‘Avengers: Infinity War’ is awesome!

‘Avengers: Infinity War’ is by far my most anticipated movie of the year and I’m so excited that its release has finally arrived. I have watched all the previous 18 MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) films that began 10 years ago with ‘Iron Man’. I’m thrilled and impressed by how far Marvel has gone to in the development of their films with many of them being exceptionally well executed, and them having all the stories culminate into this third Avengers movie.

I’m also amazed by the creative marketing from my country (Malaysia) in promoting this ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ such as installing a lit Avengers logo on the top of the Telekom Tower (Stark or Avengers Tower as shown in the first Avengers movie resembles a lot like the Telekom Tower) and having large visual projection of the film’s advertising on the facade of Suria KLCC mall which is directly at the base of the Petronas Twin Towers.

As for the movie itself, it is awesome! Marvel has accomplished it again by delivering to us an amazing movie of which almost all previously appeared Marvel superheroes assembled again to take on the villain, Thanos who finally collect the Infinity Stones by himself to power up the Infinity Gauntlet and be the most powerful being in the universe. It’s a bit sad of not seeing Hawkeye and Ant-man joining the huge group of superheroes here (I felt a bit incomplete). Anyway, the movie still has all the charm from the multiple exciting battle scenes, some humorous moments and interesting emphasis on the character development of Thanos. He is not just a bad guy who aim to wipe out half the universe and be evil for no purpose. There seems to be reasoning on his part (although I couldn’t agree on his stand) and I praise Marvel for adding this story to refine this particular character.

This makes no time for the superheroes to shine on their own (most of them only has very few lines in the movie), That is reasonable due to the huge number of superheroes involved while most of them already had their arc explained in their past individual films. The whole movie is quite straightforward except the very end which will puzzle the audiences especially those who are not a strong Marvel comic fans. I only understand some of the ending theories as explained by some people out there on the internet. Spoiler ahead; I don’t think all those who are dusted after Thanos snapped his finger from his Infinity Gauntlet complete with all the six Infinity Stones will just died like that. I believe they or some of them may appear again (maybe resurrected?) in the next Avengers movie scheduled next year. And where has Thanos went to in the end? I don’t quite get that. I think I need to research a bit more on the details of the ending. It’s an open conclusion as expected because Marvel will not just end here as there are so much more future plans ahead for MCU.

The battle scenes are fantastic and explosive till I wouldn’t even want to blink for once during those scenes. Besides that, I can really feel the intensity especially when Thanos appears with those amazing score and the CGI of Thanos’ appearance properly worked on. (it’s so cool watching the scene when Thanos used his gauntlet to pull and throw a planet onto the superheroes…and also many other scenes!) It’s actually very hard to make a movie not only about one superhero but to gather a lot of them into a single production with a great villain and plot. Out of 10 points, I rate ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ a total of 8.0. If you haven’t watch it and plan to do so, please stay till the end of the credits for a post-credit scene (typical for Marvel movies).

By the way, this movie is going to make a lot of money in worldwide box office. There is no doubt it will be the second movie of the year to gross over US$ 1 billion after ‘Black Panther’ (currently has US$ 1.3 billion in box office). I’m thinking that this ‘Infinity War’ will hit US$1.8 billion in the end.

(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)

 

Everything settled for my pre-work tasks in Singapore.

I just came back to KL after spending the last five days in Singapore. This trip is organized to allow me to settle all the necessary stuff to get myself prepared for an employment in Singapore. After a troublesome bus trip to Singapore on Monday (explained in my previous post), everything after that went quite smoothly fortunately. My family thought that there is nothing much that I need to do in this trip but in reality, it’s not. I was quite busy in the entire trip doing the following things;

(The following items may be also useful for you as a guide or advice if you are planning to move to another place for study or work)

• House viewing and moving in.

All the time-consuming research on the rooms available for rental in Singapore is done before the trip itself. I have narrowed the search down to five places with appointments made for house viewing. In the end, I just did two of them as I am already satisfied with the second place and decided to move in. There are a lot of things to consider; rental cost, distance to workplace, nearby amenities, condition of the room and the house, furnishings, the housemates, rental agreements, etc. After moving in, there is a need to clean, reorganize and add things to the room to make it felt like my own. A room in a HDB flat is fine for me. Their flat is clean and spacious (unlike in Malaysia). I haven’t even get to meet my housemates formally in my first two nights there.

• Medical check up.

