Diary of Anne Frank + Predestination (2014), Inside Out (2015),The Martian (2015)

Every time I look through one of those "Books to Read Before You Die" Lists, The Diary of Anne Frank pops up. I won't say the book is that amazing, but for sure reading a true life account of hiding in WWII is somewhat interesting. 

I get heavyhearted whenever Anne speaks about her hopes about the future after the war, her prospects as a journalist and a burgeoning writer. Knowing that towards the end she eventually dies bearing all these hopeful aspirations really makes me feel discontented at the lack of happy ending because such a bright young lady obviously deserves better. Anne's positivity in the face of war cannot be ignored. 

As with all teenage girls, a part of her diary was devoted to her development of affection for Peter, the strife between her and her mother, and her relationships and opinions on those who were in the Secret Annexe. Being cooped up in the hiding place obviously made her desperate for physical intimacy with Peter (who she then realises wasn't manly enough for her), and frustrated at the littlest interactions with her family. It got a bit dreary when she goes on about the internal conflict within herself, how despite the veneer of happiness and witticisms, she is in fact tender, sensitive and quiet, which is probably so common in the phase of pubescence. 

Being a diary, there were alot of introspection which made me feel some sort of a connection with Anne herself when I was reading and I guess this is what makes The Diary of Anne Frank a perennial, posthumous favourite. 3.5/5 A very simple read, because you might have to dumb yourself down to understand the workings of a 14 year old. But this should not dilute Anne Frank's optimistic, soul-searching personality that thoroughly resonates throughout the book. 

There have also been a few books whose reviews I've been putting off. These I have completed before school started/just started, and I'll do a short condensed review:

The White Tiger - Aravind Adiga
4.5/5 
Go read it, you'll be enlightened by the first-person recount of a Indian servant-turned-entrepreneur. The book speaks to you, the words leap out and grab you; you'll feel that someone actually regales you with their success story with splashes of dark humour on the impossible social ladder in India. Why is this not made into a movie???

Between the Assassinations - Aravind Adiga
2.5/5
Thankfully I gave Adiga another shot as I chose to read The White Tiger. Between the Assassinations was a series of short stories leading no where, or rather, I couldn't dissect or discern the point Adiga was trying to make. About India's caste system and poverty.

Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk 
4/5
The movie could succinctly summarise the book, and would probably be an ideal option for those who can't follow Palahniuk's style of writing (I tried my best). Despite the contemporary prose of the brilliant/trying-too-hard Palahniuk (I sit on the fence regarding this), Fight Club is shocking and refreshing, very characteristic of Palahniuk.

The Girl on the Train - I don't really care
2/5
Remember Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn? Something similar, but less mystery, because the main character blacks out very often and halfway through the book I'm so jaded by her mucking around and practically doing nothing but bathing herself in alcohol that I don't even bother to keep up with the mystery.

Brave New World - Aldous Huxley 
4/5
One of the Big 3 of dystopian novels, but very unfortunately I can't remember much of the story, perhaps because it did't strike me as much as it should. Set in the future where hedonism is ideal and is the key to peace, a savage from the Savage Reservation (think normal people with normal ideals - Shakespeare-appreciating, monogamous) forays into this utopic society and ends up being very conflicted with loving Lenina.

Predestination (2014)

- "Which came first - the chicken or the egg?"
- "The Rooster."

If you know me rather well you'd know that one of my least favourite book/movie genre is Sci-Fi but this 2014 Australian film did it. Lousy poster aside, this time-travelling movie has a pretty solid plot (and this probably says alot especially coming from someone who's ever so skeptical about science fiction). I was talking to Thien about how I like intelligent movies, and she brought this up and so we spent an evening being a pair of couch potatoes - despite being in a flurry of deadlines and events this week!

A man walks into a bar - 'man', in this case - Sarah Snook passed off as a convincing 'John' with her strong jaw which made her resemble Leonardo DiCaprio (lol). As her life story unfurls, the movie drags, but having her flashback occupying so much screentime means that it's obviously important. John reveals that "When she was a little girl...." - the bartender (Ethan Hawke) does a double-take - she was headstrong, and was bereft of social decorum and therefore friends. Magic happens when you realise the impossibly intricate relationship between 'John', his past female identity 'Jane', and the bartender.

