22 Apr

My heart
Was pierced through
And bleeding
It hurts so much
Torn apart
An invisible knife cuts

In the morning
It all seemed like a bad dream
But I know things have changed

Do I trust?
Do I learn to be less dependable on others?
I am unsure
I do not know the way

Life has suddenly lost its meaning

Arena (known to self and others) idealistic, religious	Blind Spot (known only to others) accepting, brave, complex, energetic, friendly, independent, intelligent, knowledgeable, loving, self-conscious, spontaneous, warm
Façade (known only to self) dependable, helpful, mature, trustworthy	Unknown (known to nobody) able, adaptable, bold, calm, caring, cheerful, clever, confident, dignified, extroverted, giving, happy, ingenious, introverted, kind, logical, modest, nervous, observant, organised, patient, powerful, proud, quiet, reflective, relaxed, responsive, searching, self-assertive, sensible, sentimental, shy, silly, sympathetic, tense, wise, witty

Dominant Traits

66% of people think that OdeliaGab is complex
66% of people think that OdeliaGab is energetic
66% of people agree that OdeliaGab is idealistic
66% of people think that OdeliaGab is spontaneous

All Percentages

able (0%) accepting (33%) adaptable (0%) bold (0%) brave (33%) calm (0%) caring (0%) cheerful (0%) clever (0%) complex (66%) confident (0%) dependable (0%) dignified (0%) energetic (66%) extroverted (0%) friendly (33%) giving (0%) happy (0%) helpful (0%) idealistic (66%) independent (33%) ingenious (0%) intelligent (33%) introverted (0%) kind (0%) knowledgeable (33%) logical (0%) loving (33%) mature (0%) modest (0%) nervous (0%) observant (0%) organised (0%) patient (0%) powerful (0%) proud (0%) quiet (0%) reflective (0%) relaxed (0%) religious (33%) responsive (0%) searching (0%) self-assertive (0%) self-conscious (33%) sensible (0%) sentimental (0%) shy (0%) silly (0%) spontaneous (66%) sympathetic (0%) tense (0%) trustworthy (0%) warm (33%) wise (0%) witty (0%)

Created by the Interactive Johari Window on 7.4.2020, using data from 3 respondents.
You can make your own Johari Window, or view OdeliaGab's full data.

3 March 2020

Sweet
Metallic
Bitter
Tastes
Heart
Pain
Stomach
Bloat
Dreams
Anguish
Confusion

15 Shorts commissioned by NVPC

The Brown Dog
By Eric Khoo with Jerrold Chong
Animation with real life scenes about a three legged brown dog who was abandoned and rescued by the founder of this no-kill animal shelter. The direction is good and I was gripped by the suspense of loud noises.

Under The Same Pink Sky
By Gladys Ng
About a Mandarin-speaking support group for breast cancer survivors

The Listener
By Kelvin Tong
Tinker Friend, a hotline for distressed kids. It is directed well. Shows the life of a latchkey boy whose neighbour passed away. Distressed, he doesn't want to confide to his mum. His mum had to call him in her day-job voice as a volunteer of Tinker Friend to find out. It's quite touching. They receive prank calls and genuine calls.

Majid the Legend
By Jianhao Tan and Ridhwan Azman
About this guy Chee who coached the national football star and this dude goes on to coach Fandi Ahmed.

Still Standing
By Kirsten Tan with Tan Wei Ting
About this aspiring architect who dreamt and built Pearl Bank apartments with a developer who believed in the vision of community living. In current time and in his ripe old age, he advocates conservation. Sadly, Pearl Bank Apartments was en bloc after 4 unsuccessful attempts.

Honey

Turkish film fest

Yusof's dad, Josef, is a honey collector. He goes out in the morning to collect honey from hives high up in the trees. Due to shortage of production, he goes to another place to collect. The scene begins with him trying to climb up to the branch but it gave way and he dies.

We only know about this later.

Yusof's jealous that his dad made a ship for his classmate but not for him. He has a nightmare and whispers it to his dad. An eagle guides him to school. He is never able to read and stammers. He covets the reward - a red pin which all this classmates have received except him.

The eagle guides his dad to search for better honey. They long and yearn for his return but he never did. They look for the eagle but it never came back either.

Yusof hears the eagle cry on the day of his dad's death. He runs into the first to look for his dad and falls asleep in there. It is also the same day he got the reward for reading.

