Meta-Collage: A collage of collages

I have one of these as a desktop wallpaper. Great idea, if I may say so myself. Adds a splash of colour to the desktop.

Washington Post

Pictures from my trip to Washington are up at Wide-Eyed Vagabond.

Washington is a very beautiful city, full of parks and great architecture. It is so European, and I mean that as a compliment. There is something about its historical buildings, wide boulevards and parks that reminds me of a gret Georgian city. It is hard to think that this city and Los Angeles are actually in the same country. They just seemed to be on different planets, never mind countries.

Collage Mania

The Japanese are just marvelous. They come up with the quirkiest ideas for entertainment. Here is a ridiculously fun diversion for making collages online.

Mixed Themes

This one above was my first collage. I did not have a specific theme in mind, choosing images that looked appealing when layered. I liked the way it turned out visually, with the shark seeming to swoop out of the montage towards the oncoming shool of fish. However, thematically, this was rather schizophrenic - food fetish, butterfly fixation, landscape and architectural admiration and a fascination with fish.

After a few initial attempts that prized colour above thematic continuity, I turned my hand to collages with specific subject matters. Layering and positioning of the pieces was much more challenging, as was deciding the proper perspective for larger pieces versus smaller cut-outs. I must say I was rather pleased with the results!

A World of Faces

This was by far and away the most difficult of the collages I attempted. I was cropping like a madwoman to get the correct sizes especially for the smaller cut-outs. When layering, it was also important not to cover too much of the underlying layer, and eyes always had to be displayed. The problem with a montage of faces is that the colours are uniformly, well, skin-coloured. As collages go, this is not visually as striking as others, but I am pleased with the results.

Nature

This was a tough one to do because animals come in such awkward shapes with their legs of varying lengths. In the end, I had to layer the background with landscape pictures to minimise the bits of white between the nature clippings. My favourite things about this collage are the yellow fish at the top and the red beetle in the centre. They really add a splash of colour to the whole and bring the collage to life.

Around the World

This is my personal favourite, partially because of my own love of travelling and partiality for beautiful landscapes and architecture. My main challenge here was to fill up the background with vibrant colours to contrast the greys, blues and green of the landscape photographs. I layered the background using clippings of smoke, fire and explosions. Not very environmentally friendly, but the colours did liven up the entire collage. I am particularly proud of the way I positioned the purplish column of smoke as if it was coming from the lip of Mount Fuji.

Lifestyle

This is my "modern woman" collage. Lots of girly stuff like make-up, flowers, handbags and shoes. But also a modern urban edge, seen in the sports shoes and basketball, the cars and the laptop and radio. This was really fun to do because of the range of colours that I had to play with. The flowers and make-up added vibrant reds and oranges.

Food Glorious Food

Ah, my favourite thing in the world: food! Like the Faces collage, this was done without any background layers, only food pictures. I got hungry while doing this. The biggest challenge was deciding how much to reveal of the roast chicken in the bottom left corner. It was delicious looking, but rendered the colour pallette rather boring, being mainly brown. In the end, I covered it with a plate of something more colourful.

Machine Mayhem

This is my "social commentary" collage. It is partially about transportation machinery (the cars, space shuttles and plane, etc) and the resultant pollution of the environment (the smoke and fire in the background). I also threw in a tank and a gun going BOOM! Taken as a whole, this collage is (rather pretentiously, I admit) is making a point about our dependence on machines which have been turned into weapons against our own survival. The coup-de-grace is the flash of purple lightning inverted upwards, showing the explosiveness of our machine-dependent world.

On Seats, of power and otherwise

This post is dedicated to seats. I just got back from Washington DC, which is the seat of government in the USA and the seat of power not only in the USA but also the world.

But it is not such lofty seats that occupy my mind. No, I find myself pondering airplane seats. More specifically, economy class airplane seats.

I spent a grand total of 59 hours in Washington (most of the daylight hours indoors in a workshop which was the whole reason why I was there at all), and another 53 hours in airplanes and airports. By the end of my five-day adventure, I had become quite intimately acquainted with my various airplane seats.

I flew on United, which would not be my airline of choice. For those who have enjoyed the luxuries of SIA and even of BA, this was rather like retreating to air travel in the 1980s.

