Harlan County, USA

This is a documentary about how a group of coal miners in Harlan County organised a strike during the early seventies.

Liked the nice songs and how the camera captured the intimate details of people's lives! Reminded me of a Chinese film "Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks" by Wang Bing that also showed the lives of blue collar workers.

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Repulsion

The story is about how a young woman slowly became crazy at her apartment in London when her sister went on a holiday.

The special effects were pretty good! The weird sounds and strange camera angles helped to make the film more scary!

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Remember Chek Jawa

This is a documentary about how a group of people came together to do a nature survey of Chek Jawa in Pulau Ubin during 2001 so as to appeal against the government's plan to reclaim the area.

Liked the interviews with the people involved and the wonderful animals and plants found in Chek Jawa! The teamwork to do something that one believed in was very commendable!

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Silent Light

The story is about how a religious man suffered over his feelings towards both his wife and another woman.

Pace of the film was really slow but I liked the beautiful Mexican scenery and the nice relationship that the father had with his children! Was quite puzzled by the ending though!

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Marketa Lazarova

The story is set during the dark ages when there was a shift from Paganism to Christianity. The fate of the two rivals, the Kozlik and the Lazar families became intertwined when Mikolas Kozlik abducted Marketa Lazar to be his wife just when she was about to join the convent.

Liked the nice vocal music and the beautiful scenery! The lead nun looked cool, Alexandra the witch looked wild and Marketa looked sweet!

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Pauline at the Beach

The story is about how Pauline and Marion who were cousins spent their holidays at the beach. They met Pierre who was Marion's ex-boyfriend and befriended two other guys Henri and Sylvain.

Liked the interesting dialogues that helped to explain different people's attitudes towards relationships! Thought the director was quite clever to think up a situation that would cause a misunderstanding among the five characters towards the end!

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Reconstruction

The story is about how two young men were brought by a prosecutor, a policeman and a teacher to a restaurant to re-enact their drunken brawl there and have it filmed to show the effects of alcoholism.

Liked the catchy song and the cheerful bikini girl! Thought the director was subtly criticizing the communist society through the small details in the film.

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Shoah

This is a documentary about the Holocaust told through interviews with the eye witnesses. The film title is the Hebrew word for this historical event.

Liked the scenes of the strange looking stones scattered in the camp as they looked beautiful! The analysis by the historian was insightful and I was particularly struck by Filip Muller's moving account of how helpless he felt when he had to help the Germans to send his fellow countrymen to their death!

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Children of Hiroshima

The story is about how the people in Hiroshima coped with their lives after the atomic bombing on 6 August 1945.

Liked the use of flashbacks to contrast life before and after the atomic bombing! The short sequence that depicted the historic event was very well done too!

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Children in the Wind

The story is about how children lived in dysfunctional families. The father of a family was locked up in the police station for suspect fraud, forcing the mother to look for a job and to send her younger son away to a friend's place.

Liked the nice depiction of Japanese life in the thirties! The children seemed to enjoy themselves very much during play and respected their parents at home!

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Peppermint Candy

The story is about a Korean man's life told in reverse from the late nineties to the late seventies. It explains the impact of the Kwangju massacre in May 1980 on his life.

Liked how the story was broken down into episodes and told in reverse chronological order! This made me want to find out more the reason why the man wanted to go back to the past so badly. Quite sad to see how he became such an unlikable character. The female protagonists that appeared in the film all looked not bad though!

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A Tale of the Wind

The story is about an old film director trying to film the wind in China.

Thought it was a little bit abstract but I liked the scene on the moon and the finale that showed an old lady summoning the wind in the desert!

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Bigger Than Life

The story is about a teacher who became more conceited and full of himself when he got addicted to his prescribed drugs to solve a chronic pain. His behavior changed in school and at home with his wife and son.

Liked the nice fifties style costumes worn by the wife and the suspenseful mood! The monologue speeches were interesting and the use of shadows was great!

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No Day Off

The story is about how an Indonesian girl started training to be a maid in Batam and worked with three Singapore families for a few years before returning home to her child.

Liked how the story was told through the point of view of the maid! Thought it should be more balanced though as it showed mostly of how mean the employers were except for the last family. Great acting by the lead actress!

Io Island

The story is about life on an island that was inhabited by many women divers seen through a series of flashbacks.

Liked the nice scenery on the island, the hypnotic drum beat and the strange customs of the people! The flashbacks were particularly effective in fleshing out the character of the protagonist!

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Distant Thunder

The film describes the 1943 famine in Bengal India through a Brahmin family living in a village.

Liked the interesting storyline and the psychological study into human behavior under extreme circumstances! Great acting by the actresses!

