Is it safe to talk about 'Physical: Asia' now without spoiling it for people who haven't caught the finale?
I followed both seasons of 'Physical: 100'. You know how much I eschew reality shows. But this series got me hooked. I was literally nervous while silently cheering on my 'fav' athletes and marvelling at their strength and discipline in training to get here.
Of course I would watch 'Physical: Asia'. I didn't think I would be rooting for the respective countries per se. It's probably like 'I have to root for Team Korea because you threw all my favorite tv athletes from 'Physical: 100' into the team'. I don't know the other teams, and I don't particularly care about them. And I still don't really care about them after the show. LOL
There was this cliffhanger at those sack throws. I was like, if Korea loses this, I'm not watching the rest of the episodes. Oof. I honestly like the camaraderie between Team Korea. They're also elite athletes. They're not just ridiculously strong. They had the chops to strategize and figure out the optimal methods to win or to succeed in a quest.
Anyway, Team Korea won Team Mongolia in a neck-to-neck finish.
This could be a lot of nifty editing and all. But the way the production team has done it, subtly or even overtly showcased each competing team's strengths and weaknesses, leading the audience on to form opinions about them, fairly or otherwise. Say, I didn't like Turkey's cockiness. They were chaotic and messy and they talked too much. Also, I really didn't want Australia to win.
There's this whole discussion and accusations thrown at the production team about rigging the show to have Korea win. They also said that the Korean production team picked the final participating teams and not the respective countries' production teams. This is television after all, hello? Also, Team Korea has participated in Physical: 100. They know what it takes and train like hell for this show with a different team format. They never underestimated the strength and skills needed. That's the home ground advantage.
I like the clips and all coming out on the socials. They're absolutely crushing it on social media. The competing teams visit one another and seemed to have fun. Sure, it's funded and directed by the production teams, but what the heck, the humans look like they genuinely enjoy one another's company and filming what it was that they had been told to do.
I'm going to take it with a pinch of salt and simply enjoy the... physical aspects of it. Regardless of what it is behind the scenes, the participants gave it their all, and honestly, it made for good television.
And the point is, seeing those athletes grunt and work, I know how much work that requires to get to that level of strength. It's total motivation for me to get my lazy ass to the gym. How I wish watching it also means I've exercised away those calories and built muscles in that two hours or so in each quest. HAHAHAHA.
I haven't stepped into a cinema for ages. Like years. Since the husband is on a Pink Floyd roll, he insisted on catching 'David Gilmour Live at the Circus Maximus, Rome'(2025)at a Shaw Theatre. Yes, a film. Only Shaw cinemas in Singapore are showing the film. We don't have many cinema brands left in town.
It was just a a tad annoying because this film is only shown on an IMAX screen, and only Shaw would bring in it, and scheduled the showing only on this specific date. No options, no farther choices. I had to shift things around and cancel a dinner because the husband insisted on me going along, and promptly booked the tickets within three minutes of talking about the film, ignoring my, 'let me get back to you'.
Directed by Gavin Elder and produced by Dione Orrom, the film showcased David Gilmour's performance at the venue in Rome on his 'Luck and Strange' tour in 2024. That tour spanned 23 dates in five cities and they were all instantly sold out. Shown at an IMAX cinema, I suppose this is why people would watch the 2hr 29min concert. It's the closest thing we get to being in Rome, and seeing David Gilmour play 'live'. The husband couldn't pass up the opportunity to watch it on a big screen rather than on Netflix before another music legend passes. I can understand why. But I don't share his enthusiasm.
I'm not a fan of Pink Floyd, although I did grow up listening to their songs because my dad and everyone else's parents are playing it when I visited. I most certainly don't care about David Gilmour, although the 79-year-old is quite the music legend. He was joined by Adam Betts on drums and percussion, Rob Gentry on keyboards and vocals, Greg Phillinganes on keyboard, piano and vocals, Guy Pratt on bass, string bass and vocals, and Ben Worsley on guitars, slide guitar and vocals.
David Gilmour's daughter Romany Gilmour is a musician. She joined him on this tour as well. There were the Webb sisters — Hattie and Charley. There was also Louise Marshall. Together, they are Marshall GIlmour Webbs. Vocals, harps, ukelele, guitars and the piano. They make truly wonderful music.
I give you 'Civil War'(2024), written and directed by Alex Garland. It was first shown at South by Southwest in March 2024, and then released at the theatres a month later. Made with US$50million, it has grossed US$126million and counting. The cast stars Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, Cailee Spaeny, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Sonoya Mizuno, and Nick Offerman.
Blockbusters truly like to blow up government institutions and iconic buildings, American or otherwise. Have we been so desensitized to violence that we love watching these disasters and destruction onscreen? I watched it shortly after it was released, and shuddered. America is the battlefield. You incinerate the idea of democracy and the entire idea of America, and while you're at it, throw in the Constitution of the United States too.
If the violence feels more intense than in a typical genre shoot ’em up, it’s also because, I think, with “Civil War,” Garland has made the movie that’s long been workshopped in American political discourse and in mass culture, and which entered wider circulation on Jan. 6. The raw power of Garland’s vision unquestionably owes much to the vivid scenes that beamed across the world that day when rioters, some wearing T-shirts emblazoned with “MAGA civil war,” swarmed the Capitol. Even so, watching this movie, I also flashed on other times in which Americans have relitigated the Civil War directly and not, on the screen and in the streets.
OMG. If I had to do that, I'd be so f^&*ing done with tofu and never want to go near it again for the next year or so. Luckily I'm just a viewer. At least I know what else I can do with tofu besides the usual ways to eat them. Honestly, I like it as 'pidan tofu' or silken tofu with century egg. LOL
I rooted for no one, and simply checked out the show's production standards, script and creative direction and how they adapted to audience reactions, or not. I certainly don't watch enough cooking reality shows to judge its entertainment value. After watching the whole thing, I still have no opinions if this is as good as Iron Chef or Master Chef, as this is uniquely Korean. None of them hold my interest that much.
When I'm not a cook or someone who's interested in cooking as a hobby, I'm not and never will be inspired to cook or replicate any dish from even a fun cooking show. All I could think of is, who's going to do the washing up? Come on, if you have a helper washing up after you cook, that's certainly going to make the whole thing a breeze each time you experiment with dishes or do a dependable meal.
Does this slight dread of cleaning up explain why I'm also not keen to host any sort of dinner parties at home? Even if we get takeout, I'm not really keen to host more than two pax because I'll have to stay up till 2am after guests leave at 11pm. This isn't a college dorm or a flat I'm renting that I don't care about. I'm not leaving dishes piled up in the sink or food bits on the floor for tomorrow's chores. So if I do host, it's probably like four times a year out of necessity. I'm not a competent cook by anyone's standards, so it's not as if there's a golden ticket to my small flat. Hahahahah.
What I do know is, at the end of this show, it doesn't make me want to eat Korean food any more than I currently do, or try Korean-Chinese food or anything that deep fried. I'm quite certain that I have no interest in gochujang, doenjang or ganjang. In fact, I'm more keen on the pasta dishes! Oof. Say, a simple aglio e olio.
