United Nonsense-land
Xeroxed on |
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
| @ 11:19 AM |
After it's debut at The Singapore International Film Festival, and a surprise screening at Poetry Slam, here's United Nonsenseland, part 2 of the "Harry Trilogy" and the sequel to "Romantic Mystery".
The Fish and The PAP Man.
Xeroxed on |
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
| @ 9:24 AM |
Quoted from the straits times
"The Workers' Party's arguments reminded Mr Yeo (GuatKwang) of a story by the classical Chinese philosopher ZhuangZi.
In the story, a fish in a shallow trench appeals to a passing scholar for help. The scholar tells the fish to wait while he fetches water from the sea.
'By the time you come back, I will be a dried-up, preserved fish in the market', says the fish.
Now, said Mr Yeo, if the scholar was a People's Action Party man, he would tell the fish: "I will give you a bit of water first, but come with me and I will show you how to you can stand on your own."
What about if Ms Lim (Workers Party Chairman) met the fish, asked the MP rhetorically.
He said she would probably say: "I have no water to give you, but I sympathize with you from the bottom of my heart. I will ask my government to give you all their water, and tell of your plight to the world.'
Concluded Mr Yeo: "Eventually the fish will still end up in the salted fish bin in the market".
Putting aside the fact that it's a downright tragedy that the government and it's rivals can't put aside silly "intellectual" criticisms of each other, I have to agree with Mr Yeo on an absolutely splendid analogy of the way both parties work. Which I make clear in the next two points.
1. The Worker's party. Obviously the workers party Ms Lim would find sympathy with the fish. But with no power of her own, would be left merely to campaign for the fish's rights, ulitmately leaving her to be mocked in the process. Ultimately, sadly, even though Ms Lim is all worked up, she can do but naught.
2. The PAP Man. On the other hand, the PAP man would induce the fish to follow him, which means that instead of a slow harrowing death within the shallow trench, the fish would immediately exposed to a long distance out of water travel, leading to instant strangulation, under the false pretenses that he would one day be able to "stand on it's own", because frankly... A fish can't stand up! It doesn't have a backbone!
There are many scary truths to this analogy. And I shall not continue in fear of being one day arrested under the ISA.
2007. End.
Xeroxed on |
Sunday, December 30, 2007
| @ 7:15 PM |
So another year has past us by at an alarming speed, and as tradition I will give a minor postmortem of 2007.
2007 brought the end of green cloth The onslaught of survival And the reminder of romance. With various new acquaintance And distant destinations Jesus saw me through the very last dance.
And with tradition, I will now list out my top ten films of 2007 (please note that I have yet to see films that may/may not make it to my list, including My Blueberry Nights, Elizabeth, Michael Clayton)
10. Spider-man 3: Despite all the flak this drew from critics, as an arden Spider-man fan (with undoubted credentials of at least 300 Spider-man single issue comic books), I do like a lot of what Sam Raimi accomplished in the film. I thought he remained very true to Peter Parker throughout the film (Yes even in the much loathed 'musical' sequences). My major gripe is the treatment of the Venom character. You can see Sam Raimi's distaste for the character by the complete lack of a story/buildup for Venom, and I believe that's what hurt the film significantly. That's why the film is not 1 as I wanted it to be, but number 10.
9. Futurama -Benders Big Score: Not yet released in Singapore, but obtained through "other means" this was everything the Simpsons movie wasn't. While I enjoyed the Simpsons, Futurama is such an absurdly brilliant concept that the Simpsons can't help but pale in poor comparison to it's ratings under performing little brother. After all, brilliance is hardly accepted in the mainstream. This film is MAD FUN, and a blast every scene of the way.
8. Stardust: It's a Neil Gaiman story which lends it's weight in gold. Gaiman is very much the sort of writer I intend to become, so it's no surprise this ended up on the list. Added with the casting of my all-time Hollywood crush: Claire Danes, and it's a no brainer. Very capably executed, this would have been rather high on my list, but I do have a feeling that (with the notable exceptions of the sensational Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer in their BEST performances in YEARS) Charlie Cox, Claire Danes and even narrator Ian Mckellen all kinda cruised along to the film. Director Michael Vaughn who helmed the excellent "Layer Cake" will be taking on Marvel Comic's "Thor" as his next project, and despite Stardust's weakness, he has already sold one theater seat in advance.
7. Grindhouse - Death Proof: Tarantino at his very best. Undiluted invention, outrageous characters and the Decalogue that Kevin Smith grew up on. The only film I saw in a GV theatre that received an actual round of applause. By a theater of no more than 20 people at that. It had that much impact. Kurt Russel has my vote for villain of the year.
