for those who haven't, please do go watch the coolest anti-drug movie ever, Protégé. this is the poster that's been hovering around the periphery of your vision recently:
it's about a heroin drug dealer (called the banker, played by Andy Lau) who has this super hot guy who follows him around as an apprentice (Daniel Wu *SQUEEE!!!*). the apprentice, predictably, turns out to be an undercover policeguy who is to, predictably, suffer much wrestling with his conscience over whether to betray his father figure or like, get retrenched by the government.
well, considering that i was paying attention to more interesting things than the plot, i can only say that what keeps the movie from being boring is the shock value of the visuals, and the brilliant acting. there are small twists away from the main cliché that are pretty good, like the drastic inter-department rivalry of the HK police (i probably make no sense if you haven't watched it, so please do), and the bakery process of making heroin, which was quite funny. acting was wonderful. the actress who played the junkie was super realistic. the way she convulsed after being shot up with heroin was very scary, it was like watching Exorcist again.
actually the acting covered up many things that could have gone wrong. the one scene i was dreading to watch was the confrontation between the banker and the apprentice because i could totally see the tackiness. but it was so brilliantly done, especially daniel wu's pissed off wtf-crawled-up-your-ass-i'm-not-talking-to-you look when he bluffed his way through.and i do so love daniel wu!! XD he's like, beyond hot, he's like Sex Appeal Wearing Clothes XDDDthis is a production picture from the movie (omg!):
and this should be a picture from when he was still a model:
and this is a picture just because i can't get enough of posting his pictures:
i remember my class gang got me a bunch of his pictures (on photo paper) for my birthday. it involved much half-nakedness and my mum saw them and looked at me strangely for days. i then kept them away in case the next one was my dad.i first noticed him in New Police Story, where he acted as this rich kid who lacked fatherly affections and who formed a gang to enjoy robbing banks and killing people together. his breathtaking er... acting left a huge impression on me, naturally.later, i downloaded 美少年の戀 which is the cult classic of asian gay films and it turned out that was his er, virgin film. so to speak. i was so fascinated (it was like, one of the first gay films i'd watched then) and he was so superduper hot that it was impossible not to fall in lust with him. this is the poster for the movie, from almost 10 years ago:
first of many movies with Stephen Fung (the other guy), they must so have fallen in love.
obviously i had to refer piously to the YouTube for grub. this is a clip where he is being atheletic and speaking sexily in english. there is this THING about ABCs. i adore! XD
and here's the hk directors pimping him out for all he's worth. er... warning for voyeurism and a lot of nakedness. going into soft-core territory... and so of course i must share:
not allowed to go visiting this new year, been stuck at home playing monopoly. my mum's been spring cleaning, i've been watching her do spring cleaning, and this new year, the Momentous Event to Start the Year is:
our toaster is being thrown out finally :( those who have visited my place and had a helping of Toasted Pizza from the Horribly Charred Toaster Plate should remember it (amidst cringing and mouthwash). but it's seriously clean, just a little black, and we use foil with it, so you actually eat Essence of Aluminium instead of Black Stain from Toaster.
i mean, seriously, this is so upsetting. this toaster's been in my house for like, since i can remember. it's probably as old as me, and older than both my siblings combined. and it still works. and personally i wouldn't throw it away for any stupid new toaster in the world, but the plug already looks like this:
and we're afraid we'll wake up to find our house burning down one day. so that's why it's got to go :( i was thinking about cleaning it up real good to put in my room as pencil holder or something, but i think my mum won't let me. will she? will ask later.
meanwhile, this is our new toaster:
well, it's not really new. we got it a few years ago as a spare in case the old one sputtered and died, but it didn't (and it's not dead now! :'( ). at this point in time, another family might have already used this new toaster into oldness, and thrown it away, but in my house it's now the Old New Toaster. bet it won't last even a year :( they don't make toasters like they used to.
the first was a malay funeral. they were carrying the coffin down the stairs i use everyday. everybody was standing around in dark colours, white and black, and it looked so strange because i don't think i see a lot of malays wearing black and white at all. maybe it's just me.
the second one was the block behind mine. it was a chinese, a small affair, and it was gone in a day or two - i never really noticed until it was.
the third one i saw was my grandad's. mother side. it was the funeral i remember most clearly. i remember it was the second i attended. the first was my great aunt, but i was too young to remember much. but my grandad's was different. it was my birthday, we were in the car, going to funworld (remember?) when my mum got a call that said to come see my grandad for the last time in hospital. i was 7 then, but i cried and cried and i remember wondering why no one else was sad. i don't recall whether i was sad, i cried at the smallest things. still do. but my mum said it was a good thing he passed, and i remember wondering why she said something so horrible in such a not horrible way. his was a taoist funeral, we had to wear all the different coloured clothes for our ranks and burn paper houses. i remembered the whole thing as huge and sad.
then i saw the funeral i never wanted to see, or thought i'll see. i remember getting my first paycheck for my hols work last year. i told my mum i was planning to bring my aunt and my great grandma and my grandparents out to eat, cos well, that's what you do with your first paycheck, but i couldn't because my great grandma couldn't walk far. she could walk fine, but not far. i got popiah back for her. at the time she was still living at her own place. she used to always sit at the void deck with her friends. they were all old women, but i realised for the first time how old she was when they called her ah um. i went back with popiah now and then, and i remember my mum wondered out loud whether she'll live to see my first real paycheck, after i graduate.
i got the call during my legal tutorial. my aunt called and asked me where i was, then she said 太嬤走了. we had been reading the buddhist scriptures to her since the previous day, all through the night until she passed. she was in a coma by then, but her mouth will move when we read them.
i don't know about all this religion thing. maybe it worked for her because she believed in it. her mouth was crooked during the night, but by the time she passed, my aunt told me her face was beautiful, she went very peacefully. they said it was because the buddha was with her through the scriptures.
what was crazy was, the moment she stopped breathing, my aunt called the house and told them she dreamt of my great grandma. she told her she was climing up this hill. it was hard but she was going as fast as she could, and she asked us not to hurry her. i hope she knew we didn't want her to go.
it's been one week since i got the call. everyone's getting used to the empty room and empty chair in the house, but i guess we'll move on sooner or later.
