Les Yeux Ouvert

I have not heard from Felicity or her HR since last Friday.

I called her on the phone this morning and she disconnected me.

What is happening?

I always enjoy a good spy action thriller.

One reason is that spy movies always span across a few countries.

That's the travel bug in me speaking.

The locales in The Bourne Ultimatum , this (last?) installment of the Bourne trilogy include Moscow, Paris, Turin, London, Tangier and New York City.

I like the first 2 Bourne films. They are like more realistic James Bond films minus the exaggerated gadgets and actions.

Not that the Bourne films have no actions, in fact there are heaps. This one has got an exciting foot chase in the crowded Waterloo station in London and another rooftop chase at the exotic Tangier in Morocco,

And Matt Damon is the perfect person for the anaemic Jason Bourne. And I also like Julia Stiles.

So, even though I am at the 2nd row from the screen, I enjoyed this gripping thriller.

Hostel 2 went wrong when it tried not be shallow.

For one hour, it tried to undo the misrepresentation it made to Slovakia in Hostel 1. It went as far as throwing in a cultural bazaar with local performances.

It also tried to explain why customers would pay to torture and kill backpackers kidnapped by the Slovakian syndicate. And these international customers even include a cameo Asian and 2 rich Americans in the form of Roger Bart (George Williams) and Richard Burgi (Karl Mayer).

Thankfully not James Denton (Mark Defino) had no part in it.

The gory and killing scenes at the last half hour are also mild compared to its prequel.

Hostel 2 is a yawn.

Felicity arranged for her HR to interview me.

Jennifer, the pleasant HR manager, went straight to the point and asked about the my job switching frequency.

I explained my situations. She apologised for her point-blank question and I like her already.

We went into the interview proper, with her asking questions to access my "fit" to the company. I explained with passion and enthusiasm of my accomplishments in other jobs.

At the end of the session, we are chatting like old friends. We talked about company culture and personality testing. Jeniffer reviewed that she liked my drive and would update Felicity on the interview.

I left the office with high confidence that the job is in my hands. So I updated George, my agent, and Felicity, who is supposed to be in the interview but could not get away from another meeting.

At about 5pm, Felicity called and broke the news.

My strength became my weakness!

My zest and passion turned to be a stumbling block. Jennifer is concerned if the company could keep me going in the long run before I job hop again. She proposed that I go for one more round of interview with Felicity's boss.

Sigh….

I have been looking forward to 881.

Yes, its another Royston Tan film.

And it certainly did not disappoint.

881 is about the struggle of 2 friends in the getai performance business. Getai is a Singapore Malaysia custom, it’s probably a spin-off from the even more traditional opera, staged for the good brothers in the Chinese 7th month, when the gate of hell is open.

Read in Mandarin, 881 sounds like papapya.

The duo, whom met in a getai show, aspired to be getai singers, band together as the Papaya Sister and together with their aunt Auntie Ling and her mute son Guan Yin, worked hard to be in the business. They even got help from the long-lost sister/legendary getai fairy godmother of getai.

881 is like the extended version of Royston's earlier Hock Hiap Leong, a musical set on a coffee shop before its demolition.

It has his signatures written all over, his one-take-long-complicated-dialogue scene (a long concatenated string of the names of pop songs delivered in one breadth), his wacky humour (Guan Yin and his pet cock) and his wit (the naration through out the film is via the mute Guan Yin as the first person).

And he used a lot of mise en scène from his other films like his character-in-mask and fish-tank scenes. There is one with Liu Ling Ling in front of a fish tank and another with the cast in a giant tank, Auntie Ling and the Papaya Sisters sat on a clam and Guan Yin swam on top of them. The ending scene with the camera revolving the characters in time-lapse is like the merry-go-round scene in 15.

881 is a visual feat of flamboyant getai performances with lots of feathers and boas. The costume change is just amazing, with the Papaya Sisters changing multiple costumes during a song in smooth editing.

Older folks would certainly love this film for the getai performances, its mainly Hokkien dialogue and the good old fashion tear-jerker plot.