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Peter and the Wolf

The story is about a young boy called Peter who lived with his grandfather and had a cat, a bird and a duck as pets. A wolf tried to eat his duck and was caught by him. He released the wolf later when he saw how the local hunters made fun of it.

Liked the nice animation film that was without any dialogue and the live music accompaniment! The cat looked really fat and furry!

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PSTAR Scrabble Games 2010

The PSTAR Scrabble games is an annual event for organisations in the civil service to take part in a friendly game of Scrabble. It was held at the Civil Service Club (Bukit Batok) on 22nd May 2010 from 10am to 5pm. A total of 30 teams took part. MINDEF had one team taking part this year.

Here's my match report, with quizzes marked with [number] and the answers given at the end of the report.

Our first pairing was against Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources (MEWR) team 1.

Game 1: MEWR 1
My first game was against a friendly Malay guy called Samsul. Had pretty good tiles and I led comfortably after I bingoed twice with LOADErS(73) and dRAINED(81). Learnt a new word "COMP" from my opponent. He invited me to challenge the word as he said he was not sure of it too.

Won 455-230. Our team won 3-0.

Next game was against Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) team 1.

Game 2: CAAS 1
My second game was against a petite lady called Karen. I scored well with QAT(31) and JEAN(42). I also bingoed with a ERSSTV? rack while she scored with ZA(34), XI(38) and TREKS(30). There are 5 anagrams with the ERSSTV? rack that begins with "S", two of which are common words.[1]

Won 416-314. Our team won 3-0.

Had free lunch catered for us after our second game. The dishes were not too bad!.

Our third game was against Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) 1.

Game 3: MAS 1
I was paired against Ben who had played in national Scrabble tournaments before. He bingoed twice with RETRACT(78) and OUSTERS(87) while I had one bingo with RETAiNs(68). I had too many vowels in this game and I scored very low points trying to play them off. Lost badly and only reduced a bit of spread difference by my opponent's overtiming by 5 minutes.

Lost 328-458. Our team won 2-1.

Our final game is against Ministry of Education (MOE) 1.

Game 4: MOE 1
I played against Elizabeth who contrasted with Karen from CAAS in terms of size. She looked like she could be a Judo teacher! She had an opening bingo with a EEEPRSW rack[2] while I made many mistakes in this game! I spelled LARVAE as LAVAE* and it was challenged off. I had a DENOR?? rack and I played a phoney REbONDs*(69) which was fortunately not challenged off. I also opened up the triple word score lane late in the game thinking that my opponent may not have the "S" even though there were still two left in the bag. She scored promptly with DISRATE(88) and widened the spread!

Lost 287-499. Our team lost narrowly with 1-2.

In the end, MINDEF 1 came in 4th placing. MOE 1, MOE 2 and NP 1 were the top 3 teams. Had fun seeing so many familiar faces! Hope we could do even better next year!

Quiz answers (highlight to see clearly)

[1] STaRVES, STeRVES, STiVERS, SToVERS, STRiVES
[2] SWEEPER

Only Yesterday

The story is about a girl reminiscing about the past while going to the countryside for a farming holiday.

Liked the interesting childhood anecdotes and the story shown during the ending credits! The illustrations of the background scenery and the references to Haiku reminded me of his later work, "My Neighbors the Yamadas", which I saw a few years back.

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Very Short International Film Festival

Saw "International Selection 1", "International Selection 2", "International Selection 3" and "Local Selection" at the "Very Short International Film Festival". Most of the short films were pretty interesting despite their short length of less than 3 minutes!

I voted for the following films:
International Selection 1: "Bob" and "Great expectations".
International Selection 2: "Stromsparen".
International Selection 3: "The sick boy and the tree", "Telefono" and "Sutphin blvd".
Local Selection favorites: "Emma".

La Strada

The story is about how a young girl, Gelsomina, trained to be the assistant to a performer, Zampano, and they traveled to many different places in his motorcycle van.

Great acting by Giuletta Masina! Liked the surprising twist towards the end as I thought it was particularly touching!

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Intervista

The story is about the daily life at the Italian cinema studio that Fellini worked in. The film title means "Interview" in English and the whole film is conducted in an interview format. Japanese reporters interviewed Fellini and his crew, the actor who acted as a young Fellini interviewed a beautiful actress.

Liked the beautiful sets and the pretty costumes worn by the actresses! The screening of "La Dolce Vita" in Anita Ekberg's home was interesting as the actors and actresses reminisced about their past!

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The Steel Helmet

The story is about a group of American soldiers fighting in the Korean war.

Liked the innovative opening scene and the friendship between the little Korean boy and the veteran Sergeant! It was also interesting to watch how the various personalities among the soldiers interacted!

