Freedom Project

The story is about how people fled earth to live on the moon because of an ecological disaster, how survivors from earth made contact many years later and how these two groups reconciled their differences.

Liked the exciting music from Utada Hikaru and the interesting characters! Nice storyline that is well paced!

Internet Movie Database Link

Sing to the Dawn

The story is about how the life of a group of Thai villagers changed with the construction of a casino.

Liked the nice songs and the strong storyline! Didn't really like the 3D animation as I thought the characters looked quite stiff. Might have enjoyed it better if they were done in the traditional 2D style.

Internet Movie Database Link

Piano Forest

The story is about how two guys became good friends through playing the piano. One was rich with his own practice room while the other had to play on an abandoned piano in the forest.

Liked the nice piano pieces and the friendship between the two guys who have quite different personalities!

Internet Movie Database Link

International Shorts Showcase 1

There are altogether seven shorts: "Yellow Sticky Notes", "Procrastination", "Fantasmagorie 2008", "Bloom", "Irresistible Smile", "Death By Scrabble" and "Mesh"

"Yellow Sticky Notes" shows the to-do lists of an animator from when he was still a student until he graduated and started working. "Procrastination" describes what it means to procrastinate. "Fantasmagorie 2008" is about the interaction between old and new digital animation. "Bloom" is based on an Indian folktale. "Irresistible Smile" describes a day's work of a flight attendant. "Death By Scrabble" describes the strange happenings when a couple played scrabble. "Mesh" is a mathematical video on the impact of geometry on science and how digitisation is used in computers.

Liked "Yellow Sticky Notes" as it was a personal account from an animator's perspective and "Mesh" as it was very informative!

Tokyo!

The film is made up of three short stories about life in Tokyo. "Interior Design" describes the small Tokyo apartments through a just-married couple, "Merde" describes the xenophobic Japanese through a dirty old foreign-looking man who created havoc in the streets. "Shaking Tokyo" describes how an extreme introvert who avoided eye contact with people and stayed indoors all the time changed after an earthquake struck.

Liked the innovative "Interior Design" and "Shaking Tokyo"! The twist towards the end of "Interior Design" was interesting and the pizza delivery girl in "Shaking Tokyo" looked quite cute! Thought the poster showed her in a hair salon but realised that it was her helmet! Didn't like "Merde" as I thought it was a little bit boring. The news anchor and the Japanese translator were the only saving grace of this segment of the film.

Internet Movie Database Link

Thirst

The story is about the thirst for love told through a ballet dancer's relationships with her two lovers and the encounters of her recently widowed friend.

It was a little bit hard to follow the plot as there were many flashbacks and flashforwards. Thought some of the lines spoken were pretty well constructed and made a lot of sense!

Internet Movie Database Link

Go West: A Lucky Luke Adventure

This is a Western about how a super hero called Lucky Luke helped a group of pioneers to travel from New York to California within 80 days while battling an evil salesman, the Daltons brothers who were bank robbers travelling with them under lock and chains as well as unfriendly Indians.

Thought the battle of wits between the bad guys and the good guys was interesting but some of the gags got a bit too repetitive at times! Nice exciting finale!

Internet Movie Database Link

Between dogs and wolves

This is a compilation of 8 short animations that are either about dogs or wolves.

"Three Little Pigs" made use of wire coils to create the shape of the animals and the narration was funny! "The White Wolf" was about how a pair of brothers made friends with a wolf in the jungle and it was interesting but certain scenes were a little bit sad. "AP 2000" was exciting as it described how the fleas on a dog fought against the latest anti-flea micro-robots in computer-game style!

Fell asleep during "Last Howl" and "Marvelously Grey", so not really sure what the stories were about. "Ponpon the Dog" was very nicely done as it described the flashbacks of a dog just before it was about to be hit by a truck! "Raining Dogs" was too abstract for me and I wasn't sure what was going on. "Dog Days" had a very innovative script about how a baby girl and a male baby dog accidentally switched families one day and their life stories years later!

