Tuesday, March 18, 2008
After much thought over whether it was just a corny love story, a shitty local production, or just a tear-generator I didn’t wanna know, I went to watch ‘The Leap Years’ with my godsis on Saturday.
It is THE best local film production I’ve seen.
‘Singapore Dreaming’ was good, so was ‘The Maid’.. and who can forget ’12 Storeys’ – these were wonderful films with depth. (notice I’m not even talking about Jack Neo’s movies here)
But ‘The Leap Years’… man oh man oh man..
Firstly, the cinematography was beautiful… portraying Singapore in a very sensitive manner… like it’s a place one could actually have a life in, minus all the stressful hustle and bustle. Even the famous CBD skyscraper shot was very soft, very gentle.
It showed that Singapore has some culture, history… real people.
Ananda Mathew Everingham was like, the Greek god I’ll gladly present my body to. He’s not handsome, but he is charming in a rugged way… of course him showing off half his hard chest most of the time he appeared in the movie helped, lol. After all the drooling, he acted rather well the part of the tortured lover.
Wong Li-Lin’s an excellent actress… she’s never really had the opportunity to show what she’s really made of, til now. It’s so difficult to manage a role like hers without appearing silly and naïve, and desperate.
Which brings me to the plot itself.
At first glance, it seems kinda corny, doesn it? Boy and girl make a promise to meet every leap year, aka once every four years. Which in itself is kinda pathetic… especially when they’re in love and blah blah blah.
But the characters have such depth, it’s believable that such a thing can happen. That people can love in such a manner, have what Li-Ann (Wong Li-Lin’s character) called ‘a rare connection’.
Take Li-Ann for example: she’s an intelligent, strong-minded individual, successful in her own right. You wouldn’t think that a woman like her could allow herself to be in a situation that has her effectively pinning after a man she knows little of… she tells herself, the next leap year, she wun see him, but then in the end, she goes to wait for him all the same. This internal struggle within her to balance practicality and her heart’s longings was played out so well by Wong Li-Lin. In the end, I didn’t think she was silly, but rather, I found myself actually relating to her, understanding her, sympathizing with her.
Because really, at the end of the day, all of us want to find that someone we can have that ‘rare connection’ with, and I’m not talking about sex here. Her character was so real because she also had all the human fears that we have, yet she wants to have her heart’s desires too.
In the end, I found myself applauding her.
I think I spent about one-third of the movie in tears… I was desperately trying not to let my god-sis see the big fat tears rolling down my cheeks. It wasn’t just because the movie was sad (I’m not gonna tell you what the ending is, but it’s good), but also because it was so touching, of the ‘awwwww’ variety. In the last few minutes, someone in the cinema sniffed very loudly – that was like the green light for all the females to cry without restraint. When my god-sis asked for tissue, I was like, “ok lah, can freely cry liao”.
Lol… I had to do some serious make-up touching up after the movie. And my eyes still hurt an hour after it from the crying.
It’s a really good movie, and I urge all of you to watch it… if you had to spend your money on one really meaningful thing this year, this is it.
***
I’ve also been doing some crying of a different kind. During the follow-up check-up at the vet, results showed that the bone had ‘popped’ out. Now the only option left is surgery.
But that costs about $2k… and as 'great' as I may be in my career, I dun have that kind of money…
So now my dog’s hopping around the house… she can still manage like that for a while, just that it’s inconvenient for her, and we’ve to help her scratch behind her ears since she can’t use her leg for that anymore. But that’ll only last for a while… then it’ll start hurting like mad for her, and she’ll need that surgery.
If my dog had some terrible disease and needed to be put to sleep to ease her suffering, fine, so be it. But for something like this, there is a solution… I can’t possibly put her to sleep.
When I return home every night, I make sure I spend some time with her… cuddling her, petting her… so she’ll feel my love… but it really pains me to see her hopping around (even though she’s not in pain now – she even jumped up the steps at home lor)… it’s like a reminder to me that I’m a failure as an owner.