And I, whom my friends would label more potato than rice, took on a new liking to Hokkien songs, especially those catchy numbers during the getais. I especially like the jit-lang-jit-pua song depicting how love one could share (intangible) things, in puah (halves) and su-ku (quarters).

Strangely, unlike the dialogues in Jack Neo's heartland films, 881's Hokkien doesn't sound vulgar .

I was in in tears at the ending scene. It reminded me of mum's final moment, when she told dad she has no more "yuan" with him and bid goodbye to all of us.

Except for the over-the-top competition between the Papaya and Durian sisters with laser emitting from the Durian sister's bra, I love the entire film.

Now I can't wait for the DVD.

I blew my top today.

In a ballooned argument at the customer site, an indirect superior of another department shouted that he would kick me over an issue we do not see eye to eye on. I shouted back that if he doesn’t like me, he could have me replaced with someone else.

I know, I should have controlled myself, but at the moment, I felt I had done an excellent job and he is trying to tai-ji more stuffs to me. I lost my cool and made the childish and unprofessional remark within the ear shot of the customer.

Of course the indirect superior asshole launched a complaint.

I went back to the office and apologised to the boss in making a scene and explained the situation. I want him to hear from me and not someone else.

Sigh….

Perhaps he knew all eyes are on him, perhaps he is really talented in the art, or perhaps he has lots of supports because of his current status…

Whatever it is, I have new found respect for Jay Chou.

His debut directorial full length feature proved that he is not just a successful pop idol and song writer, his passion in making film made him a sincere director.

Of course there are elephant loop holes in the plot and the not-so-original twist two-third into the film is a little over-the-top. But the first act of the film not only proved his ability to tell a story, it also showed case his excellent skill with the piano, and the character is so tailored that his dead-pan expression and rushed staccato speech seemed so natural for the talented-school-boy protagonist.

The cinematography is great too with lots of long zoom to create a clear subject with out-of-focus background, carefully selected locations like a walk along a water-front with the chaarcters bathing in the golden sun-set, a run along an old wooden bridge that zig-zag among an abundance of green, and nice production sets like an old piano in an even older wooden-panelled room with lots of thick hardcover books to suit the mood.

Guey Lun-mei, the lead actress, is not exceptionally pretty but she has a certain artist quality that fit the role. She has the mouth of Julie Mayer (Andrea Bowen) of Desperate Housewives and 令路 (Lee Ip-sae) of 大長今.

Anthony Wong reprised the role of Chou's dad after Initial D with his usual natural performance.

Overall, it's a sincere film to watch.

And I think it’s Chou's piano performance that got me over to his camp.

The potential opening with Felicity's company turned complicated when George highlighted his concern that I could be a potential job hopper.

Looking at my past career history, I left after 6 months with the job in 2004 because of a bad boss, then I stayed home for 6 months to accompany mum for her last days, and then I quickly got onto another a job which I worked only for just over a year before I am laid off. Thi sis then followed by a 6-month break before I landed in the current job, which I am leaving because they only gave me a token increment.

I am hence a Job hopper.

I am not angry with George.

He has to point it out to Felicity because all of us are many years of good friends and her career would be tainted if I were to join her company for a year and changed my mind.

He also raise the concern to me and wanted me to commit at least a 3-year stint.

I told him I am looking for a career not a job and I would stay as long as I could as long as there is no complication. And I told him as long as I am decided I would just chiong forward with the plan.

I don’t think he bought it.

Sigh…

I hate complications.

The potential opening with Felicity's company turned complicated when George highlighted his concern that I could be a potential job hopper.

Looking at my past career history, I left after 6 months with the job in 2004 because of a bad boss, then I stayed home for 6 months to accompany mum for her last days, and then I quickly got onto another a job which I worked only for just over a year before I am laid off. Thi sis then followed by a 6-month break before I landed in the current job, which I am leaving because they only gave me a token increment.

I am hence a Job hopper.

I am not angry with George.

He has to point it out to Felicity because all of us are many years of good friends and her career would be tainted if I were to join her company for a year and changed my mind.

He also raise the concern to me and wanted me to commit at least a 3-year stinct.

I told him I am looking for a career not a job and I would stay as long as I could as long as there is no complication. And I told him as long as I am decided I would just chiong forward with the plan.

