Casino Royale

The story is about James Bond who is a spy from England, tracking down the identity of a bad guy who finances terrorists around the world.

Very exciting chase sequence at the start! The small fry bad guy is really good at jumping from one place to another! A bit disappointed with the lack of new gadgets though. Seems like the handphone, the notebook and the car are sufficient for any spy's needs. The leading lady looks not too bad and the poker action at the casino is reasonably exciting!

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Rhythm Is It!

This is a documentary about how the Berlin Philharmonic collaborated with 250 youngsters from the ages of eight to early twenties to perform the classical piece, "Rite of Spring", by Stravinsky together. The Berlin Philharmonic played the music while the youngsters danced to the rhythm.

Interesting to see the youngsters at the dance rehearsals! They were taught by two very experienced artistes who knew how exactly to bring out the best of these young people who are distracted at times. As a result of their coaching, they became more disciplined and were motivated to test themselves beyond their limits! Their original teachers on the other hand were clearly not as good motivators and would give in when they see their students struggling.

Nice music by Stravinsky! Good that the conductor explained the background story to the music! I finally understood what it meant after hearing it several years ago in the library. It was a piece that I randomly picked that I thought would be relaxing as it contained the word "Spring" in it. The final music and dance performance also blended very well together!

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49 Up

This is a documentary about the lives of a group of 49-year old English men and women that started 42 years ago in 1964 when they were 7 years old. The director would produce one documentary every seven years and call it the 7x Up (where x = 1 to 7).

Interesting to see how the lives of these people change over time! We cheer for them when they do well and feel sad for them when they do not so well. I especially like the black and white footages of the time when they were seven years old. They look cute and their comments were humorous!

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Robokon

The story is about what goes into preparing for a robot contest. Satomi joins the school's second robot club to earn extra credits. Their team is very small with only the captain, the chief designer and a mechanic but they are innovative and worked well as a team as time passes.

Quite coincidental that I was playing Jenga just before watching the film as the contest is about robots stacking up blocks. Two teams play against each other at any one time. Each robot has three empty spots to stack their blocks and only the top most block at the end of the time limit scores a point. The team loses a point if it causes the opponent's blocks to fall while trying to stack on top of it.

Was thinking that it might be boring to see robots stack blocks but I couldn't be more wrong! The competition is very exciting with each team cracking their brains to outwit each other! Was totally engrossed by it! I realised that the performance of the machine is only part of the success formula. The ability to think up good strategy to counter the opponent's moves and to improvise when facing unexpected problems contribute to the other parts!

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Minds Cafe Outing

Had a few friendly Scrabble games at Minds Cafe with players from CPF. Think we used up all their Scrabble boards with six CPF players and four DSTA players all playing at the same time! They had three Scrabble boards and one party Scrabble board. Four of us played party Scrabble while the rest of us played standard Scrabble without the timer. Hmm, maybe should ask if they have timers, dictionaries and score sheets the next time.

My first game was with Mr Lai from CPF. Had a very closed board and might have won if I didn't miss one bingo but I lost eventually by a narrow margin.



Second game was with the CPF captain. Lost to him two years ago, so this was my chance to take revenge! My tiles were quite good and I managed to bingo twice and win!



After that, we played Jenga whose objective is to remove one block from the bottom of a pile of blocks and place it on top without causing everything to collapse. Not too challenging as the blocks seem quite stable.

Walked towards National Museum after the game to catch the Japanese Film Festival which is free of charge.

Grimm

The story is loosely adapted from the "Hansel and Gretel" fairy tale. A brother and sister are deserted by their family in a forest. They made their way to Spain to find their Uncle but discovered that he is dead. Then, the sister married a rich surgeon and invited the brother to stay with them in a big mansion. Many strange things happened after that.

Liked the modern twist to the fairy tale and its many funny moments! It is very much darker though.

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Little Red Flowers

The story is about a little boy, Qiang's stay in a kindergarten and his relationship with the rest of the kids and the teachers. The teacher gives little red flowers to kids who behave well and he longs for them too although he finds it hard to conform to the strict rules.

Pretty interesting to see a day in the life of the kindergarten kids! The day starts with the children waking up and changing their clothes. Then, they go to the toilet together to get rid of the previous day's waste. Quite surprised to see the so called toilet is a narrow stretch of drain that can accomodate more than ten kids squatting down in line simultaneously! The day ends with the teacher wiping the bottom of every kid and sending them to bed. Liked how the process of removing one's clothes as well as wearing socks and shoes is broken down into many detailed steps and presented as a poem!

Great acting by the kids! I got to see the social dynamics and how a non-conformist thinks and feels. Liked how the film mixed reality and Qiang's perception of it seamlessly! Nice ending too!

