秋天的童話

時隔十幾年了. 今日返看經典劇"秋天的童話." 最令我驚愕是發現我很多口頭蟬和俚語都是來自這部電影. 最令我失望之處竟然是童話的結局.


小時候, 已看過很多次.  但今次不同的, 我與周潤發飾演的船頭尺的年齡相約, 人生方面有新的領域與見解.  其實戲完結在互開禮物的情節便為最佳, 但童話的完美結局反而令到故事滿有瑕疵.

童話雖是童話, 故事雖是故事... 但童話故事是會發生在現實生活上.
滿心祝福 CY 同 JL能找到 "table for two..."

葉問, 詠春, 與中華

In an extra-ordinary night, I was able to watch a Hong Kong movie - Ip Man (一代宗師, 葉問). 葉問's story is based in the 1930's - around the time Japan invaded and occupied China.  And tho the movie itself was unimpressive and left a lot to be desired... the historical signifcance served as the main plot and main character of the film. 

As far as I can remember, I was educated about the horrids and reality of war through stories from dad or from TV shows.  Movies try to serve it justice...but it never does.  Whether it's Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan, Fist of Fury, any Chuck Norris flick.... they all bring a piece of what China had to go through during those decades of international occupation. 

And as the credits started rolling... two distinct feeling were clearly evoked.  Best summarized by the scene in Jurassic Park where a cup of water starts shaking with concentric circles... only to be followed by the T-Rex. 

The first of the two feeling is fear.... not fear of war per se... cuz in reality we're living in a time of domestic tranquilty.  But a fear of the second feeling...a far more powerful feeling... that is the feeling of hate.

Air it out...

There comes a time in life...when a tragedy occurs that simply leaves you dumbfounded, awestruck, devasted...to a point where you don't even know how to feel or react.  

• Case in point.... Two 747's crashing into the World Trade Center.  You look in disbelief...you're wondering what just happened, and you're just glued to a TV finding clues on how you should be feeling.
• Case in point... You walk back to your car to find the window broken.  Your stereo is gone.  Your $100 Banana Republic coat is gone.  All that's left are shards of broken glass, a feeling of violation and question marks hovering over you.
• Case in point... Buster Posey gets pummeled and in the midst of that, he breaks and ankle and tears a few ligaments.  It was a clean play or a great play in terms of pure baseball.  But we're left not knowing how to feel. 

The next morning... I couldn't even turn on the radio.  All the talk radio stations (that I listen to) were replaying the Posey play. I needed an outlet.  So I turned to good ol' FM music stations.  All garbage.  And they took away the Classical Station.  Ended up just turning off the radio and drove in silence.

That night...had a cathartic experience where a couple of buddies aired out our emotions on Facebook.   Trying to think of another situation similar to this, where it's just a spirit crushing loss of the heart and soul of the team
 Garrison Hearst "breaking" his ankle in the '98 Playoffs?
Montana getting knocked out by the Giants in the 1990 Playoff?
Game 6 in the year that never happened?
Jose Cruz Jr. and his Gold Glove OOPS!! and JT sliding into Pudge?

In the end... I think I came up with the best analaogy (I think).... when Daniel Larusso enters the All Valley Karate Tournament, exceeds all expectations and makes it to the finals against Johnny.  Has the upper hand when Kreese tells Johnny to "Sweep the leg."  Daniel collapses like a house of cards... only to have a Japanese guy (Ishikawa?) give him a rub down.... and he comes back and Crane Kicks his way into the Championship.

After that... it felt much better.

世风日下, 道德倫亡

昨天在大華99買魚，發生了一件不可思議的事... 有人偷了我部shopping cart！
我把車停在旁邊買魚，然後好小心放包即食麵入去, 霸住部車, 以防萬一。當我轉身時，我部車不單人間蒸發，那小偷還好禮貌地將那包即食麵放回櫃上！我左望右望, 已找不到小偷了.

公義何在？道德何在？

人善人欺天不欺! 我要申冤!

Light Rock, Less Talk

After an 11 hour day... on my drive home, the only thing I was in a mood for was some Light Rock, Less Talk, KOIT 96.5.  Hrm.... old faithful, I guess.

A time to be born and a time to die

Not more than a week after the birth of my son...I attend the memorial of a friend's son.  He was around 16 years young.

The last memorial service I attended was about 10 years ago.  But that was for an elderly man.. someone who's lived life to his fullest. He fathered 4 children and was grandfather to many more... one whom became my wife.  This time, it was a kid.

There was a short slide show montage showing some of his pictures.  Not a lot of pictures...but there was one thing constant in all of them... his smile. 

His aunt gave a eulogy.  It ended with smiles.  The pastor used Psalm 23 to deliver the message.  It ended with hope.  His father came out in closing. It ended with gratitude. 

One can easily ask... why.  Why at such a young age when the world is his oyster? Is it fair? Is it premature? Those questions are left for contemplating... no one talks about these things.  Weird, huh?

To be a husband...to be a father...

Dear fathers... I know you always look forward to those annual events. Valentine's Day.  Birthday. Wedding Anniversary.  Dating Anniversary. Christmas.   And then now...there's Mother's Day!

Not that I'm complaining, oh no... just stating the fact. 

Return of the Bathroom Jabbers - Fish out of the water

Months of hard work in potty training.. Nui-nui is finally starting to tell us when she needs to go pee pee.  And with Joyce being unable to bend down to help... Nui-nui defaults to having to use....oh yes.... the men's room.  (Ewwwwww....)