Terminator: Dark Fate

Opening scene of Sarah being interrogated for warning people about something bad that's going to happen.

Next we see this Mexican brother and sister, Diego and Dani, going to work in a factory. A bad robot disguised as their father who was murdered by this robot, Rev 9, came to the factory to kill Dani. Another good enhanced human with robot powers, Grace, saved them and they escaped via a car. While being pursued, they were cornered and almost going to die when Sarah helped them escape by dealing with the bad robot with crazy big explosives. Dani and Grace escaped to a motel with Sarah finding them. Grace needed to rest and replenish. Sarah says every time something big is about to happen, she'll get coordinates for that location signing off with "for John", her dead son who was murdered by Arnold Schwarzenegger. They trace the coordinates to a cabin where they meet Carl, Arnold Schwarzenegger who has now adopted a family and developed feelings. He confessed that he regrets killing John and has been trying to make amends. He bids farewell to his family to join them on the fight and they go look for power weapons from Sarah's friend.

The bad robot catches up and they flee in a van. Grace says Dani cannot die cos in the future world where it's overrun by bad robots, Dani is a leader who saved her. They get into a huge airplane and drive off but the Rev 9 hangs onto it and they are forced to land on some turbine factory area.

They fight until Carl is out cold, Sarah cannot move and Grace is on the brink of death. Grace asks Dani to retrieve the power source from her heart and to use it to stab Rev 9. Sobbing, Dani did this and Grace dies. Carl wakes and they stab Rev 9 with the power source. Carl pushes him into the turbine and gets in with him to hold him down so it cannot resurrect. Before Carl dies, her announces "for John". Sarah and Dani looks on.

Few years later, Sarah and Dani drives to a school to see young Grace with her family. Dani vows to protect her at all cost. They set off to prepare and drive away.

Weathering with you

Director: Makoto shinkai

The colours are beautiful

Boy runs away from home and tries to make a living. He helped a person on the train who turns out to be his benefactor later by giving him a job as a weather reporter. He and the man's niece go in search of the girl who can control weather.

When he was really hungry, he went to Mac's and the nice staff gave him a burger. His best meal in Tokyo. She was fired for doing this and forced to prostitute. He saves her in time from the lewd act. She invites him home and they go on a date. He took 3 hours to pick a ring for her for her birthday. Worried that she'll not like it, the saleslady said she thinks she will since he spent so much time looking for it. On her birthday, he and her and her brother bunk in a love hotel. They sing K all night and by then she was doing too much weather control as weather girl. She was turning translucent and she showed him her body. It had been raining non-stop. 

She asks if he wants the rain to stop. He said yes and the next day, the sun is out but she's gone- lost to the rain clouds. The ring is gone- it had passed through her fingers. Frustrated, he searches for that Shinto gate which she walked through when she was praying for her mum to get well. It made her the weather girl. He had to dodge the police who wanted to send him back to his hometown. He picked up a lucky gun and fired at the police. The niece helped him escape using her motorbike. He finally found the gate on top of a high rise building and makes a wish with all his heart to meet her when he stepped into it. 

He did it- found her on cloud land and brought her back to Earth. Ever since then, it has not stopped raining and it had been raining in Tokyo for three years since then. He had to go back home and finish high school. He came back to Tokyo to look for her and visits his benefactor, who now runs a good print business. He looks for her and found her praying at the bend. They are reunited.

We are little zombies

dir. Makoto Nagahisa

Four children turned orphans at the age of 13. They met at the crematorium and formed their own band. Hikari - parents killed in car crash while they were otw to strawberry farm to pick Wild strawberry on a group tour. Rich kid with many material things but no parental love. He went back to get his ammunition- game boy.

Fatso - parents killed in blaze when their house caught fire. Dad taught him to make his own decisions. He went for karate and came back to no house. He went back to get his wok.

Cute kid- dad is a wife beater. He went to beat his dad up but lost. He came back one day to find that his parents had hung themselves. His two younger siblings no where to be found. He has a gift of music - playing guitar.

Chio girl- she instigated her creepy piano teacher to get rid of her parents. He was hitting on her and asked what she wanted. He did and was put behind bars. Her dad wants to marry her. Her mum wished she was not born because it makes people around her weird. She has 4 fingers on the right hand but plays the piano.

