Some Pics From Brunei

Well, perhaps my earlier blog post is a bit biased towards Go and may give the reader an impression that I have done nothing in Brunei except doing Go stuffs but that is not true. Xinwen, Tisha (Xinwen’s adorable sister), Peng Hui (Xinwen evilly called him Penguin) and Jayden brought us to some places to visit and the photos below will tell. All photos courtesy of Tisha.

This picture was taken with blur guy Xinwen in the Royal Regalia Museum where all the stuffs regarding the Sultan of Brunei is kept, including the history, coronation, gifts from other countries, etc. It’s full of glittering stuffs and gold. The museum is well organized and very visitor friendly.

This was taken in the Empire Hotel and Country Club, the most posh hotel in Bandar Seri Begawan. This luxury hotel faces the sea and has, amongst other regular amenities, a full scale cinema in its compound. From the picture, Peng Hui do look like a fatter version of Jet Li. Haha.

The above picture captures the atmosphere at the Musical Water Fountain in Jerudong Park. It is a very nice place to just sit and watch the water and the “Be My Guest” song is most apt and the most beautiful, perhaps also signaling Xinwen’s thoughts and treating his guests (i.e mon épouse et moi) so well.

Xinwen horsing around in another Jerudong Park area. Jerudong Park is a huge theme park built by the brother of the Sultan and many many years ago, admission to this park is free of charge (now it only costs B$3.00) and has many rides. However, recently, the park has deteriorated and lesser and lesser people go there. But still, it is quite a swell place to bring the family to go and hang around during the weekend.

Another shot at the Jerudong Park with the Carousel at the back.

We were taken to many nice places to eat and this is a Japanese restaurant called Excapade Sushi. It was fully packed and the food and price is reasonable. The gentleman behind Xinwen is Xinwen’s dad. A very hospitable and extremely nice person. Further back is of course, Tisha.

There are many places that also visited such as the Jame’Asr Hassanal Bolkiah Mosque, the Kampung Ayer and such but we didn’t bring a camera and as such no pictures taken. We have eaten quite a bit too, the Ko Lo me is superb but didn’t have a chance to taste some Brunei food such as the famous Nasi Katok which looks like our Nasi Lemak but I don’t know about the taste. Maybe next time.

Tide of Iron – Wargame Video

Falling in love with this game more and more each day! Come play buddies!! Waiting for you all :)

Tide of Iron Wargame/Weekend

So, yes. Back from Penang. Had the great laksa and Hokkien Mee. Met the geeky friend and talked endlessly about movies. Watched MUALLAF where the whole hall only consisted of 6 patrons while the telephone booking confirmed that all allocated seats are fully booked. Did lots of traveling, eating, family reunions, dining and partying (and of course, ahem, the usual party stuffs). And there went the weekend.

And also, yes, the TIDE OF IRON wargame is now in da house. It’s a scenario based, World War II game. With little miniature soldiers, tanks, vehicles and a configurable terrain map, it sounded like an excellent game and we decided to give it a try.

Together with my old pal Chyn where we always try new games, we had a run at it and tested the game. Here is the test results. We played the AT BREAKING POINT SCENARIO where the Germans are to break the American defense line and occupy at least 3 hexes designated by the scenario rule book. The American has lots of soldiers well positioned behind razor wires and some also deeply entrenched, plus they have reinforcements, which gives one a feeling of an unending supply of soldiers defending the line while the Germans had a lot more elite troops plus one Panzer tank. I played the German side and Chyn played the American side.

In general, the production quality of the game pieces are very high. The boards and markers are thick and solid and the plastics are also solid and nice. The little miniatures are also very well made. However, the only problem is that it is very troublesome to put the miniature solders into the holes on the based to form a squad and one has the feeling that the little plastic is going to come off soon. Other than that, the quality of the materials and game pieces are superb.

The rules of this game is a lot more complex compared to other lighter games such as Risk. There are many different rules governing each turn and action, and different rules applicable to different troops and terrain type. One needs to really study the rules properly and in advance before play to save time. There are some confusing thing about the rule but some checking on online forums will clear the clouds.

