Caught Between 2 Worlds.

The hours seem to have passed really fast since last Thursday. I think it's a lot owing to me burying my nose in Potter novels for the last few days. *huge sheepish grin* On Thursday, I bought Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban at Kino since they're having a 20% christmas sale. I crammed in as much reading time as I can and managed to finish Prisoner of Azkaban yesterday. 317 pages thereabouts, yikes, talk about upgraded children's literature. I got so desperate, I had to know what happens after Chamber of Secrets. I read the first installment, Philosopher's Stone back in '98 and had almost forgotten how funny JK Rowling actually is. She's got quite the sense of humour and I had so much fun with Prisoner of Azkaban, so much so that today, I hopped by Kino again to get Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire. Haha! My mum was not pleased...she was ard when I purchased Prisoner of Azkaban and felt I was spending too much dough on books. Not to mention, I'm juggling it with two other novels, Alice Sebold's The Lovely Bones and William Golding's Lord of The Flies. Due to my current Potter disease, I had to stop reading the latter two for the time being.

And it's so frustrating that I can't seem to start on The Goblet of Fire. Cuz this afternoon, I went down to the Sitex fair at Expo for the second time to buy my notebook! Thanks for the tip off, Bert! Yeap, finally bought one after two years of toying with the idea. It's gonna be my companion to Perth next year. It's a compaq presario 1508AP and it's my current baby!! It's nicely snuggled on a clean towel on my floor, in the midst of charging up for 10 hours ;p hehe. Played around with it a little just now and it's sooo awesome. I'm also joining a bearbrick design contest with Eileen and I need to send in my designs by tomorrow. So I've been busy colouring the empty bear brick figures and thinking up new designs. The cash prize and vouchers sound good so it's worth a try anyway... but it's keeping me from my Potter book!!! Torn between two worlds...muahaha. Ok, think I'm getting a lil' delusional...I blame travel anxiety attacks!!!

Anyhoo, I found this interesting test on Bert's blog and decided to try it out too. Not that I'm a gorgeous woman, but I can dream right...*bleah* =p'

Which Ultimate Beautiful Woman are You?
brought to you by Quizilla
A true nature girl?? Sheah right...I can't even camp....in my front yard!!! =p

Amazing Race 3 Was In Singapore!!!!

Ok, so I caught Amazing Race 3 just now as usual and since it's down to 5 teams, next week will feature a special 2-hour episode at the end of which the winners shall emerge. And the teaser for next week so caught my attention because the teams will be shown journeying to Singapore!!! Wohooo!! I got totally excited and called Eileen the minute I got the news and she told me that she also knew cuz she heard about it over the radio today and she then said the radio announced that the teams and come and gone today itself!!! Cuz I thought it hasn't happened since the teaser said the teams will be arriving and guess who's the embassador to hand them the clues? PCK!!! The bloody beng, Chu Kang!!! And I was like....what???? *sigh* And my hopes were also dashed since I've wanted for a long time now to be one of those local passers-by on Amazing Race that the teams stop to ask for directions in each country/state/town. I had dreams of dramatically pointing to somewhere far ahead and telling the frantic team who chances upon me, "The merlion's that way...." muahahaha.

