15 years old. So calm and fluent in front of so many reporters. So logical in terms of argument. So charismatic to gather so many supporters. With a mind of his own and the guts so huge to voice out his opinions to the authorities so much greater than him.
If you ask me, I think the subject 公民教育is an inevitable subject. I mean, not only China has it. Singapore has it. America has it. It is normal and somewhat necessary for a country to have a school subject that teaches patriotism. So is kind of weird and abnormal for Hong Kong to be violently rejecting such a subject. But I do understand why we are rejecting it. And in a way I think we should reject it. Is an awkward identity we have been holding since they put us on the world map. Patriotism is not a concept that is in this place. I mean… before the hand over why should we be patriotic to the Queen? Is not like we are blood related to them or something, is more like we are just the trophies of the then almighty British empire and as mere subjects we have no obligations to be patriotic. And after handover… why should we be patriotic to the CCP? They contribute nothing to our development and we hold so different ideals. So basically we are like some orphans being kick here and there. And we never feel any form of attachment to anyone. Except. as time goes by we grow stronger and stronger in our own recognition, meaning we feel stronger and stronger that we are “Hong Kong” people, not some other country or place. Is like we are forming our own unique conscious and identity that only belong to us. So if there should really be a subject instilling patriotism, it should be teaching the kids the love for Hong Kong itself, not China or what so ever.
And seeing kids like this, I feel like there is hope in the future. I can see this boy rallying in elections 30 years down the road. But I do hope that he still keeps his integrity and passion and rights and wrongs of course.
In the book 那些年，我們一齊追的女孩, 柯景騰 （i.e. 九把刀）went for his university interview in a pissed off mood. Mainly because a 賤貨(according to him) tricked 沈嘉儀 into giving up her early bird application. The only reason he applied for that uni was because of her, and now that she wasn’t there, he saw no motivation to continue. He was extremely grudgy during the entire interview. When the interviewer asked him why he wanted to apply for a business management course when he was studying science in school, he simply rolled his eyes and dropped this sentence, “When you risk nothing, you risk anything.”
He got into the university successfully.
4 years passed. 柯景騰 decided to apply for masters. Instead of writing a proper academic paper like what any other sane person will do, he wrote a novel involving terrorists and bombs and other weird stuff to explain the academic concepts. During the interview, the professors asked him why did he do that. With a smile, he drop the exact same sentence with a confident smile, ”When you risk nothing, you risk anything.”
This time round, he failed and became a laughing stalk.
However, this became the starting point for him to write. And he wrote and wrote. And become one of the most successful authors in chinese popular literature.
Grammatically speaking, the sentence should be “When you risk nothing, you risk everything.” But well, that is not the point.
The point is, sometimes you just need to do the craziest things. Often we go the safe route because we are afraid of loosing. But if you think about it… what are we loosing exactly? Are we loosing our family and friends? Are we loosing our morals? Are we loosing our integrity? Or are we just loosing our ‘face’? Or some ‘maybes’ that you are uncertain of their existence?
Sometimes things just can’t be planned. And things are never as complicated as they seem. Well maybe they actually are, especially in terms of relationships. That is why there are things like backstabbing and rumours. But that just make things sour. So I rather see things in the simplest manner. Call me stupid or whatever. But is tiring to guess others’ emotions. And I want to live for the moment. Because you never know if I will slip and fall and hit my head and die the next moment.
So, I have decided.
I am going to the U.S. for an internship.
LOL SORRY FOR THE LONG PROLOGUE. I write all those chunk as though I am going to elope with some guy. Haha is just a small simple decision and I am making a drama out of it. Because to a useless and timid person like me, this is something huge. and imagine dragging my luggage all the way to the other side of the globe alone. No friends or family this time. And I have only just decided. I havn’t even apply to anything yet. (Not sure if any one wants me also. Maybe I will be rejected in all cases. How you know)
So right now I am looking for studios to apply. I think I will ask my tutor about it, since he is from New York. NEW YORK. OMG IF ONLY I CAN GET AN INTERN IN NEW YORK.
I really want to see the world, before I get a full time job and slave my ass off.
