Spent the Saturday exploring Tampines area.

Going to the usual places on the weekend seems to be a bit boring already. Singapore is a very small island but still I believe there are many places that I have yet to explore. Tampines is a neighbourhood area near to the Changi Airport on the east side of the island. I been there before and had visited the Tampines Mall which is right besides the MRT station that makes the trip very convenient.

However, only did I realize yesterday that there are much more to explore in that area and these places are just right beside one another. Hence, on a single Saturday (yesterday), me and my friend visited 4 places at one go in Tampines. They are Our Tampines Hub, Century Square, Tampines Mall and Tampines Central. 4 malls and they are like just right next door to each other. It makes the area very lively and happening.

Our Tampines Hub is my most favourite as it is not an ordinary indoor air-conditioned mall full of commercial activities and shops. It is an open sheltered complex that I would call it more as a community-focused mall. Why? It has a stadium (yes, a stadium integrated to the mall), jogging track, sport arena (plenty of courts for badminton, tennis, ping pong, etc), community farm, sky garden, hawker centre, supermarket, retails, dining area, BBQ venue, karaoke, gymnasium, clinic, children learning facilities, free outdoor movie screening, children playground, rock climbing zone, bowling arena, etc. It has so many things that are family-friendly and it makes the place ‘complete’. It is certainly a nice experience exploring this place, its circulation and its architecture.

The day didn’t just end there in that 4 malls. Since Tampines is quite close to the Changi Airport as stated earlier, we head to the airport to spend the remaining evening before eventually returning home respectively. Changi Airport is known to be one of the world’s best airports and it is certainly true. It has a lot of terminals and we were just wondering around at Terminal 2 and 3 (they are near to MRT) and observing people getting ready to take their flight (not us).

So now, time to look out for new places to check out in this tiny island next time.

 

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It is endgame!

Last Friday’s evening got everyone excited because the first trailer for the upcoming Avengers 4 is finally released. Everyone already cannot wait for this one after the Avengers 3 (Infinity War) early this year. Everyone wanted to see where it all leads to after half of the world population turned into dust at the end of the Infinity War after Thanos succeeded on his plan after securing all the 6 infinity stones for the powerful infinity gauntlet.

Not much detail has been revealed earlier on for this upcoming Avengers 4 including its title although it is just a year apart from Infinity War. Finally, the first revelation came last evening with the official first trailer and the announcement of the movie’s title in the trailer itself. It’s Avengers: Endgame. No more speculation, guessing and rumors. It’s endgame. And after missing in the Infinity War, Hawkeye and Ant-man will return to Endgame to everyone’s excitement!

Before the release of Avengers: Endgame, there will be another Marvel movie out. It’s Captain Marvel starring Brie Larson as the titular role and it will be out on March 2019, a month before Avengers: Endgame. I have watched its two trailers and I have to say that I’m not impressed. I think Brie Larson doesn’t fit into being a superhero. I just couldn’t feel any intensity from its two trailers so far. Well, I’m still not going to miss it (not missing a single MCU movies in all the phases).

Can’t wait that long for a superhero movie? No worry. There has been a lot of superhero films in recent years and moviegoers appear to be still not feeling tired of movies of this genre. Without Marvel, we still have DC. And it’s upcoming Aquaman is going to be released next week! Yes, next week! I also can’t wait for this one. The trailer looks promising and I have absolute faith on James Wan who is the director (he directed The Conjuring, first two Saw films, Fast and Furious 7, etc). Not many DC films do well to the critics except Wonder Woman and I think Aquaman will be fabulous and is going to revive the less stellar DC cinematic universe.

It is a huge challenge for DC film to cross US$ 1 billion in worldwide box office but it is a very easy task for Marvel films. Sorry DC fans, but it is a fact. (I’m neutral on both side and I’m more swayed towards Marvel since they released more films so far). This year’s Black Panther grossed US$1.346 billion while Avengers: Infinity War gained a whopping US$2.047 billion (even get past 2-billion milestone). Black Panther is even nominated for Golden Globes 2019 for best motion picture – drama (though I don’t see any chance of it winning and I actually don’t enjoy Black Panther much and I think it is overrated).

(Images in this post are from various online sources)

 

Happy Birthday to myself…turning 27 tomorrow.