A run-down of my 6 leg journey:

1) Singapore to Hong Kong
Flight time: 3.5 hours
Meal: Choice between omelette or sausages (this was a breakfast menu)
Neighbours:
1) To my right, two tai-tais from China. They spent the last hour of the flight exchanging stories about purchasing jewellery in HK and Singapore. At one stage, they opened their (rather chic) handbags whipped out their jade and gold collections in a spontaneous show and tell. It was rather like seeing brides compare their trousseau, except these women were rather older.
2) To my left, aaaaargh!! Loud, uncouth, uncultured Chinese man in his late 40's and his female posse. I guessed one of them was his wife, the other two women could have been his mother (or mother in law) and aunt. He sat with his unshod foot raised and pressed against the side of the seat in front of him. He was rude and demanding to the stewardesses. He and his posse were blatantly ignoring the safety procedures upon take-off and landing. During the meal service, he asked for multiple alcoholic drinks.
Flight experience: They showed Mr and Mrs Smith as the in-flight movie. After getting used to the in-seat screens of BA and SIA, craning my neck to see the centre aisle screen was a bit of a pain. Especially when I was seated quite far back and had to watch over people's heads. And so I didn't watch the movie.


2) Hong Kong to Chicago
Flight time: 14 plus hours
Meal: 1) Choice between chicken with rice noodles or beef with mashed potatoes
2) Cup noodles (!!)
3) Choice between chow mein or beef with rice
Neighbours: I was in a window seat, and the seat directly beside me was unoccupied. Bliss! Two seats away was a young lady from Hong Kong who slept for most of the journey and appeared to be studying engineering production notes when she was awake.
Flight experience: Window seat equals limited toilet breaks. But bearable on the whole, as I had extra space courtesy of the empty seat beside me. They showed Fantastic Four as the first of 5 movies (well it's a long flight), but UA seats are HIGH, and I could only see the top quarter of the screen. I listened to most of the movie track, and suprisingly manage to follow most of the story line.

3) Chicago to Washington
Flight time: 1 hour 40 minutes
No meal service
Neighbours: The flight was delayed by an hour due to bad weather. By the time it took off, I had been travelling for over 20 hours and was too tired to notice who my neighbours were!
Flight experience: From my window seat, I could see the snow swirling outside while the flight was preparing for take-off.

4) Washington to Chicago
Flight time: 1 hour 50 minutes
No meal service
Neighbours: An Indian couple enroute to San Diego. She slept most of the flight while he read a novel.
Flight experience: From my window seat, I got a pretty good view of Washington city as the flight was taking off. After that, I looked out as the plane flew over America's North East. The sun was blindingly bright, though, and I had to put the shades down after a while. At this point, I realised I was having a problem with gas in the guts. I had to suppress the urge to pass out the gas, or risk irritating a whole cabin of passengers. With a 16 hour flight ahead of me. Wonderful!

5) Chicago to Hong Kong
Flight time: 15 hours 55 minutes
Meal: 1) Choice between chicken with sticky rice or beef with sticky rice
2) Cup noodles (again!!)
3) Choice between chicken with rice noodles or cheese pasta.
Neighbours: I was in a window seat again. My immediate neighbour was a young man from Hong Kong who drank copious amounts of juices when awake and slept most of the rest of the time. Despite the amount he drank, he went to the wash-room all of ONCE during the 16 hours! Two seats away in the aisle seat was a Korea tour guide who made frequent trips to the galley for Starbuck's coffee. She was also moving around the cabins talking to her tour group members.
Flight experience: This was the horror flight.
1) During the flight, I got up to go to the toilet and BAM! My calf seized up in an almighty cramp. I probably sprained the muscle during my long walk through the streets of Washington the previous day. Of course, this was an injury best treated by constant flexing of the muscle. Seated in the cramped quarters of a economy class window-seat, this was not going to happen. By the time the plane landed, I was hobbling and not able to place my foot flat on the ground as it stretched my calf to excruciating levels of pain.
2) My gassy guts problem also persisted throughout the 16 hours of the flight. This was NOT comfortable at all. Because my neighbour was asleep most of the time, my toilet breaks were somewhat restricted.
3) They showed Batman Begins, a movie I really wanted to see. My view of the screen was somewhat better this time around, but I had to prop myself up to see over the other seats. When my calf started hurting, this became impossible. Towards the second half of the flight, the people in front of me reclined their seats backwards and I had a better view of the top two-thirds of the screen without needing to sit upright myself. Now that I had a good view of the screen, guess what movies they were screening? The remake of Bad News Bears. Not the original with Tatum O'Neal but the unnecessary remake.

