gambitch - now available in blue

Friday, December 22, 2006

I was talking about the theme song to Curse of the Golden Flower. So I finally went to do a search for it, and finally managed to turn up the music video.

I'm led to believe this is Jay Chou's best effort at articulating himself properly when singing. I'm sure it has something to do with singing together with Fei Yu Qing.

Must. Learn. This. Song.

gambitch [ 12:51 AM]

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

On little more than an accidental whim, mostly because the evening out ended a little earlier than expected - which was fine, I have no problem understanding and acceding when you want quiet time to yourself - I decided I'd go watch a movie. I hadn't done so for a little while as it was (a couple of months to be exact). So I wasn't going to whine too much when it turned out that Curse of the Golden Flower was going to premiere tonight.

It got a good bit of controversial press beforehand, mostly about the very liberal showing of female flesh, thanks to the convenient choice of setting this in the Sui-Tang period when palace women wore clothes that accentuated their curves. True to form, the movie opens with a mass scene of palace maids waking up and getting dressed. They weren't entirely naked to start with - they did have some basic sleeping gear or something like that on - but there was plenty of flesh on show. Truth be told, though, all the talk about boob shows made sure we were adequately immunized by this, and going in early with a scene like that further makes sure that we don't obsess ourselves with that.

There is, after all, something of a story to be told for the following two hours or thereabouts. We can't be watching breasts all the time. More so when people like Chow Yun Fatt and Gong Li, credible actors at the very least, are starring in this movie. There's a proper plot to it, truth be told, and it was nice to see some of the dialogue that came along. Sharp, deep lines kept short and packed with lots of meaning.

Like this exchange between the emperor and empress when the emperor is picking out the herbs for some medicine for the empress.

Emperor: A person who is ill should take medicine. That is the law of nature.
Empress: I have no illness.
Emperor: That is your opinion.

Or this line when the empress is sewing thousands of golden chrysanthemums on scarves. She has been at it for days and nights, and it turns out these scarves are to be worn by supporters of the empress, who is plotting something. She sees the second prince, who wonders whether the plot should proceed. In reply...

Empress: The flowers have already been sewn. They have to bloom, if just once.

It's a good movie, although in typical cowardly fashion, I didn't dare to watch the spectacular killing scene midway through the show. The big scene of the great military clash towards the end, however, was truly extravagant and glittering. Almost blindingly so, in fact! The amazingness to it all, though, is how efficiently the palace eunuchs cleaned up the scene bloodied by all the fighting at the end and brought out a whole new set of chrysanthemum pots, making the whole scene seem as if nothing had happened before that.

The big surprise was the competence of Jay Chou in his second movie (Initial D was his first, but then he had it easy there). Not a lot was expected of him, in a way, but he ended up putting up a pretty good show for someone of whom was expected little. The theme song at the end was actually very good as well.

It's a movie I almost want to watch again. I actually might, you never know. And I do heavily recommend it. Provided you can get past seeing the flesh.

gambitch [ 11:17 PM]

Monday, December 18, 2006

I ended up watching much less golf than I had really wanted. Mostly because I eventually backed out of my glorious plan to go down and catch the Lexus Cup challenge in person, in the flesh. The weather was not much of a help again. So I settled for watching the action on the final day right at home, just generally leaving the television on.

Wasn't a poorly-advised move, as it turns out. Team Asia won a very dramatic final day, although there was lots of good play from both sides.

I love it seeing Grace Park and her girls doing Asia damn good proud, and clearly enjoying it out there too. If there's one thing I like to see in golf, it's girls having a party when they win. I've never actually watched the Ryder Cup on television, so I don't know how the guys react when they win, but there's something nice about seeing girls celebrate as a group.

It also helps there is no distraction in the form of Michelle Wie. Recently I've been reading commentary talking about how she's a grossly over-hyped phenomenon that really isn't. I tend to agree. She's fast turning into golf's answer to Anna Kournikova, who is now... nowhere in sight in the tennis scene. Michelle should learn to stop thinking of being a huge marketing phenomenon and, you know, start playing good proper golf. I have not seen her improve her game since breaking into the men's circuit. At least Annika Sorenstam had the good sense to retreat back to focusing on dominating the women's circuit once she's had her occasional foray against the guys.

Men's golf gets plenty more attention than women's golf, which in a way isn't really fair. Then again, the women are indeed less powerful players than the likes of Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson. What to do? And with lots of courses worldwide being adjusted to cater for guys like Tiger, the game is getting bigger than can properly accommodate the women, which isn't nice. We should get to see a bit more women's golf reportage.

It'd also help to give people like Michelle Wie more attention in an environment where her golf can actually thrive, for now at least, until she makes the grade to properly compete with men regularly. Unless, of course, the women don't want that. Which is within their rights.

But that's digressing. Yay Team Asia!

gambitch [ 12:24 AM]