Mini Movie Marathon!

MMM!

haha ok not exactly a movie marathon since it wasn't even consecutive...but yea watched quite a few films off youtube during the exam period up till now. Was watching 드림하이 2 dream high 2 too but stopped at episode 10 cuz they left it hanging at a potential JB-Rian reunion scene and I liked that. Dun like Hyesung...the actors and actresses who plays the parts are very important. I find Kang Sora too old-looking. Only after googling did I realise that she's actually of the same age as me =-= while the rest of the cast are still so young. Or maybe the fact that she was Leeteuk's "wife" on WGM, made me think that she must be born in the 1980s cuz if the memorisation of the members' birth years (when I was still young and crazy and suju was still producing half-decent songs has paid off), Leeteuk is the oldest and was born in 1983. N she is/was fat, the fat ard her cheeks are not disappearing n no it doesn't give her the cute appeal cuz of her frigging fat lips. Rmb seeing her on an advertisement in Korea and she hadn't slimmed down then and was looking quite, just not nice. Anw just dun lik her as a whole, I think her character makes her very irritating too, so I'm picking on her hahaha on the other hand, I like Jiyeon and I think she's doing a great job with her acting. Despite her supposedly being the "bad" guy, I see how she is actually suffering inside. N i dun like JB nor his acting, so I am very hating on the JB-Hyesung couple. I mean, their lovey dovey scenes are 100% cringeworthy while JB-Rian couple has some cute times together =) And I think this has to do with the age gap, like JB is 1994 if I remember correctly and Jiyeon is 1993. Sora is 1990 so quite 姐弟恋 feel exuding from their scenes. Arghs. I like Jinwoon so I'm also digging the Yoojin-Rian couple~ Anw so after exams ended and work started, I began dream high 2 again and well, I still like dream high 1 better. This second season has left me wondering about many aspects of the whole drama, its not as well executed as the first. And the lead was good in singing that time k, i.e. Kim Soo Hyun. When I thought he isn't a singer, totally blew me away. Plus his acting was really 최고 like really left me crying at parts. This Dream High 2, pfft. Not even close. I get sad at Rian's part if anything but I don't feel sad for JB nor Hyesung.

OK BACK TO MAIN POINT...so the movies I watched are:::

Starstruck

You are the apple of my eye aka 那些年，我們一起追的女孩

Scary Movie 3

Panic Room

Mysterious Skin

Our Idiot Brother

And during the exams, I did watch "Speak" and perhaps others which I have forgotten oops haha ok quick movie reviews here cuz I left my Dream High 2 episode hanging and I have to catch The Secret Circle later, which by the way, is pretty nice.

Starstruck

It's some Disney movie, expected it to be cringeworthy, but the acting was pretty ok. Just found the guy's smile highly disturbing. No idea why though. Very cliche story line. Famous star falling in love with ordinary girl, while trying to hide from paparazzi and still try to be true to himself.

3.0/5.0

You are the apple of my eye

Been wanting to watch it since I was in Korea but never got to it. It was pretty good. Read online that there were 18+ scenes or something, got rating de I think but well, I think the one I watched is cut version liaoz, v clean ah. And it doesn't even destroy the storyline or what by deleting some scenes. So yea, sometimes I don't get why directors wanna put in weird scenes or put in lotsa vulgarities just to get a 16+/18+ rating slapped across their poster and reduce their profits =-= but it was nice overall, the flow of the movie was good the plot is also good,but sad that the girl actually liked him before de, why never just tell him!!! when they set the kong ming deng off...haiz. But I wonder how the full story came out after all these years, did that friend of hers like tell him? And I wonder exactly how much of the movie is the truth as in exactly what it is. I know I know, there are reports where he said that some parts exaggerated like the quarreling in the rain VS over the phone, but like the wedding's kiss (no spoilers), did it really happen? If it did, eww.

4.0/5.0

Scary Movie 3

erm. a very no-need-use-brain movie. Best for watching when it's one of those lazy days and you very sian to watch any deep-meaning movies that you cannot understand. And hell it's always so obscene =-= but some parts not as funny too =(

1.0/5.0

Panic Room

The plot quite simple I guess haha and I like the bloooooodddddd and I get the good guy stuck in a bad guy role as played by Forest Whitaker but I don't really get the purpose of the story...but the acting was all good. Love Jodie Foster man, and it's refreshing to see Kirsten Stewart in a tomboyish role heh

3.0/5.0

Mysterious Skin

The main actors were both pretty young at that time and so I didn't really expect the kind of acting I saw. If I were to compare the two, Brady Corbert did an even better job than Joseph Gordon-Levitt for certain parts or maybe it was just the role I guess but really, both did a great job. And it was VERY VERY HIGHLY EXTREMELY disturbing at parts. N the comments on that youtube page agree with me too...most agreed that it was disturbing but a must-watch. I will never think of fruity loops or cereal in general in the same way again zomg.