I don’t think he bought it.

Sigh…

I hate complications.

Why pay for something you can get free on TV?

Homer Simpson said himself at the start of the 2D animation.

I did.

Why? Because it is a full length feature of the usual irreverent and biting humour I love some much from the TV series.

I called Felicity at 1pm and she is still doing grocery. I could hear her kids screaming their lungs off in the background.

I reached at her place an hour later in tees and berms. She tucked her babies for afternoon nap and gave me a 2 hour briefing on the position.

It turned out that I have to report to a person and that person reports to her. And that person could be Amanda, another close friend whom I always referred to as my fiancée many years back.

Wow. It's strange how life can come to a full circle.

Disturbia is an exciting thriller helmed by the new IT kid Shia LaBeouf.

The story is simple, Kale, a teenager who is dealing with the loss of his dad who died in his arms in a car accident, is sentenced to 3 months house arrest when he got violent in school and punched his Spanish teacher after he made a reference to his father and .

With an ankle bracelet sensor that would trigger an alarm in a central surveilance system, he could not go beyond a certain boundary outside his house. He is literary grounded.

Then his mom got pissed by his nua-ing at home and took away his entertainment access for on-line gaming and cable TV. That left him with only 2 options: to spy on his neighbours and play video game from his friend Ronnie (Aaron Yoo).

The body perfect sexy Ashley (Sarah Roemer) moved in with her family just in time to let him bino on her swimming and aerobic routines. Then things got hairy when they suspected another neighbour Robert Turner (David Morse) of a serial killer.

It would not be successful without Shia LaBeouf stellar performance coupled with D.J. Caruso's tight direction from the start to the grand finale.

I like the spectacular unexpected car accident at the beginning. The short filler romance between Kale and Ashley fitted in seamlessly and I don’t even mind the rushed ending with the bad guy finished off hurriedly.

Disturbia is an entertaining film.

Claire sent a SMS saying there is opening in her company.

And the person would report to Shane, a lady who reports to Hon whom I interviewed with last year.

I gave her a call and submiited my CV.

She wanted to meet but I thought of my appointment with Felicity on Saturday and told her I would call her next week.

I have to find out more from Felicity first.

I sent a SMS to George the day I set my mind on changing job.

Yup, that’s the day I got offered to convert to a perm position with a meagre 1% increment for the appreciation of my contribution for the past year.

George called today with news of Felicity recruiting for her department.

Felicity was a junior in my first job. But nw she is now high up in the corporate ladder of a MNC. She is assigned to take over a big department with many openings for technical staffs.

I called her to ask more about the job but I could only meet her in the weekends for a proper briefing because of my busy work schedule.

See, even now I am still dedicated to the job.

Knock up is colloquial for making one pregnant.

The film is just about that.

Alison Scott (Katherine Heigl) just got a big break on the job and is offered an on-air job. She celebrated the "promotion" with her sister Debbie (Leslie Mann) and got so drunk that she brought a guy she met at the club home.

2 months later, she discovered she got knocked up from the one-night-stand and contacted Ben to try to work out the relationship for the sake of the child.

She quickly discovered that Ben Stone (Seth Roge), a chubby foul-mouthed slacker/druggie is miles apart from her. You see, Ben only dreamed of launching a website that provides a directory of the precise timing of the film a female celebrity flashed her skin .

She felt she is on the way to the unhappy marriage like her sis Debbie and her bo-chap husband Pete (Paul Rudd).

Knocked Up fused lots of dialogues, some crude but funny moments, some nudity and lots of light drama with a couple of moving moments into a very entertaining film.

It is more than a slapstick comedy, it's really a woman film about the angst of a young woman at the peak of her life dealing with an unmarried pregnancy and a middle-aged woman dealing with her unhappy marriage and aging body and both have to deal with relationship issues.

I like the film.

I am always happy to see local films on the big screen.

Gone Shopping is the latest.

It has 3 stories, not exactly portmanteau, but all 3 protagonists spent substantial amount of time in shopping centres.

Clara (Kym Ng) is a rich, naive and lonely tai tai, whom could be a kept woman, filled her loneliness shopping in expensive boutiques, befriending a superficial sales girl (Chermaine Ang) and finally found solace in her long lost classmates Valentine Pang (Adrian Pang), whom she thought could elope with her.

