"A lack of plausibility used to be thought of as a liability in movies. When a critic, or an audience, complained that a plot twist was too luridly far-fetched to believe, that it stretched and snapped the bonds of reality (a rather vague concept, to be sure), that would generally go down as a negative assessment. Over the past couple of decades, though, expectations have shifted. Fantasy has leaked, like an oil spill, into everything, even naturalistic thrillers, and that has changed our relationship to them. Salt, a jacked-up espionage/action machine starring Angelina Jolie as a CIA superstar who may or may not be a Russian mole, is a movie I have no trouble calling flagrantly preposterous and over-the-top — impossible to buy on any sober, adult level. It's like a John le Carré double-agent yarn compacted into comic-book pulp as if by the makers of Con Air. Yet the movie doesn't pretend to be anything other than that; to call it out for being ludicrous would be like complaining that Superman flies. Besides, Salt knows how to stay one step ahead of you in devious, if jaw-droppingly contrived, ways. The movie is fun, dammit. So who cares, really, if it's trash?" - Owen Gleiberman, in his review of the new Angelina Jolie movie, SALT
OG has a knack for succintly putting in words my thoughts. I want to write like him.
2 person behind me in the queue to buy toto/4D (was buying for my mum dad -.-) was overheard talking about their plans if they won the $5 million prize. Lady A was telling Man B that she asked her family what they will do with the money if they won (now this is what i call DAY DREAMING). A's mum and dad both said they wana invest in property and buy a bungalow (don't they always want the biggest of everything?!). A told them $5 million not enough to buy bungalow, which got me wondering:
1) how much do u need to buy 3 freaking layers of roof over your head in Singapore? 2) what will i do if i win $5 million frakking dollars!?!?!
then i found the answer.
in our favourite local newspaper XIN MIN RI BAO NONETHELESS!!
Next to the very sexysaucysteamy headline of Jackie Chan's confession that he shot a R(A) blue film before (why am i not surprised? hmmm) is an article about a man who won an undisclosed huge sum of money and 坏事连连 quickly followed. what divine providence yet again! someone is telling me to be contented instead of being a daydreamer and lust after what i did not work hard for!
and i have learnt it the hard way once that what goes around comes around, so i dun think winning $5 million will be something i want. the paranoia will kill me. my life is destined to not have any huge windfalls.
but please just let me strike 4D like $1k a yr i will be super happy and contented already thankyouverymuch higher power that be if u are reading this.
so if u find out that i won 5 frakking million bucks, pls come look for me. i will give my money away nonetheless. unless u've been a bad bad bad person to me.
i think i am harbouring a growing resentment, one that i admit is bad, but an inevitable one, at the chances that i was denied, which led me to take a different, and more difficult path. oh well.
The caption for the above photo reads: "Downward dog Will we ever be able to think about this scene and not cry?"
I'm obsessed over LOST lately. 3 episodes into the final season, and i cant wait to finish them all. But i have to finish Doc Jensen's recaps and theories and Totally 'LOST' videos on s5 first before i can proceed further. and because i do not have a smart phone, i've copied exhaustively all the recaps onto Microsoft Word (a grand total of at LEAST 100 pages, font size 8), only to realise that Doc Jensen actually has LOST THEORIES articles after each episode too. By then i was too exhausted and decided i should just read the theories online, the recaps on paper while i am on the road. but all these are worthwhile.
After i've seen LOST, everything else just feels like second rate. PREDATORS' theme of strangers-dropped-on-an-island-for-greater-mission, and them discussing whether they're in purgatory or in a game just had me in cynical inside-laughs at how tired this idea is, and how badly they're writing the lines and picking the characters. they're 1D in comparison to Sun/Jin's epic star-crossed romance, or even John's faith.
While watching INCEPTION, i related the dream extractions to LOST's time-travelling stories, and wished the minds of one criminal has more intrigue and interests rather than a similar replication of the modern world, albeit the action sequences and JGL's zero-gravity scenes are to-die-for. I wished they have more dimensions than the mythologies of the LOST universe.
There's so much i can say about LOST and its tales that it's difficult to encompass all within an entry. but i can say, that i'm so emotionally invested in the show it's unbelievable. i stopped myself from reading spoilers when copy/pasting the final season's recaps. but when i saw the picture above of Jack, face defeated and hands covered in blood, a stark contrast to S1E1's opening scene, and then a dog by its side as a drastic comparison - life and imminent death, man and animal, grappling and abundant cuteness - it just did it for me. The stage is set for an imminent death, and i don't think i am ready for it.
In many case, Jack Shepard is the character i most identify with. the reluctant hero, the one trying to please everyone, the doctor always trying to fix things, the man with issues and inner demons. but above everything else, Jack is like everyone; human, and flawed.
The day i watch that scene will be a very sad day indeed.
Fear. they say that limits us from getting out of our comfort zone, to play 10/10 or more. (but isnt 10/10 still within the comfort zone? but that's for another day) Every chanced sight of the word, because it doesnt bloom in front me every now and then contrary to popular beliefs, reminds me of Sarah McLachlan's soprano voice, where she effortlessly and so smoothly, like caramel, lived out those notes like dew in the "morning sky", innocent and spirited, almost spiritual. The song's atmospheric arrangement, with the backing vocals hazed out, hinted at the whispers and voices in our heads, where fear most often sprang from uncertainty and doubt, confusion and conflict. And then at the end, because like anything else, it has to end. And then i realise, that in songs, i am exorcising myself and whatever fragments of it that needs mending.
"But I fear, I have nothing to give. I have so much to lose here in this lonely place, tangled up in our embrace. There's nothing I like better than to fall."
The Cardigans - My Favourite Game
In sec 1, I heard this song and saw the MV. the very sight of a tatooed Nina Pearson, driving along to this song, uninhibited, with the wind blowing in her face and the smell of open air, together with that liberating sense of freedom that comes along with it, I recognise. And i worship that immunity from everything else except living in that moment.
in that mad rush there is a cathartic release of pent up emotions. The song narrates the anger and frustrations from possibly a very fresh breakup, and later in the chorus turned soft and mellow (don't we all contradict ourselves so beautifully sometimes) before that repetitive yet incredibly hooky beat explodes in your head once again. a cautionary tale against speed driving? sure it is. But every now and then, the incredible hook resurfaces in my mind everytime i travel, or am in some high-speed drive. The feeling is incredible, and the release even better.
I wonder what songs people have in their heads, when they're walking, waiting for train, or in the middle of a conversation that they're out of. I have a song in my head most of the time. Do you?