6. Across The Universe: The latest addition to the list. I would agree with the trailer tagline of Most "Original" and "Spectacular" and "Groundbreaking" motion picture of the year. That being said, the film has serious flaws. But what it lacked in structure, flow and characterization, it made up in inventiveness and pure cinematic insanity. Plus probably the best score of the year, with incredible arrangements of the Beetles, plus "I am the Walrus" by Bono. Nuff said.
5. 300: Ouch.
Some of the drama inherent in the actual Frank Miller graphic novel was lost in the translation, but what made it to screen was definitely worth the loss. Easily the greatest use of screen violence in recent times. I'm terribly worried about Watchmen, but there is hope that Zack Synder can pull it off.
4. Pirates of the Caribbean - At World's End: If you don't already know how much I adore this trilogy, scroll down and see my spoof "Pirate(d)."
3. Lust, Caution: Probably the film that affected me the most, emotionally. Not a film I believe I can watch again. The ending just leaves with such a sense of hopelessness that engulfs your heart for days. A bitter sombre depiction of war, minus the blood and carnage of the battlefield.
But I could so do without the shot of Tony Leung's testicles. The worst single frame of film I have seen in 2007.
2. Transformers: HOLY CRAP ON A STICK! A MICHAEL FREAKING BAY FILM IS SITTING ON NUMBER 2 OF MY YEARLY TOP TEN. MICHAEL FREAKING BAY. It is indeed a sign of the apocalypse.
All the bitching aside, I've always hated the superficiality in every single of Bay's films (Pearl Harbour?), so what better film for him to excel in but a film about artifical giant freaking robots. Absolute Carnage and with the comic line of the year ("Are you ebay user: Ladiesman217?). I am still pissed they killed Jazz though. And Optimus Prime was kinda weak for "the greatest warrior" the autobots ever had.
Easily the most geeked-out fun I had the entire year, cinematic wise.
1. Ratatouille: It made me hungry. But I went to Paris and never got to try Ratatouille. Sigh.
YAARGHS! And YOURFILM.SG
Xeroxed on |
Friday, October 05, 2007
| @ 4:38 PM |
On the non-profit side of things PIRATED has been shortlisted as one of the top 6 films in the South West CDC YOURFILM.SG Competition.
Event details: 18 October, GV Vivocity 7:30pm Tickets available from YOURFILM.SG
For Lunch today, I had honey glazed ribs from Cold Storage that I ate while walking home. Xiaowen told me I wasn't very glam. I never was. Traffic brings enlightenment to the term "smoked meat".
Recent events shout at me to write a short film. We'll see.
Back to Regular Scheduled Programming.
Xeroxed on |
Thursday, September 27, 2007
| @ 11:17 PM |
On the professional side of things, it seems that I will be continuing the world tour that is the Beyond The Dot series (we went to taipei to shoot the first episode two weeks ago) on the 12th of October, which is very cool indeed. Next destination is Bali, and from there we will be hitting Paris, London, Hong Kong, Guangzhou, New York, Washington and finally Beiijing. Yes, this is indeed what you call a dream job.
| archives |
|
Pirate(d)-ing the NEW PAPER!
Xeroxed on |
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
| @ 2:30 PM |
Hanqing was really nice and did a short plug for Pirate(d) via an article on downloading in today's New Paper on page 4! She writes...
The spate of illegal downloading crackdowns has spawned community efforts to educate the young on intellectual property piracy and its consequences.
One example is filmmaker Shaun Koh, 24, whose recent film Pirate(d) A Musical?, was screened at Reel Revolution 2007, a programme for youths to raise social issues for discussion through the video platform.
The film is now streamed from his website, www.projectsky.at.com.sg
On why he chose to discuss piracy, he said: "Intellectual property (IP) piracy is a very relevant subject to youths.
"Most people participate in some level of IP piracy, whether they admit to it or not."
In his film, a Jack Sparrow-esque pirate comes to Singapore to literally steal music from a CD shop.
"I hope the film opens up discussion on the state of copyright law, whether the model we use is up to date, or whether we need to look at a different model to support the current situation"
The rest of the article is pretty informative, but a little too anti-pirate stance fo me. haha.
All pictures, lyrics, scripts, designs and films are copyrighted 2006 by Shaun Koh unless noted.
Ask permission or an overweight dragon would crawl out of your computer screen and eat you with black pepper.