These 3 identities are connected by the "Predestination Paradox" - which essentially loops the cause and effect relationship within a duration of time. If you have the chicken, mustn't it hatch from an egg? But doesn't the egg come from a chicken? Of course, I grappled with this idea even after the movie, but the movie is still really mind-blowing! It was adapted from the 1959 short story "'—All You Zombies—'" by Robert A. Heinlein, which I'll probably read and review it.

*** SPOILER***

How do you procreate yourself???? Just like what Thien said "This takes narcissism to a whole new level" oh dear. If there's any point in time where the Predestination Paradox perpetuates itself, it must be when 'John' decides to love 'Jane' in absence of contraception, dammit. This brings us to a plot hole, which is that Jane seemingly readily takes on masculinity after a traumatic birth (of herself...'cause PARADOX oh my) which changes her sex only. Anyway, it takes a hell lot of loneliness for someone to have sex with their opposite-sex-self while being FULLY AWARE that they are literally, THE SAME PERSON. Which isn't so far-fetched considering that the movie paid substantial amount of attention to how Jane couldn't click with any other people.

There is also an underlying subtlety in the response "The Rooster" to the Chicken-Egg question. Neither chicken or egg, The Rooster suggests a prominent figure that puts the Predestination Paradox into traction, which in this case, I feel is the secret time-travelling organisation whose mission is to prevent as many future crimes as possible. Throughout the movie Robertson seems to be egging 'John' to continue the loop - perhaps to retain him as one of his agents, since if 'John' does otherwise, he ceases to exist.

*** END *** 

Overall, a pretty brilliant movie, 8.7/10. I'm quite surprised that this wasn't released with much fanfare last year, because I first heard of it only when it was recommended. As with time-travelling, my tenses for this review are all over the place.

Inside Out (2015)

Inside Out was surprisingly good! It has been AGES since I last watched a Pixar movie [Monsters University (2013)] - again, not exactly a fan of animated movies. I really liked the personification of individual emotion because it is quite funny that each character-emotion displays their typical emotion-characteristics. During the movie I can't help but going back to whatever I've learnt in my Psychology Intro (the different theories of emotion, and how they differ from this movie, long/short term memories, and how personality is an agglomeration of experience-fueled traits). The only gripe is that the allusions to so much psych stuff makes Inside Out age-inappropriate. I mean, kids won't grasp the whole emotion-character thing. 7.7/10! Finally a refreshing idea after Monsters Inc. 

The Martian (2015)

I was really looking forward to this movie because its trailer was quite interesting and I was quite interested in seeing how being stranded in space would play out. Sadly other than the beginning and end the movie was a little boring and totally draggy and halfway through I just can't wait for him to go home. Plus I kinda realised that the scenes all consisted of Matt Damon, alot of Martian soil, spacecraft stuff which made the scenes so...unvaried. 5/10

I hate to admit this, but I really miss my friends :-(
I'm not too verbal or comfortable with mawkish feelings and corny dispositions, but recently hanging out with people who'd formed a large part of my secondary school life really contrasts with that of University. We touched on how the deepest friendships are usually forged when we were naive to whatever adulthood has in store for us, ignorant of the consequences that are contingent upon on our actions. We wore our hearts on our sleeves without any qualms because being young, sunny and dumb insulates us from things we cannot avoid upon hitting adulthood. Now that we are, presumably, mature, and fully aware of the enormity of adulthood, priorities start to kick in and the struggle for the head-start in life consumes the ambitious among us. I honestly feel very heartened to see people I hold dear to develop passion and belief in whatever they are doing, and how some of them have already hit their first few milestones in life! Invariably, I cannot help but compare myself to them, and fear that I'll be the odd one out still struggling in coming to terms with myself and the capricious future. But of course, I seek the assurance that it's totally fine!!! There's nothing wrong being 19 and not have a yellow brick road set in mind. Life to short to even care at all ohohoh oh ohhhhhh oh

Unfriended + Red Dragon - Thomas Harris

Urgh, one of the worst horror movies ever. Actually, I have my reservations calling it a horror movie because it was NOT scary. It got really boring from the start because Unfriended is basically a  movie filmed through continuous screen video of a series of intermittent Skype chats, Facebook messaging, YouTube and music playlists. The entire portion of the movie was dedicated to just watching the faces of 5 people through low-resolution, occasional-freezing webcams. I understand they're trying to recreate a new horror concept, but nope, not working well. 

