Special effects or whatnot 3D effects are just the trimmings as what is important in a movie is the story itself.
it should have the right tension between the characters,realistic dialogue and be entertaining-meaning it has to capture my attention.
Indian movies are entertaining and has universal appeal despite the foreign language and the context of foreign lifestyle.Watching both Pad man and Toilet overtwo weekends shows the skill of the filmmaker to take a topic of social ills of society and spin it into a humorous ,entertaining movie.the appeal of Bollywood movies has spread to four corners of the globe and are the most widely seen movies all over the world from China,Russia,the Middle East,SouthEast Asia ,Britain and Africa.Fans from diverse cultural and social worlds have a liking for popular Indian movies.
Bollywood movies are value for money as it allows plain folks 3 long hours of entertainment with everything all thrown in. There are no distinct genres but mixes several genres and themes simultaneously in an orgy of visual and sound.This makes Bollywood movies different as multi genre movies are termed "the masala film" like curry cooked with different spices or masala,the Indian movie serves a potporri of flavours.
A famous choreographer says"What is saving Indian cinema from being overwhelmed by Hollywood is our song and dance routines,because they just can't imitate that." ( That's why I enjoy my Sunday dance sessions at the park as our guru teaches us Bollywood moves like her Masala Bhangra last Sunday saw us wriggling hipsand sliding our necks to hot bhangra music).
Their movies are full of hope,showingthat good inevitably triumphs,people live modern westernised lives and still respect traditional Indian values,the hero always beat the villain and the dark side of life is banished forever.As Amitabh Bachchan sums it 'Hindi movies provide poetic justice in just three hours-a feat that none of us can achieve in a lifetime."
I like movies that deal with socio-cultural issues in society and that I get from independent movies not manufactured for mass consumption.They deal with family issues or society concerns in which the movies from China starting from Zhang YiMo ,Feng Xiao gang and that generation of directors did not follow the mould of Hong Kong movies that were entertaining but lack critique of socio-cultural norms.Now China movies have zoomed way ahead with use of animation and dipping into new genres like sci-fi.I wanna watch The Wandering Earth when it comes as it had raving reviews.Horror and romance movies are so common in Asian movies that they lack creativity.Good to watch how science fiction is interpreted through an Asian director and Chinese writer-they are getting bolder in film making.Interesting development.Technical skills can be learnt but not the creativity of the story telling-that is an inborn talent and with a pool of billions,there are bound to be a few who will rise to the top of the profession if they are nurtured with access to diverse reading,viewing and acting opportunities.
Sunday, March 3, 2019
Monday, January 28, 2019
Food and culture
A lot of cultural legacy is contained in how food is caught,prepared and passed down.
A lot of food history shows how cultures intermingle and assimilate another alien culture.It's also how families create memories as cooking and feasting is a celebration of life wedding,birth and good memories.
i saw in the ancient Chinese manual of gastronomy from The Garden of Contentment how food recipes are created.I remember how uncle and granny bought soft shell turtle to make tonic soup or snakehead fish is filleted and how ferocious the survival of the fish thrashing on the floor.I remember the catfish with the poisonous sting barb in front but when cooked with black beans in claypot smelled awesome.
A lot of cooking is a labour of love so nomatter how backbreaking or how hot and sweaty, alot of good memories come out of the kitchen.The frugality of our ancestors who lived through famine and starvation sees my late dad talking about eating rice mice as a delicacy or catching frogs from the rice fields for food.How pomelo skin is dried and cooked as a vegetable just as the Italians use flowers of zucchini to stuff and deep fry or Japanese eating wild vegetables for health.
This New Year I think of panfried dry prawns marinated in superior say sauce and caramelised with sugar,steam pomfret,stewed trotters with dried oysters and black moss,soya sauce chicken and steamed winter melon soup as the traditional new year food I miss the most.
A lot of food history shows how cultures intermingle and assimilate another alien culture.It's also how families create memories as cooking and feasting is a celebration of life wedding,birth and good memories.
i saw in the ancient Chinese manual of gastronomy from The Garden of Contentment how food recipes are created.I remember how uncle and granny bought soft shell turtle to make tonic soup or snakehead fish is filleted and how ferocious the survival of the fish thrashing on the floor.I remember the catfish with the poisonous sting barb in front but when cooked with black beans in claypot smelled awesome.
A lot of cooking is a labour of love so nomatter how backbreaking or how hot and sweaty, alot of good memories come out of the kitchen.The frugality of our ancestors who lived through famine and starvation sees my late dad talking about eating rice mice as a delicacy or catching frogs from the rice fields for food.How pomelo skin is dried and cooked as a vegetable just as the Italians use flowers of zucchini to stuff and deep fry or Japanese eating wild vegetables for health.