This is a requirement to get the work permit issued. The report can be obtained quite fast (one working day) but I need to travel to two different places for the check up. There is a physical and mental health examination by a doctor (it means just a chat), blood testing for HIV or other diseases, as well as X-ray scanning to check the lungs and heart for sign of abnormalities or tuberculosis. The check up is not costly and is fairly simple (I expect more complicated and longer process like the need for other examinations such as urine testing, measurement taking of weight and height, etc).

• Grocery shopping.

Once you moved in, your room is quite empty (besides the typical available furniture). Just like the last time when I first moved to Australia for my study, I have to again buy all the necessary stuff like shampoo, body shower, laundry detergent, tissue paper, cloth hanger, electrical extension plug sockets, bowls, cups, cutleries, batteries, study lamp, blanket, pillow, bedsheet, mirror, toothbrush, toothpaste, hook, snacks, instant noodle, etc. I also got a sim card (prepaid) to have my own Singaporean mobile phone number. I didn’t realize that things sold in Singapore are also quite expensive even before I convert it to Malaysian ringgit when comparing. Well, that is inevitable as you need all that to survive.

• Registration of fingerprint and photo.

This is the last step before my work pass card is issued and is done on the last day before I return to KL. The staff from the Ministry of Manpower have been very efficient, friendly and helpful especially the one attending to me at the counter. She answered all my questions and this last step is done to my relief. I now only need to wait to receive my work pass card. The sun would rise from the west if Malaysian authority would work like that too.

• Correspondence with employer.

There are several things that I need to get from the employer (like letters to allow me to proceed with medical check up, etc). I ended up checking emails very frequently, answering calls, and going to the office for multiple times to get all the things right (to have my pass issued so that I can finally commence work). I also got to meet few more people (my future bosses) in several occasions. I went there too many times even before I start my work. Finally, everything is settled and I will officially start work on 2nd May 2018 (a new month…1st May is a public holiday in conjunction with Labor Day).

• Trying the route to the workplace.

On the day before I return to KL, I purposely woke up early in the morning in the same time with the other workers on 9 to 6 and tried the route to my workplace for the first time to check for the amount of time required to get to my workplace and considering the crowd, waiting time, weather, pathways, nearby places where I can grab quick meal, etc. Although I need to walk about 1 km to get to the nearest MRT station, but I only need to board the train through 4 stations to reach my workplace. It all took only 30 minutes. Time is crucial especially in Singapore when it looks like everybody is hardworking and rushing.

Alright. That’s it. Everything is done. Once I got my work pass card next week, I will be able to open a bank account where my salaries will go to. That will be the final thing to do. I didn’t expect that there is so much pre-work things to do. It’s not easy to move to other place for a commitment (study or work). You have to adapt to the new environment. I tried that before in 2016 when I went to Australia for my 2-year postgraduate study. Now, I’m doing it again (to Singapore for work). I will just stay in KL for this weekend and will return to Singapore next Monday again.

(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)

 

Delays and delays…and now I’m in Singapore again.

I went to Singapore again today and will be staying for several days to sort out the procedures required to get my S Pass working permit approved and issued. I also need to look for several houses for room viewing and move in to the one that is the most suitable. I have been working hard on searching for the rooms online and have to factor in a lot of stuff like closeness to the public transport and amenities (markets, hawker centres, etc), present residents of the houses and their friendliness, distance to my work place, and condition of the rooms. It’s certainly not easy when you need to find the room best for myself.

I have no issue at all in my previous trip to Singapore last month to attend a job interview. But this time, I’m encountering multiple problems at once. Delay is the most serious of all. I bought the bus ticket to Singapore from KL’s Terminal Bersepadu Selatan under Season Express. It is supposed to depart at 9am. The bus ended up delayed for nearly 2 hours and we had to move from the waiting gate to another area to board the bus. Then, the bus driver took his own sweet time (at least half an hour) to refill petrol and air to the bus. All these should be done before the trip. This shows that this bus came unprepared. And that is not the worst yet…

The bus driver didn’t tell us where to wait for him at the Malaysian checkpoint and had us worried that we couldn’t locate it. It was crowded, noisy and messy. We are confused and gone blank as the bus driver didn’t tell us anything. The bus ended up coming in late and we were so relieved after we found it. On the other side at the Singapore checkpoint, the driver who couldn’t speak English couldn’t answer questions by some of the passengers who are foreigners and are confused by the immigration procedures (their first time crossing the bridge). I helped them instead. The driver also didn’t supply us with the ‘white card’ (Singapore’s arrival and departure form) which is required to go through the immigration counters.

