foreword
ぜんかい -- ゼンカイ
no longer yearning. what have we not done before?
"the world is really but the stage - create the most fulfilling play"
If you're a thief, master the art of thievery.
A psychotic mind leaves no room for regrets.
profile
Zheng Kai
01.11.1989
CHS - AJC
RevoAct
AJChoir
1st Tenor
tagboard
yesterdays
December 2005 #
January 2006 #
February 2006 #
March 2006 #
April 2006 #
May 2006 #
June 2006 #
July 2006 #
August 2006 #
September 2006 #
October 2006 #
November 2006 #
December 2006 #
January 2007 #
February 2007 #
March 2007 #
April 2007 #
May 2007 #
June 2007 #
July 2007 #
August 2007 #
September 2007 #
October 2007 #
November 2007 #
December 2007 #
January 2008 #
February 2008 #
March 2008 #
April 2008 #
May 2008 #
June 2008 #
July 2008 #
August 2008 #
September 2008 #
October 2008 #
November 2008 #
December 2008 #
affiliates
ajchoir #
aj alumni choir #
aggie #
boonteck #
cheeguan #
chris #
bel #
douglas #
gerald #
guowei #
jasmine #
jonathon #
meirong #
peiyong #
saffie #
shirojon #
thomas #
tianxiang #
timothy #
tzeswen #
weida #
xiany #
xiaoxuan #
xinchu #
yuhuai #
zhanny #
zhi-an #
footnote
© Copyrights:
Original layout
Content & Images
Chok Zheng Kai, 2008
|
|
Thursday, June 05, 2008
As you know, I am on leave this whole week and what did I do? Resorted to borrowing DVDs from the Bishan video rental shop. I watched a total of 6 DVDs and 1 movie online in the past 4 days. And I do have something to say about each one.
The Queen.
An epic story on Queen Elizabeth II dealing with the news of Princess Diana's death in the car crash. Filled with a massive amount of politics, public-relations skills, and simply, the controversial superannuated Royal Institution. But it did prove a point - political leaders in this coming age are more of the 'personality' than the 'brains'. Without their personal assistants, advisors and aids, they are seriously nothing much. Helen Mirren acted well, I must say, no wonder she garnered all those awards. During the show, my mum kept going, "oh...so it was him (Prince Philip) who was the 'evil' one..". I guessed the show did serve its purpose, of shedding some light on why the situation was so sticky with regards to the Royal Family, and perhaps it was portrayed accurately to a large extent that HRH herself invited Mirren to tea.
Michael Clayton.
This is a legal tussle which shows the darker sides of human nature - lies, deceit and power in the wrong hands. Such seemingly boring themes may be far too common in today's movies, but Michael Clayton's pushed it a little further. Perhaps its my obsession with George Clooney's casting, but he handled something so traumatising and mind-boggling with such great composure and subtlety that it shook me. I must admit though, that at certain points during the film, I had to pause and go onto wikipedia to find out what's going on, or rather find out some background information to further understand why things are behaving the way they are. But I love such movies, movies which motivate you to go further to question, to research. I think such movies are powerful, they utilise your brains and make you come to a decision, a conclusion about a theme. Sometimes, people get too caught up with power, that ironically, their intelligence that got them in that position in the first place, becomes diminished.
The Legend of the Water Horse.
The story begins with a elderly man narrating the entire anecdote of how a young boy picked up this egg and it eventually hatched into the 'water horse'. Behind this childish theme, I felt there's something more to the boy. He felt out of place and sync, and why? His father, the only one he was close to, left for a 'war' and never came back. Growing up without his father was one thing, but growing up losing his father at such a tender age was another. All he wanted was to find a friend, someone to share his joys and pains - and that's when the 'water horse' comes to play. The story ends with the elderly man introducing himself as the young boy - the main character of the story.
Evangelion: 1.0 You are (not) alone.
Cool show. This show, though attractively portrayed with all the cutting edge graphics and action scenes between the evas fighting, came through to me with a deeper meaning too. Similar to 'water horse', it has got to do with a young son's relationship with his father. He overcame his mental and physical barriers to pilot an eva and put the entire responsibility of 'saving the world' on his shoulders with only one aim - to show his dad he can do it, to let his dad be proud of him, to listen to his dad's words of encouragement. Sometimes, as children, we do many things off-tangent, on the surface seemingly hurting the ones around us and to spite our parents, but at the end of the day, all we want is a word of thanks, a word of gratitude or encouragement and acknowledgement. Everyone, no matter how big the role they play in the society, has someone like that, behind the scenes - for they want to do whatever they are doing for them.
Appleseed.
Just like Evangelion, this is an animated movie. Though I must admit that the graphics here are much better than the former. What I remembered about this movie, surprisingly, wasn't actually the movie per se, but the bonus DVD that came with it, containing a documentary on the fusion between the Japanese and American culture and how anime played a huge role in it. It was really educational and it's definitely research-standard for those doing a arts paper in this genre. It analyses the similarities and differences between the mindsets of the Japanese and Americans and how they are portrayed interestingly in animation that combined these 2 genres. Surely, there's something just more than the cool factor for potential Prime Minister candidate Taro Aso to view anime as the main driving factor for Japanese diplomacy.
Flood.
A geo-engineering favourite, Flood is about the flooding of River Thames and how even the Thames Barrier was washed away, literally. Engineering marvels like the Thames Barrier was once a popular theme for block-buster movies to 'destroy'. But now, with the Earth going haywire and all, these colourful and far-fetched imagination from Hollywood script-writers may indeed be a reality not too far from now. Anyway, I must admit I can't get enough of big cities being washed away by Nature. I spent 1 entire hour combing the video shop on my third visit this week to look for more of such 'geographical documentaries/movies' but I just couldn't find anything. Either that or the shows were too old which used obsolete and slapstick models and technology which make me cringe. Yes, I'm a technology slut. I know.
|
|
|
