Yes Man

Would you say yes to everything that presents itself to you in life? Or do you lead your life saying no to everything? Say yes to life and start living your life now!

The power of self-affirmation, releasing and programming. Carl Allen is a no man. He said no to everything in his life. He is as stuck as the stick in the mud. He says no to his best friends' invitations, he says no to this neighbour, he says no to his work, he says no to promotion, he says no to his boss... in fact he says no to himself. He prefers very much to wallow in his own pain, within the comfort zone of his own home, watching rented DVDs without any one around him. If given a choice, he would rather have the world abandon him.

Thing starts to change after he meet an old friend while having his lunch one afternoon. This friend introduces the YES workshop to Allen and encourages him to make a change to his life. His sub-consciousness starts to work through him. One evening, he attends the new age YES workshop. After that evening, he starts to say yes to everything and every opportunity that presents itself. A little trial of saying yes begins to open the door to opportunities and change for Carl. Life slowly unravels itself. From offering a ride to the homeless, to getting to know his new love interest Allison, he starts to enjoy his life and loves the experience of living.

The reality is (of course!) he goes a little too much and too far by saying yes to everything, to the extend of finding it hard to say no. Its like the universe punishes him for saying no. Every story has a key message. In Yes Man, the message is... Do things in moderation. You can't say yes to everything and you can't say no to everything. You choose the middle, in that grey area of Maybe, and not to forget, you must add a dash of common sense too!

I have to admit that Yes Man is a rather powerful movie in a new age way. I highly recommend this movie for the value it offers. The only thing that irks me is that Jim Carrey is unable to break away from his face contortion and silly antics which makes him a famous comedian. It stereotypes him, making it hard to appreciate him as a serious actor. To find in this lovely movie, the tiny signature Jim Carrey expression and behaviours is a little discerning. Perhaps it might be way too serious if he does do away with all this signature actions. Either way, Yes Man is a movie worth watching.

Rating: 4 out of 5 fairy clouds. You can have good fun watching Yes Man even if you do not understand the power of new age healing. It is still a decent movie with good storyline.

Another Crazy Christmas

The start of my Christmas celebration begins with a musical to some great local talents of Singapore, Another Crazy Christmas. This Christmas caroling is performed by Selena Tan, Emma Young, Pamela Oei, Hossan Leong, Robin Goh, Neo Swee Lin, Lim Kay Siu, Sebastian Tan, John Lee, Petrina Kow and Vocaluptious.

I enjoyed the performance by Hossan Leong. It is the best out of all the singings and cajolings by the group. The jokes about the Singapore Flyer and Singaporeans' creativity with their dance movements are simply hilarious. Even Sebastian's Hokkien version of Jingle Bell is far more entertaining than the others. I do miss the Dim Sum Dollies. I wonder if they will come back to create another season.

Overall, I am mildly disappointed. This current musical is rather commercial and it has lost its little charm. Last year's performance was cozy, heartwarming and full of love. It was oozing with that fuzzy feeling of warmth near the hearth on a cold winter night. I failed to feel the same leaving the theatre this evening. I wonder where the magic has gone to? Or could it be that there is a lack of chemistry amongst the group?

Twilight

Let me give you a hint to this movie. Boy meets girl. Girl meets boy. Boy falls for girl. Girl falls for boy. That's pretty much sum up the story. And to make it more interesting, add a dash of vampire mystery and a pinch of predatory thrill.

The movie focuses around Isabella Swan (Bella) who has moved to a new high school in Washington after her mother remarries and moves to stay with her new husband. She makes new friends and finds Edward Cullen to be intriguing.

Edward feels an uncontrollable attraction towards Bella and is very protective of her. Over time they falls in love with each other. How will that end? Will she become a vampire and rejoice in their eternal love for each other? We have no idea.

I'm not a big fan of adolescent romance movie, which Twilight is all about. For those die hard romance fans who adore love and romance, this is the movie to watch. Personally for me, its more yucky (!) than ooh and ahh.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 fairy clouds. This movie is not my cup of tea.

Bolt

Bolt is the latest animation released by Disney. The story tells of a white German Shepherd who knows nothing of the real world except the made believe world which he has been living in for 5 years. Sounds familiar? Of course it is! Remember The Truman Show? Well, this time round it has been tamed and repacked into a supersize tiny white waggy-tail ferocious little puppy eye doggie!