It’s the last month of the year! Another year is coming to an end soon. I have been so busy with my work lately until I almost forget that my birthday is tomorrow. Staying back after office hours and rushing to get drawings done are the norm these few weeks. Hopefully, things will get cleared up and lesser workload by the time Christmas comes. Been so exhausted lately and the occasional insomnia that I’m experiencing is making things worse.

So yup, there is no mood at all for me to enjoy or celebrate my birthday. It’s also a sad indication that I’m getting officially another year older. I will be turning 27 tomorrow (oh no…getting so much nearer to 30s already). It’s going to be a normal busy day at work tomorrow but I will try to keep a very joyful and positive mindset and mood the whole day since it is still my big day anyway. Thinking about all the coming good things (like the following Christmas and New Year holidays, Chinese New Year holiday and oversea vacation to Europe, and anticipating for the good year-end bonus) will certainly help to get rid a bit of my pressure away.

I have only one pair of hand and yet so many tasks to do lately. My birthday wish this year would be granting me another pair of hand to get things done quicker. Haha…Just joking. Anyway, seriously, I’m wishing for a smooth and successful career ahead. Career is my priority for now (alongside with earning money of course…well, they both are parallel). 2018 marks the first year I’m stepping into professional practice after finishing my Masters last year. I have worked in the past before for about 4 years but there’s nothing much to excel further in those years as I was just a junior with a very minor role. This year marks the real start for me to make an impact from my profession and to climb higher to reach my goals.

Well, I’ll keep this post short. My energy level now drops to somewhere at 10% only and I am going for a much needed sleep soon for a full recharge to welcome 4th December 2018, my 27th birthday tomorrow. So yup, here in the first post on the last month of the year, I’m wishing myself Happy Birthday!

 

 

Movie review for ‘First Man’ and ‘Rampant’.

It’s Sunday evening now and I’m usually spending the last precious moment of the weekend resting comfortably in my room, watching some old movies or browsing some Youtube videos. Whether being a kid or an adult, I will feel moody at this hour due to the stress of facing the coming long week (of school or work). There’s so many office works to complete in the following weeks. Pressure is building up again…That’s Sunday evening blues kicking in!

I’m trying to comfort myself to get rid a bit of that unhealthy stress by keep reminding myself that we are now exactly only one month left before the festive Christmas, and less than 10 days from now to my birthday (it will be just a normal day with no special celebration or whatsoever, but still it’s my big day).

In the past week, I have watched two new movies and they are ‘First Man’ and ‘Rampant’. ‘First Man’ is a biographical drama film that starred Ryan Gosling as Neil Armstrong and follows the years leading up to the Apollo 11 mission to the Moon in 1969. The movie focuses more on the personal life of Neil, his hardship on his career and relationship with his family rather than on the large-scale mass effort or gigantic celebration of man’s first step on the Moon. I do enjoy this direction but I find that this movie lacks suspense (perhaps since we already knew he would made it to the Moon) and drama (I’m expecting more emotional moments between him and his family) to spice things up. It’s a bit of waste of talent to the two main cast; Ryan Gosling and Claire Foy portraying as his wife. Things look to be fine and stable throughout but it lacks the punch to pull it off above the rest. This film is going to get some Oscar nominations but is unlikely to win any. Out of 10 points, I rate ‘First Man’ a total of 7.7.

Moving on. ‘Rampant’ is a South Korean period action zombie film. South Korea has yet produced another remarkable zombie film after the success of ‘Train To Busan’ a while ago. The story follows a prince who returns to his country, Joseon to save the empire from a minister who wished to overthrow the king and attempts to use zombies as part of his evil plots. That’s a clever storyline going in there (I never expect a coup can be mixed with zombies for an exciting story set at historical time). The action sequences are amazing (especially the final scene when the prince battled hundreds of zombies all by himself in the palace building). I can see a lot of extras were hired to act as the zombies (huge production cost there) and their make-up looks impressively scary too. There were also some funny scenes to lighten the mood up throughout the film unexpectedly. Out of 10 points, I rate ‘Rampant’ a total of 8.0. An engaging zombie flick that will further keeps you at the edge of your seat whenever zombies came to the scene.

(Images in this post are from various online sources)

TVB Anniversary Awards 2018’s nomination list is out.