Vampyr

The story is about a young man's encounter with vampires in a small town.

Liked the eerie atmosphere and the great special effects! The old vampire looked very scary!

Internet Movie Database Link

ISBG Scrabble Games 2008

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 PUB Recreation Center on 27th September 2008 from 9am to 5pm. 15 statutory boards are divided into four groups where round robin matches are played to select the top two teams from each group. This is then followed by a series of elimination rounds to decide the top 4 positions.

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 NParks.

Game 1: NParks
Had a bye for my first game so I had a good walk around to see how the other players were doing. Noticed that the IRAS team was quite bored as they were in group A where there were only 3 teams and they had a bye in the first round. HDB and CPF had excess players and they were having practice matches against themselves. I also saw Adeline's end game where she tried AZOS* and ZOAS* in succession and they were challenged off by her opponent! Do you know what is the only back hook for AZO?[1]

My team won the match 4-1!

Our second game was against LTA.

Game 2: LTA
My opponent was a jovial man with a loud voice. Saw him previously at the final game of this year's PSTAR tournament as he was sitting diagonally across me. Had ADEIMT? at one time but gave up thinking of a bingo out of it. There are 10 anagrams for it out of which two are common words![2]. I overtook him when I bingoed with RADIAnS(70) but he was not far behind as he scored steadily. Had a lot of vowels subsequently and I exchanged several times while allowing my opponent to score heavily with EX(36) and SUQ(47). Thought I had a chance when I challenged off his TEB* in the final few moves but he scored with BrUISE(28) along the TWS lane on his next move and I lost.

Lost my second game with 357 vs 378. Our team also lost the match 2-3.

Our third game was against NUS.

Game 3: NUS
Had a relatively easier time when I surged ahead after my opponent played OB just next to the TWS lane and I bingoed with TAPERED(103). I scored steadily while keeping the board close. He had a bingo later with LAYINGs(77) but it was a bit too late. Adeline did very well against Karthik who was one of the most experienced masters player from NUS! She was trailing until she bingoed with a EHIKOOS rack[3] just above the TWS lane and scored big again with MATH underneath. It was a close match and she managed to win by just a few points.

Won my third game with 454 vs 314. Our team also won the match 3-2.

It was an interesting situation after the end of all the small group matches as NUS, LTA and DSTA all have 2 wins and 1 loss. NUS beat LTA 3-2, lost to DSTA 2-3 and won NParks 5-0. LTA lost to NUS 2-3, won DSTA 3-2 and won NParks 5-0. DSTA beat NUS 3-2, lost to LTA 2-3 and won NParks 4-1.

First step to unravel the dead-knot was to look at the matches involving just the 3 teams. All 3 teams had a 1-1 match record and 5-5 games record. Next step was to look at the matches involving all 4 teams. It was here where we lost out. All 3 teams had a 2-1 match record but both NUS and LTA had a 10-5 record while DSTA only had a 9-6 record. NUS was named group champion as they beat LTA in their head-to-head match.

I wonder what would happen if we also beat NParks by 5-0. The rules did not spell out how they would differentiate the sub-group rankings in this case. Hmm, maybe it should have been more comprehensive to cover all possible scenarios.

Packet lunch in the form of seafood fried rice was provided by the organisers. It was not very good! After lunch, some of us went back home while Jiang Pern and Adeline stayed back to play a few more informal games. Learnt later that LTA won 1st place, NUS 2nd, HDB 3rd and CAAS 4th.

Quiz answers (Highlight to see clearly):

[1] AZON
[2] DAyTIME. MEDIATe (Other angagrams: DIAsTEM, IDEATuM, MEDIAnT, MIcATED, MIsDATE, rEADMIT, TAEDIuM, TAMmIED)
[3] HOOKIES

Please Vote for Me

This is a documentary about the class monitor elections in one of the primary schools in China. Three primary 3 students have been shortlisted and they have one week to convince their classmates why they should be class monitor.

