Taipei 24H

This is an anthology of eight short films about the city of Taipei depicting different times of a day: "Share The Morning", "Just A Little Run", "Summer Heat", "Save The Lover", "Smoke", "Dream Walker", "Owl Service" and "Remembrance".

Didn't feel too much for ""Share The Morning" and "Just A Little Run". Liked "Summer Heat" and "Save The Lover" the best for their humor and interesting plot! "Smoke" and "Owl Service" celebrated the father-daughter relationship pretty well. "Dream Walker" was the most abstract and the dance sequence in "Remembrance" was beautiful!

Internet Movie Database Link

A Throw Of Dice

The story is about the evils of gambling illustrated by how a king lost his kingdom and bride-to-be on the day of his marriage.

Liked the beautiful Indian scenery and the live soundtrack specially created for this silent film! The vocals sounded beautiful! Not sure how the dice worked though as they were not shaped like the usual cube.

Internet Movie Database Link

Pale Flower

The story is about how a gangster became friends with a beautiful female gambling addict after he came out of prison for killing a man.

Liked the interesting study into the yakuza and gambling culture! The actress looked quite pretty!

Internet Movie Database Link

PSTAR Scrabble Games 2011

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 14th May 2011 from 10am to 5pm. A total of 34 teams took part. MINDEF had three teams taking part this year.

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

Game 1: MOE 2
My first game was against Valli who was an experienced intermediate player and was probably the strongest in this all female team. Fell far behind at the start when she bingoed twice in a row with CASHIER(77) and ATTENDER(70). She phonied twice with PIASING* and PALSING* but both were challenged off. She missed the three valid anagrams of PALSING*.[1] She had another bingo later with LEAPING(75) while I had DIARIES(66). I knew both DIARIES and DAIRIES were good but have forgotten about the other two anagrams that could have scored more.[2]

Lost 322-470. Our team lost 1-2.

Game 2: MHA 5
My second opponent was Cho Chi Huen whom I played before at the 2009 PSTAR Scrabble games. He had REAPING(71) while I had RELATES(65). His phonies of TWENT* and PEFTERS* as well as a
five minutes overtime gave me the win.

Won 393-293. Our team won 3-0.

Game 3: MHA 6
Had a walkover in my third game against MHA 6. Played with a small boy called Chong Yong who was one of the helpers instead. Had many chances to bingo out with the first letter front hooking to a T but just could not find the word. I had AEERRT? and later AELRST? but I tried EARThER* and ELASTeR* unsuccessfully. There were four words that I could fit in the first case[3] and two anagrams for ELASTER* could have fit too.[4]

Won 150-100. Our team won 3-0.

Game 4: CPF 2
My last opponent was Zul. I had BASINET(72) and scored well with JIFF(44) and SUQ(33) while he scored well with SEZ(41), WINY(40), GAVE(33) and QI(33) but phonied once with DET*. Scored a comfortable win.

Won 375-304. Our team won 2-1.

MOE, LTA, HDB and Ngee Ann Poly were the top 4 teams. CPF and Spring received consolation prizes for coming in first in the second and third tier respectively. The MINDEF teams did not win any prizes but we had a really fun time! Hope we could do better next year!

Quiz answers (highlight to see clearly)

[1] LAPSING, PALINGS, SAPLING
[2] AIRSIDE, DIARISE
[3] ALERTER, ALTERER, AVERTER, SERRATE
[4] ELATERS, STEALER

Apart From You

The story is about how the son of an ageing geisha came to terms with his mother's work with the help of her young colleague.

Thought this film was like a precursor to "A Woman Ascends the Stairs". Liked how the director contrasted the family life with the decadent life at the geisha house! The mother's young colleague looked quite pretty!

Internet Movie Database Link

Small Change

The story is about the lives of children in France during the mid seventies.

Liked how natural the children were in front of the camera! The episode with the police inspector's daughter was pretty funny! The long speech by Mr Richet towards the end gave me an insight into the thoughts of the director.

Internet Movie Database Link

No Blood Relation

The story is about how a rich and famous Hollywood actress came back to Japan to claim custody for her daughter who grew up with her step mother since young for seven years.

Liked how the genuine affection of the step mother towards her step daughter slowly overcame the stubborn actress who thought that money and material comfort could compensate for everything! Great film to watch during Mother's Day!