They go on an adventure and met some homeless people. Recorded The Little Zombies and it was a hit. Their manager, a kiddo security guard where the homeless people lived, took all their $$$. Their sold out their tickets and realised 2 other songs, inspired by the game boy, 8bit pixel. 

Through social media, the bus driver was driven to commit suicide as he was filled with remorse. So sad.

They were forced to cancel their gig by the adults. Hikaru (meaning light) has no choice but to go stay with his aunt and uncle. He ran away to Fiji with his friends. They bumped into all this people in the Metro who are like zombies carrying mobile phones and starring at the black screens. It's very real in describing today's world.

They ran into the train and stole a van by clobbering the people to death. These guys spoke about being hot just before a marriage but after marriage it's not anymore. The other guy rebuts that marriage is like an onsen. Love is represented by a heart icon- giving your organ to someone else. You must love the person that much. 

They reach Fuji along the road hikari parents died. Ran out of fuel, they have to walk. Akin to Kafka's Castle in the Sky where one never gets to her/his dream.

Along the drive they met with a car crash. Hikari initially chose to die but changed his mind. They broke out of scary octopus land. He remembered the day he was born and the joy of his parents. And cried.

The boys all dream of kissing the girl. Actually it's more like figuratively they were bitten (by a love bug) and girl kisses them. Next they say she's the embodiment of their mums. 

They all go back to being normal children. The camera pans out and we hear the changing of sutras and hikari snapping out of his day dream. It's merely just a dream!

Parasite

At The Projector

Family of 4- dad, mum, bro, sis. Really poor and live in the semi-basement at the bottom of the valley in South Korea.

Bro has a college friend who introduced him to tutor a rich family's daughter while he is overseas. He gets his sis to forge credentials and wins the mum's approval to tutor the daughter by talking about nonsense shit about valour. Of course the student likes him a lot and they kiss & make out.

He gets his sis in as art therapist for the younger brother. She wins over the mum by enforcing her rules-no mum supervision on first visit. She sees through brother's fake attention seeking ways and goes into bullshit talk about interpreting the drawings. Apparently he was scared in grade 1 because he has seen a 'Ghost' in the house. (This ghost turns out to be the one hidden downstairs in the basement). Sis is hired.

As she gets sent back home, she pulls out her panties and leaves it in the car. Driver gets fired because the parents buy the bullshit assumptions that the driver was having sex in the backseat. Dad gets hired as new driver.

Next they devise a plot to sack the longtime helper, an ajuma who also worked for the previous family and architect of the house. They plant into the head of the wife that she's got TB by scattering peach dust on the helper so she will get an allergic reaction. Wife witnesses her coughing and the driver throws in ketchup 'blood' when retrieving the tissue. She is asked to pack up.

After they have had some status, they throw water at the guy pissing outside their door when previously they always kept quiet. Sis does cool slow mo video of it. The poor can also have eye for art. The somewhat richer people have the guts to kick out the poorer people.

The family goes camping for kiddo's birthday and this poor family hijacks the home to eat and drink and sleep and roll around on the parquet and lawn. Mum makes dad a laughing joke by saying he will scatter like a cockroach when trouble arises. In his fit of anger to this truth, he thrashes all the liquor bottles but laughs about it with wife as a joke. Wife is bitter but plays along for the sake of the children.

Previous housekeeper wants to be let in because she forgot something. That scene was so scary because she looked somewhat crazy. She went in to the basement for a long time but didn't come up. No choice so mum goes down and finds her trying to push open a door. She helps and find a deep deep basement where her husband is kept.

Husband's pineapple business went bust and he can't pay the debts. Now he's hiding here for 4 years 3 months. It's the same company dad worked at before. They get caught in their lies here and are held hostage because of video evidence. Hostage becomes powerful people because of this and poor family is held captive. Couple can relax and do massages and eat and sing songs in praise of North Korea Kim ideology.

Poor family makes a dash for video and ties up the couple in the basement. Rich wife says she's otw home and wants ram-yon with sirloin steak cubes. In 8 mins they'll be home. They do a mad rush to pack up. Boy goes under the bed of daughter and the sis is under the coffee table. Dad is in the basement tying them up. The former maid is pushed down the stairs and injured. Together with her allergy she eventually died.

Boy, sis and dad hides under the coffee table. Kiddo camps on the lawn and rich couple makes love on the sofa. After they have fallen asleep, they escape home to find their home under water. Dad rescues his Sports medal and bro the wealth stone which college student gave. At the refugee camp, dad says the best plan is to have no plan at all.