A very funny film that touches on the lives of the students and their parents! It was interesting to see how people react in different situations!

Internet Movie Database Link

Though I am Gone

This is a documentary about an old man recollecting what happened to her wife during the Cultural Revolution.

A very depressing movie as we learnt about the atrocities performed by the students in the name of ideology! Would be interesting if the director could interview one of the Red Guards but there was no "the-other-side-of-the-story" to be heard. Learnt about the existence of a Cultural Revolution Museum from the protagonist. Would like to visit it if I have the chance!

Patriotism

The story is about how a Japanese soldier decided to commit seppuku (the act of killing oneself by slitting one's belly open) and his wife's reaction to it. This is an adaptation of the director's own short story.

Liked the silent film look and feel, the minimalistic noh theater setup as well as the great acting by the actor and actress!

Internet Movie Database Link

Fitzcarraldo

The story is about how a young man dreamed of building an Opera house in the jungles of Peru. He encountered many difficulties and even had to drag a streamboat across a mountain in the process!

Had a pleasant surprise initially when I saw that Claudia Cardinale was the lead actress but realised that it had been almost twenty years since she acted in Fellini's "8 1/2" and Visconti's "The Leopard". She still looked beautiful but not as young as before. Liked the nice jungle adventure and the great acting by Klaus Kinski!

Internet Movie Database Link

The Decalogue

This is a 10 1-hour episode TV series made in Poland that is loosely based on the Catholic Ten Commandments.

Liked the excellent script and the modern interpretation of the commandments! It is interesting to see how each character is placed in a situation where he or she has to make a moral choice where there is no clear right or wrong! Episodes 2, 3 and 8 are the most boring while episode 10 is the most funny! Episodes 4, 5 and 7 are pretty good but my favorites would be episodes 1, 6 and 9!

Internet Movie Database Link

PSTAR Scrabble Games 2008

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 on 6th Sep 2008 from 10am to 5pm. A total of 38 teams took part. MINDEF had two 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.

Chew Chuah helped to draw our first pairings for MINDEF 1 and it was against the Ministry of Environment and Water Resources (MEWR) team 1. MINDEF 2 played against the all girls team from CPF 2. I saw that Peng Kee was really happy with his draw!

Game 1: MEWR 1
Had a bye as my opponent could not make it on time. Played a friendly game with Linda from Ngee Ann Polytechnic instead. My luck was pretty good! I bingoed with TEARIES*(74) and AILERON(73). What are the 2 anagrams for AEEIRST ?[1] I also guessed correctly the "C" front hook for OFF and scored with CHAIN(59) by hitting the triple word cell. Linda could only bingo with BARTENDED(75). If only this was an actual game where it really mattered!

Our team won the match by 3-0.

Next game was against IRAS 2.

Game 2: IRAS 2
I played against Chris who was from the same reservist camp as me! It was a closed board with no bingos from either of us. I scored big when he opened up the triple word score lane with WaRNS(40) and JET(39) by capitalising on the double letter score. Was lucky to be able to play my Z late in the game with ZETA(23). If not, the score line could have gone the other way round.

Won 310-280. Our team won convincingly with 3-0.

Had free lunch catered for us after our second game and it was delicious!

Our third game was against CPF 1. Hmm, I remembered our third game at last year's PSTAR games was against them too!

Game 3: CPF 1
I played against Chee Keong, the same player whom I played last year. JP and CC had a switch of opponent from last year. Missed my opponent's opening phoney HINE*. He bingoed with SWaYERS(88) and scored big with sEZ(64) and OX(38). My only big scores were OATH(44) across the triple word lane and PEAK(35). Maybe I should have blocked when my opponent played OVER with the O hovering underneath the triple letter cell. Didn't realise he had the Z!

Lost 324-403. Our team won with 2-1.