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Dear Doctor

The story is about how a doctor made an impact on the lives of the villagers in a small town.

Liked how the doctor could treat all his patients as his friend as he had worked there for many years unlike in big hospitals! Everybody had a good impression of him! The plot is interesting with an unexpected twist in the end!

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La Danse: The Paris Opera Ballet

This is a documentary about the Paris Opera Ballet. It shows the dancers practicing and at rehearsals, the administrative work and the various support staff working to make the performances a success.

I realized that there is a lot of hard work done by many people behind each successful performance! Liked both the classical ballet pieces as well as the more abstract contemporary ones! The ballet dancers' costumes looked prettier in the classical ballet pieces but the concept and dance movement is more innovative in the contemporary pieces!

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Singapore Short Film Competition: Finalists

The finalists consists of 7 films: "Que Sera Sera", "Contained", "Sunrise", "Life with Ummu", "Promises in December", "The 25th of Laura" and "Mu Dan".

Liked the autobiographical "Que Sera Sera", the social commentary in "Promises in December" and the philosophical "The 25th of Laura" the best! The stop-motion animation in "Contained", the documentary in "Life with Ummu" and the country-side scenery in "Sunrise" are interesting! Didn't quite understand the story in "Mu Dan" but the visual effects look good!

Mammoth

The story is about how the consumerism culture in America contrasted with the living conditions in Third World countries. This is seen through the relationship of the Filipino maid with a rich American family that she works for, the impact to her family in Philippines and the encounters of the husband in Thailand.

Great acting by Michelle Williams! Liked the nice soundtrack and the beautiful outdoor scenery! I thought both the wife and the husband learnt a lot more about themselves during the period when they were apart.

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Don't Look into the Mirror

The story is about how an artist reacted when he discovered that he could only see other people's images inside the mirror instead of his own.

Had wanted to catch "German Shorts" but I mistakenly remembered that it was screened at Arts House instead of Sinema. This is one of the strangest films that I have watched and it reminded me of another Armenian film, "Colors of Pomegranates", as both films had heavy religious overtones and great visual effects!

Last Train Home

This is a documentary about migrant workers in China focusing on one family.

Was amazed at the huge number of people present at the train station! Liked how the director captured the fragile relationships within the family!

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His and Hers

This is a documentary consisting of interviews with 70 female characters arranged chronologically at their homes.

Thought the concept was pretty interesting as it gives the audience a broad overview of a typical Irish girl/woman and her relationship with her father/husband/children! Got a little bit lost on the thick Irish accent at some instances but I liked the nice soundtrack and the beautiful outdoor and indoor scenery!

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Tears

The story is about a retiring policeman with a dark secret solving a murder mystery of a drug addict.

The costumes worn by Xiao Wen looked very nice and she looked pretty too! Realized the significance of the film title after seeing several characters crying. Each of them was trying to suppress their emotions until it is no longer possible to do so and tears flowed out of their eyes.

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Sex Volunteer

This is shot in part documentary style that described the sexual needs of disabled people and how they can be fulfilled by volunteers.

Liked the provocative discussion of the social issues and the realistic portrayal of the daily life of the disabled people!

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The Baron of Arizona

The story is about a legendary swindler, James Reavis, who spent many years plotting a scheme to take control of the whole of Arizona. He took in a little girl who was an orphan and painstakingly invented a baron ancestry for her by forging documents in various parts of the world.

I was amazed by the effort put in by James to achieve his objectives! I also liked the strong loving relationship between him and his wife!

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The White Sheik

The story is about one day of a couple's honeymoon when everything went wrong. The wife secretly sneaked out to see her idol, an actor who acted as "The White Sheik", but was sent to the acting set very far away by mistake. The husband had to investigate what happened to her and pretend that everything is alright to his relatives.

Thought the script was excellently written by Antonioni! Liked the nice little comedy that was witty and did not rely too much on slap stick!

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My Flesh My Blood

This is a love story between a boxer who is about to die and a Vietnamese illegal immigrant.

Great acting by the boxer! The Vietnamese song sounded quite nice too! Didn't quite agree with the last bit of the boxer's arrangements before his death though.

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I Shot Jesse James

The film is a psychological study of a man called Bob Ford who killed his wanted friend Jesse James in the hope of settling down with his sweet-heart.

Liked the nice song that summarized the whole story and the quick pacing!

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Love Conquers All

The story is about what happened when a girl fell in love with a bad boy while staying with her relatives in the city.

The bespectacled little girl looked quite cute! Thought her story was more interesting than the main storyline! Understood the Malaysian way of life slightly better after watching the film!

