1) Picked up a new language. 日本語がまだ下手なので、もっと勉強をしなければならない。今回は絶対にあきらめない。

2) One year O*D anniversary

3) Uni-life.. which is about sipping tea in the canteen reading through some notes or enjoying a nice chat with friends.

4) David Tao and Wang Lee Hom both had their concerts conducted here this year and they were spectacular! Whoots, but once again missed out Eason's..

5) Reestablished connection with my piano that had been lying quietly at the side of my study room, watching over my changes all these years despite my constant neglect. I couldn't describe why I suddenly feel like playing again, but it is definitely a good way to spend time with oneself.

6) Enlarged my Stitch collection reasonably. Well, pretty much so.

7) A sharp preference for logic to sentimentality.

8) J-drama fever. I think I completed more than 10 series this year, maybe more. The thing I like about Jap drama is they are shorter (about 10-11 eps per series) as compared to say Korean (think "Jumon") and Hong Kong serials. Personally I find the story plots more tightly packed and hence more engaging. Fukuyama Masaharu 福山雅治 is simply too cool!

And with that ends this very egocentric entry, for now.

Daily occurrences are but inevitable, because they are based on a simple case of probability.

Envoy of the Stars @ 12:16 AM
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四方盒的Hangover

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Having the luxury of time encompasses many possibilities. Sometimes I just hope that time can be really saved and deposited, to be retrieved at will when one needs them. But of course, somethings exist as fantasies. 妄想が現実にならない。

Firstly I will like to share about this show Maou 魔王, a Japanese remake of the popular Korean drama "The Devil". I remembered seeing posters around the train stations when I was in Japan back in July when it was aired. It is a psychological thriller about this two-faced lawyer who quietly executes his revenge under the guise of a kind protector of the weak, all the while being tracked down by a detective with a dark past that was central to the whole plot. It definitely sounded abit like a cross between Death Note and Code Geass (if you have no idea what these two titles are it's ok... just think of a vast complexity of mind games, abit like The Departed or 无间道) but above all, I think the emotions are much more comprehensible, and it is easier for audience to empathise with the characters and the suffering and repression they are experiencing. The same underlying messages disseminated in many other drama with vengeance as its main theme are perpetuated here, which is that ultimately, enmity, vindication and revenge will involve innocent parties and once it is in full swing, it is a road of no return, even if there appears a tinge of hesitation or regret.


Another is a Korean movie "A Man Who Was Superman", which is actually quite a recent one starring Jeon Ji Heon 全智贤. The film turned out more thought-provoking than the title suggested and as the plot unravels, a new light is thrown on all the seemingly disjointed and meaningless pieces and melded with the Korean brand of sentimentality, it leaves one with a warm and somewhat enlightened feeling after watching it. The abnormal, erratic behaviour of a grown man who goes about helping strangers in an almost comical way while claiming to be Superman who has lost his superhuman powers but not his desire to help others. The cynical, unimpressed reporter adopting the bystander attitude whose sole interest is to use him as a source to produce a hit documentary. And their interaction reveals this: that apathy is too much ingrained in everyone that the power of goodwill has been forgotten. I am reminded of a book I read titled K-Pax, about a man who claimed to have come from the planet K-Pax and provided purporting evidence for that claim, and how he went on to help many psychological patients face their own problems in the hospital he was admitted into.

力量并不能打开最坚实的铁门，一把小钥匙却已足够，而每个人心里都有一把钥匙，只是还没察觉。超人只是一个幻想，是普通人心中对于不平凡的盼望。影片的最后，我却看到超人的遗骸，凡人的姿态。看了不禁让我想起，荧幕上，荧幕下都是许多人心中永远的超人的Christopher Reeves.

Envoy of the Stars @ 10:50 PM
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宇多田ヒカル - Eternally -Drama Mix-

Sunday, December 07, 2008

Another great song by Utada Hikaru, the OP for the J-drama "Innocent Love". There's no pv out yet, so for now hopefully the song will suffice.

Envoy of the Stars @ 10:04 PM
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Absence

"Blessed are the forgetful, for they get the better even of their blunders." -Nietzsche

"How happy is the blameless vessel's lot! The world forgetting, by the world forgot. Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind! Each prayer accepted and each wish resigned."--Eloisa to Abelard, Alexander Pope

Perhaps ignorance is bliss. Perhaps... but we probably won't get the better of ourselves, or our own impulses.

Erasing those residual memories of a person, like haunting melodies strangely hollow but crying out with a demand for importance, borders on existentialism. Whether the person still exists physically is one thing, but whether that person exists in your world is another. What would existence be if the world doesn't recognise yours? What would memories be if they are not shared by anyone apart from yourself?

Envoy of the Stars @ 4:59 PM
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Interpretation of a Dream

Wednesday, December 03, 2008

I seem to remember this image in a dream many moons ago...

Seen through the lenses of a lone umpire, searching for players in an empty court. What was the game again?

天涯路，未归人。路在风尘，人在等待。

Lost among stillness, a constant among variables...

A blurred existence in a clearly realistic world.

これは夢か現実か、もうわからない。そして、知りたくない。

The green light, a red man.

A seemingly endless road and the long march to.. wherever the dream ends.

I seem to remember this image in a dream many moons ago... The same moon, a shrouded mystery in a night so blue.

Envoy of the Stars @ 12:39 AM
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Cape No.7

Monday, December 01, 2008

お久しぶり、この気持ち。

My emotions normally run dry but this time I was moved. Truth be told, I thought the underlying plot of having a regrettable love story of old strung acting as a backdrop against the main storyline of a bunch of shoddy individuals who have long become numb with life, hastily grouped together for a one-time performance to actualise their dream was rather old-skool. But the cliche here worked well, because the whole movie was playing on the 'song' bit, although it is definitely a different style from 881.

I think it was just the sight of seeing underdogs winning over the audience, and having all of them, regardless of age and style, working together as a group, pursuing a night of colours and dreams.

平凡变得很漂亮。刹那真的是永恒。

还蛮喜欢戏中的台词，是日本教师在离开他的学生恋人后写给她的信中的内容。当然有点淡淡的哀伤。“我知道，思念這庸俗的字眼將如陽光下的黑影我逃他追…我追他逃…一輩子。”

Envoy of the Stars @ 11:53 PM
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