As for money…
I will figure out a way. If i get the $HK50 000 scholarship, it will be settled. If. But I doubt I will get it since I am fighting with all the pros and best of shows. why did i even submit it in the first place? Because when I risk nothing, I risk (every)anything.
Since this song is called Vivi, this shall be for your vivi. Thought I have no idea what is it about. But from the PV I assume is about a poor fellow who is saying bye bye to his love vivi.
Anyway i thought this song sound so weird. From the PV I guess is about how a girl create a havoc in a space ship(?) as the boss of the spaceship fell in love with her? No idea. But it just sound cool and looks cool.
This is what you have when you dig independent creations from our beloved internet.
Yes I am in the procrastination mode again! Anyway from tomorrow onwards I will be alone at home because my dad will be up in mainland working while my mum and brother are ‘going back’ to 鄉下 with my aunt and others. Personally, I think the notion of ‘going back’ is weird because to me my 鄉下 is Hong Kong. So what is the need to ‘go back’? yar yar my ancestry line is in 新會 and the 祠堂 is there but, I never live there before. I know nobody there. I heard no stories about there. Both my mum and dad are born in Hong Kong. To me it will be the same as nanjing and shanghai and other cities/towns in China. Well maybe that is me being 不孝. Anyway I also cant imagine a trip with my relatives. I dont mind going there with my family only but, with my relatives? I think I will be bored to death. Sorry but I dont really like some of them i.e. the secondary school teacher aunt. And in their eyes I am just “the sister of 子恆 who is damn spolit and rude”. So i see no reason to be on a trip with them.
Well 3 days of home alone doing FYP! How exciting.
Now let me share with you some captivating and interesting opening/ending of anime. yes I am damn random and if you are planning to stop reading and close the tab now, I urge you NOT TO. Because even normal people non-otaku can enjoy these opening/ending I am going to share. Because they are so well made, they are basically a piece of art. Treat it as watching artsy videos on vimeo ok.
I cannot not start this collection with cowboy bebob. Because tank is such a cool jazz piece and the whole art direction is just mind blowing. Look at the colours! The play with silhouette! Sorry I am a sucker for this kind of pop-artish treatment with bold solid colour plane. and each change of scene and animation, the gun shot, the walking, whatever, though simple with no woosh wish effect, synchronize SO nicely with the beat of the song ok. This whole thing is a dance. And is not those dirty humping at clubs. Is classy with a touch of whatever attitude. This is just mind blowning.
The opening speech ‘present day, present time! HAHAHAHAHHA” really creeps me out. But it exactly set the mood for the whole anime. Though I never really managed to understood it. (you know sometimes cyber punk is really… difficult. Ok maybe I am just too stupid) I like the crude 90s digital typographic effects. Ok this was in the 90s and at that point of time such kinetic typography should be the most advanced thing. but there is a sense of grudge and surreality to the layering of microsoft word-look alike art text. Is like.. how to say… cheap sci fi feel? ARG you get what I mean (sorry I am cheap and I like 90s sci fi unlike certain almighty architects.) And the song itself, the more you listen, the more hooked to it you get. Is hypnotic and surreal. and at the end when time stopped, with the headpiece hanging mid air, but lain continue walking to the rhythm of the guitar? keyboard? of the deng deng deng~… omg. is so… surreal.
I just started watching this base on vina recommendation. Is very unique. The art style is so unique and weird but is captivating at the same time. Now at the third episode and is getting more and more interesting. Anyway just check out the typography here ok. Just check it out. how can the type be so nice? HOW you tell me. The typeface for the katakana. The swirly ends. so cute and 50s. for some reason it also reminds me of tadanori yokoo’s posters.
Maybe is the psychedelic colours and the type. But this whole opening is so refreshing
And is ending is good too ok. I mean, is animated floorplans! They made boring floor plans into such cool moving patterns of the squares! and look at how the floorplan doors swings according to the beat of the monotonous voice! Who has ever thought that squares changing sizes, moving and pops up is so entertaining to watch!
