1. Sorry lah, I got test coming, got to study!
We have so many tests, that no one else can keep count of them! muahahaha!
2. Cannot meet you, so sorry, I’m on call / post call that day!
3. I’m so busy, I barely have time to shit and sleep, going to keel over from exhaustion liao, sorry lah, cannot meet you for dinner…
4. Coffee? No la, I don’t drink coffee.
(Switch to tea/alcohol according to situation)
5. Sorry, my brother/sister/cousin/nephew/niece/neighbour/friend having exam, have to give him/her extra coaching!
You’ll never run out of people who need your expertise!
6. Eh cannot, I got family dinner.
At least you know people won’t be so BHB to invite themselves along!
7. Sorry, I’m meeting my friend on that day, he’s very busy lah, so cannot change our appointment for another day.
Actually you might as well say,
Sorry, I’ve got a date that day!
8. Reply the sms (if he asked by sms) a few hours before the supposed meeting time and say, ‘Sorry, I just got your message, must be the stupid [insert your service provider], always delaying smses, it’s a bit too last minute now la… I got stuff on already.’
9. For guys only: Sorry, I got to go home to accompany my mother for dinner…
10. Just ignore the sms.
Come to think of it, I don’t think my excuses are powerful enough, have used all except no. 9, but they’re like bouncing off some kind of wall…
To all the kim geks out there, there’s NO formal planned farewell concert, though there’s supposed to be a mini video, concert session to celebrate Ms Heng’s birthday. (It’s on the 25th!)
Anyway, I think I shall be sick one day during psychomed posting. Heh. Go back and visit before the place changes… *worries* Heard her successor isn’t one of our teachers, but someone handpicked from another school, wonder if it’s an ex-gal?
To all the kim geks past and present, our dear Ms Heng will be retiring very soon. Tentatively, there’ll be a farewell concert on 25th Oct, morning at you-know-where. Please spread the word around, plus I think almost everyone has finally returned to Sg.
Anyway, I think it’s time I stopped putting off the trip back. I think one Saturday morning should be a good time to catch her (and the relive our memories). And we gotta do it before band practice stops for exams!
View the alternate trailer.
I like the song, the version sung by the woman. Right at the end, there’s also another song, very beautiful too. How can I lay my hands on them? hehe…
The Banquet is a loose remake of the well-known Shakespearean tragedy, Hamlet, of power struggles, love and ravenous human desires. It is more of a musical/dance rather than a film. I would highly recommend it for all who enjoy song, dance, and can appreciate an intricate combination of both, together with a dash of Noh (Jap) art. The film flows seamlessly, portraying each character’s dilemma, their choice between love and power. The plot is simple, but the emotions evolved are complex. There is minimal dialogue in the film, and thankfully, whatever dialogue present wasn’t too tacky, unlike ‘Hero’ (where the film was punctuated by giggles throughout).
Although almost every scene wows and tingles your senses ie. the opulence of the banquet decorations, the awfully heavy and tinkly gold jewellery adorning the Empress like christmas ornaments… There really isn’t a particular climax, rather there is a beauty melancholy underlying the entire film.
Favourite scenes include the opening scene of the massacre of the Noh dancers. It’s really like dance of death. And *pause*
WAAAA I LIKE DANIEL WU LAH! hahaha… He’s what I call HANDSOME. heh. Pardon me, give me this rare opportunity to rave a bit can. :D (so happy)
1… 2… 3… EW! MAN on HORSE!
but I’m not sharing this one. Heh.
Ok, here’s another… *drool*
And I didn’t forget you guys, time to drool too!
To get back on track, some might find the ‘Noh-dance scene’ rather disturbing, but it kind of gives me a sense of peace and mystery like how I felt walking along the corridors of AH at 4am.
The film practically makes everything barbaric such as the scene where a general was literally beaten to death, into something quite like a dance. There’s just some sick sort of beauty in that. Maybe that’s why some people get so high on torturing other people. Hmmm. *wonders*
As for erotic, haha some people said certain scenes were quite erotic. Yeah, I agree, but in a depraved way. Oh yeah, and any sexual scene is kind of represented by… ‘a falling leaf’. Actually REAL erotic stuff doesn’t mean all that hardcore stuff you know, and all that 100% exposure. Heh.
Performance
With regards to acting, I felt that Zhang Ziyi did a really good job this time round, better than in ‘Memoirs of a Geisha’. I feel that she’s beginning to fill the shoes of Gong Li. (braces myself for missiles aimed this way from Gong Li fans) She does a fantastic job of masking her power hungry desires, melding it with passionate desires for her step-son. As aptly described, her eyes were like those of a phoenix’s, at times frightening, at times gentle.