6) Hong Kong to Singapore
Flight time: 3.5 hours
Meal: Choice between chicken with rice noodles or beef with mashed potatoes (the same menu as on the flight from HK to Chicago 4 days earlier)
Neighbours: Window seat again. My immediate neighbour was an African American lady travelling with her family, including two absolutely adorable grandsons (they had sat in front of me on the Chicago-HK flight and were so well-behaved). To her left was a Singaporean gentleman who slept through most of the trip.
Flight experience: Calf was still painful, guts were still gaseous. The seat seemed even more cramped than usual, mainly because I was completely knackered after over 2o hours without space to stretch my limbs. But I was on the homestretch and determined to just survive the damned ordeal. On this flight, I finally had a seat close enough to the screen that I could actually watch the in-flight movie. Of course, they weren't showing Mr and Mrs Smith or anything worthwhile like that. Instead, we got the remake of The Longest Yard, the horrendous version with Adam Sandlers. Ironically, I had just read the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly, which rated the original among the top 10 sporting movies of all time, but lamented that it spawned this remake. Sigh, just not my day.

So, after spending far too many hours in airplane seats, here's my manifesto to airline for comfortable long-haul travel:
1) Convert all economy class seats to economy-plus. They only lose one seat per row, maximum of 30 seats each flight.
2) If you cannot afford to convert to in-seat screens, could we have the small screens that drop from the top like in the smaller Airbus crafts?
3) Lower seats, with extendable headrests. BA and SIA have these. For UA, the headrest was well above my head, so I could not enjoy the benefits of its mechanism for neck support. That severely impaired my ability to sleep during the flight.
4) Make comedy tracks available on the in-flight radio channels. I find comedy records to be a wonderful way to make the hours fly by.
5) Provide socks
6) Inflatable pillows that we can put away if we choose not to use them. The current pillows take up space in already very cramped seats.

Normal Service Resumed: EPL

Finally, after over 3 months, normality returns to the English Premier League. As of tonight, Chelsea is top of the table, followed by Manchester United and Arsenal. Admittedly, Wigan in 4th place and Bolton in 6th are rather anomalous, but the top three is at least familiar (and more importantly, a reflection of the relative quality of the teams).

It was rather disorienting seeing teams like Wigan and Charlton in the top 3. They had heart, skill and great strategy, but these were not teams that were ever going to set the world on fire. Whatever we say about the decline at Arsenal and the inconsistency of Man Utd, these are teams that can hold their own against the best of the Continent. We definitely cannot say that about Wigan or Charlon.

The cream is starting to rise to the top now. I do hope that teams like Charlton (increasingly unlikely), Wigan (possible) and Bolton (probable) can hang on to gain UEFA Cup qualification. The Champions League spots are rightly being fought out by the best teams in the land.

Who will be the fourth Champs League team? I doubt Wigan can hold on to fourth by the end of the season. Liverpool is doing better now, although only seventh in the table. The other very strong possibility is Tottenham Hotspurs, finally fulfilling their promise.

A Series Review: War and Beauty

So, I do these massively long movie reviews over at An Unused Voice but have rambled on endlessly about reality TV here at Ascending Chaos. So, where do I put a review of a series that was originally aired on Hong Kong TV (and presumably cable TV here) but which I watched on rented VCDs?

I decided to let the television genesis win out. I guess it's neither here nor there, really. Just a manifestation of my anal OCD about irrelevant things.

Back to the series. I am speaking of War and Beauty, the simply massively popular and universally praised Hong Kong TVB period drama series set in China's Imperial Palace during the Qing Dynasty. This was the first Chinese drama serial I had watched in over two years. Don't ask me why, but I fell out of the habit of following those nightly episodes on Channel 8 and U. It has something to do with my general intolerance for dubbed dialogue (ruling out HK serials aired on Singapore TV), my very low thresh-hold for melodrama and tears (ruling out many Taiwanese, Japanese and Korean serials) and my indifference towards historical or folklore authenticity (ruling out China serials).

Somewhat fortuitously, my brother rented War and Beauty during last week's public holidays and embarked on a watching binge (30 episodes in 3 days). My own viewing was rather more paced, but I still got through the series in rather quick time (roughly 7 days to finish the 30 discs). There's good reason - the darn thing is infuriatingly addictive.