I like this because of the bubblegum colour and the very very hyper upbeat craziness. I mean, the violence and sexual content in this opening is sort of, humorous rather than offensive right? With the ironic love and peace and no more war clean type popping up. And the 3D (the walking mannequin like thingy and the paint) mix well with the 2D. You know it can be shit. But somehow this gives extra layering to the whole op, making it more clean, sleek and chic. And i like the starting with the very fast flashing of the text according to the beat. Basically I think the timing and pacing for this op is damn good.
Compared to others this others, the play of timing, pacing and rhythmn of this ending is, erm, plain. I mean, is just flash show of still frames. and the song is cheesy. nothing great. But what i really really like about this ending, is the colours. Omg the colours. Is so soft yet vibrant. I really really like how they use blue, orange and pink to evoke the mood for sunset. By the way, Toradora has the BEST COLOUR CHOICE. My thoughts for this anime majority of the time was thinking how can their colour choice be so god like. And we all know, choosing colours, is one of the most difficult task.
I didn’t watch this anime before. But the paper stopmotion is too cool to ignore. IS ALL PAPER OK. YOU KNOW HOW MUCH WORK IS IT TO MAKE THIS. How many frames! how many trees burnt! Anyway the timing for this is also so good. like when the pencil explode to become crumpled paper? omg why they so creative. Why they managed to think about such things.
OMG I CANT BELIEVE I PROCRASTINATE 2 HOURS AWAY WATCHING OPENINGS AND ENDINGS. But they are always fun to watch.
I can’t believe spend 4 hours yesterday reading something to a title loosely translated as “fapping master kurosawa”. I started reading because I was concern about choo’s taste. And I continued reading because I thought it was a bad funny death note paraody. But then in the middle I started crying. I thought the next day I would forget about it but right now is still lurking. I can’t believe I am so emotionally affected by a fictitious story. No. those stories are not fictitious. They are real. They are all so real. Is the first time in my life, I can actually SEE a real person in a manga. All the characters, no matter how big eyed and manga-ish they appear, they are so damn real. I can feel every single bit of insecurities and sadness of the characters. I can see myself in every single one of them.
If you ask me out of the blue about my lower sec days, I will fill you with so many happy details. Yes they are true. But they are not the full story. As humans we tend to remember only the good. And all the bad feelings will be locked shut in the dark corners of the memory drawer. But this manga somehow unleashed the long forgotten feelings. I felt the teenage problems and insecurities all over again. But this time, it was with much more clarity and understanding. Maybe is because is told to me by a third person, maybe I have become more mature, I don’t know. But I definitely know, how mean I once was, how hurt I once was. , and how insecure I once was.
Majority of us at some point of our lives would have pulled some childish pranks. Name callings, boycotts, vandalizing, whatever. They are carried out in the name of fun, but did we ever know how deeply we would hurt the victim? And the worse thing is, we carry these things out because everyone else is doing it. Majority is not always right, but the desire to be included, to be not left out, to be not hated, made us into mean creatures that doesn’t even know the consequences, or even the reasons, for our actions. Remember how we would boycott certain people and label them losers. Actually, what did they really do? Did they steal any of our stuff? Did they say very mean things? Did they execute violence? Actually really, WHAT did they do? Ok I do get the fact that personality clashes does happen but, are you sure their personality clashes with every single one of us? Or are the majority of us just to coward to go against the flow? The fact that the everyone is against a person, I can’t bear to bring myself to be associated with that person in anyway. I was a freaking coward and a hypocrite, because I cared too much how others will look at me. Inside me I would classify people into different groups and I would label certain groups as the untouchables. But who was I to judge? I was a freaking passive bully who inflicted misery in people lives. I allow these harmful feelings to grow and spread because of my own selfishness. And certain apologies won’t help anymore, because the harm was too deep.
There was also a scene in the manga. Takagawa said,
When I was in elementary school I was a really gloomy kid. I didn’t know how to talk to people. During recess, I sat in the corner by myself drawing pictures. I was a typical loser who studied all the time. It was always like that since kindergarten. But… after i went middle school I thought, “Why don’t I change?” I didn’t want to be alone forever. I changed my hairstyle… I learnt about makeup… With all my might I pretend to be a cheerful girl… I really tried to talk to people. However the roots were still the same as I was back then. I gained friends in some aspect but I was not satisfied. I always feel very uneasy. I wonder if I will ever become accustom to what I have become.