The first time I read this book, it was somewhere in Sec 1, where I had a voracious appetite for any horror / mystery stories. This time round, was merely browsing in the library for something, anything to read, to get me out of the ditch. (Yes, reading is a fantastic form of escapism.) In the past, I remembered being really freaked out by the ghostly hound. Think I had it classified under the same category as Anubis (Egyptian god with a dog’s head that weighs the dead man’s heart against a feather. If it’s heavier than the feather, Anubis gobbles his heart up. And I suppose the poor soul goes to hell. Boy, it freaked me out so much I was real good for like 2 weeks), and same category as Cerebrus the 3-headed hounds that guard the gates of hell.
Now you must be wondering, what a warped 13-year-old kid I was!
Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson are probably more well-known than their creator, Sir Conan Arthur Doyle. In this book, one may note the deductive and elementary approach that the author has taken towards solving the mystery of the hound of Baskervilles, a legendary curse that has claimed the lives of two Baskervilles, and is threatening to do the same for the third. This approach was adapted from his medical training at Edinburgh. Can tell, you know, reading the book felt like going through a superb tutorial… History, examination (where inspection was vital), differentials and management! The plot is seamlessly woven into a net of deceit and lies, of subplots and clever guises such that the reader will also enjoy working through the mystery with Holmes and Watson.
In fact, I wouldn’t wonder if other modern detective novels such as the Nancy Drew series by Carolyn Keene were adapted from these age-old masterpieces. Check out ‘The Secret of Shadow Ranch’ in that series and you’ll get what I mean!
‘Who would want to read such a load of crap?’ was the commonest uttered one liner I got when anyone heard that I would be spending precious time away from derm (yea… like that’s not crappy) to read this 153-page volume which expounds on Saffy’s continued constipation when the Auntie at the beehoon stall where Saffy gets her daily dose of lactulose went on holiday, where Saffy continues to astound us with her complete lack of human sensitivity and where Amanda dazzles us with her dates and the ups-and-downs of her relationship with ‘the Cockroach’…
But more importantly should be the question, ‘Who would want to buy such a load of crap?’
‘Who would want to review such a load of crap?’ might be the question the one who bought the book will probably ask the ungrateful me. Hah.
Well, enough has been said about the gals’ warped reasoning, pooch’s slothiness and the trials of working at Ong, Wu, and Yi (the lawyer firm where our heroines and ‘heroine’ work). There’s a more pressing question at hand. That would be:
Why is Jason such a _____ (fill in the blank).
He doesn’t date, he doesn’t grouch, he doesn’t discuss his bowel habits, he doesn’t even seem to have contemplated sex in any form. ‘'’:-! He is sooooo boring compared to Barney! (who in this issue shows us his S&M side à la tiger balm…)
He’s like this long-suffering loser… I really think he might have sworn off women. Hah, knowing all the deep, dark secrets of two women who, on the surface look like prime specimens for FHM mags or various fantasies… I think it’ll be a nightmare for him to only have a fleeting thought about them.
Which brings me back to why I’m referring to him as the ‘heroine’ in this book. In a way, he’s kinda like Meredith in the drama ‘Grey’s Anatomy’. Too passive.
I’m sure that a third installation with more about Karl’s doomed life, Barney’s gym pick-ups and Saffy’s heaving, can-suffocate-people’s boobs would be welcome, but wouldn’t a series written from the view points of Saffy and Amanda be ultimately refreshing?
Latest in a series of novels by Patricia Cornwell, PREDATOR ties in 2 stories. A secret project called ‘predator’ (which analyses the MRI images of serial killers to see what emotions they respond to ie. what stimulates them to kill repeatedly), as well as a series of missing women across the other side of the nation. There is also further character developement in this series and a rather astonishing twist right at the end of the story. *hint* D.I.D. (can chk your DSM-IV) In fact, the twist was so sudden and so ‘gorifying’ that for the first time, I felt sick in the stomach. *bleah*, or maybe I just overate.
Anyway, just wanted to bring up two interesting facts from the book.
1. The prints of prepubescent children only last for a few days, then they fade out. This is unlike that of adults, which can last for pretty long eh? Anyway, I suppose it must be the composition of the sebum we secrete. Probably the surge of androgens/estrogens at puberty changes the chemical composition. Heh. So, well, next time you wanna commit some sort of crime, enlist a kid eh?
2. How would you tell if a person suffered an injury before or after death?
You do a skin biopsy of the area of injury and look out for the histology. For example, if there’s no acute reaction, then the injury is most likely sustained after death. If let’s say there’s polymorphonuclear infiltrate, the injury is probably 4-6 hours old, and for brownish-reddish scabs to develop, the injury should be at least 8 hours old. Cool right?
