Stressed out from work, so I did I what do best - run away from everything. And here is what I have to show for it, all the movies I've watched these two weekends:

( quick-fire movie reviews behind cut )

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I noticed this post "Attn Germans in Fandom: Internet Censorship debate and why this concerns YOU)" only just now because I've been mostly away from the Internet for the past week (I'm terribly behind with my work at the office. I feel so incompetent that it's not even funny).

Around the time of the June 4th anniversary, I was secretly squeeing that people finally became more aware of the internet censorship in China. Why? Because I was hoping that a real-life example of what an infrastructure of censorship can do will finally make people see what the apparently innocuous, or even righteous, call for more censorship against obscenity that's been gaining political ground and moral high ground here.

It's so easy for the conservatives (and people with secret political motives) to sway public opinion to tightening control of the internet by framing the question in such a way that all anti-censorship people are pedophiles, perverts, depraved sex fiends who don't care that children are being "corrupted" by pornographic materials (I don't believe this is corruption for one bit - but then if I say this, this will only be cited as example of how depraved and evil I am). And for the same reason, no politician who cares about his career will stand up against censorship of pornography, if the whole debate is about pornography.

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I'd been looking forward to it for quite a while because Christian Bale is in it. But when the reviews came out, I thought maybe I should wait for the DVD because I didn't want to risk wasting my precious time :) if the problem is in the story. But then my brother went to see it and I decided to give it a chance.

Turns out this movie is not as bad as the reviews had made me believe. Of course you've got to suspend your disbelief quite a bit (esp. with how the clothes can magically survived so much fire) but it's quite an entertaining movie once you get past that - and it's rare for me to say but it's not that hard to put aside your logic when watching this movie because there's too much kick-ass action and bleak dystopia for your mind to wander.

And it doesn't hurt that Anton Yelchin is really cute and adorable~

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It's days like this that make me proud to be a Hong Konger:

150,000 people attended even after 20 years have passed. I'm so glad I went even though I've been busy as hell at work.

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The boys were disappointing (as expected) but like someone said in the stands, I didn't even know there were so many West Ham fans in Hong Kong:

(Note: The mascots weren't pre-arranged. The guy just rounded up all kids in West Ham shirts in the stands.)

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Late to the party (as usual), I only came across this epic series of fanvids just now. Only 3 of the 7 planned instalments are out so far but the concept and the quality is unbelievably good. Here is a synopsis of the series:

A long, long time ago, an immortal called Helin was rejected by fellow immortal Qingchen who fell in love with the demon Mingji. Qingchen's forbidden love affair got him condemned to live out seven lives as a human on earth. On the other hand, the furious Helin became evil and put a curse on Qingchen and Mingji - they would fall in love with each other in every life but their love would never have a happy ending. Little did Helin know that the love between the star-crossed lovers would became a force that could control Heaven, Hell and Earth after the seven reincarnations.

This may sound a bit cliched but the each video of the series is an epic tragic romance in its own right. One can only imagine how powerful it would be when the 7 instalments are finished!

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Now, THIS is bodyswap done right.

If only there were a genderswap drama done as realistically as this! I'm just so sick of boys getting several inches shorter just because they've turned into a girl. I want to see stories about them being six-foot-tall women. Honestly, what's wrong with that?

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I’m terribly behind with my work at the office and have never felt so unmotivated at work. I need a holiday. Or a kick up the backside. I’m stalling everything, and I’m hopelessly distracted. At some subconscious level, I know the deadlines are there. But I am still blatantly not looking at them. Perhaps because every time I look at them, I feel a bit worse about myself. I guess I just need someone to shake some sense in me, or just give me a slap.

Ahhh…… I’m feeling so much better now, now that I’m done feeling sorry for myself :)

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As I get older, my music taste had become stuck in the 90s. I don't listen to the radio any more. Nor do I watch the charts or hang out at HMVs. I only get to know any new music ("new" meaning any music I hadn't known before graduating from university) through movies, TV drama, fan vids or fan mixes.

That's why I'm so glad with_a_kay posted this Losechesters fanmix which introduced me to Camera Obscura's Let's Get out of This Country. It makes me inordinately happy to think about the Winchester boys when listening to this song:


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It's a good thing I was watching this at home with friends because I kept yelling at Hong Lim "That's not how to have an affair" and "That's not how you treat someone who loves you so much despite everything".

There were many things that boggle the mind, like how incredible the boy king could have enough control of the court to actually start keeping a harem of boys (picked for their beauty) at such an early age, how gay it was that there were purple and pink and frilly collars despite the setting being historical Korea, how Hong Lim always seemed to be in more expensive clothing than the King when they are alone with each other, how there was no bodyguards sticking to the King's side in the first assassination scene (yet another proof that the bodyguards are not chosen for their ability to protect the king), how the security of the palace in the final scene is like Lex's security in Smallville (and Hong Lim was so uncannily Clark that he actually had the nerve to act righteously indignant when the King had been nothing but generous and loving towards him)...

