syncopation

Tag: Fifteen movies that will always stick with you

So, I have been told I have been quite inactive on the blogging front… but Kaho happened to tag me, so I am going to take this opportunity to rekindle what I used to love, despite how much I am behind with uni and thesis…

But I shouldn’t waste any of your precious time with my dull, boring life, maybe except the evenings of this week, and here is the list:

1. I am Sam – this isn’t a movie I’ll watch over and over again mainly because of the emotional roller coaster that it will take me through every time I watch it. But I really love the movie.
2. Love Actually – there is just something about this movie, the happiness, the love… to me, it’s the movie to watch during the holidays.
3. Prestige – I just cannot get over how brilliant this movie is.
4. Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amélie Poulain – it’s the music that get me hooked, not that its cinematography isn’t brilliant, but I have its soundtrack on my iTunes, and every time I listen to it, it’s as though I am back on the streets in Paris, strolling past the aroma of Café au lait and croissant in Montmartre.
5. Monster Inc. – I simply love the novelty of the story and I will never get tired of watching the millions of colours in the film.
6. The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
7. Legally Blonde – it makes Harvard seems to be closer somehow…lol
8. Totoro

And… then I realise, 15 movies that always stick with you are really hard to name – Kaho, how did you do that?!?!?!

Promise that you’ll love me even when you hate me

If you watch Grey’s, and are spoiler free and you haven’t watched the season finale of Season 5. You probably want to walk away now…

For the record, I do think this is a very cute “wedding”. But pardon my shallow shallow knowledge of law or marriage, don’t you need a witness to be legally married? Or Rhimes is telling us, you don’t need to be legally married to be married – that the love of Mer and Der is enough?

Oh well, she can do whatever she wants in her Shondaland. Who am I to say anything? I am only glad that we got more than 20 seconds of merder screen time!

The perfect proposal

No blinding ring, no ridiculously romantic gestures, no flowers, no cakes, no unnecessary audience, no getting-on-one knee or any cliches. This proposal trumps all of the proposals here.

I am not hopeful to get a proposal anywhere close to this because a) I am not a doctor and b) I don’t have a boyfriend who is a doctor either. (But I certainly could imagine some of my friends who have the potential to get a proposal great like this down in the future… say, someone who fights with her boyfriend because of a medical case…!)

“If there is a crisis, you don’t freeze, you move forward, you get the rest of us to move forward. Because you have seen worse, you have survived worse, and you know we will survive too. You say you are all dark and twisty. It’s not a flaw. It’s a strength. It makes you who you are. I am not going to get down on one knee. I am not going to ask a question. I love you Meredith Grey, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”

“And I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”

Seriously, what more do you want?

Seriously.

Just Watched: Confessions of a Shopaholic

I have wanted to watch this since I have seen its trailer in Hong Kong and it’s not finally on in Melbourne’s theatre – two weeks ago… and today I finally caught it with Irene and Christine! I miss you gals sooo much!

Overall, the movie has lived up to my expectation which… there isn’t much. But you don’t go watch a chick flick and have high expectations, right? All in all, I think it’s good for a laugh. I was not particularly impressed by Isla Fisher’s performance. But her boss (portrayed by Hugh Dancy who is smoking hot with the accent) and her best friend Suze’s (played by Krysten Ritter) performance definitely caught my eye.

My favourite scene of the movie was which Rebecca lied about being fluent in Finnish (because no one checks up on Finland…!) and when the Finnish guy spoke Finnish to her and she pretended that she understood and slapped him right at his face. (It’s not Swedish at all, but it definitely reminded me some of the good times going ‘huh?!’ in Finland.)

Lastly, a bone to pick with the movie – I am not agreeing with the fashion of the movie, especially for a movie that is set in New York AND theme Shopaholic.

Just Watched: The Secret Life of Bees

I bawled my eye out when I watched this on the flight from Hong Kong to Melbourne.

The movie is based on a best-seller novel by Sue Monk Kidd. Lily (played by Dakota Fanning) had a rough childhood because of her estranged parents and she blamed herself for accidentally killed her mother. She was brought up by Miss Rosaleen (played by Jennifer Hudson) who got discriminated and abused in town because of her colour which later led to a flee out of town.

What I have loved so much of this movie is the plot its own, Lily blamed herself for all the mishaps happening around her when she has done nothing wrong – accidentally murdering her mother, her black-friend got taken away because they watched a movie in public together and May committing suicide because of that. It’s very bittersweet and makes you want to hug her and reassure her that it will all be okay.

The background of the story itself also adds a more complicated dimension to the movie – the Civil Right Bills had just passed then – however, people are still acting like it’s just a piece of paper that didn’t mean anything. So for the entire movie it’s been quite a struggle between the colours which made it an even more engaging movie to watch.

Last days of your Life – Glass Pear

Let me take you to
My secret place
High above the earth
Into out of space
Only God knows where
Only God knows how
I will take you there
Somehow

If this was the last day of your life
What would you do to make things right?
Cause this is the last day of your life
Who you gonna call to make things right?

I love you
Shine on

All that’s beautiful is before your face
Now you’re in the heart of a secret place
There’s infinity in a grain of sand
An eternity in the palm of your hand

If this was the last day of your life
What would you do to make things right?
Well this is the last day of your life
Who you gonna call to make things right?

I love you
Shine on
Shine on

Just Watched: Australia

I definitely hesitated before going to the cinema. First, it’s Nicole Kidman… (I have no idea why I am not fond of her… but yeah, I am not that fond of her.) Second, if you know how long the movie would be – I guarantee you would hesitate too – it’s a whooping 165 minutes i.e. 2 hours and 45 minutes.