During one shooting, his owner Penny is captured by the green-eye Dr Calico. The episode ended with Penny being taken away and a crew member returned Bolt to his trailer. Being anxious to save Penny, little Bolt escapes from his trailer and somehow lands into a box by accident and is shipped to New York.

At New York, he meets with Mittens and Rhino. Together the trio starts on the adventurous trip to Hollywood, California. Along the way, Bolt learns of the truth about his life and fake superhero skills which he holds dear to this heart. Reality can be harsh, but this did not stop Bolt from going back to his beloved human.

As with all Disney cartoons (which I will always repeat), it will always be a happy ending to uphold the wholesome family entertainment for the family. Despite of the clinches and predictable storyline, Bolt is still an super entertaining movie.

There are two scenes which I love dearly. One is Bolt learning to act cute so as to "beg" for food and next is the Rhino the hamster. I adore the out-of-character Rhino which is evil in the purest sense. He is simply cute as a button and you just want to pinch the hell out of this furball!

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 fairy clouds. A great entertainment for the family during this festive month. I have as much fun watching Kung Fu Panda as Bolt, with the exception that Bolt is filled with children's humour.

Paprika

Paprika is a spicy girl of your dream. In fact, she is literally the girl IN your dream!

Dr Chiba and her assistant, Dr Tokita have found a way to enter into your dreams in this animation science fiction flick. Using the DC Mini, Dr Chiba transformed into Paprika and provides treatments to her patients through dream therapy. Inspiration gives birth to new technology which becomes a source of power.

As fate has it, three DC Mini prototype has been stolen. All dreams are slowly trickling into a big illusion and crossing the boundary between dream and reality. Will Paprika solve the mystery and save the day?

The animation is an eye opener to the possibility of technological intervention. You will be dazzled by the power of subconscious mind and deprived dreams. It does make one wonder if everything at hand is truly a case of child's play, ie a child trapped inside the body of an adult. It is a pretty amazing and mind blowing animation for me as I did not set any expectation of what I might find in this Japanese creation.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 fairy clouds. An impressive movie which is truly out of the world. A must-watch for Japaneses animation and sci-fi fans!

Kabluey

Kabluey is a movie about self-realisation and discovery. It can be sometimes hard to understand love without first going through some hardships and loving oneself.

The movie starts with Leslie, a depressive mother of two extremely hard-to-handle boys, whose husband is away at war. She is desperate to get back to work and can't afford to get a babysitter. Out of desperation, she asked her brother-in-law, Salman for help.

Salman is a socially inept person who is having a hard time getting accepted by everyone including his family. As Salmon becomes the babysitter for Leslie, he soon learns about loving and accepting himself as he discovers and understands about love and pain of people around him.

The movie has a rather geeky kind of humour which is kind of refreshing like a young school girl. It is kind of subtle yet touching in many ways. It is definitely an interesting movie to watch. Of course, more can be done to improve the storyline and add more depth. Yet simplicity can still achieve the same objective. And Kabluey is a simple movie.

Rating: 4 out of 5 fairy clouds.

Little Miss Sunshine

Oh little Miss Sunshine! The sweet and almost nostalgic film revolves around a dysfunctional American family. The family road trip to California started as the youngest member of the family becomes eligible for the Little Miss Sunshine pageant.

Sheryl is an overworked mother of a teenage son and young daughter. Her husband Richard is an unsuccessful motivation speaker and life coach. Their son Dwayne has been on a 9-month vow of silence till he achieve his goal to be a pilot. The youngest Olive, is actively pursuing her beauty queen dream. Olive is closed to her grandfather who has been kicked out of retirement home due to his heroin addict.

The story begins with Sheryl picking up her suicidal brother who has recently lost this love, career and a chance to be a recognised scholar of French literature. Under the doctor's instruction, Sheryl is taking care of him to make sure he is ok. During dinner, the family receives a call that young Olive has obtained a chance to participate in Little Miss Sunshine pageant which takes place in 2 days time.

On a haste, the whole family takes on a road trip to Redondo Beach Hotel, California. It is an unforgettable road trip for the family in the bright yellow Volkswagen minibus. Each of them learns to come to term with reality while learning to understand and respect each other.

There is a lot of tolerant in a typical American family. This makes me wonder if such unconditional love be a cruelty instead. The adventure and unexpected twists have been a good entertainment for me. It is a decent film for a lazy afternoon.

Rating: 4 out of 5 fairy clouds. It is worth watching, not to mention that I bought the 2nd hand DVD at only just $6. Pretty worthwhile and enjoyable movie!

