Selamat Hari Kebangsaan kepada semua rakyat Malaysia! Today is the 52nd year of independence for Malaysia.
And speaking of which, have you watched 15 Malaysia before? 15 Malaysia is a project consisting of 15 short films about Malaysia and I think that its quite fantastic.
It was then when I noticed the 15 Malaysia webpage. Not every of film is published at this point of time as each will be released on a specific date. But my favourite so far would have to be this one.
Check out the cameo at the end of the video. I cant help to notice the little touches of irony in the film like when the boy walks through the school compound and there were the words Respect, Justice and Self esteem on top. What a sad story
Have you watched 15 Malaysia before? What do you think of it?
Its been about a month since Rai, an Italian tv station, has been broadcasting via digital tv.
While many of us would be more familliar with the old analog receiver, I still remember the dish shaped receiver that my family used. Here in Italy, the television stations here are slowly phasing out their analog television and changing it to digital broadcasting. Because Mr Bananas wants to own even more tv stations. Cart got this little black device for the tv in the kitchen.
This is a digital tv decoder. Using new fangled technology, it allows users to have a clear reception. The instant that Cart installed it, I was rather surprised. The quality of the image was almost like HD quality while previously it was a tad snowy. The quality of the show on the other hand … I keed! I keed!
And previously, while we used to have about 7 stations, now we have about 25 free to air stations! Several of them are not Italian channels even. There was this one time when I caught an eccentric looking French chef completely in black outfit and black hat showing viewers on how to make a crepe. (No its not Emmanuel Stroobant but the chef took so much time in making one freaking crepe that makes me feel that I’d die from hunger if I were in France)
Anyway, so far there are a couple of interesting interesting Italian shows that I’ve watched. One of them is ‘X Factor Italia‘
X-factor is basically a singing competition rather similar to American Idol. Though I still dont understand much as I still am not so fluent in Italian, its still enjoyable to me. But what is strange about the show is that new contestants come to compete every two weeks instead of a cap at the very beginning. Also what is even stranger to me is that the champion of X Factor Italia has not had a CD out yet while all the runner ups already had theirs released.
Even Morgan, one of the judges in X Factor Italia is confuzzled.
Also, what is interesting about Italian television is that tv stations allows the broadcast of topless women after 10pm and later. Being in Singapore where a plentiful of things are censored, you could imagine my surprise when I saw advertisments of topless women promoting sun tan lotion, slimming creams et al.
But truth be told, now that I’m more used to it, there isn’t anything so special about seeing topless women on local television. Its not like suddenly I’m turning into a hard case molester or pervert. Its not like its so strange. Its just women’s body. Which makes it a tad hypocritical for the above picture, but nevertheless
In any case, another interesting thing about Italian tv here is that many (if not all) of the imported programmes here are dubbed.
True Blood in Italian? Checked
Simpsons in Italian? Checked
Xena the warrior princess in Italian? Checked
Even Nobita from Doraemon can speak Italian! Look! Just ignore the background spoon and bowl sound. We were having breakfast while recording this
Cart and I were watching Angels and Demons yesterday evening. Though I couldn’t comprehend the movie in its entirety since it was dubbed in Italian, I found it interesting nevertheless. Even if there were many parts which I found completely incredible.
For example, the fact that the lead character, Professor Langdon is able to move around central Rome in less than an hour is completely amazing! Anyone who has been in Rome knows of how bad the traffic is here. It intensifies as you go nearer the touristy spots.
Look at the amount of people at the Spanish Steps
And it will be like winning the lottery if you ever get to park directly in front of your destination since trying to find parking in Rome is extremely challenging. Its not uncommon for a Roman to drive around the neighbourhood for about 15 mins and more, just trying to find parking.
So much so that the people here does double parking sometimes
There was one particular scene where one of the kidnapped Cardinal gets bound in weights and dropped into the fountain in Piazza Navona. In the movie, it seemed that the fountain was very deep.
This is the famous fountain in Piazza Navona
In real life, its quite hard to drown anyone in there. The area is extremely crowded with people and only authorized vehicles can pass through. Moreover, the fountain is about knee deep in water. All you have to do is to stand up.
It was an experience to remember being in the HBO office!
I was invited by Sumin of the PR agency text100 for a preview of HBO’s comedy. Having enjoyed HBO’s shows, notably, Sex and the City, I was happily confirmed.
It was a long ride all the way to the HBO office. We recognized the building when we spotted the large satellites on top of the tall building. When we reached the floor, we were welcomed warmly by Sumin. It was hard not to miss the HBO-ness of the place. There were loads of televisions everywhere. My eyes were attracted by the numerous shows that was playing simultaneously.
Our hosts brought us, as well as the other invited bloggers on a tour around the office where we explored the different departments. There was a green room, where one of the guests acted out and one of the engineers keyed in a background to the footage. There was a sound room where Jerrick’s voice was used as a sample sound for a tv commercial. And we were also brought to the control room where the there was one staff there that was manning the broadcast, LIVE!
Being someone who likes watching as well as editing videos myself, it was fascinating to me to watch the different processes. Unfortunately, due to security reasons, I cant publish any images from the production area. Regardless, there are loads of information on the internet about this.
After the tour, we were seated in a screening room where were previewed an upcoming comedy series called, “Flight of the Concords”. Apparently, the show roused quite an interest in the US.
Thats Jermaine on the left and Bret on the right
It is a little hard to describe how the show is. In a nutshell, its a quirky show where the show revolves around two artists who sings parodies of their day to day situation. The story seems to remind me a little of the gem of a show by MTV called, 2gether which parodies the obsession of boybands during the 90’s.
It was a little hard to get what the actors were saying, due to their New Zealand accent. But once you’ve gotten a hang of it, Flight of the concords was very very silly indeed. There was a scene where Bret refused to play in a gig with Jermaine. Eventually, he got replaced with a cassette tape.