Speaking of new horror concept, I'm currently reading Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix. Unfortunately, because I've downloaded it into my Kindle, I'm unable to feel for myself its unique presentation conceptualised from the all-too-famous Ikea catalogues. The preface, chapter covers, design etc are modeled from the yearly thin-paper spreads. I chanced upon its cover while clicking around on Goodreads and did a double take, thinking no way a book can be based on, and/or parody the Swedish furniture retailer. 

Back to Unfriended. Basically the above is like 80% of what you'll see during the movie. Urgh, think ABC's Pretty Little Liars mated with Paranormal Activity Number Something (the one with the girl and webcam). Minus the scare factor, amp up sound effects during jump scares. There was hardly any supernatural involvement. It was more about betrayals and alot of screaming and crying. Annoying. 

Red Dragon - Thomas Harris

I'm only embarking the Hannibal book series seriously after reading one hit novel The Silence of the Lambs a few years ago. I was really quite interested in a cannibalistic psychiatrist manipulating another mentally unsound savant-sleuth, but realised that was the backstory and the prelude to The Silence of the Lambs, which was inspired by infamous Ed Gein murders. I then got sucked into the NBC drama Hannibal, WHOSE SEASON 3 WILL BE OUT ON JUNE 4 Yay omg will definitely update more on the Hannibal series!!! Can't get enough of my psychotic classy cannibal-psychiatrist turned fugitive. 

Red Dragon was good. Other than the title and book cover that may mislead people into thinking it's a disgusting spin-off of the YA series Inheritance Cycle (really don't know what it's all about. Except dragons), this crime thriller was appropriately paced - not too draggy, good sneak peak into the childhood of the serial killer to evoke just abit of sympathy. Amazing revelation at the end to shock readers. But I disliked the different locations of the crime investigation bureaus/forensic labs whatever which confused me a little because I'm not too well-versed with the different American states. Just like The Silence of the Lambs, Red Dragon puts Hannibal Lecter and his complex relationship with Graham as a secondary plot appendaged to the cat-and-mouse hunt of the psychotic killer. Red Dragon is the first of the Hannibal novel series, and I'll definitely be continuing it. As with the drama, of course.  

It's the end of May soon, and thinking about how my 7 or 8 month holiday is coming to an end before I get sucked back into the vortex of assignments, learning, grades, whatever, in the all-too-familiar system while upholding the demands of a $50K investment is terrifyingly exciting. Terrifying due to the onslaught of academic demands that I am confident in surmounting (as of now, lol, it may be too early to say), exciting because there's so many NEW opportunities and experience! The amount of positivity I have with regards to the future right now is not in line with my pessimistic, skeptical nature. I guess it says alot about my expectations of university life too. I guess I'll do up a proper update when I really mourn for the loss of my 8 months holiday when university officially starts.

The Lazarus Effect

One thing I hate more than cheap, expected scare tactics in horror movies is wishy-washy, weak supernatural backstory. The Lazarus Effect was a good sci-fi horror movie, but not without its blandly predictable, timely jumpscares and typical suspense scenes. I really liked the plot of this movie and it's very rare that I would like an angmoh horror movie. PLUS, omg it's rated PG 13 only.

According to Wikipedia, the "Lazarus Phenomenon" is the medical nomenclature for a "spontaneous resuscitation" - due to unknown causes - after a cardiac failure. Basically in layman's words, you die for a moment, then you resuscitate.