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A Single Man

The story is about a day in the life of an English professor when he plans to commit suicide after work as his lover died eight months ago.

Liked the soundtrack and the flashbacks that gradually revealed the professor's past! The slow motion sequences were pretty interesting too! The film also made me want to check out Huxley's "After Many a Summer Dies the Swan", Kafka's "Metamorphosis" and Capote's "Breakfast at Tiffany's" one day.

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The Sun's Burial

The story is about life in the slums of postwar Osaka. People have to rely on their street smart skills to survive as they do not have proper jobs.

Liked the nice song by Takeshi but was quite confused about the complex schemes thought up by Hanoko and the rest of the gang members to make money! Among the few films about postwar Japan that I have seen, I think I enjoyed "Pigs and Battleships" by Imamura and "Gate of Flesh" by Seijun Suzuki better.

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Treeless Mountain

The story is about two sisters who had to cope with their mother's absence when she left home in search of their father. They were first sent to their aunt's place then to their grandparent's place.

Great acting by the two young actresses! Liked the simple story and how the director fleshed out the film with little details! I wonder how tasty the fried grasshoppers were!

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Walkabout

The story is about the adventures of a teenage girl and her younger brother in the Australian Outback when they got lost and met a local aboriginal boy.

I liked the nice scenery of the Australian Outback and the psychological tension among the three people! I found quite a lot of similarities with "Alice in Wonderland". The teenage girl was like Alice in "Alice in Wonderland" walking around in a land filled with strange creatures, the aboriginal boy was like the Mad Hatter who guided her across the land and performed a special dance towards the end. I also liked the poem recitation in both films!

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Alice in Wonderland

The story is adapted from Lewis Carrol's novel "Alice in Wonderland" and "Alice Through the Looking Glass".

Liked how elegant the Cheshire Cat floated and flipped around in the air! The plot was not particularly exciting and the ending was a bit awkward in my opinion but there is an interesting analysis that explains the mathematical background of the story!

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The Class

The story is about school life in France focusing on the interactions between a French teacher and his students who come from a diverse background.

Liked the realistic depiction of the camaraderie among the teachers and the lively discussions in class!

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Color of Pomegranates

The story is about the life of an Armenian poet called Sayat Nova.

Liked the visual aesthetics in the form of colorful costumes and nice props! The plot is near to non-existent but the inter-titles helped me understand what was going on.

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Syndromes and a Century

The film compares the working conditions of doctors working in a rural hospital and those working in a city hospital. The rural hospital is closer to nature and the doctors had a closer relationship with their patients.

A little bit abstract for me as there is not much of a plot. Thought the interview questions were pretty interesting and the songs were nice!

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Up the Yangtze

This is a documentary about people living along the Yangtze river who had to move as the construction of the Three Gorge dam neared completion.

Liked how the director focused his story on one family and contrasted their life with their daughter's life who quit school to work on board of the cruise ship! Nice scenery of the Yangtze river and the dam looks huge, perhaps even bigger than the Marina Barrage!

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72 Tenants of Prosperity

The story is about how the tenants on a street in Hong Kong helped each other in times of crisis.

A little bit messy as the director tried to fit as many big name actors and actresses into the film as possible into the plot but I liked the marketing strategies of the two mobile phone shops! They were pretty innovative!

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Through the Olive Trees

The story is about the process of making a film and describes the actual story of the actor and actress who were victims of an earthquake.

Loved the off-screen speeches by the lead actor, the beautiful Z-shaped path that was carved into the mountain and the final scenes! Don’t really understand why there was a need for so many NG scenes though.

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Memories of Murder

The story is about how the police tried to track down a serial rapist in a small town.

I liked this better than "Mother" as the plot was more focused on making sense of the clues rather than on other miscellaneous sub-plot! Great acting by Song Kang-Ho who was also the lead actor in "The Host"! The final scene expressed what he felt over the whole incident very well!

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The Mad Fox

The story is about how an astrologer became mad and his encounters with a fox.

Liked the interesting plot, nice music and amazing special effects! Really impressed by their set design!

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Germany, Pale Mother

The story is about the life of a German family before, during and after the second World War, narrated by the daughter who was born during an air raid.

Liked the mix of documentary footage and the film as well as the exploration on the effects of war on the human psychology! I thought the hairstyle of the mother looked quite similar to that of Princess Leia from "Star Wars". Wonder if it was a coincidence or a direct influence.

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Burying Old Alive

The story is about life in Korea many years ago when famine was common and there was a custom that required old people to be carried to the top of the mountain to die once they reached seventy years old. People were also more superstitious then and relied heavily on the advice of the shaman.

