Cafe Lumiere
Watched Cafe Lumiere last night and this paragraph sums it up best:
"Yoko who has fallen asleep on the train wakes up and notices Hajime watching over her and is reassured. In the daylight of another ordinary afternoon, Yoko starts to evaluate her life, and consider her family and the new life growing inside her…"
There is time for coffee however mundane life becomes.
It's that time of the year again. No, not exams or holidays. The annual Cannes Film Festival, arguably the most important filmfest in the world, will begin from the 11th of May.
After a lacklustre year, with Fareinheit 911 and Shrek 2 (?!) in competition, this year's list boasts an impressive selection from renowned directors. A glimpse at the films in competition easily reveals a lot of names familiar to me. David Cronenberg, American indie director. Dardenne brothers, famous for immigrant tales (?). Atom Egoyan, Canadian director from Turkey concerned about history. Michael Haneke, a previous Cannes winner for his Piano Teacher. Hou Hsiao Hsien, his retrospective currently showing at the Singapore Intl Film Festival, with his latest slow-moving gem. Jim Jarmusch, director of Coffee and Cigarettes . Gus Van Sant, another previous Cannes winner for Elephant. Lars Von Trier with the second part of his America trilogy, Manderlay. Wang Xiaoshuai, I watched his Beijing Bicycle before. Tommy Lee Jones directorial debut. Robert Rodriguez with his graphic violent Sin City. And finally, the last which I recognize is Johnnie To , with his latest HK triad flick Election. Out of the 20 films competing for the Palme d'Or (grand prize), I recognize 12 of the directors, which is kinda amazing since usually I can only recognize around 5 names in previous years.
Of course, with familiarity means there's less younger and new directorial debuts. Instead this year promises to be a shootout between the big guns. Not sure whether there will be an underdog stealing the show though.
As Cannes is a major event, there is more than one film list to go through. Other than the big competition, there are films that are not in competition. For instance, the last part of the Star Wars series will have its world premiere in Cannes. Woody Allen will be presenting his latest flick too. Another hyped about Korean film, A Bittersweet Life is showing in the Midnight section. Then there is also Seijun Suzuki's I-dunno-what-to-make-of-it Japanese period musical staring Zhang Ziyi, titled Princess Raccoon.
Wait... there's more! There's also a category in Cannes called Uncertain Regard. I am uncertain what this category is actually. Ok actually it showcases more cutting edge films I think, weirder films which will make you go wat the #:*!#$^. Opening this category will be Kim Ki Duk's The Bow. There is also Aoyama Shinji's film which I dun have the English translation, but there's Asano Tadanobu in it! There's also Ozon in it this year. Ok the rest of the directors I don't recognize, which truly speaks to the spirit of this category.
So all in all, this year's Cannes is super duper exciting. Oh wait I forgot to mention that Eric Khoo's new film after dunno how many years, will be opening the Director's Fortnight section... yes, yet another Cannes category. But the most sickening thing is that here in Singapore we will probably only get to watch some of those (very small percentage) after at least 6 months or so, if at all. I remember Kim Ki Duk's Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter and Spring opened the Singapore Intl Film Festival last year when he had already shot 2 newer movies (both of which are showing in Singapore now, 1 year later)! That is how slow we get them here. Sigh no use complaining. As SW pointed out, we can get to watch them is good enough alreadi la. Truly a Singaporean.
An excerpt from an article in the Washington Post by editor Fred Hiatt about the current hoo-haa over history textbooks:
"Some Japanese demonstrate against politicians who won't go to Yasukuni Shrine - where Japan's war dead, including some who were judged war criminals, are honoured - while other Japanese demonstrate against politicians who do go.
Compare this to the situation in Premier Wen's China. There is only one acceptable version of history, at least at any given time; history often changes, but only when the Communist Party decides to change it.
For example, according to a report by Howard W. French in The New York Times last December, many textbooks don't mention that anyone died at what the outside world knows as the 1989 massacre of student demonstrators near Tiananmen Square. One 1998 text notes only that 'the Central Committee took action in time and restored calm'. Anyone who challenges the official fiction is subject to harsh punishment, including beatings, house arrest or imprisonment.
And if the 300,000 victims of the Nanjing Massacre are slighted in some Japanese textbooks, what of the 30 million Chinese who died in famines created by Mao Zedong's lunatic Great Leap Forward between 1958 and 1962? No mention in Chinese texts; didn't happen.
Well, you might say, how a nation treats its internal history is less relevant to its qualifications for the Security Council than whether it teaches its children honestly about its wars with other nations.
A dubious proposition, but no matter; as the Times found in its review of textbooks, Chinese children do not learn of their nation's invasion of Tibet (1950) or aggression against Vietnam (1979). And they are taught that Japan was defeated in World War II by Chinese communist guerillas; Pearl Harbor, Iwo Jima and Midway don't figure.