In the game with Chyn, I deployed my troops as per the instruction in the scenario book and after Chyn set up his American defense line, it looks like an impossible job to break the line, what more with his mortars and high terrain line of sight, which enhances the attack range of his troops, and of course, the endless reinforcement.

I deployed my troops to the right flank with the normal troops leading the way and the machine gun troops and elite troop trailing behind. The Panzer tank followed behind the flank too and the troops are moved so as to take advantage of the terrain to provide as much cover as possible.

I divided another troop to attack on the left flank as well, mostly made of normal troops and a mortar troop. At round 3, the fire action is inevitable and I was subjected to heavy fire from the American troops as I have had to get out of cover to be able to have a shot at the line. I concentrated my fire to break a hole in the defense line and hoping to punch a weak point there for my troops to move in but there is just too many soldiers and every time I punch a hole, the reinforcement team plugged it.

Many German dead bodies lie outside the fence as a result and the Americans again deployed more reinforcement troops and used their strategy cards to cancel the effect of my strategy cards.

With my attack line on the right side thinning, I had to use my left division to attack but it is too late. It is impossible to break through and after 2 hours, we stopped the game and had a post mortem.

In the post-mortem, Chyn pointed out that I should have used my main troop to attack on the left where I can get a lot of terrain cover from the forest instead of leading the troop in the open on the right side. Basically, it is better to reverse the troops in the game. Plus, because of the forest cover, it created a natural narrow window from which the Americans can fire on me, and because of the narrowness of the terrain, the huge American troops’ effect are limited because of the stacking limit of the hex and the other troops will be put to waste while I concentrate the firepower of the elite German troops and the Panzer tank and break the line there. Like this there is probably a better chance of winning.

So at the end, we thought we really needed to read the rules more carefully and familiarize ourselves more. We look forward to more game sessions in the future, trying out many other scenarios.

More about the game here, including the Rulebook download and scenarios: TIDE OF IRON

Here is one review: Review

Here is another excellent session report: Session Report

Perhaps Love 如果·愛 (你是爱我的 You Do Love Me)

Love this movie.

Bolly Bolly Bollywood

Suspecting readers would have guessed by now that I am going to write something about Bollywood after posting two superb music video recently, one from FANAA and the other from DIL SE. Well, yes, I am getting more and more back into movies nowadays and lesser on Go because the fact that I still suck at Go despite many efforts to improve makes me quite depressed. Anyways, as always, I found refuge in movies.

The title of this post, i.e. BOLLY BOLLY BOLLYWOOD is a term coined by my superb ex-colleague and good friend Abid when we were thinking of the names for a movie slot for Bollywood movies. As creative as he is and multiple award winning at that, this name stuck as it is at the same time catchy and sticky.

When I started to work at the movie channel, I realised that with its vast library from movies from all over the world, there is a need to create platforms to showcase the movie so that there is a structured way to schedule the movies according to themes and it will be much easier to sell to both the viewers as well as sponsors. Scheduling is a very interesting area in television and is both science and art, although I would say perhaps 90% science and 10% art.

The key to good scheduling lies with good and reliable information. By studying the demographic and more importantly the psychographic attributes of the viewers, together with months of viewership data, and with a good knowledge of the movies in the library, one can create a really good schedule and attract as many of the targeted viewers as possible, especially so with a package of good promos and marketing support.

Talking about scheduling, there are many more little tricks to it rather than just the formal study of the data (of course, without studying the data, there is no need to proceed). Some of the tricks like tent-pole scheduling and step-scheduling is common but by far, my favourite scheduling trick is what I call predatory/pre-emptive scheduling. This is achieved, broadly speaking, by studying the schedule of your competitor that is competing for the same audience and you schedule your way and promote your program in a way that takes viewership away from them or prevent them from taking away your audience. This is actually quite tricky and it is beyond this post to discuss more of the details.

Okay, I think I got carried away. This post is about Bollywood movies. I realised that I have not updated my Notes section of this blog, where I may file this, for a very long time and looking at the statistics provided by this blog, there is still a significant number of reader that reads those notes and a lot of them landed on the notes via a search engine. One of the most often read notes is the one on the Malaysian New Wave and is also much quoted in this post on Gubra in the Asian Film History wiki site. However, I wrote that note back in May 2008 and a lot have changed since then and an update is due. But I am now out of that industry and my knowledge is that much more limited, compared to that time where I have unblocked access to the movies as well as their makers.

