Macau with Jetstar bears!

FILMING

To want to replicate the scenes from boys over flowers was such a crazy idea...but seriously speaking, Macau is the place where people fall in love. there are many many beautiful churches built in Baroque style. you don't even have to go to Europe to see them, you have ancient, romantic cathedrals right in Asia.

TRICK 1: 

it's really difficult to film the bears. the bears are the size of my palm and I find it to frame the bear with the huge buildings. after figuring it for the longest time, the trick is to put the bear very close to camera. 

TRICK 2: 

Try to spot our hands in the video, we did not photoshop our hands away in any of the photo. many times, you have to angle the camera such that your hand is directly behind the bear. another trick is to place the bear at the very edge of the frame so that the hand is outside the picture.

FREE ENTRANCE!

and the wonderful thing about Macau is that the 5 places that were featured in the video had free entrance. (except that you have to pay to eat the egg tart off course). I was very surprised that the Grand Prix museum was free. When me and xin walked to the counter, they automatically handed us 2 tickets and said free entrance! seldom you have museum that's free entrance right?

I am also impressed with the free Daytona sort of game within the museum. The security guard at the museum helped us take photo and went like, "do you want to play games?". Haha, very amazed by the service standards there, even the security guard tells you where the good stuff are. The racing game allows us to have a feel on how it would be like to race on the F3 track in Macau and the tracks are daunting, not losing to the ones featured in Initial D.

Actually the Venetian Hotel is my favourite place of the 5 places. Look at the indoor shopping mall.

It has a sky and a bridge with water flowing below...I always loved outdoor shopping, and this is the perfect place, never have to worry about rain or mid-day sun.

Macau is a wonderful place. Whoo Hoo!

ok, i cant stop thinking about Macau, it's like the most exciting thing in my life. I don't know why i don't feel such intense excitement over the other trips, i guess it's because I got it through my own (and xin's) merit, there is a sense of accomplishment. Who knew writing a cheesy story would land you in Macau?

today, i felt like i am one step closer to Macau, just signed the confirmation document. and xin told me that it's gonna be cold there. it's only 3 weeks to the trip and the challenge is already there. How am i going to pack everything under 10 kg?!!!

I got the weather forecast from a website.

"The winter season in Macau covers the months January and February. The cold air from north Siberia continuously passes through the Mid and South China into Macao region and brings us cold and dry northerly winds."

maybe i will just stay in the hotel all day.

Cheers to the New Year!





It's always great to unwind after a year's of hard work, hehe. for me only half a year since I just graduated. If there is one thing that this trip taught me, it would be to learn to stone for at least 5 minutes. I think I am too used to multi-tasking, trying to upload photos on facebook, listening to JJ's latest album, putting on face mask and blogging at the same time. My new year resolution is thus to stone for at least 5 minutes a day. hahaha.

aww....now i wished that i am back on the Bintan beach again. stoning. Look at the waters! It's so clear.




and look at us! we are so happy!





looking forward to another trip to unwind!!


If you are thinking of a trip to Bintan, do eat the Indonesian cuisine!! coz the others arent nice. even international buffet breakfast make me lose appetite. It's really true! Our first dinner was seafood at pasar Oleh Oleh, and it was too salty. our second meal was the international buffet, edible but....I don't know how potato wedges can go wrong. then our third meal was a simple beef ball noodle (indonesian style) at pasar oleh oleh! yum! too bad i din take pictures. was too hungry then.

But i did take pictures of my favorite activity. ATV!! it's driving a buggy on a forest terrain. a skill you might need if you are indiana jones.



Woo hoo! anyway, i really like their service. I passed my camera to them and they are able to take nice shots for us!

I am so looking forward to another trip!

i am coming back to blog because last night was a night really worth remembering for the rest of my life.

I went to the gala premier of "The treasure hunter". Not for the movie, but for JAY!!!!!


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this was him on stage.




this was him walking down the aisle into the cinema where i was sitting. I swear, i was only 1 metrre away from him. but there was a security guard between us, otherwise I would really jump and hug him and say, "you write really good songs"

Given a very exciting evening, I couldnt concentrate on the movie. The aisle beside me was the aisle he set foot on. Did he look into my direction after a flash from my camera?

anyway, i am so so grateful for the chance to be able to see him in person. and the past few days were pretty slack, i feel like i am rushing in between movie premiers. 3 movie premiers in 2 weeks. let me see what i have watched. Avatar, sherlock Holmes and The treasure hunter. They happened to be ranked in order of preference too. shall talk more about the movies next time. I shall continue to look through my photo album for the Nth time.

500 days of summer

Do you believe in love? I think this was the essential question that brought the boy and the girl together. the boy believed in love and the girl doesn't. Eventually, they changed each other's mind.

