Oscars 2022: CODA won best picture but Will Smith’s slap is the highlight of the year’s Academy Awards.

The 94th Academy Awards took place yesterday (this morning here in Singapore) with CODA, a movie about a child who is the only hearing person in her deaf family winning best picture (the film also win in the other two other categories it was nominated in; best supporting actor and best adapted screenplay). ‘Dune’, the epic sci-fi film last year is the biggest winner of the night with 6 wins (all in technical categories).

The biggest highlight of the awards ceremony is not from any of the above. It was ‘the slap’. Chris Rock who was making a disrespectful joke against Will Smith’s wife (Pinkett Smith) on stage was then given a violent slap by Will Smith. Will then returned to his seat, swear and yelled at him twice to stop talking about his wife. Some sided with Chris for his professionalism especially after facing such physical assault on live television and he continued to carry on with his presentation. Some thinks that it is a violence that is uncalled for by Will. However, some supported Will’s action to protect his wife and that Chris’ joke went overboard. Will Smith did went to the stage again for winning best actor for his performance in ‘King Richard’ and he took the opportunity to apologize to the Academy for what he did earlier.

Out of the 10 movies nominated in best picture this year, I have only watched three of them; ‘Don’t Look Up’, ‘West Side Story’ and ‘Nightmare Alley’. I have also not watched most of the other movies nominated in rest of the categories this year. Hence, I didn’t really put much attention to this year’s film awards season unlike in the previous years. For now, perhaps I will find a time to watch ‘CODA’ after it had won the best picture. Anyway, below is the full list of winners for the recently concluded 94th Academy Awards (Oscars 2022) along with my comments in some of the categories;

Best Picture

• “CODA” — Winner
• “Belfast”
• “Don’t Look Up”
• “Drive My Car”
• “Dune”
• “King Richard”
• “Licorice Pizza”
• “Nightmare Alley”
• “The Power of the Dog”
• “West Side Story”

Comment: Many general audiences would not have even heard of these nominated movies. It is better for the Academy to include more mainstream films rather than giving all the 10 slots to arthouse films. General audiences are getting more detached from these awards because of the industry’s dominant preference to small drama films. My personal pick is ‘Don’t Look Up’ but I knew it has zero chance of winning.

Actor in a Leading Role

• Will Smith, “King Richard” — Winner
• Javier Bardem, “Being the Ricardos”
• Benedict Cumberbatch, “The Power of the Dog”
• Andrew Garfield, “tick, tick…BOOM!”
• Denzel Washington, “The Tragedy of Macbeth”‘

Will Smith in ‘King Richard’.

Opinion: It is Will Smith’s year. No one else is strong enough to take that best actor win from him. I’m hoping for more great projects for Benedict Cumberbatch and Andrew Garfield so that they both can win some day. They are both great actors too and are certainly not only good in portraying superhero characters but also in everything else.

Actress in a Leading Role

• Jessica Chastain, “The Eyes of Tammy Faye” — Winner
• Olivia Colman, “The Lost Daughter”
• Penélope Cruz, “Parallel Mothers”
• Nicole Kidman, “Being the Ricardos”
• Kristen Stewart, “Spencer”

Opinion: Congratz to Jessica Chastain! Didn’t watch her movie but have heard of all the good reviews to her performance in that movie. Well, she has been nominated twice in the past so third time is really a charm for her this year!

Animated Feature Film

• “Encanto” — Winner
• “Flee”
• “Luca”
• “The Mitchells vs. the Machines”
• “Raya and the Last Dragon”

Opinion: Disney wins again for animated feature film. ‘Encanto’ is yet another solid Disney film with all the ‘promised to be successful’ similar formulas. Hmm…but I have seen enough of these formulas and start to get tired of it after watching ‘Encanto’. My own preference is ‘Ron’s Gone Wrong’ but this film cannot even make it into the top 5 nominees.