Bollywood, as most people know, comes from the word Bombay/Hollywood. Often, Bollywood movies is mentioned synonymously with Hindi movies. Since the Indian economic reform in the early 1990s, there has been a boom in the Indian film industry and big producers such as Yash Copra who founded the Yash Raj Films took advantage of that boom. In fact, Indian cinema goes way back to directors such as Guru Dutt and Raj Kapoor and also includes an alternative cinema with such directors as the great Satyajit Ray and Ritwik Ghatak up to NRI directors such as Mira Nair and Deepa Mehta. However, for this post, let’s talk about popular Bollywood cinema from 1995 onwards.

The first movie one may want to watch is DILWALE DULHANIA LE JAYENGE (1995) starring the then still relatively young Sharukh Khan and Kajol and directed by Aditya Chopra (son of Yash Chopra). This movie made the earth (or Indian cinema) shake for a while and some swear by it as still the best of Sharukh Khan ever. This movie is also the longest running movie in India and even today, it is still playing in Mumbai. Believe it or not. So if you can get your hands on this movie, please jump on it if you are interested.

When Bollywood movies are mentioned, one will always think of dance and songs, and of course that 3 hour time commitment. However, there is of course a lot more to just dance and songs which I enjoy a lot but one has to look at the social aspect of it. In many ways, it is a way for the mass to escape to another world. With movie tickets very much affordable, India has one of the lowest ticket prices in the world, the common people who have worked so hard can find a means to escape to another world, a dream world which they will never be capable of living.

While I was staying in India for some time, I went to watch movies in the cinema too, although without subtitles. I remember watching KABHI ALVIDA NAA KEHNA (KANK) there and lining up in queue for the ticket. It was an almost full house show and one can feel the atmosphere inside the theatre hall. Imagine a movie like KANK which is a very modern movie set in New York getting that kind of response, just imagine other movies that speaks closer to their hearts. It is a rather enjoyable experience watching a Bollywood movie in an Indian cinema. One almost wants to stand up and dance in tune with the music.

Okay, so, other good Bollywood movies that I can recommend are as follows (in no particular order, just from memory):

1. LAGAAN (2001)
2. KAL HO NA HO (2003)
3. KABHI KHUSHI KABHIE GHAM (2001)
4. RANG DE BASANTI (2006)
5. DIL SE (1998)
6. FANAA (2006)
8. DEVDAS (2002)
9. LAGE RAHO MUNNA BHAI (2006)
10. HUM AAPKE HAIN KOUN..! (1994)
11. KUCH KUCH HOTA HAI (1998)
12. MOHABBATIEN (2000)

And of course, DILWALE DULHANIA LE JAYENGE (1995).

Two Dark Movies

[Warning, this post contains some spoilers]

Nope. Not NEW MOON (which I have not seen, I didn’t watch TWILIGHT too). But two recent Hong Kong/China movies that has a very dark tone.

The first is STORM RIDERS 2. I attended the launch of the movie in Hong Kong in 2008 and was looking forward very much to watch this movie. So while in Brunei with nothing much to do, Xinwen, my wife and I watched it in one of the cinemas there and yes, thank goodness, it is presented in the Cantonese language and not dubbed!

In general, it is quite a good entertainment with some good CGI work but the predictability of the story solicited some yawns. Since I have never read the comic book series, I do not know how true the interpretation is but for most of the part, I did not feel too good about the movie. And I almost burst out laughing when Charlene Choi called out to the master, “Master, I am Second Dream”. “Second Dream”?? Hahahahaha. What a name.

And of course, the movie is dark with Wind turning to the evil ways and started killing innocents while Cloud tries to save the world and sacrifices himself along the way. Of course, there is going to be Storm Riders 3, no?

The next movie just watched is BODYGUARDS AND ASSASSINS, a story about the protection of Dr. Sun Yat Sen during his trip to Hong Kong in 1906 to get the leaders of the revolution together and topple the Qing dynasty, which eventually happened in 1911. In this fictional account, it tells how the idealistic students tries to save China from itself and how the kungfu masters protects Dr. Sun during his trip, a true depiction that the pen is as powerful as the sword.