4.5/5.0!!!

Our Idiot Brother

It was just ok-ok. The kind of movie you wouldn't have anything good or bad to say about. Like some parts yea he really sounded super honest yet stupid and yet I'm suspecting that he may actually realise its an idiotic thing to do but like just do it out of spite or sarcasm. The sisters' different personalities are quite vibrant haha all so different...n yea moral of the story is family matters most? cuz i dont think its advocating ppl to be awfully honest as it doesn't get u anywhere.

3.0/5.0

Speak

This one had Kirsten Stewart too. Her character was supposed to have been raped and thus decided to stop talking all together when people accuse of her being attention-seeking and calling the police to a party when actually she was just a victim. But in the movie, she doesn't really stop speaking totally or anything and I felt that the synopsis I read on wiki did a much better job and perhaps made him have too high expectations.

3.0/5.0

ok end here. back to drama.

Laziness and some food for thought

Today I don't feel like doing anything~

NO. EVERYDAY I don't feel like doing anything. Ever since internship started. Arghz. Was fine for a while but the reading starts to get really boring and I don't feel like really starting on any actual stuff cuz it is different from my schedule. Yea im uber inflexible when it comes to certain stuff.

Anyway, lotsa movies to comment n review on (long past movies, though. all from dear old youtube. good thing they haven't been brought down yet. Amazing. Just watched an uber disturbing movie on friday night...hopefully I find the motivation n time to start writing a post on it), but just haven't gotten off my ass to do it, though technically I have to be on my ass to type it or my legs and back will be so sore afterwards.

Sidetrack, was emailing a friend an uber long post in response to our back and forth emails nowadays, came across this idea/thought whatever, it's totally true and this sheds a light on human psychology or should it be called sociology? I think it's both? Though I cannot be sure since I have never studied psych nor socio.

Why is it that ppl try their best not to cry in the movie theatres? I shed tears silently n I scratch my nose or adjust my specs at the important parts. I think almost everyone else does that. Its sorta like a social norm. Like everyone is thinking "eh if no one else is crying at this scene n I am touched to tears, won't i look like a lame, weak person?" and its cuz we ALL think that way, so we ALL don't show it when we are crying. If someone had the guts to bawl their eyes out and a few other people followed suit, the rest of the theatre would most probably do the same and the theatres would flood. Its the same with comedies. There have been studies done that show a higher probability of us laughing if watching in a theatre compared to watching comedies alone. The laughing or maybe simply just sniggering from others affects us, and we feel sorta obliged the same way we feel obliged not to cry out loud, or rather it makes us feel, hey it's a normal thing to laugh at this part, I can laugh out loud as much as I want! Plus laughing is contagious, that's another reason. But I think so is crying. Just that it's the tears themselves that are tear-inducing for me, so I have to see someone cry before I feel like crying myself. Sometimes if the character is convincing enough, I can cry with them. Otherwise the plot has to be really good. Or both.

But really, the main point is, this is really food for thought eh. We really obey social norms too much. And really, who the hell put these norms into place? We are responsible. Cuz we could change it. But only if a larger group of us had the guts to do something out of the ordinary that somehow it becomes the ordinary and the norm. It's like fashion and technology. Something bizarre comes and if it is somehow being assimilated well with all of us although it used to be a social "un-norm", it will soon evolve to be a norm. Humans are so susceptible to change and yet so hardy to it sometimes, stubborn like hell. The irony. Oh, and actually, come to think of it, the reason why not all "un-norms" get accepted is cuz sometimes it takes the right people and the right era at times. Like for fashion, I get the feeling that mostly its the already-famous designers that get away with awkward designs that are hailed as fashion breakthroughs while the noobies' works might be labelled as ludicrous. Only way to judge that is to bluff those self-acclaimed fashionistas blah to judge a piece of work w/o knowing who designed it. Of cuz, I don't know much about fashion so I shall shut up. About era, humans are susceptible to change but it takes time. The world 10 years back is very different from the world now, I guess partly because I have grown with the world and matured as well but also I think the values are different. And TV shows are getting more and more explicit and stuff that I don't understand why kids nowadays can watch certain stuff on TV that I don't even remember seeing when I was a kid. And also why kids nowadays know a lot more stuff beyond their years than my generation back then. So a ludicrous idea back in those days will really be labelled such but perhaps now, it would be considered by some as innovative.

