Oz the great and powerful.

caught this movie before it got cut at the local cinemas.






























luckily i got complimentary tickets from dearest nuffnang for this show, or else i believe you can hear me bellow on and on as you read this post.

HMMMM this isn't exactly a lousy movie, i mean how can anything that has magic and witches and cute animals and talking toys suck. yes it is a fantastical theme but no, it didn't come through as a fantasy.

Parts of it were so slow and boring i could feel my sleep cycle setting in, while some other parts were too hastily dealt with, couldn't actually make up what happened in that scene.

Well there're still redeeming factors! the 3 witches are exceedingly beautiful women/actresses/people and they played their parts well enough. but i can't say the same for the male lead.

there were too much awkwardness and amateur-like execution, i felt myself exclaiming in disbelief several times. i can't exactly say what's wrong with it, but to summarise, it's just another american movie that doesn't make that much of an impression, or joke or story or technical brilliance.

it's MEH.

the land of Oz

there are tons of exciting movies that are coming out to the theatres this year. i've been waiting with much anticipation since i saw the trailers sometime late last year.

one of them will definitely be OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL.

here's the trailer for some nosy interested readers who's reading this right now!

Are you already itching in your seat to watch this on the big screens?

and OH YES the male lead is very familiar. you might recognise him from the Spiderman movies, Eat Pray Love and also Rise of the Planet of the Apes! Definitely, this adds extra brownie points for the anticipation of this movie.

Coming back to the movie, I guess the main highlight for me is the theme magic. The male lead acts as a magician who travels to another world (which is essentially Oz); meets 3 female witches and a bunch of creatures which are inanimate and some, animate (but nonetheless, possess the ability to move and emote); tries to solve the mystical problems faced by this very land.

It's like duh, how can you actually resist the theme magic?!
And it's interesting because a magician who actually doesn't have "real magical powers" has real witches pinning their hopes of saving the land on him. It is ironic.

And magic is wonderful on its own because there's absolutely no saying on whether a certain thing is right or wrong. Magic is more of a belief than anything else and I guess magic is open to different renditions and free from all restrictions. 

Maybe the male lead uses his pseudo-magic to find the magic that lives within him. In the end.
I don't know, just using my imagination and trying to make my magic work. 

I am stoked to catch this in the cinema and i guess i will update sometime later again!
by the way, I'm curious to find out how this Oz movie relates to the others.
Hmm, i'll get here when I get back!

So remember to catch Disney’s OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL in Singapore cinemas this 7 March 2013, like the Official Walt Disney Studios Singapore Facebook Page, follow @disneystudiosSG and subscribe to the Official Disney Studios Singapore YouTube Channel!

Les Misérables

Just caught this in the cinema.
As a musical fanatic, how can i possibly miss this one out.

i mean, just look at the cast, the trailer, the scale of this film. it's too good to miss out.

i shall skip through all the details and get to the point.

Hmm. it's typical of a French, in the style and idea behind the precipitation of this story. Although this movie is an adaptation, i guess most of the idea behind the original novel was preserved ( i did not personally read the novels before, but with the attention given to each detail, i can figure that they did not destroy the original story).

With a big change in the society, there needs to be sacrifices made. that is, in humongous amounts. blood flows into rivers and tears into lakes, there is always one thing we can't fight against. Life.

everyone just thinks differently and lives according to how they were raised, or were moulded into by the society. the sets of values we have inside of us might not be the same but in circumstances of hardships, all that every single person wants is just a meal, a hope and a place to call home. dilemmas rises, we question our conscience and what we used to believe in. we might take on a new belief or give all of it up.

there needs to be a huge period of passage of time, a whole lot of agony and struggle and an unimaginable number of hearts to stop beating, before we can truly embrace a new world. and it is with the memory of these pain that gives the present meaning and hope. so that for generations to come, they don't face the same situation that happened. but no guarantee on what other questions might the future pose.

the actors, amazing. music, touching. cinematography, outstanding.

