Ashes of Time and Battle Royale

ive added a couple more quotes up by the side. the quotes are all taken from ashes of time, a controversial stereotypical wong kar wai period full length major motion picture. this movie received wide ranging reviews from critics all over the world, either saying this movie is totally nonsensical or saying that this movie is so thought provoking and can be regarded as an all time classic of art house flicks.

the movie starring a-listers such as tong leung chiu wai, tony leung kar fai, jacky cheung, maggie cheung, leslie cheung, carina lau, joey yeung, and lin ching-hsia (note: there is no other actors or actresses involved in the show other than the above mentioned), has a basic storyline that depicts the tale of all of the sadness of all the different characters. other than that, i honestly have to say that i dont understand what else is going on in the movie. its amazing how a single director with less than five movies to his name at that point in time can command all the above mentioned stars to come together.

anyway, back to my main point, the quotes. the script is written by wong kar wai, which makes those quotes written by him. from circumstances of my personal life, i really agree with many of his lines, especially those quotes by the side. frinds who know me should understand what i mean... ive always wanted to forget this one person, i told myself not to think of him, but he never left my mind, instead i found myself increasingly missing him... i long for one day when i could be relieved from these memories and images of the past and look forward to a fresh new future but i guess that wont come so soon...

ashes of time, a film from 1994 venice film festival, its vcd can be found from joan ang own personal vcd collection, bought at $6 from the heeren shops hmv on sale when one of the lead actors died (you know who...), so interested parties of wanting to expand their thinking on such issues can either borrow it from me of check if hmv still stocks it...

another thought provoking movie i watched and would like to share is battle royale, a japanese, manga inspired, violent and disturbing movie. it was shown in singapore a few years back under an ra rating due to its over disturbing violent content. i dont think you can get it on vcd dvd original or pirated in singapore. i managed to watch it from a friend who downloaded it before the closure of a particular file sharing website, so interested parties can visit peiyi...

battle royale, a class of 15 year olds are abandoned on a deserted island where they are given weapons to kill off one another and the last alive would then be able to return back to civilisation. when faced with this sort of circumstance, some friendships crumble while some manage to remain strong as ever. people also react differently to problems, some evade it, some attempt to overcome it, some tackled the problem from its very root.

i was asking zihui if faced with such a situation, would she kill a friend she was once so close with, she didnt know. neither do i. ponder over it, in a time of crisis, how much do you actually trust the friends around you and do your friends trust you the same way...

battle royale is said to be inspired by lord of the flies, but personally, i think that battle royale is more direct, more brutal, examines the foundation of friendship more explicitly as there is no real need for the boys in lord of the flies to kill off one another and there was no guarantee of them successfully returning to civilisation. they were also not given dangerous weapons and were also not exposed to violence that stressed them out and pressurised them to kill. battle royale (the movie) is based totally on battle royale (the comic) and the movie is also rewritten into a novel form.

if interested in battle royale, the comic, i have not found the chinese or japanese version around singapore, so if you know, please let me know. instead, theres a US english translated version of the original japanese manga being sold in some places in singapore like takashimaya kinokuniya and the comic shop opposite bugis kino. it is out to the third book now and costs $20 per piece because it is US imported, so the price cannot be compared to your usual taiwan published comics. ya, and i do not own any of them due to the fact that i have a not very well endowed wallet... sad...

note: i didnt mention anything about my prom.
over-hyped. over-priced. over.