Silence is Not Golden - Go Clean 3.0

Been busy since early this year. Tiring though satisfying and enriching I would say. However, it's important to maintain some balance in life and this aspect is always one that I perform poorly.

Some of the films/series/album below:
1. The Help
2. The Descendants
3. The Ides of March
4. Community S1
5. A Simple Life (桃姐)
6. Ella Fitzgerald Sings Porter Songbook
7. A Dangerous Method
8. Downtown Abbey S2
9. The Big Bang Theory S5
10. Ben L'Oncle Soul
11. Spartacus S1
12. Ben L'Oncle Soul - Live Paris
13. Hugh Laurie - Let Them Talk
14. Mayer Hawthorne - How Do You Do
15. My Little Airport - 香港是个大商场
16. Raphael Saadiq - The Way I See It
17. Raphael Saadiq - Stone Rollin'
18. Robin McKelle - Soul Flower
19. She & Him - Volume One
20. Zee Avi - Ghostbird
21. 方皓王文

By the way, anyone going for Bersih 3.0? :)

Cheers

Web Therapy (2011)

You can always depend on Showtime to come up with some provocative and interesting shows and Lisa Kudrow to provide some laugh. I like her since her Friends days as I can't really get Rachel and Monica. Kudrow teamed up with Don Roos, the director who worked with her in both The Opposite of Sex and Happy Ending in this interesting new show, Web Therapy. And Kudrow is one of the writers too!

Now I have other option besides The Big Bang Theory to provide some laugh.

Taipei Exchanges (2010)

Taipei Exchanges (2010)

Director : Ya-Chuan Hsiao

Cast : Lun-Mei Kwai

Purely because of Lun-Mei Kwai, this sophomore effort of Hsiao after 9 years is is a feel-good work. Under the mentoring of Hou-Hsiao Hsien, I hope she will have more funding to make more movies. Looking forward to that. Though coffee house or cafe might sound a bit tad "out" now, I am still intrigued to visit it during my Taipei trip. Gonna be busy in Taipei this time!

Face (2009)

Face (2009)

Director : Tsai Ming Liang

Filmed in moi Paris, with special permission to shoot inside the Lourve I would say Tsai went overboard this time. He kinda used the same tactic in his previous work, The Wayward Cloud (2005). It's funny to watch Fanny Ardant being dubbed with the old Chinese "shi-dai-qu" but that alone won't sustain my attention.

Au Revoir, Taipei (2010)

Au Revoir, Taipei (2010)

Bought this just because of its filming location in Eslite Bookstore. Taipei, I will visit you soon.

Film-wise, typical Taiwanese movie with its "cold jokes" and dreamy plot.

So-So.

Dream Home (2010) - Wai Do Lei Ya Yat Hou (Victoria #1)

Dream Home (2010) - Pang Ho Cheong (D)

Josie Ho, Eason Chan, Derek Tsang, Lawrence Chou, Yip Shuen, Juno Mak, Wong Ching

NOTE : Not suitable for pregnant ladies and those who can't take on-your-face violent scenes.

I now understand why when the movie was shown in one of the smaller film festival (in Italy if I am not wrong....), one of the audience, a middle-aged uncle had a heart-attack. Of course, the whole premise of the film is its gore scenes but being a movie by Pang, it's not just some gore scenes galore.

At the same time, you know it's Josie's vehicle when she produce the movie herself. Too bad she lost Best Actress to Carina Lau but she will get it one day though it might not be the best deserved role (just like Carina).

Pang is one of the new directors who in a way offered some hope to the deteriorating HK cinema. His other feature, Love in A Puff, which is TOTALLY different from this; was a rare gem that came out of the HK cinema in the recent years. I REALLY hope the sequel of Love in A Puff will be free of the malaise that plague HK movies recently; being "mainland-ised".

Karaoke (2009) - Chris Chong Chan Fui

Karaoke (2009) - Chris Chong Chan Fui (D)
Writer : Chris Chong Chan Fui, Shanon Shah

As I mentioned before, the library in little dot is FANTASTIC! I particularly like this film magazine from UK which dishes lots of interesting features. In their 2010 best movie selection listed individually by their world-wide film critics, Karaoke was listed!!!! A Malaysian movie helmed by the director from Sabah!!!!!

