Welcome!: 24, Night Festival, Summer Rain, The Dark Knight

Sunday, 20 July 2008

24, Night Festival, Summer Rain, The Dark Knight

Yeay! So finally I finished seeing the whole 5th season of 24 and it's so damn addictive! I have to say this season is way better than season 3. The first two seasons are the best (despite having Kim Bauer character whom I hate so much - a heroic show-off girl who always ends up making things a lot more complicated than it has to, remember season 2 where she 'threatened' to report Chloe for bringing the baby to work without consent when earlier she herself 'kidnapped' a little girl from her abusive father? I just wanted to strangle her and her perky breasts right there and then!)

24 - Promo for the 5th season (love this image!)

Jack once again is the coolest agent ever! I so love Kiefer Sutherland in this! Now in this season the storyline revolves around the assassination of the former president Palmer and the threat of nerve gas and nuclear weapon in the U.S. and the government conspiracy having the current President being responsible for most of these events. Tony Almeida, one of my favorite character died, sadly, and Kim appeared in two episodes (still annoying as ever). CTU, too, remains fierce and I have to say I quite like Kim Raver character, who plays Jack's love interest since the previous season. Bill and Curtis are still as likeable as ever and Chloe, despite her rude and snappy attitudes, is still the one who saves the day from behind the scenes.

Season 6 has wrapped, and season 7 is in production, but many say the 6th season isn't that good (damn you spoilers!), but I'm still gonna see it anyway, even if it's only because of Jack. Am excited!

So last weekend the gang met up to catch the Singapore Night Festival and it was fun! The turnout was huge and it's a change of scene to have events outdoor in the park with that many people. At first I couldn't stop perspiring but then it rained for a little bit and then everything was great.

I couldn't take that many good pictures, though, cos the performances included acrobats in mid-air, floating spheres, and fire and water dancing which made it hard to capture, especially when your camera is amateurish like mine, and when you have absolutely no idea about ISO blah blah, and whatever else there is. So many photographers with impressive gigantic Canon/Nikon cameras were present, happily snapping away, oblivious to people like me who had to give my camera to my cousin since he's the tall one.

We left at 11ish and decided to see 'Summer Rain' in the Picture House afterwards. Bad Habits won't be coming out til next week so this would have to do. G almost fell asleep during the movie since drama isn't his cup of tea to begin with, but the story was confusing at first, even to me, and the dialogue was way too poetic, and only after some half hour in the movie that we began to understand and were able to follow it. It actually is a pretty good one; different and interesting, tragic and heartfelt. (and Felix Gomez is damn hot in here, he looked just like Shia Labeouf from certain angle.)

See?

Summer Rain is a coming-of-age tale charting the first loves, lusts and obsessions of friends on vacation at the end of the 1970s, directed by Antonio Banderas.

I love this particular scene when they all danced and played around in the rain in slow-mo with the haunting background music!

There are a lot of cryptic, subtle visual in the movie which I don't really understand: the scene in the hospital, the part where Miguelito dove in the water and it turned red, and even the ending was open for interpretation. Was it all just a fiction serenaded by the mysterious DJ? Or did it really happen and he simply watched it from afar? And did Miguelito die in the end? And why was he barefooted in the final scene?

I guess we can interpret it anyway we like.

And one movie after another, I saw The Dark Knight yesterday and it was so great. I'm even ashamed of myself for not knowing the entire Batman story (I was actually surprised when Harvey Dent turned into the villain, duh, apparently it was a general knowledge I had no idea about even when we just discussed about it over dinner the previous night before) But the movie was full-on action from the minute it started 'til the very end: dark, fast-paced and scary all thanks to the Joker.

Love the quote that this Joker is a psychopath and when he makes one of his jokes, he's the only one laughing.

And during the last few days I also managed to see Darjeeling Limited and Elizabeth too on DVDs at home. Now that's what I call movie junky!

How about your weekend, people? :)

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Quotes

There's a hundred million different ways of writing, and it takes you a long time to sort through that stuff. And I think it takes anyone a long time to find a voice.

You must learn to take the good with the bad, the happy with the sad, love what you’ve got and remember what you had. Learn to forgive, but never forget, learn from your mistakes but never regret. People change and things go wrong, but you just have to remember that life goes on.

The day before I’m supposed to be meeting Caroline for a drink, I develop all the textbook symptoms of a crush: nervous stomach, long periods spent daydreaming, an inability to remember what she looks like. I can bring back the dress and the boots, and I can see her bangs, but her face is a blank.