*******

something related.

it's been a hard time these months. been struggling to find something to live for.
i'm not going to kill myself, just thinking that my life should be greater than this, or at least more exciting and colourful than what it is now.

people are fragile stuff.
i'm frightful that my friends will hurt themselves but i do hope they come full circle with what they are encountering now. i understand some situations make people lose their mind because they didn't happen before. but hold on, you'll find a way out if you try really hard. i know life is cruel and painful but it doesn't mean giving everything up solves all your problems.

sometimes, i can't make them understand what i'm talking about. they listen but they keep twirling themselves in repetitive thoughts. i've been there as well, i didn't recover immediately. but forcing yourself to see the truth and accept the decision you've made makes you come back to reality. regardless of how painful it might feel. the pain is another matter again. but at least, you made an effort to snap out of the mire.

if words can describe how painful i feel as well. aish.
i'm equally helpless these days too.
i can gladly use a hug and a warm smile.

Life of Pi: endless stream of possibilities

Truth be told, I don't have an idea how I'm going to talk about this movie.

It's enchanting and surreal. You get absorbed in the way the narrative is told. It's like listening to an experienced story-teller's story. Yann Martel is genius no doubt about that; but Ang Lee is as talented for that matter. Getting something expressed in words into a film is no easy feat. meanings get lost in between, either that or there's no new revelations discovered in the moving picture.

the crux of the story comes to light (maybe not) when the story is coming to a close.
The shipwreck experience was told by Pi to the Japanese freighter company, which needed details of his story to settle the insurance claims. that was when he finally reached the warm shores of Mexico.

Read it here.

thank you wikipedia!

Breath taking scenes throughout the movie. The cinematography is well-executed, good direction, meticulously put-together cast, provoking plot. all these are undeniable and factual about this movie.

But I guess people are heating up the discussion (or argument in some cases) about the true meaning behind this movie.
what is the truth? what really happened? what does something represent? what is right or wrong?

Metaphorically, there are absolutely tons of symbolism you can try to decipher and give meaning to. From there, maybe you can predict what Ang Lee wants to express (if you reckon it to be true, that is).

People say they believe the truth to be the cannibalism story and Pi devoured someone onboard and the animal story is just something out of his imagination, which was to make himself reconcile with the harsh reality that he did something inhumane in the worst circumstances, out in the sea.

Or some say the animal story is the truth, it's the proof that people grew not to believe what they don't see or deem logical.

Others agree that it might be a mix of both, no one including Pi, could differentiate one from the other anymore. altered memory caused by guilt, confusion, threat of survival, fabrication.


Yes this about believing in something. But it doesn't matter which story you choose. like Pi, he chose hinduism, christianity, muslim, even jew. His father said "if you believe in everything, it's like believing in nothing", when talking over a meal at the dinner table. but there's a difference, choosing to believe is an empowerment of yourself. you are actively engaging yourself to understand something outside of you. believing in nothing is when you choose not to believe at all. Passively waiting for time to pass and just becoming numb to everything.

The protagonist was named "Piscine Molitor" at birth, because his uncle said it was the clearest water ever, there's not another one the swimmer uncle had came across and loved so much. Then, he became Pi (π) to avoid schoolmates from making fun of his name which sounded unhygienic. He even went to memorise the tons of recurring decimal places after 3.1417..........

you get what i mean.

I can't help but think about the commonalities across philosophies and religions. I think almost all of them made the start of everything an obsolete state, with nothing at all, like a neutral state. a clean slate. then from there the world started, one then two then four, exponentially growing and dividing. Isn't this like Pi, you can see the universe from the boy. and he sees the world, trying and testing different possibilities. he doesn't offer solutions, he makes people think of solutions. numerous and without attaching moral judgements.