I was pleased to see white bibimbap(baekhwaban) chosen by chef-owner of Euljiro Boseok — Chef Cho Seo Hyeong. She went to Tongyeong and was surprised to see that the southern port city doesn't use gochujang in their bibimbap. I love white bibimbap and have eaten it loads when I was in the country. Although it's hard to find it in Singapore, sometimes it's annoying to have even Koreans tell me there isn't a bibimbap that doesn't use gochujang. At least people know that there is white kimchi (baek kimchi).
You know how much interest I have in reality shows or even K-dramas, and obviously no K-Pop. I watch some Korean shows, but I don't chase after their sappy soap dramas. I generally like those with a lot of murder and gore, preferably psychological thrillers with low to zero romance. But I'm quite hooked on 'Physical: 100'. Dunno how many seasons it'll go for, but we'll see how long my interest keeps up.
I finally finished watching 'Physical: 100' Season 2. I was left grimacing, gasping and also amazed by the physical prowess and sheer grit of the competitors, especially the women. Of course competition is brutal, but they pushed through. As much as many are 'retired' athletes, they are still ridiculously strong and fit. In S2, it's pretty clear that many contestants have trained hard for it. I'm also in awe of all the contestants' muscles. Heheh. Here's a nice summary of the contestants on Prestige.
Unsurprisingly, MMA fighters, firefighters, rugby players and CrossFit athletes gain an upper hand. Woo Jin-young, an active CrossFit athlete won in S1. Amotti/Kim Jae Hong is the winner of S2. So much of the quests aren't just about cardio. It's a lot of strength, upper body strength and speed. Damnnn, I wish that by just watching the show, I could gain some muscles too. Hahahahaha.
As much as this is a television show hamming it up for the audiences, it's a pretty good watch. I don't know it if it's truly so in the Korean sporting world, but the contestants are incredibly polite and encouraging. It makes for feel-good television drama in the face of fierce competition. It's such a refreshing change from all the manipulative tactics of other television reality shows.
However, there weren't any women team leaders, and the team leaders don't seem to want any women in their teams, except for three enlightened men. I did wonder how Team Leader Lee Jae-yoon agreed to send a woman out to pull-ups when she could only do six; it's crystal clear that you need to do minimally 20 to be of any help to the team.
The top four contestants to fight for the coveted #1 (and prize money) were Andre Jin(former national team rugby player), Hong Beom-Seok(former S1 contestant, special forces and firefighter), Justin Harvey(model and actor), and Amotti(YouTube and CrossFit athlete). These are athletes who all have a great grounding in various aspects of sports, which means they have great stamina and flexibility, endurance and mental strength. I cracked up when the top four sat down for a chat and all revealed that they have had surgeries done on various parts of their body joints.
The three-man quest to the top two for the fight to the prize are squats. Wtf are 'infinite squats' anyway?! A 100-kg trough of coal. Fwwwaaaaaah. A woman who's fairly fit can generally squat 75-85kg. But a man can squat 150kg on the average! Weightlifters and CrossFitters would totally have an advantage. These athletes would squat 100kg normally, as a warm-up set. In this quest, the first set of 100-kg squats was 30 reps! OMG. The second set was 150-kg, 40 reps. The third set was 200-kg — Amotti and Hong Beom-Seok could lift it, but Andre Jin couldn't even get up from the squat. Those fast reps were pure insanity.
Amotti literally said,
The first set at 100-kg: I live and breathe squats.
The second set at 150-kg: It wasn't too challenging yet, so I thought doing 30 would be a breeze.
The third set at 200-kg: My legs started to feel strained. It's a matter of willpower at this point.
The quests are tough af. I grimaced all the way through. The pain and the discipline it takes to even get here. Spartan races make a differentiation in the weight of the sandbags for men and women. This show doesn't. You gotta move 40-kg sandbags anyhow, anyway in under nine minutes. Woah. The final quest to the top four is 150-kg metal-roller race; it's not just mad, it's unfair to women. Gawwd.
If a Season 3 happens, would the show producers tweak it? I doubt it. The final quests would have to be gladiator-drama worthy, which would mean it's very hard for a woman to compete in terms of strength and weight. Collider's comment about the lack of women representation and unfairness of the later part of the quests to women is so valid.
Season 1's revival match had more women in power as well. Eu-DdeumShim and the other contestants who lost got a second chance. They had to hold a rope carrying their torso and 40 percent of their body weight. The final five people could re-enter the game as a team. Eu-Ddeum had the best form and was one of the people to re-enter the game. Season 2 made it harder for women to re-enter the combat mission. The winner formed his team instead of it coming down to individual performance. Ji-Hyun Jung won and picked former team leaders and the biggest men for his team, like Korean Thanos. This meant all the women got the short end of the stick.
After the montage of women's death matches, we didn't see them highlighted again until the cart quest in "Mine." We saw You-in Jung face off against Jang-kun Lee and Soo-jin Lim. Soo-jin's kept questioning if she could push the carts of 18 sandbags across, and she did it. You-in had a different strategy of loading fewer bags and making more trips. Jang-kun finished first, leaving the women to battle it out. Soo-jin won and talked about the pressure she felt in her interview. "I was really bent on not holding my team back," she said. "And thankfully, I think I managed to pull my weight." All players feel this pressure when it comes to team quests. But that pressure is even worse for women.
I didn't read Janice Y.K. Lee's novel 'The Expatriates' (2016), and I'm too lazy to do so. I simply read a summary of it before watching Lulu Wang's 'Expats', which premiered as a limited series in February 2024 on Amazon Prime. Of course the network didn't drop all six episodes altogether. They did it week by week. Arrrrrgh. I hate the wait between episodes, so I waited for them all to drop before watching.
This show is banned in Hong Kong, but the authorities denied that there's an outright ban. LOL Whatever. Well, if you live in Hong Kong and you're loading up the show on Amazon Prime, it tells you that the show 'is unavailable to watch in your location'. (Reviews here, here, here and here.)
I didn't watch 'Expats'for Nicole Kidman. I watched it for the stories and the content, for Hong Kong, and to see what Lulu Wang chose to highlight in this show. The show's writers and researchers did a fairly thorough job of researching Hong Kong and all its social issues and their relevance in the context of this show, including the protests, and the ideal of democracy. When one does a show about expats, one can't avoid the entire topic of migrant workers. When we say 'expats', it's pretty much just a biased term in common parlance.
Episode 5 is feature length, clocking 101 minutes. It was so good. I love how the show kept the language original — in its English, Cantonese, Tagalog and Punjabi. The entire series is ambitious to weave in every socio-political theme, including the issues and emotions faced by lower-income migrant workers and domestic help. Those who aren't 'migrant workers' and are supposedly expats, might sometimes be really struggling to make ends meet without a job that pays. Episode 5 is all of that. The 'Hong Kong Syndrome' is also the 'Singapore Syndrome'.
The episodes focused on the family life of the various characters. They're fairly women-centric, revolving around their family relationships, marriages and how they balance managing a home with domestic help. It isn't just all about expats, per se. The show also included young people involved in the protests that year, and offers us a glimpse into the life of Olivia Chu (played by veteran Hong Kong actress Flora Chan), a wealthy tai-tai with two spoilt daughters and a distanced husband; she's staying on in this marriage for appearances and the tangible material benefits.
