Movie Review: Rule #1Last night, The Changed Man smsed in, wanting to watch a lame movie together with me - Meet The Spartans but we could not find a suitable movie showtime so we decided to go for Rule #1 and it turned out to be quite an entertaining movie.
The movie is about how a police officer discovered the attempted escape of a serial killer and was nearly killed by the latter before being rescued by the appearance of the murdered victim of the killer and he narrowly vanquished the serial killer in the nick of time.
However, Shawn Yue, the police officer, after recovering from his serious injuries, was henceforth transferred to a Miscellaneous Affairs Department to investigate even more paranormal cases that were not within the jurisdiction of conventional police officers.
As Shawn Yue, under the guidance of veteran department head, Ekin Cheng, became more experienced but more troubled as he went through case after case of bizzare scenes of unexplained happenings, he was slowly embroiled in a plot of sinister vengeance as the ghost of the serial killer whom he took out before his transfer was back to haunt him down.
Rule #1 was engaging because it had both Shawn and Ekin to hold the plot together with their excellent acting skills. Fiona Xie was not too bad either as the pregnant girlfriend of Shawn. The dilemma in which the Miscellaneous Affairs Department had to face in trying to uncover the truth in those bizzare cases yet cover them with white lies to keep the integrity of society together was really interesting. The revenge plot of the serial killer was heart-pounding enough but it took away the eerie scenes in the first half of the movie, which I enjoyed alot too.
All in all, the movie was well worth the ticket price and I would recommend it, provided you have the guts to stomach the eerie scenes of ghosts, the sudden blood-splattering scenes of Shawn and Ekin killing possessed humans and the sinister and dark twist at the final scenes of the movie.
The Fear of Making Mistakes:
I was having quite a difficult session with one of my students because he (whom I should just name as V) has always refused to do difficult questions whenever I leave him homework. V always chooses to leave the answers to those questions blank because he wants me to help him explain those questions. Here's how the conversation goes:
Sean: "V, why are those questions not done?"
V: "I don't know how to do."
Sean: "You are not even trying?"
V: "Last time my tutor said if I don't know how to do, I can leave them blank and she will help with them."
Sean: "That was last time, agreed? My lessons are different. I want you to try to attempt those questions first. If you get them wrong, I will explain to you how to do them properly."
V: "But I am scared if I get them wrong, I have to do corrections."
Sean: "What's wrong with doing corrections? The school is the place to make your mistakes rather than later on out of school."
V: "But it's not neat anymore..."
Sean: "What's the use of being neat if you don't understand the questions and refuse to even try? The bottomline is for you to try and challenge the difficult questions. I won't blame you for making mistakes at difficult questions but I will come after you if you surrender those questions without even trying to make the effort."
V: "It's just that I am scared of mistakes."
Sean: "We all make mistakes, especially so in schoolwork. There is nothing shameful because the school is meant for students to learn and make all the mistakes they may do so that when they come out in the society, those mistakes won't cost so much. I don't believe in a perfect, mistakeless learning but I do believe in you having the courage to try. No more blank answers, do you understand?"
V: "Yes, Mr Ho."
Going Back To Maple Story:
After a protracted break of many months, I am finally back into playing Maple Story. It's not that I am hooked by the gameplay but I was hoping to relive some of the fun with the surviving members of the guild I was in. Lo and behold, two of them were online when I first went back in, struggling to remember where my hotkeys for health and mana potions were.
There were many changes into the game - more NPCs, more quests and more cashshop items but I am still sticking to my samurai outfit, as soon as I get hold of the cashcards for the purchases.
Levelling up, a tedious and nerve-testing process, will not be easy at my character level but oh well, one step at a time. Hopefully, I'll be able to get the feel of the game back into my fingers after a couple more rounds of crashing through those maps. Heehee.
Song Recommendation For March 2008《外套》By 動力火車:
This is one of the most powerful songs in Mandarin pop industry because the vocal prowess of Power Station was fully displayed to bring out the flavour of the song even though the lyrics was relatively simple.
The most impressive part of the song is the falsetto portions where the high notes were crystal-clear and yet provides a spatial sense of release that gives the listeners that kind of comfort rarely found in songs.
I leave this blog post with my March 2008 monthly song recommendation. Even though few would ever be able to sing this song as well as Power Station, it is a fantastic reminder of how beautiful songs can sound as long as one puts one's heart into singing it.
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