Gender trangression in hk cinema

my self-chosen topic for our asian film history term paper.
which i finished writing an hour ago.
which am quite pleased with so you can go read it : here .
if only singapore wasn't so anal.
if only the repeal377a petition didn't fail.
i hate living in a city of close-minded people.
cos "i don't care if you're a boy or a girl. all i know is that i love you."
- sam (boy), just before kissing wing (girl dressed as boy), He's A Woman She's A Man (1994)

Let's party with food shoot

paused my recent spate of editing to go play in a channel u gameshow yesterday.
we shot from 12pm till 1030pm.
and i won $288.

because our ep is to be broadcast 2 days before xmas, we had to behave like it was almost xmas :

(me and the studio and another contestant)

(me and jun, the ap who asked me to come play)

(me and some of the celebrities in the episode and i heart michelle chong)

and i bumped into andy while dinnering at the canteen :


he's now in star search so he forced me to call 1900-112-5004.
i haven't dialed 1900-112-anything in 12 years.
but i did it for him cos he really is very handsome and i think he really should become a mediacorp artiste haha.
support andy! call 1900-112-500FOUR!

Tan pin pin and her invisible city

今日ntu有free invisible city screening。
重有tan pin pin在嗰度做post-show qna。

我係中意invisible city多過中意singapore gaga 。
（其實唔係幾中意singapore gaga嘅啦。）
一樣就係覺得太raw啦。
自己都有做edit嘅人， 見到咁樣嘅quality一定會覺得有d唔dim ga。

重有， 睇完之後本來覺得劇片係一個critique on singapore society。
但係佢post-show qna嘅時候又話無咁嘅intention wor。
之後我就無咁中意ge la。

全因為給hengleun/lixie spoiled左啦。
我依家中意像佢哋咁大膽講大膽做嘅"activist"劇片。哈哈。
tanpinpin有d太安全啦。
其實invisible city都有potential講多d bigger issues than just the difficulties of remembering ga...
（hai我廣東話太差啦。唔試解釋所以用英文啦。）
睇gan時候好明顯ga...
hint: why are we not remembering and why are we remembering?
只不過導演睇唔出／唔想講ze ma。

如果係我訪問一樣班人。。。
如果係我edit嗰部戲。。。
嗰部戲就一定吓死人。哈哈。

唔講啦。
睇photos ：




又係一個nicole。
都話啦。我世界真係有好多nicoles。

In the realm of senses

banned in singapore.
banned in goodness knows how many other countries.
recommended for viewing as part of our asian film history module so we know what sexploitation films are like :


30ish of us film students watched it together in the film lab just now.
watched them having sex non-stop.
oral anal indoor outdoor day night private in front of people couple orgy with food with corpse with children with objects urination strangulation...
after one hour we were just desperate for him to get castrated and die (bee thiam gave spoilers) so that we could just stop watching them having sex.
not because it was gross or immoral or whatever.
but because after one hour, sex is just sex is just sex.

Grinning stupidly

once upon a time, there was a princess who found an ugly grey monster.
she said to it: i'll give you a pot of gold if you paint my house.
so the monster painted her house and the princess gave it a pot of gold.
and candy. and horserides.
a few days later, the monster said to the princess: i have no pot of gold but can you paint my house?
the princess shrugged and painted the monster's house for free.
a few days later, the princess said to the monster: i have no pot of gold but can you paint my house?
the monster shook its ugly head and said no: i want a pot of gold.
the princess shrugged and didn't get her house painted and moved to a kingdom far far away.
a few days later, the monster stood in front of the house the princess painted for free and turned green with guilt.
100 years later, this ugly green monster went adventuring on the back of a spider.
it came across the princess' house and said to the princess: i will paint your house for free.
the princess said: ok.
and the monster turned back to its ugly grey colour, grinned stupidly and lived happily ever after.
the end.

the moral of the story is: if you don't want to be a green monster you have to paint houses for free after princesses paint your house for free.

you can find the princess' blog: here.
i came across it today at dramabox while waiting for the dramabox ladies to finish admiring their corporate dvd.
and i'm not just offering to help just to feel less green.
but also cos i heart her spirit.
and also cos recently so many people have been so bloody nice to me for no reason at all that i am feeling automatically compelled to be bloody nice to people for no reason at all too.
perhaps this is the way to nirvana?

(and her upcoming show does look like the kind i like. so exciting.)

