看笑着回家过快乐年

经过种种头条绯闻后，梁家班终于再次脱离所有“世俗烦恼”，重新为本地影坛在这新的一年‘创造’一位新的‘梁’女性：Karen Neo，即将会在贺岁片“笑着回家”首次露面！

根据报道显示，梁董为了这个角色成功的减瘦五公斤！所谓没有功劳，也有苦劳，我希望大众可以忘掉梁董去年的“红尘”往事，而像我一样，会去观看此片，为他的一番苦心打气！

此片是借着三个凡人回家过年，吃团圆饭的路程和经历来讲述他们不同的故事。从预告片里，感觉上，此片将会充满幽默，温馨和令人啼笑皆非`的`情节；而且也会显示些传统习俗和现代观念因于团圆饭和过年所产生的一些`冲突。这足以让我迫不及待得向望着它的上映。

除此之外，这次也会有一些多年不见的演员参与阵容， 比如郑秀珍和阿牛。能够再次看见他们在荧幕上将会是一种参杂与怀旧和焕然一新的感觉。最重要是看看他们和老练的梁家班将会擦出个什么样的火花！

我觉得值得一提的是“笑着回家”虽然是华人新年的贺岁片，但也不忘异族同胞们，综合了马来和印度同胞的笑料演出，十足的显示出新加坡多言种族，各族和平共处的文化特色。 而片里所显示的一些画面和情节也会非常的“本地化”，相信观众会有一种贴心非凡的感觉。

在过年佳节时分，大家不如试着扶老携幼到影院去，让梁董和李国煌分别带着浓浓的联邦腔和港式腔的华语，让一家大小，倾盆好友“笑着回家”吧！

“笑着回家”预告片：http://movies.insing.com/trailers/id-562

Movie Review: Fair Game

Remember how all those hollywood films always portray the United States to be the savior of the world against alien invasion, armageddon, gigantic seismic waves and any form of disaster which will lead to world's end, and how the American heroes always succeed in jumping through breaking grounds, dodged under millions of bullets and escaped undetected even if they are under the most sophisticated radar system?

This is not one of those, and the reason why this film gets my thumbs up. Or should I say 'Finally, a film where americans are not seen as super humans or humans with super good luck!'

Based on the book 'The Politics of Truth: Inside the Lies that Led to War and Betrayed My Wife's CIA Identity: A Diplomat's Memoir' written by former ambassador Joseph Wilson,this film brings us into the treachery side of politics and the negative impacts that the media can create. 

It started with his article in the papers pointing out that  former president George Bush's claims that Iraq was purchasing yellow cake uranium from Niger and was intending to revitalise a program to construct nuclear weapons was inaccurate. Firstly, Niger did not have that huge amount of uranium within their boundaries to even produce the allegedly reported amount. Secondly the program was discovered and already destroyed by US in the 1990s.


Since then his family's lives were turned upside down with the CIA identity of his wife Valerie Plame being exposed over the news. They started receiving threats from the public, forcing Valerie to take different routes everyday to fetch their two children to and from school, changing phone numbers several times and having to carry out daily activities in fear and under the scrutiny of the public eye. 

This film shows the audience not only the chaos and tedious fights Joseph Wilson (well acted by Sean Penn) put up against the White House, it also brings us on a journey into the emotional struggle of Valerie (Naomi Watts) between fighting arm-in-arm with Joseph and remaining on her CIA grounds not to expose her own identity, while she was pushed to the brim and her breaking point.


I like the film for the rawness of it - as much as politicians try to make politics seem all righteous, their actions/words all said/done in the name of justice and their claims all made only under sufficient evidence, at the end of the days politicians are still humans and humans do err i.e Bush's inaccurate claims; And how power and media comes to play with Valerie's identity being exposed by the media, as a deliberate strategy intended to divert the public's attention from Joseph's article.


For those who are expecting yet another america-saves-the-world kind of adventure film, do expect a different outlook from this film as it brings you on a serious and heart-pounding gripping account of a family's struggle to reclaim their lives as they stand against the most powerful authority in the world.

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.