Paprika

The story is about how things went horribly wrong when a machine designed to probe into a person's dream got misused.

Pretty impressed by how the director blended dream and reality so nicely together like what he did in "Perfect Blue"! Also liked the running theme and how Paprika changed into many different costumes similar to that in "Millenium Actress"! The Chinese translation of the title, "Red Chilli", was especially appropriate as it referred to both Paprika's hair color as well as her never-say-die attitude!

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Sada and Kichi

The story is based on a famous murder case that happened in late 1930s Japan. A geisha strangled a rich man and cut off his private parts after making love with each other in a room for a month.

Learnt from the Q&A session that this film belonged to the "Roman Porno" genre created by Nikkatsu in the 60s to save them from bankruptcy. The obsessive love between the couple was portrayed realistically and the flashbacks on the geisha's past made me understand her better. Thought a good companion film could be "World of Geisha" shown in cinemas a few months ago that starred the same leading actress. Looking forward to catch "In the Realm of the Senses" by Nagisa Oshima based on the same true story if it is ever allowed to show here.

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Transformers

The story is about how two types of robots, Autobots and Decepticons, from outerspace fought against each other with the human beings caught in between. Autobots protect humans and transform themselves into automobiles while Decepticons don't like humans and transform themselves into weapons.

Learnt a great deal on how the robots came about from this film! Remembered watching cartoons on transformers when I was young but had no idea why they were fighting each other. The transformation of the robots look very cool! Was also impressed by the two lead actresses in the film! One was a car expert while the other was a computer security expert.

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Scrabble Nationals 2007 (Day Two)

Game 5: vs Ganapathy
Had a bad record against Ganapathy. He won in all our encounters. I was leading by a bit until he bingoed near the end of the game. Lost in the end!

New words learnt: -
My Bingos: FEEDERS(78) Opp Bingos: STRIKES(81)
My Phoneys: NAR* Opp Phoneys: RETRIVES*
My High Moves: - Opp High Moves: LEZ(33)
L 307-392, -85. 2W 3L (Accum spread -83).

Game 6: vs Valli
Was pleasantly surprised when my PLACATED(97) turned out to be good when challenged! Realised that I could have scored more if I had planned my end game moves better.

New words learnt: -
My Bingos: PLACATED(97) Opp Bingos: CLOSING(69)
My Phoneys: KEELY* Opp Phoneys: -
My High Moves: - Opp High Moves: QIS(32), ZA(31)
W 387-381, +6. 3W 3L (Accum spread -77).

Game 7: vs Sharul
Quite happy to meet Sharul again at a competition as he was the first player I played with almost four years ago at the PSTAR games! Had an ADILNU? rack which could only play with either A or U as the first letter and tried UNDIALs*(71) but it was not challenged off as it allowed him to play off some of the consonant tiles.

New words learnt: -
My Bingos: UNDIALS*(71) Opp Bingos: -
My Phoneys: UNDIALS*(71) Opp Phoneys: -
My High Moves: NIX(32), BREW(31) Opp High Moves: ZIT(35), WEEPY(42), CARS(38), TOWING(41)
L 351-414,-63. 3W 4L (Accum spread -140).

Game 8: vs Sim Pin Yi
Had very good tiles in this game with JKQZSSSS?? while my opponent only had the X! Had a chance to bingo out in the end but just couldn't see the word in my EEINRR? rack. Wasted a few moves trying a few possible words that turned out to be phoneys before giving up.

New words learnt: -
My Bingos: TOENAIL(67) Opp Bingos: -
My Phoneys: REINERs* Opp Phoneys: NEM*
My High Moves: QI(30) Opp High Moves: EX(35)
W 428-256, +172. 4W 4L (Accum spread +32).

Game 9: vs Ruby
Was greedy when I put MOTIONER(74) instead of STONIER as I discovered that STONIER just managed to fit in between two DWS cells without touching any of them. Turned out to be a bad move as Ruby managed to hook HAILERS(77) at the back. Was beaten convincingly by her.

New words learnt: MOTIONER(74)
My Bingos: MOTIONER(74) Opp Bingos: UNBARES(72), HAILERS(77), STEROID(76)
My Phoneys: PUHL* Opp Phoneys: UNBANGS*, STORIE*
My High Moves: TOWEL(33), WIVE(31), OX(38) Opp High Moves: ZIT(35)
L 354-448, -94. 4W 5L (Accum spread -62).

Game 10: vs Siew Chin
Turned out that all my King of the Hill opponents were female players. Both of us played several phonies in the beginning before we had one bingo each. Managed to capitalise on my opponent's mistakes to win by a small margin.

New words learnt: -
My Bingos: HALFTONE(72) Opp Bingos: MEDIANS(87)
My Phoneys: KOE*, PENSIER* Opp Phoneys: CEG*, TAC*, MONT*
My High Moves: ZEE(35), FINER(49), DIGS(40) Opp High Moves: RAX(40), MOWER(33), EQUIP(32)
W 402-335, +67. 5W 5L (Accum spread +5).

Game 11: vs Linda
Was quite happy to meet Linda as she was Winston's colleague from Ngee Ann Poly and a possible opponent at the upcoming PSTAR games. We had one bingo each and our scores were quite close until I leapt ahead with KIVES* which was not challenged off. Lucky for me!

New words learnt: -
My Bingos: FASTENS(81) Opp Bingos: COOLIES(72)
My Phoneys: JANG*, KIVES*(46) Opp Phoneys: -
My High Moves: - Opp High Moves: BEAST(36)
W 405-346, +59. 6W 5L (Accum spread +64).

Game 12: vs Dinna
Met her during the Causeway Cup last year. Didn't manage to catch her with the Q at the end of the game otherwise I could have a chance of winning as it would mean a 30 point difference.

New words learnt: ARGON
My Bingos: CARNAGE(80) Opp Bingos: -
My Phoneys: - Opp Phoneys: COER*
My High Moves: FOR(32), OHS(36), FOREX(31), DREW(36) Opp High Moves: JUTES(34), KNEE(36), SHADE(51), ADZ(33)
L 376-400, -24. 6W 6L (Accum spread +40).

Finished the whole tournament with 6 wins, 6 losses and +40 spread in 12th position. Met my basic target with getting at least 6 wins with positive spread but just failed to reach top 10 position. Think that will be the goal for my next tournament!

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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