The 2014 Umbrella protests and 2019-2021 Covid lockdowns are over, but then the National Security Law was quickly enacted and passed in June 2020 and came into force on the same day. When all these milestone incidents happened one after the other in consecutive years, the people of Hong Kong have made some hard decisions. So is there an exodus of expats from Hong Kong? Contrary to what the official Beijing and Hong Kong media would tell you, every other news media outlet says YES.
The entire portion of Hilary visiting her family in the United States and realising that she no longer belongs was telling. She didn't forgive her father who was on his deathbed. Perhaps she regretted it, but she couldn't forgive him for the way he treated her and her mother for years, while being hailed as a saint by his other wife and second family. The way she completely rejected her mother's culture and beliefs was in the way she said "I didn't bring any of my Indian clothes" was like... wow.
The show ended with us seeing Margaret, Mercy and Hilary make their eventual choices while living in Hong Kong. The show doesn't offer closure. It simply shows us what these women's choices are, and why they did so. Lulu Wang wanted to show how these women have choices even as they navigate the challenges of geographical dislocation, because they have privileges and sufficient wealth, and in an obscure manner, clarity and humanity.
I watched 'Under the Silver Lake' (2019) years ago, and decided to re-watch it now since it's on MUBI. I'm not re-watching it for Andrew Garfield or Riley Keough. I initially found it utterly confusing and decided not to waste brain cells on deciphering it. People gave it an average of a 3.3/5 rating. Hahahaha. Now, I want to. I'm trying to look for the undercurrents of conspiracy theories put forth in the storyline.
It's such a cool surrealist neo-noire black comedy plus mystery. David Robert Mitchell put so much symbolism and comments into the film that I had to re-watch and cross check it against reviews and explainers on Youtube.
Sure, it's set in Silver Lake, Los Angeles in 2011. It's a critique on Hollywood and show business, 'male gaze', exploitation of women, sub cultures, subliminal messages in advertising and media. But exactly how it was done, is absolutely brilliant. The Copiale Cipher mentioned as a running headline on television news in the show, the code written as graffiti on a bathroom wall as Sam (Andrew Garfield) barfs in the toilet, morse code on signboards, et cetera.
Then we get graphics on tees that decode to reveal it to say 'BWAR THE DOG KILLER', which was something first scene showed as writing on a glass window. What is that parrot all about? Daniel Netzel has got a wonderful 27-minute explainer on it.
I jumped into rabbit holes on Reddit, sub-Reddits, Quora, Medium, Substack, and such. I was like, am I watching a film on pause to try to decipher all these? I wasn't watching the actors, I was looking at the venues, walls, floors, clothes, paintings, and everything else. Referencing and using the Copiale Cipher wasn't enough, they even put in the Hobo Code. I felt like I gotta decode codes within a coded film!
They made up a 'Cult of the Whale'. But I know Vietnam's Vung Tau and Danang have a Whale Festival in September that's nothing like a cult although there're parades and all to commemorate traditional folk culture and honouring the fishermen and seafarers. There's the 'Owl's Kiss' that runs off the owl perched in the corner of the US dollar bill. Is it? Hahaha. Go jump into this rabbit hole.
It's convoluted for sure. It felt like we're watching Sam's sanity fade away as he starts living in a fantasy. As he turns increasingly nocturnal and despondent, he's obviously struggling with deteriorating mental health Is Sam actually the dog killer?
Hajime Isayama's manga adaptation to anime 'Attack on Titan' 「進撃の巨人」, or fondly shortened to 'AoT', has to be the longest television series that I have chased. A whole decade of watching and re-watching the shonen anime. I read the manga, watched the seasons of anime, and had to re-watch because I forgot what happened in the intervening years. LOL.
Considering that I've been watching it since 2013, the 2023 Finale has been years in the making. It felt like this never-ending finale of Two Specials in 'The Final Chapters' /「進撃の巨人」The Final Season 完結編: 前編・後編. LOVED IT. I watched them on Netflix, which only had a short window of streaming rights, like for only a week. I think Hulu has a longer streaming window since it's the official premiere platform (along with Crunchyroll). Even iQiyi offers it too.
If you haven't watched it and is a huge fan, get off this page right now.
⚠️ STOP READING AT THIS POINT. SPOILERS AHEAD. ⛔️
It's such a complex storyline, utterly worth my devotion to the series.
PS: All my favorite shows can have acronyms like this — GoT, and AoT. Oof.
There's a huge controversy over the anime's ending. Is it a huge disappointment for you? Or did you like it? Let me just state for the record that I like it. True, it diverges from the manga, but hey, why not... creative freedom, author's intention and all. Is it?
Eren Yeager, child solider, has finally grown up. He turns into a giant with every intention to defend his homeland of Paradis against the invading Titans and invader nation of Marley But along the way, towards the end, he turns into a killer. In trying to free his people from slavery, he used his powers for genocide.
In the scene before Eren crosses the Great Rainbow Bridge, he has one final conversation with his childhood friend Armin Arlert. This scene plays out clearly and a lot differently from the manga. In the manga, Armin thanked Eren for becoming a mass murderer killer to save his own people. It seems to hail Eren to be still a hero who saved the world, even to the extent of genocide.
I blinked at this when I read it years ago — in his friend's forgiveness, does this absolve Eren from his crimes? The right answer is NO. BUT, in the eyes of friends, if he can find forgiveness, then that's the power of friendship. We don't forgive the crime, but we remember the person, the human with his humanity behind it. Mikasa Ackerman, who had tragically, in a twist of poetic justice, delivered the final blow to Eren because she had to do it to save the rest of humanity. Cut off is head. He ironically died in the mouth of a Titan.
However, in the anime's finale, Armin doesn't say these lines. He doesn't thank Eren. They both dreamed of freedom for themselves, their people and Paradis, but they wanted to achieve it in different ways. That seashell is such a beautiful metaphor for this dichotomy. Armin held Eren accountable for his actions/crimes/kills. Armin doesn't forgive the atrocities even as he loves his friend. In the horror of all that had unfolded, and at this juncture, before Eren passed on, Armin told him, "We'll be together, in hell."
Wow!!! This paints an entirely different take on the whole premise of the manga!!! Eren is no longer hailed as a martyr. He faces eternal condemnation.
Eren explained that he knew, as his father knew, as the Fates had foretold: he would become a killer. He pretty much admitted that he was an idiot given god-like powers. He came to believe that people of different cultures and races could never live together in peace. For one to flourish, the other must die. He knew, and he relied on his friends to become the heroes to save the world, and perhaps give him comfort and solace as he prepared to face eternal damnation.
In an interview with The New York Times' Rafael Motamayor, Hajime Isayama shed light on the ending. He was involved in the anime's production, checking storyboards and giving his opinions. He knew it would be a production decision, but they ultimate respected the creator's input, and hence the anime's ending is as such.
How much of the ending from the manga did you have in mind when you first began writing “Attack on Titan”? And how much did it change along the way?
That was pretty much there from the beginning, the story that starts with the victim who then goes through this story and becomes the aggressor. That is something I had in mind right from the get-go. Along the way, certain aspects of the story didn’t go as expected, and I adapted and fleshed out certain aspects. But I would say the ending of the story didn’t change much.
The current economic and global situation right now is bleak. Every generation goes through war and bleak times. We're experiencing it, although not on a personal level, yet. I never want to, but how not to feel sad in these times. Is there no end to religious conflict? Is there truly no Utopia?
