First time dining out after over one and a half month and movie review for ‘Fast and Furious 9’.

This is the first weekend after the ban of dining in is lifted and I can’t wait to be able to dine out at a restaurant again. The ban of dining in has been enforced since early May due to increase of Covid-19 cases among the community. The cases have stabilized since then and the Singapore’s government is gradually relaxing the restrictions again. I’m bored of take-aways on weekends already.

After a long week of stressful work, it’s finally the day for me to head out to unwind. It’s a beautiful Saturday after a good sleep and a morning rain. In the afternoon, I went to the Vivocity shopping mall for a quick shopping, a movie and a dinner with my friend. The mall is so crowded as though the pandemic is over.

It’s ‘Fast and Furious 9’ (or known as F9: The Fast Saga) for the movie of the day. This long film franchise has come to this far and I have watched all the previous ones. I must admit that I have forgotten most of the first few movies in this series. This latest instalment follows Dominic Toretto and his team as they come together to stop a world-shattering plot headed by Toretto’s brother, Jakob. The film starred the same group of cast (Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Ludacris, Helen Mirren, Charlize Theron, etc) along with new cast members (John Cena, etc).

The first thing I have to say for this movie is its very unrealistic action sequences. The action scenes have all gone over the top and do not make any sense ever since the 6th or 7th film. The main characters were all left unhurt and without a scratch even after major crashes or explosions. They are also unbelievably luck with a centimeter or a millisecond away from disaster every time something occurs. It’s the same for this 9th instalment and is even acknowledged by the characters themselves in this movie. And in here, they even fly their car to the outer space! What else they can do to get crazier in F10 and 11? (Yup..the 10th and 11th instalments are already in production).

Although the action scenes are unrealistic and over the top, but they are the ones that got me engaged to the movie. Some of them still left me in awe but some of them started to feel laughable (that’s not a good thing because it means they are too ridiculous and unconvincing). The serious talking scenes are boring and the frequent emphasis on ‘family’ theme in this film series isn’t really hitting me maybe because Vin Diesel doesn’t excel in this sort of thing. The film series continue with its formulaic script (same issue with this F9) and I think it should really have to end after F11. That’s all for my review to the film. Out of 10 points, I would rate ‘Fast and Furious 9’ a total of 7.3.

(Images in this post are from various online sources)

When will be my turn to get vaccinated?

My dad just told me that he had finally received his first dose of vaccination today and is scheduled to take the second dose next month to complete the vaccination. Seniors above 60 years of age are among the most vulnerable groups to the health effects of Covid 19 and it’s a relief for me to hear that my dad had completed at least the first dose today especially knowing the very slow progress of nationwide vaccination for Malaysia. He took the China-made vaccine, Sinovac which is his first preference too.

He sent me a picture this afternoon doing what most people did after their injection; posing in front of a cardboard cutout with the words ‘I have been vaccinated’. Many have shared such pictures in recent weeks. Both of my sisters are opting for the AstraZeneca vaccine which is not under the national vaccination programme but my sisters had successfully registered for it last month and will be taking the first shot next week.

How about me, over here in Singapore? There is a news today stating that 50% of Singapore’s population has received at least a dose of vaccination. It means that I’m in the other 50% who is still waiting and waiting. Well, this is expected because I’m a foreigner and is only a long-term pass worker here, hence I have to be at the back of the queue. I’m estimating that it will be my turn for first shot end of next month and the second shot in September. The government has opened up for everyone to register for vaccination by now, and all we have to do are just to wait for the appointment. I’m eagerly waiting for my SMS now.

Hopefully with majority of population (over 90%) fully vaccinated near end of the year, more things can probably be opened up and I can then return home to Malaysia or even travel to certain low-risk countries for leisure travel by next year. Vaccination isn’t a 100% answer to this Covid-19 pandemic. All the safe measures are still have to be followed and the situation depends largely on the rate of vaccination and infection rate of other countries too.

Staying at home most of the time is still the best thing everyone can do to limit the community transmission. This is the only time when being introvert is recommended. I do have more time to learn and cook new recipes and also more time to catch up on movies and series. Now I have a habit of cooking new dishes on every Sunday for dinner.

By the way, I have also recently completed another TVB series. It is ‘Final Destiny’ (一笑渡凡間), a 20-episode comedy fantasy series that starred Edwin Siu, Roxanne Tong, Sammy Shum, Rebecca Chan, Jessica Kan, etc. This period drama tells about a man who is intelligent in solving crime cases in the town and slowly learns that he has supernatural powers that are proven to be useful later against a vengeful black demon who happened to be his best friend.

It’s a fast paced light-hearted drama and there is actually nothing more for me to comment. The storyline is very predictable (I knew who are the antagonists already at the beginning of the series before they are revealed) but still quite fun to watch though. Edwin Siu plays the male lead role very well and he is very suitable for this type of quirky role. Out of 10 points, I rate ‘Final Destiny’ a total of 6.9.

(Images in this post are from various online sources)

Anticipating the coming weekend after a very busy week of work.

It’s Friday 10pm and I’m still in front of my office laptop in my bedroom…working. It’s been a very busy week for me as I have to update over 250 sheets of drawings for submission on next Monday. I’m all alone in this workload without getting any assistance. The worst thing is that there should be two colleagues to assist me on the authority aspects and submissions but they have abandoned the project to work on other jobs. The pending works ended up back in my to-do-next list which is already piling up high. It’s not going to be easy for me for at least another month.