The movie was about a team of scientists working on a promising project using what they have extracted "Lazarus serum". Injecting it into the brain they end up resurrecting a dog which subsequently developed aggressive inclinations due to its heightened brain functions. To protect the authenticity and profits of their brainchild from the corporate world, they decide to replicate their experiment, only to electrocute one of the scientists, Zoe by accident.

After a series of jarring decision making in complete abandonment of ethics and scientific code of conduct, Frank resurrected "Zoe", pulling her out of her purgatory that was self-constructed upon a traumatic childhood remorse, thereby unleashing this weird demonic version of Zoe into their lab.I thought that the backstory and explanation of the movie plot was amazingly cogent, given that it's a supernatural horror story. Perhaps the sciency part about this medical resurrection which the movie centered around injected a bit of logic that is ever absent in horror films. I guess this was the number one thing which made the film stood out and be sadly underrated.

My only gripe about this movie is how terribly predictable the scenes were. Basic horror film tactics like flickering lights, perpetually dark hallways, sweeping your flashlights here and there... Well they do add suspense but they aren't original. For horror, it's really just those basic jumpscares which you can clearly foresee especially with the typical suspenseful buildup as mentioned. Nothing new. But that doesn't discredit the scare of the movie. I thought it was quite scary? Not the scariest, but it still qualifies as a horror.

Here is Evan Peters dying prematurely. NOOOOOO

Considering I felt a little need to relieve my bladder throughout the movie but still stayed on because I couldn't find a boring opportunity to do so, The Lazarus Effect is definitely something I'd recommend for anyone who seeks well explained sci-fi horror.

The Imitation Game + Freeing SG

Caught this highly anticipated thriller biopic The Imitation Game! I was abit frustrated when I entered the cinema because I was a little late.
The first few parts of this movie was like warming up to Alan Turing, getting to know his personality and eccentricities. Played by Benedict Cumberbatch, Turing is depicted as a sociopathic genius whom I cannot help but draw parallel with the BBC Sherlock. "Irascible genius", coined in the film, really quite fit their descriptions; both having no regard for social decorum which lead to comic relief scenes in the film and drama respectively.

And OMG, just to digress, I've been keeping a close eye on #SETLOCK2015!!! I'm completely ruining the upcoming Sherlock special and the 4th season (in 2016 - the woes of being a Sherlock fan) with all these spoilers like:

?!?!

ANYWAY back to T.I.G., I would love to learn the specifics about the machine which Turing built and affectionately christened "Christopher" in the movie, like how it actually decrypts codes from Enigma because I felt the movie won't quite capture correctly the brilliance of Turing without, at least, explaining the process of his mammoth undertaking, which was building "Christopher". But of course the movie-makers had to make something idiot-proof enough to pander to the layman's understanding (or lack thereof, lol) at the expense of showing off Turing's mathematical and engineering capabilities. Afterall, this is a biopic film and it doesn't really matter whether it adheres to historical accounts by the film-maker's standard. Though factually false, the christening of his machine (the actual one was called "Bombe", according to Wikipedia) after a childhood friend/first love does perfectly tie in with a food-for-thought scene as to whether it is possible to humanise a machine. In the end, you could see how emotionally attached Turing was to the post-war vestiges of "Christopher".

Source

The later part of the movie touched abit on Turing's struggle as a homosexual in mid-20th century England which was abit thought-provoking because even after "shortening World War II for more than 2 years", he was still prosecuted for "gross indecency". Is it unfair and offensive to send a gay war hero who saved millions of lives for mandatory hormonal therapy? If he is spared, then does that mean the lives of thousands of other homosexual Englishmen are lesser than his?

SAUCE

Keira Knightley as Joan Clarke, serves an indispensable pillar of support for Turing in the film. A good supporting role too, for reminding everyone his immense contributions towards the end of the movie. I also loved her entrance in the movie and how she defied patriarchal expectations YAY girl power. But I was quite disturbed by the STARK difference in her hair and eyebrow colour.

Overall not a bad movie!