If I were to classify this film, it would belong to the genre of experimental. Firstly, it doesn't follow a chronological order of events. events jump here and there but it does not confuse the audience. I think that is why the film is successful even though it does not follow the classical Hollywood continuity style. Secondly, there were random inputs from the narrator, such as the description of summer filmed in the old film style, and the random ramblings from Tom, saying "I hate summer" Character talking into the camera, directly at the audience is kind of rare in movies.

honestly, I am very impressed by the movie, how it manages to present the everyday-not-dramatic dating events into something that touches everyone hearts. or maybe the everyday-not-dramatic dating events can relate more to the audience. I am still trying to find out if the film has a stand, whether it believes in love or not. People who believes in love, might see the film as one, that Summer really wanted to be with Tom, and not want a casual relationship, since she was the one who initiated the kiss, the sex and even go up to his house to apologise after they have argued. But Tom was trying too hard to agree with her to have a casual relationship and therefore did not convince summer that he LOVES her. On the other hand, people who don't believe in love might look at the ending of the movie and see that Tom can live without Summer.

保持通话（connected) was great!

It reminded me of what Adam (my films studies teacher) said about how movies reflect and move with the culture of the society. As new technology are invented, they become part of the theme. Some may reject the new technology while some embrace it. So for example, The Ring, Japanese horror movie, it shows how technology such as phone and television is used to haunt them.

So in connected, technology is so prevalent. we have the telephone that helps grace to call for help, we have the video camera that can be used to uncover toh..he corrupted police, we have the live telecast of the telephone that helped to reunite Ah bang's family. sounds like it embraces technology. but then again, i also kept questioning why would Ah Bang, someone who is so timid when collecting debt, was so heroic and drove through incoming traffic and almost falling off the cliff to help to save Grace, a stranger while he was in a rush to meet his son. If you look at the society, there are so many cases of people sinking deeply into the virtual reality and thus the misplaced trust was translated into fraud and date rape. and in fact, anyone who has your phone could access to all your information. For example, hui ge (the policeman) was able to track the progress of the bad guys because he had her handphone. you wouldnt know who you are talking to or sent your sms to.


There were many other themes in the movie as well. such as criticising the protocol of the society. The scene in the phone shop was funny, and how the school staff insisted that ah bang to go to the office to register, and lastly how the police wanted to arrest for robbery with arms, (funny coz he din rob and he paid an extra 300 for the phone charger) and we would also realise that the policeman (hui ge) probably got demoted because he did not follow protocols.

after reading my past post, i really appreciated film studies and it allowed to appreciate the film much more...

I watched IP MAN( pronounced as Yip Mun, not I.P. man) and it was good!

i think the film embodied the true meaning of martial arts, which was to protect/ defend, but never to aggressively attack. You can see that Yong Chun Quan was only used (with the intention to hurt) when fighting against the Japanese and to fight the robbers at the cotton factory. Ip Man was initially non-aggressive at first, he never sought fights with others, and only fight when people asked him to. Even when the barbarians came to fight with him, he only defended himself and only attacked when his wife asked him to.

In this film, national identity was very strong, especially the last part when all the chinese rioted against the japanese after he shot Yip Man. and the ending scene where the movie seemed to be really proud of Ip Man as they showcase his success in teaching the younger generation Yong Chun Quan, and had Bruce Lee as his disciples.

My favorite scene was at the start where the policeman pointed the gun at Ip Man, Ip Man din seem scared but instead he held the gun and flicked the barrel of bullets away. He was so cool! and i found him very tactful in the way he does things.

I would give this movie 7/10.

Looking forward to Ponyo Ponyo and Red Cliff 2.

My new year resolution is to watch alot of movies and blog about them. i guess the older you get, the more you would want to hold on to your memories. i tried to keep the ticket stubs and i would write down who i watched the movie with, but i realised that the ink runs and soon, you no longer remember why you watched what shows with this person.

I watched Twilight on Monday, it wasnt too bad except that i cannot understand why there is such a big Hoo-Ha over the guy, girls say that Edward is very good-looking. I guess he does, but the make-up and the red eye-liner isnt very flattering for him.

I am dying to read the book coz i believe that there is more to the plot. simply saving the girl or the initial thirst for her blood doesnt count to a love story. there could have been more development to the love story...

But i do love the special effects, haha, it is a must have for a blockbuster. but some of the shots are weird, or rather too-arty-farty and it confuses me. take for example, when they first enter the forest, where belle wants confront edward about his identity, it alternated between a 360 degree shot and a mid-shot of them talking. was the 360 degree shot a flaunt or is it supposed to mean something?

i haven blogged for really long. and here it goes.

Life sux...