Taiwan

 

I have heard so many good things about Taiwan and didn't have a chance to see or experience it myself, until now.

Yes i just came back from Taiwan recently and i have to say, my mandarin has improved! Staying there for 9 days gave me enough time to compare everything there with my homeland. No doubt it was a culture shock and many differences that set our group out of the locals and it was easy. From the way we dress to the way we speak, everything gave us away. So i took up a challenge to try out their accent and the way they speak, and it was fun.

That aside, Taiwan is sort of the country that anything goes. Unlike in Singapore, their infrastructures aren't as established as what we have here but, it is the older looking building that triggers the curiosity of what happened in this place many years ago. You get to see temples, street stalls and decorations you will never see in Singapore. By street stalls, i meant, street stalls. They are highly mobile stalls that move around the night market or even in front of the shopping malls. In Singapore, you will wonder if they are licensed to be food vendors.

Now the people. For the smokers out there, good news. You get to smoke anywhere as long as they are not indoors. If you are not the bike kind of person, you are in for a rude awakening. You get bikes coming at you even when you are walking by the shopping streets, dodging every one of them every 10 minutes. Then they have those who dress really well, and the minor part of the population, not so well-dressed.

I think i will just stop here in case my muse refused to appear in the coming days. I will be posting my day-by-day pictures up soon as long as i get the pictures into the computer. Stick around! :)

Innocence

I left for work today feeling like any other work day. Groggy, annoyed and tired. But that's not the point.

As i entered the lift, this grandmother who was holding on to a kid, no more than 2 years old, looked up. Like how a few grandparents would do, she introduced me to the kid, simply saying, "kor kor." Then i smiled to the kid, and he was casually smiling and fidgeting within his grandmother's arm.

When we reached the ground floor, i held the lift for them to exit and followed behind slowly.

I walked slowly behind them looking at the kid slowly hopped a step at a time down.

When they both reached the end of the stair-case, he turned back giggling and hopped up and down in a way like somebody was chasing behind him.

He thought i was chasing him, playing with him.

I smiled my widest smile.

My heart melted.

Time Travelling

Time Travelling. Whoever said it was not possible?

No i am not Albert or anything near that kind of inventive mind, but all i need is the companionship of a few good buddies.

Meeting up with 2 of my good buddies whom i have known since i was in primary school was the best decision i made today. We can talk about anything under the sun, about our lives, our futures, and definitely our similar past. As the conversation goes, our memory banks became our instant movie theatre showing us who we were, who we are, and who we will be.

Started from Primary School when we were all puny and small. Standing at 140cm, i was one of the shortest in class and i was that skinny boy with a little too much baby fats to spare around the waist. While talking about how we were in school, names started to pop up and experiences that we have never talked about arises and soon enough, it became an entire episode of our early school days.

Then we moved on to being in secondary school, the subjects we took, the things we hear others did, the awesome teachers, the not-so-awesome teachers, the nerve wrecking period when we had to study for O levels and while receiving our results, and last but not least, the ecstasy of knowing how well our individual class did as a whole because of the unique subjects combinations we took. How we spent the best days of our school days in school uniforms, escaping from the eyes of the discipline master and hanging out in town that seemed like a cool thing to do. Best days.

As we moved on to being in poly, being in army, and what are our plans for the next 2 to 3 years, i have to say we have definitely grew up. Whatever it is, a friend of mine, my best rollerblading buddy, my height-weight rival since secondary school, my unique friend who doesn't quite like crowd, my friend who is poor in mandarin, is going to go to Boston to study Music for 3 years without coming back. I would definitely miss this dear friend of mine.

 This one above is Yilong. Not exactly a wonderful shot of him but at least it is a shot of him. He has been a real good friend whenever i needed help in anything! And well, he's a lot more artsy fartsy than i am.

And then we have the buddy who is going to Boston. The brutally honest but kind friend. Also, you all are looking at the next top musician/composer in the near future. (:





Time Travelling.
Has always been possible.

Something to share:

American Pie, The Reunion

If you have seen the previous serial-movies of this highly X-rated comedy, then this should not be surprising to hear.

It is funnily awesome with a meaningful under-lying purpose and a pinch of porno to add in a certain awkwardness in the already mixed emotions.

With all the sexual innuendos, compromising positions in more ways than you think, and sexual habits beyond your wildest imagination, you can definitely expect a whole lot of laughter and mind-bothering images etched into your mind (like how one guy had a relationship with his buddy's mum).

However, they do have the meaningful part whereby the reunion back at their high school 10 years after. It will give you all the nostalgic feeling near the end of the show because of the photo collage they put together. Which leaves me wondering why does Singapore not have such reunion in neighborhood schools?

If you really want a light-hearted film that gives you a good laugh and works your mind in more ways than 1, watch it.

Good night world.

Oui?

Delicacy

I entered the theatre knowing that it is a french show, but why is this romance-comedy name Delicacy? I went into the show not knowing anything about the show, what it was about, or even the genre of the show. I came out of it, STILL not knowing what the sorcery that made the almost-2-hours of my life so miserable that i would rather be looking at my phone than the show.

