Archive for December, 2006
Next Entries »Which is to be master - that’s all
Wednesday, December 27th, 2006
“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more or less.”
“The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.”
“The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master - that’s all.”
– Through the looking glass, Lewis Carroll
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Giant octopus attacks shark
Monday, December 25th, 2006Watch this video with a little patience and you’ll get to see a spectacular battle between two of the most feared creatures of the sea.
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Curse of the Golden Flower
Monday, December 25th, 2006
Large production directed by Zhang Yimou and casted by big-shot stars Gong Li, Chou Yun Fatt and Jay Chou.
I was skeptical before stepping into the theatre. Having seen Zhang’s previous film the Red Lantern, which I find rather boring. Anway I decided to give it a shot because this is one of the few films that Chou starred in and he is a great actor. Shortly after the show started, I was put off by the bright colours of the setting. It was so piercing to the eyes. Bright yellow, orange and red colours tend to arouse disturbance to the mind and it sure did in me. However as the story unfolded, I got more and more interested.
Gong Li’s acting is superb. Her emotions flowed so readily. I could empathise with her in the heartwrenching scene where her son (Jay Chou) killed himself after the foiled attempt to assasinate the king (Chou). I was never a fan of hers, but I sure am after this.
Chou as usual displays good acting skills. But in this film, Gong Li is really the big player with the most number of scenes. Jay Chou sucks at acting. One would think that he’s wearing a wooden mask. The most “expressive” expression is frowning, which where this is the only display of emotion at the heartbreaking scene of watching his mum (Gong Li) being forced to drink poison disguised as medicine, one can only say that his acting is really amateurish. I’m quite impressed by the acting of Li Man (Xiao Chan). The scene where she went berserk and ran like a madwoman after hearing that her lover is in fact her brother - you can feel how desperate she was.
Overall this is a good film. Even if you don’t know the actors well, I would still recommend anyone to go watch it. Just to see the kind of scale - the setting, the props and costumes, the Forbidden City, the grandeur of Chinese Tang Imperial family, the bold use of colours. In Chinese, big is good - this is definitely portrayed in this film.
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Elfamorphosis
Monday, December 25th, 2006
Check out my favourite celebrity.
For those of you who are unfamiliar, he is Tony Leung, a well-known Hong Kong movie star.
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The Secret
Monday, December 25th, 2006What is the secret that everyone misses, but if they know it would make a dramatic difference to their lives ?
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Giant squid captured and filmed for the first time
Monday, December 25th, 2006
Close up photo of the giant squid
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How to unleash your creativity
Saturday, December 23rd, 2006
We all have tremendous creativity within us. In fact, we are born creative and spontaneous - just look at kids and you see how many crazy ways they can think up just to get what they want. A kid laughs, talks and behaves spontaneously as he wishes without feeling any inhibition or caring about “should-do’s” and “should-not-do’s” like adults.
As we grow older, we are tainted by social programming and lose the creativity and spontaneity that belongs to us all. How do we reclaim and rediscover our inborn genius ?
Firstly, you have to immerse yourself totally in your area of interest. Secondly, you have to read as widely as possible on all other topics which are not within your area of interest.
I learnt this from Jay Abraham, one of the top marketing gurus in the States. I heard him speak at a seminar and was impressed. He was focused and intense, apparently in a state of flow. Although he claimed that he suffers from attention deficit, I guess it was meant to be a joke. If you have experienced “flow”, you will know that it is a highly focused state of mind. The person is so focused on the topic at hand that he will sometimes forget the less important things. It is the state of optimum performance where one immerses totally in the topic. Most people don’t experience flow, because their minds are often scattered and distracted.
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