Sunday, February 22, 2015
My favourite time of the year is here! 新年快乐！
At a time when fewer and fewer people are looking forward to CNY, it is still my No.1 festive occasion. I love gatherings. I love CNY goodies. I love how the whole country seemed to stop functioning for 2 days -- roads are empty, streets are peaceful, and everyone's dressed in nice clothes.
The cousins had a pre-CNY gathering a week before, so that we could meet Ah Yong before he's back for his remaining 4 months stint in the US. Not bad for our first-ever meet-up like this. I guess we can still do it next time..
And on the last few days before CNY, I had the honour to receive tickets to the Gala Premiere of 2 贺岁片: 冲上云霄 and 麻雀王. (托《上班不留白3》的 Kevin 的福). How can a person like me ever get tickets to a Gala Premiere right! So I was pretty excited about the shows.
To be honest, I expected 冲上云霄 to be much better than a mere disconnected 3 love stories, placed under the attractive banner of the hit HK drama series. There's essentially nothing much of the 冲上云霄 elements, except if you consider very stingy scenes of the cockpit and cabins. Unless you're diehard fan of 张智霖 or 古天乐 or 吴振宇, or a fan of 老掉牙 love plots, you'd leave the cinema feeling very disappointed.
麻雀王, on the other hand, was a little more entertaining and suitable for CNY. But the laugh-factor wasn't too impressive. The pull-factor was really 杜汶泽, and I'm glad he was made to act in his familiar Cantonese. Mark Lee delivered as usual. But probably because of the nature of a comedic movie, the lack of a more interesting plot made it pale in comparison to other more exciting 贺岁片. But then again, at least it's better than 冲上云霄.
I watched Ah Boys To Men 3: Frogmen (新兵正传3：蛙人传) on 初二, and I'm highly-recommending it. I must say that this 3rd movie is the best yet in the Ah Boys To Men series. It has alot of action packed in the 2.5-hour movie, and offers a very precious perspective into the underated training life of a Naval diver. I am not from the NDU, but being in the Navy and having visited Sembawang camp before, there were definitely things that I could identify with. Most notably, I found familiarity in the naval terms used in the movie.
Personally I enjoy Jack Neo's local humour, and he is genius in knowing what a Singaporean loves to see in his movies -- the familiarity of our local life; our local slangs; our shared memories etc. When you pay to watch his movies, you'd also know that you'd be getting product endorsements intertwined into the plot. So when these parts openly appear, they become humour too. Not forgetting too, there were his must-have touching moments in the movie, during which I really heard people sniffing a little in the cinema. I also noted that there were deliberate inclusion of aspects of his new religion in the movie, which I thought was unnecessary.
All in all, Ah Boys To Men 3 seems to be the Best 贺岁片 this year, and is definitely clinching the top spot in ticket sales, as did the first 2 Ah Boys to Men movies. Do catch it if you haven't!
人生是黑白的.
4:47 PM <3
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