Movie "Lust, Caution" (Se, jie 2007)

This movie of about 150 minutes, was about spy, espionage, lust, love, etc in China, Shanghai c.1940. The main character, the beautiful actress Wei Tang, played the role of a young girl grew up in the unsettling time, who watched her own coutry and fellow men, fellow women facing hardship, starvation under the invasion of Japan. She later agreed to play a role to help a group of Chinese patriots, to tempt a top Japanese collaborator into an affair with her, then trapped him some how so that her group could removed him.

Beautiful cinematography, music, with talented actors and actresses, the well known director Ang Lee (Sense & Sensibility, 1995; Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, 2000; Hulk, 2003; Brokeback Mountain, 2005, etc) again showed the world a beautiful and haunting masterpiece, where nothing seemed to be simple once love, lust, espionage, etc. were involved.

Enchanted Inc, 2005? (Shanna Swendson)

If you love romances with touches of fancy and outrageous imagination, try this book. I was surprised, very surprised to find that the book was so interesting and terribly witty.

Katie Chandler as the main character, was such an ordinary girl in such a hostile environment, that most readers would feel sorry for her, sympathise with her, and later, could not wait to see her life change for the better by any mean even if it was by wonderful magic.

The story triggered the maternal instinct in me, and I guess it did the same to others. Or perhaps it reminded me of the time I just grew up, when facing lots of obstacles in a new country, in the face of difficulties and an unknown future, what did I do to survive? I was still full of dreams and wishes whenever I could.

Readers of this book would be sucked into another world completely, where magic would now and then popped up & entwined with the hectic of life in New York when one was least expected.

Would the country girl at heart who came from Texas survive New York? One has to read the book in order to understand & appreciate the wonder of all the twists and turns of events present.

I loved the book so much, that I had to stay awake the next two nights to finish the next 2 books of this series,

- Once Upon Stilettos

- Damsel under stress

Unfortunately, the story did not end there, but the 4th book would not be published until the 29 of April 2008!

(How could I survive until then?)

Vertigo, 1958

Such a beautiful movie!

I was prepared to sit and watch a very predictable story, as often the case with old movies, but I was in for a real surprise. The movie though was made in the late 50s, but so poignant, so thick in the plot with many unexpected twists.

I loved most the way the cinematography was done. All the scenes in that movie was so perfectly done, that I kept thinking of postcard pictures.

James Stewart was wonderful and charming in his role as an ex detective, John "Scottie" Ferguson, who had left the police workforce because of his problem with height. Kim Novak was intriguing as the wife of Scottie's old friend, who approached him for help out of his concern for his rich wife.

Thought he was doing his friend a favour, Scottie faithfullly followed his old friend's so called wife, tried to keep an eye on her. Successfully saved her from a suicide attempt (drowning), Scottie eventually developed a certain affection for the beautiful woman. Knowing that the woman was also in love with him, he was shocked when she determined to jump to her death from a top of an old church. Numbing with complication from his vertigo problem, Scottie could not do a thing to save the woman he loved so much. He later blamed himself for her death, and thus, had a mental break down soon afterwards.

For months, he was numbed with grief. The moment he was better, what did fate deal him? He was fortunate or unfortunate enought to bump into a young lady, Judy Barton, who bore an uncanny resemblance to his lost love, except for her hair color and the way she dressed up.

Began to think that he was a victim of his old friend's malicious trick, who had conviniently used him and his problem with heights, to remove the rich but unwanted wife, Scottie set out to prove he was right. Fortunately for him, Judy seemed to co-operate in a way.

Very unhappy at what was happening, but so much in love with Scottie, Judy reluctantly tried to please Scottie, to the extent of dying her hair & dressed up in the exact manner of the dead woman, Madeleine Elster.

At the same spot where Madeleine was supposed to be before jumping to her death, Judy broke down, and confessed that she was the same lady who went out with Scottie before, and that Madeleine Elster's husband had planned everything, to frame Scottie for his rich wife's death later.

A sudden appearance of a nun, who came to investigate what all the shoutings were all about, made both Scottie and Judy jumped, startled. Judy stood too closed to the gap, that her lost of balance made her fell out of the rooftop. She was killed instantly at the same spot where Madeleine was pushed before.



At the time this movie was first shown to the public, it was not very welcomed. The result angered Hitchcock, the movie director, that he blamed James Stewart for it. These days, this movie has been hailed as one among the best of all movies produced by Alfred Hitchcock.

Such twist!

Secret Window, 2004

Borrowed this DVD from the local library, I never thought that it was a Stephen King's movie until much later. Johnny Depp played the role of the unhappy writer who lost his wife to someone else very well. Not only that, he was being bothered by a persistent and creepy person, who kept annoying him, accusing him of stealing his novel.

You would sympathise right at once with this writer, who just lost his wife, and who still tried to get over his break-up at an isolated place, far away from his old home.

You would want to be with him all the way, to give him at least, your spiritual support, while he tried to cope with all the new changes of his life, with being stalked about by a creepy and dangerous person...

but hang on there, how if he was not truly being stalked by anyone at all, and that all the killings, violence and misdeeds happened, were all done by him, the writer himself?

I think the movie was quite a success, in having a very twisted and surprised ending!

1408, movie, 2007

hmm, so this one was another product of Stephen King... (confirmed it just now from reading other people's comments).

Kept hearing about this movie, I thought the plot was intriguing enough, for me to really sit down and try finding out what all the talks were about...

Since I was never really care much for horror movies, it took me a while to really commit myself into watching it. Of course, I had to be very careful about the time, the location, blah blah blah, before I really turned on the movie. (I did not want to have my kids or myself to have unneccessary nightmares as a result of watching this specific movie!)...