Or this scene where Jermaine wanted some of his money back from his manager :
Jemaine: Murray, we need some money.
Murray: Oh, okay. How much? (fetches a lock box from a drawer) We’ve got four dollars in here.
Jemaine: I thought we had ten dollars?
Murray: This box cost six.
And there was one actress in particular, that struck me -Kristen Schaal, who also acted in the immensely funny internet series, Horrible People – a parody of soap operas.
I sure am looking forward to just plonk down and zone out in front of the telley to watch the next episodes of Flight of the Concords. Hehehe … with that, I’ll leave you to one of my favourite music clip by Flight of the Concords – Foux da fafa :
When Yuhui plurked about catching the Teenage Textbook movie, I was intrigued. The Teenage Textbook was a book that I enjoyed immensely through my school years. Although I have no watched the movie before, I think that it’ll be quite an experience to watch the book come to life!
In a nutshell, the teenage textbook movie revolved around 4 main characters, Mui Ee, a smart but shy girl, her best friend, Sissy Song, the popular school belle, Chung Kai, who secretly harbors a crush on Mui Ee, and his best friend, Hok Sean.
As my younger sister has read the book and has not watched the movie either, I thought that it would be a great time to bond together in a girls night out :)
We reached Old School at about 8pm and although I’ve been here before, I’m always charmed at how elegant the place was and impressed that it was converted from an actual school!
We chose our seats and sat down on the plush seats in the Sinema hall, and waited for the movie to start. I sat there lapping up each moment.
The movie was lovely – it was funny, it was witty, and I thought that the cast had good chemistry with each other.
The storyline was good albeit it was more of a condensed version of both the teenage textbook and teenage workbook. There were a number of scenes that were taken out, such as the lisping guy who keeps calling Sissy Song as “Thythy Thong” as well as the scene when Tom D’Cruise tried to make his moves on Mui Ee.
But that was a problem with many book to movie transition as different people always have different perceptions as to what was important to be kept in the movie and which would be cut away due to constraints.
And granted that the quality of the film was rather grainy, and that there were a number of references which was outdated, it was understandable as the movie was produced in 1998.
I had a blast recognizing the old “ship” currency, looking at popular spots like Orchard and Holland Village as they were 10 years ago as well as reminiscing about the days when Mark Richmond was deejaying for Perfect Ten.
When the movie ended, out comes Adrian Tan, the author, and Phillip Lim, the director to come to talk about the movie as well as a questions and answer session. I was so floored! I always feel a sense of privilege when meeting a creator.
And while the both of them were bantering, the audience could sense how at ease they were with each other.
I learnt that Adrian Tan was a lawyer, which was an interesting fact for me to note since going to the Kevin Matthew’s performance, and he was a lawyer too! Proving that lawyers are not necessarily fuddy duddy people :P
I also found out that Phillip Lim gave out directing lessons around the time when he was creating the Teenage Textbook Movie to supplement his income. Turns out that one of his students was Royston Tan, an emerging and acclaimed director in Singapore!
And in the end, I had a picture with the author, the director and two of the main casts in the show. Oh my. I cant believe that I was actually took a picture as well as had a short talk to Adrian Tan. He was a very eloquent and friendly person and I was so in awe and was very excited to the point of almost being delirious.
As if you could not see from my huge grin photographed next to Adrian Tan, Phillip Lim, Randall Tan and Melody Chen. Woah! I’m embarrassed to say that I was starstruck :P
All in all, I enjoyed myself tremendously and I think that it was an evening to remember :-)
Here’s a quick video about how the teenage textbook movie materialized :
Recently, I was privileged to meet acclaimed director, Yasmin Ahmad, the director of the Tan Hong Ming as well as various other notable videos. She was here to grace the exclusive screening for MCYS on an advertisement entitled, ‘Family’
Charming view from the rooftop of the screening room
I reached the Screening Room, rather late after a staff day out, being unfamiliar with the area, my sense of direction gone and rather traumatized by the after working hours road conditions!
To call the videos emotional would be an understatement! Mintea, who was sitting beside me and I were already fighting hard not to tear up through the showcase.
Mintilicious, Yasmin Ahmad and Sexeh Rinaz
When the lights came on, I finally saw her – Yasmin Ahmad right across me, sitting like a regal queen. She started sharing her experiences on being a director. How she faced prejudices from many because of her being a Woman as well as being a Malay. I immediately related to that, being a Malay Woman myself.
I started wondering how she was able to stay strong in such adversities when Yasmin quoted a beautiful sentence “The Thicker and Deeper the Mud The More Beautiful The Lotus Grows” Which I thought was elegant and profound at the same time.
Soonafter, the screening of the new commercial started – it features a doting single dad, raising up his daughter.
Yasmin mentioned that a family unit does not always have to be perfect and complete unit and asked the bloggers on our opinion of the video.
The reaction of the bloggers were mostly positive. There was one blogger (I think it was scarlett) who said that being raised up by a single parent and is now a single parent herself, she could relate to the video.
Ian Timothy is a little shy for pictures, so here is Brian and Mintea doing their best toothpaste commercial smile :)
Personally for me, I thought that the choice for the location was a little strange as it seemed a little dated. But that was when Ian Timothy mentioned that the location was a good choice as he emphatised, growing up in the lower class family.
There was a particular blogger who mentioned that because the majority of the population has a complete family unit, they may not be able to relate to the video – to which Yasmin humorously replied, “I watched ‘Finding Nemo’ … I laughed and I cried … But I’m not a fish!”
And what do you think of the advertisement video? Do you think that its okay for being in a single parent family? Are you able to relate to this video?
I keed! I keed!
