Blue Hour

The story is about a woman's journey back to her hometown with her best friend.

Liked the theme of family love and rediscovering one's purpose in life!

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Talentime

The story is about the lives of people from different races in Malaysia. Some of them are participants of a Talentime show in school.

Liked the nice songs and how the director showed that it was possible to live harmoniously with each other although some could still be prejudiced against others!

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Mental

This is a documentary about people with mental illness.

Gained an understanding of the clinic's daily operations and what the patients were going through! Most of them are just normal human beings like the rest of us. I especially liked the poetry by one of the patients towards the end!

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Yellow Cat

The story is about a man who dreams of building a movie theatre together with a girl he met. He stole money from an influential guy and had to hide from him and his gang.

Liked how the film was divided into chapters with a paper drawing of what we might expect! It probably has some reference to the film "Le Samourai" so would want to check it out if I have the chance to see the similarities.

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SGIFF Shorts

Wanted to watch some short films during the Singapore International Film Festival, so I picked the following 10 films as a bundle.

• Singapore Films: "New Born", "Here is Not There", "Rocketship", "Nursery Rhymes"
• Animation: "Sexy Sushi", "Water Melon Please"
• Video Essays: "Her Five Lives", "Casting a Spell to Alter Reality"
• Asian Films: "Judy Free", "Sunrise in My Mind"

Liked the great acting by the female lead in "New Born", the dramatic twist in "Here is Not There", the little boy's efforts to bring the family together in "Rocketship" and the nice songs in "Nursery Rhymes".

Both "Sexy Sushi" and "Water Melon Please" were a little abstract and touched on some existential issues.

Learnt about the history of Uzbek films in "Her Five Lives" and appreciated Hou Hsiao Hsien's films better with "Casting a Spell to Alter Reality".

Liked the special effect to make the father figure fuzzy in "Judy Free" and the chit chat in "Sunrise in My Mind".

A Balance

This is a story about a documentary director who covers scandals and what happens when she is about to be involved in one herself.

Liked the moral dilemmas presented in the film! Is it better to tell the truth and risk getting shamed by society or be burdened with having to tell lies the rest of your life and potentially harming others? Not really sure if the lead actress made the right choice in the end.

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Slalom

This is a story about an athlete who skis and her relationship with her coach and family.

Great acting by the lead actress! Realized it is not so easy to spot a possible offender as it may happen suddenly under specific circumstances.

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Sementara

This is a documentary on the sights and sounds in Singapore during its SG50 celebrations.

Liked the scenes with people from different religions and cultures! Learned more about people from all walks of life from the interviews!

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Moving On

The story is about a family trying to move on in their lives in their own ways.

The pace was a little slow at the start but I appreciated the film more after all the characters were introduced. Liked the nice family atmosphere of them eating together and the grandson showing off his dance! The old song that the grandfather listened to was quite nice too!

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The House Of Us

The story is about a little girl trying to bring her family together through cooking and planning a family trip. She made friends with two girls who are even younger than her by chance.

Liked the happier moments when the three girls played together! Thought some parts were not very logical such as the mother's reaction towards the milk incident, the little girl refusing to answer her calls and the fear towards a man sleeping in his cart but I still enjoyed the film.

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From Victoria Street to Ang Mo Kio

This is a film about the history of the CHIJ St Nicholas school. It has a dramatized story, interviews with former students and principals as well as documentary footages. I liked the depiction of the old school compound with the creaky staircase and the naturally well ventilated classroom space! I also liked to hear the fond memories of the interviewees and to learn about the history of our education system through the documentary clips!

Our Time Machine

This is a documentary about a son making a puppet theatre show as a tribute to his father.

Liked the interesting concept but also wondered if it was worth spending so much time and money on the project! The puppet handlers were pretty skillful in my opinion!

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Shukuhachi: One Sound One Life

This is a documentary on an ancient Chinese wind instrument that is made of bamboo.

Liked the nice Shukuhachi music in the film! Was impressed by the woman who imitated the music of different Chinese minorities that were inspired by nature such as the rooster or the sheep!

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Tamaran Hill

The story is adapted from a novel and it is about a young girl trying to find out more about her past when she digs deep into the history of Tamaran Hill.

Liked the voice over narration, the animation sequences of the words flying and the mother singing as well as the old historic photographs! I felt that reality and fiction fused together at times.

Social Dilemma

This is a documentary on the impact of social media on the world.

Liked how the film physically showed what the artificial intelligence might look like in person! Didn't realize how entire nations like Myanmar and Hong Kong were affected by social media! The takeaway for me is to turn off notifications so that I still can enjoy my offline social life.

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Isadora's Children

The story is about four women trying to learn a dance created by a choreographer to commerorate her children who died in an accident.

The pace was a little bit slow but I liked the elegant dance movements and the different perspectives on how different people approach a subject: from a book, bouncing ideas with each other through conversations and personal experience.