Anyway, since my aspirations to have a few-seconds spot on Amazing Race came to no avail, i'll comfort myself with more movies. Yeah so watching Chamber of Secrets for the second time turned out to be just as fun! =p I'm a Potter sucker! Anyhow, I finally watched Cube on my comp a couple of days ago. Downloaded it like a month or so ago. I didn't manage to catch it back in '97 when it hit the theatres and it has quite the cult status. It's a really good film. It's a psychological thriller and quite the mathematical suspense. Not like I'm a math genius or anything, in fact...I hated math in school. =p The movie's about a group of 6 strangers who woke up in a strange structure with no memory of how they got there. The structure has numerous square rooms and they have to travel from one "cube" room to the next, like a maze with doors to other cube rooms to be found on all the four walls that make up each room as well 2 more on the floor and the ceiling. So basically, they have 6 passageways to figure out in each room alone but the problem doesn't stop there. Not only is it nearly impossible to figure out the right path to get out of the structure but selected cube rooms are rigged with lethal traps and the only way to figure this deadly maze out is to check out the serial numbers of each room situated at the individual thresholds/passageways before entering one. First, I got a little nervous when Leaven, the math genius of the group, started to discover that prime numbers and factors could save their lives..and I totally freaked when permutations came into play to work with the coordinates to help them find the "bridge" because aside from all their previously mentioned problems, the cube rooms also move around periodically. Talk about serious shit. But it's very accessible in general since the writer and director of the film, Andre Bijelic, confessed to not being very good in math either. I felt it presented interesting insight of basic human interaction and the dynamics of such relationships under very stressful, claustrophobic situations. Tiredness and fear will eventually give way to paranoia and the ugliness of basic human nature will rise from within and destroy themselves...just like the evil human forces that built the Cube in the first place. It's quite an original piece of science fiction work which reminded me of another well done film, Alex Proyas' Dark City. But a warning to those who might wanna check Cube out, the ending does not give any information on what exactly the Cube is. That is something for the viewers to decide... The sequel Hypercube was released earlier this year in the States. I don't know if it'll reach our shores. But Cube is def worth checking out in my opinion.

As The Week Goes By...

Hey y'all, how have you been? And so the days go by and it's mid-week tomorrow already. I'm having some problems with the blogger archives. I had wanted to republish them but I keep on getting an error and a message saying that they're working on it. Oh well. Haven't been up to much lately. I caught Swimfan, during last weekend's sneak preview. It's basically like a Fatal Attraction set in high school. Not a bad movie but predictable. I watched it mainly for Erika Christensen whom I thought did such good work in Traffic as Michael Douglas' druggie daughter. I caught Singin' In The Rain, the musical, on Sunday too and I had a great time. It was well done though I feel nobody can fill Gene Kelly's shoes.

Stayed home on Monday basically to make some calls. I've got a bit of a lead to do an internship at a film company. I hope that works out though I totally understand if it doesn't. Work like that heavily depends on the availability of projects and how I can contribute to a particular one. This morning, my parents and I went to STAtravel at Cuppage terrace to get plane tix to Perth. The date's set, I'll be leaving on the 21st of Feb next year. =/ And so as usual, sometimes I feel totally excited and happy to be going for this academic and maybe even spiritual journey. I'm focusing on the positive aspects of undertaking this new endeavour. Like how I'll be reading topics that I'm passionate about at the university and how I'll be experiencing new and different things and make new friends. But I guess sometimes, the negative things will start to worry me. I'll be watching Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets for the second time tomorrow! Hahaha! With a good friend, Louanna, who's a total Potterhead and who's watched the film before also! The two of us are sucked into the Potter black hole and we're happy and bouyant in its chaotic wake! Muahaha.

I think it's inevitable. Soon, I'll have to start helping my mum make cookies for Hari Raya Puasa. *sigh and tsk* She made me prepare the ingredients for my first batch of oatmeal, chocolate chip cookies already. Till next time guys, have a good middle of the week!

Thursday Night's Movie Magic.

The German Film Festival started last Thursday night and I almost gave the whole affair a miss just because I felt disgruntled about missing the screening for Das Experiment tomorrow evening when I also gotta go catch Singin' In The Rain at the Esplanade. But I decided to quit pouting and just watch the other movie that caught my interest, Nowhere In Africa. It was a pleasant evening. I had expected to just catch a movie as usual but since it was also the opening movie for the festival, it was attended by some VIPs from the Norweigian and German embassies. There was also a short speech made by the president of the Goethe Institute which organised the fest. Call me crazy but I was pleased by it. I felt so well received. Haha.

I love Nowhere In Africa. I can't believe I almost missed this movie. I love the philosophy of the film and I respect the way Caroline Link(the director) approaches the various issues dealt with in the movie. The actors were fantastic. Set mostly on the scorching planes of Kenya, Nowhere In Africa chronicles the life of a Jewish family who fled from their home in Germany which was on the brink of WW2. A mother, Jettle Redlich, and her young daughter, Regina, joined the father, Walter on a remote farm in Kenya. There, they met Owuor, a local who also worked on the farm as a cook. From the moment Regina met this affectionate and kind man, she took an instant liking to him and Owuor(fantastic performance by Sidede Onyulo) became like a father figure for her. A man who opened her eyes to his language, culture and sense of philosophy. The characters were well developed and the audience watched as Jettle undewent a metamorphosis from a privilleged, spoilt European home maker to a tough, resourceful woman fighting for survival. Regina too found awe and wonder in the lively but harsh environment, warming up to the people and their way of life with childlike ease. What impressed me a lot was how the very German performers learnt and spoke Swahili. The dynamics between the actors were amazing. I was awestruck as I watched the characters interact with one another during the story. Although worlds apart, they managed to connect on a unique plane, sharing jokes, thoughts and even emotions.

