Perth and notions of freedom

Caught Perth at the Alliance Francaise. Haven't been there in a while. Since V stopped taking French. consequently, haven't been to Newton for dinner/supper in a while. Wasn't it suppose to be due for major renovation?

Had wanted to watch this from the time I saw it while checking out sites mentioning local film. And it was my source of joy when I finally got them tickets from the Art House.

Was almost late for the premiere because I left work later than expected and had to rush home to grab the 6 tickets then zipped down to Sarkies with only seconds to spare. Sigh...was there on time but being a premiere, there's got to be a certain "fashionable lateness" to the whole brouhaha. So I met up with V and mong and the rest (pin, wy and jeff) who were already there of course.

We got free movie posters! Wahey! Signed by Djinn (wahey hey). When the movie grows bigger, I'm gonna sell the movie poster on ebay. We exchanged our tickets to have seats allocated for us...

So where were the sponsors? the hall was like 3/4 filled. french dude said it was for the sponsors. sigh...

Mong was saying that she didn't realise the movie will get a commercial release 3 days later. Had she known, she would have watched it in town instead of coming down to Newton. She said it before french dude came up to introduce the cast and crew. I guess having Djinn, Lim Kay Tong, Liu Qiu Lian et. al. to go up and "say a few words" made the trip there somewhat, more worthwhile.

If you intend to watch the movie...try to stop reading here. *potential spoiler*

I shall move through the "bads" in the movie first.

The score!!! The minimalist piano bits worked brilliant for the first two, maybe three time. But there after, it's like watching some Korean drama (weepy) like Winter Sonata or something. IT was getting rather irritating.

Sound editing!!! Rather bad at times. Like when Harry Lee (GUFFAWS) starts throwing some stuff, they might have floated instead of landing on the ground cause like no sound leh.

Film editing!!! Rather bad at times. It was abrupt at times but not stylishly so.

The good:
The rest of the movie. So good somebody gave it a 8* rating on IMDB.

My take away from the movie.

It's about obsession. First and foremost-ly. While Harry complains about the "rest" of Singapore, especially youths, becoming materialistic, he sees it as some kind of a endless chase for things that are not important to him. He thinks that Singaporeans are obsessed with material goods and wants as exhibited in their relentless pursuit for wealth. And in order to generate wealth, hard work is no longer needed. Not according to him anyway. Education, and not values, give people the headstart. At the same time, he doesn't realise that he is equally as obsessed with two things as a typical Singaporean; firstly his dream of migrating to Perth (where the food is cheap, this is cheap, that is cheap and all his friends are there) and secondly, his past that was intertwined with some Cambodian chick. Harry and his perception of a typical Singaporean are similar. They are both trapped in their quest for their aims. While Harry thinks that we are no longer free when we pursue our mobile phones, country clubs membership, condominiums, he is trapped in his fixations as well. be it his alcoholism, his cambodian love baggage or his perth dream.

Freedom is a weird thing. Imagine the word. Try and describe it. Isn't it ironic that the concept of "freedom" has certain perceived notions? So I suppose Harry thinks that freedom (freedom from materialism, perhaps) can be found in going to perth. Therein lies the constraint. That he must got to Perth in order to achieve freedom. Shit. I am not expressing myself clearly enough. Next.

let's talk about loyalty. More straight forward here. He values it. Probably cause he was a former commando. hiak hiak... He thinks it is so important that the dog (should I call the dog a stray?) he "picked up" was named Faithful. He thinks his ex-wife doesn't have it. He might think his son doesn't have it. He probably thinks that he has it. But damn, he is leaving his own country behind. He argues that the Singapore he knew is no longer the Singapore he knows now but damn, he is leaving the country. So how loyal is that? And well, he thinks that by leaving Singapore for Perth, he is seeking an alternative but he doesn't think the same for Mai, the Vietnamese prostitute who left her debt-ridden family to work in Singapore. He doesn't think that her leaving her homeland and family was for the better. I suppose in a cruel way, they were both pursuing similar aims. To seek a better life for themselves (or family).

Selvam, who was brilliant, summarised how I feel elegantly. The ******(fill in any appropriate social institution) makes you think that you need certain things in life. It is like a trap because then you can never be free from these wants. It's like The Fight Club. You are not your job. You are not how much money you have in the bank. You are not the car that you drive. You are not the contents of your wallet. You are not your fucking khakis. You are the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world.

I thought Angry Boy's lines were very natural. If he isn't a very experienced actor or not trained professionally as an actor, it is quite obvious. There were certain scenes when his timing was a little off and his body language a little weird. But he dominated each scene with his words and ways. And that cannot be taught in acting school.

Excerpt from movie:

Harry: I'm gonna give it all up and migrate to Perth!