Renu (Sonya Nair), an 8-year-old girl who is abandon by her parents at Mustafa Centre. She spent her time among the isles between the shelves of merchandise and when she is found much to the chagrin of the security officer, she spent her time in the security office waiting to be "claimed" by her parents. She also saw the petty crime of a cross-dresser (Rizman Putra) who went round robbing greedy housewives in the changing room.

Aaron (Aaron Kao), is a 22 year-old Generation-Y guy who is looking for a relationship with a cosplay girl Hui Hui (Magdalene Tan). But Hui Hui's idea of a relationship doesn’t gel with his more traditional view. She taught him how to escape from the real world with her cosplay role, a sword which she persuaded him to buy and a cloak which she made for him. They met and developed their relationship at the Marina Square.

Wee Li Lin wrote a good story and is detailed in the portrayal the emptiness of the protagonists in the film.

Over all, it’s a sincere film, with ok cinematography, a good sound track by Joe Ng and a sound cast.

Kym Ng surprised with her sensitive portrayal of Clara. Adrian Pang gave a stellar cameo as Valentine and both Aaron Kao and Magdalene are credible as the Gen-y couple. Sonya Nair too has a moving solo scene.

Gone Shopping said a lot of about the empty lives of Singaporeans. We yearn to escape from the reality of our unsatisfactory life, and all we could do for immediate escape is in a shopping centre.

That’s why shopping is one of our national obsession.

With a bigger budget from the success of Shutter, Alone is the much anticipated film from Banjong Pisanthanakun and Parkpoom Wongpoom.

Horror fans would not be disappointed with the story of a dead Siamese twin who came back to haunt the surviving one

First part of the film has some pretty good jump scenes though we already knew who the ghost is.

Most of the hauntings happened at the spooky old house which made them even more effective.

The finale of the film after the twist is revealed became a thriller (think fatal-attraction/what lies beneath final scene) with the protagonist escaping from a certain death by the killer.

Alone is a decent Thai horror film, though not as good as shutter.

I have been having dreams that I am in a foreign countries for the last 3 nights.

Sunday night. I was at Botswana, and there was a traditional Chinese funeral going on. The weird thing was that the priests are all African dressed as traditional Taoist priests. And I had to past through the funeral tentage to get to the railway station.

Monday night. I was at the edge of the cliff in the compound of Pura Luhur Uluwatu temple at South Bali, looking at the spectacular surfs crashing onto the cliff 250 feet below.

Then last night, I was travelling in a train somewhere in China. The train passed by many small towns, I eventually alighted and went to a single-story local village home where I would spend the night.

The writers just let their creativity juice run free-flow for Paprika.

Paprika is an animation feature about an experimental therapeutic machine, DC Mini, that is stolen from the inventors and created havoc when dreams integrate with the real world.

How come?

You see, DC mini is a dream machine.

It allows a shrink to enter the dream of a patient and explore his sub-consciousness to treat him.

After DC mini is stolen, the developers of the machine started to be attacked in their dreams and hallucinate in real life, resulting in them jumping off building, shouting irrelevant statements etc.

Dr. Atsuko Chiba helped to solve the case with Paprika, her sexy altered ego character in the dreamscape.

The prime suspect is Tokita, an assistant developer of the machine, who disappeared right after the machine is stolen. His character in the dreamscape is an obsessed Japanese doll geisha in kimono who always appeared in a parade of dolls, dancing umbrellas, home appliances, racoon and zhao cai cats.

Konakawa is the homicide detective who is in the experiment for the prototype to solve a crime before the device is stolen.

The amazing part of the animation lied in the dreamscapes, starting off with Konakawa's dream, that could easily be 10 dreams that tween from one to another.

The story of Paprika is a tad confusing for most people, but the eye-popping visuals made up for it.

Still, I prefer The Girl who leapt through time, for its innocence and sweetness nostalgia.

I spent almost half an hour trying to figure out how this fountain works at the newly refurnished wings at Suntec City.

