Daily Scribble

Wedding Preparation

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There are two ways for wedding preparation. One way is the dream wedding way, try your best to prepare a perfect wedding. Search many places around before deciding what is the perfect decoration, the perfect dresses, the perfect reception, the perfect banquet, basically everything has to be perfect. The pro is you will have the wedding you truly desired if everything goes as planned. The con is Murphy’s law always gets into your way. Unless you have a deep pocket to hire a really good wedding planner or have lots of free time to plan the wedding, the dream wedding way usually result in lots of stress.

The second way is the engineering wedding way. In term of engineering, everything has to be practical, and the result is judged only by the end.  Having the perfect or having a pretty good wedding makes no difference to most of the guests.  In the perception of the guests, a wedding is yet another wedding, unless it is really screwed up. Like studying for exam, it is quite easy to get 90%, but it takes a lot more extra work to get the remaining 10%. The same principle also applies to wedding planning. It is relatively easy to get a pretty good wedding, you can reuse the experience and tips from friends married ahead of you. However, trying to customize the wedding to be your perfect wedding is like getting the remaining 10%, it takes lots of time.

The return of investment for a perfect wedding does not justify its cost. Probably other than the couple themselves, no guests would pay any attention to the small details that make the wedding a the prefect wedding.

Daily Scribble

Blog about serious things

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Someone asked me why don’t I blog about serious stuff, such as politics, social issues, lately.  I took a look at my recent entries in the past month.  Indeed I wrote a lot more about TV, movies, Anime than usual.  I guess my work at India really disturb my routine writing schedule.  I am so tried after work every day that I don’t want to think about any thing seriously.  I still catch up with my daily newspaper and weekly Economist, so I am aware of what’s happening around the world.  It is just that I lost interest in making comments on the news.  Taiwan election, riots in Tibet, Bear Stern crisis, all of them are interesting topics to blog.  The normal me would happy to jump in and make me mark on those big issues.  I still leave a comment or two in other people’s blog, which doesn’t require much effortless.  However writing a well thought blog entry takes too much brain juice.  I lack the discipline to organize my thoughts, so I rather remind silence than write something not up to my standard.

電影

破事兒

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破事兒 彭浩翔上次那套「出埃及記」拍藝術電影﹐結果成為他執導以來的最大污點﹐幾乎悶死了入場的歡眾。今次「破事兒」不扮高深﹐正經地搞笑不正經地說點道理﹐彭浩翔回複當日「買兇拍人」﹐「AV」的狀態﹐不愧為香港第一鬼才導演。「破事兒」結集七個短篇故事﹐其中有些改篇自他的舊小說﹐也有些故事是新創作。七個故事有長有短﹐長的有十數分鐘﹐短的不過兩三分鐘。每個故事演員不同﹐不是好戲的綠葉﹐便是當紅的明星。故事照舊走他最擅長少少鹹多多趣的風格﹐大玩性笑話卻樂而不淫。

第一個故事「不可力抗」講中年夫妻的性生活不協調﹐兩公婆分開見性事輔導員。兩人談論性生活問題﹐結果變成一齣羅生門﹐很點題到肉極好笑。第二個故事「公德心」全片英語對白﹐竹升仔在酒吧向靚女搭訕﹐很校突地大講自己如何有公德心。電影中玩屎玩尿見得多了﹐玩得這樣直接地而又不落低俗則很少見﹐高章高章。第三個故事「做節」是長篇﹐故事說穿了就不過癮﹐不過非常黑色幽默﹐我認為是全片最好看的故事。第四個故事「德雅星」扮教育電視﹐故事本身沒有什麼特別﹐勝在拍攝手法抵死。第五個故事「大頭阿慧」是另一個長篇﹐有點時也命也的淡淡哀愁。第六個故事「增值」很感性﹐講男人去召妓完事後﹐因為一件小事令他忽然有所感觸。這個故事也是很短﹐似是明益監製兼男主角的杜文澤。片中還有露三點的鏡頭﹐不明白為什麼過到電檢不用被評為三級。最後一個故事是「尊尼亞」﹐可以說是進化版的「買兇拍人」﹐殺手故事比以往的更加荒謬。

七個故事七種味道﹐ 「破事兒」完全滿足了彭浩翔迷的胃口。不過電影太短﹐連過場浪費的時間﹐才不過九十分鐘﹐有點兒不夠喉。希望彭大導快些開拍下一部長篇電影﹐繼續瘋狂搞笑為觀眾帶來歡樂﹐不要再學王家衛拍些沒有人看的藝術電影了。