This was a much hyped serial and won a number of awards at the TVB Anniversary show. Many hyped TVB serials have turned out to be duds - does anyone remember the VERY bloated At the Threshold of an Era, 100 episodes of unlikely twists and unexplained character motivations? In the case of War and Beauty, the hype was entirely justified. This was gripping stuff, and all the more so because it was essentially about a bunch of really sad and pathetic women who were plotting, scheming and jostling for the favours of an Emperor that none of them particularly cared for, other than for what he could confer upon them.

PLOT, WRITING & PACING

See last line in previous paragraph for the succinct summary of the plot.

This is basically a story about women in the Forbidden City, from the humble servant girls to the "favoured" consorts and the most powerful of all women in China, the Empress. They live within the physical confines of the Forbidden City and the social constraints of the Qing imperial customs and rules. In a time and place where the Emperor was the Son of Heaven and the bestower of all things good, these women engaged in egregious plotting and one-up-manship in order to win the attention of the Emperor, or failing that, the patronage of the powerful women favoured by the Emperor. It would seem hardly the stuff of gripping drama, but it is. To my more modern sensibilities, the desperate measures that these women resorted to only reflect on how sad their lifes were. But in different times, with fewer choices than we have today, perhaps the ultimate joy was to catch an old Emperor's eye.

A LOT happens in the 30 episodes, with twists and new plotlines popping up at a cracking pace. This is so well written, like a very superior espionage novel. But actual plot aside, the plots and sub-plots really contributed to the development of the main characters and also some of the supporting roles.

At the end of it, there are a million holes that could be poked into the various convoluted schemes and mechanitions. But that seems to be nitpicking needlessly when the series does something so remarkably well: the utter believability of the growth and changes that the characters undergo. In many serials, characters seem to have "personality transplants", turning from good to bad, shy to outgoing, timid to brave etc., seemingly overnight. In War and Beauty, the transitions are for the most part handled subtly and seamlessly.

The teleplay is not only cleverly written narratively but also has superb clarity of characterisation. Each character has a unique voice and undergoes an individual journey. Although their fates are ultimately all intertwined, each character was very much his or her own person. The writing also managed to convey the complexities of the characters' motivations.

Most of all, the writing succeeded in sustaining interest throughout the 30 episodes without ever resorting to filler. Each episode had something significant happening. As viwers, we find ourselves not able to wait for the next episode; a sure sign of good plotting. Each plot development propelled the narrative forward and contributed to our understanding of the characters' journeys and of life in the Forbidden City.


SET, SCENERY & COSTUMES

This series has sumptuous production values and excellent attention to period detail. I admired the fact that the concubines were always wearing the platform shoes in all the scenes, especially when it must have been hell for the actresses to master walking on those horrors!

I am not sure, but it appeared as if many external scenes were in fact shot at the Forbidden City, so that we could really see the sprawling complex of buildings, the imposingly large courtyards, the high red outer walls and the long corridors. There were a few rather cheesy CGI shots transitioning from one part of the City to another, but these were used sparingly.

The external shots during winter were particularly beautiful. The white snow on the rooftops, in the courtyards and on the tree branches were used to great effect to illustrate the coldness of life in the palaces.

The internal scenes are suitably sumptuous with each Palace having its own personality. Having seen the chambers and halls in Forbidden City on a long-ago visit to China, I think they achieved the right look: grand and, at the same time, intimate.

The costumes are absolutely gorgeous and are in fact one of the best things about the serial. Even the outfits worn by On Sin the maid were very pretty. They were all lovely, but the winter outfits were just breath-takingly beautiful. I think they made the actresses (all quite good looking without any help from costuming, thank you) look even more pristine in their porcelain perfection. I especially loved the outfits worn by Yue Fei, with the intricate patterns and rich colours. The head-dresses and hair-pieces were also lovely. My favourites were actually the less elaborate styling worn by On Sin as the Chief Maid and Yuk Ying's simpler style while still a concubine candidate. However, I loved the hair decorations on Yue Fei, although I wonder what it must feel like to have all that on your head all day!


ACTING

Sheren Tang (Yue Fei)

Yue Fei's true motivations and personality is revealed to us gradually, in a masterful piece of character-development by the writers. She might not be the character that undergoes the most change throughout the serial, but she is the one who undergoes the greatest change in the way that she is perceived by viewers. At the start, Yue Fei is icy, controlling and possessed of a decidedly cruel streak. By the end of the serial, Yue Fei is the character I most admire, if not the one I most like. Her actions in the final episode elevates her to a grande figura tragica. When she had her confrotation with the Empress and allowed hostilities to be clearly voiced, I cheered her on like I would cheer a football club. It was a deeply impressive thing she did there.