After 3 rounds, MINDEF 1 was placed in the top category that consisted of the top 6 teams: HDB 1, HDB 2, LTA 1, MINDEF 1, MOE 1 and NP 1.

Our final game is against HDB 2.

Game 4: HDB 2
I played against David. Our scores were neck-in-neck after both of us scored one bingo each. I had SoRRIES*(74) while he had InTRUDE(68). What are the 2 anagrams for EIORRSS ?[2] I was leading slightly towards the end until he scored with JOBS(37) to pull ahead.

Lost 375-391. Our team lost narrowly with 1-2.

In the end, MINDEF 1 came in 4th placing among the top category teams. We beat MOE 1 and HDB 1 who both lost 1-2 in terms of spread. LTA 1 came in 1st, NP 1 came in 2nd and HDB 2 came in 3rd. MINDEF 2 had a pretty good showing too with 2 wins and 2 losses! Had fun seeing so many familiar faces! Hope we could do even better next year!

Quiz answers (highlight to see clearly)

[1] AERIEST, SERIATE
[2] ORRISES, ROSIERS

Sakuran

This film is adapted from a Japanese manga and it is about a girl growing up in a brothel and becoming the top prostitute.

Liked the colorful kimonos and the nice soundtrack! The lead actress, Anna Tsuchiya, was a pretty interesting character too!

Internet Movie Database Link

Pathos

This is a follow up to "Broken Blossoms" and it is a documentary about the director's role as a woman, a wife and a mother.

Liked the last segment best as I thought the director's daughter was very cute! It was also interesting to see how a midwife clinic worked!

Broken Blossom

This is a documentary about the impact of the director's miscarriage on her.

Liked the scene where the director talked about her feelings towards the miscarriage! I also learnt a bit more about her during the Q&A session later!

Birth / Mother

This is a documentary about the director's grandmother and how she gave birth to a baby son.

Liked the reality TV style with the extreme close up shots!

Internet Movie Database Link

The Banishment

The story is about what happens when a gangster went to stay in the countryside with his family that consists of his wife, his son and his daughter. Their peaceful lives were disrupted by a bunch of unexpected events.

The countryside scenery was beautiful and the portrayal of the husband-wife relationship was interesting! Didn't quite understand the last bit of the flashback towards the end though so I was not as moved as I thought I would be.

Internet Movie Database Link

The Eternal Breasts

The story is about the life of a female poet who died at an early age due to breast cancer.

The pacing was slow and I thought the story could have been condensed! One thing that puzzled me was the relationship between the poet and the reporter towards the end.

Internet Movie Database Link

Love Letter

The story is about the plight of Japanese women who served the US soldiers during the second World War. After the war, they had to pay someone who knew English to write love letters to their former lovers to ask for money to survive.

Considering that it was a debut effort by Tanaka Kinuyo, it was not too bad! Thought it could be improved by deleting unimportant scenes which did not contribute to the main storyline.

Internet Movie Database Link

Wordplay

This is a documentary about the world of crossword puzzles.

Pretty comprehensive! Learnt a bit about the creators of the puzzles as well as the interesting people who do the puzzles both as a recreation and competitively! Didn't know that Bill Clinton liked to do crossword puzzles too!

Internet Movie Database Link

Wanderer's Notebook

The story is about how a woman called Fumiko struggles to survive and eventually becomes a successful writer.

Liked the sequence where Fumiko tried to find a job but was rejected repeatedly. Some parts were really funny!

Internet Movie Database Link

Ginza Cosmetics

The story is about the life of a middle aged bar hostess who has to support her young son.

Felt that this was like a precursor to "When a Woman Ascends the Stairs" which was made 9 years later! Thought the director has improved on his story telling skills in WWAS by presenting just the core ideas that he wanted to transmit to the audience.

Internet Movie Database Link

Sandakan No. 8

The story is about the plight of poor Japanese girls who were sent overseas to work as prostitutes in the early 20th century. This is told through flashbacks from an old Japanese woman to a researcher whom she befriended.