The ring of water that sprouted from the top of the fountain seemed to defy gravity. They looked like droplets falling slowing onto a flat circular matt plate below without making any splash. At times, the droplets seemed to be flowing upward instead of falling down.

Then at certain change of rhythms of the strong-tempo Latin music, the sprouts of water that travelled in a convex route to the base suddenly changed to follow a concave course.

Its just amazing.

Welcome back! Hong Kong action thrillers.

After a long absence, Invisible Target marked the come back of the oh-so-nice action thrillers was starred the younger Simon Yam, and so many others.

There is no arty farty cinematography, no complicated drama, just plain story of good guys (police) versus bad guys.

Of course being a good old HK action thriller, the police chief would turn out to be the bad guy and there would be a few melodramatic moments.

But all these don’t matter, because we get what we wanted" explosions, roof-top chase, breaking of glass, one-to-one, one-to-many and many-to-one combat with body being hurled uncontrollably towards a solid wall/glass wall/table/cabinets/railing/stairs after being kick/punched/walloped by the opponents.

And we are talking about Nicholas Tse, Shawn Yue and Joycee Chan here.

I admire them for their stunts in the film.

We see an exciting chase through the roof tops of the cityscape with the actors leaping from buildings. One scene ended with Nicholas Tse being kicked mid-air in his leap and he fell through the branches of a tree to the street below.

Jaycee too Chan had his share of kicks and he has to fight in a sea of fire. Shawn Yue who looked older with an almost botak crew cut too gave cool portrayal of a police officer with credible kungfu skills.

These few young actors demonstrated their ability to take over such roles in this genre.

Thank goodness Aaron Kwok was only a fleeting reference with a photo in the film or we would have to endure his tears for justification of the best actor for deliverance.

Yeah, I still have not got over that one.

That lunch that I though had no agenda turned out to have one after all.

It's to size up my "happiness" in the company, which, because of my positive attitude, I clearly sent all the wrong signal.

Why? Because, the company offered me a permanent position.

Normally it’s a thing to be happy about but I am not.

Not with a 1% raise.

I felt humiliated.

Call me money face, but I worked my ass off and have yield results. And the papers today just reported a minimum 5% increment for most industries with the good market.

1%?

I rejected the offer and told the HR I expected 5%. They said they will escalate to my boss.

At 6pm in the evening, they came back with the news that they are adamant on the 1%. They gave more crap justification of the meagre adjustment, saying that converting me is already showing their appreciation of my work.

1% is what I am going to get.

I remembered how low I felt during the 6months unemployment days.

I accepted the offer.

And in my heart, I am set to go.

You, I Love is a Russian film with a modern story.

I have certain ideas about Russia from its history, politics and past films.

But then its only because of my shallow ignorance.

Like how I thought Eastern Europe is poor and not so modern until I visited there myself.

This film certainly provide an insight into a modern Russia.

The story?

Vera, a beautiful newscaster with an eating disorder met Timofei, a yuppie who is in the advertising line. They fell in love quickly.

Then Timofei ran his car on to Uloomji, a young Kalmyk worker in a minor accident and brought him home.

Uloomji has a child-like charm and quickly charmed and confused Timofei into a gay relationship. Vera, after an initial struggle, and eventually accepted Uloomji and together, they tried to prevent Uloomji's parents and uncle from separating the ménage à trois.

See what I mean by how it changed my opinion of Russia?

"call me".

Jacob sent a sms in the afternoon.

No courtesy. Just a plain demanding "call me".

I took my time.

I admit I am petty.

I called him an hour later.

No answer.

So I smsed and told him off for ordering me to call and not answering.

Now I admit I am childish.

An hour later, he smsed that he could not make outgoing call with his phone and asked if I like to go for a movie.

I agreed since I am free in the evening.

But of course, with no movie in mind and no plan, the movies are all sold out when we reached the theatre, even for those that I do not mind watching a second time with him.

We ended up having soup at Soup Spoon.

My hair is getting out of shape.

I deliberated between my regular saloon or the new one near Andy's place and decided at the latter.

I attribute the decision to vanity.

Who doesn’t like flattering feedback from friends who wanted to know where I cut my hair.

:)

I guess viewers would have varying opinions of this installment of Harry Porter.