Nowhere In Africa also reveals the tragedy of the Jewish people. Not only were they persecuted by their own country and their fellow Germans(Nazis), they find that they're also treated exclusively(and this does not necessarily mean a good thing) by the allies. Africa was colonized by the English and Walter was arrested on suspicion and Regina expressed her confusion on why he was taken to prison. They were German but they were were also Jews, the enemies of the Nazis. Shouldn't the English consider them as allies then? Another instance which highlighted how unfairly they were treated was when Regina was sent to an English elementary school in Africa. While the mainly Christian English students prayed, the Jews were made to go and gather at the side of the hall, away from the others. Hence the pun of the title Nowhere In Africa. They did inhabit the most remote, rural parts of the country, hence they reside in the middle of Nowhere. And also being German Jews, they seem not to be able to belong to any kind of society, being singled out and shunned by both sides. They belong Nowhere. Except for the civillisation of the Africans whom accept them despite differences. It shows an instance of how humanity can transcend race, religion and nationality.

This movie will be screened again this Sunday at Shaw Prince(Beach Road) at 5pm I think. This is a fantastic movie and one of the best I've seen so far this year. I really recommend it. And no need to pout anymore...since I managed to catch a good film from the fest after all.....and also I found out from a friend recently that Das Experiment will have a regular run at local cinemas soon. =) heh.

It's About Time.

Heya fellow bloggers and passers-by. I got something to tell which some of you might not still know. It's been going on for a while but I don't know why I didn't just let it out sooner. Guess now is good a time as ever. I'll be continuing with my undergraduate studies at the University of Western Australia in Perth next semester. I'll be leaving S'pore around the 3rd week of Feb(tentatively) 2003. I'll only be back during longer vacations in July and December. There, it's really simple to just blog it...not sure why I never done it earlier. Guess I now feel that the plans are more solid since I've received my offer letter and sent in my acceptance reply together with the fees. They've since sent me an "Authority to Enrol"...which sounds pretty cool to me. Haha, sounds like some official power I got. But seriously, I've been on an emotional roller coaster evenr since I've decided to quit the local private institution I've been studying at for the past 2 years and make the tough decision to go overseas to continue with my degree studies. I feel excited, happy and grateful for the opportunity presented to me and yet I'm sad, afraid and utterly anxious about leaving behind a lot of people and things here to pursue something in a different, unfamiliar place. I pray everyday that things will be ok for me...and also that everything will be remain great here while I'm away. There's going to be a lot of people and things I'm going to miss...heck, I've started to miss them already and I'm not even gone yet. I do fear some things I'll have to face while I'm there...but I know that there are great possibilities as well. Although I'm unsure how things will really unfold, I'm certain that I'll try my best nonetheless.

Didn't do much today. Been buying some vcds which totally disgruntled me since I promised not to spend too much dough. I've got this great movie called The Red Violin and I bought Death to Smoochy recently on a impulse. It was sitting near the cashier... =p And I've been waiting for that movie to get here for a long time anywayz. heh. My sister's coming back from Brisbane soon. Her chapter's over...and mine is about to begin...

A Magical Evening...and some!

My best friends and I decided to do something on a whim some weeks ago. I think it was on the day we celebrated Eileen's birthday on the 27th of October. We were having such good fun celebrating with food and each other's company, we decided to come up with a day we shall meet every month, just the 3 of us and go all out. Like we eat good stuff or do something really fun and we can even buy one another gifts...whether small or big, it's up to us. No obligations too. Jia came up with the name "Our Day"...and I came up with a date, 15th. I dunno why, but I just brashly chose that date cuz it's somewhat like the middle of every month. So we bought one another gifts. Thanks Jia! You really read my mind with the present you gave me.. =) We had dinner at a simple place, BK. =p And then we watched Harry Potter And The Chamber of Secrets...

