oh, buffy.
written: 9:05 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 01, 2006
I had dinner with a few of the LAWR TG people last night, at the tourist trap-y Glutton's Bay. You know, at the Esplanade. That place that charges ridiculous prices for hawker food? That's the one. I haven't seen them in almost three months and it was nice meeting up and catching up. Fun fun fun. We're most probably gonna go to Johor Bahru next Tuesday for seafood. Haha. Kelvin, Weihan and Aziah ordered some chilli crab and the crab was super small and they started talking about other places that serve seafood and one thing led to another and in the end, it was, "Let's just go to JB lah!"
So going to JB it is. I don't like seafood but hey, fun is fun, so I'm not too fussed on the details.
Anyway.
**
I've been watching tons of Buffy over the past few weeks and I'm officially in love with Buffy/Angel. I know I liked Buffy with Spike for a while but to be honest I don't have much love for the last 4 seasons of Buffy so...whatever. I just love relationships packed with drama and pain and torture, or in Logan's words, ruined lives and bloodshed, an epic story. Buffy/Angel is as epic as Veronica/Logan, but in a different, more literal way. And it's heartbreaking knowing how it's gonna end, the eternal barrier between them, the thwarted passion and desire.
Sigh. It's all so sad.
This is kind of corny but I really liked this exchange in the episode I just watched (technically re-watched but I don't remember what I watched 4, 5 years ago so it doesn't count):
Angel: You still my girl?
Buffy: Always.
I really liked the 'you still my girl?' thing because it was quite an out of character thing for Angel to say, and so it was kind of cute. And awwww-inducing.
Veronica Mars still holds the ultimate spot in my heart for Best TV Show Ever but Buffy comes pretty darn close. I think Buffy is a damn good show.
Wait, let me qualify that: I think the first three seasons of Buffy were serious quality TV.
I never saw the symbolisms and metaphors and allusions in the show when I watched it in secondary school, not even the obvious ones (like the steroids thing in Go Fish). I feel sorry for people who write it off as stupid just because it's about a high school girl who slays vampires, because the idea of using these demons as symbols of the emotional demons and problems that teenagers go through is pretty genius. Of course, Veronica Mars holds the number one spot in my heart for Best Show Ever, but Buffy comes in a close second. Despite the demonic back drop, it's believable, precisely because it deals with much more than what its premise suggests.
Sadly, the show kind of sucked from Season 4 onwards. The last couple of seasons were pretty depressing, too, and I didn't really like the Dawn thing. In fact, Season 4's Initiative (Initiation? Don't remember) thing was dreadful. I don't plan to buy anymore Buffy DVDs. I'm happy with owning the first three seasons.
**
Warning: The next part of this entry contains spoilers for the movie Match Point.
Remember when I was dying to watch Match Point when it came out last year because it stars Jonathan Rhys Meyers whom I find totally hot? I finally got to watch it after a million years, and I must say that it didn't live up to expectations.
Okay, first and foremost, I must declare my unbridled hatred for wishy-washy guys who can't make up their minds, who stray, who cheat on their wives/girlfriends. Hence this hatred greatly coloured my judgement of Jonathan's (we're on first-name basis!) character, Chris. To put it plainly, he's a sodding bastard. He pregnated his lover and then killed her because he didn't want to give up his upper-class lifestyle with his wife. To make matters even worse than they already are, he killed the lover's innocent neighbour - a bloody old woman - just to make his crime seem like a drugs-related robbery. Right.
So obviously I couldn't sympathise with him. And if truth be told, Jonathan is serially hot but um, he can't really act. Or at least, he wasn't very good in the film. He kind of looks like Joaquin and Joaquin would've been much better in that role - except, he would've had to fake the Irish accent. But hey, Joaquin is amazing so I'm confident he would've faked a convincing one. Jonathan sounded robotic delivering the lines in the first third of the film, especially the encouraging "You will become better with practice" ones.
Which brings me to my next point: Screenplay. I was so caught up in Jonathan's hotness that I didn't realise how stilted the lines were until the film ended and I woke up and realised, with horror, that I sat through a film with lines like, "I want you to make me pregnant", and about 80% of Jonathan's lines in the first third of the film. They were quite absurd, really. I don't think people actually speak like that.
Lastly, I don't like Scarlett Johansson. I haven't seen Lost in Translation but I watched The Island, hated it with the fiery passion of a thousand suns, and thought that SJ has an awfully weird face. I have seen hotter actresses, and so I wasn't convinced that she's supposed to be this femme fatale that men can't resist. And that stupid scene in the wheat field thing in the rain was stupid.
Having said all that, I loved the twists at the end. I kept hoping that Chris would get his comeuppance because he's a serious asshole but when that ultimate twist came I got the larger picture and everything clicked and I thought it was a bloody good ending. It's so pessimistic. Everything depends on luck, there is no grand design, and so there is no real meaning. I loved Chris' speech to his victims in his kitchen; he wanted to be caught, to be found out, because he wanted to know that there is some kind of comforting meaning to all the things that we do. But there isn't, because he never got caught, and he never got caught because luck was on his side. Sheer dumb luck. That's what his fate was reduced to.
In a way, it's pretty sad to know that this is pretty much it. No matter how you dress it up in sequins and cute sparkly outfits, there is only emptiness under all that lavishness and optimism. I don't know how much I subscribe to this idea that we are dictated by luck and nothing more (which kind of implies that there is no fairness, let alone justice, in the world), but I think, to some degree, it's kind of true.
But hey, I've always been pessimistic, so the film's ending really appealed to me.
The rest of it, though? Not so much.
**
So, school is starting in less than 2 weeks and I can't say I'm terribly excited about it. I bought most of my books yesterday and they totalled to about S$280. That's, like, money I could spend on more exciting things, like books (books that are readable, that is) and DVDs and CDs and of course, clothes. What a sad, tragic waste of money.
I'm going to continue doing absolutely nothing for the rest of the holidays. Sounds like fun.
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