After all the delays, the bus trip ended at 6pm. And I arrived at my hotel half an hour later. A full day is wasted. I am supposed to settle some stuff on the remaining of the day. After the experience today, I will never buy bus ticket from Season Express again. Very bad service (the bus itself is okay but losing a lot of time in this trip is making me losing my mind). Even the lady staff at the gate is unprofessional and simply entertained us by saying ‘bus not yet come, I can’t say anything, you just wait’ in a bad manner. There has been delays in my process to get this work permit and now here comes all the possible delays from a single bus trip alone to make me feel that things are all not right. Now, I’m just hoping everything will be smooth from now on and hopefully I can start work by May 2018. Alright…that’s it for my update to the blog here today. Gotta sleep after a bad and tiring day.

Full winner list for the 37th Hong Kong Film Awards, and my quick opinions for some categories.

The 37th Hong Kong Film Awards was held yesterday to honor the best of Hong Kong films in 2017. I was very free on the Sunday’s evening and so I watched the whole awards ceremony which lasted for almost 4 hours (definitely overrun). I am not interested in most parts of the ceremony because I actually didn’t watch any of the nominated films (no love to Hong Kong films last year, I only watched very few but not the nominated ones). I am only excited and curious on who will win the best actor and actress this time. Here below is the full list of winners and nominees along with my comments in several categories:

Best Film from Mainland and Taiwan
The Great Buddha (Taiwan) (WINNER)
The Bold, the Corrupt, and the Beautiful (Taiwan)
Youth (China)
Duckweed (China)
Wolf Warrior 2 (China)

Best New Director
Kearen Pang — 29+1 (WINNER)
Jonathan Li — The Brink
Chapman To — The Empty Hands
Derek Hui — This Is Not What I Expected
Chan Tai-lee — Tomorrow Is Another Day

Opinion: I think this category should be removed because it is way too early to reward first-time director. There can be many other ways to reward first-time director rather than an award immediately.

Best Visual Effects
Henri Wong, Eric Xu — Wu Kong (WINNER)
Park Young-soo, Kim Wook — Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back
Jang Seong-ho, Park Young-soo, Son Oh-young — The Thousand Faces of Dunjia
Yee Kwok-leung, Chui Tak-piu, Jules Lin, Loki Ho — Shock Wave
Victor Wong, Eman Tse — The Founding of an Army

Opinion: When you do a movie about the mythical Monkey King legend and you place in heavy amount of CGI, you will win. The quality of visual effects in Asia is still quite far behind compared to Hollywood production. Every CGI scenes look fake especially in these kind of fantasy movies.

Best Sound Design
Kinson Tsang, George Lee — Paradox (WINNER)
Tu Du-chih, Wu Shu-yao — Our Time Will Come
Kinson Tsang, Yiu Chun-hin — Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back
Nip Kei-wing, Ip Siu-kei — Shock Wave
Hao Gang, Wang Chong — Wu Kong

Best Original Film Song
“An Unheard Melody” — Concerto of the Bully (WINNER)
Composer： Peter Kam
Lyrics： Keith Chan Siu-kei
Performer： Ronald Cheng
“Fake a Smile (For Hector)” — 29+1
Composer： Subyub Lee
Lyrics： Subyub Lee
Performer： Subyub Lee
“Flowers in Blossom” — Love Education
Composer： Kay Huang
Lyrics： Lam Kwun-fan
Performer: Sitar Tan
“Jeung Seung Si Sau” — Vampire Cleanup Department
Composer： ToNick
Lyrics： Leung Pak-kin, Gingerlemon Cola
Performer： ToNick
“When I Love You” — This Is Not What I Expected
Composer： Chan Kwong-wing
Lyrics： Han Han
Performer： Cheer Chen

Best Original Film Score
Joe Hisaishi — Our Time Will Come (WINNER)
Wong Ngai-lun, Janet Yung — 29+1
Peter Kam — Concerto of the Bully
Veronica Lee — The Empty Hands
Kay Huang — Love Education

Best Action Choreography
Sammo Hung — Paradox (WINNER)
Li Chung-chi — The Brink
Yuen Cheung-yan, Yuen Shun-yi — The Thousand Faces of Dunjia
Ku Huen-chiu — Wu Kong
Yu Kang, Yuen Bun, Yan Hua — Chasing the Dragon

Best Costume & Make Up Design
Bruce Yu, Lee Pik-kwan — Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back (WINNER)
Man Lim-chung, Polly Chan — Our Time Will Come
Bruce Yu, Lee Pik-kwan — Wu Kong
Yee Chung-man, Bruce Yu, Kwok Suk-man — Chasing the Dragon
Dora Ng — This Is Not What I Expected