This New Year I think of panfried dry prawns marinated in superior say sauce and caramelised with sugar,steam pomfret,stewed trotters with dried oysters and black moss,soya sauce chicken and steamed winter melon soup as the traditional new year food I miss the most.
Monday, January 14, 2019
How social media coins new words
The use of social networking sites has allowed new vocabulary to be coined as users make up words to express a particular idea which will later be viralized and enter popular usage.
Words like manhandle and blacklisted goes out of fashion with the rise of social trends like feminism and anti racism.So current lingo shows the creativeness of the inventor like blamegame or kickass.The young people go a step further in reducing words into acronyms like LOL or MILF or YOLO.
Some words come and go very fast .Last year the word was milkshake duck to describe someone once highly regarded is found to be not true to character .In English we say that idols have feet of clay.Now the word of the year is "Me Too" in view of the anti discrimination of female victims and anther word that lost to it is Big Dick Energy,Deepfake and Single Use.How language evolves has to be understood in line with the socio-cultural context of the changes in society.I guess the dumb blonde and the dickhead has gone out of fashion .
Words like manhandle and blacklisted goes out of fashion with the rise of social trends like feminism and anti racism.So current lingo shows the creativeness of the inventor like blamegame or kickass.The young people go a step further in reducing words into acronyms like LOL or MILF or YOLO.
Some words come and go very fast .Last year the word was milkshake duck to describe someone once highly regarded is found to be not true to character .In English we say that idols have feet of clay.Now the word of the year is "Me Too" in view of the anti discrimination of female victims and anther word that lost to it is Big Dick Energy,Deepfake and Single Use.How language evolves has to be understood in line with the socio-cultural context of the changes in society.I guess the dumb blonde and the dickhead has gone out of fashion .
Thursday, January 10, 2019
Art of the Soul
Really would like to see the exhibition of China's artist Shao Fan in Malaysia.Next year some exciting cultural events like Ed Sheeran's concer and musical Phantom of The Opera performance in Malaysia.Need to save for these pricey events by eating home cooked meals or buy less novels.It's a hard choice-sigh.
X & Y or Y X? Get more ZZZZZ
The Art of Soul or the Art of Life.
X & Y or Y X? Get more ZZZZZ
The Art of Soul or the Art of Life.
"Art for me is like a pearl," he says.
"I see the pearl as a result of self-healing after suffering harm from the outside world. Art has that same function-serving as a kind of enduring self-relief or self-comfort to cope with our feelings of helplessness." China's artist Shao Fan at exhibition
The Art Of The Soul.
Wednesday, January 2, 2019
Doggone it
That's my favourite word.When my owner Cathy got a new baby poodle with curly white fluffy coat and sappy round eyes,she seem to have lost all interest in me.When i rubbed against her leg,she would pick me up and tickle the top of head and smooched my face.Poor bobby, You miss me don't you but I told the kid next door to feed you everyday.Did he do it? Why are you getting so scrawny?
Look what I bought you from my holiday in Australia.Here its a lovely green collar with a medallion of your name see Bob .
Now she pushes me out of the room and her bed and she cuddles Fifi in her bed.When I see Fifi,I took an instant dislike to her fawning ways.I would hiss and snarl at her "Doggone it! What are you blinking at me for?"
last night,she said Bob come you have to go to the vet.You need to go for your injections.Your knees must be giving you a lot of pain.She put me in the plastic carrier and carried it down the lift.Then she forgot the keys and rushed back up the lift,leaving me in the carrier.A sexy white bob tail peered inside.Hi you wanna join me for the great hunt today.She pushed the door lightly with her paws and whoa,it swung open.Cathy must have forgotten to latch it as she was in a hurry.
Come on I'm Sasa ,don't be a pussy,come on out,We'll have so much fun.
Well,I jumped at this chance,to be a free cat .Follow me,she beckoned and we dashed behind the huge black refuse bins.It reeked of fish bones and rotting vegetables.As Sasa leaped to the edge,she called,Quick you scaredy cat!Me scaredy,no way,
Look what I bought you from my holiday in Australia.Here its a lovely green collar with a medallion of your name see Bob .
Now she pushes me out of the room and her bed and she cuddles Fifi in her bed.When I see Fifi,I took an instant dislike to her fawning ways.I would hiss and snarl at her "Doggone it! What are you blinking at me for?"
last night,she said Bob come you have to go to the vet.You need to go for your injections.Your knees must be giving you a lot of pain.She put me in the plastic carrier and carried it down the lift.Then she forgot the keys and rushed back up the lift,leaving me in the carrier.A sexy white bob tail peered inside.Hi you wanna join me for the great hunt today.She pushed the door lightly with her paws and whoa,it swung open.Cathy must have forgotten to latch it as she was in a hurry.
