Saturday, December 21, 2019

Toy Story 3

The story is about the adventures of a group of toys in a childcare center.

Learned not to judge the book by its cover after watching the movie! Another lesson I learned was to pass to others what we don't need instead of throwing them away.

Internet Movie Database Link

Saturday, December 07, 2019

Marriage Story

The story is about a married couple with an eight year old son getting divorced.

Liked the opening scene that introduced the wife and the husband in sequence! The small details make the characters come alive! Also liked the giant zoom ins and descriptive monologues! Reminded me a bit of Bergman's movies.

Internet Movie Database Link

Monday, November 04, 2019

Children of Men

The story is about a dystopian world in the future where all women were infertile and most places in the world were unsafe except for Britain.

Liked the nice serene soundtrack! Realized that a world without children would be horrible!

Internet Movie Database Link

Monday, October 28, 2019

The Imitation Game

The story is about the life of an English mathematician Alan Turing who was involved in breaking code during world war two.

Liked the flashbacks across the present time, during the war and Turing's childhood days. Could identify with his frustrations when the program didn't work as he expected the first time round.

Internet Movie Database Link

Bento Harassment

The story is about how a mother made innovative bento lunches for her daughter for 3 years until her graduation day.

Liked the depiction of the ups and downs of the mother daughter relationship! Was amazed by the creativity of the mother!

Internet Movie Database Link

Thursday, October 17, 2019

Toy Story 4

The story is about the adventures of a group of toys during a road trip on a rented caravan.

Liked how Woody and Gabby Gabby found their purpose in life in the end! The action sequences were exciting too!

Internet Movie Database Link

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Modest Heroes

This is an anthology of three stories with a common theme on life. "Kanini & Kanino" is about a crab family uniting against external threats and celebrating when new members arrive. "Life Ain't Gonna Lose" is about a boy with a serious egg allergy. "Invisible" is about a man being invisible to others in life.

Liked the exciting encounter with the giant fish in "Kanini & Kanino", the realistic plot in "Life Ain't Gonna Lose" and the imaginative mood in "Invisible!

Internet Movie Database Link

Tuesday, August 20, 2019

The Art of Racing in the Rain

The story is about the life of a dog living with a man who aspires to be a great racer.

Liked the interesting animation sequence with the zebra in the middle of the film! The plot is a little predictable and I didn't quite understand the technical details on how the protagonist was able to do better in the rain.

Internet Movie Database Link

Saturday, August 10, 2019

Project RED

The project consists of four short stories. Each of them explain how we have more in common than we think.

Liked the dynamics between the two Indian couples in "Singapore Flying", the montage of the lives of two people in "Merging Lanes", the new friendship forged in "Common Ground" and the impact of the parents' biases on their children in "The Dispute"!

Link

P.S. Short Films

There are four short stories in the series. Each of them describes what the unsung heroes in the public service does.

Liked how the youth guidance office believed in her girl in "P.S. Finding L", the nice sports action with the legends in "P.S. Farrer Park", the beautiful scenery in "P.S. Nothing Gold Can Stay" and the determination by the officer to understand the ground situation in "P.S. In One's Shoes"!

Link

Saturday, July 27, 2019

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

The story is about how a fan of spider-man became a spider man himself together with other spider-people from other universes.

Liked the nice comic strip style of animation! It was interesting to see so many different types of spider-people!

Internet Movie Database Link

Wednesday, July 10, 2019

Searching

The story is about a man searching for his daughter online when she suddenly went missing.

Liked the interesting idea of getting the audience to watch the computer screen to find out what was happening! Nice twist in the plot towards the end!

Internet Movie Database Link

Sunday, June 30, 2019

Memory Games

This is a documentary about the lives of a few memory athletes around the world.

I had imagined all of them to have a nerdy look but I was surprised! The interviewees included a woman with purple hair and a tall man who was into mountaineering and crossfit among others! None of them wore spectacles!

Internet Movie Database Link

Tuesday, June 04, 2019

The Red Turtle

The story is about what happened when a man met a red turtle on a deserted island.

Liked the beautiful sounds of nature and operatic voice! Was a little bit shocked by the twist in the middle of the film but the plot flowed quite smoothly forward after that.

Internet Movie Database Link

Saturday, April 20, 2019

Brene Brown: The Call to Courage

This is a talk by best seller writer Brene Brown on the meaning of courage.

Liked the many real life examples of courage that were peppered with humour! My mental image of a courageous person used to be a young fit man fighting a tiger with his bare hands, but I realized that anybody could be courageous after her talk.

Internet Movie Database Link

Tuesday, April 02, 2019

Joshua: Teenager vs. Superpower

This is a documentary on Joshua, a young activist in Hong Kong who protested against mandatory National Education in 2012 and was one of the leaders in the 2014 Occupy Central movement.

Liked how passionate Joshua was about his cause! Not sure if civil disobedience really helped in achieving his goals though.

Internet Movie Database Link

Wednesday, March 27, 2019

A Clockwork Orange

The story is about how a young delinquent tries to turn over a new leaf after he was caught by the police.

Liked the nice classical music soundtrack! The film made me reflect on whether punishment is really the best way to make a child behave. It is sad if they do something out of fear rather than out of their own free choice.

Internet Movie Database Link

Sunday, March 17, 2019

Arrival

The story is about how the arrival of aliens changed the life of a linguist who is trying to understand their purpose of coming here.

Liked the interesting twist towards the end! The mandarin spoken by Amy Adams was really terrible though!

Internet Movie Database Link

Thursday, March 14, 2019

Ten Years

The film consists of five short stories on what might happen in Hong Kong ten years later in 2025.