Internet Movie Database Link

Flunky, Work Hard

The story is about how a struggling insurance agent tries to provide for his wife and his mischievous son.

Liked the comedic moments and the interesting visual montage of flashbacks!

Internet Movie Database Link

Biutiful

The story is about a man coming to terms with his life as he is about to die. He is separated from his wife and profits from illegal immigrants but he loves his kids and helps the family of the deceased through his ability to communicate with the dead.

Great performance by the actor and I liked the jigsaw puzzle way of story telling! The pace is a bit too slow moving though.

Internet Movie Database Link

The Golden Thread

The story is about how the people from India were affected by the 1947 partition of Bengal seen through the eyes from an ordinary family.

Liked the nice songs and the excellent story telling! Felt quite sad for the family though. The film reminds me of "Sopyonje" by Im Kwon Taek that also has great vocal performances and a brother-sister reunion scene.

Internet Movie Database Link

Sanjuro

This is a sequel to Yojimbo and it is about how a wandering samurai helped a young man to save his uncle.

Liked the action packed sequences and there were more funny moments than the original movie! Felt quite sad that more innocent people were killed due to the silly actions by the friends of the young man though.

Internet Movie Database Link

Yojimbo

The story is about how a wandering samurai brought about change in a new town that he visited.

Liked the exciting action packed sequences and the wit shown by the protagonist!

Internet Movie Database Link

Scandal

The story is about how an artist and a singer got themselves into a scandal when they were photographed together by the paparazzi and how they sued the magazine owner with the help of a lawyer.

The daughter of the lawyer was very sweet and cute! Liked how the ordinary person in the street was able to stand up to the threats of a big corporate group!

Internet Movie Database Link

The Quiet Duel

The story is about how a surgeon contracted syphilis when he was doing operation on an infected patient in the battlefield. When he came back, he resisted marrying his fiancee without telling her the reason and concentrated on helping others.

Liked how the surgeon was so noble and was able to resist temptation! A good companion piece to this could be "Red Angel" by Masumura Yasuzo.

Internet Movie Database Link

Safe

The story is about a woman who suddenly became ultra sensitive to the environment and had to move to a special home for therapy.

Liked the eerie sound effects and the great acting by Julianne Moore! The igloo looked quite cool although I was a bit disappointed with the ending.

Internet Movie Database Link

The Most Beautiful

The story is about how a group of women working in an optics lens factory encouraged each other to meet the work target during the second world war in Japan.

Liked the team spirit shown but felt a bit sad for them as they had almost zero work life balance.

Internet Movie Database Link

Survivors Only Scrabblathon 2011

The idea of having this event came from the top female Scrabble player in Singapore. The format is twelve King of the Hill games in one day where we play Scrabble from morning till night and the venue is at the Yew Tee Community Club. Many top players from Singapore and Malaysia took part despite the meagre prize money because of this unique experience.

Here's my match report, with quizzes marked with [number] and the answers given at the end of the report. The detailed match results can be found here.

Round 1 vs Paul Richards
I had TRADINGS(63) and AYU(35) but he scored consistently with ZAG(50), CRUXES(71), TOPE(32) and SKIP(34).

Round 2 vs Tony Sim
I had QIS(41) and ZETA(39) but he had UNRULES(74), WAISTED(86), SNORTED(83), JAB(38), GRENZ(55) and OX(40).

Round 3 vs Ricky Purnomo
I had UNSALTED(62), JAM(34), ROK(40) and QUIP(30) but he had ATONIES(71), BOTANIC(81), NEWS(40), RITZ(33) and OILY(38). Tried to front hook an A to the NEWS and form a word down to the triple word score cell but ANEWS* was challenged off.

Round 4 vs zzBye
On retrospect I probably should have gone for lunch earlier with the extra break. I had imagined that all the players would go to some nice hawker centre for lunch together after this game but we ended up ordering Pizza Hut to eat in because of the rain. Saw Jian Rong got away with AMENITA* in his game with Adrian as Adrian thought he saw the correct anagram.[1]

Round 5 vs Poh Ying Ming
I had REDTAIL(74), NIED(30), ZITE(35), ISLAND(35) and FAKE(33) while he had no bingos but scored well with DILUTE(35), BRAINS(46) and BYGoNE(33). Won partly due to his WERNERS*, NER* and BYEING* phonies.