Best Art Direction
Man Lim-chung, Billy Li — Our Time Will Come (WINNER)
Yoshihito Akatsuka, Liao Huei-li, Guo Zhongshan — Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back
Irving Cheung — The Empty Hands
Eric Lam — Wu Kong
James Cheung — Chasing the Dragon

Best Film Editing
Li Ka-wing — Chasing the Dragon (WINNER)
William Chang, Shirley Yip — In Your Dreams
Azreal Chung — Shock Wave
Mary Stephen, Kong Chi-leung — Our Time Will Come
Wong Hoi — Paradox

Best Cinematography
Jason Kwan — Chasing the Dragon (WINNER)
Nelson Yu — Our Time Will Come
Tam Wai-kai — The Empty Hands
Mark Lee Ping-bing — Love Education
Kenny Tse — Paradox

Best Screenplay
Sylvia Chang, You Xiaoying — Love Education (WINNER)
Kearen Pang — 29+1
Ho Kei-ping — Our Time Will Come
Pang Ho-cheung, Jimmy Wan, Luk Yee-sum — Love Off the Cuff
Cheung King-wai — Somewhere Beyond the Mist

Opinion: Since Sylvia Chang won here, it looks like she will lose the best actress trophy later. It’s okay because she has won it before many years ago.

Best New Performer
Ling Man-lung — Tomorrow Is Another Day (WINNER)
Larine Tang — The Yuppie Fantasia 3
Stephanie Au — Love Off the Cuff
Hanna Chan — Paradox
Rachel Leung — Somewhere Beyond the Mist

Opinion: I didn’t watch the film, but I am already amazed by Ling Man-lung’s acting just by seeing the short clip of his performance as an autistic son in ‘Tomorrow Is Another Day’ alone. Hence, I think he deserved this award.

Best Supporting Actress
Deanie Ip — Our Time Will Come (WINNER)
Joyce Cheng — 29+1
Estelle Wu — Love Education
Susan Shaw — Vampire Cleanup Department
Baby Bo — Somewhere Beyond the Mist

Opinion: Deanie Ip is a wonderful actress and it’s lovely to see her return to the stage again after winning best actress few years ago.

Best Supporting Actor
Philip Keung — Shock Wave (WINNER)
Philip Keung — Concerto of the Bully
Yasuaki Kurata — The Empty Hands
Paul Chun — Love Off the Cuff
Gordon Lam — Paradox
Yasuaki Kurata — God of War

Opinion: I have seen quite a number of Hong Kong movies in the past with Philip Keung in it. In most of those movies, he is not that noticeable because he is always playing average roles. Hey..not this time. This time, he got a role that won the recognition he deserves.

Best Actress
Teresa Mo — Tomorrow Is Another Day (WINNER)
Chrissie Chau — 29+1
Zhou Xun — Our Time Will Come
Stephy Tang — The Empty Hands
Sylvia Chang — Love Education

Opinion: Teresa Mo deserves this award. She has placed a lot of effort in Hong Kong film industry in all these years. After failing to win in previous occasions (has been nominated several times in the past), she finally prevailed this time. I’m glad for her. She too is a wonderful actress. I particularly like her comedic roles (although this award-winning role is not).

Best Actor
Louis Koo — Paradox (WINNER)
Ronald Cheng — Concerto of the Bully
Andy Lau — Shock Wave
Tian Zhuangzhuang — Love Education
Ling Man-lung — Tomorrow Is Another Day

Opinion: I already expected this. Louis Koo has been the frontrunner in this category after winning several best actor prizes in some other awards earlier for his role in ‘Paradox’. He has been nominated several times in the past too (but never win before) and no one is of doubt that he is a lead actor material. His time came and I’m happy for him winning his first Film King  in Hong Kong Film Awards. He has also won TV King many years ago from TVB.

Best Director
Ann Hui — Our Time Will Come (WINNER)
Kearen Pang — 29+1
Herman Yau — Shock Wave
Sylvia Chang — Love Education
Wilson Yip — Paradox

Opinion: Ann Hui again. She is a great director but at this point, I’m tired of hearing her name again. She has won the best director for a total of 6 times (most wins in directing). I think the voters tend to choose only the familiar name in this category (and also in some other categories too). This is discouraging to other directors who also did great jobs.

Best Film
Roger Lee, Stephen Lam, Ann Hui — Our Time Will Come (WINNER)
Alvin Lam, Andy Lau, Chan Pui-wah, Esther Koo, Alice Chan, Jeffrey Chan, Simon Li, Thomas Tang, Chang Bin, C.K. Wong, Xingbo Guan — Shock Wave
Patricia Cheng — Love Education
Wong Jing, Donnie Yen, Andy Lau, Connie Wong — Chasing the Dragon
Soi Cheang, Paco Wong — Paradox

Opinion: Yet, another film by Ann Hui winning best film again. Usually those artistic and historical movie (and usually boring) will win. I’m not against it but again, I’m tired of seeing the similar type of movie taking the top honor. The voters should opt for innovative (boundary pushing) or truly moving (warm and relatable) works next time.