Education

So for some reason I went to MOE's webbie, and saw this video



How many of us remember our primary one days? Given that I am frigging forgetful and my brain is really not working well in terms of its ROM space, no I don't. But I remember roughly the feelings associated with each stage of my education. There were both good and bad feelings of course, but as a human being, I tend to harp on the negative and churn it in my head and turn it into pessimistic thoughts. How delightful.

Anyways, point is the webbie is promoting stuff like "Teach Less, Learn More" but I don't really see it =-= and I recently read a column in Straits Times (i think, don't remember) where someone was replying and agreeing with what another person wrote in before. That person compared Singapore's education system as becoming similar to that of Korea's (of cuz I talking about SOUTH of the 38th parallel, if not?) where tuition out of class is becoming a critical part of education rather than an "accessory", an "add-on". Well I don't see where teaching less in school would help.

According to the webbie, "We will encourage our students to learn more actively and independently. We want to nurture a curiosity that goes beyond the formal curriculum, and a love for learning that stays with the student through life.". That is very ambitious. And given the competitive nature of our society, that is also hardly possible.

To get ahead in life, to get first, you gotta beat the rest first, and for most people that means that we have to study as hard as the rest (clocking a certain number of hours outside of school mugging, cut down on the telly, the net etc). And of course, as society dictates, we also have to take on tuition =-= and with everyone taking tuition, it starts to become a norm and then we have the current situation now. Everyone will attempt to take more tuition, pay more for better teachers just to get ahead. According to one of the two who wrote in to the paper (don't remember since that guy did reference the other), this isn't based on meritocracy, since richer parents can afford more or better tuition, their children stand to gain more. But really, sometimes the education doesn't matter, it's how willing the child is to work for him or herself. Ok, that aside, we will continue to be competitive, and if we don't, there will be comments saying that our society will soon become stagnant cuz no one wants to move upwards, yea yea wadeva. So, who the hell will care about a kid's curiosity and love for learning?? The main purpose of education seems to always be about the grades since that is after all the benchmark used. Yea they are trying to make us all into all-rounders by including civics and moral, PE, Napfa tests, etc but seriously...no one measures the amount of curiosity you possess and give you an A. For those lessons that "promote active participation", they sorta force even the quiet thinkers to open their mouths to ask some smart question just to get participation marks. Seriously?

I think that CCAs/ECAs are the ones that really add colour to our lives because it is there that we actually make friends, go through shit together and triumph at the end of the day. It just brings people that much closer. For the academic part, all I know is that I needed to score thus I needed to mug. I still get my satisfaction from finally understanding a certain topic etc but seriously, when I really really cannot understand, I stop doubting and take it as it is, no more questions asked. Sadly, that is the case even now. If you continue questioning and stay "curious" as to WHY the frigging hell an apple is called an apple (bad example), you will get nowhere in life. I can just see the day my kid asks me something that stumps me and I reply with a "because it is what it is". Not that the teachers give up on us, not many do, they still patiently explain stuff to me, but after a while I start to feel guilty about taking up too much of their time and make a self-note to just go back home and try figure it out again. I dare say that 90% of the time while multitasking (listening to kpop, replaying the moves in my head, and perhaps munching on something while thinking about that problem/question/query), I suddenly see the light and I'll be elated. But that 10% of the time I can only sigh and tell myself to move on, just commit that part to memory and I'll survive the exams. Actually, I think that perhaps memorising isn't such a bad thing. For me, I think I did mostly memorising up till JC? But somehow through the memorisations I managed to learn stuff, and also because I really repeatedly tried to memorise stuff (and also perhaps because I am interested), I still do remember some stuff like how carbohydrates is provides 16kJ of energy per gram, proteins 17kJ, fats 34kJ. Not sure about the units but I am pretty sure, around 99% that my figures are correct. Or perhaps although I thought I was doing memorising but actually I was UNDERSTANDING, THEN COMMITTING THEM TO MEMORY, just that I myself was oblivious to what I was doing. Only when I reached uni that I told myself sec sch and JC seemed more of memorising, I should try to LEARN instead and started ASKING questions when I didn't understand. Don't misunderstand, I am not a child prodigy who is so interested in knowing the history and the beginnings of science and such. I simply asked questions related to the notes, I didn't dig deeper and I often find the history stuff that teachers attempt to tell us to "interest" us and "invoke curiosity" in us extremely boring and useless for our studies (which is true. who the hell tests us on that? it really was not necessary for our learning). And perhaps the type of thinking we have adopted is actually the one that is stopping our society from progressing further despite competitiveness and whatnot. Because we fail to question, we accept these laws and theories. So we will not come up with new stuff to contradict and oppose the current stuff we learn. What if they are wrong??? The earth was considered flat for a while too until it was proven round. So how do we know gravity is what it is?