It was surely a scary one OK, with series of events here and there that went on and on, resembled a kind of never ending nightmares.

Plot: A writer who wrote books about spirits and the other side world, found himself involved in the investigation of a horror room in a specific hotel. He tried to record everything by talking into a tape recorder. He was warned agaisnt having that room, for it was famous in killing or maiming people once the door was closed. The writer strongly believed that it was just a normal trick which many hotels had used to advertise and attract curious visitors.

He was given a box of chocolate as well as a bottle of expensive wine. All the horrors happened later within that room, made the writer wondered whether he was drugged (from the chocolate and wine provided), so that he would be under constant horrific illusions, witnessing images in which people suicided, of blood, of dead bodies, of terrible sufferings and cryings... But the most horrible experience which happened to him, was to face the last hour of his little daughter again, with his wife. Guess that the room had the effect of feeding on people's unhappiness and hidden sufferings, he tried to fight agaisnt it, only to find out that it refused to let him get out alive.

Went through the experience of being left on the cold (in freezing condition due to a malfunctioned thermostat in the room), then drown, then almost being burried alive with everything collapsing around him, then fire, he was lucky to get out alive finally!

When telling his wife of his time with his dead daughter in the haunted room, being hugged by her, talked to her, etc, of course - his wife thought he was still under the influenced of the fire (you have to watch it to understand more about this), until the tape recorder by chance, still having that short conversation recorded. (How did it survive the fire?)


John Cusack was marverlous in his role as the writer who tried to face his grief, as well as all the horrors which the room threw at him.

Samuel L Jackson's role in this movie as the hotel manager was real creepy. Since the movie was a bit tangled here and there, I couldn't figure out if he was truly a good manager or what!

All in all, the movie was quite successful in scarying the hell out of me!

journal

Just delete a few posts today!

Have been busy recently, due to my daughter's birthday, tax paperwork, etc. Things seem to be OK temporary. Still have to deal with a real estate agent before the next step could be carried out (this and that...). Regardless, lot of things I need to do before the end of this September (paperwork relates to the realestate agent whom we do not get along so well with! Better to finish with all the problem before a new contract could be signed for the new year!).

Lot of movies I should do review before I forget their details. Perhaps I would do them later? (feeling lazy right now!)

Stranger than Fiction 2006

A very interesting movie!

I was very impressed with the cast: Will Ferrell as Harold Crick (the main character of the movie, a "boring" tax agent working for IRS); Emma Thompson as Karen Eiffel, the famous author who always killed her main character, in this case, her imagined Harold Crick; Dustin Hoffman as Prof Hilbert, whom Harold Crick came to consult, hoping to be saved from being "killed"; Queen Latifah as a literature agent who was sent to help Karen Eiffel finishing her book on time; etc.

The plot was real strange, but was performed and shown brilliantly in this movie. The result was something real tragic plus funny (try to imagine such a combination!).

The story was about a boring Harold Crick, who lived his life in a monotone manner since the time his wife left him for someone else. Every day, he would do exactly the same things (almost) as the last, especially in regards of his routines: from waking up, brushing teeth, to taking the bus to work, etc.

(Will Ferrel was quite cute in a "dumb" way in this movie. One can not feel pity for him, because of the way he lived his life, when he looked so manly and quite adorable).

Things changed suddenly, when one morning, while he was brushing teeth and counting the brushstrokes as he often did, he thought he heard someone's voice narrating all of his routine activities. The odd thing about it was, the narrating was precisely about him, even his own name.

Then he heard the verse, a bit like, "little did he know, he was about to die a sudden death". That shocked him a bit.

The narrating voice kept drone on, and things kept happening around him in the exact manner of what the voice said. In fright, he decided to consult Professor Hilbert, who was quite famous in liturature field.

At the same time with the happening of these events, he was sent out to "edit" a baker, who had not pay tax properly as she should. This baker happened to be very attractive, with an attitude (which I thought was a bit overboard! Maggie Gyllenhaal played Ana Pascal. A pity that she sounded too sour, too sleazy, too unlovable here...). Harold promptly felt attracted to her, but being a serious and "boring" type, he did not know how to express his feeling.

Decided to live his life as if he was about to die (as advised by Prof Hilbert), our Harold went out buying himself an electric guitar. With his beautiful singing and guitar playing (did he really sing that, for the voice there was quite good!), he managed to charm our harden hearted baker wonderfully.

By chance, he found out who the narrator of his current life was, and decided to beg her to let him live. Emma Thompson was real brilliant in this role. I was so impressed with her acting from beginning to end (funny thing was, I did not recognise her as the same lady in Sense and Sensibility, 1995; or Nanny McPhee, 2005; etc. until I saw it in the credits).

Perhaps Emma Thompson's brilliant acting was highlighted by the presence of the charming and with very high sense of humour actress, Queen Latifah?

The humorous and very tragic ending of the movie was: Harold should resign to his fate, to be killed, because otherwise, it would mean spoiling a good ending of a long awaited novel by famous author Karen Eiffel. (The verdict from Prof Hilbert). Harold read the draft novel, and decided that the ending of the draft was too good to be changed, in which Harold Crick would be killed while trying to save a little boy from being crushed by a bus.

Resigned to his fate, he was really hit instead by the bus and proclaimed dead by others.


Fortunately for Harold, the writer Karen Eiffel when realised that her book was truly linked somehow with the real Harold Crick, a truly good man (even though he was a tax man, who worked for IRS), decided to let him survived the crash after all.

A very strange and touching movie, one that could make one smiled at time. Good music, good cast, interesting plot, what else could one hope for?