The manga ends with you showing the future of Paradis and sort of the cycle of war continuing. Is there no end to the conflict and the cycle you present in the story?
I guess there could have been an ending where it was a happy ending and the war ended and everything was fine and dandy. I guess that could have been possible. At the same time, the end of fighting and the end of contention itself kind of seems hokey. It kind of seems like it’s not even believable. It’s just not plausible in the world we’re living in right now. And so, sadly, I had to give up on that kind of happy ending.
I loved it that the Finale brought back Linked Horizon for the epic opening theme song of 'The Final Chapters', and that poignant closing song played during the final final final episode's credits. It ends exactly where it began. And if you spot that Tree and its huge significance and the kids, then you'll know that the Titans will rise again. That will be for another arc.
I don't always watch 'quality' television shows. I watch pretty B-grade stuff and often, I whoosh through shows just for fun. I'm not so much of a film buff. When I started on Netflix loose adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's 1839 'The Fall of the House of Usher', I was hooked within twenty minutes of Episode 1. I binged it. Apparently this isn't a B-grade series. Heh. This 2023 show directed by Mike Flanagan and Michael Fimognari. The show premiered on October 12 and I rushed to finish the eight episodes over the weekend.
Edgar Allan Poe is one of my favorite 18th century writers. While he might be seriously dodgy (how do you marry a 13-year-old cousin, although they stayed married for 11 years till her death) and can never find enough money to feed or clothe himself or his wife, enough time has passed for me to split his person from his writing, considering the ills of the 18th century. He is so good with the macabre and mysteries.
Bruce Greenwood plays the titular role of Roderick Usher. Carl Lumbley plays his nemesis, C. Auguste Dupin. Madeline Usher is played by Mary McDonnell. Carla Gugino plays the supernatural entity Verna. While this show is ultimate made for today's television audiences, it still takes a lot of inspiration from the original story. The whole Netflix show alludes to the different characters and scenes in Edgar Allan Poe's stories, especially those from 'Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque' (1840). The name Fortunato itself is already another Poe reference. Then there's the raven. Of course. Nevermore. The Ligodone produced by Fortunato Pharmaceuticals in this show mirrors the real world painkiller Oxycodone.
Everybody wants to know how Roderick Usher's six adult children died one after the other over two weeks in this show. Readers wouldn't know how this film script will pan out, and would be willing to wait, even though this isn't a true adaptation of the printed word. Still, we can't move away from the same themes. This show is all about karmic retribution and original sin. There's selfishness, but is there regret? And is there redemption?
I like how the directors transposed this show from the 18th century into 1970s to 2023. It's got a great script and lines, good acting, delightful editing and post-production. It's a good one. It reminds me why AI can't do the jobs of actors or scriptwriters. I wasn't even sure I should giggle at Vanity Fair's review titled'The Fall of the House of Usher' Makes Gothic Horror of the Sackler Family.
Mike Flanagan’s new horror-drama miniseries imagines a supernatural toll for opioid pushers.
The series is not an exercise in subtlety. Flanagan is, as ever, enamored of a long and literate monologue, of a gnarly death sequence, of grand emotional brushstrokes. House of Usher is a heavy show, stuffed to the gills with morbid humor and gloomy pathos, political allusions jumbled together with myriad pop culture references. The series is, in its eight-episode run, sometimes an exhausting sit. Yet it’s engrossing throughout, shifting from the gothic to the baroque as miserable punishment befalls each Usher—one by bloody one.
When the BFF watched 'A Nation of Banchan' and 'A Nation of Kimchi'back to back on Netflix, she had a serious craving for Korean food. How coincidental that I was headed to Nami for a casual dinner, and the BFF was free; she happily joined us.
I was sooo tickled. It's always cute when we watch food shows and they give us food cravings. I'm like that too. I do like banchan, and the show gave me serious cravings for some of those items, not the pickles and kimchi, but everything else. Hahaha. I'm consciously not picking up spoken Korean. I will never be able to write the script in hanja or hangul, so I'm not going to bust my brain cells trying to understand the grammar and syntax. Why bother with the spoken language, especially when I don't feel anything about it, and neither do I fancy K-dramas or K-pop.
At Nami, we ordered the set menu that's apparently meant for 2-pax. It came with three grilled meats, a stew/soup and a pancake plus a side dish of steamed egg. The portions were huge! It easily fed us three! We chose three grilled meats of USDA Prime ribeye, a USDA marinated short-rib, and a marinated pork collar. Tbh, those went so well with a full bowl of steamed white rice. Heh! There was a haemul pajeon and a pork sundubu jiigae. I love Nami's steamed egg. They were quite delicious. Very satisfying. Had beer and makgeolli with the meal.
Damn, it was a blisteringly humid night. It has been feeling like 38°C in the day and impossible to stay out in the sun. In the night, this felt like 34°C; the actual temperature read 32°C tonight. We sat outdoors. While there were overhead fans and my small little portable one, by the time we were done with dinner, our clothes were soaked through with perspiration. Whewwwwww.
I've not particularly bothered with visiting classical museums in China because they didn't have many artefacts or heirlooms. Most of these have been taken out of China either by immigrants, smuggling, theft or uhhh dubious cultural exchanges. The 'famous' and known pieces are all in Taiwan, notably its National Palace Museum in Taipei, and many remarkable pieces in the British Museum in London, UK.
Instead of watching crappy C-drama, I watched all three parts of this series (totaling about 17 minutes; each lasts for 3min, 4min and 9min.) Wahhh, what a blistering metaphor that totally tugs at one's heartstrings. LOL All films and C-drama adhere to the national propaganda anyway, right down to the plot that has to be morally acceptable and especially the clothing that cannot have Korean or Japanese influences. Dohhh. The underlying political commentary in this teapot story is ridiculously powerful, and it definitely stirred up a ton of nationalistic sentiments.
The British Museum Act prevents any return of its permanent collections. Unilateral, obviously. Of course it makes sense to the museum and its administrators, but on it's quite laughable on the nationalistic front and in the face of fierce global critique. In this day and age, I feel that looted national treasures ought to be returned to its rightful owners. Even if a museum had paid for its items in its permanent collections, these of dubious transactions and well knowing the historical value, ought to be fiercely debated about returning it to well, China, especially if she can provide better care and a permanent home for these items. Citing museum rules of not returning is just arbitrary and it kinda stinks hearing it.
This three-part video caused a stir not just with the museum administrators, it also created giant waves and hit a huge sentiment with the Chinese social media users. Okay, likely all nationalist Chinese. Comments and opinions flew around the globe.
It has been said on the Chinese internet that “the best of China’s cultural relics are not in the Palace Museum, but in the British Museum”, and that “no Chinese person can walk out of the British Museum with a smile”.
Indeed, while the sight of these marvellous pieces – each a showcase of the mastery of Chinese art – may stir national pride in Chinese visitors, such feelings are often mixed with grief as the tour of the museum goes on.
I obviously don't feel any ounce of nationalism or ire over the these objects in the British Museum. If any, I'm thankful that I don't actually have to go to China to see it or queue like crazy (i.e. Beijing's Forbidden City and Summer Palace queues) to view them. But I understand historical and issues of 'rightful ownership', and I can empathize with the desire to have these objects 'come home'.