TVB Anniversary Awards 2018 will be held on 16th December 2018 (Sunday). This year, the awards ceremony returns to its usual mid-December slot after last year’s grand 50th anniversary celebration that saw the 2017 awards being pushed to January 2018. It is still fresh on our mind seeing Vincent Wong winning his first best actor win from his impressive performance in Legal Mavericks. On the other hand, I believe most of us could still not believe our eyes when we saw Natalie Tong being crowned best actress from an ordinary performance in My Unfair Lady.

Now, we move on to another year with another list of dramas and performances. Basically, the nomination list for TVB Anniversary Awards includes everyone and every drama that aired in that particular year. Hence, there is nothing exciting about it. TVB should reduce nominees for each categories to top 10 or top 5 to make the race for competitive. Now, the TVB artistes aren’t feeling anything and not even a little proud as basically, you will get nominated once you have a series released in that year.

(Image source: TVB official webpage)

I will post parts of the nomination list below alongside my usual thoughts for each categories: (highlighted in bold is my predicted top 5 while those with X at the back is my preferred top 5 picks)

Best Drama

Come Home Love: Lo and Behold <愛·回家之開心速遞>
The Forgotten Valley <平安谷之詭谷傳說>
Watch Out, Boss <波士早晨>
Threesome <三個女人一個「因」> 
Birth of a Hero <翻生武林>
Apple-colada <果欄中的江湖大嫂>
Daddy Cool <逆緣> X
Stealing Seconds <棟仁的時光>
Deep in the Realm of Conscience <宮心計2深宮計>
Succession War <天命> X
Who Wants a Baby? <BB來了> X
The Stunt <特技人>
Another Era <再創世紀>
Life on the Line <跳躍生命線> X
OMG, Your Honour <是咁的，法官閣下>
Fist Fight <兄弟> X
Wife Interrupted <救妻同學會>
Learning Curve of a Warlord <大帥哥>

Predicted to win: Life On The Line

Wanted to win: Succession War / Daddy Cool

Opinion: Succession War is seriously underrated and I don’t get why it doesn’t get the popularity and rating it deserves. It is much more interesting and engaging that the draggy Deep In The Realm Of Conscience. The only downside to Succession War is Shaun Tam’s poor performance in it. So far besides than some cool actions, Fist Fight seems to be just fine. Learning Curve of a Warlord starring Dicky Cheung would have aired only 10 episodes by the time the ceremony comes and it should be pushed to next year’s list instead.

Best Actor

Lau Kong for The Forgotten Valley X
Raymond Wong Ho-yin for Apple-colada
Wayne Lai for Daddy Cool X
Carlos Chan for Daddy Cool
Kenneth Ma for Deep in the Realm of Conscience
Edwin Siu for Deep in the Realm of Conscience
Ruco Chan for Succession War X
Lai Lok-yi for Who Wants a Baby? X
Shaun Tam for The Stunt
Roger Kwok for Another Era
Benjamin Yuen for Another Era
Pakho Chau for Another Era
Joe Ma for Life on the Line
Matthew Ho for Line on the Line
Ben Wong for OMG, Your Honour
Eddie Kwan for OMG, Your Honour
Vincent Wong for Fist Fight X
Mat Yeung for Fist Fight
Dicky Cheung for The Learning Curve of a Warlord
Tony Hung for The Learning Curve of a Warlord

Predicted to win: Benjamin Yuen for Another Era / Joe Ma for Life On The Line

Wanted to win: Ruco Chan for Succession War / Vincent Wong for Fist Fight

Opinion: TVB is so crazy in love with Benjamin Yuen this year and is on their obvious path to heavily promote him. His acting improves but still there is a huge room of development before he can reach best actor material. After sweeping the two Favourite Lead Actor awards for Malaysia and Singapore recently which are totally too much for him (not deserving), it’s just not the time yet for him to win in TVB Anniversary Awards this year. I would rather see past TV king winners like Ruco or Vincent to win again this year. Dicky’s series would have been out for only 10 episodes as stated earlier and his chance is slim. And why is Steven Ma missing in the list but Kenneth Ma and Edwin Siu are there? Three of them were in Deep In The Realm Of Conscience and Steven is even the first male lead. This is absurd.