Liked the interesting storyline and the anti-shaman message! There were several scenes that were completely black except for the subtitles. The audio output was not disrupted though, so it was like watching a radio play. Thought it was a very unique experience!

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A Page of Madness

The story is about a woman who is a patient at psychiatric clinic. Her husband works as a janitor at the clinic and their daughter is getting married.

Liked the interesting special effects and the nice soundtrack! It is a pity that the condition of the film is not too good.

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Boy

The story is about a boy and his dysfunctional family that consisted of him, his father, his step mother and his younger brother.

Liked the weird music in the background and how the boy's introspective character was shaped by his environment! Learnt a little bit more about Japan's society at that time through this film too!

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Le Franc

The story is about a poor musician who is about to be thrown out from his home for not paying his rent but decided to buy a lottery ticket to change his luck.

Liked how the real and fantasy sequences gelled together! The characters were pretty interesting too!

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Always: Sunset on Third Street 2

The story is about life in a small neighborhood in Tokyo during the late fifties.

It was a little bit difficult to identify the characters at first without prior knowledge of the original film but I was able to slowly deduce their relationships along the way. Liked the little stories of the different characters! The young girl who worked at Suzuki Auto looked quite cute with her two ponytails!

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Do the Right Thing

The story is about how a small incident sparked a racial riot in a black neighborhood.

Liked the plot and the interesting characters in the film! Could tell that the director was telling a story close to his heart although I was lost on some of the real life references.

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Mother

The story is about a mother investigating a murder mystery that allegedly was committed by her dim-witted son.

Great acting by the mother! Liked the twists and turns in the murder mystery! Was really taken aback when they revealed who the real killer was!

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A Summer at Grandpa's

The story is about how a young boy and his sister spent their summer holidays at their grandpa's place as their mother was sick in the hospital.

Liked the leisurely countryside life depicted and the interesting characters encountered in the film! Great acting by the two kids!

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Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks - Part 2: Remnants

This is the second part of a trilogy that documents people living in the city of Shenyang before and after their houses were torn down.

Liked how the inhabitants were able to act naturally in front of the camera and spoke freely about what they thought! The songs that they listened to were very nice and the snowy landscape was pretty! Felt that the ending was a bit abrupt though.

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Koko, a Talking Gorilla

This is a documentary about a gorilla who was trained to use sign language to communicate with her trainer.

Liked the philosophical questions raised by the interviewees and watching the everyday life of the gorilla with her trainer! Was impressed by how smart she was!

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The White Balloon

The story is about a young girl who wanted to buy a goldfish for new year but had to ask other people for help when she lost the 500 tomans that her mother gave her.

Liked the interesting storyline and the resourcefulness of the little girl! Quite amazed by how the director managed to inject so much drama in a simple story!

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Not Without You

The story is about a father who brought up his daughter single handedly only to face a series of red tape when he tried to register her for school.

Liked the beautiful black and white cinematography and the cool dream sequence! The ending was nicely executed too!

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Donkey in a Brahmin Village

The story is about what happened when a professor brought a stray donkey home and asked a mute girl in the village to take care of it.

It was interesting to see how the presence of the donkey affected life in the village! Nice satire that showed how the Brahmins were superstitious and intolerant of others!

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Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks - Part 1: Rust

This is the first part of a trilogy that documents the lives of workers in the city of Shenyang before and after they were laid off as the factory went bankrupt.

Liked how the workers were able to act naturally in front of the camera and spoke freely about what they thought! Learnt a bit more about the situation in China through this great documentary! I am already looking forward to the next two parts of the trilogy!

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Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Brussels

The story is about three days in the life of a widowed housewife named Jeanne Dielman who stayed with her son.

Liked the rhythmic sound of the protagonist opening and closing the doors as well as switching on and off the lights! I was impressed by how organised and neat she was! The dishes that she made on screen looked delicious too!

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The Name of a River

The story is an autobiography of an influential Indian director called Ritwik Ghatak done in an abstract mythical style.

Liked the nice songs in the film but wished that I had more background knowledge on the Indian history and fables to understand the film even better!

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Scenes of City Life

The story is about life in Shanghai during the mid thirties.

Liked the special sound effects in the film! It was interesting to gain an insight into the thoughts of young people during that time!

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Nazarin

The story is about a priest living in a rural Mexican village during the early twentieth century. He tried to live a holy life but this caused unexpected conflicts as it was against social norms.

Liked the interesting story and the ambiguous ending! Not really sure if the priest was a fool or simply a religious fanatic though.

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Humanity and Paper Balloons

The story is about the plight of poor people during the Tokugawa era. One of them was the wife of a ronin and she makes cheap paper balloons at home.

