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.

Which was written by a man?

Caught my first "Million Dollar Money Drop" game show tonight and for 1 pair of participants, their 1st question was:
"Which of these was written by a man?"

1) Joy Luck Club
2) Pride and Prejudice
3) Frankenstein
4) The Jungle Book

I thought it was a big giveaway as most of my household and possibly a no. of my friends would know that too. I knew the answer straightaway - Jungle Book which was written by Rudyard Kipling.
Anyway, the 1st, Joy Luck Club, confirm woman write one, although I don't know who (at least they knew the obvious). No. 2 was by Jane Austen. How could they not know who wrote this classic? If they have not read it, there had been TV shows and films based on it. No. 3 was by Mary Shelley.

Half a million dollars gone down the chute (literally) just like that; they placed $450K on Frankenstein (well, maybe they thought it was horror, so might be man) and I think $100K on Pride and Prejudice.

But the other 2 questions were not as easy though, where they lost the rest of the money.

Thoughts on Presidential Elections 2011

It looks like it was a wrong move to hold the PE in the same year as GE with all the hype going on. Never has the PE been so hotly contested, just like GE. I believe all these are just a spillover from the GE and those supporting the opposition are just using this to continue their fight against the ruling party.

And honestly, the president is not the opposition party, nor is he the ruling party. I feel he should be looked upon as neutral as possible. Yah, I understand that things don't look too neutral for all the candidates though. Anyway, nobody seems to be neutral these days.
And talking about "looks", I think a president should look the part. You can call me superficial, but I believe a president should be presentable and exude a certain kind of "aura" and stature especially when he's representing Singapore as a figurehead. Strangely, I feel that TKL reminded me of a once-president of Taiwan. And he doesn't seem to speak so well.

I believe there were some talk going on over the clash between TT and TJS. I believe those supporting the opposition fully supported TJS's reaction, but if you look at it from another angle, I felt TJS got too defensive. I felt rather amused by his "I have been attacked on my understanding of the English language." I felt TT posed a valid question for him, but TJS got a little agitated, even though he did return another valid question eventually. That's my impression of TJS. Too easily agitated and too pro-opposition. I'm not saying pro-opposition isn't good, but he's a bit too emotional. I can't really take his shouting. A friend of mine seems to think that it's possible he's back for vengeance having been 'kicked out' from the government previously. I feel he's capitalising/banking on the emotions of the people. On the other hand, another friend commented that TT is too cold. Ah well. In case you're wondering, I have nothing much to say abut TCB, although I was a little amused at his suggestion of moving the government office out of Istana.

Honestly, I don't know who to vote for as I don't really feel like voting for any of them. I just had a thought - if Prof Tommy Koh ever runs for president, I think I'll vote for him. Although I believe his capabilities could be used more effectively elsewhere. Well, George Yeo ain't a bad choice too if he had ran for elections.

bittersweet tale-to-be

Read this very sad, but very sweet brief storyline a friend came up with and posted on FB.

"She fell in love with the Tin Man, but he couldn't love without a heart. So she took her heart out, broke it into two, and gave one half to him. For that brief instant their hearts beat as one, and they died happily ever after."

*sniff*

Beginners

It's very unfortunate that Brighton Rock had finished its run so fast and now I'll have to see if I will ever get to watch it, maybe as inflight entertainment. So V and I opted for the newly opened Beginners, being fans of Ewan McGregor. I believe the last show we watched of him was I Love You Philip Morris.

The show is about Oliver (Ewan McGregor), whose father, Hal (Christopher Plummer), had passed away a few months ago. He is filled with memories of his father who, following 44 years of marriage and his wife's death, came out of the closet at age 75 to live a full, energized, and wonderfully tumultuous gay life. The only confidante he had was his father's dog, a Jack Russell whom he talks to, which was also grieving. While nursing his grief, Oliver meets the irreverent and unpredictable actress, Anna (Melanie Laurent) at a party his friends drags him to, whom he falls head over heels in love with. They hook up but both come with burdens from the past that seek to make it not work out.

