Scrabble Nationals 2007 (Day One)

Had not played in tournaments for around half a year but decided to take part in the Nationals to prepare for the upcoming PSTAR games in August. This year's tournament is at a new venue at Toa Payoh West CC.

Game 1: vs Dexter Chew
My first opponent was against a young boy who is Alvin Seo's junior from Bukit Panjang High school. He appeared quite nervous and told himself aloud to be calm several times. Guess the very cold aircon didn't help too. Managed to win by scoring two bingos and closing up the board. His last rack was EHIRST? but had no place to play it but he tried to hook to several places to form phoneys and I challenged them off in the process.

New words learnt: TYRAN
My Bingos: PETTIES(76), NUMERATE(71) Opp Bingos: -
My Phoneys: - Opp Phoneys: ABAY*, TEV*, ARAGED* TCOB* SCOB*
My High Moves: - Opp High Moves: TYRAN(51), ZOA(32)
W 472-209, +263. 1W 0L (Accum spread +263).

Game 2: vs Ashley
My second game was with Ashley whom I have played twice before and lost in both occasions. The score was very close until I tried to do a set up by placing CAN on the board. Two blanks and one S had been played while I had two of the remaining three S. Thought it should be quite certain that the remaining S is in the bag but turned out that he had it on his rack and he scored with WISP(30). The remaining game went downhill after that.

New words learnt: VOLAR
My Bingos: UNTILED(90) Opp Bingos: ROADIES(69), SEDITION(80)
My Phoneys: HEG* Opp Phoneys: VIB*
My High Moves: KEF(31), JOG(37), XI(37), PYA(35) Opp High Moves: WISP(35), ZEL(32)
L 369-464, -95. 1W 1L (Accum spread +168).

Game 3: vs Arul
Was glad to meet Arul for my third game as I knew he had very good board equipment! Had this bad feeling when I once again played a vertical CAN on the board. True enough, Arul scored heavily with a DOZIEST(127) bingo followed by FLATWARE(69). He had a few other high scoring moves and thrashed me by almost 200 points.

New words learnt: DOZIEST, FLATWARE
My Bingos: - Opp Bingos: DOZIEST(127), FLATWARE(69)
My Phoneys: - Opp Phoneys: -
My High Moves: EXIT(31), AURAS(30), QAT(30) Opp High Moves: ICING(31), APSO(41), TEARY(30), VIRAL(30)
L 312-498,-186. 1W 2L (Accum spread -18).

Game 4: vs Catherine
Had played Catherine many times and I lost more often than I won. Managed to score well with KEXES(59) although I was unsure of it. Later got away with JAIS*(72) by back hooking JAI with RATIONS(72). Was leading by a comfortable margin but left too many bingo lanes open though and Catherine closed the gap with two bingos near the end of the game.

New words learnt: NUTTERS, SILLERS
My Bingos: RATIONS(72) Opp Bingos: NUTTERS(72), SILLERS(90)
My Phoneys: JAIS*(72) Opp Phoneys: STUNTER*
My High Moves: LIEN(37), KEXES(59) Opp High Moves: -
W 443-423, +20. 2W 2L (Accum spread +2).

Finished day 1 with 2 wins and 2 losses in 10th position.

The New Taira Clan

The story is about the rise of Samurais through the Taira family in ancient Japan when monks are well respected and abused their authority.

Learnt a bit about the social conditions at that time. Young master Taira has really thick eye brows!

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Nancy Drew

The story is about how a young girl who likes to solve mysteries got herself involved in yet another mystery.

Pretty impressed by Nancy Drew who excels in all areas of her schoolwork! She is also polite, likes to help people and has very good dress sense! Liked the way the interesting mystery was unravelled and the delicious pastries presented!

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Repast

The story is about how a wife got tired of her household chores when her husband's niece came to visit them and went back to her parent's place to reflect about her situation.

Liked the voice over narration, the outdoor sequences and how the relationship of the couple developed! The actress looked convincing as the overworked wife!

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Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer

The story is about how a team of super heroes named the Fantastic Four saved the world and their encounters with an alien named the Silver Surfer.

Liked the little quarrels among the team and how they managed to stick together to solve their problems together in the end! Nice special effects too!

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Miss Oyu

The story is about a man falling in love with a widowed woman named Miss Oyu but marries her sister instead.

Liked how the film explained the relationship among the three people and how their actions are affected by people's attitude at that time! Was also impressed by the nice black and white cinematography and the fluid camera action that followed the characters around!

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The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

The story is about a girl who discovered that she could travel back in time by leaping forward.