Die hard Harry Porter fans would probably love it anyway.

The reader fans might just love it for its great adaptation of the book.

The older viewers who appreciate drama films would probably like it for its telling of the story of a teenager fighting against evil force.

People who look for a little get-away from the real world to a fantasy one of witchcraft might be okay with it, giving a little douse on the magical room of requirement, centaur, giant and a final fight between Harry and he-who-has-no-nose.

Those who watch it for fx and thrillers might be a little disappointed, since it’s a story centred film this time and not selling for the cgi.

Me?

I missed the Quitditch matches, dragon valley, the 9 1/2 platform, train journey to Hogwarts, the Hogwarts school compound, Hedwig, Hagrid and his mythical creatures, the invisble cloak, the bitching between Ron and Hermonie and the bully by Malfoy.

Harry has grew into a typical scrawny teenage Brit and I wonder how he and the gang would look in the next 2 instalments of the film.

In my opinion, Harry Porter and the Order of Phoenix is a so-so Harry Porter film.

I took time off form work in the morning to report the accident to IDAC.

I used to think that the idea of IDAC is good, so workshops and insurance company could have an independent assessment of the accident,

But what they did is made me fill a hard copy form which a young staff transcribed into the web-based application.

They did not even look at my car.

Anyway, I described the absence of visible damage on both cars and submitted 2 pictures I took of the Ah Beng's bumper and hope that his claim would not be successful.

If his claim is not successful, he would have to foot the bill for changing his okay bumper.
I hope karma would be on my side in this case and he would be punished for being greedy.

Looks like I am really not in the best of luck these days.

First it was the week long flu, which I am still trying to recover from the dry cough that resonates my wind-pipe and chest every time I cough. Then it was the langar, and now, work is getting worse.

The manager whom I report to has quit and this Friday is the last day.

We are not informed until now, when he introduced his replacement, a senior management guy with a clearly hands-off attitude towards work. A no-no for a short time-frame project with human resource constraint.

The introduction became a very loud session which I had to defend my scope of work.

Don't get me wrong, I am normally quite easy going, chin-chai with things, but if the first meeting is going to be a pull-rank showdown session, I would definitely not bite the bullet in silent.

Sigh, just when I thought we are seeing light at the end of the tunnel with us resolving most of the issues and moving towards the milestone in August.

Let see how it goes.

I did not get any call from the Ah Beng I langered throughout the day.

At about 4pm, I called him and asked if he got his car assessed by a workshop.

He said he would call me back.

At 630pm, he called and quoted $700 for his bumper.

That is bloody replacement of the bumper for a tiny scratch.

I told him to go ahead and file the insurrance claim.

After all, the delta increment in my insurance premium next year might not even go beyond $700.

Sheesh.

The Blossoming Of Maximo Oliveros is the coming-age story of a boy in a slum in Manila.

But Maximo Oliveros is not an ordinary boy, he is an effeminate boy.

If he were in Singapore, he would have a miserable childhood. But in Manila, he is accepted by his widowed father and 2 older brothers who dwelled in the illegal business of trafficking stolen mobile phones.

Though he get teased occasionally, he is comfortable with himself, cross-dressed and sashayed everywhere he goes.

Maxi, as his family affectionately called him, is a carefree child, he stopped school and assumed a mother-daughter role at home, he took care of the washing and cooking, occasionally took bets in his family other illegal gambling business and played "beauty pageant" game with his "sis-tar" friends.

That is, until a dashing rookie policeman, Victor saved him from being raped by some street thugs and stole his heart.

So Maxi is torn between his first love and protecting his dad and older brother who killed someone from the by-the-book Victor.

The Blossoming Of Maximo Oliveros felt like a full-feature version from a short film film-maker, the sound recording is of inconsistent quality. Ditto for the cinematography. But it is sincere in telling the story in a non-judgemental manner.

The cast is natural, especially Nathan Lopez whose sensitive portrayal of the effervescent Maxi brought live to the character and the film.

Ping Medina made quite an impression too with the very convincing Bogs, the brother who is closest to Maxi.

The Blossoming Of Maximo Oliveros is a charming film to watch.