I definitely think Yue Fei is the best acted character. There is an intelligence in Yue Fei that makes us all see why the Emperor loved her best and how she has survived for so long in the City. It takes an intelligent portrayal to pull this off. Sheren Tang is simply amazing, portraying the ice princess brittleness of the role to perfection, and yet betraying enough vulnerability to be sympathetic. One of the amazing things she does was to never err on the side of caricature even in the early scenes when Yue Fei is decidedly unsympathetic. She maintains a human edge that kept Yue Fei real to the viewers, such that when Yue Fei falls from favour, we do not cheer at her come-uppance but sympathise with her drop in fortunes. A lesser actress would have relied on events to convey Yue Fei's character; this actress makes us see that Yue Fei has always been strong and admirable.

Ironically, in a role is demanding for its duplicity and calculation, it is Sheren Tang's sincerity in a few scenes that most truly moved me: her tenderness towards her daughter, her rage when she confronts the Empress at the end, her friendship with Hung Mo, her wistfulness over the lost lifes and her resignation to her life within the four walls of the City.


Gigi Lai (Yuk Ying)

I admit fully to not having a very high opinion of Gigi Lai's acting abilities. She does passably well in this series and shows more range than I had expected her to be capable of. However, I could not shake off the "spoilt brat" impression of the character, because there is a petulant edge to Gigi Lai's acting, even when she is being calculating or scheming or crying her heart out of genuine heartbreak. I wish I could like Yuk-Ying more, because I got the feeling that I was meant to like her a lot more than I actually do. The writers chose her to be Suen Pak Yeung's true love, the one for whom he is willing to sacrifice his life. I think their relationship is supposed to represent an oasis of purity in the Forbidden City's maze of deceit and dishonesty. This would have worked if Yuk-Ying did not irritate me so much. Her filial piety and her period of kindness to On Sin does not make up for her selfishness and vanity. I found myself wondering if that was the impression I was supposed to get, or simply Gigi Lai's inability to channel the more sympathetic aspects of the character consistently throughout the serial. I suspect the shortcoming here is more in the actress than in the writing.

One thing that really got on my nerves is her tendency to take huge gulping breaths between her line readings. This is especially noticeable during her crying and tantrum scenes, and it is rather offputting. I also thought she overacts the "innocent bimbo" part of her role (even if it is supposed to be 'acted' innocence, it was gratingly over the top). On the whole, though, this is a difficult role to play and while it is not a completely successful portrayal, I give her much credit for holding her own in the company of such actors like Sheren Tang and Bowie Lam. And I have to give credit where it's due - she really looks the part of the great beauty that would win the Emperor's (admittedly fickle) attentions.


Charmaine Sheh (Yee Shun)

Here's another actress that I used to really despair of. Her itty-bitty voice used to really get on my nerves as did her very wooden attempts at emoting. But she has improved by leaps and bounds in the years since her debut and she is now a respectable actress when well-cast. In this serial, Charmaine Sheh is well-cast. Her lack of emotive expression is perfectly suited to Yee Shun's own brand of low-key manipulations masked by a placid demeanour. Even when being evil and taunting, Yee Shun speaks with deceiving calmness and a small smile on her lips, something that Charmaine handles very well. Essentially, Yee-Shun turns out to be a good-hearted person, who is genuine in her affections towards those she regards as family. Once her evil adopted father is out of the way (in a great cheer-worthy scene), we witness the redemption of Yee Shun. Her kind nature and her sweetness of character emerge more prominently, two traits that Charmaine Sheh can pull off effortlessly.

In scenes where she is called on to show emotional upheaval (eg, crying at the betrayal of her younger adopted sister), her weaknesses as an actress is somewhat exposed. However, these scenes are few and far between as Yee Shun's character handles the blows dealt to her with introspection and suppressed emotions. At the end, when Yee Shun escapes the palace to a new life outside, I thought her the bravest of the women apart from Yue Fei. Charmaine Sheh plays these scenes very touchingly, showing the right mix of fear, courage and resolve.