I also caught I Fine..Thank You..Love You, some Thai rom-com which wasn't even remotely funny at all in my opinion. I felt the movie was full of cheap laughs which does not contribute to the plot in any way. I didn't understand how the entire cinema cracked up at supposedly-hilarious scenes when they're all slapstick and unsophisticated. Halfway through the movie I was sickened and annoyed by the movie and was hoping for it to end. Its only saving grace is probably the 2 good looking actor and actress. 

Freeing SG

Freeing SG at The Cathay! I was initially skeptical about participating in these 'Reality Escape Games', because I was thinking how ironic it must be to pay to get locked in a dark room. If you know me, I hate to do things in bad lighting, and engaging myself HALF-BLIND in a mentally-demanding simulation game only brought out half-hearted attempts and redundant comments from me. But I must say that the concept of having to work your way out through puzzles and physical engagement all under the pressure of a time limit is something new. With the red LED countdown timer ticking its way to the end of 45 minutes , I was (well, at least, my friends were) compelled to think on my feet, and solve clues to lead us to the next stages of the game.

A quick search on the internet tells me that the first game we played was "War: The Battle for Freedom". We were basically soldiers trying to escape enemy base-camp or something. This room was special because there happened to be roles for some of us, er, like I was the "Scout" (complete with my personal army green sling bag), but upon entering the room I just surrendered my maps and torchlight to the 2 and a half, over-enthusiastic NS men and let them have a go at topography and morse code reading in the dark. We escaped with about 10 minutues to spare.

The next was "Ninja: The Secret Disciplines of the Shinobi", where we were first trapped in a DARK quasi-tatami room. I guess the best part of this room was this sliding/pushing compartment (which could fit 2 or 3 standing people) which transported us to an adjoining room where we were greeted with a few final challenges that stumped us. We almost made it out in the end but we were out of time.

On hindsight, I think the rooms really had disgusting, mawkish names (lol, "secret disciplines of the shinobi") but the game itself is an interesting break from all the few things you can do while you're out in Sg! Could do with more light sources.

Stephen Hawking Movies and Concerts

So recently I had this opportunity for a one day job stint as an assistant to an auction event! Never mind the stifling office wear, walking quite abit in flats and being bored to death whilst clicking "next" on Powerpoint for like 419 times (I had to navigate the slides which contained photos of auction items - can you imagine the auctioneer going through EACH of the items one by one?!), for the hourly pay exceeded normal rates YESSS. To be honest I thought it was good exposure because never in my life will I ever step into a swanky ballroom, spending MILLIONS (SGD, wth) on some ancient oriental pottery/spittoons/random animal figures). I really don't understand how some collectors can go so far as to spend MILLIONS on collectibles?

My knowledge of Physics in the cosmology branch is extremely limited and to be honest, I don't know much about Hawking and his contributions to the field, other than the fact that he's a damn smart handicapped physicist with a computer translator muscle detector thing. I first watched Hawking (2004) last year. The Theory of Everything seems to be a hit so:

The Theory of Everything

Amazing movie! Emotions run high in this one, it being a family-drama cum love story. The Theory of Everything gives us a glimpse into Hawking's (and Jane's) private life, directing us away from his intellect, depicting the struggles of the Hawking family as he succumbs to Lou Gehrig's disease (the famous ALS one, the famous Tuesdays With Morrie one [don't tell me how much you like the book, because I don't]), falling in love, and subsequently out of love. This movie gets in touch with his personality and is so emotional at times I won't be surprised if the movie or the actors get an award in the upcoming Oscars.

Surprisingly, there was the whole "God VS Science" notion underlying this movie. Attention is given to the conflicting beliefs between Jane and Hawking, and together with a waned passion for each other, they eventually split up which also meant tear-jerking scenes (I was so affected by Jane's "I had loved you" and Redmayne's anguish in response). A great deal of screen time was also devoted to family-drama, what with having a fatherly figure addition halfway through the movie and Jane's atrophied willpower in the face of a growing incapacitated husband (who happened to be surprisingly virile for his condition, with children coming one after another; No wonder Jane couldn't take it anymore). I thought that part, the in-between part, was abit too draggy, extremely unlike his sudden physical deterioration from a well-bodied man to a walking stick user as shown in the film.