And lemme tell ya, this is one kick-ass movie. I mean that seriously. I enjoyed the first installment from last year but this one totally upstaged its predecessor. And that's something quite hard to do. Its plot fully utilizes the classical structure of conventional but satisfying story-telling. And its characters are well developed, not to mention that the actors have improved, having somewhat settled into the skins of their respective characters more comfortably. In this sequel, Harry(Daniel Radcliffe) doesn't heed the warnings of Dobby the house elf to stay away from Hogwarts, School of Witchcraft and Wizardry where a new dangerous evil lurks within school grounds. With the help of Ron(Rupert Grint), Harry's bestfriend...and I tell ya, this guy is funny! =)...but I digress....Harry escapes the tyrannical clutches of his muggle Uncle Vernon to return to Hogwarts where he and his friends including the brainy and delightful Hermione(Emma Watson) have to solve the mystery revolving around The Chamber of Secrets.

I don't know how faithful Chamber of Secrets is to its literary counterpart but I do know Philosopher's Stone follows the book almost to a tee. But having caught this movie, I sure am inspired to read the rest of the Potter books! =) I don't know if this movie can convert the most jaded of film goers but I do forewarn a word of caution to watch it with an open mind and to understand its culture. This is after all a predominantly childrens' phenomenon and if it can keep an adult like me on the edge of my seat, then it has got to be doing something right also. =) It's like the E.T for this generation's kids. It gave me the same sense of wonder and adventure and I had fun the whole 2 hours and 40 mins...yes the movie's that long. So if you think you're game enough to have a taste of the Potter universe, I really suggest you watch this film. Who knows. It might turn you into a Potterhead. ;)

Hitting 100 and Beyond.

Hey guys, guess what? As of last Saturday after catching my first French Film Fest screening, See The Sea, I've officially watched 100 films this year so far. I've since moved on to more cuz I've been watching movies for the past few days too which is cool cuz one of my new year's resolutions for 2002 is to catch at least 100 movies. I knew that resolution was one I could keep. =p hehe. Anyway, I watched another cool French film at the fest today entitled, He Loves me, He Loves Me Not starring Audrey Tautou that cutie from Le Fabuleux destin d'Amelie Poulain. Tautou portrays an art student, Angelique, who suffers from a severe psychological problem which builds an intense delusion in which she has an affair with a married cardiologist, Loic. In actual fact, Loic doesn't even know her personally and Angelique only imagines their trysts from harmless, impersonal brushes she has had with him in public. I like the way the movie was filmed. First in Angelique's POV followed by Loic's through which Angelique's illness and psychosis is revealed. Bold and unconventional, trademarks of a more independent European production. Just the way I like it. =)

Today this movie geek will shamelessly plug...

Finding Nemo- Wohooo! I've been hooked to this project eversince I heard Pixar came up with this premise. It's the latest collaboration between Disney and Pixar. It's about a clownfish who embarks on a journey to search the seven seas for his stolen son, Nemo. Check out the trailer guys! It's amazing! The details and the beautifully rendered graphics take the cake! Pixar has secured a bright future in my books, it looks like they're constantly improving on the quality of their work. And do note the dialogue, the jokes are deceptively simple but it actually holds greater intelligence. Includes the voice talents of Erika Beck, Albert Brooks, Ellen DeGeneres and Willem Dafoe.

Solaris- Ok, I know I've plugged this one before but it deserves second mention since it came up with a better trailer than it's previous non-satisfying teaser. =p Y'know, it's been a while since I've caught a good science fiction movie and I'm risking it with harbouring considerable hope on this one. It's from Steven Soderbergh..so it can't be that bad right?..er...right? Revolves around a psychologist who is called upon to investigate a mysterious death on a space station called Solaris which orbits around an oceanic planet. Strange accounts occur soon after including the uncanny appearances of old friends of the crew, some of whom are supposed to be dead. George Clooney in da house!

Merci Pour Le Chocolat- I love European films! I love thrillers! I love Isabelle Huppert! 'Nuff said! =)

Until the next madness, have a great weekend! I'm so watching Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets next week. =p heh. Toodles!