僕と妻の１７７８の物語 (1,778 Stories of Me and My Wife)

This was actually a random find when I did a search on what movies were showing at GV Vivocity. Browsing through, I discovered this 'GV Exclusive' Japanese film.

 
僕と妻の１７７８の物語 (Boku to Tsuma no 1778 no Monogatari) is based on the true story of science fiction writer Taku Mayumura whose wife died of colon cancer in 2002. After a doctor told him laughter can help the immune system, Mayumura began writing one story every day for his cancer-stricken wife. Although the initial prognosis was that she would only survive one year, she went on to live 5 good years with the help of the 1,778 total stories written by her husband for her over that time.

And just reading this synopsis, I felt it was going to be a sweet love story, and I do like Japanese films. They had gotten together since high school and were perfect together, like soul mates. I didn't realise that the lead actor was SMAP's Tsuyoshi Kusanagi (草彅剛) because the poster pic used by GV wasn't the same as the above. This was the same actor of whom I enjoyed watching 《大胃王》 years ago.

And I was glad I picked this show. I really liked it. It's not your tragic kind of love story but a story about devotion and hope, though bittersweet still. Running at 140min, it didn't feel that long and I found myself sniffing and tearing, along with some others in the cinema. You know that kind of sweet touching but still a little sad feeling? Writing each day gave him hope that if he continued writing, she will continue living, but deep inside, he somehow knew that the inevitable will happen. Just like a parallel to one of his stories, about a group of old robots being exterminated by new models. All but one is left, who answers his question of "if all these are in his mind, shouldn't he be protecting these old models which he so loved?". And he is alone at the end.
Eventually, the writing helped him cope with facing each day in the fear of losing her. And the last story he wrote (no. 1,778) when she died was only between him and her, where he wrote without touching his pen to the paper.
Yah, bearing in mind he was a science fiction writer (and it's a Japanese film), you can imagine some fantastical parts in the relaying of the story.

I think I'll rate it 4.5 out of 5. It can't beat Departures, which was excellent. I cried buckets uncontrollably for that even though it started out rather funny.
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Hmm..interestingly, I watched two shows about soul mates back-to-back, the other being Crazy Stupid Love.

张学友1/2世纪演唱会 (Jacky Cheung 1/2 Century Tour)

Yup, he's fifty and my, he doesn't look it!

It must be like 10 years since I last watched Jacky Cheung's concert. It's the first time his concert has been extended to 5 nights (usually it's 3) and a sell-out for all at that! I didn't go for the last couple of times, but this concert had a different format from the one I've been before.

The 1st hour of the concert saw a little musical-style performance where he sang and acted out songs with a storyline. A special video was produced for this with Shu Qi as the lead actress and him as the leading man, which was played while he performed on stage, singing and dancing, acting out the part on stage. Of course the girl on stage isn't Shu Qi lah. One of his dancers. It's a simple love story that goes like this: There is this guy who is like a playboy, a ladies' man. But one day, he meets a woman (SQ) and falls for her. He woos her and they get married. Things were very rosy initially, but somehow they grew distant and they fight. They reminisces (separately) about happy times together, visiting places where they used to go. But in the end, they reconcile.

This was followed by the "rock" segment, a song in tribute to Lydia Sum, then some of his fave dancing songs. He even joked that now that he's fifty, he should dance while he still can. Of course, after all that dancing, I believe he needed a breather and the concert moved into the "jazz" segment where he sang some songs from his latest jazz album Private Corner while seated with a pianist. He even showed a short animated film about his life story. Then of course there were his love ballads. There wasn't really an official encore segment but he knew what songs to sing that drew the applause. You could tell it was a more mature crowd with not so many screaming fans (as compared to the current pop stars), but there were still the light sticks swinging. We all grew up with his songs.

The light/laser show was very nice along with the stage contraptions with its moving lights and platforms. I couldn't see, but he said it was a stage made of glass. And his singing! He's not called 歌神 for nothing. His voice is still as good and clear, and always in control with a good range. Even his "screaming" (mainly the rock songs) sounded good. He fully demonstrated his versatility in singing any genre of songs, not to mention his sense of humour. I didn't know all the songs though, as I stopped following his songs for some time, but there were still some of the familiar favourites like 《一路上有你》，《李香兰》， 《心如刀割》， 《吻别》，etc.

The concert lasted at least 3 hours, ending past 11pm going on midnight.