I remembered telling one of my varsity friends, who was a Christian, that i think all the gods are secretly having parties and afternoon teas up there. Unlike warlords, they live together like good neighbours should, more like consultant agencies more than anything else. People need to believe to hold on to life, to keep moving and living. Sometimes life is too arduous to bear, too cruel to watch, too painful to persevere. We need  anything, something to tide us over that rough patch. She didn't say much, she nodded and gave a smile. I guess she believes in Jesus over any other gods. it's a preference, there's no wrong in there.

Because humans have the liberty to express ourselves through words and languages, we develop complex thinking systems, complex living patterns as well. animals can't break out of their cycles much since they are forced to live under our thumbs. But how much do we differ from them exactly. aren't we essentially relatives?
what we see in their eyes aren't just reflections of our emotions, they do possess souls and feelings as well. and humans reverts to their true self when survival becomes the sole motive, so i don't find the cannibalism story gruesome in any way. it's a choice, it's a way of life.

in other ways, we are still cannibalistic. it's even a more bloody scene when no flesh and blood is involved.

maybe it's the seeking journey to believe that matters. not about the result but what you gathered on the road to your destination. and where's the destination, that's another problem.

sometimes, we fear. I fear too.
hold on, breathe, feel yourself and just believe.
believe. just believe that when you open your eyes, you'll see a way, a sign, a light.


watch the movie and believe.

wreck-it ralph

YIPPIEDOOOOOOOOS :D
I WON TICKETS TO WATCH "WRECK-IT RALPH", THANKS TO NUFFNANG (:

thank you darlings!

Wreck-it Ralph revolves around the same big concept as with Toy Story -aha!- which happens that both films are from the same creators. Something about childhood, going back in time, about imagination. Things adults choose to dabble less time in, or in most cases, become oblivious to.

Toys and games all alike.

It's about a kind of life beyond living things and gains energy only when we choose to imagine them. of course with knowledge we know toys are plastics and fabrics; and video games are electrical signals of different wavelengths behind the screen that separates them and us. But above all, they are our creations and they do actually reflect what's happening in all our lives as well. quite aptly.

the different arcade games are just different circles of lives but we do cross over to other peoples' lives, intentionally or not, to help or not to.

Ralph questioned the meaning of his digital life and seeks to find it. He ended up landing in the same way of life but everything changed. Some things can't be changed but the attitude you receive will turn out in an unexpected way. Like Ralph, there needs to be a bad guy for the game to go on, but no one appreciates him until they realised his value. there can be no good without bad. and the thing about life is, shiny trophies and medals are revered by most but they are not a good summary of life in its entirety.

the downside is, big cities with big lights and pragmatism, do these sort of stuff to judge people and gives them value tags.

 ****

That aside.

some ideas in the show are ingenious. the diet coke mountain and the mentos stalactites, the popcorn fans in Sugar Rush game, the BAD-nymous gathering, Fix-it Felix and Calhourn (Jane Lynch is A-MAZ-ING).

ideas so cute and so devilishly brilliant.

i'm sensing a sequel for this!
anyhoos, why doesn't mario appears!

old school game characters

the good old times was when children played around playgrounds with sand and swings. when the sun downs, little figures run home for dinner on the tables. then they shared some family tv bonding time when mediacorp was still TCS. omg am i divulging my age?!

anyways, life was simple and social back then. no ipads, iphones, tablets or any gadgety stuff.
Then, children will gather together to play gameboy or playstation after their parents get them the console after eons of pestering. they will invite friends over to play and have a ball of time.

i especially remember super mario, who doesn't rightttttt. i know, the pipes, the music, magical mushrooms, lucky star, darn FUN. on a side note, my message tone on the phone is the tune that rings when mario dies. nevermind my sidetracking~





anyway, super mario is a legendary game all on its own. i can't think of another game which is as mentionable as this. okay maybe pacman, but still, mario wins hands down, however you see it. i know i know, pacman is cute too but...mario is so exciting! i still remember the almost colourless mario running in the square screen of my gameboy. everything was greyscale but it was a whole lot of fun.


there's something about pressing the buttons on the grey toy. so addicting.





and please don't forget Luigi, Mario's twin brother. Sometimes i feel sad when people can't name the green cap person's name. why oh why, he's good too. and another thing i've been wondering, what are the 2 brothers' occupations? dressed in overalls, are they plumbers or carpenters? with the white gloves, they really look fit for either, no?