Yes i may be shallow and you can tell me that you have to be all artsy-fartsy to appreciate such foreign movie because it is very cultural for locals to be watching films of an alternate language. But i must truly say, HELL NO.

I have seen movies in German, French, Japanese, Korean (yes all with sub-titles), but none was this bad. At 45-minutes point, i looked at my watch, shifted my butt from the left to the right cheek, then back to the original position, triple-crossed my legs in hope to hide my anxiety (if triple-crossed legs even existed), looked at my watch, and let out a sigh. It was SO bad that even on medication, i couldn't bear sleeping in the theatre and wanted to leave, which i could if not for the fact that we were trapped at the far end from the aisle.

Now, basically the movie is about how a woman lost and found her love back again despite some obstacles. (is this even the message the movie is trying to put across?) A lot like a biography. Why would i spend 12 bucks to watch someone else's biography? Margaret Thatchet, YES, but Nathalie (starred by Audrey Tautou)? No.

Enough of the slamming. The fun part of the film is when you can try to pronounce every word that comes up at the start of the film as introduction and MAYBE get a little look-over from the french guy sitting next to you because of how weirdly ridiculous you sound trying to pull off the -au, -tres etc.

My friend and i were trying to guess what was going to happen next in the movie because i was remotely bored. Half the time throughout the show, we guessed that the female lead conjured her imaginary lover as someone to replace her husband who died in a car accident. Why? Because the friends and family's faces were horrified when they saw the lover. So naturally we thought they were thinking "why is she talking to the air?". Turns out, he is real. (yes i laughed so bad)

If you have spare cash to spend on a show just to spare time and this is your only option, give it to me. I'll tell you my life story.

If you truly truly love a french movie just because it is in french, don't watch it.

If you are, by now, being forced with a gun in your gut to go and see this show, bring a friend whom you can complain or talk to in the movie. Or someone who is willing to shoot you.

Merci beaucoup pour la lecture. (yes i googled.)
Oui?

Butter-sheep

I have thought about the movie i watched a couple of days back, the reviews i have read and mixing my own personal opinion on "Battleship". Here's to tell you why you can consider watching it, or not.

The movie starts out with how they try to communicate with an alien planet. With all the technology they flash pass you, including the heavy advertisement for the navy, they finally got a reply from the aliens. And nobody likes it.

The story then move on to introducing the aliens at sea. They probably spent a good 30 to 40 minutes showing how indestructible the aliens are, how their technology far exceeds those on Earth. Then after destroying most of the destroyers (irony yes), some asians survived the ordeal and decides to tag-team with the Americans against the visitors. So you probably guessed how this is going. They beat the crap out of the aliens with some bizzarre techniques that Asians have at sea then the support came so on and so forth. Pretty easy to intepret.

What makes it worth watching are the way they build up the excitement with the dialogues and of course, the actors (RI RI wot wot). She did the normal black-girl thing while i really like. My heart was pumping really fast from all the fighting and missles flying across the screen.

After all the adrenaline-pumping actions, you will expect the ending to be good. However, it ends with just an immediate transit from a fight to a quiet ceremony awarding war time heroes that i am not satisfied with.

Now despite the multiple bad reviews telling audiences not to watch it, i would like to say, it is definitely worth watching if you are looking for a jam-packed action film. Who knows, you may have a career change and join the navy! :)

3.5/5 for this. .5 for Rihanna!

How i gave my 2.5

The Lucky One.

Yes you got that right. I gave this movie a 2.5/5 despite the fact that it is from a famous writer.

Why?
Well the story line is pretty much, it.

Don't worry i am going to try my very best not to spoil the movie for those who want to watch it when it is out on 19th April.

Here we go.

The movie started out giving you a sense of suspense as they slowly proceed on from the action part of the film, to the romancy part. Everything goes well and for the fangirls out there, you'll have a lot more chance to ogle at Zac Efron at the later part of the movie.

However, as the story goes on, i lost the understanding of the film. Yes, i was laughing at their many dialogues as they are meant as jokes but it won't be funny if i was laughing still at the sorrowful parts too. What is even funnier is that the logic didn't make sense to me when the female lead, Taylor Schilling, sort of broke up with Zac.

Despite all that, i do find that the actors and actresses are great in acting. Not only because they look good, but they speak through their eyes. You can see their emotions clearly from the way they look at each other, those eyes that melt hearts. You can definitely see Zac Efron growing out of the previous high-school-musical days and putting more effort into the career. Thumbs up for him.

If you love nature, it is definitely a show you will want to watch because of the awesome scenic views you get to enjoy amidst the show and probably dream about living there.

If you are watching because of the actors and actresses (coughs Zac Efron coughs), you are in for a treat.

If you love romance, too-good-to-be-true love story, you must watch this.

If you are, like me, i will say, watch it, get a good laugh and aww-moment, and leave with a light heart.

If you are the sort that looks for something intense, you can wait for the DVD.

If you skipped everything above and came straight down here, watch it to believe it. :)

Good night everyone.