Best Actress

Louisa So for The Forgotten Valley X
Grace Chan for The Forgotten Valley
Mandy Wong for Threesome X
Eliza Sam for Apple-colada
Rosina Lam for Daddy Cool
Natalie Tong for Stealing Seconds
Nancy Wu for Deep in the Realm of Conscience
Alice Chan for Deep in the Realm of Conscience 
Selena Lee for Succession War X
Elaine Yiu for Succession War
Ali Lee for Who Wants a Baby? X
Tavia Yeung for Another Era
Niki Chow for Another Era X
Moon Lau for Life on the Line
Grace Wong for OMG, Your Honour
Louisa Mak for OMG, Your Honour
Rebecca Zhu for Fist Fight
Sisley Choi for The Learning Curve of a Warlord

Predicted to win: Mandy Wong for Threesome

Wanted to win: Ali Lee for Who Wants A Baby? / Niki Chow for Another Era

Opinion: I wouldn’t have huge objection if Mandy wins, but wouldn’t it be nice to hand out the award to someone else who is deserving this year too such as Ali or Niki since Mandy already took two awards (Malaysia and Singapore).

Most Popular Male TV Character

Wayne Lai as Ho Wing-nin in Daddy Cool
Carlos Chan as Chung Ting-kwok in Daddy Cool X
Benjamin Yuen as Tsang Tung-yan in Stealing Seconds 
Kenneth Ma as Yam Sam-shu in Deep in the Realm of Conscience X
Edwin Siu as Ho Lei in Deep in the Realm of Conscience
Ruco Chan as Heshen in Succession War X
Shaun Tam as the Jiaqing Emperor in Succession War
Lai Lok-yi as Elvis Yip in Who Wants a Baby?
Pakho Chau as Ching Hoi in Another Era
Joe Ma as Mak Tsoi-tin in Life on the Line
Matthew Ho as Cheuk Ka-kit in Life on the Line
Ben Wong as John Fan in OMG, Your Honour
Eddie Kwan as James Yiu in OMG, Your Honour
Oscar Leung as Charles Chiu in OMG, Your Honour
Hugo Wong as Michael Lai in OMG, Your Honour
Vincent Wong as “Fever” Cheung Fei-fan in Fist Fight X
Mat Yeung as Leo Ha in Fist Fight
Hubert Wu as Lee Yan-long in Wife Interrupted
Dicky Cheung as Dik Kei in The Learning Curve of a Warlord X
Tony Hung as Ma Tan in The Learning Curve of a Warlord

Predicted to win: Benjamin Yuen in Stealing Seconds / Vincent Wong in Fist Fight

Wanted to win: Carlos Chan in Daddy Cool

Opinion: If Benjamin Yuen won this, he will not win best actor. I would rather hoping this situation to happen. But in this category, I’m rooting for Carlos as his role as the great grandpa in Daddy Cool is funny and likable and he did very well in it.

Most Popular Female TV Character

Joyce Tang as Hung Sheung-sin in Come Home Love: Lo and Behold
Rebecca Zhu as Ku Man-yi in The Forgotten Valley
Mandy Wong as Evie Fong in Threesome X
Grace Chan as Sau Tsoi-sam in Birth of a Hero
Eliza Sam as Barika Lee in Apple-colada
Crystal Fung as Chan Yuk-man in Apple-colada
Rosina Lam as Aki Chong in Daddy Cool
Natalie Tong as Kris Ching in Stealing Seconds
Nancy Wu as Wong Chun in Deep in the Realm of Conscience X
Alice Chan as Princess Taiping in Deep in the Realm of Conscience X
Selena Lee as Empress Xiaoherui in Succession War X
Elaine Yiu as Changmei in Succession War
Ali Lee as Ellen Tong in Who Wants a Baby? X
Samantha Ko as Katina Hui in Who Want a Baby?
Gloria Tang as Chu Siu-wai in Another Era
Kelly Cheung as Mandy Man in Life on the Line
Grace Wong as Ophelia Mok in OMG, Your Honour
Kaman Kong as “Sitting” Ma Sze-ting in Fist Fight
Moon Lau as Jill Chiu in Wife Interrupted
Sisley Choi as Cheung Yuen-yuen in The Learning Curve of a Warlord

Predicted to win: Ali Lee in Who Wants A Baby? / Mandy Wong in Threesome

Wanted to win: Selena Lee in Succession War

Opinion: If Mandy Wong win best actress, this award will then go to Ali Lee likely. I have this feeling that Ali Lee will not go home empty handed this year. My personal favourite for this category is actually Selena Lee. Her role in Succession War is again underrated. She did it so well and gracefully. She deserves some serious recognition and is overdue for TVB awards.

