Last post!

After so many weeks, it's now already time for my last post! I've decided to blog about a Japanese movie that I've recently re-watched again. :)

SKY OF LOVE (Koizora)

Have any of you watched it? It's already my 2nd time watching it and I still cried as bad as I did the first time. I cried like buckets. Seriously. :( Besides, it's extra sad when the main characters are good looking. HAHA. Kidding! This is a really touching story especially for girls. :)

The story was based on a cellphone novel which actually means posting stories through your cellphone. In Japan, it's pretty popular to share stories that you write through your phone. This story caught the director's attention due to it's high popularity (like seriously HIGH) among the Japanese teens.

Here's a summary of the story for those who have yet to watch, taken from http://sg.movies.yahoo.com/Sky+Of+Love/movie/14581/

Based on a cell-phone novel that moved 11 million (told you guys it's HIGH!) people to tears, "Sky of Love" is a story about a regular girl's three stormy years in high school. While her friends are absorbed about their boyfriends, Mika is clueless about falling in love. She begins receiving phone calls from a boy she doesn't know and is gradually drawn to him. She finally meets him but their happy days soon pass as trouble is brewing on the horizon.

Here's the official website (which is in Japanese by the way..) - http://koizora-movie.jp/index.html

The movie was extremely touching. After they have dated for quite a while, the male lead (Hiro) found out that he was diagnosed with cancer and because he doesn't want to be a burden to the girl (Mika) so he left her on purpose. Allowing her to believe that he no longer loves her. She only found out about his sickness when he was pretty much about to die. Which he actually did. Like. WHY?! :(

In the movie, both verbal and non-verbal communications ar used to assist the characters in expressing the feelings they re going through. With the use of non-verbal communication, which is very influential, it helps further emphasise and complement the emotions and thus allowing the audience to be able to feel the pain/happiness that the characters are going through. Thus, making me cry so much!

When you watch the movie, you can actually feel the love that the characters have for each other. The willingness to sacrifice for each other shows how much they do love and care for one another.

It is one good story that is really touching! You guys should totally catch it. Ooh! Remember to prepare some tissues! Haha. :)

BYEEEEEE~

XOXO
atas

Slumdog Millionaire

Like many others, my friends & I decided to catch the award winning film - Slumdog Millionaire - this weekend. I've got to say it's one great storyline and a movie totally worthy of your 10bucks. =)

Here's a summary of the movie taken from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1010048/synopsis .

Slumdog Millionaire is the story of Jamal Malik (Patel), an 18 year-old orphan from the slums of Mumbai, who is about to experience the biggest day of his life. With the whole nation watching, he is just one question away from winning a staggering 20 million rupees on India's "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?"

But when the show breaks for the night, police arrest him on suspicion of cheating; how could a street kid know so much? Desperate to prove his innocence, Jamal tells the story of his life in the slum where he and his brother grew up, of their adventures together on the road, of vicious encounters with local gangs, and of Latika (Pinto), the girl he loved and lost. Each chapter of his story reveals the key to the answer to one of the game show¹s questions.Each chapter of Jamal¹s increasingly layered story reveals where he learned the answers to the show's seemingly impossible quizzes.

But one question remains a mystery: what is this young man with no apparent desire for riches really doing on the game show?When the new day dawns and Jamal returns to answer the final question, the Inspector and sixty million viewers are about to find out.

Not forgetting the official website - http://www.foxsearchlight.com/slumdogmillionaire/

I was very impressed by how the well the story develops and unfolds. The way it was delivered to the audience was very direct yet it shows the audience what they did not expect. It is not one of those typical and easily predictable plot. Through the film, it shows people like you & I who are living in our comfortable citylife about the nasty side of life and how surreal it is.

The movie portrays the love & relationships between family & friends (Jamal, Salim & Latika) as well as relationship between a couple (Jamal & Latika). The undying love that Jamal has for Latika was really sweet. Despite being separated so many times and after many years, Jamal never gave up looking for his childhood love. Thank god after so many obstacles, they could finally be together. If they didn't, the movie would have SUCKED. Haha kidding. I love happy endings. :D

What mesmerized me the most in the whole movie was the 3 young main characters. Their ability to express their feelings despite their tender age was very impressive. The scene which had the deepest impression in me was when Jamal & Salim ran away on a train and left Latika behind. For that few seconds when Latika was looking at both the boys, the non-verbal communication present was very heartfelt and expressive.

