Two nights; Two movies

Friday night: The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

Saturday night: New York I love You

Friday...........

Actually, it should be Saturday wee hours since I caught The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus the Friday midnight slot and boy......what a time slot to watch the movie cos it's really like Dorian Gray tripping on acid. One look and you can tell the heavy Monty Python influence thanks to director Terry Gilliam but I walked out of the cinema not knowing exactly what to say about it...the accumulated fatigue from the insane week and ungodly hour obviously didn't help but this morning, after some deliberation, I've decided it's actually quite an awesome movie. I wouldn't suggest you watch the movie for the plot or storyline but watch it for the spectacular and stunning visual effects, the excellent cast and the last acting effort of my very much beloved and unfortunately very dead Heath Ledger. Of course the cameo of the smoking hot trio aka Johnny Depp, Colin Farrel and Jude Law really gives the movie an extra edge and a refreshing surprise.
To summarise, it's a fantasy movie with Dr Parnassus (played by Christopher Plummer) having a dirty deal with the devil Mr Nick (played by Tom Waits the singer...oh I LOVE HIM!) Dr P took the audience through his little world of imagination into the special mirror that exposes every human's deepest desire and setting them free from it. As nothing good would ever come out of dealing with the devil, the same goes for Dr P who in the end lost his bets with the devil.......I would bet you my Chanel bag and a box of Laduree macaroon that Gilliam wrote the script while under the influence of some serious Grade A acid washed down with a line of coke cos the whole movie has a dream-like quality of a good hallucination.
Heath's performance was superb as expected and somehow, I felt sad watching the movie because his death was indeed a great shame and I remember feeling incredibly sad the morning I knew of his passing. He died while the movie wasn't even half done and then Gilliam quickly cast the drool-worthy trio in. Gilliam's direction wasn't shabby at all.....and it's quite an interesting movie which will make you feel as if you're tripping on acid, not knowing what you'd expect next....I give it 3.5 stars out of 5...

Saturday......

 

New York I Love You had an insurmountable feat of filling a very very big shoe of its successor Paris Je'taime which happens to be one of my favorite movies...thing is, Ah Meow from work told me New York I Love You sucked big time and I was preparing for the worst when I walked in to the cinema...and I perhaps got to thank her for telling me that it sucked ass cos well, I was expecting worse. It didn't turn out to be half as bad as I thought though it by no means can measure up to Paris Je'taime....

For those who're not familiar, the movie's a montage of short films by 11 different directors and the stories all revolve around love with the Big Apple as the backdrop. Now it fell short to its successor because this film is meant to be an art house film but then you can literally see the "trying too hard to be artsy and non-hollywood" element in it. And some of the stories and the way it's shot and directed were a wee bit trite that makes you feel that this is indeed mainstream Hollywood pretending to be art house. The cinematography and directions are really typical Hollywood that's all commercial BUT, I absolutely applaud the segment directed by Shekhar Kapur...that to me, is the BEST film inside and it features Shia LaBeof as a hotel bell boy with a really bad limp from scoliosis and Shia did a pretty good performance and actually acted as opposed to his silly role in Transformer. Now I went from not liking him a lot to actually not liking him less....I hate to say this but I'm mildly impressed by his performance and well, congrats Shia, you're now a real actor in my book....Kapur's segment is so emotionally charged that I actually had tears in my eyes cos the sadness Shia LaBeouf and his costar Julie Christie portrayed was hauntingly poignant and I could literally feel it. The two feeding on each others' melancholy. It's absolutely beautiful

 Thing is, it's got a pretty decent cast of famous names but I wonder if that's the reason why I like it less cos the direction's already mainstream, the familiar collection of Hollywood mainstream faces makes it feel very commercial....Also, despite the fact that it tried to have a better flow of linking one story to the next, all the stories don't gel that well and you can tell the obvious attempt to make them sync and gel in. Paris Je'taime on the other hand had a very fragmented approach where you can really tell the end of one segment and the start of another but yet, they flow so seamlessly....

Overall, it's still a good film I would say and if I have never watched Paris Je'taime, I would probably love it even more. I like it but I'm not immensely impressed but I'll give it 3.5 stars out of 5 also. It's worth watching actually.....

Now a stupid frivolous note....I went to Mulberry to see the Alexa and I now have a very very serious itch that I have no idea if I would scratch...it's painful....arghhhh why must the Alexa be so nice!!!??? 