Round 6 vs Alvin Leung Hoi Kit
I had ENTRIES(76), BERRIES(66) and ZEL(30) while he had OX(38) and exchanged tiles three times. I chickened out of TRENISE which would give me a four-timer as I have forgotten whether it is TRENISE or TRENIES*. He was thinking aloud if GENTRIES was good when I challenged off another phony word of his that he formed while front hooking the G to ENTRIES and concluded that it should be GANTRIES instead. Both words are valid and there are two other front hooks for ENTRIES.[2]

Round 7 vs Tony Sim
I had CZAR(38), AAH(33), PAST(39) and DELI(31) but he had REBATOES(105), FIGURER(91), TOONIES(74), JEON(42), XI(38), QUIRE(36), HUGY(36) and VEST(30). I had ?AINOT in the end and Andy helped me do a post game analysis. We found out that the best move should be either DELIbATION or DELIgATION by back hooking an existing DELI to reach the triple word score to finish.

Round 8 vs Poh Ying Ming
I had UNAIRED(63), AXE(30), HOE(30), BAGS(33) and ZA(35) while he had MILLERS(63) and PEND(32). Tried BARINGS* and it was challenged off as I didn't know the correct anagram of it.[3]

Round 9 vs Eden Choo
I had UNIVERSE(70), LIDLESS(81), MEL(30) and YIRR(31) while he had DEAFEN(42), DEAFENED(39), SEDUCE(35) and MIEN(30).

Round 10 vs Marlon Prudencio
I had ENTASIA(70), OUR(33) and WONK(33) but he had NONSUIT(86), VELATURA(91), WOAD(39), DEBATES(40), AXON(49), WIGGY(45) and ZAP(42). Was quite impressed that he knew such a weird word and was able to spot it to bingo out across the triple word score lane!

Round 11 vs Goutham
I had STILTED(79), NAY(33), KYE(31), FEUD(44) and VOX(65) but he had INGRATE(70), HOLDERS(78), DOJO(36) and PEG(30). Wouldn't be able to play STILTED(79) if he didn't phoney with GOATIEs* to hook the S to an existing WIPE. There are two anagrams that could have fit there.[4] Made a mistake in challenging his last move as it turned out to be valid and I lost by one point. I thought I would have lost if I didn't challenge due to a miscalculation of the score on my part as we didn't confirm the total score towards the end.

Round 12 vs Yong Jian Rong
I had RULINGS(75), JAIS*(33) and SPEW(43) but he had URICASE(76) and HOAX(89). It was a bad move playing JAIS* just above the triple word score lane as I thought my opponent wouldn't be able to score well with PI on top. Was really surprised when he whipped out HOAX(89) just underneath! I really played very poorly for this last game as I basically opened up for my opponent to score while fishing for bingos on a closed board. Was lucky to have RULINGS(75) towards the end to narrow the gap as he opened up a bingo lane for me.

Overall, I thought it was a good experience for intermediate players to have an idea of what it was like to play with the top players in Singapore although it didn't feel too good to have a bye as it meant you were last!

Quiz answers (highlight to see clearly)

[1] AMENTIA
[2] SENTRIES, CENTRIES
[3] SABRING
[4] GOdETIA, GOATIEr

Warsaw Bridge

The story is about the lives of a writer, a conductor and a professor in Europe. They were friends and had a small gathering after the writer won an award with his novel about the Warsaw Bridge.

Liked the nature scenes and the choral music by a group of women! Didn't quite understand what the film was about but read that it was about the situation in Europe since it was made in 1989 just after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The final sequence was interesting and visually stunning!

Internet Movie Database Link

Valerie and Her Week of Wonders

This is a gothic fairy tale about a young girl similar to "Alice in Wonderland" but with more adult themes that touched on sexuality and religion.

Valerie looked very pretty and many scenes were beautifully shot! I enjoyed this much more than the recent Tim Burton film on "Alice in Wonderland"!

Internet Movie Database Link

True Heart Susie

The story is about how a young couple's love was tested against circumstances beyond their control.

Great acting by the lead actress Lilian Gish! Liked the soundtrack and the inter-titles that foretold what was to come!

Internet Movie Database Link