Scrabble Nationals 2010 (Day One)

This year's Nationals is once again held at Toa Payoh West CC. I had wanted to meet up with old friends without playing as I thought it would be tiring playing twelve full games but decided to take part when Valli told me that division B needed one more person to make it even number of participants.

Game 1: vs Aloysious
Aloysious had such a big lead after scoring a bingo with CAMPERS(76) that he could even afford to ignore my phoney with VINCE*. I was thinking of putting either EVINCE or VINCE* but decided on VINCE* in the end as I thought it looked more valid.

New words learnt: EVINCE
My Bingos: - Opp Bingos: CAMPERS(76)
My Phoneys: VINCE*(36) Opp Phoneys: -
My High Moves: COVES(35), WEB(34), SILK(30), VINCE*(36) Opp High Moves: AX(36), JOB(33), ZIP(45)
L 296-433, -137. 0W 1L (Accum spread -137).

Game 2: vs Yong Jian Rong
I bingoed first with RETINAE(66) but Jian Rong bingoed with ANNOTATES(85) a few turns later through an existing NO and back hooking the E with a SUP on the board! Pretty impressive for a primary school kid! I was stuck with the J and the Q late in the game with a very narrow lead but managed to clear them off for a win!

New words learnt: SUPE
My Bingos: RETINAE(66) Opp Bingos: ANNOTATES(85)
My Phoneys: - Opp Phoneys: ROP*, WAH*, TEAF*(21)
My High Moves: KIT(34), ZO(64), BAD(32), QIS(30) Opp High Moves: ORS(40), WHAM(36), CUIF(41)
W 428-412, +16. 1W 1L (Accum spread -121).

Game 3: vs Ganapathy
Had a comfortable lead when I bingoed twice with BlUNTED(76) and YEARNERS(74) while he had one bingo with sHARING(83). Think Ganapathy was not too familiar with the new Collins words as he tried to challenge off my REO and KOIS.

New words learnt: -
My Bingos: BlUNTED(76), YEARNERS(74) Opp Bingos: sHARING(83)
My Phoneys: - Opp Phoneys: -
My High Moves: BEWIG(36), CUZ(40), JOT(30) Opp High Moves: -
W 431-377, +54. 2W 1L (Accum spread -67).

Game 4: vs Tan Mun Ri
I missed my opponent's REY*(29) phoney early in the game as I thought I played it often in online games before. Maybe I forgot that it was often challenged off too! Think my vocabulary definitely needs to be improved as I could not see bingos with both EIORSTW and AEMPRST racks!

New words learnt: -
My Bingos: TEdIEST(73) Opp Bingos: ROARING(72)
My Phoneys: - Opp Phoneys: REY*(29), ESNY*
My High Moves: FIVER(39) Opp High Moves: JOE(35), QUOD(37)
L 330-396, -66. 2W 2L (Accum spread -133).

Finished day 1 with 2 wins and 2 losses.

Heat Haze Theatre

The story is about the strange things that happened after a playwright encountered a rich man's wife at a hospital.

Very confusing but I liked the play by the children towards the end! The special effects in the tub was pretty well done too!

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Farewell to the Ark

The story is adapted from a novel called "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It is about a small village in the jungle with enchanting creatures like the forest fairy and where the passage of time speeds up or slows down according to people's mood.

Didn't think it was possible to do a movie adaptation of the novel due to the complex plot and the number of characters but the director did a reasonable job to capture the magical atmosphere in the forest!

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Not Reconciled

The story is about how the German people had to come to terms with themselves after the war told through the eyes of one German family. The grandfather built a church that was destroyed by the father during the war and it was rebuilt by the grandson after the war. A few of their friends were politically persecuted and the mother became insane.

The film was very difficult to understand as there was no clear indication of whether a scene happened in the past or the present. I think that was part of the director's intention as it meant that the German people were still not reconciled with their past.

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A Confucian Confusion

The story is about how the lives of a group of friends were inter-connected and how hard it was to live your own life without being influenced by others. The Chinese title "Duli Shidai" literally means an era of independence.

This film reminds me of “Pauline at the Beach” by Rohmer except that there were more characters and the setting is in a regular working environment rather than the beach. Liked Qiqi’s cute hairstyle and how things worked out well for Birdy’s long suffering female assistant!

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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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