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or Mother in Russian is one of those old films that we were "forced" to watch in school. I like how the early Russian filmmakers pushed their political ideologies into the medium.

Mother (1926) dir. Vsevold Pudovkin

The Chinese makes everything. Even obscure and forgotten films (save for film professors and film students) like this. They are only selling it for $1 for such a rare film to find when the prices may be steep elsewhere.

the Red and the White

I have been taking a different route, some time off, some time to fulfill the other dream. To see the real world, life experiences that cannot be taught in school, to leave my comfort zone, to learn, to mature and grow to become wiser and a better person. To play my part and serve this beautiful country. To know that you have contributed, made a small impact, even if I'm but one of the many numbers that make up the entire sum. It never fails to lift my spirits up to be reminded of the founding of this nation, the tenacity of our pioneers, the values of the system, the crescent and the five stars, the red and the white.

Eventually, I will return to film and video business. As of now, I will have to content with being a filmmaking amateur/hobbyist.

Last Teabreak at the Railway Station

Took a tea break with the colleagues in the evening and we ended up at Tanjong Pagar Railway Station. By the end of the week, the station will formally close and there will be no more trains rolling onto its tracks. The coffeeshops will also be gone.

I strongly agree that the train station has to close down and the railway tracks have to go. The presence of an unchecked route that stretches from a foreign land, cutting across the entire country, ending at only a few kilometres away from its Central Business District proves to be a serious threat to a country's national security. This is not a siege mentality but reality. It took the Singapore government 2 decades of bilateral work to finally take back the land from our northern neighbours.

But to say that the railway station has no place in my heart will be erroneous. The station will always remind me of my paternal grandmother. My grandparents were straits-born Chinese but they left my father behind with my granduncle, when they were supposedly forced by the British to return back to China because of my grandfather's communist links. He however ended up dying as a political prisoner in a CCP jail. The romantic take is that perhaps, he has been a spy for the KMT all along. But that is another story.

My grandmother later returned to Singapore for a visit nearly 3 decades after she had left. Her younger brother, my granduncle, came down from Kuala Lumpur. They were reunited for a few days for the first time in decades, before he had to return back to KL via the train. They bid farewell along the platform at the Tanjong Pagar station with tears rolling in their eyes. I was probably 9 years old then but I understood the significance of those tears. It was probably the last time both brother and sister will ever meet each other again in this lifetime.

And it turned out to be so. A couple of years later, my grandmother passed away in China.

Sometimes after work I go back home thinking how tough life can be to some.

Pop's Birthday

The Birthday Girl

24th June.

Sharing Session

Bishan Park

An old man with a MacFlurry on a hot Friday afternoon.

CAMP LIONS

sideways

Sideways (2004) dir. Alexander Payne

You can do your f**king best, but it's still never gonna be enough. The problem with human beings is that you'll be taken for granted if you are too kind and sincere. It's a f**ked up world after all!

Mo Lei Tau Philosophy of Life

I think 'mo lei tau' is a nice philosophy in life. We should always be serious with our work, our responsibility. But when things don't go too well our way, just laugh along with it and get on with life. When challenged by obstacles, unpleasant people and unpleasant situations, we can still laugh at ourselves.

Legend of the Dragon (1990) dir. Danny Lee and Lee Lik-Chi
Fight Back to School (1991) dir. Gordan Chan
God of Gamblers III: Back to Shanghai (1991) dir. Wong Jing
Tricky Brains (1991) dir. Wong Jing
Royal Tramp (1992) dir. Wong Jing
Royal Tramp II (1992) dir. Wong Jing
King of Beggars (1992) dir. Gordan Chan
Hail the Judge (1994) dir. Wong Jing
Sixty Million Dollar Man (1995) dir. Raymond Yip
The God of Cookery (1996) dir. Stephen Chow
The Lucky Guy (1998) dir. Lee Lik-Chi

For the longest time since I was a child, I had proudly proclaimed Tricky Brains as my number one favourite film. Not anymore but I have fond memories of it.

Thank you.

It is a thankless job that most people don't care and the support sometimes wanting. They didn't have to care but they did. Thank you.

A thought that keeps playing in my mind, how long can we last as an independent nation?

another world in motion

After spending the prime of their lives slogging for a living, to support a family, I wonder what other dreams do retirees have? A reminder that I do not want to live my life in vain, growing old, only to realise I have unfulfilled dreams and no "tall tales" to tell my grand children.

Tara

3 months, December 2010.

9 months, June 2010

LP

Linkin Park was the band that accompanied my headphones thru' O's and the A's (shared with Daniel Bedingfield) and those wee mornings mugging at Starbucks Changi Airport Terminal 2. Damn, I even had a band tee shirt.



The song of the moment.

Fire of Conscience

Fire of Conscience (2010) dir. Dante Lam

Growing up with a slew of Hong Kong cop dramas and the romanticized hardboiled cop (as the wandering swordsmen of the new century) may have influenced my career choice. But Hong Kong doesn't make cop films like they used to do. Infernal Affairs was a good reminder of the days gone by but the versatility that is Andrew Lau (Legend of Chen Zhen is bad man) means that we are unlikely to see the same thing again. Johnnie To's unique blend of arthouse form and mainstream police/thieves stories tend to pander to the European markets, perhaps due to his earlier French influence.

Not until I've watched Dante Lam's Fire of Conscience last year and I am certain that the genre is really back, even if only for a moment, at least in the hands of Dante Lam.

Home Alone 5: The Bachelor Pad

Prologue.

Buddham Saranam Gacchami

2003

AD 2003 and a year before the A-Levels when we ( the UK Farmers, as the clique was eventually known) went on a college trip down the farthest South Island. Fox Glacier and Mount Cooke, Queenstown, Dinosaur trees and some obscure lake with a suspension bridge. On one of the evenings, we had a scuffle with a group of rowdy Americans teens, while the TV in the laundry room was playing First Blood. Boss gave them the middle finger eventually and it didn't boiled well with their ego.We ended up spending the night watching MTV and the world premiere of Coldplay's latest single, The Scientist. The next day morning, we had eggs for breakfast. That's as much as I can remember for now.



Such memories, how time flies. One day, I'm going to dig them photos out.

The Tiger Nephews