Liked the friendship forged between the researcher and the old Japanese woman! Nice story and the use of silence during two key scenes were pretty effective!

Internet Movie Database Link

Mad about English

This is a documentary on how the people from China learned English in preparation for the Beijing Olympics. These included an elderly man who wanted to be an Olympics volunteer, a taxi driver who wanted to converse well with tourists, a young student who wanted a better future, an English tutor who wanted to spread his teachings and a foreigner who wanted to get rid of every wrongly translated signs.

It was interesting to see how enthusiastic the people were about learning English! I thought the multi-lingual police was quite funny when he imitated the New York accent! The sales people at the Silk Market were pretty good too!

The Spirit Compendium

The story centers around a special book that is able to provide answers to your queries. A guy used this book to solve a few problems faced by him and his house mates during the hungry ghost festival.

The cast was pretty good looking and the outdoor scenes looked beautiful! I also liked the songs and the special sound effects used whenever something supernatural was encountered!

My Dad is a Priest

The story is about the relationship of a father and a son. The son is still studying in school while the father is a priest who is slowly losing his memory because of a recently diagnosed alzheimer's disease.

Liked the simple storyline and the close father-son relationship depicted! Thought the father acted really well when he showed the effects of alzheimer's disease!

La bete humaine

The story is about the dark side of human nature shown through the encounters of a worker at a railway station.

Liked the nice country side view during the train rides and the in-depth study of the psychology of the characters!

Internet Movie Database Link

Juno

The story is about what happened after a high school student discovered that she was pregnant. She decided to go through the pregnancy and got someone to adopt her baby.

The plot is straight forward but the director captured the relationship among Juno, her parents, her friends and the adoptive parents pretty well! Minus point would be that it was a little bit too wordy and the teenagers used some slang that was difficult to understand.

Internet Movie Database Link

Scrabble Nationals 2008 (Day Two)

There were a few casualties at the start of day two. Kum Zi Peng and Gan Cher Siong dropped out from div A, Lester Phong, Dinna Lim and Low Bee Theang dropped out from div B. This tested the skill of the tournament director to do a proper pairing so that those who were absent would meet each other. The proper pairings was eventually done with the help of Tony and Wei Bin. If there was a TD handbook, this should probably be one of the FAQ.

Game 5: vs Shahrul
Managed to close up the gap to about 18 points after my opponent scored his second bingo but he extended his lead further with AKE(30) and HEXING(39) towards the end of the game and I lost.

New words learnt: INDOLES, HEXING
My Bingos: - Opp Bingos: CHARRING(76), INDOLES(65)
My Phoneys: - Opp Phoneys: ABE*
My High Moves: QI(46), FILTH(36), ZIT(35) Opp High Moves: BEES(30), AKE(30), HEXING(39)
L 409-364, -45. 2W 3L (Accum spread -92).

Game 6: vs Timothy Tan
Played badly at the start as I had lots of vowels and I played them for very few points while allowing my opponent to score big. Improved a little bit towards the end as I managed to score big with some of my tiles but couldn't catch up by then.

New words learnt: MOULDERS
My Bingos: DESIRES(70), LANTERNS(74) Opp Bingos: MOULDERS(71)
My Phoneys: - Opp Phoneys: -
My High Moves: XI(34), CUBIT(30), WRIT(39), HENRY(34) Opp High Moves: KI(33), QADI(72)
L 390-416, -26. 2W 4L (Accum spread -118).

Had a birthday celebration for the tournament director after our second game and everyone in both division A and B were given a slice of cake each. I happened to be queueing after Serene and Yen Nee. Heard Serene requesting to have a small piece while Yen Nee wanted an extra large piece. Hmm, thought it should have been the other way round to balance things up?

Game 7: vs Eden Choo
Close game! Managed to edge out a win despite being outbingoed two to one.

