It’s the first weekend for four weeks that I’m not working at all, which is much of a relief as I’ve been suffering from a very heavy cold all week. Fortunately, though, I have now reached around 80% recovery, so I’ll be able to shake it off soon. But just as I get a moment to take it easy, someone has decided to shift the clocks back an hour. Which means that S.A.D. (seasonal affective disorder) will start taking over as I start to see no daylight, and sunset gets earlier. Well, at least I get to sleep an extra hour…
* HALLOWE’EN *
It is that American celebration that has invaded our shores on this side of the puddle again. And I thought this year, I’d make a change and actually watch a “scary” movie, The Eye. Starring the delectable Angelica Lee Sin-Je, it isn’t so much scary as freaky in my opinion. Mun (Lee) has been blind since the age of two and has her corneas transplanted that allow her to see again. However, she begins seeing more than just the normal, with the recently perished and shadows that take them away as the principal frighteners. (What I don’t quite get is that she can hear them!)
Anyway, it is a fairly good film and I enjoyed it, even though I am not a fan of this genre at all. Angelica Lee won many awards for her performance in this movie (Taiwan’s Golden Horse Awards for Best Actress as an example), and well deserved too.
Actually, The Eye was not the first scary movie I saw this season, and I had forgotten to mention I had seen Koma a couple of weeks ago. Starring, again, Angelica Lee and Karena Lam, it draws on their previous thriller outings in The Eye and Inner Senses respectively. For me though, just having the two of them on my screen is enough to make a movie great, as I truly do think they are two of the most talented actresses in Asian cinema at the moment. Koma tells of a woman (Lee) who is suffering from a kidney disease and requires a transplant. Meanwhile a series of kidney-nappings (sorry, bad pun) were taking place, where people’s kidneys were being stolen, to which Lam’s character is implicated. A complex tale, Lee is tormented by the kidney-napper and a cat-and-mouse chase begins.
A good film again, but it doesn’t quite scare the living daylights out of me.
I have to admit I like watching Angelica and Karena on the big screen. My opinions of Karena have been documented in this blog before, but to clarify, if I’d ever meet both of them, you’d find me as a pulp two seconds later. Two very beautiful, clever, talented actresses. I’m hoping for more films in the future featuring this pairing…
* YI YI (A ONE AND A TWO) *
Now I’ve got my tongue back in my mouth, another film I saw today was the acclaimed Yi Yi (A One And A Two). Again, many people had said good things about this film, and it had been sitting in my DVDs-to-be-seen collection since June this year. But I’m glad I saw it, because it is great. Telling of a family in Taiwan in 2000, it looks at different people’s view of life through each family member, particularly on how their worlds are changing. The film wasn’t as outstanding as I was led to believe (well, the recommender was basically saying it’s like 10/10, and I have never given a film that score), but it is still very good and worth a watch. Anyway, won’t say much more for now, but as with the other movies mentioned, I’ll stick reviews up on IMDB when I get the chance.
* IF ONLY …*
Apart from seeing Diplomacy In Action (Taiwan Style) with a food fight, I can’t say there has been that much quirkiness going on recently. However, there have been many attempts on world records recently and I’m going to mention DJ Barry Yip for his efforts in being able to sing karaoke for 81 hours in Hong Kong. Hope he wasn’t out of tune….
* BLOGSHARES *
It’s been brought to my attention that my blog is being traded on BlogShares, and my current share price at time of publication is B$1,000 (See here for latest share price). Now that it is in my attention, I do have more a responsibility to my shareholders and will do my best to keep blogging. However, the scoring system is based on inward and outward links to other blogs, and since that’s quite unlikely given the current strategy of the blog, I must warn all investors that the price of your shares may go down as well as up, or more likely, not change at all. Your home is at risk if you set fire to it.
Tagged: Friends