Though at 104 minutes, the show felt a bit long. This was probably due to the fact that it was rather slow-moving, where things between Oliver and Anna never seem to get a move on, between Oliver's flashbacks of memories of his father. But even so, it was poignant as the two were unsure of how to handle this kind of real love. There was a scene where while chatting, Oliver asks Anna how she does it, always jetting around and living a life seemingly without any ties. She replies something to the effect of "I guess it makes it easier to leave people behind". And he responds with "sometimes, you can stay in a place and still leave people behind". *sigh*
Another quotable phrase later on, was when things weren't really going well between them. Oliver says something like "sometimes you believe that things won't work out, so you make sure it doesn't work out". But of course, he decides otherwise in the end and looks for Anna.

I think it ended quite nicely, when the two of them decide to start over again and explore this new experience together and put their baggages behind.

Oliver: So, what happens now?
Anna: I don't know.

Now I see why the show was called Beginners.

To add, the Jack Russell was so cute! And it can really act. Haha...the injected conversation (through subtitles) that he has with Oliver were funny.

"Mrs. Robinson" and "Holding On and Letting Go"

I've been having this song ringing in my head these past few days. "Mrs Robinson" by Simon & Garfunkel. So thought I'll just share it. Pretty old song, but catchy!

And just discovered this song today while watching a recorded final episode of CSI: NY season 7 (I've "discovered" quite a few songs from CSI). Quite like it. "Holding On and Letting Go" by Ross Copperman. Can't find any actual MTV, but someone did one.

Here are the lyrics:

Is anybody out there?
Is anybody listening?
Does anybody really know if its the end of the beginning?
The quiet rush of one breath
Is all we're waiting for
Sometimes the one we’re taking
Changes every one before..

Chorus:
It's everything you wanted, it's everything you don't
It's one door swinging open and one door swinging closed
Some prayers find an answer
Some prayers never know
We're holding on and letting go

Sometimes we're holding angels
And we never even know
Don't know if we'll make it,
But we know,
We just can't let it show

[Chorus]

Googling my name(s)

The narcissistic side of me will occasionally, google my name to see the number of hits it will find. I'm sure some of us do that too right? :P

Anyway, my name is more or less unique or uncommon, so here are the results, as of tonight.

1) Full name (dialect name)
- this will be sans my Christian name which was only added to my full name 2 years ago. I searched with quotation marks and the results were 532. Not much really but it's much more than a few years ago when the only hits were my thesis and maybe my organisation's directory. Most were quite relevant results (well, given my name) and hits include - some prize I won that was reported in the news, my thesis/FYP, some editorial work I did for my organisation, participation in some report focus group, my organisation's contact directory, song(s) I wrote and put up online...that's about it I think.

2) "Christian name + surname"
- this had less hits (160), mainly on my songs.

3) pen name (Ilkosa)
-  woah, this had the most at 8,110 hits. Well, not all are relevant but they were mainly my review/open blogs and my flickr photos mentions.
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Haha! Talk about being 无聊.

Thoughts on NDP 2011

Well, I didn't really watch the NDP in full as I was out with my family. It so happened that the restaurant we were at was showing the live telecast on TV, so we watched the parade sans sound (volume was very low and it was quite noisy as we were near to the kitchen).

It was all going well with the army stuff up first, which to me is always the highlight. I was at Vivo and was excited to see the flag flying by back from the parade, probably on its way back to base.

Then the show began. And I didn't know if I should laugh or gasp. What's with the dimsum?! And the prata? I can't recall the other types of food since the TV wasn't super near and I wasn't watching all the time. I understand its some sort of representation of the different ethnic groups and of course, Singaporeans' favourite past time. But it just seemed kinda weird here. Maybe even childish or almost to some point, hilarious? Maybe that's too strong a word but...

As for the rest of the performance, I guess that it was in a musical theatre format because it's Beatrice Richmond-Chia who was directing (maybe that's why they asked her?). It was like a follow-up to the NDP song MTV "In A Heartbeat". Hmm...all I shall say is that though it was something different, I think it's not that suited for this set-up. But I think the formation of the road part was pretty cool. Need to go watch it in detail.

I shall find time to watch it again properly since I recorded it and see if my assessment will remain the same. Maybe I'll appreciate it better with sound.

Sweet quote

I think this is really sweet:

"I find that I cannot be alone anymore now that I've met you"

~ Anonymous

When someone can't bear to be apart from another.

Maybe I should include this in my melodrama if I ever write another.