'Facing up to history squarely' isn't easy for any country. Americans don't agree on how to remember the Confederacy. Russia can't yet admit to Soviet depredations in the Baltic republics. And yes, Japan too often sees itself purely as a victim of World War II."
'Nuff said.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in the quoted article is solely of the writer and not of the owner of this blog.
The most interesting piece of news for me today is how a jaguar escaped from its enclosure in the Singapore Zoo a few days back. The ingenious (or cunning depending on whose side you are on) animal leapt 3 meters through a hole of A4 size towards freedom! *gasps* But of coz it was captured/sedated without any harm to the public after a short while. Anti-climax!
This reminded me of another similar case in the JB Zoo a coupla years back. It was a jet black panther which escaped, oso leaping dunno how many meters high to freedom. Tat one was luckier. It managed to escape capture for days and if I am not wrong, even weeks! Tat was pretty cool. Well, its not cool if u are staying around there but I don't.
On a related note, the zoo is one of my favourite places to go. I can go there everyday if only I had lotsa money (and lotsa time). There's just so much to see there. I want to see all the animal feedings, all the different behaviour of the animals at different times of the day. Early morning is good becoz they are active then. Its simply mesmerizing. I was there last Dec, and I managed to see a pack of african wild dogs running around in their large enclosure. They were like splashing in the shallow waters, running up the small hill chasing each other. Simply amazing. I could stay there the whole day just watching them run about. Oh I oso saw the feeding of the komodo lizards. Wah! They hang a huge leg of some animal for them to devour on. Impressive! XQ was very amused when I told her how much I liked the zoo. Seems like oni kids should get so enthused over it. And yes I did enjoy the many times I went to the zoo when I was smaller. There's always something new in the Singapore Zoo, whether its an exotic animal borrowed from another zoo (read Grizzly bears, big nose monkeys, etc.) or new attractions like the Elephants of Asia section. But I've never been to zoos in other countries though. Would be nice if I can visit the Ueno Zoo in Tokyo in the future if I have the chance.
All fans of Firefox, read this and cry! Hah all those talk about how secure Firefox is. Bollocks I say. Sooner or later bugs and holes will be found. Me? I am still using trusty IE. At least I know people are out there actively searching for holes in it, so I know patches for it will be out sooner or later. I rather many bugs to be found than many bugs to be unfound.
Actually I can understand how Firefox supporters feel lah. I root for the underdog sometimes too. Like for handphones I never use Nokia no matter how good they are becoz I always think that I wanna be different from the rest. This kind of mentality is very human. So fans of firefox, dun be too sad. Hah...
Wah seh I just received a sms saying tat I won a Closer goodie bag!! Woo hoo!! Think I sms for the lucky draw dunno how long ago liao. Wah I think its fate man becoz this is the first movie I really liked for this year. Last time I won a prize for The Hours too (I got the novel for it) becoz I really love tat movie oso. Hmm ok, I found the copy of 8days which the contest was from and the goodie bag contains a Closer long sleeve t-shirt (probably for ladies), a Damien Rice CD (which I alreadi erm.. have) and a Closer notebook (how blah is that?). Hmmm too bad no poster but supposedly everything is worth 90 bucks. But then I have to go all the way to AMK to get it (probably some ulu part of AMK too). Sigh... How?
Racism
Actually I decided to shift the old blog due to a recent occurance. There was an article in the papers about how this PSC scholar was being a racist in his blog. His blog was even password protected but somehow ppl weeded it out. Many of his acquaintances and family defended him by saying that wat he did was not his character. Bollocks I say. Can you forgive a murderer if he says that?? Anyway to prevent myself from being entrapped in a similar situation in case I become (in)famous, I shall start afresh here (disclaimer: I am not racist in my old blog). Lol...
A Brand New Start
Hah... decided to shift my old blog to a new address and start afresh with this one. If you didn't manage to read the old one, I have two words for u: Too BAD! Haha...
Okok... so now what am I gonna write in this blog? Definitely not a mish-mash of stuff like last time. Now I shall crap totally about physics. Gotcha! Nearly faint right? Nolah shall spare the readers the agony. I shall only talk physics 50% of the time. =P
Anyway this shall be a normal blog lah except that there's no juicy gossips or tidbits about my private life. That one will be in my other secret blog. Ooopss... did I just mention that I have more than 1 blog? Anyway I shall try not to rant too much... sometimes that's all you read about in other ppl's blog. I am not saying that's bad or anything. Who am I to judge ppl? But my blog will be more like Mr Brown's blog, i.e. a collection of stuff which interests me and hopefully the reader too. So in short, this will be a very safe and NON-scandalous blog. That's all. Hope readers will enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it. Toots!
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