From the declining years of the Qing Dynasty in the late 1800s (First Opium War 1840) to the collapse of the dynasty in 1911 and all the way to the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, that whole century saw an exodus of treasures sent out of the country. Wouldn't you want back something that you morally and ethically have a claim on? Whether you would pay to get them back is an entirely separate issue. The third part of the series has this tagline — 山河无恙，家国永安. SCMP's Wei Wei concluded her article with,
So why would this jade teapot that travelled overseas as a cultural exchange flee the British Museum? A romantic answer, from Chinese netizens, goes: the teapot was sent there in peacetime, and still remembers the way home.
No, not really. I need to talk about the ending of 'The Last of Us' (Season 1 premiered in January 2023 with nine episodes), the decision that Joel made. So this post is going to be full of spoilers, and probably makes sense to those who have watched the television series. It's adapted from a video game, but to me, it's purely a television drama.
This must be the most unscary 'zombie' show in the past two years or something. The humans-turned-cordyceps don't appear that often. They don't even look particularly scary. This show doesn't try to hit you on the make-up and the gore. It has stuck to the good old genre of storytelling. It uses a ton of flashbacks to tell you what the characters went through, and it tells us of Ellie's birth circumstances. I don't know if it's necessary, but hell, it makes for good watching. The scriptwriters are damn good.
The way this final showdown was intercut with Ellie waking up on the back seat of the car was fantastic. In fact, the whole shootout was so powerful and shot in such a way as to lessen the impact of what was happening. Joel never became the villain, despite carrying out such a bloody, brutal and sadistic act. He killed Fireflies who had surrendered, he calmly stabbed another when he ran out of bullets. But he did it all for his little girl, the one he could save. He was acting out of love and out of vengeance. This was perhaps what he wished he’d done the night Sarah was killed instead of putting his hands up while a soldier aimed a gun at him and his daughter. He had had 20 years to live with that – there was no way he was going to let it happen again, even if a cure for humanity was on the line.
Well. I take Joel's stand and perspective. There will be repercussions, but hey, that sets the tone for Season 2! In this post-apocalyptic world, can you blame anyone for being selfish? I don't even know what kind of morals I will hold on to if my world turns upside down into this apocalyptic mess?
My point is CHOICE. Ellie was not told of the consequences of her 'helping' medical science and mankind, or how the surgery would be done. If she had been given the full picture, and she still makes the choice to hand herself over to the medical team, well knowing that she will die, then so be it.
The Fireflies don't seem to have enough data to do such a delicate surgery. Can't they take living tissue samples without doing brain surgery? Do a spinal tap? The science sucks. If the science failed, they would have killed the only person they know of who might be a cure.
Work has been hectic. That's a welcomed form of busy since I'm put on a retainer by some firms, and get paid by per project/case/paper by other agencies. I churn out translated legal agreements and contracts one after another on a tight deadline. If I'm on a retainer, I can't decline work, and those cover a 24-hour to 48-hour turnaround deadlines, of which I meet without much difficulty. Translation work is my bread and butter, and I do a specialized form of it which pays superbly. The work is highly confidential and I keep them that way. I rarely talk about work now on the blog or with friends or even with the husband since I can't quite discuss the content. Heh.
After submitting some papers within 72 hours and closing two short-term projects, I had a four-day window of leisure. So I binge-watched all the television shows I had put on hold for the month. LOL I never choose to watch cerebral films or anything 'award-winning'. My brain cells are fried. I have absolutely no space to absorb intellectual art films or anything requiring extra brain capacity to process. GIMME CORDYCEPS, ZOMBIES AND VAMPIRES.
I've been binge-watching different episodes of 'Hot Ones', hosted by Sean Evans. Well, this whole series isn't a film. It's episode of episodes of watching celebrities eat hot wings and see how hot sauces kill their tastebuds. I don't watch every episode — I pick out the celebrities I want to see. Dave Grohl ate the wings like a champ. If that's your thing, catch them 19 seasons (we're on Season 20 now) all shown on YouTube. The show concept is created by Christopher Schonberger and Sean Evans, and produced by First We Feast and Complex Media.
Every celebrity wants to be on the show. Sean Evans is such a fun host. He also eats the wings together with his guests. Gosh. He's got that deadpan face, good vibes and a voice made for television. It's quite cool for the show to also do vegan and vegetarian options for guests who prefer that. I'm sooo entertained because I'm not fond of hot sauces. My issue is not with the heat. I don't like peppers and that sort of fiery spice flavors. I prefer it when spicy foods and sauces come in the form of sambal or in an Asian chilli sauce. Not as hot sauce.
I usually enjoy watching Gordon Ramsay's shows. He's so bloody entertaining. On 'Hot Ones', he was completely hilarious. I loved his two episodes best! He spat out 134 "fucks" on his first time on the show in 2019. Yeah, they counted. Hahaha. He returned for a holiday extravaganza appearance in 2021, all prepared with his own peanut butter and cream, for a second run at the wings and hot sauces. That was HILARIOUS.
The clip above has Sean Evans talk about Season 19's hot sauce line-up. We're onto Season 20, and the line up of hot sauces is still insane. There's this one called 'Da' Bomb Beyond Insanity' that's in every season as the #8 sauce on the challenge; it's made with habanero and chipotle peppers, rated at 135,600 Scoville Units. Apparently there's something in the taste of 'Da' Bomb' that's really horrid; everyone hates it. WTF. There're forums talking about the Scoville levels, and I definitely do not want to even taste the 10th and final wing, which is slathered with a hot sauce of 2 million+ Scoville units. If you like hot sauces, you could definitely buy them and erm..... challenge your tastebuds with it. *shudder
Stayed in for dinner at home, and put on a film, 'The Menu' (2022). It was extremely enjoyable! It's written by Seth Reiss and Will Tracy, directed by Mark Mylod, and produced by Adam McKay, Betsy Koch and Will Ferrell. The film satirizes a specific sort of elitism within the world of gourmet food, critics and diners. (Reviews here, here, here, here and here.)
The film took such a dig at the global fine dining scene, food bloggers, amateur critics and eager diners clamoring to savour the finest dining experiences. Money talks. It took a dig at tech bros and acclaimed food critics. So much was said about theatrics, staff abuse, chef's tantrums, horrible kitchen work environments, et cetera. In this film, diners pay $1250++ per head for dinner at the exclusive Hawthorn sited on a private island somewhere in the Pacific Northwest. The fictitious Hawthorn was headed by celebrity Chef Julian Slowik (played by Ralph Fiennes).
I giggled. Yes, we just have to take a dig at the Pacific Northwest restaurants sited on the islands. This isn't just Salty's on Alki Beach. It's like Willows Inn on Lummi Island, and Chef Steve Debaste's bistro on Buck Bay. I'll take Gravy on Vashon and Three Stacks on Bainbridge any day.
This dinner was meant to be Chef Julian Slowik's masterpiece, the final execution of his life's work. This could have turned into a B-grade mass murder revenge 'thriller'. Except that it didn't. What set it apart was its brilliant pacing and script. The horror laid in the film's quiet moments. "I was a monster, and a whore."
⛔️ [Spoilers are discussed after this. Stop reading if you wish to be surprised by a good film. Black comedic gold.]