Great deal of subtle hints were made to give us a prelude to his ailing body; how he's slower than his friends (start of movie), his awkward gait, a trip at the stairs. His eccentricities and his intellect was present but I feel not so much especially the latter?  

Even though I probably know little about him, it's so amazing that geniuses like him actually still walk (or er roll, in this case) among us today.

"10 questions, each more impregnable than the last. Good luck, you'll need it."

"I could only do 9"

Overall, an amazing emotional movie fit to acknowledge the humanness of a genius!!!

^ Also check out the resemblance between the real SH and the movie's. I was thinking about how he was already rocking the hipster glasses in his prime at the start of the movie. 

Hawking (2004)

A BBC televised film. From what I remember, this film was not as brilliant. It focused on his path towards his brilliant break-through (which I forgot, and still don't quite comprehend after 2 movies), so it was very physics-jargon laden and therefore equipped with a patchy knowledge of H2 Physics, I don't understand. Jane played a relatively minor role in this one, and it was a happy ending for all.
The film was interspersed with scenes of 2 scientists being filmed about their recording of 'hissings' , which I initially don't quite get the point of, but felt that they were entirely appropriate when the film ends with them.

Hawking's disabilities portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch was pretty inconsistent, I feel. I think that Eddie Redmayne was the better Hawking though.

Well it takes hell lot of recognition and respect to have two movies centered on your life, non-posthumously, under your belt. The best thing about these biographic movies is that they remind you that amazing people do grace the planet, and are remembered for good reasons.

鼓筝风采  Strumming and Drumming Concert

The last SCO concert I attended was probably a few years back. I felt really good to see some familiar faces of my previous instructors on stage. 

There were several pieces played that made me want to Youtube the song just so I can hear it twice, but some songs we quite unrelatable to me and there was one called <<律动>> (The Rythm) that I was unable to fathom the style it was going for. According to the concert booklet, it was about the tiding and ebbing of the energy of the orchestra, with highlights on the guzheng and percussion.

I was too fixated on the percussion because they had a variety of instruments every now and then but on the whole I thought it was an odd messy cocktail of perc instruments playing at untimely moments and therefore didn't fit into the entire song. Idk it seemed weird to me.

<<印象國樂-大曲>> (Impressions of Chinese Music) was an interesting one, I couldn't help thinking it was some OTS for some grand Chinese period drama (seriously, go Youtube it), but it was nice.

 

^ There was <<秦王破阵乐>> (The King of Qin in Battle), a duet featuring my previous perc instructor who got SORELY overshadowed by his duet partner. Love the build up and the absolutely on sync, suave ending between the two of them and the orchestra!!! Favourite piece of the night!

^ <<急急风>> festive Chinese new year type, alot of percussion everywhere-kind (急急风 is a rousing percussion technique)

Percussionists duets

We wanted to take a photo with our instructor only, but I don't know why the other half of the duet was roped in, lol so extra.
As per Quek Ling Kiong said, the 2 perc showcase songs pit Western and Chinese perc instruments against each other, and I thought that was a very interesting concept.

The New Tomorrow - A Benefit Concert for Children Charities

During rehearsals

Mercilessly ripped off FB

I fumbled alot for a few songs especially <<愿>>, For Good and most of all, Le Encore. But you can't really blame me for Le Encore (lol so pretentiously french) because Mdm Chin insisted LAST MINTUE that EVERYONE should be on stage for our encore, when we (perc) hardly have the correct scores. That meant that my first time playing Le Encore (according to a WRONG, slightly different version of the score ) was during the actual concert. Of course I panicked when we were at parts of the song that was not reflected in my version of scores, but thankfully, other than spacing out during the last long note of the song (by convention, timpani should roll), I did not 放炮 anywhere.