Angry Boy: So you thinking of quitting?

The whole movie suddenly became the geylang corkscrew massacre. Quite a dramatic turn of events. But still very watchable. No point comparing it to any other movie (even with the Harry Lee mirror scene ala Travis in Taxi). Watch it as it is, the simple dream of a simple man and reflect on our puny (it rhymes with peony?) lives.

Saw a number of familiar sights in Balestier, Whampoa and Geylang area. Balestier Point was featured too! So was the coffee bean shop along Balestier and the old school baker off Balestier into Whampoa.
Burning question! How did the prostitute die facing downwards with her hair still wet? erotic-asphyxiation?

narbeh, now the whole world knows SAF don't take care of their military personnel once they get to their retirement age. mind you, warrant officers retire later than commissioned officers. so where should anyone go at 42 years of age, after spending all their working life in the armed forces? beats me...shit...did i just blab that out?? someone made me do it.

Some scenes were beautifully shot. the isolation and desolation (cheem but I mean it) that sometimes forms the essence of paintings by Edward Hopper was also found in certain scenes. There was this particular petrol kiosk scene. It was so Americana. I don't know why.

a number of other reviews...
cinespot

E!

interviews...
cinespot


kung fu cult cinema

site of interest...

vacantfilms

damn, hiep thi le is Djinn's wife?


We try harder.

Banter

Kelly from Australia left a comment in one of my blog and I followed to her blog.

It was filled with gastronomic reviews. Fantastic.

Excerpt:

One of the best meals we had there (excluding the wedding banquet, of course) was chilli crab at No Signboard Seafood (Stadium branch, for those of you who know Singapore).

Link

Napola - Men Make History. We Make Men.

There is a new movie in the pipeline about Joy Division - the band that will become New Order. It is supposed that Jude Law will be playing Ian Curtis. Moby is suppose to help out as the musical adviser. Anton Corbijn (wow!) will be the director. The movie has a tentative working title Control and will be based on Deborah Curtis' memoir Touching From A Distance and the title of the memoir is a line taken from Joy Division song Transmission.

Listen to the silence, let it ring on
Eyes dark, relentless, frightened of the sun
We would have a fine time living in the night
Left a blind destruction,
Waiting for our sign

We would go on as though nothing was wrong
Hide from these days to remain all alone
Staying in the same place,
just staring at the tide
Touching from a distance, further all the time

Well I could call out
when the going gets tough
The things we've learned
are no longer enough
No language, just sound
is all we need know
To synchronise love to the beat
of the show
And we could dance 

Why did I mention this on a blog entry that is titled Napola - which was a movie I watched last night?

Well, cause one of the male lead in Napola was Tom Schilling and he is going to be in a movie called Joy Division. Joy Division is the Jewish version of the Korean Comfort Women. I think Tom Schilling, who looks smack like a cross between Brian Molko of Placebo and Ian Curtis, could be a better lead for the Joy Division movie as Ian Curtis. Or Sean Harris, who acted as Ian Curtis in 24 Hour Party People.

But Jude Law's got the accent. So....

Back to the movie.

This was the most recent movie I watched after the dismal 7 Swords by Tsui Hark. And they are worlds apart. Like a good drama, character development was there. It wasn't fantastic but adequate nonetheless. Stereotypical I guess. Nondescript boy, Freidrich, categorised as nordic class 1B (according to the classification by hair colour, pupil colour, skin colour etc etc) with a talent for boxing was drafted into Hitler's Youth Wing - Napola, a training school for elite German youths, which is like OCS in SAFTI MI (ok, OCS cadets not that elite...). Then there was this Governor's son, Albrecht, who was deemed somewhat an underachiever by the power crazy dad, soon became great buddies with Freidrich. The historical background like dividing the youths from as young as 10 to as old as 18 into 8 columns were all accurately depicted. I suppose the settings were accurate, the plot was sheer genius in the way it unfolded.

Initially I thought it was a movie about Hitler's Youth Wing. But about halfway throught he movie, I figured that the movie was turning out better as well as different in content than I had expected. It was not about the Third Reich, not about Hitler's fanatics, not about Aryans reigning supreme over the Jews. All these were mentioned in the movie. But the over-riding impression I got was that of Responisibility. And in all sense of the word.

Freidrich forged his dad's signature to get into the school. Along the way we have this persistent bed-wetting youth, Siggi, who sacrificed his life to save 20 of his fellow mates when a grenade training session went awry, Albrecht's essay written in spite and with great passion against his father (very anti-Nazi, likening the Reich as the Evil he had wanted to purge since young when he imagined himself as a slayer of dragons and all things evil), how Friedrich stopped halfway into a boxing match he was about to win, only to be sacked by the Napola for being defiant.

