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August

Mum suckered me into watching another drama called The Little Nyonya (小娘惹)!! 这次爸爸和哥哥也跟着看

I wasn’t meant to start another drama until I watched Avatar: The Last Airbender which R gave me, True Blood (s1) that I got off J, and lets not think about all the Taiwan and Korean Drama my cousin gave me!!... But… but I hardly ever watch Singaporean Drama (我好像只看过一套）and the reference to Malaysian-Singaporean (or should I say overseas Chinese?) history aroused my curiosity.

The storyline spans over 70 years from the 1930s to the present day, involving four generations of a big family…The deaf and mute Juxiang (Jeanette Aw) is a mistress in a large Peranakan family, who flees from home to marry a Japanese photographer named Yamamoto Yousuke (Dai Yang Tian). After their deaths during World War II, their beautiful daughter Yueniang (also Jeanette Aw) stays with her grandmother (Xiang Yun), who teaches her the fine Peranakan art of cooking and sewing. Yueniang’s beauty and culinary skills soon attract many rich suitors, but she only has eyes for Chen Xi (Qi Yuwu), a penniless driver…

*Peranakan (or “Baba-Nyonya”) refers to the descendents of early Chinese immigrants in Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia, where “Baba” means men and “Nyonya” women.

Although at it’s core is a love story (I’m such a sucker for love stories) what I enjoyed the most is the insight into the Peranakan culture, it really helps me appreciate what I have and be grateful that mum doesn’t nag me any more than she does when it comes to traditions, greetings, face, dining and social etiquitte etc. It also helps me put into perspective where my grandparents are coming from when they say or do certain things – it’s amazing how much can change in just a couple of generations.

The other thing which got me hooked onto the show was the constant cooking! It just makes me drool at all the yummy Malaysian food that just don’t quite taste the same here down under.

*Spoiler Warning*

Just like any other movie or drama series, there’s also a few quirks which The Little Nyonya (小娘惹) has… Besides the unrealistic outcomes (ie. Yueniang talking her way out of everything) and faults in acting (which weren’t actually too bad), there’s only a couple of major qualms I have with the drama.

Who did she marry?

This one really bugs me because the show heavily suggests that Yueniang and Paul get married, even saying how her child became a lawyer (like Paul). But if this is the case, her granddaughter (Angela) must be really slow and really thick for even thinking that she is biologically the granddaughter of Yueniang and Paul? Just show me a Eurasian who looks completely Asian and I’ll take this remark back.

If I swear celibacy, will I be Super Granny?

TaoJie at 90+yrs wasn’t senile or bed-ridden, and she was still strong enough to serve (and out-live) her mistress and mistress’ daughter all these years. That’s impressive! Not only can you be Super Granny, you also don’t have to deal with all the headaches and heartaches that life throws in your face or have the life of diaper changer/chauffeur/maid etc.

Were/Are people really like that?

The character of Yueniang gets on my nerves because she is always on the moral high ground. Even after her biological family disowns her, treats her worse than a servant, physically and verbally abuse her, kills her Mama, locks her up, attempt to kill her several times, sold her Nya to cruel man, constantly slanders her Mama, Nya and herself etc etc (the list can go on).

It’s especially difficult when the ‘bad characters’ are worse than bad, they’re just pure evil. I excused the Huang kids and Robert Zhang as mentally unstable – the Huangs because they’re inbred and Robert because he has Charlie as a father. Still, it seemed like everyone else was just pure corrupt… What a twisted and scary world we live in!

*End Spoiler Warning*

Like many of the drama series I’ve seen, there’s many discrepencies in The Little Nyonya, but I have to say that it’s a lot better than TSCC (boy were there lots of dodgy loopholes in that series!). I’m quite surprised at how good the show turned out despite my low expectation

Category: Drama & Movies, Reviews Tags: Reviews, series, Singaporean One Comment

BattleStar Galactica!

June

Selina Lai

Battlestar Galactica Synopsis

An updating and re-imagining of the classic 1970s sci-fi television show, BATTLESTAR GALACTICA combines elements of STAR TREK, STAR WARS, and THE TERMINATOR. Human beings built the android Cylons to work as servants for them, only to have the robots rebel and disappear into space. A generation later, however, the Cylons returned to destroy their former masters, and succeeded in eliminating the 12 worlds that mankind inhabited.