Liked the interesting plot but was depressed by the pessimistic view of life!

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The Cow

The story is about a young man's love for his cow and what happened when he discovered that it was missing one day. The cow had died but the villagers tried to hide the truth from him.

Liked the interesting depiction of the rural life in an Iranian village! I could tell that the young man really loved his cow through his interaction with it!

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Daybreak

The story is about a young girl who moved to Shanghai together with her boyfriend during the early thirties. Their boss was rich and powerful and he often abused his power.

Liked the flashbacks of the couple's happier moments and the actress's nice smile!

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And Quiet Rolls the Dawn

The story is about one family's daughter who was suspected to be missing when she did not return home from work as usual and its impact on the neighborhood.

This was a late seventies film, so there was no mobile phone for the daughter to call home during that time. Liked the social commentary on the role of women in Indian society and the depiction of a typical daily life at the rural Indian neighborhood!

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Black Girl

The story is about an African woman coming to France to work as a maid and how she felt about it.

Liked the voice-over narration that described the protagonist's feelings! A little bit shocked by the ending though. This would make great teaching material for new maids and their potential employers!

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The Girl Who Sold the Sun

The story is about how a handicapped girl decided to work in the city by selling newspapers whose title is "The Sun".

Learnt a bit more about the lives of street children in Africa! Was impressed by the little girl's optimism and resourcefulness!

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Nine Days of One Year

The story is about the struggles of a group of nuclear scientists in Russia during the sixties.

Liked the speech on the role of war in advancing science and vice versa! The inner monologue of the workaholic scientist's wife was interesting too!

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The Bakery Girl of Monceau

This is the first part of the "Six Moral Tales" series by Eric Rohmer. The rest of the films in the series are "Suzanne's Career", "My Night at Maud's", "La Collectionneuse", "Claire's Knee" and "Love in the Afternoon".

The story is about how a young man befriended a beautiful girl whom he always bump into in the street. The beautiful girl disappeared mysteriously without leaving her contact number. The young man roamed the streets in search for her and he became a regular customer of a bakery in the process as he wanted to save time on his meals. Will not reveal too much of the rest of the story but he eventually faced a moral choice in the end.

Liked the narration that described the thoughts of the protagonist! The pastry in the bakery looked really delicious!

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The House is Black

This is a documentary about lepers living in Iran. Their condition is described alternately between a man narrating facts and a woman reciting poetry.

Liked the sound of poetry and how it matched the images shown! The ending was pretty good as it showed how the children of the lepers felt about their parents!

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Astro Boy

The story is about a robot made in the image of a scientist's son who died in an accident. This is an adaptation of a Japanese manga and TV series.

The protagonist looked quite cute with his big eyes and spiky hair! Was inspired to check out the TV series online after watching the film and I found the TV series to be even more interesting! The soundtrack and the storyline are both even nicer!

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Crimson Gold

The story is about the life of a pizza delivery man in Iran. The title referred to the jewelery that he wanted to buy from a shop but was humiliated by the owner who felt that he could not afford it.

Liked "The Mirror" better as it was more unpredictable. Felt a little bit bored with the protagonist who had a monotonous job. The pizza looked delicious though! Maybe that was part of the reason why he became so fat!

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The Ritual

The story is about how a single woman hides her pregnancy by staying in the temple but eventually had to be evicted when people in the village found out about it.

Liked the anthropological approach to explain the unreasonableness of the caste system in India! The protagonist violated social norms but was kind towards the untouchables. The senior Brahmin students knew the rituals by heart but physically tormented their junior. Great performance by the lead actress!

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The Green Ray

The story is about a woman who went on a vacation by herself. She has just broken up with her fiance and hoped to start a new relationship.

Was quite puzzled as to what the green ray represented until towards the end of the film and everything pieced together quite nicely! This film reminded me of films by Hong Sang Soo with its theme of a lonely person, episodic structure and seemingly random dialogue!

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The Song of Sparrows

The story is about how a middle aged man working in an ostrich farm was fired and accidentally found work in the city as a motorcycle driver. His family life suffered in the process.

Liked "Children of Heaven" better as the protagonist was a really unlikable guy, shouting at his kids for no reason at all most of the time! Hope no animal was hurt making this film!

Internet Movie Database Link

Hunger

The story is about a talented writer struggling to survive in the city. He is poor but still tries to live with dignity.

Liked the interesting dream sequences especially the one with the dog!

Internet Movie Database Link

The Human Condition

This is a trilogy about the life of a young man who tries to follow his principle of treating people with kindness despite the harsh wartime conditions. He was first a coal-mine supervisor at Manchuria towards the end of World War II, became a soldier and finally ended up as a prisoner of war in Russia.