I didn't like any of the songs we played for this concert, because they were "modern" music, ("East meets West" music, "Fusion music", fusion fusion fusion). But I signed up for this because I thought it was an opportune break from my deadly SEDENTARY and aimless lifestyle (think pringles and movies), and to do something for a good cause.
Other than the fact I have to travel back to school twice per week, it was good experience as I've never played along with some seniors and juniors who are probably 5x more musically prodigious that I am.

Most importantly, cheers to the organisers for actually making things work!

:-)

Malice + The Hobbit

I've always held Keigo Higashino's books in high regard! The Devotion of Suspect X (go read it and thank me), the first book of his that I've read, became the yardstick for all other mystery/crime books. Reading Agatha Christie's Miss Marple series AFTER reading Higashino was probably one of the worst mistakes ever. Because after all the intelligent traps and killer plot twist from Suspect X, a gossipy old lady whose deductions seem to be painfully milked and concealed for suspense (not working) is really quite unexciting.

Ok I've never read her Hercule Poirot series, so perhaps my impression of her books are abit skewed. But to side track, I must say her masterpiece "And Then There Were None" is brilliant (even if there were too many main characters to take note of)

The mystery is exactly what the title suggests: only 10 people stranded on an island, all found murdered. The 10 Little Indian poem above (corrected version was soldiers) woven into the story gave it abit of creepiness too. EXCITING!

Moving on, the above 4 books are the only English translated works of the prolific author. I'm amazed by all, except for Salvation of a Saint due to its weak plot. Naoko was a special one, because it's less of a mystery and more of a freak accident cum family drama, which still impressed me nonetheless. One thing I like about Higashino's mysteries is that it focuses more on the WHY part of the murder, instead of the WHO and HOW. Most of the reasons are extremely profound and heart-wrenching, and this sets his works apart from the boring whodunnit mysteries that usually neglects the emotional aspect of crimes.

Anyway, Malice is his newest translated book and it costs $29.95?!?!?!
For a paperback?!?!?!

Of course I bought it still. Malice was written differently because the entire novel oscillates between first-person accounts of 2 people, the suspect Nonoguchi and Detective Kaga. I was quite blown away by how the accounts themselves serve to be both the story-teller and the evidence to the crime. Detective Kaga's own accounts become some sort like a balance pole that reminds you to maintain a more objective view, leading you to think logically by putting pieces of evidence together instead of believing whatever is seen (or read). His accounts are extremely factual, narrating what evidence there were and his opinions and hypothesis (not a surprise, because duh detective), but Higashino managed to humanise him by injecting Kaga's relevant past experiences and emotions.

I'm also very surprised how the murderer was actually revealed 3 chapters into the book (there were 9 in total). But of course it's suspicious how the murderer so easily resigned himself and provide his own account of the story, like he's so hasty to get arrested. In the end, many backstories are excavated and you realise that they form the underlying motive for murder.

"Your plan was unique. You had an entirely different goal in mind. You wanted to get arrested. You didn't care about committing the perfect crime. You wanted to establish the perfect motive"

"Yet who would suspect a killer of forging a vital piece of evidence indicating his own guilt of a crime? Truly, that was a brilliant stroke."

Anyway, I felt the translator would sometimes lapse into clumsy expressions. I didn't feel right reading them.

Overall a good book! It's quite scary to know that how printed words can mislead and easily warp your perception of someone.


The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

I was extremely reluctant to catch this movie given that I'm not even halfway through Fellowship of the Ring and that I've not watched the 2 preceding movies. I'm actually still quite annoyed that I'm not reading AND watching in succession lol. To be honest I never thought I'll ever read or watch LOTR/Hobbit series because the plot seems terribly convoluted and contains too much fantasy (least favourite genre next to romance), but if the Harry Potter series could captivate me, then I don't see why I shouldn't try LOTR!

I was expecting abit more action from the titular Bilbo Baggins, because I thought it's called The Hobbit for a reason. Surprisingly, the entire movie instead revolved around Thorin's "dragon sickness" and his turning over a new leaf and his valiant showdown with the Orc leader (while the concussed Bilbo stays entirely out of the battle and therefore had extremely little screen time throughout the movie). Maybe it's because I've not gotten hang of how the Hobbit series goes or something??