Ralph Fiennes was absolutely creepy and awe-inspiring as celebrity Chef Julian Slowik. He is talented, obsessive and detail-oriented. I didn't particularly care about the 12 diners. They're a predictable bunch of stereotypes and all that pressurize a chef into choosing the path of suicide than to ensure his restaurant stays on the course of a three-starred Michelin brand annually. The actors who played the rest of the diners were good, but no one was very memorable, except for Hong Chau. She plays Elsa, the Chef's assistant and maître d at Hawthorn.
Each course on the evening's dinner menu was explained in detail by the Chef himself. As the evening wore on, by the second course, the presentations took a turn for the macabre. This particular menu involved the deaths of all 12 dinner guests, and the restaurant's staff too. The guests would literally be led to their deaths course by course. The staff too, would die. That would be THE MENU, perfectly executed.
In The New York Times review in November 2022, Jeannette Catsoulis wrote, "this brutal satire of class division — viewed through the lens of high-end gorging — is ruthlessly focused and gleamingly efficient."
Anya Taylor-Joy is the wildcard because she plays 'Margot Mills' who is the last minute replacement date of wealthy foodie Tyler, played by Nicholas Hoult, who didn't ask for permission to replace his date. Margot Mills was a professional social escort whose real name is Erin. Her 'date' Tyler had corresponded with Chef Slowik for eight months. Tyler knew that everyone was going to die at this dinner. He kept it a secret and still hired Erin for the night anyway.
At the end of the night, before the final course of dessert, Erin the wildcard said she was bored of the fancy food and was "still hungry." She said she would really like a cheeseburger, a real cheeseburger and "not some fucking deconstructed avant bullshit". And Chef Slowik obliged! He said that this would be a $9.95 cheeseburger with good old American cheese. The film gave time to the Chef making patties and cooking a cheeseburger. GOOD GAWWD. The camera zoomed in on the melted cheese on the patty on the grill and the patty sizzling. I could almost smell it. Now, that's a cheeseburger. Erin got that cheeseburger packed to-go, and she was the only one got out alive.
Yup, everyone else died in a spectacular "purifying" fire.
“Even your hot dishes are cold,” spits Margot, the audience surrogate and the first to challenge the insult embedded in each course, like the “bread plate” with no bread. Intrigued by her working-class wiliness, Slowik is unsettled: He can see that she’s willing to take him on.
Whisking splashes of horror into culinary comedy (“Don’t touch the protein, it’s immature,” admonishes the forbidding hostess during a smokehouse tour), “The Menu” is black, broad and sometimes clumsy, attacking its issues more often with cleaver than paring knife. Yet everyone is having such a good time, it’s impossible not to join them. The movie’s eye might be on haute cuisine, but its heart is pure fish and chips.
I decided to inhale Toshikazu Kawaguchi's three books at a go since the latest one has been released. It's not exactly necessary to read them in sequence, but it would be nice to. They are: 'Before the Coffee Gets Cold' (2015), 'Before the Coffee Gets Cold: Tales from the Cafe' (2017) and 'Before Your Memory Fades' (2018). All these books are recently translated by Geoffrey Trousselot.
All these tiny cafes have existed for a hundred years in various towns, serving coffee, and also offering its customers a chance to travel back or forth in time, with a set of special rules — they can only meet people who have visited the cafe in question, they can't change the past, and they must return before their coffee gets cold. Also, a person who has sat on the chair to travel through time once cannot do it a second time. Each person only receives a single chance.
Each book sees four new and different customers who do so. Theoretically, the customers could travel into the future too, but hardly anyone wants to do that. I grinned. These rules effectively remove all the paradoxes of time travel in science fiction as we know it, theoretically.
In all of them, the author asks us,
If you could go back, who would you want to meet?
'Before the Coffee Gets Cold' (2015)
In Tokyo's Cafe Funiculi Funicula that has existed since 1874, these four customers took up the cafe's offer to go back in time, some skeptical, some trusting: ‘The Lovers’, ‘Husband and Wife’, 'The Sisters', 'Mother and Child'.
Fumiko returned in time a week to confront her date Goro before he left for America for three years to work on his dream. She needed to know that he was indeed the man who loved her too, despite being so focused on work. She needed to know that him being away for three years wouldn’t kill their budding relationship. Fumiko was the first to anger the Ghost who sat in the chair; she tugged at her arm. The Ghost also uhhh scolded her. We’ll hear about this couple again in the next book.
Fusagi’s had early onset of Alzheimer's and was losing his memory. He remembered he had a wife but didn't remember that Kohtake was his wife although she was standing in front of him. He wanted to return to the past to deliver a letter to his wife. Kohtake was the one who returned to the past, to three years ago when Fusagi wanted to tell her about his illness but couldn't bring himself to do so. If you ask me, he sounds like idiot who doesn't know how to communicate with his wife. In that letter, was all the answer she needed to know that he loved her.
Hirai wanted to see her deceased younger sister Kumi for one last time in the past when she was alive. Hirai regretted not talking to Kumi each time the latter visited Tokyo to try to speak with her. Then in this same story, we see an unknown young girl come in to see Kei Tokita (lady boss of the cafe) and asked for a photo together. This might be the first instance of someone coming from the future to see a member of the family.
Kei Tokita herself sat in the chair to travel fifteen years to the future to meet the future daughter that she's currently pregnant with. Her husband Nagare Tokita is full of concern. This story explains the young unknown girl in the previous story. Kei met Miki, the daughter she died giving birth to. Kei has a weak heart but she was determined to carry on with the pregnancy. She needed to know if the daughter lived, and if she did, then her death from the birth would be worth it.
Different stories appeal to different readers. That's how the author tugs at the readers' heartstrings. Which story resonates? It's not about setting things right tangibly. Remember, you can't change the past to alter the current reality. These four people traveled to ease their conscience or to understand the regrets they now have. I don't know if their emotional burdens are lightened, but at the very least, apologies help. There's some form of closure that we all seek, I suppose. Nothing in the present changes, except for their own hearts and attitude/mindset.
'Before the Coffee Gets Cold: Tales from the Cafe' (2017)
We see another four customers with their four stories at Cafe Funiculi Funicula: 'The Best Friend', 'Mother and Son', 'The Lovers', 'The Married Couple'.
Only the women in the Tokita family of the owners of the cafe could pour the coffee for the customers to time-travel. Kazu Tokita poured coffee for everyone. She had poured coffee for her own mother Kaname, who decided to stay in the past and not return, and is now the ghost we see sitting in the cafe with a novel. Kei Tokita had passed away from birthing Miki. Miki now could take over Kazu's role as well, to pour coffee for time travelers.
The man Gohtarowho goes back to see his best friend Shuichi who died 22 years ago, to confess that he raised their orphaned daughter responsibly and with dedication as his own. However, Gohtaro never told her about her real parents. // // The son Yukio who was unable to attend his own mother’s Kinuyo's funeral. He had been swindled and carried a huge debt in order to realize his dream of being a potter at his own studio. He didn't have the money for the fare from Kyoto back to Tokyo. He wanted to stay on in the past and die there. But he realized that would break his dead mother's heart. So he returned to the now and lived, as tough as it was.
Katsuki travelled to the future to see the girl Asami whom he loved but couldn't marry because he fell ill and died in six months. He wanted to know how she was doing, and if she was well. // // The old detective Kiyoshi who never gave his wife Kimiko that birthday gift and she died in helping out someone in a botched mugging/escape. He was full of regrets and wanted to return to the past to give his wife the intended birthday gift of a modest diamond necklace.
