Sanjuro

This is a sequel to Yojimbo and it is about how a wandering samurai helped a young man to save his uncle.

Liked the action packed sequences and there were more funny moments than the original movie! Felt quite sad that more innocent people were killed due to the silly actions by the friends of the young man though.

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Yojimbo

The story is about how a wandering samurai brought about change in a new town that he visited.

Liked the exciting action packed sequences and the wit shown by the protagonist!

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Scandal

The story is about how an artist and a singer got themselves into a scandal when they were photographed together by the paparazzi and how they sued the magazine owner with the help of a lawyer.

The daughter of the lawyer was very sweet and cute! Liked how the ordinary person in the street was able to stand up to the threats of a big corporate group!

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The Quiet Duel

The story is about how a surgeon contracted syphilis when he was doing operation on an infected patient in the battlefield. When he came back, he resisted marrying his fiancee without telling her the reason and concentrated on helping others.

Liked how the surgeon was so noble and was able to resist temptation! A good companion piece to this could be "Red Angel" by Masumura Yasuzo.

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Safe

The story is about a woman who suddenly became ultra sensitive to the environment and had to move to a special home for therapy.

Liked the eerie sound effects and the great acting by Julianne Moore! The igloo looked quite cool although I was a bit disappointed with the ending.

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The Most Beautiful

The story is about how a group of women working in an optics lens factory encouraged each other to meet the work target during the second world war in Japan.

Liked the team spirit shown but felt a bit sad for them as they had almost zero work life balance.

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Survivors Only Scrabblathon 2011

The idea of having this event came from the top female Scrabble player in Singapore. The format is twelve King of the Hill games in one day where we play Scrabble from morning till night and the venue is at the Yew Tee Community Club. Many top players from Singapore and Malaysia took part despite the meagre prize money because of this unique experience.

Here's my match report, with quizzes marked with [number] and the answers given at the end of the report. The detailed match results can be found here.

Round 1 vs Paul Richards
I had TRADINGS(63) and AYU(35) but he scored consistently with ZAG(50), CRUXES(71), TOPE(32) and SKIP(34).

Round 2 vs Tony Sim
I had QIS(41) and ZETA(39) but he had UNRULES(74), WAISTED(86), SNORTED(83), JAB(38), GRENZ(55) and OX(40).

Round 3 vs Ricky Purnomo
I had UNSALTED(62), JAM(34), ROK(40) and QUIP(30) but he had ATONIES(71), BOTANIC(81), NEWS(40), RITZ(33) and OILY(38). Tried to front hook an A to the NEWS and form a word down to the triple word score cell but ANEWS* was challenged off.

Round 4 vs zzBye
On retrospect I probably should have gone for lunch earlier with the extra break. I had imagined that all the players would go to some nice hawker centre for lunch together after this game but we ended up ordering Pizza Hut to eat in because of the rain. Saw Jian Rong got away with AMENITA* in his game with Adrian as Adrian thought he saw the correct anagram.[1]

Round 5 vs Poh Ying Ming
I had REDTAIL(74), NIED(30), ZITE(35), ISLAND(35) and FAKE(33) while he had no bingos but scored well with DILUTE(35), BRAINS(46) and BYGoNE(33). Won partly due to his WERNERS*, NER* and BYEING* phonies.

Round 6 vs Alvin Leung Hoi Kit
I had ENTRIES(76), BERRIES(66) and ZEL(30) while he had OX(38) and exchanged tiles three times. I chickened out of TRENISE which would give me a four-timer as I have forgotten whether it is TRENISE or TRENIES*. He was thinking aloud if GENTRIES was good when I challenged off another phony word of his that he formed while front hooking the G to ENTRIES and concluded that it should be GANTRIES instead. Both words are valid and there are two other front hooks for ENTRIES.[2]

Round 7 vs Tony Sim
I had CZAR(38), AAH(33), PAST(39) and DELI(31) but he had REBATOES(105), FIGURER(91), TOONIES(74), JEON(42), XI(38), QUIRE(36), HUGY(36) and VEST(30). I had ?AINOT in the end and Andy helped me do a post game analysis. We found out that the best move should be either DELIbATION or DELIgATION by back hooking an existing DELI to reach the triple word score to finish.

Round 8 vs Poh Ying Ming
I had UNAIRED(63), AXE(30), HOE(30), BAGS(33) and ZA(35) while he had MILLERS(63) and PEND(32). Tried BARINGS* and it was challenged off as I didn't know the correct anagram of it.[3]

Round 9 vs Eden Choo
I had UNIVERSE(70), LIDLESS(81), MEL(30) and YIRR(31) while he had DEAFEN(42), DEAFENED(39), SEDUCE(35) and MIEN(30).

Round 10 vs Marlon Prudencio
I had ENTASIA(70), OUR(33) and WONK(33) but he had NONSUIT(86), VELATURA(91), WOAD(39), DEBATES(40), AXON(49), WIGGY(45) and ZAP(42). Was quite impressed that he knew such a weird word and was able to spot it to bingo out across the triple word score lane!

Round 11 vs Goutham
I had STILTED(79), NAY(33), KYE(31), FEUD(44) and VOX(65) but he had INGRATE(70), HOLDERS(78), DOJO(36) and PEG(30). Wouldn't be able to play STILTED(79) if he didn't phoney with GOATIEs* to hook the S to an existing WIPE. There are two anagrams that could have fit there.[4] Made a mistake in challenging his last move as it turned out to be valid and I lost by one point. I thought I would have lost if I didn't challenge due to a miscalculation of the score on my part as we didn't confirm the total score towards the end.

Round 12 vs Yong Jian Rong
I had RULINGS(75), JAIS*(33) and SPEW(43) but he had URICASE(76) and HOAX(89). It was a bad move playing JAIS* just above the triple word score lane as I thought my opponent wouldn't be able to score well with PI on top. Was really surprised when he whipped out HOAX(89) just underneath! I really played very poorly for this last game as I basically opened up for my opponent to score while fishing for bingos on a closed board. Was lucky to have RULINGS(75) towards the end to narrow the gap as he opened up a bingo lane for me.

Overall, I thought it was a good experience for intermediate players to have an idea of what it was like to play with the top players in Singapore although it didn't feel too good to have a bye as it meant you were last!

Quiz answers (highlight to see clearly)

[1] AMENTIA
[2] SENTRIES, CENTRIES
[3] SABRING
[4] GOdETIA, GOATIEr

Warsaw Bridge

The story is about the lives of a writer, a conductor and a professor in Europe. They were friends and had a small gathering after the writer won an award with his novel about the Warsaw Bridge.

Liked the nature scenes and the choral music by a group of women! Didn't quite understand what the film was about but read that it was about the situation in Europe since it was made in 1989 just after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The final sequence was interesting and visually stunning!

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Valerie and Her Week of Wonders

This is a gothic fairy tale about a young girl similar to "Alice in Wonderland" but with more adult themes that touched on sexuality and religion.

Valerie looked very pretty and many scenes were beautifully shot! I enjoyed this much more than the recent Tim Burton film on "Alice in Wonderland"!

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True Heart Susie

The story is about how a young couple's love was tested against circumstances beyond their control.

Great acting by the lead actress Lilian Gish! Liked the soundtrack and the inter-titles that foretold what was to come!

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