New words learnt: -
My Bingos: TARDIER(82) Opp Bingos: DILUTES(66), INSTEAD(71)
My Phoneys: - Opp Phoneys: COEDITS*
My High Moves: QATS(33), TWIRLED(45), VAU(31), FY(31), WINCE(39) Opp High Moves: WHIZ(43), TAK(31), OX(50), SIDE(32)
W 447-438, +9. 3W 4L (Accum spread -109).

After our 3rd game, I went to a nearby food center together with Winston, Victor and Timothy for lunch.

Game 8: vs Khamis
Khamis played the same phoney "ABE" as Shahrul in an earlier game. Think this must be one of the more common three letter phoneys played. Lost as I was outbingoed two to none.

New words learnt: -
My Bingos: - Opp Bingos: ENTAILED(61), FIGURES(72)
My Phoneys: - Opp Phoneys: ABE*
My High Moves: JOLLY(46), HUB(32), YON(42), PAN(32) Opp High Moves: AXE(36), WHET(37), FUNS(33)
L 343-393, -50. 3W 5L (Accum spread -159).

Game 9: vs Soo Yi Wei
Had a comfortable lead after the first few moves and I extended my lead further towards the end with DITZ(47).

New words learnt: -
My Bingos: RIOTERS(70) Opp Bingos: -
My Phoneys: - Opp Phoneys: AF*
My High Moves: CRAFT(32), FY(38), WAIST(34), WE(36), DITZ(47) Opp High Moves: -
W 463-210, +253. 4W 5L (Accum spread +94).

Game 10: vs Ruby Sim
Had a comfortable lead after I scored two bingos early in the game. I maintained my lead with a bit of help from Ruby who phonied twice and changed her tiles several times.

New words learnt: CARL
My Bingos: BEARING(63), TAINTED(73) Opp Bingos: -
My Phoneys: - Opp Phoneys: ZIENS*, UVO*
My High Moves: - Opp High Moves: WOWS(40), ZA(37), AD(30), VIES(36)
W 449-322, +127. 5W 5L (Accum spread +221).

Game 11: vs Eden Choo
Played Eden once again in this KOTH round. Realised that I was really rusty when I took a long time to think of a bingo with a AEINTT? rack. Wanted the blank to be an S and in the 3rd position so that I could have a double double. Eden scored big in the middle of the game and extended his lead with a late bingo in the game.

New words learnt: -
My Bingos: INSTATE(80) Opp Bingos: GLINTED(74)
My Phoneys: - Opp Phoneys: -
My High Moves: QIS(42) Opp High Moves: DJINS(33), JEE(32), ORAD(30), WIZ(42)
L 347-428, -81. 5W 6L (Accum spread +140).

Game 12: vs Ganapathy
Would have wanted to win the last game so that I could at least have an equal number of wins and losses but I really had no form in this game and lost badly.

New words learnt: -
My Bingos: - Opp Bingos: STARTED(74), STAPLED(75)
My Phoneys: WAM* Opp Phoneys: -
My High Moves: IWI(30), OOM(30) Opp High Moves: FAX(34), FURY(42), ZEE(32), ROUND(31)
L 287-479, -192. 5W 7L (Accum spread -52).

Finished the tournament with 5 wins and out of top 10. Hope to do better next year!

Scrabble Nationals 2008 (Day One)

This year's Nationals is once again held at Toa Payoh West CC. I went earlier in the hope of catching the masters players in action and saw Jiang Pern doing a post game analysis with his opponent as he just narrowly lost by 1 point. Had lunch and played a friendly game with Ruby before division B officially started.

Game 1: vs Winston Gwee
Our scores were neck in neck until the last few moves. I got away with STERILED* when I back hooked ZED to an existing STERILE on the board. Think I had mixed it up with STERILISED. Anyway, I made a silly mistake on my last move. I played GIN for 19 points, forgetting that Winston also had an "A" on his rack and he managed to bingo out with ERASION to win!

