantasy superhero version of James Bond, with big names like Val Kilmer and George Clooney all vying to be the "sexy lips with the black cape". But Batman was never supposed to be about the lips.

Batman Begins is a return to form, back to basics. Most importantly ... this movie had a solid storyline to back it up. Yes, there were holes, but not too glaring, and at least it treated the character seriously, never allowing him to become ridiculous. Bruce Wayne was a man that felt real.

The Marvel comic Heroes have been kicking the DC comics' butt, because they took their characters seriously. We're talking the success of Spiderman and X-men, making the fans and the critics rave about them. While the DC comic heroes were making a fool of themselves (Superman 3 & 4, Batman & Robin and Batman Forever), the Marvel ones were making cash. So what is Warner, with a load of DC franchises in hand gonna do? Give the respect back to the characters .... here's we've seen how they did it with Batman ... next change ... Superman Returns. I am keeping my fingers crossed.

Good laws .. bad laws ... episode 1

Just as there are good people and bad ones .... there are good laws and bad laws ....

This was something that was said by Gandhi and how very true. When there is a government that straddles on extremism, you get laws that tries to cover every corner possible to give them any excuse to allow them to do anything they wish. In other words, unreasonable laws.

We have quite a number here in Singapore. Here's one:

Please note the definition of "film" in the "Film Act":
"film" means —
(a) any cinematograph film;
(b) any video recording, including a video recording that is designed for use wholly or principally as a game;
(c) any other material record or thing on which is recorded or stored for immediate or future retrieval any information that, by the use of any computer or electronic device, is capable of being reproduced or displayed as wholly or partly visual moving pictures,
and includes any part of a film, and any copy or part of a copy of the whole or any part of a film;


Licence for carrying on business of importing, making, distributing or exhibiting films
6. —(1) No person —
(a) shall carry on any business, whether or not the business is carried on for profit, of importing, making, distributing or exhibiting films unless he is in possession of a valid licence; or
(b) being the owner or occupier of any place shall allow the place to be used by, or let the place or otherwise make the place available to, any person who is not the holder of a valid licence for the purpose of carrying on the business of importing, making, distributing or exhibiting films.
(2) Any person who contravenes subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine of not less than $10,000 but not more than $40,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months or to both.

Here's another:

Films made in Singapore to be deposited in approved warehouse
12. —(1) The owner of any film made in Singapore shall, within 7 days after the making of the film, deposit the film in a warehouse approved for this purpose by the Board.
(2) Any person who fails to deposit the film in accordance with subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $5,000.


Penalty for possession, exhibition or distribution of uncensored films
21. —(1) Any person who —
(a) has in his possession;
(b) exhibits or distributes; or
(c) reproduces,
any film without a valid certificate, approving the exhibition of the film, shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction —
(i) in respect of an offence under paragraph (a), to a fine of not less than $100 for each such film that he had in his possession (but not to exceed in the aggregate $20,000); and
(ii) in respect of an offence under paragraph (b) or (c), to a fine of not less than $500 for each such film he had exhibited, distributed or reproduced, as the case may be (but not to exceed in the aggregate $40,000) or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months or to both.
[10/98]
(2) Any Censor and any Deputy or Assistant Censor and any Inspector of Films may at all reasonable times enter any place in which any film is kept or is being or is about to be exhibited and may examine the film, and if on such examination he has reasonable grounds for believing that an offence under this section has been or is about to be committed in respect of the film he may seize the film and any equipment used in the commission of the offence.
(3) Any film and equipment seized under subsection (2) in respect of which any person has been convicted under this section shall be forfeited and shall be destroyed or otherwise disposed of in such manner as the Minister may direct.
(4) For the purposes of this section if any film is altered in any way after it has been approved for exhibition under this Act, the film shall be deemed not to have been so approved.

So these are just some abstract from the "Film Act" of Singapore. Boys and girls. If you're reading this and you possess any Digital camcorder, and had made any home videos, travel videos, wedding videos or any kind of videos of any sort, you'd better send it into the censorship board to be inspected, and get ready some cash to pay for the licenses. If not, get ready to hide them real well, or may the government have mercy on your soul.

Amen. Amitaba ....

In light of all the violence ...

It saddens me to see how the wheel spinners at the White house still tries to claim "we're making good progress in Iraq".

"I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent."
-- Mohandas K. Gandhi

When u got nothing to write ....

When u got nothing to write .. point your readers in the direction where there's something to read ...

And read this u must dear readers .. before it gets pulled or sued .... :)

http://www.yeocheowtong.com

Death

My friend of 16 years passed last week.
Fell from his apartment on the 8th Storey.

Accident.
Grief.
Funeral.
Tears.
Memories.

16 years.