(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)

Gold Coast 2018 ended with Malaysia still couldn’t break into top 10 in final medal tally.

The 21st Commonwealth Games, Gold Coast 2018 concluded today after 11 days of competition involving athletes from 71 participating countries and territories. I watched the highlight of the closing ceremony and it was a very underwhelming way to brought the successful games to an end. Although as expected, there is no particularly striking moment in the closing ceremony due to the relevant budget cut to hosting sporting events recently (hence inevitable decrease in scale and quality of ceremonies…and there is even no allocation for grand performance), but the show felt like the organizer wanted to just end it once and for all. It’s like a show made for no one to care for with lack of star power, poor fireworks, etc. By the way, the next edition of the games will be held on Birmingham, England in 2022 (4 years from now).

In Gold Coast 2018, the host nation, Australia topped the final medal tally as expected (due to it being a strong powerhouse in sports and also having home advantage) with 80 gold medals, 59 silver medals and 59 bronze medals (total of 198 medals). It is a huge win to Australia as England which came in second place only has 45 gold medals, 45 silver medals and 46 bronze medals (total of 136 medals). India is in third place finish with 26 gold medals, 20 silver medals and 20 bronze medals (total of 66 medals). Canada is in fourth place while New Zealand is in fifth.

Where is Malaysia? Malaysia is at 12th place with 7 gold medals, 5 silver medals and 12 bronze medals (total of 24 medals). This is a fairly good result for Malaysia as the country usually delivered around this figure in every Commonwealth Games. We have also achieved our target set earlier aiming for 6 gold medals. Well, I think the country set a pretty low target. We should at least aim for 10 gold medals. The country also failed to break into top 10 countries in the final medal tally. What’s the point of winning 145 gold medals in the 2017 SEA Games in KL but not doing well in larger-scale sporting event like the Olympics, Asian Games, or even this Commonwealth Games? Anyway, I do believe our athletes have already tried their best and I wish congratulation to the Malaysian medalists. The point is that our sporting performance still has a long way to go.

Malaysia started off really well in this games by clinching two gold medals in the first two days of the games from weightlifting events. However, we suffered a drought in multiple days after that as the country under-performed in other events like cycling, swimming, diving, squash and also badminton of which I would like to discuss here. It’s still a good news that we managed to win 2 gold medals in badminton but I’m actually expecting 5. Lee Chong Wei rise to the occasion in men single after losing to the same Indian player in the mixed team event while Vivian Hoo and Chow Mei Kuan shown to us that they are unbeatable this time in women doubles.

Chan Peng Soon and Goh Liu Ying only managed to secure a bronze in mixed double to my disappointment. Goh V Shem and Tan Wee Kiong also only managed to get a bronze in men doubles to my disbelief. We also lost to India in the final of team event surprisingly. I have to admit that India do improve a lot in this particular sport but I’m still strong to my opinion that we are a level above them. This result shows that we have been declining in badminton. If we managed to get additional 3 gold medals, we can actually reach the 10-gold milestone. Last time, we are the only country that can give a good fight to Indonesia and China in badminton. Then, South Korea overpowered us. Next, Japan also went over us. Soon, India, England or even Thailand will deliver better than us in this sport too. We are on the downhill especially when now, we still couldn’t able to find talent to take over Lee Chong Wei and other aging athletes in badminton.

(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)

Drama review for TVB’s ‘Apple-Colada’.

‘Apple-Colada’ (果欄中的江湖大嫂) is a Hong Kong television series that centered on the life in fruit market. It starred Alice Chan as a debt-ridden retired actress who move back to Hong Kong from Malaysia to seek refuge with her niece (Eliza Sam) after her nasty divorce with ex-husband. They together run a fruit market previously owned by her deceased older brother and has been seized by a man (Tommy Wong) and his son (Raymond Wong). This drama has 30 episodes and is seen as an unrelated sequel to the 2016’s ‘My Dangerous Mafia Retirement Plan’ that saw some similar cast. The drama also starred Mat Yeung, Crystal Fung, Carlo Ng, Lau Kong, Kaman Kong, Andrew Yuen, etc.