I just converted to pastafarianism

（因為我明年要居於香港5個月，但係依家中文又差到唔知點講有幾差，所以我呢排就會多用中文來blog 。 你哋唔識睇無所謂。我有機會連寫連睇就得ge啦。好殘ga你知唔知啊！baibai去香港都唔識睇menu，永遠都食唔到我真正要食啲嘢wor! 所以我要給啲心機來學寫學睇。去嗰陣時就唔使咁辛苦啦！）

今日上左facebook見到manloon嘅religion係pastafarian.
唔知咩鬼嘢所以去google。
知道之後，笑一陣，就決定自己都係啦。
你自己去google睇啦。呢啲嘢我再讲落去都唔係幾ahm嘅。

上堂嗰陣時拍嘅：



佢係nicole。
我生活里边真係有好多nicoles。

I just signed repeal377A

i couldn't take it.
when repeal377A first appeared, i was asked by a few friends to sign.
i didn't want to initially because i am not a man and i figured i shouldn't get involved. and that they'd probably win their case anyhow.
but now that keep377A has appeared, i will show my stand.
because keep377A says : "Singapore remains a country and a society that wants our children to grow up in an environment where wholesome family values are embraced, without a mainstreamed gay lifestyle. Repealing Section 377A would be the first step towards eroding the family values we hold."
oh please. how wholesome can your values be when it doesn't include tolerance? and you would rather your children grow up in an environment that has authorities spying into their bedrooms to make sure the one they are having sex with is female?
i don't. and i don't want my children to be ordered how to live either.

i once read a quote: (gist) not taking a stand does not mean you're not getting involved. it means you're supporting the ones with power.

Spent the weekend living in school

worked on my mountain of projects. but don't want to talk about that.

instead you should go see these :
repeal377A.com
keep377A.com
enshrine377A.blogspot.com.

this is one of the examples why i don't believe in obedience.
why i don't believe in following rules. or a bible. or legislation. (alright i openly defy the latter the least often because the risk often involves my pocket or, since i live in singapore, my head and i feel strongly about protecting my pocket and my head.)
but rules are created by other humans to enforce their way of life upon you. and more often than not to protect their interests over yours. example: singaporeans can't bring in more than one pack of cigarettes when they come through customs though the international standard is 10 packs max. and why? because the government wants us to buy their ridiculously overtaxed cigarettes. they say the taxes are so high because they want to deter smoking so singaporeans can lead a healthier life. i say they know they can profit, and they don't want to waste a workforce that can generate GDP. and i also say i want to have that bloody choice whether or not to live that healthier life. i want to be able to choose whether to smoke to death or live longer. and its not like i'm harming the public's health or anything since i do comply to the no-smoking at bus-stops/food places/clubs law. so why should i pay for your bloody overtax and watch our ministers get fatter? so that i can be a good healthy singaporean and work till 80 for the good of the country at the expense of my own free will? am i selfish for wanting to live as a person and not just a singaporean at the bloody garhmen's disposal to increase population and deter the popularity of chinese political parties? (yes i learnt alot about singapore from the singapore society module i'm taking.) i do it now because its a rule and i have no choice. so i hate rules because i want a choice.
i can't understand how anyone can be proud that they are obeying another person's insistance of behavior. don't they want to have a say in how they navigate their world? alot of rules are set on the premise that is for the good of the masses. like not-eating in trains. but think of how many commuters would really rather spend that hour of travel having their meals in a smell-infested, perhaps not so clean cabin than stare into space aimlessly in a clean, unexciting one for one bloody hour twice everyday? or at least they should give the commuters options like eating cabins and non-eating cabins so that people can choose to live their hours more meaningfully and not enforce one bloody rule for all just because you want to be known as the cleanest city in the world. and because you don't have to take a bloody hour of public transport yourself.
i think the enforcers should teach the public to care rather than insist they just obey through rules and penalties.
because the way alot of singaporean authorities comply to rules nowdays annoys the shit out of me. another example: we film-makers can't make films solely in dialect even though dialect is spoken by all our old people. because a rule was enforced back in the 60s to try and deter dialect clan forming. we no longer have dialect clans around. but the garhmen is still scaredy. and so my grandparents have nothing to watch in a language that is really their own. and they can't communicate with their grandchildren anymore. much less their community. because the youth were taught to forget dialects. the rules weren't made in favour of my grandparents. it was made in favour of the nation. what a group of people decided was more important. and yet the old peoples' world changed and left them behind because a set of rules were passed. and people obeyed.
the problem is rules are absolutes. but life doesn't work in absolutes.
and if it does in corporations, nations and schools, then there is oppression.
but isn't oppression for a greater good?
the one that is oppressed wouldn't say so.
and don't get me started on why i'll never be a christian.
there is no black or white for me. everything is GRAY.

randomly :


lincoln looks so sexy when he's tired. i'm envious.