Maggie Cheung (On Sin)

In many ways, On Sin is the character that changes the most and yet, changes the least. As a maid, On Sin is less embroiled directly in the palatial intrigue and therefore, her story initially is more conventional and less exciting than those of the concubines and consorts. When On Sin sacrifices everything for revenge, the actress is called upon to handle a a difficult transition: from one who distanced herself from the palace's intrigue, to one who threw herself into the plotting and scheming. Through the last few chapters, we observe On Sin's disintegration as a woman who sacrificed everything for revenge and never got close to claiming it.

In the first part of the serial, it takes a skilled actress to sustain our interest in this character until something major does happen to her. In the second part, the actress needs to convincingly portray an upright character's journey to darkness and the accompanying self-loathing of a conscience not equipped for deceit. Maggie Cheung is a revelation to me here. She plays On Sin with a fox-like intelligence and a very likeable quiet dignity. She shows us the despair, doubt and regret that On Sin suffers even as she pushes onwards with her scheme for revenge. Despite the changes she undergoes, On Sin is the voice of reason throughout the serial and Maggie Cheung has the right touch of gravitas to pull it off.


Bowie Lam (Suen Pak Yeung)

It is funny that Bowie Lam is cast in essentially the Ladies' Man role. He would admit himself that he is hardly the most likely Lothario-about-town (or Forbidden City, as the case may be). But he is wonderful in the role of the good-hearted young Doctor who attempts to side-step palace intrigue, dodge the interest of too many women and struggle with uneasy relationships with his father and wife. Suen Pak Yeung is such an interesting, complex character that only an actor of Bowie Lam's abilities can do it justice.

In the end, I question many of the decisions made by Suen Pak Yeung, because of the weakness they expose in his character. I absolutely hate his decision in the end to stay with Yuk Ying and let himself be killed. He had made all these promises to people - to Fuk Nga (who killed herself so that he may help save her sister Yee Shun), to Yee Shun (whom he had just told that he was grateful towards for her unwaivering affection for him) and most of all to his father (who had tried to protect him at every turn). Perhaps I would find his action more believable if I liked Yuk Ying more, but this stupidity and insensitivity seem out of character for Suen Pak Yeung. However, I do see the point that his love for Yuk Ying does render him irrational and capable of behaviour that is out of character.

I like Suen Pak Yeung very much even while being severely frustrated by his actions. I was touched by his kindness to the concubines while wanting to smack him soundly for his incomprehensible infatuation with the bratty Yuk Ying. This ambivalence is the result of a very skilled actor's work. If the role had been in the hands of a less subtle actor than Bowie Lam, I suspect I would have hated Suen Pak Yeung mid-way through the serial, and would have been happy to see the end of him.


Moses Chan (Hung Mo)

Hung Mo is the closest this serial has to a traditional leading man role. He starts off as fool-hardy, opportunistic and probably too ambitious for his own good. By the end, he has achieved the conventional leading man traits of loyalty, nobility and sensitivity. Compared to the other leads, Hung Mo does not undergo much character growth and the role is not particularly challenging.

Moses Chan is not exactly brimming with charisma, but he does justice to the role. His early rough-around-the-edges brashness is well played and he has the strapping physicality that makes his later hero-status seem believable. The major gripe I have is his relative lack of chemistry with his romantic interests. He is paired romantically with two women, but generates the most chemistry with Bowie Lam.


The supporting cast:

Rebecca Chan (The Empress) - The Empress is a piece of work whose true character is revealed to us gradually. Rebecca Chan is suitably sympathetic, believably bitchy and convincingly conniving, as needed.

Chan Hung Lit (Suen Ching Wah) - The relationship between father and son is one of the most touching aspects of this serial. Chan Hung Lit's Cantonese clearly betrays his Taiwanese origins, but his skills as an actor more than overcomes this. His love for his son comes across so strongly and movingly that I found myself wanting to shake Bowie Lam to be nicer to his dad. In the last episode, when Suen Ching Wah learns of his son's death (by way of a broken jade ring dropped by a crow), I was profoundly moved by the father's grief and profoundly angry with the son for sacrificing his life just for a woman who already belonged to the Emperor.

Jade Leung (Fuk Nga) - Jade Leung plays this role with a simple sweetness that really made us appreciate the character's goodness (something in short supply among the imperial concubines). Her final sacrifice to save her sister Yee Shun is an act of pure selflessness, so rare among the women in this show.

Yu Yeung (the Emperor Jiaqing) - Well, I suppose the real Jiaqing was not exactly the most impressive of rulers, so it would have been wrong to cast someone more regal in this role. I just wish that Yu Yeung looks a little more likely as the ruler of the middle kingdom. There is also something about him that was so fatherly and genial that I got very strange "father figure hang-up" vibes when all those young women were catfighting over him.