The drama at first (its first few episodes) is quite interesting and that has successfully got me to catch up to the rest of the series. However, as the drama progresses, I find that the storyline to be draggy with nothing much particularly exciting or interesting going on. The plot is also very much predictable especially with the sudden appearance of Carlo Ng and Raymond Wong’s biological parents in the series. From there on, I already knew Carlo Ng would be the bad guy and yup, I was right. There is nothing new or anything worth mentioning from this series.

It is still a light-hearted drama with some funny scenes and warm family or romantic moments. But doing just that will make the series being easily not memorable and in average. I couldn’t pay my attention while watching it as there is no climax or cool stuff to get me engaged into the story and the characters. Alice Chan is a good actress and I’m fine with her leading the series. She also fits well to this role. On the other hand, Eliza Sam is awful in this series. I couldn’t stand her acting in this drama as she kept on forcing herself to raise her voice to suit her character in this drama which is totally unnecessary and annoying. She really needs to improve on her acting. With much lesser leading actresses in TVB now, she really has to do a lot of work. She felt very unnatural and I couldn’t avoid noticing that in almost every scene she was in. Raymond Wong is fine but his role with that wild and bad judgement makes his character unlikable.

The series concluded with a happy ending as predicted. Nothing new again. There are still some things (story arc) not completely resolved like unknown conclusion to Eliza Sam’s cousin brother who fall in love with Mat Yeung’s sister from the first time he met her, Lau Kong’s health condition after the trouble with the gangster hiding drugs in his fruit boxes, Andrew Yuen letting Alice Chan go so easily without much heartbreak, etc. There is not much effort and passion put in to make this a good drama, and that’s a waste considering I do have interest on its main story that is based on the fruit market setting. Out of 10 points, I rate ‘Apple-Colada’ a total of 6.3.

(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)

14th General Election on 9th May 2018

The Election Commission today has announced that the polling day for Malaysia’s 14th General Election falls on 9th May 2018. Many immediately voiced their unhappiness (including me) as it is a Wednesday and that would be very inconvenient for many voters. Many past general elections were held on weekend to enable more voters to come out and cast their vote. This time, the commission chose a weekday for the crucial election to everyone’s surprise.

This means that I will not be able to cast my vote as I will be working in Singapore. If the election is held on weekend, I may be able to return to Malaysia to vote. I am very eager as this is my first time voting but since it now falls on a weekday, I’m left disappointed as I will not be available to cast my vote.

The present government has been working on a lot of dirty tactics recently to ensure their victory in this general election. First, they quickly passed the anti-fake news law in the Parliament to limit the freedom from the opposition and the public with power to jail people if they deem the information is a lie (they can twist anything and said the fact that is against them as a lie easily). They also immediately passed the redelineation proposal by the commission that pushes the government’s effort on maximising gerrymandering further in the country. For example, this constituency which are historically in favour of the opposition saw huge increase of voters to group all the opposition votes into just a single seat. A seat from the opposition party that has 150 000 votes as opposed to a seat from the ruling coalition that has less than 10 000 votes. The proportion is so off. This is evident also in the previous 13th General Election when the opposition pact indeed won more popular votes than the ruling coalition but ended up having very little number of seats in the Parliament as compared to the ruling coalition. The Election Commission is obviously colluding with the present government. No further proof needed.

Just on a day before the Prime Minister announcement on the dissolution of Parliament, one of the opposition parties called Pribumi which is led by Tun Dr Mahathir is served a notice of temporary dissolution by the Registrar of Societies. This is another obvious act to hinder the opposition from excelling. This does not dampen the spirit of the opposition pact but actually heighten the fire in their supporters. And finally, now the date of the polling is set on Wednesday. This is another trick by the authority to prevent many people from casting their votes. 9th May 2018 is also not declared as a public holiday so far. People will be occupied with works while Malaysians from oversea or even from other states (known to favour the opposition more) will not be able to return home to exercise their right. With lesser number of votes, this will reduce the chance of the opposition (Pakatan Harapan) winning popular votes and inching closer to majority in the Parliament. And let’s not forget all the pointless money-giving events held recently by the ruling coalition to win people’s heart. I couldn’t believe that many people still falls for it.

So, for those who are able to make it on 9th May 2018, please make the right choice by voting against the ruling coalition (Barisan Nasional). They have ruled the country for over 60 years with all the known corruption, crony-ism, race-based politics, laziness and various other scandals. They have never been replaced and this is the time for it. The country needs that particular ‘change’ now. Although the opposition pact do have their own problems and troubles too, but let us give them a chance.

(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)

 

Earliest Qing Ming ever, and it was a smart decision.