Best Supporting Actor

Jimmy Au for Come Home Love: Lo and Behold
Louis Yuen for The Forgotten Valley
David Chiang for Birth of a Hero
Jazz Lam for Apple-colada
Andrew Yuen for Apple-colada
Willie Wai for Deep in the Realm of Conscience
Savio Tsang for Deep in the Realm of Conscience
Joel Chan for Succession War X
Jonathan Cheung for Succession War X
Tsui Wing for Who Wants a Baby? X
Bowie Wu for Another Era
Karl Ting for Another Era
Joey Law for Life on the Line
Arnold Kwok for Life on the Line
Bob Cheung for Life on the Line X
Oscar Leung for OMG, Your Honour X
Hugo Wong for OMG, Your Honour
Jackson Lai for OMG, Your Honour
Telford Wong for Wife, Interrupted
Raymond Wong for The Learning Curve of a Warlord

Predicted to win: Jimmy Au for Come Home Love: Lo And Behold

Wanted to win: Bob Cheung for Life On The Line

Opinion: Looks like the race for supporting actor this year is nothing exciting. I have a feeling that since Jimmy Au missed out the chance to win last year and so this year will be the time to compensate.

Best Supporting Actress

Joyce Tang for Come Home Love: Lo and Behold
Mandy Lam for Come Home Love: Lo and Behold
Zoie Tam for The Forgotten Valley
Crystal Fung for Apple-colada X
Kaman Kong for Apple-colada
Elvina Kong for Daddy, Cool
Jacqueline Wong for Deep in the Realm of Conscience X
Susan Tse for Deep in the Realm of Conscience
Akina Hong for Deep in the Realm of Conscience
Stephanie Ho for Succession War
Angelina Lo for Who Wants a Baby? X
Samantha Ko for Who Wants a Baby? X
Gloria Tang for Another Era
Jeannie Chan for Life on the Line
Kelly Cheung for Life on the Line X
Pinky Cheung for Life on the Line
Kirby Lam for OMG, Your Honour
Tiffany Lau for Fist Fight
Toby Chan for Fist Fight
Vivien Yeo for The Learning Curve of a Warlord

Predicted to win: Jacqueline Wong for Deep In The Realm Of Conscience

Wanted to win: Angelina Lo for Who Wants A Baby?

Opinion: TVB usually likes to contribute shock in this category (even Rebecca Zhu is shocked to win this award last year when she heard her name called out). TVB would want to hand out this to Jacqueline Wong so that she won’t be that ‘far behind’ her boyfriend, Kenneth Ma. Angelina Lo stood out in this race for her powerful performance in Who Wants A Baby? and this wonderful veteran actress deserves it more than anyone else this year.

There are some other categories too but I won’t be putting my focus on those.

Benjamin Yuen and Mandy Wong won Most Favourite Lead Actor and Actress for both Singapore and Malaysia region.

TVB held its 50+1 Anniversary Gala yesterday to celebrate the station’s 51st birthday on November 19th, 2018. Besides than the usual performances and massive gathering of TVB artistes, there was this one new segment where the Most Favourite Lead Actor and Actress awards for Singapore and Malaysia were presented.

Singapore’s Starhub TVB Awards and TVB Star Awards Malaysia had been cancelled this year. However, Malaysian and Singaporean audiences can still vote for their favourite lead actor and actress of the year and the result were revealed on the Anniversary Gala. The reason I’m excited to watch the gala live yesterday is not because of the games, dances, gigs, songs or lucky draws but because of this revelation of winners.