How often we try to change ourselves to adapt to the surroundings? So as to gain companies? To be less lonely? But as the process we become less and less certain of ourselves. who am I? what do I really like? Do i like to watch this drama just because everyone else does? Do I smile because everyone else prefer smiles to tears? Can I ever show who I really am to others? Will they ever accept the real me? But which is the real? In front of different people I will be acting and behaving differently. The more these questions flows in my mind, the more I cant behave naturally. The uneasier I become. And slowly I just felt more and more tired interacting with people. More and more I retreat back into my own shell. More and more I shut my eyes. and imagine a world. Behind my own eyelid.
Is very strange. We love each other, yet constantly we hurt others to defend ourselves. Is like we are holding knives as we hugged tightly. Is a never ending cycle of Love and Harm.
I just finished watching 37 episodes of Death Note. It has been a long while since I had watch something that leaves me with this… levitated(?) feeling. You know the feeling when you finish a good book or a good movie? Like your spirit is still left behind in the world it has created? Yes. I am now feeling that. The ending episode was so brillant that I had to re-watch the monologue twice. The ending slightly differed from the manga though, but well is a smart choice the animation team didn’t include the last chapter of the manga. Up till now I still see the long queue of followers carrying candles with that vigin mary look alike girl absurd. Though Light’s death was more explosive in the manga, but the anime managed to tie his death nicely with the first two episodes. THAT is something 大場 didn’t do.
In fact I wil say the anime is the most brillant out of all. My take will be this: manga<movie<anime.Though the manga was the original, it spent WAY too much time trying to explain the plot and twist with so many words that totally puts me off. And in bakuman terms, the duo was unable to create characters that people can relate and feel. When I read feel little for Light’s 中二ness or his ennui in the beginning. And the female characters, people like misa, was 100% flat. They are just like plot device that I have no feelings for. Is like a logical reasoning of a story to me.
The movie, was better. It focused more about the justice theme, guilty of killing and the emotions of the victim’s family. That add a layer of appeal. But personally I find Light too 正直 in the movie. The way Light was portrayed is like he is a good guy with good intentions but went down the wrong path. Well maybe is just me, but I prefer twisted characters. And the discussion of the justice theme is… well is important, but is a little far off from our lives right? How to say, discussing justice will be like discussing about democracy. And when we watch movies sometimes we just want to be entertained. And not think about all these topics. Hope you get what I mean.
The anime, the anime is just the best. Really. The main focus was the psychological state of characters. It did the best job in breathing life to characters. It portrayed the relationships the best. Thanks to it I totally understood misa stupidity. And made me from hating her to liking her. And the tension of the love triangle in the second part of the series was well done. And because there is more focus on the characters and relationships, the bad, boring plot of the second half was saved. And Light. Omg LIGHT. GOOD JOB animators. GOOD JOB VA. His 中二ness REALLY SHINE. From Begining to end. And I like how the anime reasoned out Light’s usage of Death Note. Unlike the movie or common understanding, he did not use the note because he is a righteous person. He used it because he was in ennui. Which tied in perfectly with Ruyuk’s boredom. He used it because he is too smart and he thinks that he is special but yet he is living his life like any other people and he detest that. That is why he wants to be the chosen one and be god. I think that was the manga’s original reasoning too but seem like it didn’t really do a good job in portraying that. And this reasoning totally made the series more appealing than saying that he is a righteous person. Because the no one is absolutely righteous. But everyone of us at some point in life felt that we are special and different from others. You will not be sitting on the train thinking “there should be a change in law for more justice” but you will be sitting on the train thinking “I look smarter than that dude across.” Yes is true. and the anime totally made the story and Light more relatable. I can totally feel his frustration. And in the end, he had to die alone. And he is really one of the more tragic characters I have seen. Fooled by his own wits. And pride. But the last scene, which L appeared, was totally redundant i think. Why must they keep harping on this?
I think it will take me a day or two to move away from the series.
How true. so true. Especially the kebab of untold horrors. they should really say sorry to Persia, Turkey and Middle East for ruining such a nice dish. The German’s and Austria’s ones are really very nice.