Persepolis

The French animation is graphic autobiography of Marjane Satrapi who retold her childhood in Iran through the revolution to her adolescent years.

The wide eye little nine year old Marjane is an outspoken, active and non-conformist at a young tender age. She witnesses the change of her hometown after the Shah is overturned as well as in increasing sacrilegious belief that a woman must be cover up in order not to tempt a man. (It just proves to show that man has no sense of self-control, isn't it? Just blame the woman, its such an easy excuse.)

One day, her parents decided to send her to Vienna to study as they worry that her rebellious nature might get her into trouble. Yet Marjane is lost in the newly found freedom and European culture. As she grows, you witness how she slowly rediscovers herself and finds her true identity, slowly moving out of the shadow of domination she has experienced from her hometown.

It is an amazing graphic animation. I'm quite surprised while at the same time touched by her childhood experiences. It is rather hard for me not to be judgemental of the religious belief of what the women has been put through in Iran. While providing me with greater understanding of what happened in Iran from the 70s to 90s, I learnt to sympathise with the Iranian women. I could only wish that more of them are like Marjane, learning to be themselves instead of being a shadowy existence to their man.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 fairy clouds. Its a must-watch movie. Extremely well done both in the storyboarding as well as the artistic animation. You can feel the real life hardship but with less intensity and harshness . Persepolis is a beautifully crafted by Marjane herself as she shared her story.

Marvelous Melaka!

All of us from the office travelled to Malacca for a short 2D1N vacation from 28-29 November 2008. We left Singapore early Friday morning to take bus 707 to our hospital's 14th anniversary dinner before returning home on Saturday evening. It was a fantastic and wonderful weekend.

We arrived at noon at Jonker Street for the famous famous famous, needless to say... CHENDOL! And Nonya assam laksa and Nonya Laksa at Jonker Dessert 88. The seamless heavenly matching of gula melaka sweetness with coconut milk and the companion of the pandan green jellies and red beans is simply... SEDAP!

Of course, being an extremely hungry bunch of people who has travelled far and beyond to Malacca, lunch did not end there. We headed for Lunch Part II, to the well-known and established Hoe Kee Chicken Ball Rice. The fishball sized rice ball is out-of-this-world. Its must-try dish for anyone who visit Malacca.

By the evening, we headed to the main highlight of the company-sponsored trip, Mahkota Medical Centre 14th anniversary dinner. I have to admit, our nurses are truly hot and talented. They have done such wonderful job in putting up dances and singing to entertain all colleagues and guests. Well done girls!

The next day is R&R for everyone. We started the day with the city tour to San Bao Shan at Bukit Cina, heritage tour, lunch and company sponsored shopping excursion. Sadly, our tour guide is really bad. We didn't even want to tip him at the end of the trip.

I feel that the best part of the city tour is the visit to Baba Nyonya Heritage Museum (also located near Jonker Street). The privately owned museum offers excellent and impressive cultural tour of the lives of the rich Peranakans. I love the Peranankan house architecture and culture. It has been such an eye opener! And its only 8 ringgit for the ticket to the museum. I would love to go there again.

Malacca trip isn't completed without a nice hot Peranankan meal. Thanks to the generousity of our boss, we had a sumptuous lunch at Aunty Lee. Yum yum... I'm still drooling thinking about the delicious fish and sambal chili and otah.

Overall it has been an extremely enjoyable trip with all my colleagues. Thanks for all the fun and booze and Pure Bar. I would love to make another leisure trip to Malacca to enjoy the culture and explore the little shops and pubs at Jonker Street again. And also thank you everyone for their sweet compliments. This if-you-don't-have-10-carat-diamond-to-show-your-sincerity-,-don't-come-near-me woman felt really flattered.

Avenue Q

Avenue Q is the latest adult puppet show to hit town (by that I meant Singapore). The puppety musical begins with the arrival of Princeton who has just graduated with a BA in English and makes his decision to move to Avenue Q in New York.

Princeton gets to know a couple of new friends who are staying near his apartment. There is THE Gary Coleman who is the superintendent of the apartment, Kate Monster a cute kindergarten teacher assistance, Trekkie an Internet porn addict, Rod a Republican investment banker (and closet gay), Brian an out-of-job comedy and his fiancee Christmas Eve. Together, Princeton and his new found friends set on a little life journey together as they discover about love, jobs, money and purpose of life.

Overall it is a rather entertaining musical. I would rather love it to be more provocative, oops! I meant more thought provoking. For one, there can be more adult contents without being overly crude. The amount of adult contents is rather meek by my standards. Perhaps it has been tamed to avoid public disapproval. Who knows.