Cinematography

• “Dune,” Greig Fraser — Winner
• “Nightmare Alley,” Dan Laustsen
• “The Power of the Dog,” Ari Wegner
• “The Tragedy of Macbeth,” Bruno Delbonnel
• “West Side Story,” Janusz Kaminski

Directing

• Jane Campion,  “The Power of the Dog” — Winner
• Paul Thomas Anderson, “Licorice Pizza”
• Kenneth Branagh, “Belfast”
• Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, “Drive My Car”
• Steven Spielberg, “West Side Story”

Documentary Feature

• “Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)” — Winner
• “Ascension”
• “Attica”
• “Flee”
• “Writing with Fire”

Documentary Short Subject

• “The Queen of Basketball” — Winner
• “Audible”
• “Lead Me Home”
• “Three Songs for Benazir”
• “When We Were Bullies”

International Feature Film

• “Drive My Car” (Japan) — Winner
• “Flee” (Denmark)
• “The Hand of God” (Italy)
• “Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom” (Bhutan)
• “The Worst Person in the World” (Norway)

Opinion: Very much expected since ‘Drive My Car’ is the only non-English film which is able to make it into top 10 best picture nominees.

Original Song

• “No Time To Die” from “No Time to Die,” music and lyric by Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell — Winner
• “Be Alive” from “King Richard,” music and lyric by DIXSON and Beyoncé Knowles-Carter
• “Dos Oruguitas” from “Encanto,” music and lyric by Lin-Manuel Miranda
• “Down To Joy” from “Belfast,” music and lyric by Van Morrison
• “Somehow You Do” from “Four Good Days,” music and lyric by Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell 

Production Design

• “Dune,” Production Design: Patrice Vermette; Set Decoration: Zsuzsanna Sipos — Winner
• “Nightmare Alley,” Production Design: Tamara Deverell; Set Decoration: Shane Vieau
• “The Power of the Dog,” Production Design: Grant Major; Set Decoration: Amber Richards
• “The Tragedy of Macbeth,” Production Design: Stefan Dechant; Set Decoration: Nancy Haigh
• “West Side Story,” Production Design: Adam Stockhausen; Set Decoration: Rena DeAngelo

Visual Effects

• “Dune,” Paul Lambert, Tristan Myles, Brian Connor and Gerd Nefzer — Winner
• “Free Guy,” Swen Gillberg, Bryan Grill, Nikos Kalaitzidis and Dan Sudick
• “No Time to Die,” Charlie Noble, Joel Green, Jonathan Fawkner and Chris Corbould
• “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,” Charlie Noble, Joel Green, Jonathan Fawkner and Chris Corbould
• “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” Kelly Port, Chris Waegner, Scott Edelstein and Dan Sudick

Makeup and Hairstyling

• “The Eyes of Tammy Faye,” Linda Dowds, Stephanie Ingram and Justin Raleigh — Winner
• “Coming 2 America,” Mike Marino, Stacey Morris and Carla Farmer
• “Cruella,” Nadia Stacey, Naomi Donne and Julia Vernon
• “Dune,” Donald Mowat, Love Larson and Eva von Bahr
• “House of Gucci,” Göran Lundström, Anna Carin Lock and Frederic Aspiras

Film Editing

• “Dune,” Joe Walker — Winner
• “Don’t Look Up,” Hank Corwin
• “King Richard,” Pamela Martin
• “The Power of the Dog,” Peter Sciberras
• “tick, tick…BOOM!” Myron Kerstein and Andrew Weisblum

Opinion: Wow…’Dune’ is sweeping in almost all the technical categories, leaving no place for other movies to snatch trophies.

