movie review: The Haunted House Project

For everyone who has not heard of this movie, think 'Blair Witch' combined with 'The Last Exorcism'.

This Korean horror is filmed documentary style, but minus the extreme nauseating shakiness of Cloverfield which left me feeling giddy and seeing stars within 15 minutes of the film.

'The Haunted House Project' takes you on a journey through an infamous haunted house/factory with a filming crew and three paranormal investigators, where the previous factory owner was found hanging from the ceiling whilst his wife and two children were found murdered - the perfect setting for vengeful spirits.

The filming style is good. I particularly like the disturbances captured by the filming at times, caused by electromagnetic waves emitted by paranormal activities. This refreshing and smart concept to show short footages of the spirits adds on to the suspense and bring the audience on a roller-coaster ride. I find myself holding onto my seat in anticipation on the footage the next wave of disturbances will show. Thumbs up to the director for this creative idea.

There is little exaggeration of the paranormal activities at the first part of the film, which is probably intended to make it look more realistic and capture the audience's focus. So to all horror-buffers out there, please note to have patience for the suspense build-up and excitement which follows.

The setting of the film is ideal, giving audience space for imagination on where the next ghostly phenomena will take place as they rummage through ruins, broken-down brick walls and old furniture like wardrobes and cupboards with the crew.

For those who are not familiar with paranormal equipments, the producer cleverly gives a quick education on them through the paranormal investigators who give a short introduction of EMFs (Electromagnetic Field Detectors), dowsing rods etc, when the filming crew was interviewing them.

Curious? Then take a journey through 'The Haunted House Project' :-)

My Tribute to Hellboy

Rewatched Hellboy recently again and remembered how much I felt for him after the show. Attached hereby is the poem I composed for Hellboy after I watched the movie for the first time:

Red-skinned, enormous, with two big horns,
Hellboy's been like this since he was born;
Rejected, outcasted and spat upon,
Though the world knows he does no wrong.
With a foul temper, he curses and drinks,
Yet battles Evil without a blink;
But grievely the world refuses to link,
His appearance to his every good deed.
Such is the world-Superficial, Judgemental,
Never thank him with a silver medal;
Instead, they throw at him broken bottles,
Smear at him with wax from candles.

'World, hold on' like Bob Sinclair sings,
Throw your judgement straight into the bin;
If a person's looks means everything,
Ask Tom Cruise to keep you safe in your dreams!
Just because a person is different,
Doesn't mean he's society's burden;
Don't let your opinions be someone's hurdles
To be himself..so please don't murder!

-Jan Tan

Are Women Transforming Too Fast?

Met a couple of friends for lunch today and we exchanged stories about our past relationship.

For my friends who have known me for a long time and are close to my heart, they know that my past relationships can be pretty much written into a 50 volume-long novels (yea, comparable to Days of Our Lives), possibly captivating the readers with acts of suspense, violence, love, romance, travel tales, adventure, family tragedy, psychology and detective works.

During the conversation, I suddenly remembered and brought up a conversation I had with my Mum regarding someone we know. Mum commented that sometimes men do cheat on their wives and putting up with their acts of infidelity (and disgrace) is a very womanly or wifey thing to do.

'Look at Uncle Dave and his wife! He used to cheat on his wife too but she put up with it and look how happy they are now?'

With all due respect for the traditional streak in her, I cannot and will never agree with that statement/opinion.

Women have transformed a lot over the past century into strong, independent individuals who can fend for ourselves, with some doing even better than men. We are no longer financially dependent on men and sitting at home waiting for them to bring the dough home, nor are we the shielded fragile porcelain dolls voided of all social networking and exposure to all elements of economical stress or treachery of the materialistic world anymore. The existence of numerous female entrepeneurs like Estee Lauder, JK Rowling and Oprah Winfrey are examples of women with courage, foresight and business mind.

Having said so, while we were relating our own stories of strength, courage and strong-mindedness, I thought I caught sight of small wells of tears at the corner of her eyes, whilst I myself was honestly trying to contain and suppress the sadness in me as the memories forced itself out of the dungeon in my mind, diving into the pools of emotions in me.

'Are we transforming too fast for our own good?' was the question which occupied my train of thoughts subtlely for the rest of the day.