I might say a lot but I think like a lot of youngsters out there, or maybe just Singaporeans in general, I have opinions but I do not act on them. *shrugs* I don't even see how it will happen at all.

Another point:
From the webbie

"Desired Outcomes of Pre-school Education

At the end of pre-school education, children will:

• Know what is right and what is wrong
• Be willing to share and take turns with others
• Be able to relate to others
• Be curious and be able to explore
• Be able to listen and speak with understanding
• Be comfortable and happy with themselves
• Have developed physical co-ordination and healthy habits
• Love their family, friends, teachers and kindergarten

"

Yea right, I totally do not buy the fact that primary school kids are as cute and innocent as those in the video above. PLEASE. It was not even the case during my days when we had limited access to the internet and TV shows were still pretty clean. We are considered innocent. The kids now? Please.
And asking kids to be comfortable and happy with themselves? HOW? When they might already have been bullied in kindergarten thanks to other innocent angels. Self-esteem already lost at a young age. Bullying might not even be visible to the teacher at times so how do we even stop it. And bullying doesn't have to be physical. The emotional bullying is the worst. I really hate how the majority is always right and they are the ones who set the rules and how the teachers don't even notice. If I were a teacher, I would like build a child robot to spy amongst the students and really, I'll slap those bullies.

Pessimism and Death

Finally free from exams for a while but I think I'm gonna miss having them...suddenly with no deadlines and stuff, a bit duno wad to do. As in, I still wanna watch my movies and dramas and read my ebooks but, without the exams or studying factor making these activities like forbidden fruit (oh so tasty), they sorta lose their attractiveness...

Anyway, so today I planned to watch a free movies but ended up only watching one. Cuz I was clearing my studies stuff n compartmentalising them n also saving all the soft copies n throwing them into an email account. And after I was done with that I checked my emails and stuff and end up went to yahoo site where they ran an article on a 5 months (turning 6 months) old baby who has lost the battle with spinal muscular atrophy or SMA, just a few days back. There was a link to the blog that her dad set up and made posts from Avery's (the little baby girl) POV. It was the sweetest thing ever, seriously.

link: http://averycan.blogspot.com/2012/05/avery-lynn-canahuati-111111-043012.html

There aren't many posts since the dad only started in April this year but I've not gone through every post yet, reading through just I think 4 or 5 posts and I was crying like mad. Like seriously. Cuz I really found the fact that her parents are going on strong and putting up such optimistic posts and pictures to chronicle the days of her life and thinking more of LIFE rather then death extremely sweet n inspiring. There, I typed another run-on sentence. I was really awed by their courage to face this head-on and embracing it, cuz I don't know if I could do the same if I were in their shoes.

Ok, so the dad set up the blog to educate people and spread the word about SMA. From the info they put up in their first post and my little memory of biology few years back, SMA seems to be carried as a recessive allele in our genes. So basically we take one allele from each of our parents, making two alleles that will make up our gene. That's roughly what I remember anyway. But that's not the main thing. Main thing is, diseases sometimes may not be passed on from parent to child but the child may become a carrier of the disease him/herself. Ok I think I'm not gonna explain this well so lemme try to use As and as. There are two types of alleles, 'A' and 'a'. 'a' is the recessive allele. So a person with AA, Aa, aA (basically the same as Aa) will all not have that disease, while only a person with 'aa' will have it. The recessive trait only shows when both alleles are of the recessive type. Since we get an allele each from our parents, we could end up with 'Aa'/'aA' and be a CARRIER of the disease i.e. although it doesn't manifest in us, it could very well end up in our children. If both parents are carriers as in the case of Avery's parents, the probability of having a child with SMA is 25%, or 1 in 4 children.

