AFTERIMAGES (鬼影) - Singapore Horror Film

After a tiring outdoor event (Families For Life Celebration 2014) at the Singapore Sports Hub, Bro his friends (ZW and RH) and I decided to end the day with a horror flick - Afterimages.   

4 tickets to the movie and complimentary 1 graphic novel

Afterimages is a Singaporean horror film anthology of five short horror stories with an international cast starring Robert Warnock (Richard Wylie), Melissa Faith Yeo (Amy Tan), Adeline Pang (Yasmin), Vincent Tee (Hok Leng) and more. 

It all started when this group of students burn paper offerings for the wondering spirits during the ghost month, one of the items in the paper offerings includes a camera and the next day, they receive photographs. So they try to burn video cameras and in return they receive films which the students watched. 

Ghost Pool Leg (鬼拉脚)

The first story, Ghost Pool Leg revolves around the Chinese superstition in which ghosts are believed to pull swimmers legs to make them drown. A cocky expat ignored the warning of a security guard and begin his late night swimming excursions and have some strange encounters. I love the underwater shooting of this story. It was beautifully filmed. 

Xiao Bao Bao (小宝宝)

The second story, Xiao Bao Bao is about a young woman (Melissa Faith Yeo) who used her handphone to take photos of the corpse of another woman who fell to death from the 29th storey of her block. This put her through nightmares and trauma with the ghost haunting her. But actually, the ghost needs a favour from her and she was left in peace after she done the favour for the ghost. There was a few scary scenes here, the ghost appearing in her house and the suspense of her taking the lift to the 29th storey. However, the story ended in a light note with the ghost thanking her for so called doing the last favour for her. We then concluded that she fell because she wanted to get her baby's favourite towel and not because of suicide. 

Skin Deep

The third story, Skin Deep talks about a group of unrelated shoppers getting stuck in a mall elevator with this beautiful and mysterious woman called Yasmin (Adeline Pang). She holds a deep and dark secret. At first, everyone was fine and started making friends with one another to pass time. Chaos started when two of the passengers inside the elevator, including this mysterious woman had an asthma attack. Yasmin then reveal the truth of her lasting beauty. She actually had bomoh needles under the skin on her face, and it is the needles that kept her young and beautiful. Her real age is actually that of an old lady (revealed when she dropped her bag and her passport falls out). However, she had a price to pay, that is she has to remove all the needles if she were to die if not she will burnt in hell forever. So, she thinking that she will die in the elevator with her asthma attack, cut open her own face and removed all the golden needles. As she was removing the last needle and feeling glad, the lift door opened, everybody went out and she just lie on the ground and turning old. This story is not scary at all but it kept audience anticipating what is her secret. 

Picture Source: http://paranormal-around.blogspot.sg/2013/01/needles-inserted-into-body-by-bomoh-to.html

Ok, I'm really curious about this golden needle story so I went online to search. So the actual term is called Susuk. The link for the newspaper articles provides a lot of other interesting reads on the paranormal stories. Not that I want to have any encounters with the supernatural but this cannot be explained happenings really gets me very curious and want to read up more.   

Rekindling 

The forth story features a heart-broken hawker acted by Veteran actor Vincent Tee, a missing China bride, a mysterious ring, and a popular dish called "lady's fingers" that make up for this gruesome tale. There's some light-hearted scenes here. 

Burnt Offering

The last story, Burnt Offering is the whole wrap-around story that completes the movie as we follow this group of friends who have been receiving free films in return of their paper video camera offerings. Well, receiving something from the other side definitely does not bring them any good fortune, for this last film is something personal. They see how they died in this last film and as they were seeing, the reality happened. 

Picture Source/Facebook Page : https://www.facebook.com/aihorror

Overall, I think this movie has quite an interesting plot. The stories are all very local and something we can relate to. There's not too much of a scary factor, I didn't try to cover my eyes although I did try to cover my ears for the loud sound effect. On the bus home, we met with a strange man who talks loudly to everybody and keep asking the other passenger to help him check something. That's when I think, what could be more scary than reality? Horror movies, it's all about the make-up and the loud sound effect. 

