DVD marathon

One good thing about the week before any holiday is that you are caught between the compulsion to mug like there is no tomorrow, at least for mugger, and the tendency to slack from the very moment you go home to the last minute you try to gobble your pathetic piece of shit as known as bread for breakfast and churn your way to school in the next day. In the end of the day, you are happy to acknowledge that nothing could be better than bear a responsibility in name but never have to practice it. To put it in a nutshell, this is equivalently good to have tons of nice clothes without having to wash them every weekend; still they smell super extra good, of course!

I see something waving at me from far distance. Quite inviting the way it sounds. Come closer please! Oh, that’s group of my dear friends. Lovely pirated DVDs. Growing up in a society where law is as loose as the rubber waistband of your 5-year-old panties means that I am fated to be a devoted follower of piracy on the very first day my lung starts functioning properly like a normal human organ. So don’t advocate copyright ethic in front of me. It’s just a waste of time and saliva and brain matter if you do even think at all.

2 movies per day are a bit overdose for an easily distracted viewer like me. However, I must say, both of them are worth my not-so-attentive-but-still-better-than-none engagement. For your information, they are “Man of the year” and “Life Aquatic”, both of which are less mainstream so please don’t ever expect to see them in fabulous mega-humongous posters, banners or even on wide screen in Singapore one day in near future. You want good food for thought? NO choice but walk extra mile to places like Vietnam, Indonesia or Malaysia, breaking a little bit of law and bringing home stuff whose price could be easily mistaken for hand phone number in any HMV store in Singapore.


“Life Aquatic” deserves to be my “movie of the month”. Leaving meaningful plot and excellent cast crew out of the discussion since they are to be taken for granted once you look at the name list of people involved, this movie is an extraordinary quirky narration of a scientist’s life which is full of complication, up and down, making it not a tragedy but not yet a comedy. Witty plot with concise conversation facilitated effectively by a reluctant tender level half-British accent provided by Bill Murray, Gwyneth Patrol and Ned is properly the main attraction of the whole movie. Another thing that should not be missed is the deliberate exaggeration of the infant special effects’ failed attempt to imitate oceanic creature. Everything from the costume, submarine to fictional creature like jaguar shark look like they have just been stolen from a Lego toy set, ready to be put on scene and plugged out if not needed. Even the sickeningly deep blue tone of the ocean appears like a painted background of a primary school sketch. Once again, the movie proves true my theory of dissimulation. Sometimes, love and pain are not best expressed by tears and kisses but silence and rational simple words. After all, only mutual understanding is counted. For me, the movie is an epic in form of lovely PVC miniature.



“Man of the Year”, on the other hand, is a hand book of political joke and dilemma. NO DOUBT on the eloquence and exquisite sense of humor in the plot, but it’s the acting that kills. If I ever fall in love with one’s gaze, it must be Robin Williams’ deep blue iris. That sincere harmless kind-hearted look might restrict his acting diversity but it appears more like a blessing than a curse. The plot, I have nothing to say about it, seems to imply some political lobby maneuver commonly seen in period of election in US. I am not interested in that field so I take it as my loss not being able to perceive the movie beyond plain jokes and normal social relationship.

That’s all I guess. Need to sleep. There is still school tomorrow, remember?