It was quite a ‘family day’ last Sunday as me and my family gathered from as early as 6am for a trip to Nirvana Memorial Park at Semenyih to carry out our usual annual Qing Ming tradition. Qing Ming is a Chinese festival of which we will pay respect to our ancestors through many rituals such as offering food, burning joss stick and paper offerings, cleaning the tomb, lighting firecrackers, etc. I skipped the festival for the past two years because I was in Australia and so I couldn’t perform my duty as a son and a grandson to pay respect to my late mother and grandparents.

It’s hard to wake up at around 5.30am but it was all worth it because we managed to avoid traffic congestion. The sun just rises when we reached the memorial park and there was already a lot of cars and people present. We always have a hard time locating the exact location of the tombs of my grandparents and my mother. We only remembered the section, but not the exact row. It’s forgivable as this memorial park is really very huge with a lot of sections and is expanding rapidly. We managed to finish everything in less than 3 hours and it’s only around 10am. The sun is not at scorching level yet and that’s good for all of us. When we are exiting the memorial park, we saw crazily long queue of cars trying to enter. So now, it looks like we are going to do the same for the following years too (settle this Qing Ming tradition in very early morning). In previous years, we would only start our trip at around 10am and finish till 3pm. By the way, I’m amazed by the creativity of the seller of paper offerings in recent years. Now, we can burn anything from washing machine, large house with servants, cars and massage chair to fake teeth, shampoo, credit card, passport and iPhone to our ancestors.

On the other hand, the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games is currently on-going. Our Malaysian weightlifters are making us proud by winning the country’s first two gold medals. I think they outperformed. However, on the swimming events, Malaysian swimmers under-performed so far with no medals at all yet. The badminton events have just started and Malaysia is set to win some gold medals here. However, we will face huge challenges from other countries like India because our national badminton team has been on decline in recent years. Till now, there is still no successor to Lee Chong Wei. He can’t keep on going because he is already getting old and weaker now.

Before ending this post, I would like to take a moment to talk about that ‘crispy rendang’ issue which has gone viral in recent days. It all started after a Malaysian is eliminated in a Masterchef cooking competition as the judges complained that her ‘rendang chicken’ is not crispy and they cannot eat it. This issue caught attention of the Prime Minister too. The judges defended their criticism to the dish and said that it was just not good enough to move forward in the competition. They clarified that they doesn’t mean that the chicken should be crispy but in the clip of the competition, they literally mentioned that way. They are just being arrogant and ignorant and they do owe an apology to Malaysia (but I don’t think they will, looking from their reaction to this matter). It’s not about that Malaysian losing or winning the competition; it’s about the integrity of the Malaysian dish and identity.

And one more thing, as all Malaysians had already knew by now; our parliament has dissolved last Saturday after the expected Prime Minister’s announcement on the last Friday. That means the country 14th General Election is coming very soon. It must be held within 60 days from the day the Parliament is dissolved. The Election Commission has not announced the exact date of voting yet but many are predicting that it will be on the first weekend of May. It is most probably to be held in that time frame to avoid clashing with the fasting month ahead. So, it’s on now. The time has come. I will most probably be in Singapore as my employment would have started by then but at the same time, I wish to perform my duty as a Malaysian to cast my vote. I’m still undecided whether to return on the voting day. It will be my first time voting. Arrghh…I guess I’m coming back on the weekend to vote because I do really wish to see a change in government for a better Malaysia.

(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)

 

Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games began and it marked the fifth time Australia is hosting the games.

I realized that there is going to be a lot of international sporting events this year. We have seen the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympic Games at South Korea two months ago. Now, we came into the period of the 2018 Commonwealth Games. Later on, we would observe FIFA World Cup in June and July at Russia, Asian Games at Palembang (Indonesia) in August and September and also the Summer Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires at Argentina in October. So many sports to look out for in this year alone.

The 21st Commonwealth Games, Gold Coast 2018 began yesterday in a glitzy opening ceremony held in Carrara Stadium. The games will be held from 4th to 15th April 2018 in Gold Coast, a city famous for beautiful beaches in Queensland, Australia. This is the fifth time that Australia is hosting the games. The last time Australia hosted the Commonwealth Games is on 2006 in Melbourne (12 years ago). I have to admit that the Melbourne 2006 games was much more grander (more spectacular ceremonies) but Gold Coast 2018 also didn’t disappoint with an opening ceremony that shines a light on the aboriginal people of Australia and also presenting the diverse culture and beautiful nature of the country.