They are called to the kiddo's birthday party. Owner reminds dad he is paid overtime so he just needs to be a Red Indian role and not step his boundary by questioning his love for his wife. He's using money to exert his power. Sis brings out cake and mad man escapes from basement after dragging the brother around like a dog. The bro went underground with wealth stone maybe to give it to the couple for luck. But crazy man smashes his head with it. He stabs sis, kiddo. Family rushes to help sis. Driver is summoned but he dumps his role to save his family.

When asked to give his car keys, rich Dad looks down on the mad man with utter contempt. Poor dad's saving grace is stabbing the rich Dad after he had stabbed mad man. 

He really runs like cockroach after that and went back into the basement to hide. 

Bro and mum gets away by warning and probation. Bro woke up laughing at all this joke-Sis died, dad missing, a doc who didn't look like one, a policeman who didn't look like one. Bro returns the stone to its rightful place in the river. Maybe the stone didn't bring any wealth but trouble? Bro receives the messages from dad via Morse code and vows to earn a lot of money to buy back that house. 

Parasite roles keep changing in this show. Even the rich are parasites. They leech on the poor to ascertain their self-worth. They are also using each other to fill that void of emptiness and try to be a loving family- husband to wife, husband to son. 

Top End Wedding

Starring Miranda Tapsell and Gwilym Lee

From Australian High Commission

A film about culture (family), community and country. With sub-themes of marriage, LGBTQ

4 years to research and produce, a relatively short time

Miranda just got promoted to be an associate and her bf quit because he is told he is not focused as a lawyer. He proposed to her the day he quit which is the day she got promoted. She has to get married in the next 10 days because her slave driver of a boss, "Cruella", says so. 

They fly from Adelaide to Darwin in search of her parents. Her mum up and left in search of her Aboriginal identity. She left Tiwi Island when she had to marry someone else but wanted to marry someone she fell in love with on the island (a white man). 

So the soon to be husband and wife go around Darwin to search for mother. Father cannot get his act together either and shuts himself in the cupboard, listening to his favourite tune. He says the problem is talking and not listening, the lack of listening becomes worse when their children left the home, and then it became so bad that over time, they were not talking. 

Miranda traces to Tiwi Island after a fight and cancelled the wedding. Groom SOS Cruella to plan the wedding, which she did successfully. On the island, she meets her grandparents though her grandmother has dementia and cannot recognise her own daughter. Her mum is full of regret that she took so long to come home. The culture of the place is beautiful. It is rich in tradition, beliefs, vibrant clothing, headgear, dance. 

She makes up with her bf and they fly to Tiwi Island with the whole gang and got married there. Home is where the people is, with the community and family. 

A Way Out

Singapore premiere at NLB

By Qiong Zheng

With post show discussion by A/P Yang Peidong, a sociologist with NIE

Ma Baijun, 12, a primary 2 student in very rural China. Xu Jia, 19, a high school graduate from ok-rural China. Yuan Hanhan, 17, high school dropout from urban China.

This documentary traces the lives of 3 protagonists and questions social-class divide, education system in China, widening urban-rural divide, linguistics capabilities as social capital and mindsets of different groups of people.

Ma tries to study and desires to but is unable to catch up with her companions. Her family moves to less rural China but she's unable to get used to urban life. Drops out by 15 and wants to work in the City but is unable to look for a job. She returns home and joins her cousins who are expecting babies at really young ages of 20. Her grandfather expects her to marry someone as her way out of this rut. The story ends with her marrying her second cousin.

Xu tries very hard to pass National exam (Gao kao) and get into college. He successfully did get into an ok college, graduated with civil engineering cert and had to compete with tons others to get a job. He finally succeeded but says he felt like he had sold his soul away when he signed the contract. He married his uni mate cos his mum says a man can only start a career after marriage. Maybe it's because after marriage he would need to take care of a family and thus work very hard.

Yuan is from a middle class family in urban China. She dropped out of high school, started painting, rented her own space/studio and started selling drinks. Entered German art University and met a fellow China Chinese. During her summer breaks, she interns at Shanghai. Upon graduation, she returned to China and started her own firm with a German sounding name. She doesn't feel that not having a secondary school education is of any hindrance and she would not starve to death. This is unlike Ma who sometimes has not enough to eat, drink and study. 