The expressions worn on the 3 young kids' faces spoke on behalf of how they felt in their hearts. The pain, sadness and love that they have for each other. This shows that non-verbal communication is not only used when we're adults but at such a young age, we already knew how to express ourselves and interpret non-verbal communication.

This movie definitely deserves the awards they've won. :) There isn't any big stars featured in the movie but it's a movie based purely on a fantastic storyline and a humble cast. DO CATCH IT SOON EVERYBODY! :D

XOXO
atas

He's Just Not That Into You

Just watched this movie last night. It's really good! I really enjoyed it. =) I think most of what have been mentioned in the movie were totally true and logical. Especially what they say about girls. (well duh..since I'm a girl I would know) Haha. Not sure about the guys though. If it's true then...guys are pretty much jerks eh? Haha!

Anyway for those who have yet to watch the movie (WHICH YOU SHOULD TOTALLY WATCH SOON!), here's the synopsis taken from the official website (http://www.hesjustnotthatintoyoumovie.com/)

Based on the wildly popular bestseller from "Sex and the City" scribes Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo, "He's Just Not That Into You" tells the stories of a group of interconnected, Baltimore-based twenty-and-thirty somethings as they navigate their various relationships from the shallow end of the dating pool through the deep, murky waters of married life, trying to read the signs of the opposite sex... and hoping to be the exceptions to the "no-exceptions" rule.

Gigi just wants a man who says he'll call--and does--while Alex advises her to stop sitting by the phone. Beth wonders if she should call it off after years of committed singlehood with her boyfriend, Neil, but he doesn't think there's a single thing wrong with their unmarried life. Janine's not sure if she can trust her husband, Ben, who can't quite trust himself around Anna. Anna can't decide between the sexy married guy, or her straightforward, no-sparks standby, Conor, who can't get over the fact that he can't have her. And Mary. who's found an entire network of loving, supportive men, just needs to find one who's straight.

If you've ever sat by the phone wondering why he said he would call, but didn't, or if you can't figure out why she doesn't want to sleep with you anymore, or why your relationship just isn't going to the next level...he (or she) is just not that into you.

Right. How honest. It's always the truth that hurts isn't it? Haha. Anyway, from this show I learnt that men and women have different perceptions. Women tend to view things, in this case relationships, very differently from men.

In the movie, it is mentioned that after a woman and a man go on a date for the first time, the woman would usually be the one who expects a call from the guy for a next date. Sadly, when the guy doesn't call, the woman would think that "well maybe because the guy likes me thus he's just too nervous to call me." Unfortunately, this thought is usually further encouraged and emphasised by her girl pals. So she will tend to believe that it's true. (livinHowever, in the guy's opinion, it is otherwise. Even if he told her "nice meeting you", he might not actually mean it. So if he doesn't call you any time soon, he is probably "just not that into you". Oh damn. How harsh.

The movie tells us how different people have different perceptions. It's not just between men and women. In fact, everybody have different perceptions from each other. Including you and I. Perception depends a lot on how individual selects, organise and interprets the message/information sent to them that's why all of us perceive things differently from one another.

Girls, we gotta start being honest to our friends now. Especially if a guy doesn't like your friend. Tell it to her face. HAHAHA. =D

Have a good week ahead!

PS: WATCH THE MOVIEEEE!!!!!

XOXO
atas

Communication between us

Like many people out there, my friends and I also enjoy watching television programmes that are in another language other than English and Mandarin. Such as Japanese and Korean shows. Most of the shows we watch are not available on tv/cable so thank god for the invention of youtube! (I'm saying this with lots of gratitude. Really. Haha) We are still able get our daily fix of dramas/variety shows. Fortunately. =)

Although we are able to catch the shows on youtube, most of the time the videos are all not subbed. Either that or people simply take too long to even sub it. Haha. Thus there are many times where we just watch the show without the English subtitles. However, despite the fact that we can barely understand Korean, we are still able to understand what is going on in the show. I find it very amazing how communication works between human beings. It is amazing in a way that it isn't necessary for us to learn other languages in order to be able to understand each other. Although my friends and I do not understand the (unsubbed) videos in detail, we are still able to understand most of the "message" that is being sent across. Mainly through non-verbal communication.

