pot pourri of all things cool.
written: 7:31 p.m. on Monday, May. 10, 2004

Current obsession: Lee Kang-sheng (���)

Long-standing obsession:��Chou Jie Lun or Jay Chou���ܽ��ף�

What these two people have in common: They are both Taiwanese.

Another thing these two people have in common: They are both awfully charismatic.

One last thing these two people have in common: I like them.

Still fangirl-ish over last Saturday despite the fact that more than a week has passed. (To know what happened, click on 'drift away' below.) I don't think it makes much sense but nevermind, I have never professed to anyway.

So I found out while pouring laboriously over that book I got autographed on the two films that the awesome film was, yes, shot in my Taiwan hometown, a nice place in Taipei called Yonghe. No wonder some scenes looked so familiar! And I also found out that the company in which Lee Kang-sheng and his director Tsai Ming-liang work is near the park in which Kang shot "Bu Jian"... which means they are in Yonghe all the time, which means there's gonna be real serious stalker action come November.

And hell, Tsai Ming-liang shot "Goodbye Dragon Inn" ("Bu San") in some old theatre in Yonghe too. Probably never been there before but hell, I wanna see it anyway.

I like Taiwan. I almost love it. But I have no illusions about any possible and successful assimilation into the society on my part. My Mandarin sucks, I can barely speak two words of Hokkien/Taiwanese and I tend to laugh at shitty English which sums up half of Taiwanese attempt at speaking English so yeah, too bad. And I can't recognise a lot of traditional Chinese characters, which I personally see as a cultural loss but nevermind about that.

And no, I'm not going to rest until I get one sentence out of my mouth to Lee Kang-sheng. I'm seeing him in November, no matter what. Bwahahahahahahaha.

Seriously, I was such a dweeb. You should've seen me. I was supposed to be all cool and enigmatic and whatnot but no, I was so far from that. I was positively grinning like a goddamn Cheshire cat when he walked past me and glanced briefly at me, and when I was in front of him, I couldn't even SAY anything. Bloody hell, I'm an idiot. I'm sure I was all blush-y and shit and I hate that. I really do.

Anyway, owing to my new-found obsession with Xiao Kang, I walked from Cineleisure all the way to Tanglin Mall on Friday evening last week in hopes of looking for those elusive arthouse films on DVD. Cain told me about this store which sells arthouse films in Tanglin Mall so I went, all excited and hopeful, only to have utterly disappointed when I found out that the store closed after the owner died. I was so dispirited that I walked all the way back to the Wheelock Place area. Went shopping at Zara. Wanted to buy a nice top which was cheap as well but the goddamn bitches were all there and there was a queue so I couldn't buy it. I mean, I could, but I hate queueing and it was late anyway and I had to get home.

Luckily my dad didn't give me hell for reaching home at like 10 or so. He was pissed that I went for a movie ("Elephant") after going for films for the past two weeks, but yeah, he didn't get on my case for it when I reached home so I was glad. He even heated some great cheese pizza for me. Dad hardly does such things so that was nice.

Just a little about Elephant. I thought it was a good film but not really one of the best I've ever seen. Gus Van Sant's insistence that the audience goes through the excruciating torture of seeing fuck-all happening on-screen leaves me feeling quite ambivalent. On the one hand, it was boring. On the other, it was boring, and that is exactly why it was so effective. I felt the crappy mundaneness of every day life, its ordinary nature, and thus, when the shootings began, it was such a shock that I could more or less feel the jarring impact that the shootings had on the characters in the film, and even the students of Columbine High. So in that aspect, Van Sant was highly effective. I tried to think of ways in which the same effect could've been achieved through more entertaining measures but my mind draws a blank.

One superficial comment though. Elias the Photographer was totally hot. And I really loved that kissing scene between the two male shooters (though I highly doubt that they are gay). But guess what? It was completely ruined by some stupid ang moh bitches in the audience who started squealing like total airheads and making a shit lot of noise when the two boys kissed each other in the shower naked. It was such a beautiful, poignant moment and those fuckholes just HAD to ruin it. I was with Mel and she was like, "Shut up! Bimboes." Blah. I hate stupid people. I truly do.

So life has been its usual boring self and tomorrow I have Literature with the bitch teacher and I'm too damn lazy to do my stupid file so I'm contemplating between doing the damn thing and just skipping the bloody lesson which she will almost probably walk out on again again (repetition intended) so what the hell is the point.

Common tests next week. Must start studying and hopefully I listen to myself.

before sunrise // before sunset


Previously:
- - Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2017
I'm moving. - Sunday, Jul. 11, 2010
In all honesty - Tuesday, Jul. 06, 2010
What I want for my birthday... - Sunday, Jul. 04, 2010
On Roger's behalf. - Friday, Jul. 02, 2010