The paragraph above is just for me to vent out my frustration. Very imbalanced distribution of works among the staff in my office. That’s the summary. To relieve my stress and to get back to the Friday mood, I treated myself a durian to satisfy my craving for it these few days. The durian tastes good and I enjoyed it while watching the final episode of a Hong Kong series called ‘Sinister Beings’ (逆天奇案) a moment ago.

Yup…a quick review to this 30-episode crime television drama that starred Ruco Chan, Ben Wong, Rosina Lam, Crystal Fung, Joman Chiang, Jonathan Cheung, Moon Lau, etc. The drama carries a very typical TVB formula for a police-based plot. Some of the crime cases are quick, predictable and unimaginative. I think I only find the last case (expected) to be the most interesting with an expert hacker pairing up with his wife to carry out the evil deeds. This is also elevated by solid performance by Jonathan Cheung who portrayed that hacker. Moon Lau did improved in her role as his wife but I still don’t quite like her disturbing cute voice.

I have not seen Ruco’s drama for quite some time and it’s good to see him back as he is a solid lead actor and it is very hard to find one nowadays in TVB. Ben is good too but he never truly shines in any of his roles (even lead roles). Many have been criticizing Crystal’s acting recently but I actually find her doing well here. It is Rosina Lam who couldn’t deliver as the first female lead in this drama. Her acting is so wooden. There is a scene of her finding out that Ruco cheated on her which is supposed to be very explosive and emotional and she gave a very dull performance (there is hardly any tear from her in that scene which felt so forced). The one that stood out from this series is surprisingly a junior actress / newcomer called Joman Chiang who portrayed a lawyer and she nailed it in such a convincing way.

As for the ending, it’s okay but I don’t quite like how it turns out that all the relationships between the main characters do not pull off. None of the romance works after 30 episodes of putting them together. This series do has a number of great action scenes and I quite like one of the theme songs for this drama. It’s called ‘Secret Garden’ by Hana Kuk. I have to find it later at Youtube. Out of 10 points, I rate ‘Sinister Beings’ a total of 7.5. That’s all for my review (not really a quick review though as it already took 3 long paragraphs).

Have a great weekend everyone! It’s Chinese Dragon Boat Festival (famously known as Dumpling Festival too) next Monday. Time to feast on some traditional rice dumplings.

(Images in this post are from various online sources)

Watched two great movies this weekend; ‘The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It’ and ‘A Quiet Place Part II’.

These two movies are among my most anticipated films of the year and I’m super excited that they are finally here (especially ‘A Quiet Place Part II’ which had its release delayed for over a year due to the pandemic). Without further ado, let’s head straight to my brief reviews to these two wonderful films.

‘The Conjuring; The Devil Made Me Do It’ is the third film in the famous supernatural horror film series ‘The Conjuring’ and continues with the famous pair of paranormal investigators, Ed and Lorraine Warren (portrayed by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga) and they are getting involved in a murder trial that claims demonic possession as a defense. The story is based on the real murder trial of Arne Johnson.

This film gets away from the haunted house setting we are getting very familiar with in the first two films. That’s a wise call as people would start to get bored of seeing similar in-the-house eerie happenings and atmosphere after two full length movies. In this third film, we are brought to horrific scenes not only in a house but also at a forest, a funeral home, prison, and tunnels. The two main leads were fully immersed into the characters that made us feel the whole thing is very believable and got us invested into the whole story, hence elevating the horror quality of the film. The film do lacks a bit of tension and truly scary scenes or jump scares as compared to the first two films, but it is still a solid, well acted and well written horror film that makes a worthy entry to the popular ‘The Conjuring’ film series. Out of 10 points, I rate ‘The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It’ a total of 8.1. I also like the fact that the film also makes reference to the first two films by showing the Annabelle doll and the Valak painting in a scene near the end.

‘A Quiet Place Part II’ is a monster horror film and is a sequel to the 2018’s ‘A Quiet Place’. It follows the same family who is now forced to venture to the outside world (after their house is burnt down from the first film) while evading the alien creatures that hunt by sound. I like that the movie started off by showing us a quick yet intense flashback scene of the family’s first experience with the alien creatures that land on Earth (marked as day 1) and start attacking the people in their town. The scene is so intense and exciting that it immediately pulls me into their world. This opening scene is also brilliantly executed with great camera work and sequence (especially the part when Emily has to quickly reverse her car as the bus in front of it lost control and is heading towards her car…and a creature lurking out of the bus too).

We are then introduced to a new character portrayed by Cillian Murphy who helped the family to survive. This character is like a male lead replacement after the father’s death in the first film. The addition of this character goes surprisingly well with the family whom we have been familiar with since the first movie. Emily Blunt continues to go all out to protect her family and her scenes with her children are very warm (it felt like as though they are a real family). Cillian also pull himself together and helped the daughter to reach to the island’s radio tower to transmit high-frequency noise to other survivors as a mean of defense against the creatures. They are done in a very suspenseful way. Besides that, there are a lot more monster scenes and they surely got me to the edge of my seat most of the time (there are also some jump scares too). The ending doesn’t feel like an ending and that implies a huge possibility of Part III. Yes…I need it. This film also felt a bit too short. I enjoyed the first film very much and this second film is great too (it is just that the first film had set the bar too high). Out of 10 points, I rate ‘A Quiet Place Part II’ a total of 8.2.

(Images in this post are from various online sources)