Aside from verbal communication, non-verbal communication (when a stimulus other than words creates meaning in the mind of the communicator) plays a huge part in helping us understand the message that the other party is trying to convey across to us. Whether it's through actions, expressions etc. It is marvellous how we do not need to use words to express ourselves and yet others are atill able to understand what we are trying to say.

What do you guys think? Have you ever watched shows that were not in English or Mandarin and was still able to understand most of it even without the subtitles?

XOXO

atas

Love Matters

Hello!!! How did all of you spend your Valentine's? :D

After thinking for an hour on what to blog for today, I decided to write on a movie I watched during the CNY break. Love Matters. Since this week I learnt about communications in relationships. I guess this is suitable. :)

Here's a synopsis from the official website (http://www.lovematters.com.sg/en/home.asp), incase there are some of you who have yet to watch it. :

“Love Matters” is a movie revolves around three main protagonists –

52 year old Tan Bo Seng, 17 year old Benny his teenage son and 36 year old Jeremy, Bo Seng’s ‘adopted’ brother – and their accidental journey in seeking and keeping love and happiness.

Bo Seng (Henry Thia) leads a routine life. Attempts to revive the passion with his wife Jia Li (Yeo Yann Yann) cannot improve their stale love life.

Jeremy (Jack Lim) lives a colourful life, colourful in reference to his long list of girlfriends. “Never to commit” is his motto for love.

Benny (Alex Leong) has just school life, his only vice is anything to do with the computer, his only distraction is his crush, Jennifer (Natalli), his classmate’s girl.

Bo Seng & Jia Li the old fashion couple has more misses than hits in the love department and a series of madness spin off one night …

Jeremy meets Benny’s teacher, Ms Wong (Cheryl Lee) - a lady, unlike the wild things he has had. His charm wins him her heart, but his Casanova means refuse to take a back seat, a new lady friend threatens to change his life …

Benny starts to see hope in relationships, when Jennifer notices him and invites him over to her place. Over the visit, Jennifer’s friendly attention, takes a turn into something that Benny wish he has not been…

“Love Matters” is a humorous and entertaining look at love, happiness and issues concerning our straight laced society. It is full of trade-mark Jack Neo’s laugh-a-minute jokes and situations yet combined with a sensitive look at how we deal with issues concerning matters of the heart.

In Love Matters, besides relationships between couples, it also features the relationships between friends & family. Most of the stages in the Knapp model of Relational Development can be seen in the movie.

Although all 3 main relationships (Bo Seng & Jia Li, Jeremy & Ms Wong, Benny & Jennifer) in the movie did not reach the "Terminating" stage, along the way there were conflicts that led to the "Differentiating" stage. Especially for Bo Seng & Jia Li. An example would be when Bo Seng supposedly 'slept' with a young girl, which Jia Li later found out. She was not willing to forgive him and even wanted a divorce. But like most movies, it's usually a happy ending so obviously both of them did not end up filing for a divorce.

Unlike Bo Seng & Jia Li, Jeremy & Ms Wong as well as Benny & Jennifer, their relationships were mostly at the "Coming together" stages of the Knapp model. Although there was ONCE when Ms Wong almost broke up with Jeremy as she thought Jeremy was the one who slept with an underage girl. Since she overheard him talking about the incident to Jia Li as he was actually covering up for Bo Seng. But all was well after he made it clear to her. :)

In my opinion, I feel that the stages in the Knapp model can be seen as a cycle at times. There are couples who do reach the border of the "Coming apart" stages but would end up moving back to the "Coming together" stages (e.g. Jeremy & Ms Wong). Although it probably doesn't work out this way for most failed relationships, I would like to believe that there are exceptions out there.

What do you guys think? The Knapp model should be seen as a cycle or just a straight line model?