There wasa great speech by Albrecht's father when Siggi died and his speech was about how our bodies were just tools for the greater good and that we were not responsible only to ourselves but also to the cause. Albrecht was more interested in being responsible to himself after a harrowing operation whereby he and a couple others killed some renegade soviet kids. Albrecht later drowned himself and Freidrich, who was his best mate in Napola, felt that he was partly responsible for his death because he did not support Albrecht in his time of need. The theme was recurring. But maybe it was because I only paid attention to this theme.

On a side note, there was this rank-less (hence private I suppose) army fellow in army greens seated next to me. It was rather weird....was he proving a point or just out from camp? Looking at this age and rank, he should be on ICT. But where got ICT private one?

When Albrecht was under the sheets of ice in the frozen lake, looks down into the darkness of the lake and sees a better life there, it was a very sobering.

To see a better choice in being dead.

Pulp Fiction #0908-1965 State Flag (completely baseless)

A short hello to tomorrow.sg readers. hello.
Today I am going to expound on the hows and whys that resulted in our stupendous State flag:


This is the State flag of Singapore.
Let me first give a brief description of the flag (ok, ok, I got it from the Singapore Infomap website):

The national flag is Singapore's most visible symbol of statehood, symbolising our sovereignty, pride and honour. It reflects the ideals, beliefs and values that we stand by as a nation amidst our rich and diverse make-up. It forms a crucial element of our national identity. As such, the national flag is to be treated with dignity and honour.

Its Origin
The national flag was unveiled on 3 December 1959, together with the state crest and the national anthem, at the installation of the new Head of State, the Yang di-Pertuan Negara - Yusof bin Ishak. It was created by a committee led by then Deputy Prime Minister, Dr Toh Chin Chye. It replaced the Union Jack, which had flown over Singapore for 140 years (1819-1959). Upon Singapore's independence in 1965, it was adopted as Singapore's national flag.

Its Meaning
The flag consists of two equal horizontal sections, red above white. In the upper left section are a white crescent moon, and five white stars forming a circle. Each feature of the flag has its own distinctive meaning and significance. Red symbolises universal brotherhood and equality of man. White signifies pervading and everlasting purity and virtue. The crescent moon represents a young nation on the ascendant. The five stars stand for the nation's ideals of democracy, peace, progress, justice and equality.

Great Britain's flag is the Union Jack. USA's flag is the Stars and Stripes or the less used Old Glory. France's got Le drapeau tricolore. Indonesia has got merah dan putih. We can have our own ang kark pek (red and white in hokkien).

Anyway, what I wanted to do was to reveal the real meaning behind the State flag. By real I actually mean in my warped world it is real lah. I have engaged two local actors to partake in my attempt to shed light on how and why the State flag looks the way it looks.

Let's call them Stars and Moon. They were sitting at the corner kopi tiam. Stars was drinking his tiao hee (tea bag) and Moon was drinking his tak giu peng (iced milo). National Day was just round the corner so their conversation inadvertently led to discussions about how on 9th August, the garlermen will let off hundreds of thousands worth of fireworks in the already light-polluted night sky of Singapore, how dumb silliporeans continue to hang their flag wrong way wrong, how it will be okay if Indonesians did the same because it will still be the look like the Indonesian flag.....








However if they hang it upside down, they will become Polish. So Indonesia flags are resistant to low IQ silliporeans who hang Singapore flags wrongly. Also they couldn't understand how is it that when SAF vehicles move through the heartlands of the island state, it doesn't seem as communistic as when we see news clips of People Liberation Army's marching in Tiananmen Square?

Well, their banter led to Moon asking Stars if he knew how did our State flag came into being. Stars knew that it was back in 1959 when it was first flown. But how the design came about was something he had never put any serious thought into.

Moon: So you know what our flag looks like right?

Stars: Yah, red over white, one crescent and 5 stars.

Moon: So you know how it came about?

Stars: Not too sure man. But I know the red stands for universal brotherhood and white is pure and vaginal.

Moon: Virginal.

Stars: Yah. Virginal. And the crescent is new nation on the rise and five stars represent the five ideals: democracy, peace, progress, justice and equality.

Moon: Wah, steady phoon pi pi, you remember everything by heart. If got patriotic quiz you sure win.

Stars: They drill it into us what. Back in primary school.

Moon: But they never told the truth.

Stars: Huh? Don't talk cock sing song leh.

Moon: I'm not. The official meaning of the symbols used in the flag was just a cover up for a flag that was meant to please everyone.

Stars: Please everyone?

Moon: Yes, everyone. Like Carrefour.

Stars: Like Carrefour?

Moon: Yah, you know how Carrefour overstock all sorts of goods so that father, mother, ah mah, ah gong, children, maids, bangla, ang moh, everybody will love it. So one shop stop to let everybody in the family be happy.