Their stories all carry personal guilt, actions that must be confessed decades later. In these stories, our emotional burdens revolve around moral judgements and the eventual decisions we make. There's no criminality involved. It's all about personal choices, consequences and regrets.
'Before Your Memory Fades' (2018)
I had to wait for weeks for this book. Dohhhh. There were like 172 people waiting to read a digital copy of it. In this release, the author changed a venue. We moved away from Tokyo to a tiny cafe in Hokkaido, located at the base of Mount Hakodate. It's named Cafe Donna Donna.
The story began with a throwback to the first book in this whole series. It's dead-not-dead Kei Tokita who had traveled 15 years into the future to Tokyo while her husband Nagare Tokita was still in Hokkaido. So we're set in this older timeline. Nagare knew but he stayed in Hokkaido, allowing his deceased wife to meet with his daughter, which was the whole point of Kei going to the future to make her decision about her pregnancy.
Cafe Donna Donna is owned by Yukari Tokita. Nagare is her son. The 'ghost' occupying the special seat in this instance is an elderly gentleman dressed in black. Sachi, Kazu's seven-year-old daughter wields the power in the pour of her coffee. The introduction and backstory were really draggy. Had to wade through these to get to the actual story. So you wouldn't really need to read the other two books before reading this third one.
Yayoi Seto nursed a grudge against her parents for dying in a car accident that left her an orphan, unwanted by her aunts and ended up living at a children's home. She begrudges them for leaving her all alone. When she traveled back to the past, she met them with her baby, her infant-self. They were happy. She learnt about her mother Miyuki's sad childhood and tough growing up years. She didn't stay in the past. She returned to the present. And then Miyuki traveled into the future, to see Yayoi. Miyuki back then had wanted to take her own life too. // // Hayashida and Todoroki are a famous comedic duo. Todoroki's long-time love and wife Setsuko died, and he didn't want to live without her. He went back in time to tell her of his achievements. She didn't let him stay in the past and die. She told him to live because she would be with him always. Todoroki did so.
Reiko Nunokawa missed her elder sister Yukika who had passed away three months ago from sudden illness. Reiko could no longer go through with her own forthcoming wedding, and could only sit at Cafe Donna Donna reliving the happy moments with her sister. The grief is all-consuming. On a dark and stormy evening, Yukika traveled from the past to the future, to this present when she has died, to comfort Reiko — the hope to live — the best way to make Yukika happy was for Reiko to work towards her own happiness.
When Reiji returned from Tokyo to sign his contract to become a full-fledged paid comedian, he learnt his childhood friend Nanako had fallen ill with a rare blood disease and had gone to America with her parents to seek treatment. Nanako realized that she loved Reiji more than as a friend, but didn't get a chance to tell him. Reiji didn't realize it till she has gone to America. Reiji returned to the past, to the day they had last met in person. They never married, but this jaunt to the past allowed them to admit their feelings to each other. Nanako eventually died. Reiji fulfilled his dreams and success as a comedian, fuelled by his love for Nanako and her confidence in him.
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Now, the author originally debuted these stories as a play, and then wrote his first book. Then there was a film adaptation done in 2018.
I feel that these books could also be easily adapted to a short six-episode series on Netflix. LOL. 16 episodes, perhaps. Some of the descriptions in the book were superfluous and would work much better in a film or a television series. With the right director, scriptwriter and production crew and cast, it will be a beautiful story, perhaps a bit slow, but reflective and poignant. The whole premise of the stories are not just about the concept. It's presenting to us how we would live our life and if there would be regrets, and if we ever get this chance to return in time, would we do it? What would we change?
Last weekend, I cleared the schedule and gave myself ample time to binge-savor Neil Gaiman's 'The Sandman' brought to 'life' on Netflix. I have waited an eternity to watch this series. No one could stand between me and this binge. 10 episodes; about an hour each, so 10 hours. Between time taken to walk the dog and feeding her as well as the man and I, I even allocated 8 hours of sleep in between.
OMG. WHAT A SPLENDID ADAPTATION. I LOVED IT. 🤩 I was hoping for it to be good, but I was blown away. I didn't realize it turned out this good because Neil Gaiman shepherded the production almost entirely. I love the diversity of the cast, fluid gender identities, and varied difficult themes that the production bravely tackled head on, all of which play true to the comics too. The actors brought their characters to life and lend them a voice that realized the vision of the stories.
The 75 issues ran from January 1989 to March 1996. I was a wee girl, but I polished my brains and my English and world views based on The Sandman and the world Enid Blyton created. My all-time FAVORITE comic series is 'The Sandman'. I don't care about the rest of the DC universe, even if Neil Gaiman wrote for them back then. He didn't create the character of Sandman though; that's done by Jack Kirby and Joe Simon in the 1970s.
I cannot stop laughing at Tom Sturridge as Dream / Lord Morpheus. He really really is a young and thin version of Robert Smith, as so intended when a young Neil Gaiman wrote him and Charles Vess illustrated him. Also, Tom Sturridge's Dream can definitely pass off as one those vampires in the world of Twilight, or Underworld. LOL
And gosh, I can finally stop yelling 'Brienne of Tarth' each time I see Gwendoline Christie. She is now Lucific, cherubic, evil and arresting. Thanks to the other show 'Lucifer', played by Tom Ellis, we all know Lucifer is going to leave Hell and go to Los Angeles to open a piano bar. Yes, that Lucifer is in the same universe as this Lucifer. We all know Tom Ellis's suave and angsty Lucifer. Let's see how Gwendoline Christie takes cherubic and malevolent Lucifer to the piano bar.
If you have never read 'The Sandman' as a graphic novel, you could simply watch the show, because it's THAT GOOD. The finer details are left to fans to debate, argue and pick apart. The ending of Season 1 already told us what Season 2 is going to be about. I can't wait to watch Season 2! I don't care whether it's on Netflix or HBO Max. I'll subscribe to whichever streaming service that will give us Season 2 and hopefully all the way to Season 5, maybe 10? Since GoT, I haven't been this excited over a television drama series. Oof!
Had to watch Netflix's 'Spiderhead' (2022). It's adapted from George Saunders's short story 'Escape from Spiderhead' published in The New Yorker in December 12, 2010. It wasn't intriguing enough for me to sit through it unwaveringly. I moved around doing... laundry, and still didn't miss much on screen, and no scene nor line was necessary to make me rewind it to catch it. Hahahah.
'Jeff', the prisoner and head honcho Steve Abnesti's friend, was the narrator in the short story. Seeing the story come to 'life' on the screen was fun. It made it believable that there're mad pharmaceutical companies doing these clandestine experiments and using experimental drugs on prisoners. I'm sure of it.
In the film, 'Jeff' is played by Miles Teller. He's got a lot of chemistry with Chris Hemsworth's 'Steve Abnesti'. Chris Hemsworth was utterly distracting. Okay sure, he's a decent-enough actor, but it isn't his looks that are distracting — I can't get rid of him as Thor in my head. LOL I kept expecting Steve Abnesti to break into a fight or some cool move. Didn't happen. Mark Paguio as 'Mark Verlaine', assistant to Steve Abnesti, was pretty cool, and the scriptwriters gave him a 'good guy' tilt at the end. Sure, we might end up rooting for Jeff and Lizzy to get away and begin a new life together. The film's got too much 'feel good' factor. All the discussion about free will and ethics didn't add up.
