the wacky wombat weblog

It’s end of the year, time to relax a bit, and so, time to watch some trailers on Apple trailers and see which movies catches my attention.

Especially since I’ll be heading back to KL and cinemas in KL are cheap cheap cheap heeheehee. Of course, only if they happen to show any of the stuff I like. Cinema listing in KL really sucks sometimes. All you get is the big blockbuster, no brainer shows, plus the occasional stuff like Pontianak Menjerit or something. :S

So here goes. Movies that I’m looking forward to:

Babel - because the trailer was good — Brad Pitt does one heck of a voice-over narration. Plus, I like that it’s 3 separate stories about failed communications and attempts at reconnecting. The kind of stories that I like. And, there is a part set in Japan. hehe. Don’t ask me why I find that appealing. It just does.

The Good German - because it’s in black and white, and because there’s George Cloony, and Cate Blanchett. And it sounds like an interesting take on the other side of the war story.

Fur – because images of Nicole Kidman are always good to look at. She can look haunting, beautiful, sad, all at the same time.

Borat — because it’s funny!

Notes On A Scandal — because it looks like it could be a very gripping story, with a very intriguing character played by Judi Dench. And there’s also Cate Blanchett (hmm, she’s appeared 3 times on my list already (+ Babel), though I never had special preference for her performance. Busy year for her, must be).

Letters from Iwo Jima — because the music on its official site sounds beautiful. Serene, yet a sadness underlying it. (haha yes, lame reason, but music matters). Also, intriguing to watch Clint Eastwood direct something acted mostly by Japanese. And this time, unlike other American movies, foreign language remains as foreign language. Japanese seems to be the main language in this film, or at least judging so from the trailer. I absolutely don’t like movies about Asia made by Americans where everyone in the story speaks English, albeit in a funny accent (first example that comes to mind, Memoirs of A Geisha. How annoying can it get?) I don’t normally go for war stories, but maybe I’ll make an exception for this one.

300 — because it looks like a moving graphic novel!! (mainly because it is inspired from one). The visuals are stunning (as far as I can tell from the trailer of course). Must watch! Hm, though I must say the rain of arrows shot reminds me a lot of a similar one in Hero (英雄).

Confession of Pain (伤城) — well, I first decided that I wanna watch this when I saw the production stills in a magazine. Looked too beautiful to give it a miss. Plus, got Tony Leung and Takeshi Kaneshiro. No need further explanation. *side note: I saw their behind-the-scenes featurettes, and eee, so nice, all the stuff they could do with all the equipment and all! I want i want!*

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer — Ok, it looks like a freaky twisted murder story — not my usual kind of thing. But somehow the trailer worked for me. Maybe it’s the topic. I’ve always liked how a scent and a smell can evoke a lot of feelings or memories. Like how when you catch a whiff of something, and it suddenly brings you back to something from long ago. So the opening images from the trailer really caught that. Ok, although the story isn’t really about that (it’s about a guy with a talent for scents who kills women) but yeah, intriguing all the same.

And just so I can relax and do nothing, here are a couple of fun stuff that I think I might watch: A Night At The Museum (cos got Ben Stiller, and he’s usually funny). And Charlotte’s Web (cos sometimes you need some fun kiddie show to watch).

Ok, so I’m writing all these down so that I won’t forget what it is that I wanna catch. Now just pray some of these stuff actually gets shown here soon.

In the week before christmas, my fyp short-film shoot has finally ended. The weather held out for us on Saturday, even though angry gray clouds were looming ahead, threatening us with rain any second, yet the harsh sun came out to tease (and roast) us every so often. But it’s done. For now. Phew. yippie aye aye yippie yippie aye…

I can finally sleep more than 5 hours, and my feet finally does not hurt after resting for 2 days. I can ditch my sneakers and wear heels again. Dreams of the 1001 things that can go wrong on set have left me alone in my sleep, at least until we start editing, hehe. The shoot took about 8 days, but it felt wayyyy longer than that.

It’s the week before christmas, and I have officially NOT bought any Christmas gifts yet. So I am doomed, to squeeze myself through the turtle-ish* crowd of Orchard Road, to find gifts to which I have no idea yet. Doom.

It’s tough to find a good gift, and I am really against the idea of getting gift vouchers. But i’m not partial to receiving them though. hehe. I welcome all vouchers for spa treatments, massages, and books. hehehe. I just don’t like giving them. Receiving is plenty fine with me. :p

The week before christmas, I’m eagerly counting down the days, waiting for his return. I still have 6 days left till Au Yong finally comes back from Japan. And 8 days left till we head back to KL together. I can finally take a break from work, if only for a while until the madness returns when school begins in January.

The best place to relax is home. It always works. Even though I really don’t do much at home. I just hang out with my family, friends, eat, watch tv, but it feels good. And most importantly, I’ll finally get to see Au Yong again after over 4 months! yay!

I hope the Christmas tree at home is up. I miss decorating it.

The week before Christmas, that’s when all the TV shows come up with their Christmas episodes! I’m happy that Las Vegas has finally put up a good ep this season! I’ve been disappointed with Las Vegas when the new fall season started. It went off to a wrong start with too many loose ends to fix up from the previous season and that left it a bit directionless, all action but no character development. I guess this Christmas ep has a little more meaning to it, a more personal ep of the characters I suppose. And that made things up a bit for me.

Another nice Christmas episode I like is Studio 60’s The Christmas Show. Or rather, I just really liked the whole trumpets story and O Holy Night at the show finale. Very simple, yet it moves you.

And the whole Danny + Jordan story is great! So excited to find out what more’s gonna happen. Too bad American viewers are dumb, cos the ratings are going down (just when the story is getting good!). I just hope it doesn’t get canned by NBC. It’s like Arrested Development all over again. Great script, but some people just don’t get it! Dumb I tell you. Don’t you guys speak English!? What don’t you get in the show?!?

Maybe I’m just biased cos Studio 60 is about the behind-the-scenes story of a studio show and I love doing studio! haha.

It’s the week before Christmas, so I guess I should make my wishlist. Let’s see, first at the top, my stupid MacBook!!!! Yes, it’s still not here yet. Let me say it again: Stupid 8Flags (the computer shop in NTU)!! There better be compensation. hmmph.

The rest of the list would read like this: free massages, free spa treatment, accessories for my (not-here-yet) MacBook, new sneakers, nice black pumps with gold heels (saw one in Nine West! haha), big bag that can fit everything (file, books, water bottle). Yup, that’s it.

The week before Christmas, it can’t stop raining. How am I suppose to go gift shopping? I think the island might flood if this goes on any longer.

* turtle-ish: because there seem to be a lot of people who walk excruciatingly slow on Orchard Road. Not only slow, but they are ignorant of the fact that there are other people more pressed for time right behind them. You ’siam’ one turtle, only to encounter another turtle. >.<