Liked how the movie traced the protagonist's life against the bigger historical background! As he was thrown into different situations, he tried his best to stick to his principles despite the circumstances. Was pleasantly surprised to see Chishu Ryu and Hideko Takamine guest starring towards the end!

I: No Greater Love IMDB Link
II: The Road to Eternity IMDB Link
III: A Soldier's Prayer IMDB Link

The Adjuster

The story is about the life of an adjuster, a person who investigates insurance claims and recommends an effective settlement. His wife has a job at the Board of Censors and they live in a show-flat together with his sister-in-law and son.

Don't really like the director's films as he tends to break a story apart into many fragments like a jig-saw puzzle and challenges the audience to piece them up together. I was puzzled until after the Q&A session. I thought it was technically pretty clever but didn't feel connected to any of the characters.

Internet Movie Database Link

A Moment of Innocence

The story is about a film director recreating a scene twenty years ago when he injured a policeman who was distracted by his cousin.

Liked how the whole film making process was shown together with the actual story and the philosophical dialogue! The director's daughter looked quite cute and the cousin looked quite pretty! Wasn't really sure what to expect for the ending but I thought it was very appropriate despite being a bit abrupt!

Internet Movie Database Link

Strange Circus

The story is about how the dark secrets of a Japanese family came back to haunt each of their members many years later.

Liked the flowery lines spoken in the narration and was deeply affected by the psychological impact on both mother and daughter as a result of the father's tyranny over them! A good mix of dreams and reality also provided several interesting twists to the film!

Internet Movie Database Link

Mary and Max

The story is about the friendship of two pen pals: one was a little girl from Melbourne named Mary, the other was a middle aged Jewish man from New York named Max who suffered from Asperger’s Syndrome.

Liked the interesting storyline and the narration! Nice soundtrack too!

Internet Movie Database Link

Waltz with Bashir

This is an animated war documentary about how Israeli forces played a part in the Sabra-Shatila massacre following the assassination of the Lebanon President, Bashir Gameyel, in 1982.

Liked the dream sequences and the soundtrack! Learnt a little bit about the Lebanon war from this film!

Internet Movie Database Link

Usavitch Seasons 1-3

Each season of "Usavitch" consists of 13 episodes and they are shown on MTV Asia. The story is about the adventures of two rabbits trapped in a Russian prison.

Liked the fast paced action that fits the exciting MTV style image! The plot is innovative and funny! Learnt from the Q&A that the director liked "Tom and Jerry" when he was young. Think he might have got some of his inspiration from there!

Official Site

Ornamental Hairpin

This film is part of the "Travels with Hiroshi Shimizu" Eclipse boxset that consisted of "Japanese Girls at the Harbor", "Mr. Thank You", "The Masseurs and a Woman" and "Ornamental Hairpin".

The story is similar to "The Masseurs and a Woman" but with a slight twist. A soldier is injured by a hairpin dropped by a mysterious woman from Tokyo who traveled back to apologize and spent many days at the small inn in the mountains where she made many new friends.

Liked the interesting characters like the professor and the two enthusiastic grandsons! A little doubtful that the recovery of the soldier's foot was due to his daily self-designed physiotherapy routine though. The final scene reminded me of "When a Woman Ascends the Stairs" by Mikio Naruse!

Internet Movie Database Link

The Masseurs and a Woman

This film is part of the "Travels with Hiroshi Shimizu" Eclipse boxset that consisted of "Japanese Girls at the Harbor", "Mr. Thank You", "The Masseurs and a Woman" and "Ornamental Hairpin".

The story is about a blind masseur's encounter with a mysterious woman from Tokyo at a small inn in the mountains.

Liked the beautiful mountain scenery and the interesting relationship among the masseur, the woman and another young man! The dialogues were very nicely scripted and revealed what each character was thinking about!

Internet Movie Database Link

Mr. Thank You

This film is part of the "Travels with Hiroshi Shimizu" Eclipse boxset that consisted of "Japanese Girls at the Harbor", "Mr. Thank You", "The Masseurs and a Woman" and "Ornamental Hairpin".

The story is about a bus driver who travels from the rural village to Tokyo. He is nicknamed Mr. Thank You as he is very polite and says "Thank You" to people or cars who block his way so that he can overtake them.

Liked the nice countryside scenery and the different kinds of people who sat on the bus! Quite amazed that he knew some of the passengers by name and even helped them with small errands like passing messages or buying the latest music records in town! I would give him full marks for his service attitude! He was not so conscientious about safety though as there were a few scenes where he used the rear-view mirror to check on his passengers rather than on incoming traffic.

