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Sunday, Feb 26, 2017 - 22:45 SGT
Posted By: Gilbert

Film Flam

"You know you're getting older when you transition from not having enough money to buy games, to not having enough time to play all the games you bought."

- r/showerthoughts (so true, so true)
[N.B. Even held off Civ 6 till it came out on Humble Bundle; no, haven't booted it up; afraid of what might happen]


Plenty of stuff's been going on: solemnization ceremonies (not mine), paper submissions, yesterday's Marina Run (no, they haven't learnt to mud-proof the finishing area with sufficient wooden boards yet), Bitcoin bursting past its all-time high (but that's a topic for another time), and the usual litany of it-should-work-why-doesn't-it headaches... still, here goes the weekly instalment.


Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (2016)

Here we have a pipe-smoking Eva Green as the black-uniformed mentor of a select group of supernaturally-gifted kids, the most prominent of which is a newcomer from the "outside world", who immediately has a personality clash with a brooding rival (for what it's worth, I thought Olive was hotter anyway; too bad about the anorexia now, tho)

Anyway, our reluctant hero passes up his opportunity to lie low in the everyday world, and returns to aid his new friends. It turns out that he, thanks to his unique genetic heritage, has an ability essential in the fighting of the mindlessly destructive monsters called Hollows, one of which had previously left a deep impression by murdering his parent-figure...

It was at this point that I figured that they had more-or-less adapted Bleach (Shino Aburame from Naruto makes a guest appearance, and yes, the Asian character got whitefaced again; plus, the kid with a mouth in the back of the head? Japanese culture too). Eh, there're enough distinguishing elements, I suppose. Plot-wise, one wonders why they didn't simply unleash the Gorgon Twins and petrify all the baddies at a go. They certainly looked willing enough.

Other than that, the most interesting bit was probably the time loops (previously explored in Groundhog Day, Death's tale in The Sandman: Endless Nights, etc), in particular the part where Emma waits under a tree, to catch a baby squirrel, regular as clockwork. Offhand, this seems to imply an extremely low branching factor for chaos, since the human characters certainly retain memory and agency.

Would it be that we could relive GOD-EMPEROR TRUMP's election again and again, though...


Poor CNN, getting shut out everywhere
(Source: r/the_donald)



Cai Shen Ye (2017)

After the end of the From Vegas to Macau trilogy (which, to be honest, was beginning to skin a beaten dead horse), we went local for the annual CNY movie, and the consensus was that it was - maybe - a 3 out of 10. Generously.

This may sound bad, but the whole production screamed "amateur", from beginning to end - cheesy plot, one-dimensional acting (which could perhaps partly be pinned on the plot), low-budget props and settings, and the whole liberally lathered over with in-your-face moralistic overtones... the best can be said is that all this meant that I didn't even bother thinking about the plot holes. Oh, and the camera stayed in focus throughout, that's something.

True, Singaporeans may have something of a reputation for downplaying their fellow countrymen's accomplishments (e.g. for literature), but in this case, not I want to say, but cannot make it really means cannot make it, lah.

But, thing is, I do think we have the scriptwriting and producing talent, especially as it wasn't that bad before. There were moving epics like The Price of Peace, dramas like The Little Nyonya... heck, even Under One Roof made some waves. But now? Perhaps there are too many alternatives nowadays, but surely there're more room to explore, than using canned concussions to work in plot twists?

Fine, maybe we're a small market, but surely there are plenty of unmined topics, like say politics... okay, forget it. It sure doesn't look like we're gonna have a Seinfeld or similar out-of-left-field groundbreaker anytime soon...

But, wait! Hot on the heels of muh innovation, a panel (including the esteemed Profs. Mahbubani and Koh, recently featured here) has come out and said that Singapore needs more naysayers. Concurrently, the PM has declared that he tries not to surround himself with yes men, and that leaders must be able to take criticism and admit mistakes.

...I will just say that TRUMP's all-knowing Great Prophet of Kek, Scott Adams, has this long figured out...


Hint: Bascially, it's a test of intelligence.
If you take them at their word - despite all the ample past evidence to the contrary - you've failed the test.
(Source: dilbert.com)


[N.B. While we're on criticism and mistakes, here are some opinions on Graeber's Debt: The First 5000 Years (covered Jan 2014), and Diamond's Collapse (Dec 2015)]


Fine, Bookmark Clearance Time



We should have fun games like bo-taoshi... and others...




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