Come on I'm Sasa ,don't be a pussy,come on out,We'll have so much fun.
Well,I jumped at this chance,to be a free cat .Follow me,she beckoned and we dashed behind the huge black refuse bins.It reeked of fish bones and rotting vegetables.As Sasa leaped to the edge,she called,Quick you scaredy cat!Me scaredy,no way,
Thursday, December 20, 2018
fast moving technology
Technology evolves at breathtaking speed .What was a wildly hot IT application can become obsolete so fast.Jun was engrossed as many youths were in the early heyday of social media with Friendster and Myspace and all that has vanished as with the Dodo bird nowadays.
So when social media sites like facebook and twitter do not protect the privacy of users with strong anti hacking programs,the data can be manipulated by unscrupulous agents to shape public opinion to sway voters in elections or be used by authoritarian governments to spy on dissidents and social activists,thus endangering their work in civil movements.So it is crucial for social media companies to engage with social activists in civil societies who work to empower the marginalized and powerless so that they are not under the surveilance of authorities and their work protected by encrypted software that is non hackable by state authorities.
How important is data protection is when private data is hacked,it exposes users to scammers,spammers and programmers who use your identity for malicious purposes.Instead of protecting the powerful and famous,these social media companies should sit up to protect the millions of ordinary users from malware,trolls and scams.Once abandoned enmass ,they would end up like Myspace and Friendsters.
So when social media sites like facebook and twitter do not protect the privacy of users with strong anti hacking programs,the data can be manipulated by unscrupulous agents to shape public opinion to sway voters in elections or be used by authoritarian governments to spy on dissidents and social activists,thus endangering their work in civil movements.So it is crucial for social media companies to engage with social activists in civil societies who work to empower the marginalized and powerless so that they are not under the surveilance of authorities and their work protected by encrypted software that is non hackable by state authorities.
How important is data protection is when private data is hacked,it exposes users to scammers,spammers and programmers who use your identity for malicious purposes.Instead of protecting the powerful and famous,these social media companies should sit up to protect the millions of ordinary users from malware,trolls and scams.Once abandoned enmass ,they would end up like Myspace and Friendsters.
Monday, December 10, 2018
disinformation
Just read Joseph Nye's article on fake news.It shows how social media permeates every level of modern society and how it shapes our perception of people and issues.
Using big data,the sites can amass lots of data on an individual's preferences and behaviour and enable politicians and advertisers to shape precise messages to disarm our reservations,bombard us and wear down our mental shields.
Lies,oft repeated becomes ingrained as truth.To show our support for something ,the so called likes have created a new business called click farms that generate the level of likes needed to sustain advertising sponsorship.
Such technological manipulation of preferences can distort reality.
The soft power of social media creator's bosses have seen how they are elevated to the rank of Hollywood celebrities and are on the same level to interact with prime ministers and head of states as compared to CEOs of a bank or manufacturer who would liase with a minister of finance or economy but not on par with the head of state.That shows how the power between the head of state depends on his public image which is shaped by the social media.This perception can make or break the grip of a leader on power come election time.
So consumers of information should go back to formal news network where investigative journalists do professional work to check and double check the accuracy of information before disemminating it unlike the power held by citizen journalist who may be influenced by subjective biasness without oversight by editors and sub-editors.Misinformation can have adverse effects of inciting hate news or feed the filter bubble of readers who are cut off from opposing points of view.
Using big data,the sites can amass lots of data on an individual's preferences and behaviour and enable politicians and advertisers to shape precise messages to disarm our reservations,bombard us and wear down our mental shields.
Lies,oft repeated becomes ingrained as truth.To show our support for something ,the so called likes have created a new business called click farms that generate the level of likes needed to sustain advertising sponsorship.
Such technological manipulation of preferences can distort reality.
The soft power of social media creator's bosses have seen how they are elevated to the rank of Hollywood celebrities and are on the same level to interact with prime ministers and head of states as compared to CEOs of a bank or manufacturer who would liase with a minister of finance or economy but not on par with the head of state.That shows how the power between the head of state depends on his public image which is shaped by the social media.This perception can make or break the grip of a leader on power come election time.
So consumers of information should go back to formal news network where investigative journalists do professional work to check and double check the accuracy of information before disemminating it unlike the power held by citizen journalist who may be influenced by subjective biasness without oversight by editors and sub-editors.Misinformation can have adverse effects of inciting hate news or feed the filter bubble of readers who are cut off from opposing points of view.
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