Ok end of bio lesson. So why educate the public? According to them, the gynae doesn't do checks for SMA gene carriers when doing genetic testing, so they are trying to get more people to ask for that. Simple law of economics, if there is a demand, there will be a supply. At the same time, the blog offers us a few choices to help support research in SMA if we have the means. And really, it's our choice. I ended up spending more time reading the comments under one of the posts rather than the post itself cuz as heartwarming as most of the encouraging comments were, there were still a few by skeptics who were questioning the charity or organisation that the blog advocates, when actually it is really just about our own personal choice (like a fellow reader pointed out). Have some control and chill, people. Personally, I do not know anything abt gynaes n genetic testing and whatnot cuz im not in that phase of life or age yet. And neither are my friends. But I guess I could share the story next time so that as it spreads to other people, more will learn about the disease, whether it concerns them or not.

As Avery's dad likes to add (totally awesome n tear worthy):

"Whatever I bring to life, because I don't have time to sit back and wait for life to bring anything to me."

After wiping all my tears and I thought I've dehydrated, I decided to start on the movies that I saved (sidetrack: youtube actl has FULL movies!!! just that we have to be quick to watch or the copyright holders will complain and it will be removed) back during my study period and I was procrastinating and reading movie synopses to decide which movie link to save. Here is my haul~ for anyone interested in "free online movies" as ur google search would be, u can try typing the title into youtube search bar, the names should appear if not removed. There were a whole lot more but some I have watched before and some I have no interest in. I have read most of these movies' synopses and liked them thus saved them.

Can tell that I have searched for other random stuff during exams eh hahaha the dancing rhythm n all that was for my dance module cuz I suck big time. Anyway, after thinking for a while, decided to settle with Hello Ghost, because it was the first movie I found during this sem, halfway through exams I think. But the vid was removed by the time i re-checked during exams so I found another new subbed link =D thought would be better to watch before this got removed too.

And coincidentally, this movie was about death too. I mean sorta linked. The recurring theme was actually family. I remember reading reviews saying it's tear-wrenching etc etc but was surprised that my eyes were pretty dry except from laughing hard at some parts...then like the last 10 minutes or so? Damn the waterworks started T.T this movie is so good that I don't even want to provide spoilers like I usually like to do. Cuz I think everyone should watch it!!! The twist comes at the most unlikely part and it took me a few seconds to register and then woah, im crying. N it was really unexpected, for me at least, even after reading the synopsis cuz either I don't remember the details or the synopsis I read long ago was really just that, a synopsis and not a spoiler. Worse thing is, my parents were readying for bed, not IN BED yet so I was trying so hard to keep it in and let the tears flow ever so silently and wiping them off surreptitiously. Once they were in their rooms and the door shut, I started sniffing so loud cuz my nose was really blocked by then.

And these two separate events (do I call them events?) made me really wonder about life and how I'm always complaining or like wondering all those "what ifs", n how the grass is super green n lush on the other side, when there are actually so many things I should be grateful for. First, being alive. Second, having a complete family that actually cares for and loves me. Third, having en education. and the list goes on. N then we are to think, there are actually plenty of people who are worse off than us in many ways. Not saying that we should build on other people's despair, but each and every one of us have something that is better or worse off than others. There is really no "perfect" in this world. Cuz we as humans never seem to be satisfied. We want bigger, better, faster, all the "er" just to trying being the "est" in the world. Impossible. I remember chatting with my mum regarding this impossibility just a few days back. It was really one of those random philosophical chats I've been having with her over lunch n at random times when I'm sick of sitting there mugging. My theory is that the only way we can ever achieve "perfectness" is when we embrace and accept who we are and the situation we are in. No longer longing for something that someone else has, thinking its better, only for you to think that actually that isn't good enough when you yourself are in that position. We always aim higher and higher but for what. Doesn't really gives us happiness eh. But that's the whole point of being human I guess, we are imperfect and thus we have these thoughts that render our lives imperfect for us too. Like for me, I don't think I can ever deny myself of the fact that I really do things to gain satisfaction and thus with no satisfaction, I no longer find the value in that thing. Satisfaction=motivation for me. The wondrous nature of humans. Tsk.