Two Days to Christmas

Two days to Christmas and the skies are remarkably gloomy. It's been rainy and downcast these few days. In fact, walking along Orchard Road at night with the Christmas lights lit up and the rain drizzling down reminded me of Paris in winter. All that was needed was for the temperature to be lowered about 20 degrees or so.

I watched King Kong on Wednesday and Narnia yesterday. Two big budget films back to back. After so long, it's nice being able to walk out of the cinema feeling you've watched a good film. Kong is, without doubt, the biggest movie of the year, in all respects. Expansive, visually stunning, pulse-racingly exciting, it bears all the trademarks of Peter Jackson. Once more, the kiwi has done it again. In fact, I think Kong himself acts better than some of the actors. I actually heard someone crying rather loudly in the theatre as the ape fell off the building. That was a lovely scene. Intimate, tender, and epic at the same time.

Narnia, in comparison, wasn't that great. The film's pacing is rather irregular, and the intercutting of the scenes feels stilted and slightly jerky. Nevertheless it's a fairly good movie, with appropriately touching scenes. In my opinion the jerkiness of the story has more to do with how the book is structured than with the editing. Lewis wrote it in such away as to warrant Tolkien's comment that it was a "hodgepodge of images", and I agree with that judgement. It became more obvious to me after watching the movie. But Lewis' strength lay in the intimacy of his words and scenes. The flowing of one chapter to another was painted in flowing sweeps of language that managed to bind the story together as a closely-knitted whole. The movie, in trying to make a picture out of his words, suffers from the hodgepodge syndrome. Still, it makes for good family entertainment. I definitely recommend it for a viewing.

I've been feeling so sleepy... This is good weather for curling up in bed...


Vicks: Oh seriously, vicki, could you not tell the sarcasm of that statement? In any case, it really was a rather eye-catching outfit.

Benita: Yes, that sounds pathetic. And I feel used.... hahaha. Aiya, try to do up some of the econs yourself first lah. You're better at it than me anyway :)

Musa: Musa... sighhhh....