Then when it was playstation, i was obsessed with Bomberman. i would run home after school to play with my brother, attempting to bomb the other character into a charred mass.




WOOHOO.

and we would snatch for the egg when it was revealed under the bricks because we had to. had to ride on the fluffy big creature with floppy ears. OMG so cute.




Apparently the ignorant me only knew this cute thing's name as i type this sentence. louie is the name he/she goes by. i recalled i referred to louie as mewmew when i was young..-er.

and i still think mewmew is a more suitable name.



so actually sharing all these just brings me to my main point here. there's a movie which features game characters as its main cast, by disney! and it looks interesting, i'd wanted to catch it when i saw the trailer that day i watched "rise of the guardians".

i mean, can you imagine, these characters that we created for entertaining us, taking on a life and mind of their own? and the bad guy is forced to be the bad guy, when he is actually, not so bad at all. it's totally cool if you think about it, the game characters clocking out after the arcade closes, having breaks, maintenance, interacting with one another. it's another world inside. they are essentially like us but forced to take on roles we make them to.

hmm. maybe it's what our world is like too.
omg let me watch this movie and i'll tell more after!

:DD

and just watch the trailer below if you haven't already!

Catch Disney’s WRECK-IT RALPH in Singapore cinemas this 20 December 2012 and like theOfficial Walt Disney Studios Singapore Facebook Page, follow @disneystudiosSG and subscribe to the Official Disney Studios Singapore YouTube Channel!

rise of the guardians

this is easily one of the best animations these few years.

not just something to laugh your 1-odd hour away like a giggling toy while you munch silly on your nachos and popcorns. i mean, it's easy for animation movies to make people laugh. it's what they're meant to do anyway. at least for most of the animations.

all the guardians watch over children, along with their hopes, dreams and joy. they lose their magic and strength when children stop believing in them. obviously, all the guardians have undergone some sort of revamping programme, they become militarized and they appear much cooler. how often do you see a tattooed santa, an easter bunny equipped with boomerangs or a tooth fairy who is not airy fairy, like a winged princess?

i really think this generation of kids, this world and the emotional state of humans needs this kind of movie. I guess when we believe in something which we used to have faith in, when we were young and naive, we lit up something in us which glows and warms us up. it's like when you look like children, their eyes, all sparkly; when you talk to them, so full of sunshine.

Things change when people grow, they want other stuff. they choose to put their trust in (most of the time) material stuff and cast everything about imagination away. But how can you live, like really live like a person, if you cease to imagine and enjoy the happiness it brings?

Wouldn't everything be tasteless and monotonous like chewing on white chalk?
But people still fear, and choose not to do anything to change it except for blabbering on and on about how difficult life is. isn't it ironic? You choose to be limp and pathetic; you choose to stay on in this state; and still, you want to stay on in this rut?

WHY OH WHY.

when you forget the real meaning of being happy, then at the same time, you must have wasted all yours years just living like a single-celled organism.

and just let me exclaim, the easter bunny is so darn cute and cuddly when he loses his power.
CUTE.

and and jude law doesn't sound like Pitch, or Pitch doesn't sound like him, any way you like to phrase it.

anyhoos. great movie.
catch it if you can ((:

lapses of golden age: midnight in paris

Vincent Van Gogh "The Starry Night"

major delayed reaction.
i know.

the recurring concept of a golden age is irrefutably, one of the main concepts of this film. and can i say, this script is brilliant. An obvious differentiation from other hollywood movies. no offence here, but there's no denying that hollywood directors or writers have a certain modus operandi, which is inevitable because they have the box offices to take care of. dilemma big time. it's hard to get the best of both worlds.

no soap opera going on in this film, it's like a journey, a stroll taken down the streets of Paris, at midnight. This is also the bulk of the film, by the way. How it started and transpires...and ended. 