Actor in a Supporting Role

• Troy Kotsur, “CODA” — Winner
• Ciarán Hinds, “Belfast”
• Jesse Plemons, “The Power of the Dog”
• J.K. Simmons, “Being the Ricardos”
• Kodi Smit-McPhee, “The Power of the Dog”

Actress in a Supporting Role

• Ariana DeBose, “West Side Story” — Winner
• Jessie Buckley, “The Lost Daughter”
• Judi Dench, “Belfast”
• Kirsten Dunst, “The Power of the Dog”
• Aunjanue Ellis, “King Richard”

Live Action Short Film

• “The Long Goodbye” — Winner
• “Ala Kachuu – Take and Run”
• “The Dress”
• “On My Mind”
• “Please Hold”

Animated Short Film

• “The Windshield Wiper” — Winner
• “Affairs of the Art”
• “Bestia”
• “Boxballet”
• “Robin Robin”

Original Screenplay

• “Belfast” (Kenneth Branagh) — Winner
• “Don’t Look Up” (Screenplay by Adam McKay and story by Adam McKay and David Sirota)
• “King Richard” (Zach Baylin)
• “Licorice Pizza” (Paul Thomas Anderson)
• “The Worst Person in the World” (Eskil Vogt and Joachim Trier)

Adapted Screenplay

• Siân Heder, “CODA” — Winner
• Jane Campion, “The Power of the Dog”
• Maggie Gyllenhaal, “The Lost Daughter”
• Ryûsuke Hamaguchi and Takamasa Oe, “Drive My Car”
• Eric Roth, Jon Spaihts and Denis Villeneuve, “Dune”

Original Score

• “Dune,” Hans Zimmer — Winner
• “Don’t Look Up,” Nicholas Britell
• “Encanto,” Germaine Franco
• “Parallel Mothers,” Alberto Iglesias
• “The Power of the Dog,” Jonny Greenwood

Sound

• “Dune,” Mac Ruth, Mark Mangini, Theo Green, Doug Hemphill and Ron Bartlett — Winner
• “Belfast,” Denise Yarde, Simon Chase, James Mather and Niv Adiri
• “No Time to Die,” Simon Hayes, Oliver Tarney, James Harrison, Paul Massey and Mark Taylor
• “The Power of the Dog,” Richard Flynn, Robert Mackenzie and Tara Webb
• “West Side Story,” Tod A. Maitland, Gary Rydstrom, Brian Chumney, Andy Nelson and Shawn Murphy

Costume Design

• “Cruella,” Jenny Beavan — Winner
• “Cyrano,” Massimo Cantini Parrini and Jacqueline Durran
• “Dune,” Jacqueline West and Robert Morgan
• “Nightmare Alley,” Luis Sequeira
• “West Side Story,” Paul Tazewell

(Images in this post are from various online sources)

Dinner at the world’s highest alfresco bar today.

I have been in Singapore for nearly 4 years now and I always wanted to visit one of the rooftop bars one day for the ambience and of course the views. Today is finally the day for it and I don’t pick just a typical rooftop bar, but the world’s highest alfresco bar which is located at the rooftop of One Raffles Place building. It is called 1 Altitude and is located at a height of 280 metres above ground level.

I have made the reservation for the dinner tonight way earlier (about a month ago) as the bar is already fully booked out now for this entire month and it is the last month for the bar as it will cease operation by 31st March 2022. Many people would wish to go up for a final visit before it closes permanently. My original plan was actually to visit it last Saturday (also made reservation for that day but it was raining and hence there is no point going up but could only stay in the indoor restaurant few floors below…hence we left). Fortunately, the weather has been nice today with no rain.

Me and my friend arrived before 7pm and spent a little over 2 hours there (there is supposed to be a time limit of 2 hours per table). My first impression is that the ambience of the bar looks very normal with very basic bar facilities without any decorations. I guess the only main selling point there is the view and it is indeed incredible. The timing was also right for us to catch the view of the sunset a little after 7pm today. There was also a moment when a partial rainbow is visible.

The food and the service were just average. For the high table, each of us have to spent at least 80 dollars on food and beverages (excluding GST and service charges). Hence, for the two of us, we ended up paying a hefty amount for the visit to the bar (slightly over 200 dollars in total). We won’t leave after taking enough pictures and had enough of the 360 degree view of the city (part of the bar is also closed off and hence we couldn’t really get that ‘360’ degree view too!). Really spectacular views though…wish the building I am could be more higher…haha. Enjoy the pictures I took below:

Opps…I spent quite a lot on meals for this month (have had many luxurious dinners recently). Have to save up and opt for more economical meals at least for the rest of the month.

