Impressive...

Song of the day:
Yellowcard
"Light Up The Sky"

Wow...

Finally I got another breather again in the so-called Raya celebrations...

To be honest, Raya is never a day of celebration for me. Never ever.

Anyway, it's been a few days which are full of deep thinking.

I've not been too happy of late especially after I did my medical check up.

Alright, the results are not out yet but I'm not too optimistic anyway.

Putting that aside, what has been so "impressive" that I've to name this blog entry as "Impressive..."?

See the following poster...

Yes. It's 881.

881 is pronounced in mandarin similarly to papaya.

Basically it's a movie about the Chinese Getai shows in the 7th month of the Lunar calendar.

Usually in Singapore, Getai shows are shows that aim to entertain the so-called ghosts and spirits as in the 7th month of Lunar calendar, the door of hell would open and ghosts and spirits would wander around the human world.

Of course, to entertain them, one of the ways is through singing and acting and doing performances.

881 has totally blown me away. It really has.

I've never seen such an impressive South-east Asian movie in my entire life.

Ok, it's not action packed or super CGI-based or related, but I've personally loved watching movies which are closer to my roots, my chinese roots to be honest.

Singapore movies have been improving from time to time and the scripts and directing style are starting to gain recognition too.

I'm not a Singaporean but I'm so proud to be a Chinese where Chinese movies especially from South-east Asia are making a name for themselves.

I still want to take a dig at Malaysian movies which are always required to add the "Malay" flavour in it.

Oh c'mon, is this Malay-land? or Malaysia?

Sick of that. Sue me if you want, Malaysia film makers but this is a fact.

Anyway, in 881, the way the director (Royston Tan) control the plot was superb.

It's a flashy, fantasy-based, idealistic, touching piece of artwork.

I would say the ingredients of the movie are well-balanced and if you really like Hokkien or dialect based songs, this is the one for you.

I love Hokkien songs as they can relate to almost everything in the world (well luckily not about religion because it's so irrelevant).

From the familiar "Ye Hua (Wild Flowers)" to "Lian Hua (Lotus Flower)", it's also a bit of a musical based movie which is furnished with superb stage performance, flashy presentation and exaggeration of the real life situation.

Yet, I feel that it has already tone down some of its parts in the real Getai Show.

Nevertheless, the main characters in the movie, the Papaya sisters were a perfect pair. Known as Big Papaya and Small Papaya in the movie, they coincidentally met up during a Getai show whereby both of them loved watching their Getai show idol, Chen Jin Lang perform.

That was where the story starts.

I won't elaborate much on the storyline though. Watch it for yourself.

It really worth the 8 or 10 bucks.

And I almost cried during the movie. (The 2nd time since "The Day After Tomorrow")

Most importantly, appreciate the best song from the movie, "Yi Ren Yi Ban (Half Each)", sang by Wu Jia Hui.

ENJOY!