The sad fact is social economic class determines the starting point for a better basic life. Ma does not have access to education, needless to say she is unable to join the national exam for a promised better life. Xu did use the national exam to get a somewhat better life with food, money, career, wife, house but the future of his job (and therefore life) is still uncertain. Yuan is born upper middle class and takes education for granted. But with her talent and entrepreneur spirit she's able to carve a career. 

I don't know why is career seen as a better life. Or the idea that urban life is better than rural. Why is E.g. happiness not measured as a better life? 

Avengers: End Game

We see Ironman about to die in space but he was saved by Captain Marvel. She's so amazingly strong!

Next we see Hawkeye chilling out with his family - daughter and two sons and wife - but they all vanished when Thanos wished half the world away with the 6 Infinity Stones. He goes on crazy killing rampage for at least five years after that.

The Avengers unite - Ironman, Black Widow, Hulk, Thor, Captain America, War Machine. They hunt Thanos down with Nebula and Rocket help but he had already used the Infinity Stone. He's seriously injured and Thor beheaded him out of anger.

Fast forward 5 years, Black Widow keeps tabs on everyone's whereabouts. Stuck in the past. Ironman has a cute daughter with Pepper Potts. Thor has grown really really fat with a pot belly. Ant Man returns from quantum world and explains to Black Widow and Captain America they can go back into time to prevent all this. They got Hulk and convinced Ironman to help write the code. They devised a plan to go back into three periods of time to get six stones. 

Hulk, Captain America, Ironman and Ant Man go back to 2012 NYC. Hulk goes to Dr Strange house to persuade the Ancient One to give him the green stone (Time) and promises to return it to its place later. Captain America got the yellow stone (Mind) from the bunch of baddies in the elevator with his trick phrase "Hail Hydra". Ant Man and Ironman lost the square stone (Space) and Loki escapes with it. Ironman and Captain America go back to SHIELD headquarters in 1970 to steal an earlier version, and 4 bottles of Pym particles to help them travel back to now. We meet Hank Pym the inventor and also Captain Marvel's beau who will become his wife later.

Rocket and Thor return to 2013 Asgard to get Reality stone from Thor's nurse. He chats up his mum first though and she gives him a whole load of encouragement. Rocket does all the stealing and they leave after Thor got his original hammer, showing he's worthy to hold it. 

Nebula and War Machine go to Morag 2014 and got the Power stone before Star Lord did. But because Nebula is half machine, her father Thanos intercepted her and got her to reveal her plans. Thor sends the bad Nebula to present time. Hawkeye and Black Widow go to Vomir in 2014 but they meet Red Skull who is punished to guard this Soul Stone. They need to sacrifice one they love to get it. Black Widow dies and only Hawkeye returns.

They make a glove to hold all six stones and Hulk wished half the World back. While they were rejoicing because E.g. Hawkeye finally gets a call from his wife, bad Nebula used the Time Machine to bring back Thanos who wants to destroy Earth. Good Nebula convinces 2014 Gamora to kill the bad Nebula, which they did. Hawkeye managed to take the glove with the stones and they passed to the good guys and hope to dump into the time machine which they were starting up in a car. But Thanos destroyed the car. 

All the good guys join in the fight - Dr Strange and his monks, Wakanda and their amazing tribe, some flying unicorns, Thor's friends from Asgard, the Guardians of the Galaxy people and Bucky. We see a display of women power (woohoo!!) And Captain Marvel saves the day after Thor, Captain America couldn't defeat Thanos. Ironman steals the glove from Thanos and wished them all away. Ironman is morally wounded and dies but his daughter is still cute and alive after his passing. Means she was conceived like before he went to fight.

Thor makes Valkyrie the king of New Asgard. Star Lord pursues 2014 Gamora and Captain America returns the stones and the 2013 hammer back with the extra 2 Pym particles. But he stays in 1970 to marry his wife and became old. Captain America passes on the shield to Falcon as new Captain America.

There are no post show sneak peaks so don't bother staying back. There's only some bell tolling away with the text Marvel. 

Captain Marvel

This is one amazingly strong superhero.