‘Modern Dynasty’ surprises me after being reluctant to watch it in the beginning.

I was watching ‘The Righteous Fists’ when the ‘Modern Dynasty’ is airing back during the past Chinese New Year period. Both are Hong Kong dramas released this year. Only I watched the former while the rest of my family watched the latter. I did joined them to watch a couple of minutes of an episode around the middle of the series but felt overwhelmed by all the dialogues and lost interest.

After finished watching ‘The Righteous Fists’ and ‘Freedom Memories’ end of last month, I spent my daily’s evening on past movies or simply just browsing through YouTube videos. My urge to watch dramas came back last Saturday when I couldn’t find anything else to watch. I decided to pick ‘Modern Dynasty’ of which all of its 30 episodes have already been released. I give it a try and I made the right decision not to miss it.

In less than a week, I finished the whole series. That shows how engaging the series is. ‘Modern Dynasty’ (家族榮耀) revolves on the ups and downs of the three generations of the wealthy Ma family after two close friends got married into the family on the same day. Many back stories and motives unfold as the plot progresses that lead to family tragedies and also downfall of their business empire. The series starred Julian Cheung, Tavia Yeung, Rain Lee, Him Law, Derek Kwok, Lynn Hung, Toby Leung, Raymond Wong, etc.

I think this is Tavia’s comeback drama after several years. She is also reunited with her real life husband, Him Law on screen (but not act as partners in this drama). She delivered fantastic performance as the villainous second brother’s wife and CEO of the company. Her acting here is worthy of a second best actress win for her. Well, a female lead character with scheming mind and evil intention…if you nailed this kind of role, you are on course to awards. All the other main and supporting cast also did great on their respective roles within the huge family in this series. Even unfamiliar faces like Rain Lee and Lynn Hung surprised me with their cleverly delivered emotional performances.

The storyline is interesting (enjoyed all the revelation of the evil plots and histories). Great script there accompanied with a beautiful huge residence as the main setting of the show that showcases the high status of the family. It was also quite a happy ending for the Ma family in the end after all the crisis but I felt weird with the surprised abrupt ending at the very last minute of the final episode (and also felt Gallen Lo’s cameo appearance in the final episode to be unnecessary). It could have ended in a better note.

Anyway, the series is still a solid one with great story and cast. Out of 10 points, I rate it 8.2, the same rating given also to ‘The Righteous Fists’. Both are my equal best Hong Kong dramas this year so far.

(Images in this post are from various online sources)

Looks likely General Election is coming soon!

As expected, Barisan Nasional won the Johor state election yesterday comfortably after seeing convincing results in other recent state elections held in Sarawak and Malacca. However, I didn’t expect the coalition to even win two-thirds majority!. Out of 56 seats contested, BN won 40 (that’s a strong mandate). It clearly shows the voters are comfortable to return the power to BN and are annoyed by Pakatan Harapan which won the state in the previous General Election in 2018.

PH only managed to win 12 seats, a drop of 15 seats it previously won. That’s a very bad performance. All the opposition parties need to stop attacking one another and need to stand united as a single opposition pact to post a real threat to BN in future. Pakatan’s main leader, Anwar Ibrahim already lost the trust and hope of the people when he kept giving lies (remember he kept claiming he had comfortable and convincing majority!). What a liar! For all the poor performances in the recent state elections (and worst, his party PKR only won one seat yesterday…and not to mention zero seat in Sarawak and Malacca last year), he should really resign. If not, he is bringing Pakatan to further low.