I am already expecting Mandy Wong from her performance in Threesome (I didn’t watch this series though but heard a lot of praises for her) to win although I prefer Ali not to go home empty handed (Ali Lee did well in Who Wants A Baby too). It is also disappointing of not seeing Selena Lee being placed in top 3 at least (her role in Succession War is brilliant and very likable). It would be nice if Mandy and Ali each won one for Most Favourite Lead Actress. In the end, Mandy Wong swept both the Singapore and Malaysia awards. The same goes for Most Favourite Lead Actor of which Benjamin Yuen took both too. This is the one that got me very upset. Benjamin is definitely not on par yet to win and he even swept two now. This is absurd. This result is an obvious outcome from below average male performances in TVB dramas this year. If Kenneth Ma’s ‘The Exorcist Meter’ get to air this year and not last year, he would have won all the Most Favourite Lead Actor’ and even ‘Best Actor’ awards easily this time around. This shows that timing and luck are very important.

So it looks like Mandy Wong is now the definite frontrunner for Best Actress on next month’s TVB Anniversary Awards while I still see Alice Chan as a strong dark horse this year. Ali Lee may sneak in for the win too but her chance seems to be dropping. Rounding up Top 5 will be Nancy Wu and Grace Wong. Benjamin Yuen is now the frontrunner for Best Actor (I sincerely hope he doesn’t win, he is certainly not best actor material yet) while the other four to be in top 5 would be Vincent Wong (last year’s TV king), Joe Ma, Carlos Chan and Ruco Chan. Anyone but Benjamin for the win. Benjamin had won much more than he deserved by now already.

(Images in this post are from TVB Jade Pack’s Facebook page)

Fun but costly Saturday at Suntec City and Marina Bay Sands…and movie review for ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’.

I have been working overtime for the past week and this weekend is the much needed time for me to rest and reduce my stress level. It looks like I’m going to be busy till the end of December and I can feel the pressure is building up to the point that I couldn’t sleep well lately. Fortunately, I have a nice outing with my friend yesterday in the city although it turns out to be quite costly (that’s due to my own fault).

Besides than going for a casual ‘sing k’ and a usual movie session at Suntec City, we have the urge to walk from the mall to the Marina Bay Sands through the popular Helix Bridge that offers amazing view of the city. Since we were already in Marina Bay Sands, it is super convenient to just drop by for a visit to its casino. ‘Itchy hands’ cause me to lost few hundred bucks there. So, what a costly weekend outing.

The highlight of this post is actually a review to the movie that I have watched; ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. It is a biographical film about the British rock band Queen, and it follows the life of the band’s lead singer, Freddie Mercury leading to the famous Queen’s Live Aid performance at Wembley Stadium in 1985. I always enjoy biographical films as they allow me to know more of the person these films are based on who are usually very popular and influential figures (despite some historical inaccuracies usual due to movie dramatization). Before this movie, I didn’t know much about the band and its lead singer, Freddie Mercury who died at age of 45 in 1991 due to complications from AIDS. I only knew the two famous songs the band have produced; ‘We Will Rock You’ and ‘We Are The Champion’. He was before my generation.

I enjoyed the film and I was very impressed with Rami Malek’s performance as Freddie Mercury. His resemblance to the singer is uncanny. When I was watching the movie, I felt like Rami Malek is no longer there and all I see is the real Freddie Mercury in it. It shows how much Rami Malek had done to get into this iconic character. For me, he totally outshines Bradley Cooper from ‘A Star Is Born’ in the best actor race. I can’t get away from comparing this film with ‘A Star Is Born’ since both are music-centred. To be honest, I even find ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ better than ‘A Star Is Born’. It has higher IMDB score than ‘A Star Is Born’ and yet a much lower score in Rotten Tomatoes. Critics don’t enjoy ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ more but general audiences do. I find that ‘A Star Is Born’ has excessively emphasized on the love storyline that couldn’t hit me although it displays superb acting as well.

‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ does not attempt or pushing itself hard to be an Oscar film with a very nice flow of story added with strong performances and music sequences. I was very engaged with the storyline (interesting plot with not much of romance and some hilarious moments) that explores on Freddie Mercury’s relationship with the other band members and his former wife, his attitude, his unique style and his sexuality. The ending scene of the Live Aid performance is truly captivating and gave a high-note conclusion to the film. Out of 10 points, I rate ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ a total of 8.2. A dramatic and entertaining biographical film that will tell you more about this legend, Queen’s Freddie Mercury.

(Images in this post are from various online sources)