P.S...someone just asked me "You mean that Mr Nick in Dr Parnassus is a singer??? What the hell did he sing? I never heard of him" Here's your bit of education...that Mr Nick is Tom Waits and he's bloody good! He's a singer song-writer and click here to listen to my favorite Tom Waits' song Hold On.....he's got this very very rough nice voice...very soothing....the type you'll drink and smoke alone to...

Ladurée s’il vous plaît!!!!

Oh woe is me indeed! Who do I have to screw around with to get some Ladurée macaroons???? Oh what I would do to have some of these lovelies! Isn't it time for this tiny sunny island to have some gourmet Ladurée macaroons? Enough of the stinky durian cream puffs already (which I absolutely detest by the way), it's about time the locals get educated on the marvelous best macaroons in the whole universe!I.WANT.LADUREE,MACAROONS.NOW! It's taste bud orgasm! Lightly crunchy crust greets your teeth and then the rich luscious creamy center tantalises your tongue that later reduces to a nice chewy burst of flavor....it's love at first bite for me many years ago and mind you, I'm never the type who love sweet stuff cos I have a preference for savory.

Maybe it's about time I write to STB expounding on why this sunny island needs its very own Ladurée shop...maybe Club21's Christina Ong could bring them in or something...And these days, Ladurée sells really gorgeous merchandise and they have their own range of luxurious bath products with heavenly packaging and scents and I'm dying to get my little hands on them! Look at my lust list!

I'm really bummed that they don't have an online shop but I guess that's very french of them....Merde! Tres tres merde! Now I need to find ways to get someone to get them to moi! Time to call up my scouts in London! I think Front Row should really stock Ladurée products!  

Meanwhile, to satisfy my macaroon cravings....I have to settle with the ones from Canele which is a wee bit too sweet for my liking...hardly a replacement but what's a girl to do? Sigh....till my taste buds reunite with the lush exquisite Ladurée macaroons again.....woe is me!

I saw you with another CAT!!!!

Hello everybody! Meeeooww!
It's Mr Bond again and this time me fuming till I'm about to hit the roof and fur flying all over cos my minion's cheating on me! More pictures of her rendezvous with Duke Orange has surfaced! I've been suspecting her infidelity since I caught her looking at Duke's blog and twitter page, so I used my blueberry phone (cats use blueberry, better than blackberry) and called a PI and spied on my minion and MEEEOOOOW! God forbids, minion caught red-handed with Duke Orange!
Oh woe is me! How dare this stoooopid minion! She was carrying Duke! Stupid Duke! He's not even half as handsome as I am! Just because that stooopid ginger has got a blog my minion's swooning over him! I'm sooo offended!
Hmm...I must ask the other minion in Hong Kong aka Becks to start a blog and twitter account for me cos Mr Bond can't lose out to Duke Orh-leng! Hmmph! Meanwhile, me gonna poo and pee on minion's pillow...muahahah.....meeeeooooww

Excellent Lip Service

Those who know me would know that I'm a major lip balm ho'bag and would buy and try whatever new stuff that comes out...and my once baby, Ettusais, has released its new Lip Essence and Miss LipBalm Ho' gotta go buy it and buy it I did and well, not too bad....it comes in a tube (glossy) and there's another version in a stick (not that glossy) and I picked the glossy one at $31 a pop...the stick version's going at $26 I think

It promises to make your lips baby soft and cherry pink and supposedly boosts circulation. The packaging showed some lab studies on how the lips turned more pinkish with improved blood circulation after applying it for about 20 minutes or something. Promising. But the verdict? Well, it's moist and nice and not too waxy but I don't see my lips turning more pink after 20 minutes...but I guess it'll take more applications and prolonged use perhaps...hopefully that is....It's not the best lipbalm I've tried cos the best lipbalm is still Cle de Peau Beaute but that costs me a whopping $108 that I refuse to part with....So I guess for a $31 lip balm...the Ettusais Lip Essence isn't too shabby and worth a buy! Until I can armtwist someone to buy me the Cle de Peau lip balm that is.....any takers? (or suckers I mean...haha)

Aloha!