Liked the "Dialect" the best as it related the story of an ordinary taxi driver. "Extras" and "Self Immolator" were action packed but most controversial as they portrayed the central government as a big bad bully. "Season of the End" was too abstract for me. "Local Egg" was a nice reminder that we should think for ourselves.

Internet Movie Database Link

Saturday, March 09, 2019

Beyond the Curve

This is a documentary on people who believed that the earth is flat.

Liked the interviews with psychologists, physicists and the flat earth society members! They helped me to understand why people would think differently from others despite evidences that showed otherwise.

Internet Movie Database Link

Wednesday, February 20, 2019

Feminists: What Were They Thinking?

This is a documentary about women who modeled for a photo book about feminists during the late 1970s.

Liked the interesting personal stories of these women! I think present day society would be very different without the feminist movement. Women might still be stuck at home being a housewife, earn less pay than men and have no legal means to abort their babies.

Internet Movie Database Link

Thursday, February 14, 2019

The Secret Rules of Modern Living: Algorithms

This is a documentary on how algorithms are essential to our modern life.

Liked the real life examples given by the narrator! Algorithms are useful for sorting things in order, matching things by preference and finding the shortest route over multiple places.

Internet Movie Database Link

Saturday, February 09, 2019

Sing

The story is about how the owner of an old theater gathered a group of wannabe singers to create a fantastic show.

Liked all the nice songs! Was surprised that Reese Witherspoon and Scarlett Johansson were behind the voices of Rosita and Ash as they sang really well!

Internet Movie Database Link

Thursday, February 07, 2019

The Barkley Marathons: The Race that Eats Its Young

This is a documentary of the 2012 Barkley Marathon which is a 100 mile trail race with a cut-off timing of 60 hours.

Liked the quirky organizer who created the race with inspiration from a prison break that lasted about 60 hours! The cuts on the racers' feet looked terrible!

Internet Movie Database Link

Tuesday, February 05, 2019

Karl Meltzer: Made to be Broken

This is a documentary about a man's quest to beat the speed record of completing the Appalachian Trail which is about 3500 km long.

Liked the nice mountain sceneries! I am amazed by the determination of the runner to fulfill his dream!

Internet Movie Database Link

Saturday, February 02, 2019

Tony Robbins: I Am Not Your Guru

This is a documentary about a professional speaker named Tony Robbins at his 2014 "Date With Destiny" seminar.

Liked the day by day account on the six day seminar which is filled with personal anecdotes! I was amazed by how he could ask the audience really deep questions about themselves to find out the root cause of their problems!

Internet Movie Database Link

Tuesday, January 29, 2019

Coraline

The story is about the adventures of a little girl called Coraline when she found a secret entrance to a parallel world.

Liked the nice animation but found it a bit scary at times. Guess it celebrates the unique quirks in each one of us!

Internet Movie Database Link

Sunday, January 27, 2019

Sky Ladder: The Art of Cai Guo-Qiang

This is a documentary on how a famous Chinese artist came back to his hometown to complete his dream project.

Liked how the artist explained his works using Chinese history as a backdrop! Nice tribute to his grandmother!

Internet Movie Database Link

Saturday, January 19, 2019

Wall-E

The story is about two robots falling in love with each other and helping humans return back to earth in the process.

Liked how Wall-E made a cosy home for himself despite such difficult conditions! It pays to have spare parts for everything!

Internet Movie Database Link

Sunday, January 13, 2019

The Redeemed and the Dominant: Fittest on Earth

This is a documentary of the 2017 Cross Fit games to find the fittest person on earth.

This felt like a sequel to "Fittest on Earth: A Decade of Fitness", same few athletes but one year older. I learned more about the actual Cross Fit games events in this film.

Internet Movie Database Link

Brave

The story is about how a Scottish princess improved her relationship with her mother through a series of adventures.

Thought this was a precursor to the film Frozen. Both films had someone exiled from the castle and both films were about the love between family members. Liked the action sequences in Brave better but the songs in Frozen better.

Internet Movie Database Link

Thursday, January 10, 2019

Shirkers

The story is about a young woman's memories of an old film that she was making with her friends many years ago.

Liked the scenery of the old streets in Singapore and the scrapbook style of film making!

Internet Movie Database Link

Saturday, January 05, 2019

The Bucket List

The story is about two cancer patients trying to complete their bucket list.

Liked the wonderful places that they visited and how they reconciled with their families before they died!

Internet Movie Database Link

Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things

This is a documentary on how to cut down on the useless things that we buy and to live more simply.

Liked the interviews with the experts as well as the person in the street who practices minimalism. The ending quote "Love people and use things. Not the other way round." was nice too!

Internet Movie Database Link

Angela's Christmas

The story is about what happened during the night of Christmas eve in a small Irish town.

Liked the nice plot with Angela trying to warm up the baby doll! How considerate of her!

Internet Movie Database Link

Thursday, January 03, 2019

Golden Time

The story is about an old television who wants to get out of a dump. His friends are a broken wind-up toy, a spoiled fan and a small chair.

Liked how the old television remembered the good old days where the whole family would gather in front of him! Also liked how someone picked him up when he has already given up trying to leave.

Internet Movie Database Link

Tuesday, January 01, 2019

Fittest on Earth: A Decade of Fitness

This is a documentary of the 2016 Cross Fit games to find the fittest person on earth.

Liked the tough but interesting physical tasks! There were a total of 15 physical tasks completed in 5 days and nothing seems to faze them!

Internet Movie Database Link