Daily Scribble

Old chinese songs in Youtube

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Tonight I and Pat were searching for a song to sing in the wedding banquet.  We would like to pick a Chinese duo song with sweet meaning.  We searched the internet for songs sing by male and female singers together.  We come across a fairly big list on some Chinese music site.  However just having a list with name and singer is not very helpful.  We don’t know much of the songs on the list and even for those we sorta heard of, the memory is quite rusty.  To our surprise, we are able to find every single song we want to check on Youtube.  From my quite diversify search samples, I suspect Youtube actually has every single Chinese songs ever made into a MTV.  Isn’t Youtube amazing?

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Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles 未來戰士﹕莎拉傳

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Sarah Connor Chronicles 大隻佬阿諾辛華舒力加主演的「未來戰士」﹐相信是不少人心目中的經典電影系列。大隻佬一句I will be back﹐配合他的爛面機械人造型﹐堪稱上世紀荷里活最酷的標誌。現在大隻佬去了做州長﹐導演占士金馬倫又不肯拍續集﹐「未來戰士」枝葉四散大樹凋零﹐金漆招牌失去了昔日的光輝。畢竟爛船也有三斤釘﹐霍士電視台就是看中了撈底的機會﹐把「未來戰士」從大銀幕搬上小銀幕﹐看看能否讓這一代經典鹹魚翻生。

新的一輯故事以莎拉當主角﹐劇集名稱也叫作「莎拉傳」。時間設定在第二集之後幾年﹐莎拉帶著她的未來救世主兒子過著新生活。莎拉已從第一集柔弱無助的女子﹐變身為開槍爆炸格鬥無一不精的無敵媽媽。第二集那位可愛男孩﹐則長大成一個靚仔的少年﹐好吸引年輕女性觀眾。故事大綱與電影有點似相識﹐天網從未來派邪惡械械人回到現代刺殺兩母子﹐救世主兒子則派個正義械械人回來保護過去的自己。今次未來戰士不再是大隻佬﹐變成個嬌滴滴的美少女。接下來的情節同樣熟口熟面﹐三個人不停逃命打機械人﹐順路找機會破壞天網的前身。連試片一共九集播了八個星期﹐第一季就忽然間結束﹐也不知是否給霍士電視腰砍了。

若果不計廣告時間﹐差不多也有六七個小時的劇情﹐應該可以說很多故事吧。可是劇中角色交代得十分漏氣﹐比只有短短兩個多小時的電影還薄弱。三個主角看起來像是勉強湊在一起﹐完全看不像是有血脈生死相依的深厚關係。莎拉與兒子應該可以有多些感人的描述﹐現在看起來只像青春期兒子的反叛肥皂劇。美女未來戰士應該是本劇的最大賣點﹐女主角表情木獨扮機械人倒交戲十足﹐不過就白白浪費了其他所有發揮空間。看著美女機械人如何扮演人類融入日常生活﹐如何與兒子建立互相信賴的朋友關係﹐如何不聽命令自主行動﹐如何學音樂跳芭蕾舞等﹐還以為會有更深入的心理描寫﹐結果全部也到喉不到肺的輕輕帶過。劇中人物嚴重描寫不足﹐原來編劇把劇中大部份時間﹐浪費在不合格的打鬥場面上。我也知道這套是電視劇集﹐不能要求電影級數特技效果﹐只是估不到拍出來的效果比想像中還差。其實這不是欠缺電腦特技的問題﹐而是打鬥編排本身不合情理﹐根本沒有辨法營造出緊張的氣氛。

故事單薄打鬥沉悶﹐除了未來戰士的招牌外﹐不知道還有什麼元素可以吸引觀眾。收視從試播第一集後直線下滑﹐流失了超過七成觀眾。大慨只有我這種「未來戰士」的忠實擁躉﹐才會每個星期邊罵邊追看。至於不知道是否有機會開拍的第二季﹐除非編劇換人故事質素大幅提升﹐不然我也可以放棄這套作品了。唯一令我有可能追看下去的原因﹐就是看看劇集如何連接電影第三集﹐交代天網誕生的背景。忽發奇想﹐會不會天網的前身其實不是軍方的超級電腦﹐而是今集主角之一的美女未來戰士呢。女機械人與受保護對象日久生情﹐不過愛人變心戀上另一個女孩﹐即約翰在第三集中的老婆。於是女機械人因愛生恨﹐要毀滅人類報愎這個負心郎。