介紹戲劇盒的靚女 :

nicole!


jo!


rachel!

我愛戲劇盒！

Almost had to stay over in school again

because the bloody computer clock was one hour slow.
and i didn't know.
happily packed bags at 11 and realised it was really 12.
resigned self to being doomed to spend the night editing away.
then unexpectedly at 2am zihan came a-pounding at my door and asked if i wanted a lift cos he was cabbing home.
of course i did.
that's why i'm home now. clean. with brushed teeth. and will be getting to sleep on a bed.
the cab fare was $21.20.
zihan my hero.


this random photo is because i wanna gush more about the altec lansing subwoofer.
it inspired me into another canto-techno bass-blasting hour again just now.
as if i hadn't done enough of that on sunday.
(i don't care how elegant you think canto-techno is. loves it anyway.)

其實我細嘅時候最驚老豆嘅subwoofer。

因為我當時好驚好驚地振動嘅感覺。

但係依家我中意。

證明張大了！

Very productive weekend

stayed over in school on sat night.
finished the first batch of changes to the dramabox corp dvd.
and (the best) finished editing the 7 tapes of the everyman performance into a 45min show.
(if you edit too then you'll understand that having finished this in 2 days is an amazing amazing amazing feat)

discovered the film editing suites. which are my new heaven.
imagine privacy. imagine silence. imagine a kickass sound system with bass and tone toggles in your face. imagine being able to blast music while doing brainless repetitive dvd menu editing.
loved it. slept there. stayed there. will keep going back there.
even if i'm going to have to fight the other 25 people for it.

ended the weekend with dinner with my darling peach who looks all high fashion with her new copper-wire hair extensions.
whereas i was the geeky homeless-looking person that hadn't bathed since friday night.

Yesterday's excursions

to little india again for lucy davis' class :








to prove to susie that you really still can get food at $2.50 in sg :


after contemporary dance class :





after supper :


my big plan for the "weekend" in to live in school and finish editing the everyman video and not eat fat foods.
i bet yours is better.

I wanna play super mario

or any 2 dimensional obstacle course type game of yesteryear.
got reminded of it after playing the facebook version of it just now.
but the facebook version of it is too easy and too short.
i went all the way to killing the biggest king in one sitting.
and now i want more super mario.

but i can't.


spent the morning helping at the iro's discover europe conference.
got free food again.
spent the noon/evening/night working on editing the everyman video.

i just wanna play super mario dammit.

I am too bloody greedy

so now i am suffering and afraid.
i did finish dramabox's drift shoots and their corporate dvd today though.
amidst going for an iro meeting, an ierc meeting and down to dramabox.
so that leaves only 4 other video projects to complete by the end of this month.
i feel like kicking myself in the face for accepting so many at one go.
but then i remember the money dangled and i forgive myself.

I can almost do a headstand

almost...
perhaps by the next session i'll get there.
and my yoga classmate told me once you get it you get it forever.
cool. life skill.

Finished shooting docu on fathers today!

1.5 weeks after i began my first shoot.
used the xl2. 7 different locations. total cost $10.

random trivia :
when i went to their homes,
nicole fed me fried rice and veg.
micheal fed me a bun.
grace fed me 3 chocolate-coated caramel sweets.
tommie fed me nothing.
amanda/han offered to feed me dumplings but i had to rush to jovian's.
jovian fed me pizza and truffle mooncake.
everyone apologised for their mess.
tommie's answers were my favourite.

now to edit.

2 new paying projects

just fell from the sky for me to work on :
1. shooting of making-of/ad footage for dramabox's upcoming shanghai production, Drift.
2. directing the cameramen for ntu iro's Discover Europe event next week.
plus the paying projects that came earlier, i am currently juggling 5 projects concurrently.
4 will feed me. 1 will nurture me.
and because all 5 are video-related, i heart my life.