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Werckmeister Harmonies

The story is about how the lives of the people in a small village changed when a whale came to visit in a giant truck. The film begins with a group of drunkards in a bar and the protagonist explains how the sun, the earth and the moon behaves by asking each person to act the role. From the movements of the planets, he explains how a solar eclipse occurs and how animals become irrational during the eclipse period but returns to normal behaviour after that.

Very nice opening as it gives a hint of what is to follow! The protagonist walked from one place to another to run errands and in the process, he discovered that people are gathering in the square and acting mysteriously due to the presence of the whale. Liked the black and white cinematography and the long takes that slowly uncovered the truth! I also liked how the film made us accompany the protagonist along his journey! WH reminds me of "Songs from a Second floor" by Roy Andersson which has a similar theme with equally long takes.

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Little Miss Sunshine

The story is about how a family travelled across the country so that the little daughter can participate in the "Little Miss Sunshine" competition. Along the way, there are conflicts among the family members but they work well together too!

The little daughter look quite cute in the over-sized spectacles! Liked how the family members overcame their differences and worked together towards a common goal!

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The Thunder of the Mountain

The story is about a Japanese family that is falling apart. The wife's husband is having an affair and the little sister is leaving her husband. Only the father tries hard to pull everyone together.

Didn't understand how the husband can be so cold and distant when the wife maintains her smile and cares for the family! The home imprisons the wife within instead of becoming a safe haven for her. The whole film is so sad that I felt indifferent about the characters as they are so helpless. Liked the family warmth displayed by the father towards his daughter-in-law though.

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Akeelah and the Bee

The story is about how a young girl, Akeelah Anderson, tries to make it to the National Spelling Bee. She comes from a single parent family but she is very good at spelling and playing Scrabble! The school principal knows about her talents and asks a very strict English Professor to coach her. While preparing for the competition, Akeelah has to manage her relationship with her friends, her mother, her siblings and everyone who knows her.

I am already familiar with the rules of the game as I saw a National Spelling Bee documentary, "Spellbound", a few years ago but it is still exciting to watch the kids trying to spell difficult words! I like the human touch in the film! This can be seen in the unconventional methods used by the coach and how Akeelah treats the people around her. It is also funny at times and educational to see unfamiliar words being spelled or being played at a Scrabble game. I learnt new words like FUCHSIA, SOUCHONG, XANTHOSIS*, LOGORRHEA, PLACEBO and LIMN!

I like the ending too that had an interesting twist to it! It made me understand what true sportsmanship is!

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The Banquet

The story is loosely adapted from Hamlet but the settings has changed to China during the warlord period. The film describes the complex relationship among the members of the royal family and members of one of the minister's family.

Quite a violent film! I had expected more erotic scenes with Zhang Ziyi and less violence! Liked the nice songs and the beautiful costumes! The imperial guards looked just like mini Darth Vaders in their uniform while the court ladies looked very pretty in their dresses! Interesting study into human behaviour and office politics too!

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The Host

The story is about how man's action created a monster in the river that in turn disrupts the lives of the people staying near it. In particular, the film focuses on a family who stays in a trailer selling food stuff.

Was quite surprised to find out that the first scene where an employee was ordered to pour chemicals into the drain was based on a real incident! The monster looked like an ugly fish but it is as agile as a monkey! Liked how the family stayed together throughout the crisis and how it depicted the authorities ignoring the voice of ordinary folks!

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Singapore Dreaming

The story is about the life and dreams of a Singapore family that consists of an old couple, their son, their daughter and their son-in-law. Their son also has a girlfriend who lives with them but they are not married yet.

Liked how the film showed the everyday life of Singaporeans. Great acting by the main actors and actresses! Its funny and sad at the same time!

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Isabella

The story is set in Macau, just before Portugal's handover back to China. It describes the budding relationship between a young teenage girl and her father who is a policeman. Her mother has brought her up singlehandedly without the father's knowledge.

I liked the nice music and the beautiful scenery of Macau! Quite interesting to see how the father and daughter interacted with each other after many year's of absence!

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ISBG Scrabble Games

The ISBG Scrabble games is held every two years, for statutory boards to take part in a friendly game of Scrabble. It was held at the LTA Staff Club on 2nd September 2006 from 10am to 4.30pm.

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

Our first game was against CPF which was the team that I most wanted to play with!

Game 1: CPF
My opponent was a jovial girl whose name was June. She claimed to be new to the game but she is pretty quick at calculating the scores! I calculated the score for one word wrongly as I mistook the double letter score to be a triple letter score and she promptly pointed out the mistake.