Picture Source/Official Website : http://aihorror.com/afterimages/

For those who would have missed this movie, you may wish to download their graphic novel on the App Store for FREE. Go download and read all the stories. After that come back to read my blog ya? Hehe, thanks for reading! 

Movie Night with LUCY

Image Souce : IMDB 

We have been anticipating the release of LUCY after watching the trailer that was shown in the cinema. From the trailer, we kind of expected this movie to be a sci-fiction thriller. Was very curious to find out what kind of incredible powers Lucy, acted by Scarlett Johansson will possess when she unlocks her brain's potential up to the maximum of 100% and begin to have incredible powers. So we went to watch it the day it was released.

Lucy the australopithecus! Picture Source Here 

This movie turned out to be more philosophical than sci-fi. There's discussions based on a lot of assumptions of what we already know and what we didn't know. I love how Director Luc Besson created the whole movie with intersperse of clips of wild animals and nature sceneries. There are like clips out of the National Geographical Channel. In fact, in the opening scene, we see this Chimp in prehistoric times drinking from a lake (later we find out that this Chimp is called Lucy, an australopithecus). A narration begins by asking this open question, "Life was given to us a billion years ago. What have we done with it?"

Lucy was forced by her newly attached boyfriend to deliver a mysterious, locked briefcase to a man called Mr Jang, acted by South Korean actor Choi Min-Sik who can only speak in Korean and washes his bloody hand (he kills without blinking) with Evian water. The briefcase turned out to contain four packets of blue powder called CPH4. Lucy was so called "offered a job" but she declined and she was knocked out with a punch. 

The scene cut off to introduce the other character. Professor Norman, acted by Morgan Freeman. He played a renowned neuroscientist and was giving a lecture on cerebral capacity. He mentioned that human beings use only 10% and that dolphins use 20% and thus has the power to echolocate. He concluded that if humans could reach up to 40% of our cerebral capacity, we would be able to manipulate matter but when asked what would happen if humans brain reach 100%, he says he has no idea. 

"If its habitat is not sufficiently favourable, or nurturing, the cell will choose immortality, in other words, self-sufficiency and self management. On the other hand, if the habitat is favourable, they will choose to reproduce - that way, when they die, they hand essential information and knowledge to the next cell, which hands it down to the next cell, and so on. Thus knowledge and learning are handed down, through time." 

Image Source : http://www.apnatimepass.com/movies.php?url=lucy-movie&img=still

The scene cuts back to Lucy. The "job" that she and three other guys were offered was to transport the blue packets to their assigned destination. The blue packet was already placed inside each of their body. While transporting her to the airport, one of the thugs kicked her in the lower abdomen, causing the plastic containing the CPH4 to break and a small quantity was absorbed into Lucy's system. That is also when it shows that she started gradually unlocking her brain's capacity. 

Image Source: giphy.gif

"Time is the only true unit of measure, it gives proof to the existence of matter, without time, we don't exist." She explained how when a car is fast forward by infinity times, it will disappear. Can't even see the car anymore. 

Image Source: Google

Leads me to think of this quote. 

Lucy's Special Power 

She begins to lurch herself all over the room including up the walls reaching the ceiling until she falls back to the ground and her eyes changing colours.

She can choose not to feel pain. She went to the nearest hospital, asked the doctor to cut open her stomach to remove the remaining packet of the blue powder inside her body. All done without using any anesthesia. Throughout the operation, she was on the line with her mother and telling her mother how she can feels everything - the air, the blood in her veins, the deepest parts of her memories, like when she was sick as a child or even petting a cat when she was barely one. But she cannot feel the pain of the operating knife.