I remembered I read somewhere that Chris is now in Sabah making his next feature based on the stories in Tanjung Aru.

Bravo Chris and Shanon! And these are the things that we Malaysian should be proud of; not all those bad taste comedy the politicians happily dished out for the world to see.

Underground Love Education - Pang Ho Cheong

Break-Up Club (2010)

Break-Up Club (2010)

Director : Wong Chan Chan

Jaycee Chan, Fiona Sit, Patrick Tang

The two leads are natural. Wong tried something different here. Commendable but I love the movie mostly because of the performances of the leads. Surprisingly natural and good. And yes, Jaycee's acting is way much better than his father, Jackie Chan.

Black Swan (2011)

Black Swan is good. Natalie Portman is good. Sorry Annette Benning, not that you are not good but Portman is really good.

Vincent Cassel is good. Milla Kunis is good. Barbara Hershey is good.

It's GOOD GOOD GOOD.

(Thanks PT for the free tix)

The King's Speech (2010)

The King's Speech (2010)

Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, Helena Bonham Carter

Firth was robbed an Oscar for last year's "A Single Man".

Robbing him second year in a row this year is a sin!

Red (2010)

RED (2010)

Bruce Willis, Mary Louise Parker, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, Helen Mirren

Entertaining.

Lesbian Movie Night

Love in A Puff (2010)

Love in A Puff (2010)

Director : Pang Ho-Cheung

Cast : Miriam Yeung, Shawn Yue

Try the trailer here. http://www.mediaasia.com/loveinapuff/tc_main.html

It's not ONLY a love story. Pang Ho-Cheung is delightful, as always. Shawn Yue has a certain charm in some strange way. I personally think Miriam gave her best ever movie performance here.

P/S : It's very HK production, no "bing-bing"s, Big-S or xiao ming and the gang. The movie title is a nice play of the Taiwanese Mayday's hit song but it has nothing to do with it.

Bella Should Have Dumped Edward?

I was in the Harris the other day and saw this particular book on the feature shelf with the other Twillightesque-Vampire books.

And it costs RM 59.90??????

Social Network (2010)

Gage: Mr. Zuckerberg, do I have your full attention?
Mark Zuckerberg: [stares out the window] No.
Gage: Do you think I deserve it?
Mark Zuckerberg: [looks at the lawyer] What?
Gage: Do you think I deserve your full attention?
Mark Zuckerberg: I had to swear an oath before we began this deposition, and I don't want to perjure myself, so I have a legal obligation to say no.
Gage: Okay - no. You don't think I deserve your attention.
Mark Zuckerberg: I think if your clients want to sit on my shoulders and call themselves tall, they have the right to give it a try - but there's no requirement that I enjoy sitting here listening to people lie. You have part of my attention - you have the minimum amount. The rest of my attention is back at the offices of Facebook, where my colleagues and I are doing things that no one in this room, including and especially your clients, are intellectually or creatively capable of doing.
[pauses]
Mark Zuckerberg: Did I adequately answer your condescending question?

Michael Clayton (2007)

Michael Clayton (2007)

Cast : George Clooney, Tilda Swinton, Sydney Pollack, Tom Wilkinson

Tagline : Truth can be adjusted

Murder by Death (1976)

Murder by Death (1976)

Writer : Neil Simon

Cast : Alec Guinness, Peter Sellers, Maggie Smith, James Cromwell, Truman Capote

Tagline : You are cordially invited to dinner.....and murder

He's Just Not That Into You (2009)

He's Just Not That Into You (2009)

Cast : Drew Barrymore, Jennifer Connelly, Jennifer Aniston, Ben Affleck, Bradley Cooper, Scarlett Johansson, Kevin Connolly, Justin Long

Tagline : Are you the exception....or the rule?

My Tag? It's a rule: big star won't guarantee the outcome of the movie, no exception