Lo Hoi Pang (Eunuch Chui) - This is the serial's most despicable character among a cast of people whom you would never want to meet. He is deceptively pleasant, while treating his adopted daughters as pawns in his games of greed and self-preservation. Lo Hoi Pang is rather more impressive than I expected and plays evil very convincingly.


SUMMARY

This is among the best serials I have seen by TVB. I think this will go down as a classic of TVB period dramas, all the more remarkable for a series that is completely driven by conversation and has very little "action" in the sense of fighting and special effects.

It paints a picture of royal life that is bleak and depressing. In doing so, I think it makes a point about privilege, the place of women in the world and the paths we choose to take in our own lifes. It works superbly as a piece of entertainment, but it is all the more powerful for what it has to say about human resilience, ingenuity and relationships.

Scenes at the Embassy

I was at the American Embassy this morning, applying for a visa for a working visit in mid November. Gentleice Goes to Washington (but that's another story for another day)!

It was my second time at the American Embassy, but I don't recall getting such a strong Ellis Island vibe before. This time, I was in the waiting room for over an hour and heard a number of interviews. I think someone could make a TV series centred around the waiting room of a Visa Services Department in an American Consulate. Every episode would feature a different applicant, hoping to get a visa to visit to land of the free and the plenty. The stories are so compelling, so human.

I saw two applications being turned down, and the reactions were painful to behold; shock, denial and finally (and most devastating of all), resigned dejection. One was a young man who was caught out in a (perhaps minor) mistruth by the visa officer. He denied having previously applied for a visa. It simply was not a very smart thing to lie about, given how easily these things can be checked on computerised systems.

Then there were the IT professionals who had gotten job offers in the US and were applying for work visas. These interviews seemed brutal! They were asked to detailed information about their American employers as well as their own job histories in Singapore. One gentleman admitted to having almost as many jobs as years he has worked in Singapore, which seemed to have set off several alarm bells. Another one was bringing his wife along and she too had to be interviewed. When asked how she met her husband, she revealed that it was an arranged marriage (I suppose that it is common in her culture and she felt no qualms about revealing such information in a roomful of strangers, but I would not have been so comfortable were I in her shoes).

Then there were the families where not all members speak English. So much potential for "lost in translation" scenarios (beyond my abilities to discern as I did not speak any of the foreign languages in question).

Most heartbreakingly, I saw an Indochinese gentleman who spoke halting English and was having an almighty struggle trying to understand and be undertood by the visa officers. I gathered that he was applying for a special category of visa that one officer called "diversity program" (a quota-based immigrant visa issued to applicants from countries with low immigration rates to the US). It was just heart-breaking to watch him patiently requesting for something that the officers repeatedly told him could not be done. He had also apparently filled in his application form wrongly because he had not understood what he was being asked. I found myself wondering how he and his family would survive in America when communication is so obviously a problem. I hope that he has family and friends there.

Watching this gentleman, I thought about America's almost mystic appeal to so many people. I wondered at the lengths that people would go for that precious green card. I wondered it it was worth the effort and the stress. What awaits some of these people in America, if they do not speak the language or have the right skills? Menial jobs at minimum wage? Then I got to thinking that maybe what they are leaving behind makes the effort and the stress (and the minimum wages) worthwhile. It is easy for us who live in Singapore to realise that American streets are NOT in fact paved in gold. Materially, at least, living conditions here are decidedly First World. Many of these hopeful applicants are fleeing poverty, unemployment and discrimination. So, yes, for them, there is metaphorical gold to be found on American streets.

Pigs fly into space! Chelsea REALLY loses.

Okay, I concede that Chelsea's exit from the League Cup at the hands of Charlton was on penalties. Technically, the match itself was a draw. Fine, point accepted.

This morning's 1-0 result away at Real Betis is definitely a loss. It has finally happened.

This could set us up for a very interesting weekend. Man Utd might actually have a chance against a team that is rocking from a number of unexpected results. Depending on how things go tonight in Lille, the psychological edge might lie with Alex Feguson's men. This would not have been thinkable after last Saturday's results (Rio Ferdinand gifting 3 points to Middlesborough and Chelsea surviving a 2-2 half-time result to win by full-time). How quickly things change in football.

And what the heck, I AM gloating.