The games is officially opened by Prince Charles on behalf of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II. He is joined by his wife, Camillia and Malcolm Turnbull, Prime Minister of Australia. There will be 275 events in 19 sports available in this games which saw 71 participating teams representing the various countries and territories which were once under the reign of British empire. My country, Malaysia has a pretty good record in this games and its capital, Kuala Lumpur has also hosted the games once in 1998. It would be nice if Kuala Lumpur has the chance of hosting it again in near future. In the first day of the games (today), Malaysia has already won one gold medal.

I only watched the highlights of the opening ceremony and I realized that there is no cauldron lighting (a tradition observed in other events like the Olympics) but rather a segment where the Queen’s Baton Relay ends with a message from the Queen read by Prince Charles in the ceremony to officiate the games. Typical with the other recent ceremonies, Gold Coast 2018 emphasizes on vibrant and colourful light projection in its opening ceremony. There is no specific ‘shockingly majestic’ moment in the ceremony but it is still a success considering the recent games’ objective (including other games like the Olympics, Asian Games, etc) to minimize the budget and scale of events to prevent the host from running into deficit and ‘white elephant’ issues to the venues.

Now, I wish all the best to the athletes (especially the Malaysian athletes that I’m supporting). In the previous edition (Glasgow 2014), Malaysia won 6 golds, 7 silvers and 6 bronzes for a 12th place finish in the overall medal tally. I think Malaysia will perform slightly better in this edition and let’s hope that it will break into the top 10 spot this time.

(Images in this post are from The Guardian. More images here: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/gallery/2018/apr/04/commonwealth-games-2018-opening-ceremony-in-pictures)

Movie review for ‘Black Panther’ and ‘A Quiet Place’.

After a long delay and an instant thought of probably skipping it, I had finally watched ‘Black Panther’. And now, I seriously do not understand how it manages to be this successful. The movie scored 97% in Rotten Tomatoes and becomes the highest rated Marvel movie in the website. ‘Black Panther’ also performed exceptionally well in worldwide box office by taking in US$ 1.28 billion to date and is currently the 10th highest grossing film of all time. I watched the movie and I find it just ordinary. Nothing very spectacular or groundbreaking at all. I’m curious.

The superhero ‘Black Panther’ has previously appeared in ‘Captain America: Civil War’ but with little emphasis due to presence of many other superheroes in the latter. It now get to have its own solo movie and it saw T’Challa (Black Panther himself) returns home to Wakanda as king but finds his sovereignty challenged by a new adversary, in a conflict with global consequences. There is nothing new in this type of storyline and I have to just sit and enjoy the visual effects and the actions in the movie. And even that, I find the movie did not deliver well enough. I guess the hype for this movie is all from the recent call for diversity (showcase of black people’s talent here) and this ‘Black Panther’ movie being the last one before ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ kicks in. I won’t count all that in judging a movie. Hence, I rate ‘Black Panther’ a total of 6.4 only. It is just average at best. Out of the 18 Marvel Cinematic Universe films that had already been released, ‘Black Panther’ would have been ranked at among the bottom (not the lowest, but certainly among the poorer ones) in my personal opinion. And I was so surprised that it is the highest rated Marvel movie in Rotten Tomatoes. Anyway, I’m now ready for ‘Infinity War’!

‘A Quiet Place’ is the other film that I have watched recently. It’s a horror film with plot that follows a family of four who must live life in silence while hiding from creatures that hunt by sound. I was so excited for this movie as soon as I watched its trailer months ago. This movie received critical acclaim and I agree to that. ‘A Quiet Place’ is masterfully crafted. While the movie progresses with mostly silence, the director decided to inject some amazing score and music in certain scenes to build up the intensity, fear or just to create a warm family moment. The build-up of atmosphere is wonderful and got me to the edge of my seat throughout the entire movie. There are certain effective jump scares (I was really shocked at one particular jump scare) while on the other hand, there are certain moving moments to keep us engaged to the characters and their tense response or condition at a particular time. The cast, particularly Emily Blunt (as the mother) contribute a flawless performance here.

I felt for the characters. I felt for the parents; their responsibility to keep their children safe. I felt for the children; especially one of them who blame herself for one past incident (not giving out spoiler here). I am so thrilled at the scenes when they have to hide from the monsters while trying their best of not making a single noise. This movie is thrilling. Out of 10 points, I rate ‘A Quiet Place’ a total of 8.2. In here, you will be moved by the characters, you will be terrified by the scares, and you will be thrilled by the story. This is a very successful horror movie and this one also reminds me of ‘Don’t Breathe’, another horror movie two years ago that  focuses on three friends who get trapped inside a blind man’s house while breaking into it and must find a way to escape without making a noise to avoid detection from the notorious blind man.

(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)