Stars: So our flag like Carrefour.

Moon: In a way.

Stars: Explain.

Moon: You must remember firstly that back in 1959, singapore was facing a number of threats and situations. The pending merger with Malaysia, trouble bubbling that will burst into the Konfrontasi, the rise of communism in the region, being the only predominantly chinese state in the whole of the malay peninsular and indonesian archipelago.

Stars: So?

Moon: So, when we had to design a flag for ourselves, we had to have a design that can align ourselves with as many of these elements as possible so as to appease everyone around us.

Stars: Where got?

Moon: It should be rather obvious that our flag looks like the Indonesian flag.

Stars: Ya, so does Poland's flag what.

Moon: That's in Europe. Anyway, there are elements from the Malaysian flag as well, the crescent and the stars.

Stars: Like this also can?

Moon: Of course! I mean, how can we use a symbol on our State flag to indicate that we are a young nation. What happens 100 years down the road? We still young nation? How do we know the crescent moon is waxing and hence ascendant and not waning, hence on the decline?

Stars: Why not?

Moon: It's just not right. Imagine Backstreet Boys or Boyzone. Thirty years down the road, they will still be called boys because they included them into their bands' name. They can't be boys forever right?

Stars: It does sound a little silly.

Moon: Similarly for the crescent. And we all know that crescents are muslim symbols.

Stars: So we are trying to tell people we are muslim state?

Moon: yes and no. because we are trying to tell people that we are communist as well.

Stars: Seow ding dong. where got.

Moon: How many countries you know got red background with stars?

Stars: China, Vietnam, Cuba, former Soviet Union...I am starting to scare myself.

Moon: You do see a pattern right?

Stars: Yah, they all don't like USA. But we like leh. USA is like our friend.

Moon: They are communist countries lah.

Stars: Oh.

Moon: So Singapore too has got stars on a red background and red has always traditionally been a communistic colour; little red book, red flag, red scarves...

Stars: But please who in Singapore?

Moon: At that time, there was a wide sphere of influence by the communist over this region, particularly the chinese who still saw China as the motherland.

Stars: Now Singaporeans see china differently liao leh.

Moon: Anyway, you see in our flag, we have managed to please Indonesians with the colour scheme, please our neighbours up north with a similar crescent moon on the left, stars on red background for the communists.

Stars: So the flag got no meaning besides wanting to please everyone?

Moon: Of course the meaning can be applied later lah.

Stars: You mean like abstract art? Like they dunno how to draw properly so they give their messing about some profound meaning?

Moon: I guess you can say that.

Stars: So the democracy,peace,progress,justice and peace all bluff one?

Moon: Not that they are bluff, but they are as they are suppose to be, ideals.

Stars: So?

Moon: Meaning we can never get there.

Stars: How come?

Moon: Imagine this, who is your ideal woman?

Stars: Scarlett Johansson + Natalie Portman + Fiona Xie

Moon: Is there such a woman?

Stars: No, of course not.

Moon: Exactly! Ideals are not real. They don't exist.

Stars: But Fiona Xie is close to ideal leh.

Moon: But she isn't right?

Stars: Yah, I think if she got Scarlett's height would be great. Or Natalie's brains. Wow, she macam like Bigfuck or as he is now known, Rambutan, I mean Rambo Tan. Got degree in Psychology from Havard and now still studying for her graduate studies at Hebrew University in Israel.

Moon: Who is big fuck and rambutan?

Stars: Some guy who blogs.

Moon: What is with this blogging thing anyway? Suddenly everybody like into blogging.

Stars: I also dunno. Eh, so Singapore got no democracy,peace, progress, justice and equality?

Moon: Have some of everything but in unequal amounts lah.

Stars: So which one we have more which one we have less?

Moon: It's not good to have too much of a good thing.

Stars: How come leh?

Moon: Imagine again your three separate women who will make up your ideal. If you mix the best parts of the three of them, do you really think the ideal woman will turn out perfect?

Stars: I dunno.

Moon: Exactly. Nobody knows. Anyway, got to go liao. Gonna hang my flag once I get home.

Stars: Huh? You also hang? What for, you say the flag got fake meaning what.

Moon: Aiyah, you believe everything I say meh? Wah lau, you don't hang, later the Gestapo people will note down your address one.

Stars: Is it? really? I better go home and hang also....

http://fotw.fivestarflags.com/sg.html
http://www.math.nus.edu.sg/aslaksen/teaching/flag.html

Nothing on the State Flag

I just lost a chunk of blog because my ibook turn itself off. Powered down itself.

So sian....and somehow I can't recover it.

I will say a short hello to readers from tomorrow though. hello.