I've been home for a week now. Malaysia is insanely hot, but I heard Korea is just as. And so is Beijing as told by another friend. But I really enjoy walking around in tees and shorts sweating away under the heat. I find it madly exhilarating. It is way better than sitting inside my home and cooped up in the oven like heat.

I'm gonna go karaoke with a couple of mates tomorrow. I thought out a list of songs that would be a social suicide to dish out at the K-room:
1. I just call to say I love you
2. Making love out of nothing at all
3. Tarzan Boy
4. All by myself (well, it can go either way. High camp fun or confessional embarrassment)
5. Heal the world

And I am hooked on Okami

Found my fav scene from the movie "Rushmore".
The poignancy and humor in this scene is perfect.

I've been a 薛凯琪 (Fiona Sit) fan for awhile now. I think her voice and brand of pop songs are unique in its own way. Just recently I took a good look at the lyric of the song 男孩像你 "Boys like you", only then I realize it was a story of an unrequited love of a girl for a boy that only loves his own kind.


Video: http://kr.youtube.com/watch?v=NKKYBIEb_OM

Wyman again hits the lyrical bullseye. There is a part that says:
寒流来何以你先拥抱他
回头时才替我遮挡雪花
是从甜蜜里 分我甜蜜吗
*When the cold spell hits you held him first
only then you turned around to cover me from the frost
Is that an act of intimacy overflow from your share of intimacy with him?
(this is a poor translation, the verse sounds a million times better in its original form)

Bittersweet saccharin pop in its finest form.

男孩们来约我一般送花 而无人能似你亲手种花
但男孩像你 不要我下嫁
男孩们能有你般纤细吗 谈情时和我那种感性吗
但男孩像你 只爱同类吗

假使间这一刻我要你凭良心
想一想 拣一拣 实在是和谁衬
你会说是命运 你与我其实熟得很 但他总比较亲
好知己好姊妹 那里会谈情感
不牵手不亲咀 但是亦能陪我 下半生

问你这夜最后 送谁回家 我信那个会是我
但我心里知道 男孩像你 不想跟妹妹拍拖
共你笑着说着 戏剧时装 那怕错过了幸福 彼此搓陀
仍然可以彼此帮助 沉闷晚上相约渡过

寒流来何以你先拥抱他 回头时才替我遮挡雪花
是从甜蜜里 分我甜蜜吗
如从前无法碰到这个他 和良朋能够变出恋爱吗
若然矇着眼 又能投入吗

像个世上最坏 爱情童话 最衬你那个是我
就算都算相爱 仍然没法比兄妹浪漫更多
共我继续约会 喝茶谈天你说胜过了共他一起消磨
为何他会得到宝座 长伴身边的却是我 *sniff sniff

I had quite an awesome weekend going to the Puchon Fantastic Film Festival. In total I have watched about 7 films:

1. Timecrimes (Los Cronocrímenes)
2. Otto, or Up with Dead People (by the notorious Bruce LaBruce)
3. Shadow Spirit
4. Tokyo Gore Police
5. The Machine Girl
6. Let the right one in (Låt den rätte komma in)
7. Fear(s) of the Dark

The ones that I really enjoyed and recommend will have to be Timecrimes, Tokyo Gore Police and Let the right one in.


Timecrimes is one smart mystery sci-fi. It's funny and it's bleak. I was absolutely at the edge of my seat, worrying for the characters. After the movie, I was shaking my head thinking what a genius of a movie it is. Totally love it.

Timecrimes Trailer



Tokyo Gore Police. What can I say. The title should pretty much prepares the audience for the onslaught of splattery gory images. The amount of blood spills in the movie is like the ketchup factory has exploded. Despite the mad gore, it is also insanely funny. There are moments in the film it became so dark and sinister it made me shuffled in my seat and squealed nervous laughs. Especially over the plot of privatized police forces run amok and abusing their power. Definitely not for the faint hearted and one with weak stomach.

Tokyo Gore Police Trailer



Let the right one in. It's a story of a boy and his vampire lover that has been 12 year old for a long long time. The imagery of the film is like Sigur Rós music during the Ágætis Byrjun and ( ) phase being set to movie. It's chilly, strange and mesmerizing. I never thought a horror movie can be this movingly beautiful.

Let the right one in Trailer


This has to be another of my highlight in Korea!

There was once a girl she humiliated me by beating me in arm wrestling. All my friends were there to witness the public moment of shame. All the people that would not give a shit about it was there too cos' it happened at the cafeteria. Emma, that was her name. The girl that made me walked around with my head hung low for a week. But Emma also has a great taste in music and lend me a couple of CDs: Tindersticks, Eels, Belle and Sebastian, Elliott Smith... For initiating me into a furious love affair with Elliott Smith's music, I guess I can forgive her for the public humiliation.



The first Smith's album I borrowed off Emma was "Either/Or". I've heard "The Ballad of Big Nothing" from a sampler CD, and that got me really interested in hearing more of his music. The Beatles-esque jangly-guitar pop was just irresistible. I dubbed the CD into a cassette and was listening to it every night in my tiny little ship's cabin (I lived on the sea for three years). The music soothed me. The way he sings the word "fuck" was so... perfect in punctuating the feeling of frustrations. A friend once said he is amused by how such a rough looking man can cuss in such angelic way in a song. Case in point: Pictures of Me and Say Yes.



I think "Either/Or" will always stay as my all time favorite album of ES. It reminded me of living life on the sea, playing poker in my cabin with mates, and the ego bruise from arm wrestling with Emma (her sister Elin tackled me down on the beach with the eye-witness of other mates not very long ago from the arm wrestling of shame incident). Yes, Elliott's music is just perfect for the down trodden losers, misfits and outcast... he is the Morrissey of the 90s.