Anyway, I think I came out of the movie theatre more satisfied than I thought I would be. It started off somehow comedian but then the romantic elements of the started stemming after an hour of the film had started. We should not forget that this film also address the issue of stolen generation. (It’s not new, but Luhrmann did a great job making the process of learning about stolen generation more tolerable i.e. way better than what Rabbit-proof Fence did.) Also, considering that this film is longer than 2.45 hours, Luhrmann deserves a medal for that there weren’t any dull moments. And hell, watching Hugh Jackman showering in the outback and riding a horse in an impeccable manner cannot be that shabby.

However, what I do enjoy more than the movie itself are the movie reviews. Foreign film critics are generally quite gentle while Aussie film critics couldn’t be more critical to their national film. The Age, Canberra Times and Western Australian all gave neutral to negative film reviews. But I guess that’s only true to the Aussie culture… and they really cracked me up!

Here’s what Schembri of Canberra Times said:

As for the visuals, the film is pretty — you cannot point a camera at the outback and not get something impressive — but there are only so many wide shots of the Aussie outback that the human mind can stand.

And finally, this speaks my heart:

If only Baz had made the damn thing shorter by at least half an hour.

Just Watched: Bella

Bella is my most favourite movie of 2008 to date. The movie was a plain story but a greatly-told one. Frankly, I like it even better than Vicky Cristina Barcelona! The movie was set in New York but heavily related to Mexico (Mexican food! Hmmm…. Guacamole!) and Spain (Perhaps not quite, except the mentioning of Real Madrid? I just love the Latinos too much ;)) The cinematography was great, and so was the music. (Rachael Yamagata’s Meet Me By the Water was playing when the end credits were rolling!)

A well-spent 1.5 hours :D

The Unfulfilled Love

As far as I can remember, Vicky Cristina Barcelona is the third Woody Allen film that I have watched. It’s just very Woody Allen. A story about relationship being told in the most straight forward way with Scarlett Johansson in the cast. There is nothing I really want to discuss but only one line in the movie: Only unfulfilled love can be romantic.

And I couldn’t agree more about that.

When you read a novel, a fiction, or a whatever, to me, at least, the most enchanting part is always the progress of falling in love, or pursuing love but never the happy-ending. Nothing interests me after the girl gets the boy, the boy gets the girl, the girl gets the girl, or the boy gets the boy unless an extramarital affair involves or someone cheats. Believe me or not, I am neither melodramatic nor pessimistic. I do love happy-ending once in a while when I feel like the world is a horrible place. But they are never the most memorable footage. An unresolved love story makes you keep thinking about it. A resolved love story, however, leaves no room for your imagination and you just stop thinking about it all together. Because the only thing to tell in a fulfilling love story is the outcome whereas in an unresolved love story, every single detail tells the story.

Recently, I have discovered my most favourite scene in Grey’s Anatomy: after Mark first appeared in the show, being punched by Derek, pleading for Addison to go back to NY with him and then sitting at Joe’s talking to Meredith whilst waiting for Addison to show.

Meredith: What are you still doing here?

Mark: I am hoping Addison shows up.

Meredith: You are still in love with her?

Mark: You are still in love with him.

Meredith: She won’t show, you know. He’s not the kind of guy who leaves if he can help it.

Mark: What if you were wrong? What if just this once, life comes down on the side of the dirty mistresses?

For the record, it’s not that I like it when Meredith and Derek’s relationship kept circling the drain, but I’ve never seen Meredith more in love with Derek in that scene, even without Derek being physical presence. To Meredith, watching Mark waiting for Addison to show was déjà vu to her and she knew the outcome. At that moment, you realised how deeply Meredith was hurt and accepted the fate that she was just the adulterous whore. It seemed that she had completely given up but as Mark said, she was still in love with him. And that was the unfulfilled love.

Now I have come to understand,
The way it is,
It’s not a secret anymore,
’cause we’ve been through that before,
From tonight I know that you’re the only one,
I’ve been confused and in the dark,
Now I understand,

I wonder why it is,
I don’t argue like this,
With anyone but you,
I wonder why it is,
I wont let my guard down,
For anyone but you
We do it all the time,
Blowing out my mind,

Just like a star across my sky,
Just like an angel off the page,
You have appeared to my life,
Feel like I’ll never be the same,
Just like a song in my heart,
Just like oil on my hands

- Like A Star, Corinne Bailey Rae

Just Watched: Mama Mia!

This is my second time watching Mama Mia! – first the musical, and second time, the movie.

What is good about this movie is that it is definitely a no-brainer and not heart-wrenching. (I am starting to understand why comedies can be such a hit because after a week worth of hard work, you seriously don’t want to think during the weekends.) You can just sit back and enjoy 2 hours of fun, music, and Meryl Streep dancing her butt off (which I would never ever imagine seeing it). I was not very impressed by her performance at the very beginning of the movie, I guess particularly due to her unusual portrayal, but it got better towards the end.

Since none of these actors are really trained in singing, of course they are going down when compare to the Musical version and the original ABBA version. But all of them have managed to do a pretty good job except maybe Pierce Brosnan, which I could hardly stand it when he was singing to Meryl Streep’s character. Colin Firth and Stellan Skarsgård sang all right. My favourite parts of the movie are when the old-girls-trio sing and dance together. You CANNOT miss it. It totally cracked me and Yuen up.

Overall, as this is a movie, so it doesn’t have the level of interaction like you are watching a musical. So it really was a bummer when I wanted to get up and dance towards the end only realising I was in a movie theatre and that would be over the top. But as a movie, I think it’s worth having a copy of it at home just for a good laugh and music when you need something to laugh at for a girls-night-in.

And finally, the verdict is… Yuen is going to watch it again with her sister and Greek is too beautiful. How on earth did I miss it last year???!?!