I was feeling crabby and crappy and this $6.90 cheapthrill Hawaiian Hello Kitty from Cheers actually perked me up and made me feel better. I think it's the whole hula skirt, lei and ukelele get up that gives me a pacifying effect and I'm reduced to my little childhood happy place fiddling with this tanned brown Aloha Kitty! It's rad! It's a globetrotter collection and since it warrants an IMH stay to buy the entire collection and collect every single one, I picked the Aloha version cos I love the tanned skin (I mean the tanned color...the word "skin" makes it very eerie since it's essentially plastic) and I have a brown limited edition Hawaiian Hello Kitty soft toy at home, completed with the whole hula skirt outfit no less! Hahaha...but this one's cool....

It's got a cool "travel diary" with proper pictures and story and little info about Hawaii...I think it's cool and clever (yes, for the kids I know...cut me some slack will you?) and you see that little yellow star on the kitty's ukelele? It's a little gadget. You press that star button and it face changes...and there're 4 different expressions!!!!

From left to right: bimbo-hee-hee-hee face, don't-fuck-with-me face, whatever-face and I'm-on-dope-with-dilated-pupils face

How cute is that? See...I totally forgot about what cheesed me off and now I'm in a good mood already...

Why so serious?

Couple of days ago my favorite figure skating couple Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin put up an excellent ice dance routine which is possibly the best I've seen in the recent years and the best these Russian figure skating champion duo have put up ONLY to get slammed. Their crime? They put up a 3-minute ice dancing routine inspired by the Australian aborigine culture which supposedly bear a wrong portrayal of the aborigine culture.

Experts in Australia say that their movements and body decorations “bear no resemblance to that of the Aborigines’ 60,000 year old culture” and they find their performance offensive. Some slagged them saying their body paint looks like it's painted on by a 3-year-old but then are they really offensive? I say WHY SO SERIOUS? Fine, granted that their outfit doesn't look like the real aborigine get up but you can't expect the dude to be wearing a loin cloth and body paint in the freezing skating rink toting a digereedoo can you? You don't want falling loin cloth and flapping man bits!!! (loin cloth+freezing cold=ball shrinkage+cloth loosening&falling)

After all, their routine is ABORIGINE INSPIRED and they never claim to put up some authentic aborigine dance. These aborigine experts & elders should just take an herbal red bush chill pill....

That aside...their performance was BREATHTAKING!! Watch! It's impossibly captivating! Oh...I think my only complaint is that they actually look a bit like Christmas tree because of the red and green color combination...other than that, they're totally RAD!!!

Things Chinese Moms Say!

I was out on Saturday for work with some colleagues (well, they're the bosses actually, I'm the minion) and while in the car to Little India, one of my very lovely colleagues spoke to her son on the phone and she called him "Ah Pa" which, in the Indian culture (my colleague's Indian), is a respectful terms you use for men. So someone in the car asked why she calls her son "Ah Pa" and she said it's a more respectful way to call your son when they're grown up. So immediately, being Chinese and being so used to the typical fierce and scary Chinese mothers, a couple of us said "Huh? You have to call your kids with respectful names?" and she replied something that makes excellent sense. She said "Well then how else are you gonna teach them respect if you don't really respect them?"

 

Well said!!!! This is something you don't always see with Chinese parents, especially if the mom is Cantonese cos somehow the Chinese demand respect from their kids and actually enjoy calling their kids stupid names that shows parental dominance and let me come up with some common names (in various dialect phonetics) they call their kids, completed with translations that is...so here they are...

Mama B prefers to use a hair brush than wooden spoon and sorry, can't seem to find a picture of angry Chinese Mother that's as good as this
• Su-ooi Poh (Translation: "Bad-luck woman" in Cantonese...this is directly from Mama B...somehow it's an terms of endearment...don't ask me why)
• Say-lui Bao (Translation: "dead girl bun" in Cantonese....yeah, very Cantonese)
• Say-chai (Translation: "dead boy" in Cantonese...you hear this ALL THE TIME in Hong Kong)
• Si Kin Nah (Translation: "Dead children" in Hokkien...you hear this all the time)
• Poo-wah-peh Kia (Translation: "Fall sick kid" in Hokkien....this is rather harsh and people use it to scold people the hate in general, but I've heard this dad yelled this at his teenage son at some train station...)

Actually that's all I can think of for now...it's a Monday morning after all! Ohhh...hope my mom's not reading this or I'll get the "Hair Brush" from her...hahaha...I actually miss her heaps!

P.S. Scott contributed another one:

• Chou-mei (Translation: "smelly girl" in Mandarin...I haven't heard of it but he said all Chinese moms would call their daughters at some point...haha)