I re-read the short story. It is a very lengthy short story. Happy to see it available in the magazine's archives still. I suppose in 2010, this was sort of frightening as people are only slowly aware of the idea of 'pharma bros', i.e Martin Skrelli in 2017, and very much later in 2020 and 2021, the opioid evils behind the Sackler family whose name is in every museum gallery and university hall, programs and endowments.
I feel that Netflix didn't do a good-enough adaptation. It highlighted the horror of what Steve Abnesti did, but it wasn't dark enough. It's a tad frustrating. The full horror didn't come through in the film. It came through in the story.
Netflix also had the scriptwriters changed the entire ending of the film. I felt that it affected the integrity of the story. Sure, Steve Abnesti died spectacularly, on his own terms, knowingly or unknowingly, I dunno, since his MobiPack was spoilt and he was high as a kite. Netflix turned the ending upside down and the one character that should have died, lived. The ending in the story is a lot darker than the film — Jeff was Darkenfloxxed and he died. And that should have been that. Stark.
From somewhere, something kind asked, Would you like to go back? It’s completely up to you. Your body appears salvageable. No, I thought, no, thanks, I’ve had enough.
My only regret was Mom. I hoped someday, in some better place, I’d get a chance to explain it to her, and maybe she’d be proud of me, one last time, after all these years.
From across the woods, as if by common accord, birds left their trees and darted upward. I joined them, flew among them, they did not recognize me as something apart from them, and I was happy, so happy, because for the first time in years, and forevermore, I had not killed, and never would.
Here's the 'mini-review' nobody asked for but I'm still going to talk about 'Light the Night'《華燈初上》. 😂 Written by Ryan Tu (杜政哲) and directed by Lien Yi-chi (連奕琦), I didn't think I would be into the show, but three episodes into Part 1, I was hooked! Hahaha. It's not fully a genre of romance, although the many motives, decisions and crimes in there stem from a misguided form of romantic love, and passions. The overarching ideal of LOVE. Oh, and I really really like Taiwanese accents and phrasing too.
It was a slow release of eight episodes each in Part 1 (November 26, 2021), 2 (December 30, 2021) and 3 (March 18, 2022), totaling 24 episodes. Part 3 was released on a Friday. I was busy and had no time to binge, and didn't bother about it. I died laughing when some girlfriends texted me on Sunday to say that they've finished Part 3, i.e. the whole show, and 'please hurry up to watch it so that we can gossip about details'. Gosh, why are y'all so fast?! There're plenty of loopholes in the plot of course, and many parts are not just unbelievable because it's fantastical; it's just illogical. But this is a drama, so I'll suspend all disbelief.
Protagonists Rose 羅雨儂 and Sue's 蘇慶儀 friendship is long and complicated, as long and intimate friendships often are. Thank god I didn't have to go through this type of convoluted nasty stuff with the BFF. I did a double-take when Wu Kang Ren / Chris Wu 吳慷仁 appeared. He's quite lovely as BaoBao 寶寶. There're plenty of back stories of each of the characters and throwbacks. The show utilizes that as a narrative method to draw in the audience, and also to create that sense of mystery. Many of us thought that the one with the best character overview and development is the hostess Ah-Chi 阿季played by Cherry Hsieh 謝瓊煖. Her life is sometimes not within her control, but the gambling addiction is, although we cannot underestimate how this addiction is almost as bad as a drug addiction.
The hostess bar where all the action happens is aptly named Hikari「光」. It's such a wonderful name, and a metaphor, and the ending is all about that. Do we walk in the light or in the shadows? Or are we destined to live in between? The show depicts the hostesses' lives as is, trials and tribulations. Well, it's not a documentary. It's fiction, and it's very watchable, and respectful. Set in 1988, the clothes and sets were soooo true to the era. Hellooooo old telephones, Sony tape recorders and old school cakes. I like the ending. It's stoic. The ending is not about romance. It's about forging one's path in adversity, making the best of the situation, being independent, being deeply flawed, and ultimately, being human.
OMG. THIS IS THE FIRST TIME I'VE STEPPED INTO A CINEMA IN 1.5 YEARS!!!
I can't even remember when I last watched a film in the cinema. Was it a middling Marvel show? I don't really want to go to cinemas now, because, pandemic, and also why would I want to waste 2.5 hours outside watching a show that I don't know if it's any decent. Anyway, I went to watch 'Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings' (2021). Picked a day to watch it when the dog was in school, and chose the 10.45am show in a 'vaccinated theater'.
All in alll, I really enjoyed 'Shang Chi'. I didn't care that this film was representative of East Asian Americans in Hollywood, as opposed to a stereotypical 'Crazy Rich Asians' (2018) that somehow became a hit. I didn't care that it was part of the Marvel universe. I cared even less about Simu Liu. I didn't know how the name 'Shang Chi' is pronounced. Had to look it up — Oh, in pinyin, it's Xu2 Shang4 Qi4, 徐尚氣. Mmmmokay.
I wanted to watch the film for Michelle Yeoh. (Yes, I also know her Chinese name Yang2 Zi3 Qiong2, 杨紫琼.) She plays a martial arts exponent Ying4 Nan2, 映南. Confession: I like her in films lah. I'll watch anything that she puts out. Hurhurhur. She has got such gorgeous screen presence and poise in 'Shang Chi'. I just love how they threw in powerful women in the film.
Tony Leung, as Xu2 Wen2 Wu3 (徐文武)the film's titular villain, owner of the Ten Rings and Shang Chi's father, was fun to watch. In fact, he turned in a sterling performance in his first Hollywood role. BUT, I really hate his hair in this film. I'm used to watching him as a romantic lead, a triad leader, or a detective, as a grandmaster of Wing Chun, and also as a Chinese military general. All with hair nicely combed and styled. Just not as a Marvel martial arts supervillain with very messy hair. Hahaha.
I was surprised to watch a Marvel film begin in Mandarin, narrated by Jiang Li, Wenwu's dead wife (played by Fala Chen). This isn't typical for sure. Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, the film removed the anti-Asian stereotype of Fu Manchu that was the father and the villain in the comics, replacing him with the complex villain Xu Wen Wu, a.ka. The Mandarin. The director also centered the film on Asian and Asian American culture.
This generation of Singaporeans (of Chinese ethnicity) would feel strongly what East Asian Americans feel because we might not be fluent in Mandarin or Korean or Japanese, having spoken English all our lives. We reject the terms and notions of 'mother tongue'. Any other language would simply be the family languages that our grandparents spoke, or a second language acquired. Yet we might master neither of those languages.
Besides the familiar customs (Qing Ming practices, to Asian breakfast items, and removing shoes when entering a home) to Asian audiences, which are strange to Americans and Europeans, there're many stereotypical elements, I feel, that made up the Western notion of 'what's Asian'. What is up with the many pagodas, lanterns and the color red? Then, there're many articles floating around about pronouncing the names in this film. There's this whole segment about Shang Chi teaching Katy how to pronounce his Chinese name. He's just normal 'Shaun' in the show.Okay, America. You just can't speak other languages besides English, huh. So I suppose this is why 'Shang Chi' is a big deal for Asian Americans, and in Hollywood.