Luckily, one group of people has managed to escape the genocide, lead by Commander William Adama (Edward James Olmos), on board the massive space ship called Battlestar Galactica. But the struggle isn’t over, as the ruthless Cylons continue to pursue the ship and the last surviving members of the human race. This vision of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA features a darker tone and CGI special effects, and shares with other science fiction sagas a warning about the misuse of advanced technology.

Battlestar Galactica (BSG) has been around for quite a while now, but I never quite picked it up again after their hiatus during season 2… P convinced me it was worth finishing, but there I was wrapping up Gossip Girl, Heroes and The Sarah Connor Chronicles (TSCC)…. I wasn’t sure I would have time to finish BSG between them all.

Anyway, never say never! It actually didn’t take too long to finish up BSG (all 4 seasons including webisodes, and movies) because there were so many familiar episodes that I just couldn’t quite remember (I’m convinced I watched more after season 2). It was a little tricky to get back into the story, especially when my mind was still fresh with TSCC (The Sarah Connor Chronicles), I had to remember that Cylons are not Terminators!

There’s no way to compare BSG to TSCC because BSG doesn’t focus on ‘Judgment Day‘, the death of human-kind. Well it does have an element of human extinction, but it has a more religious theme and makes the Cylons out to be another species rather than just machines.

The constant war in space, running from Cylons, and finding ‘Earth‘ thing wasn’t always so exciting, but I really enjoyed how the whole series turned out. I especially liked how it involves issues which are very real off-screen, BSG makes me wonder if maybe we will repeat ‘history’. It seems to me that the Cylons had it right when they said: “All of this has happened before, and it will happen again… again… again…“… Humans have a love for conflict and drama, it’s as if we go out and find something if there isn’t any…

So it’ll be interesting to watch the spin-off, Caprica . I hear it’ll focus on how the 12 colonies are living in the times of boom and abundance, they’re on such a high that they’re getting out of control… sounds awfully familiar?

P.S. Wiki has a very condense synopsis-review for those who are curious, but be warned as it contains spoilers!

Category: Drama & Movies, Reviews Tags: Reviews, sci fi, series Leave a Comment

Hana Kimi – Drama or Manga?

July

Selina Lai

When I was going through my Manga (comic) phase, gobbling up all the manga I could get my hands on, I stumbled across Hanazakari no Kimitachi E (For You in Full Blossom or better known as Hana Kimi) by Hisaya Nakajo. And I have to say that Hana Kimi is definitely still one of my favourite comics because I can’t resist these romantic comedy story lines which are full of fluff and the beautiful artwork. I suppose it’s also because Hana Kimi is such a typical Japanese story, so much like a fairytale and full of things we deem not possible (or at least very unlikely).

When I first started reading Hana Kimi, I didn’t like Sano the main male lead, because of his lack of emotions and expression. But in reality, that’s exactly how some people are… all emo… and I personally think it just makes it even sweeter to see Mizuki bring his personality out. Nakatsu is another character I grew to like, he’s a complete opposite to Sano. Where Sano is calm, cool and collected, Nakatsu is full of energy and emotion and comical expressions.

So when I stumbled across the Taiwan tv drama version of Hana Kimi (花样少年少女 Hanazakarino Kimitachihe) when I was shopping in Dalian, I just couldn’t resist – I had to buy it!!

The good thing about the Taiwan drama is that they follow the Manga pretty accurately, I really hate it when movies based on novels or what not are completely killed because they’ve made so many changes to the storyline. I’m a strong believer that the novel is better than the movie because a novel gives readers so much more detail which you can’t find in a 1-2hour movie.

That much said, obviously the original Hana Kimi story was changed – they cut the 23 volume Hana Kimi Manga down to around about the first 9-10 volumes. I found the drama to be a a little too condense….If they didn’t change and cut the storyline with the photographer, I think it would have clarified it a lot more. Without the extra information, viewers would think that the photographer was just thrown in for the hell of extending the series…

Although Hana Kimi it’s a fairy good fluffy drama, I personally found it a bit TOO unrealistic to be a Live Action Drama. It’s one thing to have a fairytale on paper, but completely another thing to have it played out on screen. BUT I still found it as great entertainment, I liked the cast (mainly Ella – Mizuki, Chun – Sano and Jiro – Nakatsu) and it’s good for me to practise my Chinese =P