Vers/ Carol Danvers sees flashes of her past. In this world, she's sent on a mission to capture some Skrulls. Unfortunately, she's captured by the Skrulls and her memories extracted. She sees herself as a young girl, and being on the armed force. Breaking free, she lands on planet 53a (Earth). Bumped into Agent Of Shield, Fury who initially wanted to capture her but found out she's super strong and can track the Skrulls who can shapeshift into any being. They went to find Dr Wendy Lawson's file and discovered the termination of her project and that she was the last person to fly the plane. They were tracked by the Skrulls and escaped to Louisiana to look for Maria Rambeau, Carol's fellow pilot friend, with Goose, Lawson's cat. They helped Carol recall her memories. Head Skrulls Talos infiltrate the home and explains he just wants to find his family and start a new world/ home with Carol's help. Turns out Carol was an air force pilot. She last flew Dr Lawson out and got into an accident. The Kree wanted Dr Lawson work. Before she can destroy it, she was killed by the Carol's teacher. Carol destroyed and absorbed the energy and has supernatural power and strength.

They help Talos find his family who's hiding in the lab in space. They reunite but Kree finds them. Captain Marvel discovers her true power and stops the Kree while the rest flee. Agent Shield, Maria, Goose and the Skrulls. Goose is not just an innocent cat. It has octopus tentacles and swallowed the tesseract. Captain Marvel defeats the Kree and the Skrulls get a new home.

Dynamite Graffiti

Dynamite Graffiti

The lead actor Suei is currently in a police force doing censorship of porn. It is 1984.

Flash back, we see it's 1950s, when he was a preschool. With a younger sister. His mum had TB and blew herself up with her bf, the next door neighbour. The scene of carnage in the forests among the rocks. It's bloody and the policeman fell amongst the carnage. The father is a miner and has tons of dynamite in his house. When he found out his wife was having an affair, he threw her out. Cannot find her anymore until when she blew herself up.

Dad moves on much later to live in the city working in a factory. He moans about how his colleague lost his limbs and was greatly compensated. He could buy a fridge, a car and a gf. He wished he had lost his legs. What a short sighted and desperate thought. In the end he died after slipping in the bathtub, while singing he has no feelings for his wife. It's indeed not true.

Suei moves to the city to work in a factory. It is depressing cos people work till they die. So he moved in to another town to work with his dad. Another factory and really depressing. So he moved out of his dad's place and studied design. That's where he met his gf, the next door neighbour and wife. They moved out after his dad tried to make some moves on her.

We see an evolution on porn next during the hippie era of 1960s in photography from men touting good girl photos, to actual shoots, to 1980s collage, phone sex, billboard posters, cabaret, to offering of services to help men relieve stress, to finally Pachinko videos. Threading the fine line of porn and art. 

Some people say "Art is an explosion". In my case, my mom was the explosion.

We see Suei being entangled in love affairs. With one he groomed for phone sex, as a manager for countless shoots, persuading good girls to bare it all, getting involved with someone working for him while he's chief editor. From illustrator he became writer after. Stealing someone's bf and then dumping her when she gets clingy. And when she returned after recovering from syphilis. It's so sad. She walks with a terrible limp. And yet he can still suggest they go to a love hotel, which she agrees. She insists on walking and falls and he doesn't help her. She struggles to remove her clothes and look beautiful for him. He admires her body. 

It's so sad. I think he's pursuing beauty.

He gets his stuff confiscated many times but cooperates so it's good. He meets weird people who tries to sell him dolls which are super life like. They're even better than those lolita dolls. 

And the one he groomed for phone sex? Well she was admitted into psychiatric ward. She asked if he was making use of her. I think he's just pursuing beauty or money or perfection and had no thoughts of making use. 

Throughout the show, we see the mom and her lover over and over again. Esp. when Suei recounts the story to his friends or at work. So she dies many times over and over.

My Wedding Album

A Singapore Premiere

In transit alt screening

NLB The Pod

This documentary looks at weddings in Taiwan and China. How months of preparation goes into it. And a lot of money.

Two photographers' points of view - one who sells at roadshows and one freelance. They sell love and not just the shoot.

Wedding is a moment but marriage is a lifetime. That's what ended the show.

Two couples one from city Taiwan and another rural China.

The Taiwanese couple. Groom wants sexy shot or boudoir as I've heard today from Annabelle Law Photography, an all women Singaporean photoshoot company. Groom is not known to be demanding but for the wedding he wants like nude shots, the wet look. He lost at least 5kg and tanned himself religiously for it. He's like the star of the night and outshines the bride. They've like lifesize boards which they store somewhere after the wedding in their house, 3 kids later. Groom goes to work in HK and that's how they ended the documentary.

