Brene Brown: The Call to Courage

This is a talk by best seller writer Brene Brown on the meaning of courage.

Liked the many real life examples of courage that were peppered with humour! My mental image of a courageous person used to be a young fit man fighting a tiger with his bare hands, but I realized that anybody could be courageous after her talk.

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Joshua: Teenager vs. Superpower

This is a documentary on Joshua, a young activist in Hong Kong who protested against mandatory National Education in 2012 and was one of the leaders in the 2014 Occupy Central movement.

Liked how passionate Joshua was about his cause! Not sure if civil disobedience really helped in achieving his goals though.

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A Clockwork Orange

The story is about how a young delinquent tries to turn over a new leaf after he was caught by the police.

Liked the nice classical music soundtrack! The film made me reflect on whether punishment is really the best way to make a child behave. It is sad if they do something out of fear rather than out of their own free choice.

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Arrival

The story is about how the arrival of aliens changed the life of a linguist who is trying to understand their purpose of coming here.

Liked the interesting twist towards the end! The mandarin spoken by Amy Adams was really terrible though!

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Ten Years

The film consists of five short stories on what might happen in Hong Kong ten years later in 2025.

Liked the "Dialect" the best as it related the story of an ordinary taxi driver. "Extras" and "Self Immolator" were action packed but most controversial as they portrayed the central government as a big bad bully. "Season of the End" was too abstract for me. "Local Egg" was a nice reminder that we should think for ourselves.

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Beyond the Curve

This is a documentary on people who believed that the earth is flat.

Liked the interviews with psychologists, physicists and the flat earth society members! They helped me to understand why people would think differently from others despite evidences that showed otherwise.

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Feminists: What Were They Thinking?

This is a documentary about women who modeled for a photo book about feminists during the late 1970s.

Liked the interesting personal stories of these women! I think present day society would be very different without the feminist movement. Women might still be stuck at home being a housewife, earn less pay than men and have no legal means to abort their babies.

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The Secret Rules of Modern Living: Algorithms

This is a documentary on how algorithms are essential to our modern life.

Liked the real life examples given by the narrator! Algorithms are useful for sorting things in order, matching things by preference and finding the shortest route over multiple places.

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Sing

The story is about how the owner of an old theater gathered a group of wannabe singers to create a fantastic show.

Liked all the nice songs! Was surprised that Reese Witherspoon and Scarlett Johansson were behind the voices of Rosita and Ash as they sang really well!

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The Barkley Marathons: The Race that Eats Its Young

This is a documentary of the 2012 Barkley Marathon which is a 100 mile trail race with a cut-off timing of 60 hours.

Liked the quirky organizer who created the race with inspiration from a prison break that lasted about 60 hours! The cuts on the racers' feet looked terrible!

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Karl Meltzer: Made to be Broken

This is a documentary about a man's quest to beat the speed record of completing the Appalachian Trail which is about 3500 km long.

Liked the nice mountain sceneries! I am amazed by the determination of the runner to fulfill his dream!

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Tony Robbins: I Am Not Your Guru

This is a documentary about a professional speaker named Tony Robbins at his 2014 "Date With Destiny" seminar.

Liked the day by day account on the six day seminar which is filled with personal anecdotes! I was amazed by how he could ask the audience really deep questions about themselves to find out the root cause of their problems!

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Coraline

The story is about the adventures of a little girl called Coraline when she found a secret entrance to a parallel world.

Liked the nice animation but found it a bit scary at times. Guess it celebrates the unique quirks in each one of us!

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Sky Ladder: The Art of Cai Guo-Qiang

This is a documentary on how a famous Chinese artist came back to his hometown to complete his dream project.

Liked how the artist explained his works using Chinese history as a backdrop! Nice tribute to his grandmother!

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Wall-E

The story is about two robots falling in love with each other and helping humans return back to earth in the process.

Liked how Wall-E made a cosy home for himself despite such difficult conditions! It pays to have spare parts for everything!

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The Redeemed and the Dominant: Fittest on Earth

This is a documentary of the 2017 Cross Fit games to find the fittest person on earth.

This felt like a sequel to "Fittest on Earth: A Decade of Fitness", same few athletes but one year older. I learned more about the actual Cross Fit games events in this film.

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Brave

The story is about how a Scottish princess improved her relationship with her mother through a series of adventures.

Thought this was a precursor to the film Frozen. Both films had someone exiled from the castle and both films were about the love between family members. Liked the action sequences in Brave better but the songs in Frozen better.

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Shirkers

The story is about a young woman's memories of an old film that she was making with her friends many years ago.

Liked the scenery of the old streets in Singapore and the scrapbook style of film making!

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The Bucket List

The story is about two cancer patients trying to complete their bucket list.

Liked the wonderful places that they visited and how they reconciled with their families before they died!

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Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things

This is a documentary on how to cut down on the useless things that we buy and to live more simply.

Liked the interviews with the experts as well as the person in the street who practices minimalism. The ending quote "Love people and use things. Not the other way round." was nice too!

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