THE WHITE HAIRED WITCH OF LUNAR KINGDOM

I can't believe I haven't posted about this movie but I guess I have really been very busy all these weeks until today when I am down with flu and can find some time to do some posting.

Huang and Fan

Starring Fan Bingbing, Huang Xiaoming, Vincent Zhao Wenzhuo, the movie started promising but slowly degraded into mayhem because it was so badly scripted that even guest star Cecilia Yip and Tsui Hark as artistic director could not save it. 

The plot was a complete mess with the interwoven storyline that couldn't quite decide whether it wants to be a love story, wuxia period drama etc. The characters were largely superficially portrayed without any depth, hence you don't feel anything towards them even when they were killed off in the battles. Even the love between Fan and Huang was unconvincing and it was unbelievable how the wolf-raised Lian Nishang could just fall hopelessly in love with Zhuo Yihang so easily and again out of love with her hair turned white just as easily for purely dramatic effect.

The previous 1980's version with the late Leslie Cheung and Brigitte Lin Chinghsia is still the classic.

A bambi eyed Fan

Vincent Zhao was the villain this time round

PASSIFLORA FOETIDA AND COCCINEA

Passiflora foetida

Sometimes I can't help but wonder why some of these weeds never made it as ornamental plants. This Passiflora foetida (Common Name: Stinking Passionflower, Love-in-a-Mist, Wild Water Melon) wild weed is in fact a host plant of some native butterflies including the Tawny Coster and Leopard Lacewing.

The second is the more attractive looking ornamental Passiflora coccinea (Common Name: Scarlet Passion Flower, Red Passion Flower) planted in the Chinese Garden.

Passiflora coccinea

LOVE AND PEACE FLOWER

This is the sculpture on the flower of love and peace by Ana Tzarev outside the ArtScience Museum at Marina Bay Sands.

There are a many of these sculptures all over the world and the link is as shown:
http://www.anatzarev.com/exhibitions/international

SOLVIL ET TITUS: TIME IS LOVE 2012

Solvil et Titus came up with another classic ad to continue its "Time is Love" story.

If only real life mirrors reel life. I have heard of nice demure elders who became different persons altogether after suffering from Alzheimer's disease. They turned into cursing and swearing persons totally unlike what the others knew of them before the disease set in. It's sad and I hope I don't end up like that.

Anyway, here is the youtube video of the ad:

NATIONAL DAY PART 2

There were tons of people gathered in the Marina Bay area to watch the fireworks to celebrate the National Day and it came on around 7:53 pm. I could almost hear Katy Perry's song "Fireworks" resonating with brilliance in the sky.

The sky came alive for a few minutes but about ten minutes later, the last burst of massive fireworks exploded in the night sky before it resumed its darkness once again for the months to come. 

The next time such a spectacle would happen would be the end of the year 2012 and the beginning of next year 2013.

Anyway, I was overseas recently and realized once again that there is no place better than home. I might be physically at a different geographical region, but my heart was bound to home. Throughout the trip, I had 3 episodes of chest pains. Call me dramatic, but when the plane encountered any turbulence over the 12 hour flight and when I had my chest pains, my first thoughts were always whether I would be able to see my loved ones again. So you see, home is where love is.

春娇与志明 (LOVE IN THE BUFF)

Today's weather - sunny

This is a sequel to the original movie "Love in the Puff" which I did not catch, so I do not know what happened between the two leads Shawn Yue and Miriam Yeung previously. But I guess it doesn't affect new viewers like me because it can be seen as an independent movie on its own.


It started off by showing how a girl seemed to be cursed because her three previous boyfriends were killed one after another in freak accidents related to cooking. For a moment, I thought I was in the wrong cinema until the two leads appeared.


The movie tells the tale of the two, who faced some relationship problems, broke up in Hong Kong and  went to Beijing separately to work. When they met in Beijing again sometime later, the sparks between them were re-ignited. By then, the younger Shawn had a new mainland girlfriend of one year and Miriam was trying to start afresh with a nice, attentive and warm guy who came to her rescue in an incident.




It was a rather sad and poignant movie that explored the past and present relationships of the two characters, and how they fought hard to rekindle their past relationship but yet could not overlook the annoying flaws or let go of their new relationships. They were in a dilemma as they weighed whether to listen to their hearts to go back to their old flames or to listen to their heads to move on with their new found ones. Eventually, they each came to their final decision to stuck it out together. Despite each other's imperfections, they were perfect for each other as a couple.


For me, the interesting and even comedic parts came in the form of brief cameos by Ekin Cheng, Linda Wong, Huang Xiaoming and the laughter and vomit inducing cross-dressing video of Shawn Yue emulating Linda Wong's MTV hit song "Don't Ask Who I Am", which I  attached below.

LOVE

I was looking for the second poster, which is the one at our cinemas, which shows the smiling faces of the eight characters of this movie and which I prefer. However, I don't seem to be able to find it on the net.


After the movie "Monga", Doze Niu decided to make a movie about love, which he claims he have lots of experience on. No doubt his name Doze is unique but I find it rather corny. Anyway, back to the movie. I only recognize Vicki Zhao, Mark Chao, Ethan Ruan, Shu Qi, Doze Niu and Eddie Peng and there was a cameo by the actors from Monga such as Rhydian Vaughan.


This tale takes place in China and Taiwan between the eight main characters. Somehow, I feel Vicky and Shu Qi were miscast, resulting in the unconvincing cougar pairing of Vicky and Mark and Shu Qi and Ethan. Don't get me wrong because I have nothing against the two female leads but the premises were too stretched. Maybe I am being skeptical here. If Shu Qi was bent on avoiding Ethan, why would the more mature woman suddenly have a change of heart and sneak up behind him at a wedding reception to put on his finger a mock wedding ring? Why would a highly successful young businessman Mark fall for an older woman Vicki with a child born out of wedlock? I don't quite get it.


But one thing's for sure. Despite the unrealistic ending, I do find myself enjoying Taiwan-made movies like this, which is a blend of light-heartedness, humour, love and hope.

CRAZY STUPID LOVE

Produced by Steve Carell of the comedic 'The 40-Year-Old Virgin', 'Dinner for Schmucks' etc, this is another one of those supposedly funny movies. With a cast including Steve Carell himself, one of my favourite actress Julianne Moore, Ryan Gosling and Kevin Bacon, there were parts that were hilarious but there were also boring parts that put me to sleep.


With a title like that and with Steve leading the show, it most definitely has a happy ending. However, it wasn't one of those memorable and exceptional movies for me.

SOLVIL ET TITUS - TIME IS LOVE

Remember the youtube video I posted previously? Here is the still ad version on the glass panels of the Dhoby Ghaut MRT Station.

Ok, it was trying to express the differences between man and woman. Whilst the woman secretly demands the man to tell her he loves her, the man just could not open his mouth to express his feelings in words. Instead, he was hoping that she could simply feel his love for her.

But then, what has all these got to do with time?

SOLVIL ET TITUS - TIME IS LOVE

A colleague told me about this ad that she saw recently. The "Time is Love" campaign was relaunched again in Hong Kong and this new ad is kind of funny, lovely and sad all rolled into one. So what is the message behind it?

愛情真的有期限嗎？

我們走得越近， 卻越模糊。

時時刻刻都在心裡說 我愛妳，

我努力的愛惜妳，

為何結果還是這樣？

唯有時間， 讓愛， 更了解 .

The link is attached below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yq_law1jVKc&feature=related