Perikatan Nasional also lost terribly in yesterday’s election as it won only 3 seats under Muhyiddin’s leadership. Muda won 1 seat while Pejuang (Mahathir’s faction) and Warisan got zero. People are disappointed by Muhyiddin’s poor handling of Covid-19 crisis previously and clearly do not want to see Mahathir anymore. There is a small potential to Muda and Warisan but they are too new with very few memberships and impacts. Hmm…even the shameful ‘Bossku’ Najib Razak is getting back more popular and received now as if people had already forgotten what he had did to Malaysia when he was the prime minister.

BN now felt very comfortable and will likely now plan to hold General Election soon. Once the MoU (memorandum of understanding) between the present federal government with main opposition pact Pakatan ends in July, many are certain now that Prime Minister Ismail Sabri will dissolve the federal Parliament and calls for a general election. It has also been 4 years since the previous general election in 2018 (maximum 5 years for a term) that saw Pakatan’s historic win but ended up tumbled in less than 2 years due to ‘Sheraton Move’. I’m seeing August would be the month for the election right before Malaysia heading to its 65th anniversary of independence celebration on 31st August 2022.

Malaysia had also announced recently that the country is heading to endemic mode beginning next month, hence paving the way for more normality and election. It is a sign that Malaysians prefer stability rather than new change. I personally felt that Pakatan should be given at least few more years (their one term hasn’t even finished before being taken down by a backdoor government previously) because they are inexperienced. First of all, they should change their leaderships. All its component parties need to strategically plan how to win Malay votes while maintaining the Chinese and Indian votes. Between Block 1 (corrupt and strong racism) and Block 2 (inexperienced, not united), I still prefer the latter. I was not able to vote in the previous general election but for this time, I will certainly do my duty to vote as a Malaysian.

(Images in this post are from various online sources)

Fun day at the arcade.

Rather than the usual go-to-places on the central or the east side of Singapore (due to these places being nearer to my home) during the weekend, today I took the effort to travel all the way to the west side of the island to explore Jurong East. It is almost a one hour journey to that neighbourhood from my house in Aljunied by train.

The reason I want to go to Jurong East today is because I recently found out that the largest Timezone outlet (provider of arcade games) is located in Westgate mall (and it is in Jurong East). After a very satisfying lunch (had bak kut teh) with my friend, we spent close to 2 hours in the Timezone. The outlet does have some arcade games that I have not seen before in other outlets and it even have bowling lanes. However, the outlet doesn’t seems to have many collection of prizes to redeem from the points that we won from their arcade games.

After getting tired from the games and having spent quite a lot on it, it’s time to leave and explore other parts of the mall. There is also another mall just right besides Westgate and it is called JEM (I believe it stands for Jurong East Mall). We then paid a visit to the new IKEA store in JEM (it is said to be the smallest among the three IKEA stores in Singapore…the other two in Alexandra and Tampines). It does have 3 levels and also has their famous Swedish restaurant inside. I bought a small bonsai plant (suddenly have the urge to look after a potted plant…haha).

Recently, I did watched the latest season of The Amazing Race (season 33) with its final episode aired on last Wednesday (Thursday here). It is yet another exciting season with most of the teams very likeable. There is no alliance this time around which made the competitions more fair. This season has hit a major roadblock during its filming in 2020 due to the onset of Covid-19 pandemic and had been put on hold until September 2021. It then resumed filming with a lot of changes (modified route, chartered travel, etc). And congratz to Kim and Penn for winning the race and took home the US$1 million. They are also the oldest team to win ‘The Amazing Race’ with a combined age of 92. This pair has been very consistent in the tasks and paid close attention to details which is crucial in the race. They certainly deserve the win.

Before ending the post, I would like to take this opportunity to send my prayer to all who are affected by the on-going war between Russia and Ukraine. This invasion by Russia that has taken place for over a week by now is totally unjustified and unnecessary. To Russia’s President Putin; war should never be the way to resolve conflict despite all the pressure from the Western countries or other reasonings you had in your mind. He has made a grave mistake and now his country is facing heavy sanctions from many countries that will in turn hurt their people and economy very badly too. A country’s sovereignty must be protected for peace in this world. You create more enemies once you challenge that.

(Images in this post are from various online sources)