Words of the Mad

This infamous “gay cowboy” movie is certainly raising many eyebrows all around the world. Controverisal genre aside, Brokeback Mountain has garnered many nominations (and won quite a number of them) in film awards like the Golden Globes and the upcoming Oscars.

I’ve only watched 2 other films by Lee Ang; Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and The Hulk. Quite a number of films from Lee Ang are arthouse films that enjoyed commercial success, except for probably The Hulk, which is supposed to be a commercial film but somehow ended up looking like an arthouse feature. But that’s just Lee Ang; he simply looks at everything arty-fartily.

I enjoyed the serenity of the film that came with the gentle strums of the guitar. It’s so soothing and peaceful but yet able to penetrate deep into the heart to stir the emotions within. The love and friendship shared between the 2 men definitely struck a chord. All the warmth and happiness; all the confusion.

Hadn’t we all once tried to love someone, be it a family or friend, but yet unable to overcome the negativities and fears of all sort? If Ennis Del Mar is our sense of restraint and confusion, then Jack Twist is our sense of desire and passion, while Alma and Lureen are our sense of responsibility. All of which are subtlely reflected in the movie.

I love the performances by the cast!!! Great acting simply amazes me. Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Williams are all worthy of the nods they’ve been given at many film awards, while Anne Hathaway had a successful breakthrough from her Princess Diaries and Ella Enchanted days.

This movie will be, or already is, a classic. It departs from the stereotypical gay antics and brought forth the message that true love can exist between all people, homosexual or otherwise.

Rating: 4 / 5

All I could do.

Second yoga class (after a break of 2 Sundays) and I’m thoroughly loving it!! Though it’s a Sunday morning, I still managed to pull myself out of bed and go for the class. However, getting up “just in time” is bad because I don’t get to have any breakfast and this brings TROUBLE!

We’re supposedly not to consume anything 4 hours before the class and if we need to, we should only have light food like a slice of bread or a cup of milo (no tea or coffee as caffeine is a stimulant, bad for the heart). But silly me went for class with an empty stomach this time and I got “punished” for that!!

Was learning 2 new postures; the “Chair” and the “Warrior” when all of a sudden I felt VERY dizzy to the point of actually fainting! I drank some water and continued but it didn’t help. I was breathing hard. My heart was beating fast. I was perspiring heavily. I knelt down to catch my breath and to calm my mind, to no avail. I thought I was knocking out.

Thank goodness the instructor noticed something wrong with me (though it’s not that hard since everyone else is standing while I’m the only one on my knees) and proceeded to ask me to get into the “lying-down” pose to relax, assuring me that it’s alright to feel dizzy. Ease ran through my whole body and I was feeling REALLY good about it! The wonders of joy after tremendous pain! I experienced the phrase, “No Pain, No Gain”! All I felt was COMFORT.

But I was thoroughly embarrassed! Young guy like me feeling weak all of a sudden with the whole class looking. Argh!!! I’ve got nowhere to hide my face! I got out of class at fast as I could when the lesson ended. Grrr!

I won’t give up!! I paid for the lessons and I’ll continue to persevere. Can’t give up! It’s only the 2nd lesson and I’m actually enjoying the class! Just gotta remember to eat something before exercising! That’s a very important tip!!

It was somewhat disappointing, for a movie touted as Singapore’s first 3D-animated film and featuring the excellent voices of Fann Wong and Dennis Chew. Content was weak, pace was slow, singing and dancing were unnecessary. What’s worse was that only 60% of the movie was animated 3-dimensionally!! What’s with the 2D cardboard-like sequences? Budget control? Nevertheless, I would say the animations were pretty ok, for Singapore’s first foray into the industry. The fluidity and movement of the graphics can definitely be improved upon, though.

Zodiac, The Race Begins… is supposedly to tell the origins of the 12 animals in the chinese horoscope; how they were selected and ranked through a race to look after the world.

However, this is no “on your mark, get set, go” type of race. It simply says that whichever animal, among the 12 chosen ones, reaches the final destination (the heaven, I think) first will be ranked first, regardless of when they start to embark on their journey. Thus there is this lack of a competitive element to bring up the intensity in the story.

Enter an evil tree spirit, attempting to thwart the formation of the zodiac, we see the obstacles the animals had to go through to get through the race. Pretty exciting, eh? Nahhh! The obstacles weren’t particularly challenging or breath-taking. No climax or anything close to that. I should actually be thankful that there ain’t any anti-climax!

Also, the sudden burst into singing and/or dancing is a big minus to the whole movie as they hardly serve any real purpose in the movie. This story is a legend, a folklore, not some mindless musical. It really isn’t necessary to include music and singing for the sake of sprucing up the movie. It’s a pain, especially, to watch the 2D “cardboards” “dance” to the singing.

Interesting and funny theories like how the rabbit lost its long tail or why the the owl has dark rings around its eyes are also included in the movie. Bet you didn’t know that rats were actually slaves to the cats before it won the zodiac race. Oops! Ain’t that a spoiler? *grin*

Kudos to voiceover cast, who did a great job in their vocal expressions. Who can expect Fann Wong to actually get all squeaky as the cat and maternal as the snake? Quite a feat, I would say.

Overall, the movie wasn’t impressive as Singapore’s first 3D animated feature. One can only hope for Singapore to get better in producing films of such genre. No more cardboards, please. Funding is always a problem for our local movie industry. Although money doesn’t necessary equate to quality, but it’s definitely good to have more.

Rating: 2 / 5