Rural China. They spend their yearly income from selling their Apple harvest and borrow money from relatives and neighbours. After the harvest income, they're still short of usd2,000! Groom is raised by grandparents as he's from a divorced family. Everyone is excited as this is the first shoot of their life esp. for the grandparents. One baby later, baby uses the photo to step on and grab. Groom initially wanted a lenticular print. ... Wow. His ideas quite advance.

We see many brides taking photoshoot in China all at one time by different photographers. So many. Couples prepare at lease a year in advance. Apparently in Singapore, Annabelle shared that couples spend $50,000-$150,000! Maybe overseas wedding photoshoot. For that perfect shot captured in 2d.

New Beginning

Finally got the chance to do some real packing today because clearing out the office left me with so much materials. Dug out my Mathematics notes about Computational Analysis and Basics of Mathematics. Omg those were the days. And kept those that were marginally still relevant in my life today. Like interview tips and Bahasa Melayu.

And all those old catalogues I've accumulated over the years before I joined the museum. Goodness. It dated way back to 2006. Kept only the useful artist essays and resource ideas.

And those travel brochures. So many files. Kept those which were memorable. Like that cute Totoro picture.

And newspaper clippings. Four files full. Started from secondary school. Even posted them on construction paper.

Now I'm just resorting keeping them in soft copy. Even then I great losing my memories. And knowledge. And skills.

Tomorrow Is Another Day

As part of Singapore MINDS Film Fest
Starring Teresa Mo and Ling Man-lung

Teresa Mo is a mother of a 20 year old autistic child. The film begins with an interview of mom where her son helps out to give out Chinese fans in dance class. She expresses her joy and pain of looking after him. It's just like taking care of 30 kids at once.

Her husband, a driving instructor is having an affair with one of his students, a young nubile girl, Daisy. He goes to visit her at her place, have trysts and one day she found his home address from FB and brings him soup when his wife went out grocery shopping.

His wife already suspects extra martial affair and seems like this is not the first. He has many late night schedules and his clothes reek of women's perfume. She came back that day to find her son in a distressed state because Daisy made him touch her boobs. Son expresses repressed shame by humping the pillow. Wife confronts husband and he moves out. He texted after asking for a divorce.

We see how wife plots to kill Daisy. And how she has to deal with son alone when he melts down. She feels guilty for bearing an autistic son and thinks it's her fault for not taking care of herself during pregnancy. At that time husband seemed to be having an affair already.

Wife watches HK movies of how to create an alibi by getting to Shenzhen through Lo ? Metro then taking the boat back to HK. She envisions stabbing Daisy mercilessly and tracked down Daisy's schedule. 5pm is the time she's alone. She does all this with her son whom she thinks doesn't understand anything.

She tried to execute once but chicken out because she's caught on CCTV. She had sought help from one who sells mobile phone who has contact of this auntie who can escort people back in cargo ships. Turns out this aunty has a son with Down Syndrome and helped her. After this Reece, mom gave son sleeping pills and tied him to bed. The son gave her a tender kiss before sleeping.

She found support from knitting aunties and one shared that her husband passed away one night in his sleep due to exhaustion. They have no children. So mom found support with these aunties and went KTV. Mom pain and relieve is so powerful and evident in this scene. The aunties saw this knife which dropped out of mom's bag one day.

Mom tries to start a new life with a job. First two turned her down as she has an autistic son. Finally she could sell ice-cream. Dad chatted with son without mom's notice and asked if son likes him. Son is happy and says yes. Dad promises to bring him to see shark and fish, his son's favourite animal. Dad leaves and son runs to find him. He gets distracted by fish truck and goes to aquarium which he frequents with his dad. Mom picks him up from police station.

Daisy provokes mom by saying husband left her because she bore him a retarded. Mom attempts second murder but was stopped when her son rips drawings of her killing. He sees and knows more than others. Mom and son are like one.

Husband returns because he cannot bear to lose his son. He felt like a father when his son finally held his hand after 7 years of getting to know him better. He apologizes to wife and says she must be even more tired. They go to the sea aquarium together as a family.

Autistic people are also human beings are can be even more sensitive than atypical people. They see everything and pick up emotions even more clearly.

It's a moving film and the cast acting was stellar.

