暗戰 - The criminal wisdom

Oh yes I am back!

I must say that the final MB was like a marathon - you keep running running and running and seemed the race would never end. Finally we made it - and luckily unlike the poor Pheidippides I survived! Why dont we start again by sharing an old classy local film in 1999, 「暗戰」 by 杜琪峰.



Indeed, somehow I missed this wonderful piece throughout all these years, only when my old friends and I enjoyed the its extension 「暗戰II」 while camping in Cheung Chau, I started to realise.

Watching the 1999 production, I had a strong sense of deja vu, and yes it felt like going back to the night in Mongkok, where 林雪 missed his gun - you may know what I mean - another 杜琪峰's masterpiece by P.T.U. The groove of plot was running so smooth that I don't even feel the hours until it ended.

The scent of black humour and the phenomenal use of dissociative background music was so To-ish. I love the characteristic beauty in filming, as well as the criminal wisdom demonstrated. I would say it is pretty much like the Asian version of the Ocean's series, with 劉青雲 & 劉德華 replacing Brat Pitt & George Clooney.

Well, I am somehow inclined to movies of this kind, as my friend Jerry has once said to me:
"James, if you were not a doctor-to-be, you must turn out to be a mischievous brainy criminal."

Haha, I can't agree more!

Final!

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*Dear all

I apologize for the infrequent updates, I am about to have my final exam (finally) very soon, and I shall really focus on my studies in the subsequent weeks, and I promise after this short pause I shall re-vitalise this blog and continue till my days as a doctor! Back in few weeks time!

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The Watchman, World and Bigbang (1)

Phew finally got a half-day off after the stuporizing anaesthesia module, I must say my mind has changed towards this seemingly-boring specialty, it wasnt that bad as such, and the beauty of human physiology was enlightening, still I prefer seeing awake patients than putting them asleep every day.

Probably stimulated by the two-week intensive basic biophysic course, I (unbelievably) spent my day standing in The Commercial Press, reading a short book on - you might not believe either - the Big Bang theory.

And yes, as a science student filled with blood and flesh in the past 5 years, I had a hard time in it.

What arouses my interest in this well-discussed topic was my recent work on the doctrine of creation. Let me elaborate.

For centuries philosophers and scientists are troubled, if not put off, by the problem of how this world started - or was there ever a beginning at all. Walking along the track of Theism, there was an old arguement named - The Watchmaker analogy - as a teleological arguement for God's presence:

"When you see a watch, seeing its complex design, you immediately linked its origin to a designer. And as with the orderly complicated world we are living it - it necessitate an intellegent creator."

Many forms of similar analogies are used by Christians like me in sharing the gospel.
"You see a blue bright sky, you know it does not exist by itself by with a creator."
"Look! How beautiful the nature is! How can you not believe there is a God above us?"

But on a second thought, there is a huge trick behind.
One can easily ask:
"Well, alright. Your God has to be more complex and intelligent than us to have created us, then you tell me with your proof, shouldn't there be another SUPER-GOD who is even-more intelligient to have created your intelligient God beforehand?"

And that's exactly the reason why I stopped using the quotes above when sharing Christianity with non-Christians; to me they are true praises voiced out from heart, but it isn't appropriate to use it as a proof outside the paradigm of Theism. But then, I can't help ask myself - ummm if I were to believe there is a more complex being to be everlasting who has created us, why don't I simply bring in a little less faith and believe the world we are living in is everlasting?


(To be continued...)

Billionaires

I am amused by the recent newspaper headlines.

I won't deny, going through personal life of billionaires is entirely entertaining; from the stunning Fengshui probate to the soap opera from Royal family of Republic of Gamble, moving on to oversea triplets from donated ovum, and now, the breakup of the century. Sometimes reading through the papers is like flipping over a novel (or fiction if you wish), on a second thought - all these have definitely zero impact on our lives, why go headlines?

Oh, of course it is $$.
But then, why we all like gossiping their lives?

The speculated psychology goes like this.

Deep down in the heart of we Hong Konger are all jealous, if not envious, of the power, status and cash of all those billionaires. So, as Freud pointed out, our inner inclination transposed into seeing the miserable part of theirs. Indeed I have never read a headline reading "XXX happily got married." or "XXX generously donated for charity". Turning personal matters into public topic, arouse our interest, and as the discussion goes on and on, we are all glad to sit with popcorns in hand.

As a well-said phrase goes: Nowsdays, 娛樂新聞化，新聞娛樂化。

Yes I won't deny, I quite enjoy reading them - but well I know - it is pathological.


P.S.
Billionaire - Travis McCoy featuring Bruno Mars.

127 Hours - the triumphing

Ok, this year my Valentine's Day was sweet and lovely. Nothing's better than spending a whole day with the love in your life, having a nice European Sunday Brunch together, and then took a walk along streets on Tsim Sha Tsui, held hands under the big screen in the new The One shopping mall, and finish with bowls of yummy Japanese noodles.

Last year our pick was The Valentines - a film full of love and warmth.

Surprisingly, in this day of love, Landico went for the emotionally-demanding 127 Hours, by the director of Slumdog Billionaire. Initially I questioned myself whether I should really book the seats in this special day. But on the aftermath, well, it is not a bad idea to break the conventional theme of Valentine's day, and experience the tense will of living with her, through a simple yet overwhelming powerful movie of the year.