A charming film that describes the girl's everyday life at school and at home in great detail! The theme "Time waits for no one" comes across very nicely too!

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Ghost Rider

The story is adapted from a comic book about a rider who serves the devil to eliminate his violent son.

Nice special effects! The skull on fire looks cool!

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Wild Hogs

The story is about four middle aged friends going on a road trip around United States on their motorcycles.

Interesting trip where they meet all sorts of people! Marisa Tomei who acted as the waitress looked quite cute! The action sequences are exciting too!

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Music and Lyrics

The story is about how a once popular boy band member discovers that his gardener had great lyric writing talent and cooperated with her to make a new song.

Interesting to see how the creative process evolved! Nice dance choreography by the singer whom the song is meant for too!

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Zodiac

This is based on a true story about a serial killer who taunts the police by forcing the newspaper to publish articles about himself in the 70s.

There was too much information overload and didn't manage to understand who the potential suspects were. A bit too draggy to my liking.

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Bubble Fiction: Boom or Bust

The story is about how a young girl travelled back in time to the early 90s to maintain Japan's economic bubble by stopping the economic minister from releasing a particular news.

Interesting and funny film! Was kept in suspense throughout on how everything would end!

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Bridge to Terabithia

The story is about how two classmates became good friends and how they discovered a secret hideout that they named Terabithia.

Liked the depiction of school life and how the friendship evolved over time! The lead actor's sister looks quite cute! Also liked the nice ending!

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After This Our Exile

The story is about the relationship between a father and a son living in Malaysia. The father has a wife who left him because he was a loser. The son chose to stay with his dad even though his mum is financially better off.

Chose to watch this two days before Father's day because of its theme. Realised that Aaron Kwok can act pretty well! The son did a very good job too! Liked the scenery at the countryside and the emotional build up to the final scene!

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D.O.A: Dead or Alive

The story is adapted from an X-box game "Dead or Alive" and is about how a group of martial arts expert are invited to take part in a martial arts competition on an island where the top prize is US$10 million.

Very impressive martial arts choreography! Also liked how the lead actresses worked well together as a team!

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The Crucified Lovers

The story is about how a young wife of a wealthy miserly scroll-maker leaves home with one of the most hardworking workers and falls in love with him in the process. The custom of the time in 17th century Kyoto was to nail adulterous couples on the cross which is how the title comes about.

Liked the nice black and white cinematography and the detailed description of the social conditions in Japan at that time! Very well written storyline that explains how one event leads to another! The lead actress, Kyoko Kagawa, looks a bit like local actress Evelyn Tan.

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Gion Festival Music

The story is about life as a geisha in Japan through the eyes of two geishas who have both a teacher-apprentice and a sisterly relationship.

The second film in the Mizoguchi DVD box set that I watched. The rest of the films in the 8-disc box set are: "New Tales of the Taira Clan", "The Crucified Lovers", "Miss Oyu", "Sansho the Bailiff", "Ugetsu" and "The Life of Oharu".

Realised that geishas have to undergo rigorous training in playing musical instrument and dance before they can graduate but their actual job hardly require much of those skills. Learnt that it is more to build up their character and make them more feminine. Story is interesting and I liked the great acting by the two lead actresses!

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Maya Deren Experimental Films

The DVD consists of several short films by avant garde film director Maya Deren: "Meshes of the Afternoon", "At Land", "A Study in Choreography for Camera", "Ritual in Transfigured Time", "Meditation on Violence", "The Very Eye of Night".

Got this at the World Book Fair as I wanted to see what avant garde film is all about. Thought "Meshes of the Afternoon" and "At Land" were abstract but pretty interesting! Her background in psychology comes through in her films. The rest of the films were pretty boring though in my opinion.

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The Empress Yang Kwei Fei

This is a love story set in the palace during the Tang dynasty in China. The queen is said to be one of the four all-time most beautiful women in China.

Got a box set of Mizoguchi films from Commercial Press at the World Book Fair and chose to watch this first. Found it strange initially to see the actors and actresses dress in Chinese costume but speaking in Japanese but got used to it after a while. Liked how the director related the personal story of Ms Yang!

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Hibiscus Town

The story is about how life in a small town where a couple sells rice bean curd changes during the Cultural Revolution.

Had a better understanding of the Cultural Revolution which is like a large scale social experiment! There is a very tight command and control structure and people's roles are reversed. The rich has to sweep the streets while the uneducated poor became civil servants. Learnt even more about the background to the Cultural Revolution when I chanced upon a talk on Mao ZeDong at the World Book Fair in the later part of the day.

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