With Donnie Yen being featured so prominently in all the marketing stuffs, one naturally expects some big time kung fu but in general, the tone of the movie is dramatic with endless streams of tears from man, which we also see in STORM RIDERS 2 (for potential movie makers out there, note that it is a trend now to make man cry shamelessly on screen, not that it is bad but this is a new trend! hahaha).

All in all, the production quality in BODYGUARD AND ASSASSINS is top grade and it has a very good story backdrop, and the message it drives through is that mankind need to sacrifice for the better good of the future. But what is the eventual meaning of this? Did the Chinese really live a better life after the revolution? Maybe not but somehow, Dr. Sun and his gang thought that China needed to change.

We can get started and talk about China post 1911 and what a mess it became right after that up to the huge mess that Mao did after coming into power in 1949, the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution just to name two of the most hideous. And post Mao, Tienanmen and such. But did the Chinese live a better life post 1911? Well, I don’t know and I don’t really think so, until perhaps recently with the economic reform.

So what is the real point of the revolution leaving so many good people dead? One of the good thing that BODYGUARDS AND ASSASSINS did was to show us the story of the heroes that sacrificed their life, that their life has meaning, and they actually did sacrifice their life thinking that there is a better future. Say for example Ah Si (character played by Nicolas Tse). He is about to be married. He has a really good heart. And he is going to have quite a good life if he didn’t die. So did he die in vain and his widow suffering through her life in vain?

So at the end, what was in my mind is not that I am disappointed that it is not a kung fu flick and I was cheated my money but it makes me reflect on the true meaning of a revolution and in this, I think the film succeed tremendously.

Chanda Chamke

Also wonderful.

Dil Se – Chaiyya Chayyia

Long before Jai Ho, they have this.

Pavarotti / Non ti scordar di me / Don’t Forget Me /Budapest

One of my all time favourite Pavarotti.

Here’s what it means:

Do Not Forget Me

The swallows have left
my cold and sunless land,
to seek the spring among the violets,
love nests of happiness.

My little swallow has flown,
without leaving me a kiss,
without saying goodbye.

Do not forget me,
my life is joined to yours.
My love for you will always grow,
you will always be in my dreams.

Do not forget me:
my life is joined with yours.
There’ll always be a nest in my heart for you,
Do not forget me!

Do not forget me:
my life is joined with yours.
There’ll always be a nest in my heart for you,
Do not forget me!

Ipod Haiku

10,000 songs
No sound

The Bruneian Experience

So I am now back from Brunei since I was invited by Xinwen to Brunei to be their chief judge in the Brunei 1st Inter-School Weiqi (Go) Tournament 09.

I have always been amazed by Xinwen and his team in promoting Go in Brunei and this inter-school tournament is indeed another big leap forward to encourage more people to play Go. To show my support to him as well as sort of representing the Malaysian weiqi players as well, me and my wife bought the Air Asia flight last Wednesday. It was a trip that almost didn’t happen as we were on the verge of canceling the trip as something unexpected happened but finally we were able to go.

The tournament was casual but well organised. The best part of it is it has a very close feeling to it, everyone is nice to each other and the mood is very jovial and positive. There are more on the tournament on Xinwen’s blog.

On Brunei itself, it is a rather quiet place, peaceful and with really good roads (perhaps so that the Ferrari and Lamborghini can speed through them). The mosques there are nice and there are quite a lot of mosques there. If you would like to have a peace and quiet life where a lot of things are relatively cheap, such as cars, houses, petrol etc., then Brunei will be a good place to live.

However, if you are the Las Vegas sort, you will easily find yourself easily bored. It will be good, however, to go there and stay to detoxify yourself from too much partying though.

In a way, Brunei or more particularly the Bandar Seri Begawan area since we mostly ventured around there, reminds me of Ipoh or Kelantan. Quiet and peaceful where everybody almost knows everybody and every place is just within minutes from one place to another. The typical Bruneian are really nice people, always very polite and obliging.