Could we be using the unyielding and sovereign facet to hide our emotions, soft-heartedness and those tiny weeny bits of fragility still existing in us? We crave for equality with men and social status over the last decades and have since nurtured and edged ourselves towards autonomy and masculinity but have we evolved as well from our emotional side, so much so that we can easily move on from pain and memories as quickly as most men can do?

Despite being commented upon as 'masculine', 'strong' and 'domineering' by my friends, they also cannot deny the fact that I am just as emotional and sentimental and often find it hard to move on from a phase or memorable episode/chapter of my life.

While most women are seen as being near to equal to a lot of men, are we really so?

Are we trying to transform too fast as we seek for women's rights/equality, that we decided to bury the true side of us and lock our femininity and compassion in, in fear that letting them show would endanger our establishment/social status?

There is no universal answer/truth to this but one thing's for sure:

When women do some self-reflection/soul searching on this, we will have a higher tendency to admit/show our weakness in this aspect compared to men, who are usually born with bigger/more undestrctable balloons of ego.

Agree?

Relationship is not about nobility at all

With the exception of perhaps our parents of course.

Growing up in a family where Mum and Dad had come a long way, fighting against low-income status then and non-support from their own families in order to pay a decent amount of taxes, rents, educational fees and daily household expenses in order to nurture my brothers and myself into what we are today, I can and will never question their nobility at all.

The relationship, in question, will be the one which we probably may have to battle against and move in and out of constantly until we find the right party to establish a firm one with - BGR.

How many times has one heard or said the line 'I know I don't deserve you but..'? So it seems that accepting the other party who does not 'deserve' you makes you more noble, and vice versa?

However, relationship is not about nobility or deservedness at all.

As much as everyone admires those Romeo & Juliet or Cinderella kind of love stories reeking of sacrifices and nobility for the former and fairy-tale elements (and sheer luck) for the latter, we cannot deny the simple fact that they are afterall stories and fairytales and that the world works in a more practical way and under the demand-and-supply rule.

Casting my economics background aside, let's break down into the various reasons why a couple stays together:

• Need for companionship
• Feeling of belongingness
• Having someone to tell them everything will be okay at the end of the day
• Biological calling to have a family and produce the next generation
• Having someone to make them feel special
• Having someone for them to care for, protect and channel their emotions to (note: this is to fulfill his/her own egoistic needs as well)
• Sex
• Money
• Security

Last, not least but the worst

• Retirement plans/support

The list above is not exhaustible and I am sure there are some of you out there who have another 50,000 reasons to add on. However eventually at the end of the day, when we break down these reasons, we realise these are our demands/wants/needs (depending on the intensity of the reason), and we seek to find someone who can fulfill/supply these.

Similarly, the other party has his/her own list as well. So when two people connect and check each other against their relationship wishlists and realise there is at least 80% 'yes' ticks on their own lists (depending on their 'pass' percentage), they get into a relationship and open up each other's world.

On the contrary, if the other party does not even meet the 'pass' percentage on his/her checklist, it is less than likely that he/she will accept the other party. It's like when you purchase an apartment, you have a list of criteria like the size of the flat, the number of rooms, amenities in the vicinity, safety and cleanliness of the neighbourhood, price, accessibility, etc. Sometimes you cannot find a 100% perfect ideal apartment but if the apartment is small, expensive, totally inaccessible and situated in an unsafe and absolutely dirty neighbourhood reeking from the sewage drain nearby, will you still purchase it? Well, yes if you are purchasing it to house some suicide-bombers under secret operations or as a part of the compensation for an ex-wife who is still trying to leech every cent out of you because she has filed for divorce with evidence of your infidelity. Even if so, you are still trying to satisfy your own needs to camouflage potential terrorism activity for the former and to exact sweet revenge in the latter.

As much as it brings two people to be and stay together, the same rules motivates breakups as well. People change, whether we like it or not, and very often, the change will bring on new additions or amendments in the relationship wishlist. When the other party fails to catch up with the list and falls beyond the 'pass' line, the relationship will sometimes convert into 'probation' or 'second trial' status for the stronger or luckier cases. For the less fortunate cases or those that's built on loose foundation of weak understanding, monetary reason (there is always bigger, better deals out there for people who engage into relationship for this reason) or sheer lust even when it started, it's 'adios amigo/amiga' time.

People who strongly believe in 'pure love' will probably find my opinion repulsive. But hey! There are character traits or vices in the other party to make you fall in love with him/her too! And these reasons will still fall into the demand-and-supply rule.

Admit it.