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Rising Phoenix

This is a documentary about the Paralympics.

Liked the personal stories of the athletes and how different sports and different countries were featured!

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CSC E-Scrabble Competition 2020

The CSC E-Scrabble Competition is an annual event for organisations in the civil service to take part in a friendly game of Scrabble. It was held online on 12th Sep 2020 from 9.30am to 3.30pm. A total of 37 people from 8 organisations took part including two from MINDEF.

Here's my match report.

Game 1: Muhammed Farhan (MHA)
I bingoed with COSINES(78) and scored well with JET(33) while he scored well with UNFACE*(42), HOX(48) and HAZE(36).

Won 370-332. 1-0 spread +38

Game 2: Chan Andi Andy (PA)
I bingoed with FALTERS(78), EROTISE(72) and scored well with DJIN(36), LIKE(30) and MUX(37) while he scored well with ZA(33) and HOAX(39). I challenged his TORAN as I was not sure if it was valid but it turned out to be good.

Won 474-189. 2-0 spread +323

Game 3: Marlon Prudencio (LTA)
I got away with a phoney bingo TRELLERS*(61) and scored well with WALTZ(34), HUE(37) and QIN(44) while he bingoed with ELMIEST(90), CAREENED(63) and scored well with OK(38), JAILS(47) and RAND(31). Was quite surprised when he put down a phoney bingo FISHMEN* and I challenged it off successfully! Learned two new words, ELMIEST and SKEN.

Lost 374-438. 2-1 spread +259

Game 4: Joseph Tan (HDB)
I bingoed with sPoRTED(72) and scored well with DORY(36), PIS(31) and KIN(33) while he bingoed with RAVENOUS(72), HORSING(72), STEAMIE(70) and scored well with JEED(40), DEIL(31) and REZ(32). Played two phoneys that were challenged off: SHINT* and WINKIE*. Was considering between WINKIE* and WINKLE which would have scored 50 points but chose the wrong one in the end.

Lost 320-489. 2-2 spread +90

Game 5: Ramamoorthy Rajagopal (MHA)
I bingoed with HUNTERS(78) and scored well with SEZ(32) and MOA(31) while he bingoed with SILTIER(73), BLASTER(69) REPEALER(68) and scored well with HANKY(35), BIRD(32), QI(36) and JIG(30). He put down SLITIER* initially and I challenged it off but he put down the correct anagram on the next turn. Was surprised in the middle of the game when he passed his turn for no reason, then found out that he was trying to change tiles but accidentally pressed the pass button instead.

Lost 372-443. 2-3 spread +19

Game 6: Govinda Ghale (MHA)
I bingoed with cLEAVED(78), TrIAGES(75), ATTIRES(83) and scored well with HIVED(50), ZIG(43) and DEX(43) while he bingoed with UNNATIVE(72), INCASES(67) and scored well with MOW(33), QUIN(36) and ZEL(36). Was quite surprised that INCASE took an S back hook.

Won 496-403. 3-3 spread +112

Game 7: Muhammed Farhan (MHA)
Played Farhan again in the first king of the hill. I bingoed with GUITARS(73) and scored well with YOK(33), ZARFS(81), HON(30) and WUDS(30) while he bingoed with LEAVING(76) and scored well with JEE(30) and QUIT(46). Fatigue might have set in for him as he played OT* which was obviously no good and I challenged it off. That might have made a difference in who won the game as our scores were not too far apart.

Won 418-397. 4-3 spread +133

Game 8: Shahrul Kamal (SP)
I bingoed with TEEINGS(83) and scored well with ZEA(31) and HAIR(30) while he bingoed with COWARDS(86) and scored well with VEX(33), INJURE(63) and RETRY(38). Late in the game, I was 20 points behind and there were 5 tiles in the bag including possibly the Q. There were two I spots on the board and I blocked one of them, thinking he would play a Q on the other I spot. He played RETRY front hooking the Y to be CLAD instead and was ahead by 47 points. He was stuck with the Q though and I managed to outscore him by playing one or two tiles at a time while he passed several times.

Won 393-388. 5-3 spread +138

I managed to play with players in 5 different organisations. A pity I didn't have the chance to play with players in Ministry of Health and Ministry of Law. Final result was 12th placing out of 37. Not too bad in my opinion considering the number of mistakes I made. Hope next year will be an online competition again so that I can play in the comfort of my home!

High Score

This is a documentary about the video game industry, how it evolved from the arcade, to specialised console and then to the personal computer.

Liked the use of the nice cartoonish animation to tell parts of the story! Used to play Street Fighter II quite a bit when I was doing my National Service so it was quite nostalgic to see it on the screen.

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Athlete A

This is a documentary about a scandal involving the United States Gymnastics Olympics team doctor, Larry Nassar.

Liked the interviews with the gymnasts and the people who were helping them! The doctor should have been caught long ago, thank goodness he is being punished for his bad deeds now!

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