The fact that I could fully comprehend the happenings in the movie made me feel that it was pretty much a "one-off" kinda movie despite it being the last of the trilogy. I was prepared to be completely lost with all those ridiculous sounding names (Thranduil, Saruman, Radagast, wth) and places of Middle Earth but I'm just thankful for the last minute research on the characters on the way to the cinema. Except for the beginning, when I couldn't decide whether who Bard was (I thought he was Thorin lol they looked the same: messy hair) and hence had to google abit on the plot. (Visual cues: Gandalf &/or Saruman = less magical Dumbledore, differentiate Hobbits from dwarves is to look at feet, Bard from Thorin, look for eyeliner)

I really like how the different races in the Hobbit and LOTR series have qualities characteristic to them. In the movie, those of dwarves are distinct, even though all the main 13 of them looked the same (beard, ugly braids). The Elves were lithe and lofty and are supposed to be perfect, shimmering in light and stuff in accordance to JRR Tolkien's description, but I thought Thrandiul had the air of Lucius Malfoy especially with his flawless platinum blonde hair.

The melee probably took up more than half of the movie and I got abit tired of all the sword wielding and killing UNTIL the part where Legolas the elf was saving Tauriel and slaying an Orc on the bridge. WOW so agile and good-looking! Another was Thorin's showdown with the Orc leader which led up to the dwarf's death (then Bilbo timely wakes up after being MIA for the entire battle).

I did abit of googling, and it turns out that the giant Eagles were actually considered one of the 5 armies, but I felt they were the game changer in the battle, characters Peter Jackson hastily inserted because he can't think of ways which an outnumbered patchwork army of dwarves and elves could save the day. It was honestly quite a terrible conclusion to the battle, with Eagles appearing miraculously out of the blue, swooping down to disarm the Orcs (not killing it though) and releasing the bear-guy. Perhaps it's my lack of familiarity with the entire LOTR and Hobbit series but I thought that part of the movie was weak. There was also a lack of explanation to what happened to the Arkenstone (what does it do actually??) and whose possession did it eventually come under. And the treasures that the Elves wanted, did they get it???

The movie gave me an incentive to continue reading my book so I can watch both series in order, but it wasn't really that fantastic either sad to say. So far I'm quite into the book and hopefully Fellowship doesn't disappoint!

Reverse-Bungy: Attempt 1

Hilda and I wanted to go on the G-Max Reverse Bungy at Clarke Quay on the eve of Christmas! The drizzle foiled our plans initially so we settled for a good dinner and the sky cleared up abit after that so we bought our tickets ONLY TO BE DENIED OUR TURN DUE TO A SAFETY CHECK. We waited close to 40 minutes for our turn, feeling so excited and nervous watching people being launched into the air, only to end up in disappointment. Tsk. We then settled for a good dinner.

"Wait, my fringe!!!" collage:

"Oh look, they are taking a photo! Let me very impolitely park myself in between them"

Reverse-Bungy: Attempt 2

It was almost exactly like our first try, what with unforgiving weather and walks along Clarke Quay to kill time. 

Post-ride

The G-Max staff were quite funny, severely telling us that we weren't allowed to hold on to anything during the entire duration of the ride and we were actually quite gullible at first. There was NO COUNT DOWN to our blast-off so one of them kept on asking questions like "How long were you two friends for" and stuff to divert our attention but it did not work for we were/I was too fixated on the tightening elastic that holds the capsule. I was SO SCARED. 

Stills from the video we bought:

Instant when we took off, lol

^LEGS!!! The capsule was spinning and it was like we were about to be thrown off. You see how varying leg lengths determine the extent of knee-bending

^I was quite bemused that Hilda was actually making small talk with the stranger during the jump?! Look at me, still too frightened and incapable of speech as the capsule falls (the feeling of weightlessness during free fall).

Finally! An unforgettable way to almost conclude 2014! Next up is GX-5 Extreme Swing >:-)

Chirstmas with VJCO

Gratuitous photo to show off my phone camera and MIKA-designed watch

Great to celebrate Christmas with them!