First of all.... yes.  Men's room are digusting. Even men will tend to avoid using the men's room if possible.  I'll save that for another post. 

Nui-nui is 22 months.  She's young and naive, but she's not stupid.  Immediately after seeing the men's stall... it cuts off one's desire to empty out.  So poor dad has to go through the entire ritual of sanitizing the entire toilet. 

After a few minutes of begging.... she finally pees.  As she slides off the toilet seat onto the floor, I suddenly realize that it's an automatic flush toilet.  She instinctively starts walking away, but poor me, I'm still crouching by the toilet and as the water flushes... SPLASH!.... right onto my face. 

I'll leave this part short.... cuz it really is too hard to verbalize.  I've done my part in changing Nui-nui's diapers with her lying down.  But to this day, I still have no clue how a girl wipes.  I grab a big wad of TP and go through the motions.  She doesn't know any better...right?

Then there's the inevitable putting back ON the diaper.  Nui-nui is barely two feet tall, which means I have to crouch down.  After crouching down for a few minutes to coax her to pee.... and now having to struggle to put the diaper back on.... my legs get tired.  And as gravity takes over.... my knee slowly collapses and I go from a crouch, to one knee down. And within seconds.... my knee feels moist.  Goodness......  I forget it's the men's room.

Ahhh....fatherhood.  It's not just the fish that's out of the water....

The Chinese Theater

Caught the last part of a KCSM documentary on Chinese American filmmakers and it ended with a 2 minute montage of the Chinese theaters in San Francisco Chinatown.

The Chinese theater is definitely a lost art... a lost piece of culture. 

I still remember growing up in San Francisco that had 5 Chinese Theaters.  My earliest, earliest memory of watching a Chinese movie was watching a black and white movie of the Monkey King at 華星 on Jackson Street.  And kung-fu films which has gone from a comedic parody to a cultural phenomenon. 

There were the glass display cases that had a dozen pictures of the each film.  I can still see myself waiting for dad to buy the tickets while big brother and I studied those pictures, trying to guess what the movie was about.  But the pictures meant absolutely nothing.  Then we go in... and about 4 hours later, we come out and amazingly what was foreign before seems to have been completely re-decorated.  Those pictures now tell exactly what the movie is about. The scene before and the scene after.

There was Golden Pagoda Theater (金都).  .  It was on my way to school so I would purposely stop by and observe the glass cases if I had time.  It was my favorite among the 5 because Golden Pagoda, unlike World (世界) and Great Star(大明星), had a bigger display case that displayed multiple movies.  It was watching the movie...without having to pay.

There were those special days when dad would pick us up from Sts. Peter and Paul and take us to dinner.  We knew those were the special days because we knew that after an early dinner, we were going to watch a movie.  And more importantly, it meant not having to go to Chinese School.  Of course...the next day, dad would have two envelopes on the kitchen table ready for us to take to school -- those were our "excuse letters."  I always wondered what dad wrote in those letters -- and I'm always down-trodden that I can never ever come close to writing one of those letters.

Special, maybe to San Francisco Chinese Theaters, they were always double features.  The new release  was coupled with an older, semi-popular film.  Two instances stand out.  The first one was watching the long awaited 八星報喜, but only to find the accompanying feature more enjoyable.  That accompanying feature - 精裝追女仔.  And there was the other time when 阿修羅 was paired with 奇績.  Two white guys came in there to watch a Jackie Chan movie. When 奇績 was over...they clapped, got up and were about to leave. But they saw that no one else was leaving... so they sat down and was going to watch it again.  Only to find there was the feature was coming up.

Partially melancholic too... because it stirred up memories of those awkward years in my life when I didn't have any friends.  Those times when I went to watch movies by myself.  I can't blame anyone. I was too poor to hang out with English school friends.  Too much of a goody two shoes to hang out with Chinese School friends.  And too much of a little brother to hang out with big brother and his friends.  I've come a long way since... I guess.

Then around the mid 90's, slowly, one by one they closed down.  First the Golden Pagoda.  Then Great Star.  Then World Theater.  I've actually been in Great Star theater twice since it closed.  Both times to watch Cantonese Opera with my mom. 

One can say the theaters are haunted...cuz indeed, there are nothing but the ghosts of the past in these auditoriums of cinema.  But in reality...all is lost.  A piece of my culture...a piece of my childhood... a piece of me.  Gone.... and there's absolute nothing but an empty building today.  And I guess an occasion public television documentary.

Till death do us part...

Been getting a lot of marketing phone calls on my cell. I know it's marketing because I looked up that number online. Today... I caved and actually answered the phone.

Marketer: May I speak with Maria XXXXX.
Me: uh... She's passed on.
Marketer: (awkward silence) Is there a spouse I may speak with?
Me: There isn't one.
Marketer: (more silence) I understand.
Me: Thank you for understanding.
**click**

There's no place like home.. or cell..

Home Group / Cell Group - "The home/cell group is a form of church organization that is used in some Christian churches. Cell groups are generally intended to teach the Bible and personalize Christian fellowship" --Wikipedia

We began our life in a Home Group setting back in 2004.  In roughly 2007, we went from home group members to home group leaders.  And for the past several years, we've serving alongside our parents whether it's cooking, leading a study, mentoring, discipling or the basic, but laborious, administrative duties. 

This past weekend, we dared to invite ourselves to Elder J and C's house for fellowship.  And for the first time in a very long time...we felt "taken care of."  For one night... along with the other Edenites, we had someone cook for us.  We had someone lead us in a study and sharing.  We received  impartation and blessings. 

Ahhh....to be home.  A wonderful night it was.