She is now able to do translation in her brain. She can even tell what illness her friend is suffering from just by looking at her. She can also control the electrons and contacted the professor, appearing on the TV screen at the professor's house.

She is now able to changed into any looks that she desire. She changed her hair from blond to black so that she won't be recognised.

She now display different forms of teleknesis, psychokinesis, able to read cell-phone conversation by picking them out. Creating invisible walls, controlling others movement just by standing there and not laying a fingers on them.

At 90% to 99%, she has absorbed the three other packets of the CPH4 and she started moving through time and space with a black dress and sitting on an office chair. She visits Times Square, encounter dinosaurs and back to meeting Lucy the australopithecus.

At 100%. she just disappear out of her black dress. The machines in the room turned into something black and eventually became a thumbdrive that was offered to Professor Norman. A handphone message that reads, "I am everywhere." appears to be from Lucy.

Movie closed with, "Life was given to us a billion years ago. Now you know what to do with it."

Other interesting reads: 

1) Lucy: Movie Quotes - http://quotereels.com/lucy-movie-quotes/
2) Lucy: Movie Review Blog - http://bloggingbycinemalight.blogspot.sg/2014/08/lucy.html
3) Lucy: The dumbest movie ever - http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2014/07/life-is-futile-so-heres-what-to-do-with-it-according-to-lucy-a-spoilereview/375006/?single_page=true
4) Lucy: Explanation (Chinese) - http://flog.cc/mag/2014/lucy-movie/
5) Lucy: Akin to drugs addiction (Chinese) - https://www.ptt.cc/bbs/movie/M.1409328144.A.9CF.html

Movie Review : A Case of You

Was lucky to have won an in-season pass for 2 to the movie A CASE OF YOU through a simple instagram contest.

Thanks to the staff from the Cathay who even call me up to remind me to collect the in-season pass which in turn can be used to exchange for the movie tickets at any Cathay Cineplex. We exchanged it for the tickets at Cathay Cineleisure Orchard. I love the comfy and spacious seats there and the design of the space by the side. Big enough for me to put my whole bag there. 

Let's start from the movie poster, When I did a search online, this is the image that appears but the version in Singapore is the first picture of this post. 

Found that colour blue familiar? Yes, it's the same blue as Facebook and Yes, the movie is a romantic comedy for the social media age and Facebook plays a big role.

STORY 

Image Source : YouTube - Movie Official Trailer

A young writer, Sam (Justin Long) falls in love with the cute and quirky barista, Birdie (Even Rachel Wood) who works in his favourite Brooklyn Cafe. 

Image Source : YouTube - Movie Official Trailer

So when Birdie stopped working at the cafe before Sam even gotten her contacts, guess what did he do? Yes, he stalk her on Facebook. He found out what are her hobbies, what is her latest status and even to the extend to what event she will be going next and he appears there. He started learning everything that she likes just to be her "dream guy" and impress her. Naturally, they fall in love, blar blar blar but things turned sour when Sam feels that he can't keep up in his act anymore. He is only pretending to be enjoying those things he do. 

His fear of rejection took the best of him and he started to question Birdie and even himself. It was a sudden change in the story line whereby Sam treated Birdie with great hostile during one of the date. After that we were abruptly brought back to the romantic clinch story line whereby Sam decided to make a last minute appearance at a ballroom dance competition to make an apologetic confession. The truth were told to Birdie and Birdie accepted him and the movie ends with a happy ending.   

THOUGHTS

Good luck, my stalkers!! I've got 468 likes on Facebook. Lolol~ 

Ok, admit it, why do we use Facebook? Professionally, we say for networking or to read the news which usually are the juicy, gossipy news. Other than that, we "stalk" people.  

So, I think we all need to know what to post and what not to post, especially on social media. One wrong thing mentioned and it would probably see you and your family flying elsewhere, or become the next hot topic on the timeline. Learn to use the privacy setting wisely. If you really need to post something (itchy hands like me) but don't want too many people to know, set it to private please. Thank you!