VERTICAL GREENERY

I saw a map of the Taipei airport in the form of vertical greenery in Taiwan last year but now there is a world map in the same form at the on the pedestrian level of Ocean Building above the Raffles Place MRT near the underpass leading to NTUC Centre.

Vertical greenery is also slowly creeping into buildings, as evident by stores such as the following.

GIRLFRIEND.BOYFRIEND

I love watching Taiwanese movies like this. They never reveal everything in the movie and leave bits and pieces of puzzle for the audience to figure things out on their own. The fun thing is, depending on one's imagination, everyone may have a different conclusion or perspective of the storyline. Such movies therefore do not appeal to audiences who want all questions to be answered without a shred of uncertainty.

This movie "Girlfriend, Boyfriend" (direct translation) revolves around three characters Mabel (played by Gwei Lun-mei), Liam (by Joseph Chang, who incidentally acted as a gay in another earlier movie "Eternal Summer") and Aaron (by Rhydian Vaughan) and spanned over a period of about 30 years with flashbacks in three time zones 1985, 1990 and 1997. It tracked the development of their relationship across Taiwan's social changes from a conservative martial law society to a reformed one that was more liberal.

The movie opened with a bearded Liam being interrogated in a high school on his ambiguous relationship to a pair of rebellious twin girls who incited their classmates to stage an uprising to wear shorts instead of skirts.

With his explanation, the year was brought back to 1985 where Liam, Mabel and Aaron were shown as a part of a group of student helpers to pick Magnolia flowers from the trees for sale. Mabel and Liam grew up together as childhood buddies and the tomboyish former held a touch for the shy and quiet Liam. Aaron was apparently a new classmate, who together with the other two, formed a close-knit and inseparable trio over the years to come. When Mabel found out that the unresponsive Liam did not share the same feelings towards her, the heartbroken girl decided to accept Aaron's pursuit and became his girlfriend. Unbeknownst to her, Liam had the hots for Aaron instead but stood by them without revealing his innermost feelings.

5 years later in 1990, they graduated from high school and Mabel was a dancing instructor by then. Liam continued to support Aaron by being his partner in student protests activities. Mabel united with the two during the monumental 1990 demonstration and it was then that their relationship took another dive. After witnessing the lovemaking between Mabel and Aaron, the devastated and closeted Liam sought solace in public sex with a police officer in the parade square. On the other hand, Mabel discovered Aaron cheating on her with a rich girl from the student protests movement and left him. In a heart to heart exchange of few words but with lots of tears, Mabel finally realized that the person in Liam's heart all those years was actually Aaron.

The scene fast forward to the year 1997. By then, the once carefree Aaron was already married to the girl but ironically lost his freedom as he was severely controlled by his rich and influential father-in-law. Mabel also became the third party in his marriage. Liam, on the other hand, was attached to a married man. After evading the pair for years, Liam was re-united with Mabel and Aaron by chance. It was then that Mabel discovered that she was pregnant with twins by Aaron. At the same time, she was diagnosed with a malign tumour which grew aggressively with the twins development. Liam also broke off with his partner of many years. The latter pair reconnected emotionally once again after their personal setbacks.

The movie then shifted back to the present where it was clear that the twin girls were the daughters of Aaron and Mabel, who passed away after the childbirth. Liam took on the responsibility of raising the girls all those years as their guardian and was both a brother and father to them. There was no mention of Aaron at all, so it was anyone's guess what happened to him along the way. Liam sacrificed and devoted his personal life towards bringing up the girls and one couldn't help it but wonder if he did it out of his love for Aaron, Mabel or both?

This is yet another poignant movie that explores the intricacies and complexities of human emotions. The tagline "everyone deserves to have someone who loves them and someone whom they love" is food for thought for everyone. Whilst I am sure that the producer deliberately created some unexplained scenes to give the audience the room to make their own deductions and form their own perspectives, I am also pretty sure that some pivotal scenes were cut out by the local censorship authorities. Overall, I enjoyed the movie but I may have to check out the novel if I want all the answers to the numerous questions.

THE SHROUD

Today's weather - sunny




It was a moody Monday and it wasn't because of the Monday blues. There was a shroud that surrounded the death of not just one, but two, mega or big singers. As a bilingual person born and bred in Singapore, I am familiar with both singers.


The first piece of news came in the wake of the morning. The legendary american diva and queen of pop Whitney Houston passed away in her hotel room, supposedly due to heavy drug abuse. She was so magnificent in her hey days and belted out lots of amazing songs that topped the charts.  Her most memorable song is definitely her rendition of the song "I Will Always Love You", from the movie "The Bodyguard" starring Kevin Costner and her, originally written and performed by Dolly Parton. Amongst others, I also love the songs "I Have Nothing", "Miracle" and many more others. At her peak, she was just so unbelievable with her crystal clear voice.


So I find it hard to understand why someone so successful would take to drugs to destroy her own life when she has so much money and many things that we mere mortals do not possess. But I guess money really cannot buy happiness although it can give one access to lots of high-society drugs to drown out life's sorrows. Regardless of what I say here, it doesn't really matter anymore, does it? However, I still remember the very beautiful song with meaningful lyrics "One Moment In Time" which was the first time I actually heard her songs.




Later that morning, I received news of the passing of the 70's taiwanese singer and host 凤飞飞 (translated as flying phoenix in Chinese) at the age of 60 on 3 Jan 12, best known as the queen of hats with her humongous collection of hats. She died in Hong Kong due to some lung cancer complications. Ironically, her husband died of lung cancer just a couple of years ago. 


Her voice and beauty made her stand out prominently in the entertainment industry in Taiwan then and this iconic and charismatic singer performed in Singapore many, many times in the 70s and 80s with her wide array of songs, much to the delight of her huge fan base here. She was especially well-loved by the generation of my mother and many of them are now wiping over the loss of this celebrity. She was so thoughtful that she reminded her family not to broadcast news of her death to journalists and her fans earlier because of the upcoming Chinese New Year then. Such was the depth of her heart and her level of consideration so often missing from today's celebrities.


I still recall very vividly with fond memories of the theme song she sang for the then SBC period drama 《盗日英雄传》in 1986 and her departure song "掌声响起" (translated as "Applause") when she performed here before she retired from the industry. Anyway, she is survived by her only 23 years old son.




This week shall be a week of reflection of how fragile life can be. The Valentine's Day that followed soon after also helped to remind us of how we should really cherish our living moments before death claims us forever from the loved ones all around us. We should take a stop in the midst of our very busy lives and reminisce for a moment what we have achieved for ourselves all these past years so that we have less regrets in future.