Had a pretty easy time as I scored well with ZEIN(69), HOMES(42), QI(36), WEN(39) and GOY(35). I also bingoed with PANTeRS(70) and got away with LICY*. My opponent had no bingos and none of her words scored more than 30 points. It was only after the game that she found out that LICY* was a phoney and she shouted "Ni Pian Wo!" at me subsequently. Was quite embarassed as I was worried that people might wonder what serious sins I have committed for her to say that!



Won my first game with 488 to 233. My team also won the match 3-2!

Our second game was against EDB. One of the players was my school mate!

Game 2: EDB
My opponent started strongly with FAH(31) after I put down OYE. Then I started to lead when I bingoed with EVASION(82). I scored well with KIB(30), FOE(35), MAZE(40), JARrED(58) and OX(36). Was challenged for ONY when I front hooked OX to an existing NY. Heard my opp remark the phrase "ONY is only in Collins" several times to himself when the challenge was unsuccessful.

Made a mistake of opening up the board and allowed my opponent to narrow the spread with a bingo of UNGATEd(78) but I still managed to win.



Won my second game with 454 to 300. Our team also won the match 3-2.

Lunch was provided by the organisers. It was not very good! After lunch, my third draw resulted in my team playing against NP. An important match for us as a win would guarantee at least a second place.

Game 3: NP
I was matched against Winston Gwee whom I have played several times before. Our scores were very close when he bingoed with DiVINES(76) and I bingoed with STORIES(77). I widened the gap when he tried twice to form a bingo with an ENRTTU? rack but was unsuccessful. He tried STUNTERs* and OUTRENTs* but both were challenged off. There are two 7-letter bingos if we treat the blank as an S[1] and two 8-letter bingos through a floating S[2] with the blank as something else which he failed to see.

I got the Q, X and Z very late in the game but was lucky to be able to put all of them down thanks to a phoney that my opp put down which I chose not to challenge. He formed WED/NUD* which allowed me to form WIZ and then QAID later. Would definitely have lost if I had to eat both the Q and the Z which would minus 40 points from my score instead of scoring more than 50 points with them.



Won my third game with 414 to 359. Our team lost the match narrowly 2-3.

Our final game was once again against EDB. They had one player short, so it was important that our lineup does not result in our best player playing against the missing player. I made a bad choice of lineup and the exact thing that we wanted to avoid happened!

Game 4: EDB
My score had been decreasing consistently since the first game while my opponent's score had been increasing consistently. Somehow had the feeling that I might lose this game.

My opp bingoed with HALVERS(78) and I almost caught up when I bingoed with ELATiON(68). Was plaqued with consonants after that and I lost inspiration on what to do. Tried to open up but my opp extended his lead when he bingoed with DUCTiLE(83). Played badly and made many low scoring moves to end the game.



Lost the last game 342-439. Our team lost 2-3 and came in 7th. We managed to play with the eventual 1st and 3rd place winners which were NP and EDB respectively. A pity that we lost in the 3rd game, otherwise we might be able to play with the 2nd place winners, NUS as well!


Quiz answers (Highlight to see clearly):

[1] ENTRUsT, NUTTERs
[2] STENToUR, STRUNTEd

Crazy Stone

The story is about a group of people trying to steal a precious jade from the exhibition hall while the security guard tries ways and means to prevent that from happening.

Liked the quick MTV-style pacing and the interesting plot that linked the different characters very neatly together! The security guard made pretty good use of his limited resources while the bad guys had many tricks up their sleeves! They engage in a battle of wits and skill together which is exciting to watch!

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The Lake House

The story is about how two people are able to communicate with each other despite being separated by a two year gap through a magical post box. This is an adaptation from the Korean film "Il Mare" which starred Jeon Ji Hyun who is the main actress in "My Sassy Girl".

Knew how the story would develop as I had seen "Il Mare" before. So, I wasn't surprised by some of the twists and turns in the plot. It was interesting to see Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock collaborate together again since "Speed"! This film is much more quieter than "Speed" but their chemistry remains!

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Mano Po

Saw this Fillipino film at the ASEAN film festival at GV Marina. The story is about the struggles of a Chinese Fillipino family to stay together and to preserve their language and tradition.

The story is interesting especially the parts where they showed the grandmother's encounters in China with her in-laws! Learnt quite a bit about Fillipino history and social situation from this film! Great acting by the actresses!

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The Cloud-capped Star

The story is about how the eldest daughter of an Indian family picked up the burden of supporting the family and many unfortunate things happened.

Nice songs and the main actress looked quite pretty! Quite a sad story though as it talks about the sacrifices that she made for the family. Learnt that the director was particularly influenced by the Partition and an Indian poet Tagore. Think Tagore writes pretty good song lyrics!

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