PS: Honestly, I don't fancy this movie at all. -.-

XOXO
atas

Miscommunication through sms

HEY. How's everyone? Right..I'm totally cracking my head on what to blog up here. This is such a killer. I feel stupid by the way. NOBODY READS THIS SHIT I'M BLOGGING. Can someone comment? At least make me feel less dumb. Thank you very kamsa. This is commonly called a 'lingo' or also known as a jargon used among Korean youngsters. Kamsa is taken from Kamsahamnida which means Thank you in Korean. How very creative. Haha. It rolls off the tongue pretty naturally. Try saying it. =D

Okay that is not what I'm gonna talk about for today's post. Have anyone experienced it when someone smses you asking a question and you merely reply "ok", then when you least expect it the next sms you receive from the other party would be "are you ok? are you angry?" Well I've definitely experienced that before and also had a hard time convincing the person that I'm perfectly fine and not angry at all. -.-

Short Message Service which is commonly known as SMS is a service available in all mobile phones these days (unless you own a brick phone then I've got nothing to say -.-) which allows
people to send text messages to others conveniently. Despite the convenience it provides as a medium of communication for all of us, this form of communication unfortunately does bring about miscommunication between people at times.

However this miscommunication is usually brought about by people's misinterpretation of the text message. For some odd reason, people tend to give personal meaning to the message they receive and interpret it wrongly thus misunderstanding the sender's real intentions. Therefore I personally think calling others are much better. Besides being able to prevent these sort of miscommunication, you can also prevent the hassle of having to explain yourself. Haha.

So do you guys prefer calling someone or texting? Have you guys experienced the same situation as I did before? Share yours here! =D

Have a good weekend!

XOXO
atas

Twilight

I'm sure many of you have already watched the Twilight movie. Especially after hearing many people (okay fine..GIRLS) raving about the oh-so-charming Edward Cullen.

Well...JUST INCASE any of you have yet to read/watch it. Here's a little synopsis of the story taken from http://www.twilightthemovie.com/.

TWILIGHT is an action-packed, modern-day love story between a teenage girl and a vampire. Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) has always been a little bit different, never caring about fitting in with the trendy girls at her Phoenix high school. When her mother re-marries and sends Bella to live with her father in the rainy little town of Forks, Washington, she doesn't expect much of anything to change. Then she meets the mysterious and dazzlingly beautiful Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson), a boy unlike any she's ever met. Edward is a vampire, but he doesn't have fangs and his family is unique in that they choose not to drink human blood. Intelligent and witty, Edward sees straight into Bella's soul. Soon, they are swept up in a passionate, thrilling and unorthodox romance. To Edward, Bella is what he has waited 90 years for - a soul mate. But the closer they get, the more Edward must struggle to resist the primal pull of her scent, which could send him into an uncontrollable frenzy. But what will Edward & Bella do when a clan of new vampires - James (Cam Gigandet), Laurent (Edi Gathegi) and Victoria (Rachelle Lefevre) - come to town and threaten to disrupt their way of life?

N read the whole saga eons ago (repeated many times as well) and told me that it was a love story between a disgustingly hot vampire and a plain jane. Damn! Sounds good or what? So I started reading Twilight and got hooked on the drool-worthy Edward Cullen. I ended up buying the whole damn series.

So anyway, I went to watch the movie when it was screened last month. After sitting in the cinema for close to 2 hours raving over the effing hot vampire, I honestly think that the movie isn't as good as it should be.

In my opinion, the movie failed to interact with the audience which is very important if the audience have yet to read the book itself. I think it is essential for the audience to be able to understand the movie even without reading the book. This movie lacked the emotional appeal of the whole story which I found as the most attractive point (aside from the oh-so-hot Cullen. haha!) of Twilight.

Also, the style which the director used to portray the story did not build up the required emotions of the various characters. If you read the book, you can actually feel Bella's pain when she was forced to separate from Edward. However it is not being portrayed in the show. I think this would be why quite a number of people found the movie dull since most of the emphasise of the movie was only on one aspect of emotion which is the tingly feeling of 'teenage romance'. Haha! Some people I know who have yet to read the book told me that the movie was "damn boring" since they do not know what on earth is going on.

Apparently, the excuse given by the director was that they had to cram 25 pages into 1 scene so it was pretty difficult yadda yadda~ Seriously. As if Harry Potter doesn't have to cram their many pages as well. So what do all of you think of the movie?

Oh by the way, guys who are being forced by your girlfriends to watch the movie, do you dislike Edward? Hahaha just curious! :D


XOXO
atas