Urgh!
Anyone wanna pay me money?
It is THE best local film production I’ve seen.
‘Singapore Dreaming’ was good, so was ‘The Maid’.. and who can forget ’12 Storeys’ – these were wonderful films with depth. (notice I’m not even talking about Jack Neo’s movies here)
But ‘The Leap Years’… man oh man oh man..
Firstly, the cinematography was beautiful… portraying Singapore in a very sensitive manner… like it’s a place one could actually have a life in, minus all the stressful hustle and bustle. Even the famous CBD skyscraper shot was very soft, very gentle.
It showed that Singapore has some culture, history… real people.
Ananda Mathew Everingham was like, the Greek god I’ll gladly present my body to. He’s not handsome, but he is charming in a rugged way… of course him showing off half his hard chest most of the time he appeared in the movie helped, lol. After all the drooling, he acted rather well the part of the tortured lover.
Wong Li-Lin’s an excellent actress… she’s never really had the opportunity to show what she’s really made of, til now. It’s so difficult to manage a role like hers without appearing silly and naïve, and desperate.
Which brings me to the plot itself.
At first glance, it seems kinda corny, doesn it? Boy and girl make a promise to meet every leap year, aka once every four years. Which in itself is kinda pathetic… especially when they’re in love and blah blah blah.
But the characters have such depth, it’s believable that such a thing can happen. That people can love in such a manner, have what Li-Ann (Wong Li-Lin’s character) called ‘a rare connection’.
Take Li-Ann for example: she’s an intelligent, strong-minded individual, successful in her own right. You wouldn’t think that a woman like her could allow herself to be in a situation that has her effectively pinning after a man she knows little of… she tells herself, the next leap year, she wun see him, but then in the end, she goes to wait for him all the same. This internal struggle within her to balance practicality and her heart’s longings was played out so well by Wong Li-Lin. In the end, I didn’t think she was silly, but rather, I found myself actually relating to her, understanding her, sympathizing with her.
Because really, at the end of the day, all of us want to find that someone we can have that ‘rare connection’ with, and I’m not talking about sex here. Her character was so real because she also had all the human fears that we have, yet she wants to have her heart’s desires too.
In the end, I found myself applauding her.
I think I spent about one-third of the movie in tears… I was desperately trying not to let my god-sis see the big fat tears rolling down my cheeks. It wasn’t just because the movie was sad (I’m not gonna tell you what the ending is, but it’s good), but also because it was so touching, of the ‘awwwww’ variety. In the last few minutes, someone in the cinema sniffed very loudly – that was like the green light for all the females to cry without restraint. When my god-sis asked for tissue, I was like, “ok lah, can freely cry liao”.
Lol… I had to do some serious make-up touching up after the movie. And my eyes still hurt an hour after it from the crying.
It’s a really good movie, and I urge all of you to watch it… if you had to spend your money on one really meaningful thing this year, this is it.
***
I’ve also been doing some crying of a different kind. During the follow-up check-up at the vet, results showed that the bone had ‘popped’ out. Now the only option left is surgery.
But that costs about $2k… and as 'great' as I may be in my career, I dun have that kind of money…
So now my dog’s hopping around the house… she can still manage like that for a while, just that it’s inconvenient for her, and we’ve to help her scratch behind her ears since she can’t use her leg for that anymore. But that’ll only last for a while… then it’ll start hurting like mad for her, and she’ll need that surgery.
If my dog had some terrible disease and needed to be put to sleep to ease her suffering, fine, so be it. But for something like this, there is a solution… I can’t possibly put her to sleep.
When I return home every night, I make sure I spend some time with her… cuddling her, petting her… so she’ll feel my love… but it really pains me to see her hopping around (even though she’s not in pain now – she even jumped up the steps at home lor)… it’s like a reminder to me that I’m a failure as an owner.
Urgh!
Anyone wanna pay me money?