New words learnt: AWNER
My Bingos: TRIPLET(79) Opp Bingos: STERILE(73), ERASION(76)
My Phoneys: STERILED* Opp Phoneys: JUTED*
My High Moves: PRY(32), ZED(42), AWNER(43) Opp High Moves: BOX(61), TAJ(30), QI(31), WOK(39)
L 406-474, -68. 0W 1L (Accum spread -68).

Game 2: vs Lester Phong
He pulled ahead after his ROSEATE bingo. Mistakenly thought that HOE had no front hook but Lester promptly put EAGLES down the triple lane on his turn. I managed to narrow the gap with JET(36) and XI(38) but lost the game effectively after he scored heavily with DWEEBS(40) down the triple lane. For my last move, I could have saved 15 spread points if I had played CWM instead of BEAGLES.

New words learnt: ROSEATE, INTIL, DWEEBS
My Bingos: - Opp Bingos: ROSEATE(72)
My Phoneys: DICY* Opp Phoneys: -
My High Moves: ZAS(38), JET(36), XI(38) Opp High Moves: NOMAD(30), QI(33), DWEEBS(40)
L 302-378, -76. 0W 2L (Accum spread -144).

Game 3: vs zzBye
Played a friendly game with Lester's girlfriend during my bye. She was lucky with several bingos like CATFISH and TRAIPSED. Tried PERTInG* when I had a ?EGIPRT rack but was challenged off!

W 150-100, +50. 1W 2L (Accum spread -94).

Game 4: vs Ganapathy
Mistakenly thought that RAINING(79) had no front hook when I was deciding how to back hook the "N" of my bingo to an existing PROVE on the board. In fact, there were four possible front hooks! Ganapathy scored very well despite having no bingo but I maanged to pull ahead with my second bingo TOILETS(70) when he opened up with CENTS(15).

New words learnt: GRAINING, FANNY
My Bingos: RAINING(79), TOILETS(70) Opp Bingos: -
My Phoneys: GOF* Opp Phoneys: NES*, JUDE*, JUDES*
My High Moves: - Opp High Moves: PIE(37), AGON(33), BREWS(48), FANNY(53)
W 427-380, +47. 2W 2L (Accum spread -47).

Finished day 1 with 2 wins and 2 losses.

Help Me Eros

The story revolves around the lives of an unemployed person, his counsellor and a group of betel nut sellers.

Liked the surreal scenes of the cosplay sequence and the acrobatic sex sequence! Most of the other scenes were a little bit boring though.

Internet Movie Database Link

Chocolate

The story is about how an autistic girl fought her way to retrieve money from people who owed her mother money. Her mother was the lover of a Thai gangster but fell in love with a Japanese man.

Thought the autistic girl had a cool pose when she was a baby! Pretty impressed by her ball catching skill when she became bigger too! Nice martial arts action! My favorite move would be the one where she bent backwards to slide under a table while avoiding a flying cart!

Internet Movie Database Link

5th Singapore Short Cuts

Saw five shorts at this first free screening at National Museum:

Lorong 27 by Kenny Tan
- Interesting story about an exchange student's adventure during his stay at his host's place at Geylang Lorong 27!

Pontianak by Raihan Harun
- Quite a scary story about a mother who died from child birth and who wanted to take her living daughter away too!

Lim Poh Huat by Lee Wong
- Interesting story about an ordinary guy who works as a security guard full time as an extra part time!

Embryo by Loo Zihan
- An abstract piece which I had no idea what it was about!

Zo Gang + Zo Hee by Jacen Tan
- Two very humorous pieces! A little bit sick of the main protagonist in the end as he was always complaining but I learnt a lot about the problems faced by film makers! The girl at the substation looked quite cute!

Pierrot le Fou

The story is about a married man leaving his wife and kids to go on a journey with his babysitter.

Liked the interesting dialogue between the couple and how the different settings and genres were used! The couple would be on a beautiful island at one moment and then driving around in the city at the next moment. The genre would switch from romance, action, crime and even to a musical! All of them were nicely gelled together!

