THE FOUR (FINALE)

The tales of the four constables are based on a chinese wuxia comic book series and I failed to understand how they can shoot it as a trilogy.

The attempts seemed to make each movie of the trilogy to be independent of each other to cater to audiences who did not catch all three installments yet the storyline in the three parts is interwoven. Starring a cast comprising Deng Chao, Liu Yifei, Collin Chou, Ronald Cheng, Anthony Wong, Wu Xiubo, Sheren Tang and Alec Su etc, I wasn't thrilled by the acting or storyline. However, I must admit I find a lot of comic relief and am pleasantly surprised in recent years whenever Alec Su, or was he known as Tommy Su, acted in chinese wuxia movies. As the Emperor in this role, he breathed more life into the character than any of the other four constables, who looked far too serious most of the times.

That said, I am glad they put an end to this trilogy.

THE GUILLOTINES

I have not been posting anything in this blog lately because I was busy posting other posts in my new aquarium blog (aquariumfrenzy.blogspot.sg) after setting up my new marine pico tank since the beginning of the new year.

Anyway, this Chinese-Hong Kong movie production wasn't really what I expected. It was not really a movie on the deadly weapon, used by a group of secret assassins reared by the late Yongzheng Emperor to eliminate his enemies. Rather, it was a movie about the fate of these assassins, who were raised since young to be trained as professional killers, but who fell victim to the Emperor they now served because they were no longer needed and were a stain to be erased from the history of the Qing Dynasty.

Starring actors from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, such as Huang Xiaoming, Ethan Ruan, Shawn Yue, Li Yuchun, Jing Boran etc. But I must say this is actually a movie made more for Ethan than Xiaoming, who seemed to have a secondary role as the Jesus-looking rebel. I was dying to see the invincible weapon, made famous in other early TV Taiwan productions, and was instead treated to a story of integrity, betrayal and brotherhood. If you just sit back and enjoy the movie for its cast, production etc, then it would not be as bad as how the critics made it out to be.

1911

This is Jackie Chan's 100th movie and marks a century since the Xinhai revolution in 1911 that forever changed the course of China's sovereign history and shaped it into what it is today as the People's Republic of China.

Produced and directed by Jackie Chan himself, I must admit I did not catch the movie because of the man himself. Instead, I was drawn by the historical events, including the downfall of the Manchurian Qing Dynasty, and felt I could have a piece of my ancestry through this short two hours movie charting the events that occurred back in 1911 and 1912.

Starring a stellar cast including Jackie Chan, Winston Chao, Joan Chen, Li Bingbing, Jackie's son Jaycee Chan, Hu Ge, the movie started with the execution of the legendary revolutionary heroine Qiu Jin, who sacrificed her life to help the suppressed and long suffering commoners stand up against the corrupted Qing empire and feudalistic society.

The revolution, led by the famous Sun Yat-sen, Huang Xing etc staged numerous uprisings to put an end to a long reign of Emperors, who ruled over the land and lived a life of luxury behind forbidden palaces as the commoners tolled and sweated their life away in poverty. Empress Dowager Longyu was coerced by Yuan Shikai and the new government to sign the abdication of the throne of her son Puyi, the last Emperor of China, that reduced them to citizens of the new republic and ended the imperial rule.


This event was a critical milestone in the history of China and the republic would not be what it is today without the few revolutionary leaders who believed in dedicating their entire lives to fight for its people to overcome poverty, inequality etc.


I must admit that we are very fortunate not to have been born during that era where there were rampant wars, uprisings, revolutions etc that resulted in countless deaths of innocent lives. We must count our lucky stars that there is a lot more political stability all over the world and be grateful for what we have in this day and age. Not everyone, especially those from the past, can have a life as good as ours.

MARINE AQUARIUM

This marine aquarium at Suntec kept re-stocking their fishes and invertebrates because they had been losing them gradually.

The large fish in the 1st two photos is an Emperor Angelfish (scientific name: Pomacanthus imperator).

In the 3rd photo, another fish was dead and half-buried in the gravel bed.

In the last two photos, the black and white small fish is the 3-Striped Damselfish or White Humbug Damsel (scientific name: Dascyllus aruanus). Don't be fooled by its size, because it is a very aggressive and territorial fish in an aquarium. The orange fish with a vertical white band across its face is the Tomato Clownfish (scientific name: Amphiprion frenatus).

A link on some marine fishes is shown below:

http://bnymarinefishshop.blogspot.com/