But everything could be forgiven for all the prettiness and the heartbreakingly all-encompassing love the King had for Hong Lim. I can't quite imagine one person loving another so much and forgiving him/her so easily for treading on his/her heart repeatedly, except perhaps Lex (for Clark) in Smallville or Dean (for Sam) in Supernatural. It's so impossibly romantic that it fills my heart with warmth and ache at the same time and I just can't help loving it despite all the lapses in logic which would usually bug me.

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Just back from seeing Angels and Demons. It's about time a movie was released in Hong Kong earlier than other parts of the world! :)

The movie is a bit too gory at times and there are some real duds in the dialogues but it's an entertaining action-packed movie that's worth going to the cinema to see. Ewan McGregor is fit (he totally rocks the priest robe!), Nikolaj Lie Kaas looks dead cool as the assassin and Italy looks gorgeous in this film (even though I know much of the churches must be set or CG). And as a bonus, the Schwyzerduetsch brought me back some fond memories~~

I like that the movie is about Kyle juggling his relationship with a boyfriend and his relationship with his needy male-to-female sister and the movie gets immeasurably better once cracks begin to appear between the lovers.

Still, the songs are the best thing about this movie. But the songs are really good and there are plenty of them in the movie (weirdly enough).





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rodo who wrote a meta on bilingual fandom participation is conducting a poll on language and fandom. Do pimp this out to anyone who might be interested! (BTW, even if you just read in the fandom of another language, it counts too in this poll~)

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Spent a whole day at a symposium and at least half of it fighting sleep. When the speaker got really, really boring, my mind wandered and started picturing Jared giving a lap dance to Dean. I probably would've blamed it on Chash's "He Comes to Save the Day" except that it's Dean not Jensen and it's a Jared who's doing the striptease very professionally not that Jared who likes to dress up as a superhero.

And then I tried picturing Jensen doing the lap dance and the visuals just suddenly changed from Dean to Alec - which, though hot, just made wonder why I thought it would be so OOC for Dean to do a lap dance - and right then, is when I realised my facial expressions must've been pretty weird throughout my journey of thought, especially since the talk was oh so boring :p

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Received the "Employer's Return of Remuneration and Pensions" from HR today, which means I really have got to do my taxes now. Somehow I can't seem to locate the receipts of two of my donations which I remember should fall in this financial year. But there aren't really large amounts so they won't make much difference I guess. I understand that the society cannot function without taxes but I just really, really hate doing taxes because I never seem to have all my stuffs in one place...

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The first generation born after the 1989 Student Movement will have become university students by now. It’s hard to stomach because I still remember all schools in Hong Kong going on strike to support the student movement, even though I was just a primary school student then.

I’ve never been really political active offline but I’m definitely going to the candle-light vigil this year.

This is old news but apparently protest T-shirts against the RaceFail of The Last Airbender are violating copyright even though they contain only original images and have clearly political slogans on them.

I know this is not a court decision but I still haven't got over the HP Lexicon case even now.

Finally, someone is writing about the experience of being in the fandom in different language communities of the same source text! Although she's talking about being in German and English fandoms at the same time, so many points ring true to my experience with the Chinese and English fandoms. I posted a rather tl;dr response there but I still may write a longer one here once I gather my thoughts.

(...somehow I seems to be in constant yay mode since moving to DW...)

Eztv delivers again! I wouldn't have known of this ITV drama if it hadn't been on EZTV's front page. And as I'd known next to nothing about it except that this was a gender/identity swap drama, I was pleasantly surprised when I saw Rachael Stirling (Tipping the Velvet), Martin Freeman (The Office) and Marshall Lancaster (Life on Mars) in it. That wasn't a combination I'd've expected.

And it's a lot more drama than comedy, which is another pleasant surprise. It's also got a more realistic take on genderswap than most movies had and, judging from the first episode, there's enough complexity in the characters and plots for the series to last (even if it weren't just the 4 episodes that it has).

I wouldn't say the show's got me hooked but I know I'm going to watch all 4 episodes of it (and not just because I'm a completist who actually bought, suffered through and then donated the whole Darren Shan series even though I was bored with it from the third book on).

Got a Dreamwidth invite because of the OpenID thing. I'm still just feeling around but since it's got built-in crossposting function I may start crossposting from there.

ETA: OMG, apparently Wyatt Cynec writes comics too! That man is just awesome.