Internet Movie Database Link

Beyond the Clouds

This consists of four short stories on the relationship between man and woman. They are linked by a narrator who is a director walking around Italy looking for inspiration.

Liked the first and the last short story! Thought that the narration was a little bit too wordy though! The last short story reminded me a bit of "Beyond Sunrise" made in the same year. Both had a couple talking to each other about small little things while walking around in the city.

Internet Movie Database Link

Blowup

The story is about a few days in the life of a British photographer living in London during the sixties. The title refers to a darkroom technique of enlarging the details of a photograph to see them more clearly.

Was expecting an action packed movie with lots of explosions when I saw the title of the movie but this film had none of those. Nevertheless, I liked the psychological study on the lead actor and the innovative ending that summarised the overall theme of the film very well!

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Antonio Gaudi

This is a documentary on the architecture of a Spanish architect called Antonio Gaudi.

Liked how the buildings incorporated elements of nature like trees and sea shells into the design! They looked very nice!

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Red Desert

The story is about the psychological trauma that resulted after a woman got into a car accident.

Liked the strange soundtrack that sounded like music from outerspace. It reminded me of "Solaris"! I was also reminded of "Woman In the Dunes" made in the same year while watching the film. The dialogue was pretty interesting with lots of nice catch phrases! Great acting by Monica Vitti who played the neurotic housewife very well!

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I-San Special

The story is about a bus trip from Bangkok to a small town in NorthEast Thailand. The passengers behaved normally off the bus but became actors of a radio drama when they boarded the bus.

The radio drama worked pretty well despite having the plain bus interior as backdrop! It was also interesting to see how the real life of the passengers mirrored the one acted out in the radio drama!

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The Vanquished

The film consists of three short stories. Each story is about youths that commit crime out of boredom during post war Europe.

Liked the opening scene that explained the objective of the film very clearly through the narration and newspaper cuttings! All the three stories were interesting in their own ways! The girl in the "Rome" episode looked the prettiest in my opinion!

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China

This is a documentary about China during the middle of the Cultural Revolution in 1972. It is divided into three parts and describes Beijing, Henan, Suzhou, Nanjing and Shanghai.

Liked the narration that explained Chinese culture through activities such as acupuncture, taiji, acrobat and culinary delights as well as the depiction of ordinary folks at home, at play and in school! Especially liked the song and dance performance by the nursery school kids!

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Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!

The story is about the adventure of three female strippers driving across the desert.

Wonder how many movies have three or more exclamation marks in its title? Liked the exciting comic book type action and the funny dialogue in the film! The characters were interesting too!

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Olympia

This is a documentary on the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

Liked the opening scenes for both parts of the film! Each of them showcased the beauty of the human body in a different way! The individual events were interesting to watch too! The tension among the competitors and the enthusiasm among the supporters were well depicted!

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The Last Mistress

The story is about a playboy who decides to bid farewell to his last mistress and get married. He recounts his past love story to his prospective grandmother a few days before his marriage.

Liked the interesting psychological study on the relationship between men and women! The new wife played by Roxane Mesquida looked quite pretty and she looked very nice in the green coat!

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The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

The story is about how Prince Caspian returned to power after being forced into exile by his evil uncle with the help of four teenagers and a group of creatures who lived in the land of Narnia.

Some parts of the film reminded me a little bit of "Lord of the Rings". Liked Susan who looked quite pretty and Lucy who looked very cute! Susan looked very smart when she was shooting arrows at her enemies!

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Come Drink With Me

The story is about the battle between a female government agent called the Golden Swallow and a group of bandits who kidnapped her brother.

Saw this movie at the National Museum "Under the Banyan Tree" screening which was a free-of-charge outdoor screening at night. Liked the nicely choreographed martial arts moves! The Golden Swallow looked quite cool and the musical pieces were interesting! I thought "A Touch of Zen" by the same director was slightly better though.

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