So perhaps there is another event next year and if there is a chance, I will perhaps visit Xinwen and his family again. And yes, Xinwen’s family is really nice and pampered us well :)

Here are some pictures (picture credit: the ever excellent Jayden Sia):

Playing simultaneous games with the participants of the tournament:

Prize presentation. This is Peng Hui (or Xinwen calls him Penguin). A jovial and really nice guy. Kit says he looks a bit like Jet Li.

Prize presentation to Mah Zhe Fan (or they call him Makai). He is also very nice and he is quite strong in Go too.

Here is the group photo:

Final Two

Two more items to complete the 2010 Wishlist:

9. To work towards an Executive MBA (This is highly improbably as it will cost USD80k, unless someone sponsors me. haha).

10. Learn more recipes and cook more variety of dishes.

2010 Wishlist

Well, 2010 is just around the corner and as I sometimes do, I reflect on what I have accomplished over the year and list what I want to accomplish next year. The results of this exercise, as I have experienced since the first time I do this in secondary school, is not positive at all since I always do not achieve what I resolved to do and at best, on average, can only achieve perhaps 30% of what I have resolved. In fact I have just happened to look at my diary for the year 1991 and looking through the list of resolutions now looks like a joke to me.

However, it is a nice feeling to do it nonetheless. Human beings are quasi-logical animals anyways and needed some kind of logical thinking and organization to feel that they are dong something. They need some plans. And of course, they also need God.

So for 2010, here is a list of things I wish to do and will do my best to achieve. Things like this tends to sound selfish, so please bear with me:

1. Get the house ready and comfy and get my parents to come and stay. This is top priority.

2. Go to Beijing and stay for 3 months to study Mandarin and Go.

3. Go for a long travel to either Latin America or Eastern Europe.

4. Write a book.

5. Be more healthy.

6. Start to learn Japanese.

7. Be nicer to people, place more importance on friendship and not rely only on Facebook to keep in touch. Bring family members closer together. Add new family members.

8. Get back into the entertainment industry. This is where my heart and soul is.

Dostoevsky and Tolstoy Club

Every once in a while, I still get a message in my e-mail saying that a member has joined or a member has left, just like I got one this morning. I started the Dostoevsky and Tolstoy Club in the Yahoo! Group many years ago.

I have left the Group as it is for a very long time and has become very inactive in it for many many years and have ignored its messages. However today, out of the blue, or perhaps due to the rain, I decided to go and check the forum out and found that it is full of weed spams, which is very disheartening. It started quite well, with some good discussions, but the spammers! Damn them.

Come to think about it, I still remember how engrossed I was with Dostoevsky when I started reading him many years ago, I think at least about maybe 16 or 18 years ago when I was still in Ipoh. Lacking any formal education in literature and completely oblivious to the riches of the world of literature, save for reading tons of Famous Five and Hardy Boys, I stumbled upon this curious book called CRIME AND PUNISHMENT. Wow! What a title and I thought, well it’s like one of the Hardy Boys adventures perhaps.

And I never turned back and kept on reading and one thing led to another (not like in bed you dirty minded fellow), I discovered one great master after another. I still remember reading ANNA KARENINA for the first time and I remember my dear friend Chyn visited me one day and I told him what a brilliant novel that was! But somehow, Dostoevsky is still nearer to my heart than Tolstoy. I think I have read most of Dostoevsky’s published works that are available in English and mass-marketed.

The reason I like Dostoevsky so much, I think, is because of his depiction of the human condition, his insight into the human psyche and digging into them warts and all and often comes out to be able to inspire a tinge of hope in mankind despite all the evil and bad that mankind is capable of.

Looking back, I think I have not read a Dostoevsky for a very long time and of course, I have been reading quite a lot of other authors like Hemingway, Chekhov, Mo Yan, Murakami, Marquez and a bunch of others which I also really enjoy, and recently I have read some Orhan Pamuk and thought that he is one hell of a writer too and look forward to read his new novel, THE MUSEUM OF INNOCENCE which is now out in the market on paperback.

The best thing of all this reading is that one realizes that there is still a whole lot of good books out there waiting to be read, and that one has the leisure to slowly discover them and enjoy them gives one an enormous feeling of satisfaction, of hope and above all, the realization of the richness and diversity of the world and all the exploration that is possible. Isn’t this such a nice feeling? That something out there is waiting for you to be discovered and savored?