Internet Movie Database Link

For all mankind

The documentary is about the experiences of astronauts from the US travelling to the moon on the Apollo series rockets.

Liked how the director pieced together one coherent story with audio commentaries inserted at the right places! I could see what they went through and hear what they felt about it twenty years later all at the same time! My favorite scenes would be the majestic lift-off sequence, the earth rising on the moon and the astronauts happily jumping around on the moon!

Internet Movie Database Link

Japanese Girls at the Harbor

This film is part of the "Travels with Hiroshi Shimizu" Eclipse boxset that consisted of "Japanese Girls at the Harbor", "Mr. Thank You", "The Masseurs and a Woman" and "Ornamental Hairpin".

The story is about the life of two Yokohama girls who were very good friends in school. Sunako was exiled and returned years later as a fallen woman while Dora married Sunako's ex-boyfriend, Henry. The title of the film came about because Yokohoma is a port city with a big harbor.

Was fiddling with the audio option for the DVD and found that there was a soundtrack option for this silent film but decided that the experience was much better without any soundtrack! Liked the nice scenery and the complex relationship among the three leads: Sunako, Dora and Henry!

Internet Movie Database Link

PSTAR Scrabble Games 2009

The PSTAR Scrabble games is an annual event for organisations in the civil service to take part in a friendly game of Scrabble. It was held at the Civil Service Club on 26th Sep 2009 from 10am to 5pm. A total of 27 teams took part. MINDEF had one team taking part this year.

Here's my match report, with quizzes marked with [number] and the answers given at the end of the report.

Our first pairing was against People's Association (PA) team 1.

Game 1: PA 1
My first game was against a girl named Le Yi. Both of us had one bingo each. I had STOURIE(78) while she had REqUIRED(77). I managed to beat her as she went overtime by 3 minutes and made many simple phoneys like IX* and NEZ*.

Won 417-231. Our team won 3-0.

Next game was against Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) team 1.

Game 2: MHA 1
My second game was against a guy from the police force named Cho. Both of us had one bingo each. I had LEAFIEST(62) while he had SPINNER(83). He was leading by 65 points at one point but I managed to turn the tide around by phoneying successfully with FARK* and REVE* while catching his phoneys such as AXER*, ETE* and CUD*. He also went overtime by 10 minutes and this gave me a bigger spread.

Won 444-220. Our team won 3-0.

Had free lunch catered for us after our second game. The dishes were not too bad but the paper plates were much smaller compared to last year! Didn't really feel full after that.

Our third game was against Ministry of Education (MOE) 1.

Game 3: MOE 1
I was paired against Vincent who was a Masters player but he claimed that he was getting rusty at the game. Both of us had one bingo each. I had RELEASER(75) while he had dITCHES(87). My opponent was trailing by 69 points towards the end with ADIMNT? on his rack. He could have won if he managed to bingo across the triple score lane front hooking to an existing AA on the board [1] but he phoneyed with MATINeD* instead and lost. Lucky for me!

Won 384-347. Our team won 3-0.

Our final game is against Land Transport Authority (LTA) 2.

Game 4: LTA 2
I played against Jimmy. He opened with DOZER(39) and scored heavily later with XI(60). He also had two bingos: IsOLATE(68) and MARKETS(88) against my INVERTS(75). Had many uninspired plays and chickened out of a bingo with a DDGINOS rack[2] as I was not sure of the word. Think everything went downhill after I decided to play off DO instead.

Lost 329-474. Our team lost narrowly with 1-2.

In the end, MINDEF 1 came in 4th placing among the top category teams. Had fun seeing so many familiar faces! Hope we could do even better next year!

Quiz answers (highlight to see clearly)

[1] MeDIANT
[2] SODDING

Tokyo Sonata

The story is about a Japanese family that is gradually falling apart after the father was retrenched.

Liked how the film captured the tension among the family members and the plight of the unemployed! The dream sequence and the scenes where the couple each expressed the desire to start all over again were pretty well done!

Internet Movie Database Link

Moebius

The story is about how a topologist helped to solve the mystery of a missing train in the subway station.

A little disappointed as I thought there would be a lot of special effects to explain the subway blueprints and the mathematical principles behind them. Not much action on the missing train itself too!

Internet Movie Database Link
Auteurs Link

I Love Beijing

The film describes the life in Beijing through a taxi driver who drives around the bustling city and meets different kinds of people everyday.

Liked how various characters such as a waitress, a librarian, a rich socialite and a poor countryside girl are weaved into the taxi driver's life to give an in-depth look at the social problems in Beijing!

Internet Movie Database Link
Auteurs Link