---- [SPOILER warning: don't read further if you are going to watch!] ----

In fact, long before the filming work started, I have came across the shocking story of Aron Ralston, the all-alone hiker who've been trapped by a huge falling rock, pinning his forearm sealed with the sidewall, who spent a whole 5 days trying desparately to excape - but failed - and at the end, the strong will for life made him amputating his own arm, all by a short knife with 2.5cm blade, and now continuing his life as a sport trainer, a famous sport trainer.

I was so much curious about the story part - we all know its gonna be a one-man show with known ending, so I anticipated borebom as we entered. But I turned out to be so wrong.

Aron got stuck within 10 minutes from the start, and maybe I am being too empathetic, I almost put myself in the same desparacy he was facing - seeing the bottle of water running out bit by bit, eyes and lips went scaly and dry, mind went delirious and hopeless - but there were someone in life that keep the strong will to live. The strong emotion built up step by step, and I can't help ask myself: do I have the gut to make it?

Prompted by all the powerful emotions, the amputating scene came. Of course Landico was holding her hands on eyes (as almost half the audience did); over-estimating my medical experience, I kept them open and watched...

It is hard to explain. Watching the flesh, tendons and blood being chipped inch by inch, I almost FELT the same pain going-on on my forearm. This experience is so much different (I dont even want to make this comparison) with the bloody meaningless but horrifying scenes in Saw, I never fear about blood, but when having put myself into the character, the pain is excruciating. On one hand I wish so badly to escape, but on the other hand I got to finish vividly the stabs and cuts, I would indeed go mad if it was me.

James Franco played it so real that I started to sweat and got lightheaded when he puckled the last nerve he encounter. With the intense sound effect, right after he finished the job, I (for true) went blackout for a second or so - in the sitting position, yes, a genuine vasovagal attack.

The point is, the film in fact placed only a short focus on the very scene I just described. What makes the final shot such heart-pumping is the great job done on staging the inner emotion in the first hour. In fact, since the Cast Away played by Tom Hanks in 2000, 172 Hours is the second one-man film that I found strikingly well-played.

Stepping out the threatre, I hold her hands tight. Feeling the warmth from her palm, I feel grateful for what I have.

P.S. Here is the real Aron Rouston interview done years ago, it is amazing to hear his first person story, on what had happened in the 5 days within the slit of stones - all combatting alone. Watching it I realised, the film hasn't exaggerate anything, if not undertelling the story.

讓子彈飛

Received a call from dad during my weekdays at hostel, recommending the recent blockbuster 讓子彈飛.

I had longed for the opportunity to sneak in theatre, yet the recent preparation for the OSLER exam by a professor-of-my-professors has almost driven me mad (as you may have noticed from the infrequent update of this blog, my apology), finally when a breath came - watching it (illegally) on the Internet at 1am, with a set of congee and fried noodles, umm lovely.

Everyone has been talking about all the hidden (not necessarily meant-to-be) messages within the funky lines by the three amazing Chinese actors, and having been prompted by multiple articles in the papers, indeed I found the film much enjoyable.

For sure as a student in science stream I am so much retarded and deficient in the knowledge of our current social development in our mother nation, and thus underinterpreting the ironic part of the story. But merely taking the film as a recreational consumption, it worths the ticket (my deep apology for the online-movieing). The twisty plot is seemingly-absurd, but this is the nonsense and craziness that catches me a whole lot.

If conversations in Social Network were well-written, then here in 讓子彈飛 it pushes even further. Almost every another lines come a quotable classic, coming from mouths of the oldschool actors 姜文,葛優,周潤發. And indeed, for those who by chance walked pass my room last night, you may hear my laughter when 黃四郎 said to his pathetic follower:

"如果你如果你活着，早晚都會死；如果你死了，你就永遠活着。”

Haha, I call this Pseudo-wisdom.

The Kubler Ross Model

Nothing is better than learning through real life experience.

Kaman and I had a nice Sunday lunch. As we sqeezed in the crowded lift as we got up the other floor for food, a young beauty slipped in last. I must say that, the lift was indeed as packed as canned sadin - we could hardly breathe - and yes, the door didn't close.

After few seconds, an ordinarily-impatient voice shouted from the inner cube: "Hey it's overweighted."

Then ten pairs of eyes (including us) looked at the just-entered slim girl - who was in a state of disbelief, with her eyes blinking, trying to squeeze in further.

Another second passed, door remained wide open. She then pointed to Kaman (who was also quite close to the door), stated, "Hey your bag is too close to the door, step back." As always an obedient student, my friend did so, still nothing happened.

Another impatient voice came, "Madam, the red OVERWEIGHT light is on!"

Everyone else looked at the light, and back to the beauty. She hesitated, but still bargaining for spaces, trying to make herself lighter by tip-toeing back and forth. And of course Newton's physics didn't fail for her, and the red light kept shining bright and hot. (And I am sure there are many other red lights shining on the heads behind me, too.)

Finally, she gave up. Stepped out the lift door, she looked back to all of us with her pair of crystal clear eyes - in it we saw a complex mixture of anger and depression.

As soon as the lift door closed - my friend and I grinned, as we have wittnessed the classical 5 stages of grief in the Kubler Ross Model, all within 30 seconds: Denial - Anger - Bargaining - Depression - (and perhaps yet to the final stage: Acceptance).

We drawed a reasonable conclusion, perhaps for some ladies, overweight is equivalent to death. Haha.