Ant Man and The Wasp

Hank and his wife go on business trip to save an atomic bomb from killing millions. Unable to disable it The wife becomes real small and enters in, and is stuck in Quantum time and space. Hank and his daughter, The Wasp, developed a Quantum machine to save her. 

Ant Man who used to be The Wasp's partner in Infinity War, is under house arrest. He plays real elaborate games of adventure with his daughter. After getting a connection with the wife, he made connection with Hank and The Wasp. They shrank him and brought him out as he has the knowledge of the mom since he came back from quantum. 

They managed to get the exact coordinates when mom enters the body of the Ant Man to give the code. All this while, the Ghost and Ben tries to stop them because the Ghost, whose dad perished in a Quantum experiment whereas she survived it but now her molecules are stitched back every sec, has only a few days to live so she wants to steal the mom's energy.

The trio is also trying to escape FBI and this dude who's selling arms on the black market. Eventually they did, saved the mom, where she used her Quantum power to heal Eva the Ghost. And Ben/ Ant Man is free from house arrest.

The family of four starts a Quantum leap for a sample of quantum magic, but everyone else except Ben is alive.

They had been blown away into smmitherins because of injuries. Infinity War is next.

Only Yesterday

A Studio Ghibli film

Produced by Hayao Miyazaki

JCC at Festival Theatre (Tampines)

27 year old Taeko rehashed her 10 year old self as a kid in Tokyo where she still lives and works. She's still unmarried, a taboo in Asian civilisation, and just turned down a suitor's proposal. She goes to pick safflower in the countryside of Yamagata where her second cousin's family friend lives, Toshio. It's her second time to the city, this time for 10 days vacation. This safflower is used to make rouge and sold in cities, with the by product used to dye clothes.

As a 10 year old, we see her first crush with a baseball expert, how badly she did fractions (D grade), how she threw tantrums and got slapped by her dad, the pumpkin show she watched and could recite with Toshio, how they had menses chat with the school nurse, how the boys found out and made fun of them, how she refused to skip PE because she would be seen as having her period, how she went into so many onsens she fainted and had her vacation shortened. Her 2 elder sisters, one was an artist, another studies economic, and grew up in the age of the Beatles, while she was only good in essays and reciting her lines with enthusiasm, even though it was a minor role, Child Villager A. How she hated someone in class so much he refused to shake her hands. 

The grandma and mother encouraged her to stay in the village and marry Toshio and this made her embarrassed and hypocrite because it's not like she has thoughts of being a farmer's wife. 

On the day she left for Tokyo, her 10 year old self and all her 10 year old classmates encouraged her to stay. Listening to her heart, she finally stopped and took the train back. Toshio had to hide his happiness many times and this was one of it. He wanted to hug her but restrained. When it was raining outside with them driving around, he wanted to console her by holding her hands. It is strange but I think that was a sign of those times, where people were unable to be expressive.

He reads her thoughts and she opens up to him well. Upon reflection, she took that as a sign of her affection for him. For E.g. He asked why is she not married? She says most women who live in the city work so they're still single, like most of her friends. Presumably too busy to get married. Then does she love the work so much? She doesn't love it or hate it; it's just a job.

I think I try to find a job that I love so that it's worth my efforts. But what's the point? If it doesn't bring happiness or fulfillment? How can it replace more everlasting things like relationships?

The moving pictures were all beautiful, with each frame like a watercolour painting.

The film ends with the Japanese version of the song "The Rose" by Bette Midler which was very moving.

Taeko is much like a dreamer like me and I identify with her a lot. In the end she decided to follow her heart.

Avengers: Infinity War

Loki is killed by Thanos and Thor dies under his hands as well. Thanos already has 3 of the 6 stones and goes around getting the rest in the name of sacrifice for peace by exterminating worlds. He killed his daughter Gamora from Guardians of the Galaxy for the Gold soul stone. To get this stone he had to sacrifice the one he loves which he did it without much hesitation, just some tears. Next he took the green Time one from Dr Strange. Finally he wields the last yellow Mind one from Vision while fighting Black Panther and his army in Wankanda. Thor is revived and rescued by Guardians. Fox, Groot and Thor get his hammer done, while Gomora's bf, muscle man and slug lady fight it out after joining forces with Dr Strange, Ironman, Spiderman against Thanos. 

Well Thanos crushes all of them, wipes out 50% of Earth including Black Panther, Black Window, Scarlet Witch, Agent of Shield head...

Depressing.