I don't know, I think that if I could just accept the fact that my life is supposed to be difficult. You know, that's what to be expected, then I might not get so pissed-off about it and I'll just be glad when something nice happens.

I can see now I never really committed to Laura. I always had one foot out the door, and that prevented me from doing a lot of things, like thinking about my future and... I guess it made more sense to commit to nothing, keep my options open. And that's suicide. By tiny, tiny increments.

There's a big fucking world out there. It's messy, and it's chaotic, and it's never, never ever the thing you'd expect. It is ok to be scared, but you cannot allow your fears to turn you into an asshole, not when it comes to the people that love you, the people that need you.

Maybe what I'm saying is, is the world might be evolving the way a person evolves. Right? Like, I mean, me for example. Am I getting worse? Am I improving? I don't know. When I was younger, I was healthier, but I was, uh, whacked with insecurity, you know? Now I'm older and my problems are deeper, but I'm more equipped to handle them.

I am nothing special; just a common man with common thoughts, and I've led a common life. There are no monuments dedicated to me and my name will soon be forgotten. But in one respect I have succeeded as gloriously as anyone who's ever lived: I've loved another with all my heart and soul; and to me, this has always been enough.

Later that day I got to thinking about relationships. There are those that open you up to something new and exotic, those that are old and familiar, those that bring up lots of questions, those that bring you somewhere unexpected, those that bring you far from where you started, and those that bring you back. But the most exciting, challenging and significant relationship of all is the one you have with yourself. And if you can find someone to love the you you love, well, that's just fabulous.

A woman needs to be held, even, and science has shown this, if its with someone she doesn't care about. Protective hormones are released, and the amount of hormones released depends on the degree to which she is held. The first and best is the complete surround. He wraps you in both arms, whispers how beautiful you are. Second best is the 'arm around.' He is next to you but with one arm around you. Third is he's just next to you on his elbow, but he rests his hand on your stomach and looks at you. Fourth is you snuggling up to him with your head on his chest, while he looks away into space. But when the first best happens, you feel completely, wonderfully like a woman.

So, so what, so fuck off, go home, leave you alone? I'll tell you something Paul, there isn't anything that I've wanted for eighteen years, cause I was a kid eighteen years ago. And if I did still want the same things I'd think I'd gone wrong somewhere, because actually I don't want to marry David Cassidy, I don't want bigger tits, I don't want to do better on my marks. I've stopped worrying about that kind of thing and maybe you should try.

Well maybe there's a big bit of you that's gone missing somewhere, maybe everyone should want something they've always wanted.

Why is it that adults aren't supposed to go mad about anything? You gotta keep a lid on it. And if you don't then people are apparently entitled to say what they like. "You haven't grown up. You're a moron. Your conversation is trivial and boorish. You can't express your emotional needs. You can't relate to your children." And you die, lonely and miserable. But you know, what the hell, every cloud has a silver lining.

I just woke up one morning and didn't feel the same way. Where did it go? It was like there had been a lot of food on a plate in front of us, and we ate it all really quickly, and then there was nothing left. Maybe that's how couples stay together: they're not greedy. They know that what they have in front of them has to last a long time, so they kind of pick at it. I hope it's not like that, though. I hope that when people are happy together, it feels as though someone keeps piling seconds and thirds on their plates.

That is what I have learned: Sex is destructive. Love is nothing to be fooled with. I learned that I was dangerous, not to be trusted. I wondered if my parents were right, with all of their stiff lovelessness. Maybe they knew better. My parents don't dole out love for the deserving or the undeserving. I was learning that love could cost me.

You could say all you liked about reason and logic and common sense and imagination, but when the chips were down, the one skill you needed was the ability to think about absolutely nothing whatsoever.

There is a comfort in never making an effort, but it's a lonely comfort. What keeps you going is the knowledge that you're only playing with only four cards showing. But when you see other people succeeding with their mediocre hands, you have to make a decision. If you turn over that final card you're certain of victory, but it also means you have nothing in reserve.

I’d gone through life believing in the strength and competence of others; never in my own. Now, dazzled, I discovered that my capacities were real. It was like finding a fortune in the lining of an old coat.

Maybe we all live life at too high a pitch, those of us who absorb emotional things all day, and as mere consequence we can never feel merely content: we have to be unhappy, or ecstatically, head-over-heels happy, and those states are difficult to achieve within a stable, solid relationship.