I have enjoyed the musical this evening. The scene of Princeton and Kate has been the most memorable and funny. Yet in general, the musical isn't as daring as I expected it to be, especially when it is compared to say Rent which has definitely pushed the limit of taboo topic (of gay) beyond the big screen and Broadway. I expected the same from Avenue Q but I have assumed wrongly. Nevertheless, it is still a decent piece of musical.

Ponyo On The Cliff By The Sea

The latest 2008 animation from Studio Ghibli, Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea is directed by the fame filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki. And yes, I'm a big big fan of Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki's work!

The animation tells the story of a naughty little fish who runs away from home to explore the bigger world of the sea. Taking a ride from the jellyfish, the little fish drifts close to the human world and is rescued by a 5 year old old Sosuke, who befriends her and names her Ponyo. Ponyo falls for Sosuke and makes to choice to become a human.

The story is a little similar to The Little Mermaid, except Ponyo has a much easier time, as well as the true love and friendship of Sosuke who accepts her in her true form. It is a rather cute and fun little movie, allowing you to delve into the world of the fantasy and underwater world.

Rating: 4 out of 5 fairy clouds. This is a nice family movie as well as for the young at heart. Good weekend movie to watch when you have nothing else plan.

Burn After Reading

This is a story of nothing at all. It's a mish-mash of confusion, secrecy and jumping to conclusion.

The plot starts with Osbourne Cox, a CIA analyst, who resigns from this job. He forms a new goal in life, and starts a memoir of his work with the bureau. His wife, Katie, immediately seeks the help of a lawyer to proceed with a secret divorce case and made a copy of important information off Osbourne's computer onto a CD.

Making matter worse, this CD is misplaced and accidentally lands in Hardbodies Gym. Chad is a typical brainless instructor while his colleague, Linda is obsessed in wanting to undergo plastic surgery to improve her look which she hope will in turn increase her chances of seeking a soul mate. Both decided to blackmail Osbourne thinking that CD contains top CIA information. When the blackmailing fails, they presented the CD to the Russian Embassy.

Making matter worse, Harry who has been sleeping with Katie, also begins to date Linda. While he was at Katie's house one day, Chad happens to have broken into the house hoping to steal more information off Osbourne's computer. Unfortunately he gets killed by Harry.

At this point Harry's paranoid has gotten worse. He started to attack a guy whom he has been watching and observing him for a while. He then discovers that his wife has arranged with a legal firm to file for divorce with Harry.

Complicated plot and sub-plots but pieces of the puzzles eventually falls neatly into one another at the end of the movie. There are many good actors this film, which makes it rather entertaining. But the real story is really no story at all. It is just plainly a lot of misunderstanding and guessing of are these people really up to. Each of them have their own agenda, and at the end, no one really wins from this twisted adventure except for Linda, who got CIA to fund her plastic surgery at the end of the day.

Rating: 3 out of 5 fairy clouds. I expected more from this movie, thinking that the crew is a group of cool and excellent actors. But it has failed to amaze me mostly.

Red Cliff

I never say no to free movie... at least most of the time. This afternoon I watched Red Cliff (Part I). The blockbuster movie is the latest of John Woo's film. It is a rather ambitious movie as it tried to emulate the grandiosity of Lord of the Ring, in terms of CGI animation.

The story of the Three Kingdom is fascinating as there is already a well developed depth and personality to each of the key character in the original story. The movie has an easy job of just adopting and scripting the important scenes to make the complete movie. However, I feel that the director focused too much on the costumes and martial arts effect, which I do agree that it is rather excellent. You can feel the war and you can feel the characters while watching the movie.

Though it is an entertaining movie, I'm disappointed with the animation. It is just too reelistic, failing to demonstrated the real natural beauty of those supposed landscape. A bad CGI animation is still capable of destroying a good movie, which is what I feel towards Red Cliff.

Only one complain, I understand many feel that Tony Leung has a sexy appeal. But please spare me and try not to overdo on the seduction scene between him and Lin Chi Ling. I felt rather turn-off by two intimate scenes between these 2 actors as it is simply nothing more than just a brainless teaser that doesn't add any value to the movie.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 fairy cloud. A decent movie to watch if you are a fan of the Three Kingdom. Otherwise, nothing much to miss about this film. There are many other more well-done films like The Last Emperor which has wonderfully weaved art and film-making into one solid end product.