Aspiring writer goes to Paris with fiancée  fell in love with the beautiful city, couple took a few city tours with a couple of friends (okay i'm repeating myself), pompous male friend attempts to impress females (and succeeds), writer feels tiny and depressed, writer takes occasional walk at midnight in the city and got picked up by an antique motorcar, then writer realises he is surrounded by amazing artists and writers from a century ago, he haves fun and thinks this is the golden age he wants, he wants to show his fiancée this amazing encounter, attempt fails and so does the relationship between them (due to a woman he met in his golden age), but writer stayed on in Paris, dejected by what exactly is the golden age, and then eventually he seems to find the blossoming of another relationship.

people are innately nostalgic, don't you think? We look back so often, recalling how happy memories were, and neglect what's happening right now in front of us. but isn't every moment now going to become a thing of the past, just this moment as i am typing the next alphabet out?

i guess there's comfort is the past, just the thought of what already happened, the experiences that we've already gone through, helps us select what we want to remember. There's knowledge of the past so we choose to retain the ones we prefer. and so they're memorable and we keep going back to relish on them.

So Pender wants to go back to Adriana's era; Adriana wants to go back to Renaissance period, and this chain just goes on and on.

I've also thought about how would it be like if i were to be born 10 or 20 years ago, i think i would fit well though. but i'll still be a freak back then, like doing avant-grade stuff, things along that line.

But that's the way things go, there's only ways to keep going but none to reverse.

golden age seems to be a literary phrase in this light. probably the closest we can get, is to find the golden age we want in another living person. someone who shares your passion and knows what you are thinking of without even having to speak, sounds like love to me~!

like how Pender found Gabrielle at the end. adore the rain scene, makes everything blurry but pretty.
love doesn't accommodate sanity and clear-headedness, isn't it?

frankenweenie

And once again, i will offer a round of applause to the morbid but undoubtedly talented Tim Burton.

i meant, he gave new life to black and white film, with an animation film, instead of the traditional femme fatale movies. how can you (yes you!) not give credit to him.

it was pure hard work producing this film. there was a ton of puppets made to get every expression and move accurate, and every one of them have movable joints so the animators could put them in different poses. imagine the rise in eye pressure and stiff joints.

it's a simple plot overall, nothing complicated. but nonetheless, the music, cinematography, editing, effects were good. like really good.


i think it's a pretty story, with its heart-wrenching bits in it.
pets and friends and relatives and family, they have a limited amount of time on this earth and we face the agony of losing them. it's something we can't choose to avoid. "Frankenweenie" brings hope to us, when Sparky was revived. but oh boy, we do know we can't actually connect the circuit back in our loved ones if they leave us. And in the same way, science also becomes a topic of interest in this movie. it does the same thing as this film, it brought light to humans. suddenly we discover we could do so much, so much to alter the nature. But there's always a downside, if it can do so much to help us, it can harm us with only the very same standards.

i guess humans are almost always blinded by greed that they forget the very sole purpose something was present for. people lose themselves and gradually, the world around them. and if they are ignorant about something, people refuse to admit their absence of knowledge, it's all shutting off and rejecting others thereafter. this is the adults favourite past time, sad to say.

although i'm legally an adult, i'm secretly a kid. okay, maybe not a secret. but the thing is, not to see people or know people based on their age, past, looks or gender. why can't we have a free and open mind, and it's true that adults don't know what they're talking about most of the time.

everything boils down to your heart. just do what you think is good, as long as it doesn't sacrifice or endanger  another life. and as i was watching this film, i thought of my darling hamster. his fur, his eyes, his nose. when the movie ended with the happy reunion, i could feel him running inside of me again.

oh my god, i feel like crying all over again.